Summer Training in Illinois

The St. John's Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois opened its doors last week to about 50 FOCUS missionaries who came to prepare for New Staff Training 2009. There will be well over 200 missionaries here by this Saturday, and we are very excited to all be together. I am reporting from week 0 of training. There are several reasons this smaller group of missionaries has gathered before the new staff get here. I am here with a group of about 15 missionaries who are being trained to be team directors. This means they will be sent to a campus and lead the FOCUS team assigned there. At present it is not totally sure, but it's fair to say there is a strong likelihood I'll be a team director next year. This would mean a move, as the U of Maryland already has a TD. I hope to be able to inform you all of my assignment in the next few days.

Life here at training is a bit in a bubble. We spend our days getting excellent formation from FOCUS veterans, then our meals and evenings in the presence of fabulous missionaries in fellowship and fun. This week I've especially enjoyed going to bars in the evening to watch the nuggets!

Some of our leadership classes have been taking teachings from Franklin Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". I'm sure some of you have read the book. Of course along with the lessons we've been pulling out the more Catholic principles from this protestant writer.

Please pray for us as we soak up these teachings and the renewal of spirit from being with all our missionary brothers and sisters. God bless!