United Arab Emirates - Sharing the Faith

              

Hello everybody! Here's a quick little picture of when we went to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi! The scarf is mine, but the rest is a little outfit they gave us girls to cover us.

             And just like that our time in the Middle East is over. My team and I just returned to Ireland a few days ago, and we’re happy. Like we like being back here and some of us even missed the rain and cold. Still, leaving for me was a very heart-wrenching experience. We had the chance to meet so many amazing, inspiring, and generous people. We were all inspired by the communities who have been persecuted Catholics for generations. We were spoiled by many of our contact people… like one lady even took us out to the Dubai Mall and the Aquarium!!!! The generosity we’ve experienced in general has been absolutely astonishing, but we saw it in a whole new way in the Middle East. Then of course, it was incredible hosting a retreat for 800 teens and showing them what Mercy and Love mean! Based on the number that flocked to confession, I know they were impacted in an amazing way. And we even had social media there in the form of Evangesoul! Look them up… they’re great!!!!!

                Yet we faced many logistical challenges just being in a Muslim country. There’s the obvious one of not being allowed to talk about the faith outside church compounds, and so needing to host TUFF at a church. The thing is, I think we could have filled a larger facility if it was legal to do that. Furthermore, which I only realized this after talking with family, friends, and the team yesterday, but we had a lot of days off. Why? Well the weekend in the UAE is Friday and Saturday. So obviously, we could work with catechism classes and have a crowd. Or we could have a retreat and expect people to show up. Other than that, we were working on the church grounds on week days and nights, which did work. We had great turnouts at night. However, in Ireland most of our ministry is based in Catholic schools. For obvious reasons, there are not as many Catholic schools in the UAE. And even if there was a Catholic school to go to, even if a school could hold a mini-retreat for the day, they had to have an alternate activity for non-Christian students. As in there would be government troubles if they did not.

                What a completely different perspective from the United States! While we’re not supposed to have too many religious functions at public schools, most states let us have them. Then schools of any religious affiliation are allowed to have events that are specific to their own faith without being forced to go through hoops.

                I imagine most people reading this blog live in a country where they can speak out about Jesus. We’re allowed to talk about him on the street. So, why don’t we? It can be scary. Like sometimes I’m afraid to do that. We’re afraid of offending somebody. The thing is, I just came from a country where we could not openly grace ourselves before meals in public. Jesus is the best thing we can possibly talk to people about, and we should be doing that! We have the freedom; we have the liberty. We need to do it with gentleness, probably more in context of describing a reason for our joy than just narrating the events of the gospel, but we need to do it!

                How can we start? Let’s just start saying grace before meals in public. Like when you go out for lunch, pause and say a prayer. Make a Sign of the Cross, especially if you’re Catholic. It’s very small and very simple, but it’s something I’m so thankful to be able to do again.

               Again, thank you for reading!!!! If you haven't yet, I invite you to follow the NET Ireland Road Team Facebook page. We're a bit better at updating that than I am at updating this blog. However, don't forget to follow this blog! You do that by scrolling all the way down and typing your email in the provided box. As well, if you haven't partnered with me yet, consider that too! It is through the generosity of everybody that all of this is possible!!!!!

That One Time in Muscat

                Sorry for the delay in posting. I know I left the last post in a suspenseful note, so hopefully everybody made it over to the Facebook page to see what’s up! However, now it’s time for an explanation:

                TUFF stands for Teens United For Faith. It’s a 2-day Catholic Conference that’s put on in the Vicariate of Southern Arabia. Yes, you read correctly: Southern Arabia. I’m in the Middle East! I bet you didn’t think we’d be putting on retreats around the world, did you? It certainly didn’t cross my mind until I found out I was on the road team. It's something I've been excited about since I found out it was a reality, but I've been holding it back to announce specially right now!!

                Anyway, our first TUFF took place in Muscat, Oman. It’s safe for us to be here, but we’re not supposed to identify ourselves as missionaries. Evangelizing to a Muslim here is actually a felony. Disclaimer: we’re not. We’re putting on retreats for people who are already Catholic because that’s what the New Evangelization is. The New Evangelization is when we step back and realize that sometimes we Catholic need someone to tell us about Christ. So knowing that, I’ll continue.

                We had a few days before our first retreat to prep and then it was time to go! I’ll tell you, it was incredible just to seen the hundreds of teens come in and start taking their seats. So far I think our biggest retreat has been 120, and there were at least 350 here. I placed myself at the door and pretty much just started saying hi to them as they all came in. It’s a pretty simple job, but it was a good place for me to be. We started with our opening songs, which I love and were cool but the teens were pretty quiet. The day continued and we had several talks, dramas, testimonies, and just fun things. I finally got to give my talk over Pope Francis, and it’s so incredible to give it to over 300 teens! Even better, they were opening up more throughout the day. I distinctly remember being backstage waiting for a drama and seeing teens dance to the music onstage. That is something I have not seen since back in high school. It made me so happy, partially for nostalgia and partially because you could see the teens responding. It was all for Jesus!

                That was the first day. The second day was a little hectic with some scheduling stuff, but the teens didn’t notice anything was up. They simply enjoyed the day, and let everything coming their way sink in. I’ve had conversations with some of them that I do not think I would have had in any part of the world. The faith is already alive here, I’m just hoping in some small way we’re able to make it more personal. I think that did happen. At the end of the retreat, teens from each of the parishes involved came up and spoke about what happened to them. A few teens during the course of the retreat talked about an internal change, and how they felt a relief that was new. Then others had a whole new perspective of what retreats would be. One young man in particular said that he was expecting it to be a boring weekend and that they’d be sitting around doing nothing most of the time. Just with my own experiences, I find it very sad that anybody would think a retreat would be sitting around and having a classroom-like atmosphere. For me, and this is what I learned in high school, retreats are a time where you get a little closer to Jesus. It's almost like a little extra charge to get through life.

                That’s one of the things that changed my own life as a teen. The first time I ever went to a Catholic retreat, I was not looking forward to it. I thought it was going to be dumb. But the second I walked through the doors and heard the praise and worship music, I knew I was in for something good. Now, I feel privileged to be a part of a team and community that does that for others. We are able to do so much, but we’re doing it all for the love of Christ!

                We still have a lot of ministry to do, so keep praying for me and hopefully I’ll be able to update soon!!!!!