Hallo, greetings from Deutschland!

As I live and breathe, God is truly moving through this mission every step of the way. Okay let me start from the very beginning; it’s a very good place to start. On September 13^th, I arrived at the Atlanta airport where I was welcomed by eight missionary brothers and sisters at the Atlanta Bread Company, right outside of baggage claim. It was great to know that even though most of us were complete strangers, the connection of being centered in Christ made it seem like we were already family. This made for a comfortable 2-hour ride to the Covecrest Retreat Center in Tiger, Georgia.

When we finally reached our destination it was good to hear that dinner was just about to be served. So I hauled my luggage to the cabin where I would call home for the four weeks, claimed the last top bunk by the door and went back towards the main lodge. There was where I met the rest of the Covecrest Family including the other Life Teen Missionaries, staff and families that lived there year around which totaled to 43 people.

That next morning the missionaries gathered at the St Stephen’s chapel for Praise & Worship and Morning Prayer. As we sat in the wooden pews in front of the tabernacle, I knew that God had been waiting for that moment for me to be sitting there in that very spot. That feeling was only concreted as the weeks went by during what Chris, our Missions Coordinator, liked to call “Mission Academy.” This name only caught on after last years 2009-2010 missionaries experienced the intensive training/formation month. Those periods of time were set aside to learn about scripture, how to truly be docile (listen) to the Holy spirit, how to live in community, rhythm of prayer, tapping into having a missionary heart, showing radical hospitality, and much, much more. A typical (formation) day in the life of a 1^st year Missionary looked a little like this:

6:15am – Optional recreation/ “Insanity” workout

7:30am – Breakfast (make yourself)

8:00am – Praise & Worship and Morning Prayer/ Lauds (St. Stephen’s Chapel)

9:00am – Mission Academy (upper meeting room in lodge)

11am – Holy Hour (adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament)

Noon – Lunch

1:15pm – Missionary Academy

4pm - Intentional Free Time (Spiritual reading, praise & worship, homework, etc.)

5pm – Mass & Evening Prayer/Vespers

6pm – Dinner

7pm – Community Time (sports, games, rosary walk, etc.)

9:30pm – Night Prayer/Compline (in our cabins)

Just before the formation month concluded, twenty of the missionaries were sent in two 15-passenger vans to the Woodlands, TX for a Life Teen Basic Training Conference. This was a great experience and opportunity for us to pour out our love and truly be the face of Christ to new Youth Ministers, Core Members and Priests. It was all about radical hospitably and relational ministry. One of the more blessed times during the Conference was being able to stay at Host Homes, provided by the parishioners of the St. Anthony Padua faith community. Not only would these families open up there homes to us but also invite us into their lives and share their hearts. Due note that we had long days and would sometimes get home at 10:30 at night but still our host families would be there excitedly waiting for our arrival home to greet us with little snacks and waiting to chit-chat and talk about how the Lord was moving in their lives. Even though I was physically exhausted some days, I awoke each new day giving my all to glorify God by the small acts of kindness and spreading the love of Christ, which turned out to give me more energy to endure. Never under estimate the divine power of God.

One thing I’ve learned to appreciate over this past month at Covecrest is the gift of detachment. A gift? Yes I did mean to use that term because God gives us the opportunity to choose the graces of detachment. So what does that mean? This means to rid yourself of anything that you might unintentionally be idolizing and to be free yourself in order to be in the posture of “receiving.” This may include ipod, cell phone, internet, TV however this doesn’t mean these items can’t use at all but to be intentional with the allotted amount of time spent. It wasn’t until I realized that over the past couple years in my life the more independent I was in the culture, the more I felt enslaved by the things around me. So when I started to really live in to detachment and obedience to God is when I felt true freedom. Beware that living to glorify Christ is counter-cultural! But it’s so worth it knowing that I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen next as long as I’m living each moment to always glorify God. For it was once told to me that the small joys and laughers life are the glimpse of the true happiness received in Heaven.

Each day I wake up and thank God for choosing me to spend a year as a missionary through Life Teen. He just never ceases to amaze me at all the things He’s already done and all the souls that He plans to transform. Praise God! Please let me know how I can be praying for you. So know that you are “blessed by the best and you are loved.” - Fr. John from Oregon.

In Christ’s Love,

Alyssa Nicole Maddock