It usually starts with one butterfly in my stomach around August 1st, and by the beginning of September I can feel it in full force - LifeTeen is starting. Over the summer we put in a lot of time, effort, and prayer to plan out the coming year. This means everything we feel the Holy Spirit is calling us to do over the year gets about 80% planned by the time the year starts. It can be a bit overwhelming - especially when we discern that the Holy Spirit is calling us to new areas of ministry, and to re-evaluate our existing ministries.

It brings a certain level of excitement and energy to ministry, and as we approach our start date of September 20th, I am very excited. Here are just a few of the great things we are looking forward to this next year:

• The second-semester pilot of the EDGE Middle School Youth Ministry program
• The beginning of our ministry for parents, Parent Life
• Our 2009-2010 LifeTeen Retreat, where we will be joined by Fr. J from LifeTeen International, along with appearances from our own incredible priests Fr. Schuster and Fr. Dan
• Our first ever EDGE Middle School Retreat
• The new Senior and Junior Core Teams for LifeNights and EDGE
• Confirmation at its new time (2:00 pm) in the Fall and Spring
• Anna Schmidt taking over the EDGE Middle School program, and helping run LifeTeen Special Events

Add to that the great LifeNights, EDGE Nights, Confirmation sessions, and open house events we have planned for the year and I am definitely in awe of how the Holy Spirit is moving in our parish. We have had many great individuals come forward to help serve on the LifeTeen and EDGE Core Teams, and are also excited to have five senior interns helping in our office this year.

All of these things are incredible, but none of them are possible without prayer and without God. As we begin this coming LifeTeen year, I would ask that you keep us in your prayers. Without that, we would simply not be able to do our ministry. I look forward to serving you all as Director of Youth Ministry this coming year, and I have no doubt that Jesus Christ truly has blessed us abundantly. In Him may we be found. Just the thought of it gives me butterflies.

Rock in Christ.