My team

Update: Silent Retreat

It was beautiful and a true blessing. The Lord gave me time to know myself and know him better and actually healed me so much from the wounds of my past. I highly reccomend doing a silent retreat, I might actually do a longer one if I have the opprotunity. To just simply be with the Lord as his beloved is beautiful! On this retreat, my wondeful Jesus let me see a glimpse into just how much he loves me. And let me tell you guys, no words or earthly things can even begin to describe it. And he loves us all that way, we just have to let him in so that he can pull us close.
P.s. had lunch with a bishop today and sat right next to him. 2nd time that's happened this year!
P.s.s. Jesus has a burning smile when you see how much he loves you. I pray you one day do.

Much Love: Erika :)

I am engaged!!

Hey guys :) alright so welcome to the November / December blog post! To say the least this month was crazy! After halloween we really hit ministry hard! As you can see from some pictures it snowed November 5th and it was a good 16inches! And it has stayed haha and kept snowing, the arctic Minnesotans say it won't stop till April probably. Awesome!  In other news I have now had the pleasure of meeting negative degree weather, the coldest I have felt so far is -8° which I guess isn't that bad.... ha!
But as I said before this month was a little  crazy and life changing, like all motnhs are with God :) haha but ok guys are you ready for some crazy news??? Ya you are. I AM ENGAGED!!! that's right there is a ring on my left hand and I am engaged to a true man and God. His name is Jesus, you have probably heard of him he is pretty famous, ya he saved the world. Haha but I actually am engaged to Jesus. Here is how... On November 21st 2014 I gave a year of my life (till November 21st 2015) to date Jesus. Why you ask? This is why my sons, Being here on NET has truly let me see how I really didn't know what love was or how to love. And I see the importance of that now. Without love, and loving correctly... I am nothing. And so when i heard that Pope Francis announced that this upcoming litergical year was dedicated to the religious life, I felt the Lord calling me to take him as my love this year. And so I let him. It is one thing to love God and another to be in love with him. I am seeking the latter. And what better way to do that than to date him, to be with him for a whole year as his beloved, trusting and learning what love is about so that one day whether I am called to marriage or religious life I can love fully and know how much i am fully loved. I am excited. Yes it was extremely difficult to decide to do this, and I don't fully know all the reasons why I am doing it but I'm trusting God cuz he put it on my heart for a reason so he must know why I'm doing it. It's sort of exciting to have the beauty of it unveiled as I go <3 ya big news but good news :) haha
Well other than that, we had a great thanksgiving! :) our team went down to Faribault, prenounced fair-bow MN, to our teammate Sam's house and spent a good 4 days just relaxing and eating a million thanksgiving dinners! After we got back our team put on 2 full day retreats and went to a Lifeline (gathering of thousands of teenagers down in Saint Paul ) all in 3 days. It was exhausting. But hey now it's done and we are on the other side :) thank you Jesus. Sidenote: Jesus is wondeful, he helped me give a 30 minute talk to 80 confirmation teenagers the other day. I was afraid but the Holy Spirit truly came upon me and to my aid. Ironic cuz the talk was about the Holy Spirit haha should have known he would have shown up!
And so now I am here, right at the moment I am on a silent retreat till tomorrow afternoon, ya 2 days without talking is a while for me haha but it's actually so nice. I see a lot more than I do when the world is so crammed with noise and I get to know myself better which is really good for Saint Teresa of Avila says that it is crucial to know ourselves in the spiritual life :) i will update you all on how it goes! I will be home very soon for Christmas! 8 days to be exact and then it's the good old Griswold family Christmas for 2 weeks! Socal as the Minnesotans say it... here I come :)
Oh sidenote: I walked on water today... ok it was frozen. But still cool!  Ya buddy! Ya Jesus.

He is coming!
Christmas Blessings:
Erika JJ Christopher