Hello friends and mission supporters!
I hope this little post finds you all well- it’s so good to be updating you from this corner of the States. I’ve been back in Boston for about a month now and it has been filled with a lot of newness and goodness. New team, new roommates, and of course, new students arriving to campus. Before freshmen started arriving, my roommates and I took a weekend retreat in Narragansett, Rhode Island. It was a great time of prayer and to develop an understanding of the pillars of household life (holiness, communion, and mission). Prior to retreat I had been asking the Lord what he wanted to say to us as a house for the year- I was struggling to hear what he wanted to do in our new living situation, as the first women’s household in Boston (if you’re unclear what household is, check out the video here). Soon after arriving in Narragansett for our little retreat, the Lord spoke powerfully to us through this verse: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (Ez. 36:26).” We quickly realized together how much the Lord wanted to give us new hearts and breathe new life into us. It was such an encouraging word and the Lord took no time in making it happen tangibly. Once freshmen began arriving on campus and our welcome week festivities began, what was last year a week exhaustion, though there was a lot of grace, was this year a week of seeing the Lord do the heavy lifting. We had a better turn out of student leaders and saw them outreaching to younger students, more freshmen came to more than one event throughout the week and felt welcomed, and at the end of the week when we did our first ever women’s welcome week Luau, the night was filled with joy, dancing, and a commitment from many women, new and returning, to show up for women’s group and the correlating small groups! Last year, we had only upperclass small groups and turnout until January, so the change was tangible and incredible. It has become clear that the Lord wants to see the work here in Boston succeed more than any of us missionaries do, and it’s been a blessing to be assured that he wants to bless our faithfulness to the mission. Last year there was so much building and getting a structure ready, it’s incredible to see the Lord breathe life into those bones (Ezekiel 37: 4-5). Thank you so much to each of you for your prayers and support. Thank you for the help that allows me to be here and witness to what the Lord is doing here. It’s such a gift and I am beyond blessed by this work. Please continue to pray for my new teammates (Adam, Kevin, and Sarah) as they adjust to life here. Pray for the new students that they continue to feel welcome, and for our student leaders that they continue to outreach and rely on the Lord. I want to encourage you to take time to read Ezekiel 36 & 37, I know the Lord wants to breathe new life into your days, too. And if you have the time, check out this reflection on our Heavenly Father, written by my teammate, Renee: "Be Still and Know I am Your Father". I hope you find it as life giving as I did. I am praying for each of you! In the Father’s love, Katie Hollcraft
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I sit in a small cafe looking back on the past month and one thing has been made abundantly clear: October was a month of grace!
As students hit midterm season, every week for myself and the rest of the mission team was a new adventure. No two weeks looked the same, and though I reached levels of exhaustion I had not realized were possible, I have been blown away by the Lord’s goodness. The last month, I spent a lot of time particularly focusing on the women’s community, spending time getting to know returners and reaching out to new students. My days have been filled with coffee dates, lunch meetings, and many blessed conversations. A recurring theme among conversations with women and women’s group meetings is the desire for community and sisterhood. In our world, so many women have experienced hurts from women they have trusted and it causes them to hesitate in being vulnerable with one another. Questions of whether or not another woman can be trusted may not explicitly enter a woman’s mind, but are implicitly asked. Many conversations with women here reveal those hesitations, but they also reveal a desire to trust, to be known by one another. Please keep these women in your prayers. Pray for healing and for friendship in this community. Thank you all for the continued support that allows me to care for these incredible women! If you want to read more about the women’s community and the recent women’s retreat, check out my newsletter here. In Him through Her, Katie Hollcraft Thank you to everyone who prayed for the retreat on the Peace of Christ over the weekend of Sept. 22-24, it was a time of great grace and peace for the students! During our 'Share the Wealth' (a time for students to share how God worked in their lives on retreat) last week, many students expressed how God worked powerfully to bring them peace. In particular, many students spoke of the power of Reconciliation and how God worked in their hearts through that Sacrament. The staff were so encouraged to see how the students responded on this retreat and how they were open, not only to the Lord, but to being in communion with one another. It was truly an incredible weekend! Please continue to pray for our student leaders and for the students who went on retreat, that they continue to find their peace in the Lord. God bless, Katie Hollcraft ps- please enjoy these photos from our time on retreat. Hello from Boston!
It has been a whirlwind around the Catholic Center here at Northeastern over the last week. As students begin to settle into their class schedules and I settle into my own routine here, I want to take a moment to celebrate what God has done during welcome week here in Boston! Throughout training, many returning SPO missionaries and staff stressed the importance of reaching new students during welcome week, they also stressed how crazy busy and exhausting it would be to go to event after event, welcoming students and making sure they felt seen and loved. I was nervous about welcome week before I landed in Boston. As an introvert, it sounded like too great a feat. Perhaps on my own it would have been, but I quickly found what it would take to make it through this week - grace. Welcome week grace was so real! For every tabling event, every new person, every conversation over another Catholic Center event promoted with “free food”, I was strengthened and excited. Me… excited about large groups and new people and mingling?! It could only have been grace, and I am so grateful for it. I am grateful for the grace that allowed me to meet with so many freshman, to encourage them and let them know that it was normal they were feeling overwhelmed. I am grateful for the grace that allowed me to persist when someone passed the Catholic Center table and walked away from what I was offering with a simple, “I’m an atheist”. I am grateful for the grace that allowed me to get up and pray for the women I was meeting by name. I am grateful for the grace that allowed me to remember those names. I am grateful for welcome week grace, and I am so excited it is only the beginning of what God has in store this year! It is such a privilege to be here and get to know the students here in Boston. I have a few prayer requests for supporters:
Thank you for your support and prayers! In Jesus through Mary, Katie Greetings from Boston and welcome to my new mission blog! I am excited to use this space to keep people updated on what is going on in Boston as my team and I work to ‘build Catholic communities that awaken faith on campus and form lifelong disciples.’ As I begin settling into this new city, I wanted to take a moment to share about School of the New Evangelization (SNE), a weeklong training conference meant to mobilize student leaders through dynamic orthodox teaching, powerful prayer, and rich community living. After last year’s attendance, it was decided that SNE would be held at two locations this year- SNE Minnesota and, for the first time, SNE Ohio.
Students and missionaries from Boston attended SNE Ohio which took place on the Damascus campus in Centerburg, OH. The week leading up to SNE had me more excited than nervous; I was ready to start meeting students and get a chance to put the training I’d been receiving into practice. It would be impossible to recount all God did during SNE here, but throughout the week I was continually humbled by what God was doing in my life and the lives of the students. During women’s night, I had the opportunity to pray with the women in my small group and found myself in awe of their prayers and encouragement of one another. While at ‘Into the Streets’, a time when students practice evangelization by going onto a college campus and engaging passers by in conversations of faith and prayer, I was humbled again by the excitement and eagerness of the students. It was a blessing to pray and learn alongside these student leaders. I know there will be days ahead when it will be a consolation to know that there are many students and missionaries across the United States working to bring the love of Jesus and His Church to their campuses. This SNE was such a blessing, a time to foster a Spirit of Boldness and encourage one another while we got ready to head onto our campuses. “Use me, Lord” is a prayer I know many of us will be praying as we leave this anointed time to our campuses! Please keep the students and missionaries of Saint Paul’s Outreach in your prayers! And pray for those of us in Boston as we begin welcoming students to Northeastern University! In Jesus Through Mary, Katie |
WELCOMEI am Katie, a Catholic missionary with Saint Paul's Outreach, serving in Boston. I am excited to share the journey with you! || John 4:29 || Archives
September 2018
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