Behold, the Wonders of Peoria!

I figured since I informed you all about my Spring placement campus at FGCU, that I should keep you all informed with some information about my Fall placement campus, Bradley University! I will be serving on Team Bradley alongside Jacob and Joy Laskowski, Brett Drvol, Joanna Brady, and Amy Brammer. The campus is smaller than ISU and smaller than I had imagined, but possesses some really great features & accolades. Here are some fun facts about Bradley University:

• Founded in 1897
• Founded by Lydia Moss Bradley
• Located in Peoria, IL
• Faculty: 389
• Team: Braves
• Students: approx. 6,100
• 38 Sororities & Fraternities
• St. Joseph Newman Center houses seminarians during the summer.
• founded in memory of Bradley's deceased husband and six children
• rated as one of the Top 25 Most Connected and Top 25 Most Entrepreneurial Campuses according to The Princeton Review and Forbes.
• notable alumni include:
  -Jack Brickhouse: former announcer for the Chicago Cubs
  -Neil Flynn: actor--the Janitor from Scrubs
  -Bobby Joe Mason: Harlem Globetrotter
  -Kirby Puckett: Baseball Hall of Famer
  -dozens of current and former professional baseball, basketball, and soccer players.
  

As mentioned before, Bradley happens to be located right in the heart of an extremely historic town, Peoria, IL. Since Peoria has such a rich history and contains many notable features, I figured I would list some as well. Peoria, IL :

• named after the Peoria tribe.
• settled in 1680
• Used to be a saying in Vaudeville, that if it could succeed in Peoria, it would succeed anywhere. "But will it play in Peoria?" has now become a commonly used metaphor.
• Hosts the headquarters for Caterpillar Inc.
• mass production of penicillin developed here.
• Peoria Chiefs, Class A minor league team, is affiliated with the Chicago Cubs.
• home to baseball legends: Kirby Puckett, Mike Dunne, and Jim Thome (they are proud of this one, there are signs everywhere boasted about Thome, haha)
• site of The Peoria War in 1813
• site where in 1854, Abraham Lincoln declared that the United States should move towards restricting and eventually eliminate slavery.
• In 1926, Charles Lindbergh included Peoria as 1 of 4 cities on his air-mail route.
• Legend has it that he offered Peoria the opportunity to sponsor his trans-Atlantic flight which would have named his plane The Spirit of Peoria.
• Theodore Roosevelt referred to Grandview Drive as the Worlds Most Beautiful Drive.
• Hosts the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
• Hosted Mother Teresa's visit in 1995.
  
• Archbishop Fulton Sheen served as an altar-boy at the Cathedral of St. Mary's and his cause for canonization rests under the direction of Bishop Jenky of the Peoria Diocese.

Well there you go. WAY more information than you probably expected. Kudos to Wikipedia for supplying pretty much all of these facts. This city is full of history, beautiful architecture (feels like a mini Chicago), and I cannot wait to serve FOCUS and God in this city. Please continue to pray for Team Bradley and the students of Bradley University! Go Braves!

St. Joseph, Pray for Us!

Spring Placement!

So yesterday, Becca Sitte, our Regional Director, called me to inform me that they were going to reveal my placement for the Spring semester a little bit early in order to get acquainted with the team. My campus for the Spring 2011 Semester will be *cue drumroll* FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY (FGCU)! Located in SW Florida in Ft. Myers, here are a few facts about the campus:

• Founded in 1991
• NCAA Division I School
• Colors: Cobalt Blue and Emerald Green (Gold accent)
• About 11,115 students
• Team: Eagles
• Mascot: Azul the Eagle
• 16 Fraternities & Sororities
• Over 100 clubs
• Newman Club is FGCU's oldest club!
  
• Past Hosted Speakers: Maya Angelou, Mikhail Gorbachev, Dick Cheney, Joe Biden

Both myself and my roomate from Summer training, Tom LaRocque, will be joining the team at FGCU in January. Heading up the team during the Fall will be Melissa Weeder and Jamie Willhelm (2 amazing god-loving ladies).

I am really excited because this is a first year FOCUS campus, the school is still young, and there is SO MUCH room for God to work here. The Bishop is very excited to have us and I know the ladies will do an amazing job kick starting off FOCUS's first presence on the FGCU campus. (Hopefully hurricane season won't rock the campus too hard this year).

Until then, aside from praying for my future team, students, and campus, I will set FGCU aside in my mind so that I can fully concentrate on my current powerhouse team at Bradley University. GO BRAVES! The Holy Spirit is going to do amazing things this year on both campuses and I feel extremely blessed to be a part of doing God's work in both of these places. Summer is winding down fast, and before you know it, I will be serving the Newman Centers, FOCUS, and students at both Illinois State University and Bradley University. Aye aye aye, three campuses, I need your prayers more than ever! Maybe even consider joining my support team and become one of my Mission Partners! I'd love to pray for you and have you join my team for Christ!

Theotokos, pray for us.

Blog Time

Hello world!

I recently got back from New Staff Training (NST) for FOCUS. It was held in Champaign, IL at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. What an amazing blessing. Not only was I surrounded by 80-90 new first year missionaries from around the country, but build into my day was mass, holy hour, and classes on such topics as Salvation History, Prayer, and Apologetics.

While there we found out which schools we will be serving at for the upcoming school year. Because I felt called to stay at Illinois State University for another semester, I will be finishing the one class I have left there, while also doing various ministry tasks around campus. I am a Servant Leader for ISU's 41st Koinonia Retreat. This means I am in charge of coordinating, hosting, and executing this powerfully amazing retreat. I feel incredibly blessed to do this. However, I digress. On the evening when everyone was finding out which schools they would be serving at, I received a card from the Bradley University Team in Peoria, IL informing me that I would be a part of their team for the Fall Semester! On my team are Jacob and Joy Laskowski (a newly married couple of missionaries), Brett Drvol (a 3rd year missionary), Joanna Brady (a fellow 1st year missionary), and finally Amy Brammer (another 1st year missionary).

I am extremely excited, and am now going full burst attempting to gather as many Mission Parters that will join my team to offer both prayers and financial support. Us missionaries still gotta feed ourselves and pay the rent. This is the reason for starting this blog, to help keep my Mission Partners informed of all the current events related to my mission. So as you read this, please continue praying for myself, my team, and the campuses of Illinois State University and Bradley University.

Go with God.