Always Amazes Me!-Back From Chajul!

Hi Everyone!!


Wow, thank you all so much for your prayers during the time of my trip! It was incredible! God just continues to amaze me! With a busy schedule of wedding festivities since the day I landed back in the states I have not yet been able to sit down to and write about all of the things I want to share with everyone but soon enough I will get the ball rolling!  However, the woman that I stayed with, Sister Bernice, who is a Maryknoll Sister, (Quick description of a Maryknoll Sister: "We give witness to God's love and devote our lives in service overseas.  As nurses, doctors, teachers, theologians, social workers, environmentalists and more,  we serve the needs of the people – the poor, the ailing and the marginalized –  where we are missioned. Our mission began in 1912,  when we became the first group of Catholic Sisters in the United States founded for overseas mission.") She wrote a newsletter that I would like to share!

Below is her newsletter:

Chajul, June, 2014

A Call…

Greetings from Guatemala on the longest day of the year. I’ve had two amazing experiences over the last few months and I want to share both with you now.

   

On April 18, we Maryknoll Sisters in Guatemala received an e-mail message from a young woman in Philadelphia who was finishing her studies at Temple University. She said in part:

I have always wanted to do mission work and I feel that in the next few months will be the right time. God's timing and his plans have always been far better than the ones that I ever could imagine! I am extremely open and willing to hear about any type of mission work that perhaps could be possible for me to do in Guatemala. I don't really have a particular type of mission work that I am looking to do, mainly to Serve in any way that I can. I like to choose a word for the year and this year my word is "serve." However, I am interested in working with children.

I picked up on her request immediately, partly because I had the perfect mission for her, and partly because her name is Megan Kita! Her timing fit perfectly with the university vacation of Ana Dieguez and Gaby Calderon, former Chajul volunteers from Monte María high school who wanted to return for a week to work with kids again. While we all figured out the best schedule by e-mail, Megan and I delved into our Kita surname.

In summary: I know my own grandfather, Józef Kita, was the only one of his family to become rooted in the Philadelphia area, but Megan’s ancestors may have come from the same town in Poland, Jodłowa. Her ancestors went to Bayonne, New Jersey and her grandfather was born there. All her family lived in New Jersey until her parents moved to Easton, PA where she grew up. Two years ago her childhood friend bought a house in Philadelphia and they moved there. Where was the house? On Tulip Street, near the Port Richmond neighborhood where I grew up! Amazing!

Megan arrived in Guatemala on June 11at 1:30 p.m. and Ana, Gaby and I met her at the airport. We drove 3 ½ hours and spent the night with our Sisters in Lemoa. The next morning we drove to Chajul where they quickly gathered over 20 children. For the next several days they worked in three languages – Spanish, English and Ixil – and taught arithmetic, crafts and English. Everyone got along so well, it was wonderful!

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The way that the Lord has orchestrated this story in my life and in the life of Sister Bernice, Gabi, and Ana just absolutely blows my mind and amazes me. This is something I could have never thought of myself. When we let go and let God His plans are always better than ours. 

A quick little bit on what we did there:

Sister Bernice has a house in Chajul connected with the church where there are two classrooms in it. We let the kids know that we are in town and that we will be giving classes during the morning and the afternoon. News travels fast there! By word of mouth! Most kids there go to school in either the morning or the afternoon so when they are off they would come to Sister Bernice's house. These kids are amazing and so willing and excited to learn!! They have changed my life!

Can't wait to continue sharing about this experience and how God's love reaches people in all different places with all different languages!!

God Bless! Please continue to pray for the kids of Chajul and all of God's kids!

Psalm 127:3 "Children are a gift from the Lord."

Fueled!

Hi Everyone!!

Tomorrow morning I am off to Guatemala on a Missions Trip! I am beyond excited and feel so blessed and at peace with this opportunity God is giving me. I think it is important though for all of us to know that where ever we are in the world we can be on a mission!

I thank you all for your prayers and well wishes before I leave! I am asking you to continue to pray for me and the people that I will encounter there! I most likely will not have access to the internet and I will be posting about everything when I return! Continue to spread God's love wherever you go. Be a glimpse of the light in darkness.

"For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve..." -Matthew 10:45

Sister Bernice shared with me this paragraph and I wanted to share it with all of you:

MISSION IS COMMUNION by Kathleen Reiley, M.M. and Jean Maloney, M.M. 

Regardless of what ministry of service we may find ourselves engaged in - this attitude of openness, reverence for and willingness to learn from the people to whom we have been sent is essential to mission and entering into true COMMUNION with the people. 
Mission is a total way of life. It is making God's love visible in our world by our work, prayer and attitudes towards one another in community and to those to whom we are sent. It is our relationship to each person, to the earth, all peoples, all cultures, in unconditional love and service that God's kingdom may come about. 
[Prepared for 2014 Maryknoll Sisters Northeast Asia Mission Presence Assembly]

I thank you all so much for your prayers and well wishes before I leave! I feel so extremely blessed I do not even have the words to explain it! Thank you to those who so generously donated to help buy things to bring for the kids! Thank you Noel for my weekly spanish lessons! Thank you to my parents and brother and the rest of my family for always supporting and loving me! Thank you for my roommates and my friends to help guide me every day to get to this point! Because of all of you I have been fueled to go and do what I feel God is calling me to do right now in my life, thank you all for helping to be an instrument!

I am asking you to continue to pray for me and the people that I will encounter there! I most likely will not have access to the internet and I will be posting about everything when I return! Continue to spread God's love wherever you go. Be a glimpse of the light in darkness. 

"For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve..." -Matthew 10:45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3IrwujyAJ4

^This song inspires me!

God Bless!!!!

Trusting Your Struggle

Hi Everyone!

Wow it has been a while since I wrote on the blog!

It’s amazing what can happen in your life when you let go and let God. That is basically how I have been trying to live especially these past few months. I struggle at times though, I absolutely do. But I have learned and witnessed through myself and others that if you TRUST YOUR STRUGGLE it will help to fuel you to go where you are being called, where the gifts and talents that you have been given can be used to help others reach that ultimate goal in life. That ultimate goal of helping others to become aware, find, strengthen their relationship and become closer to Christ and to know the love He has for each and every one of us.

Right now I am preparing to go on a mission’s trip to Guatemala! I will be going to The village of San Gaspar Chajul which is a tiny community of indigenous Ixil people in the mountains of the department of Quiché, Guatemala. I am beyond excited and I want to share with you some of the pin points in my life that brought me to this next journey because I am absolutely taken back by them!

I could go back so far to the pin points but I’ll keep it short and simple for now and put the main ones down!

-In 2007 I chose to go to Temple University to study Sport and Recreation management

-Randomly was matched with three other roommates for freshmen year, (We had the best freshman year and we all got along, still do today!! E430!)

-Freshman year Misha, one of my roommates, became a football manager for the football team.

-Summer after Freshman year Misha was diagnosed with Leukemia. (She battled for two and a half years and the whole time was self-less, strong, and an inspiration to others.)

-Skip several years later and in March 2011 Misha passed away.

-Graduated college December 2011 after returning back to Pennsylvania from Arizona for an internship, I was asked by Misha’s bosses at Temple Football about becoming a Graduate Assistant for Equipment and working with them.

-After a few months of deciding and after having a conversation with her Aunt, she told me that I could fulfill a dream of Misha’s. And so I did. (Thanks Auntie!)

I came back to Temple and moved in with my best friend where we grew up next door to each other since we were babies.

-Since I was going to be a Graduate Assistant I had to choose a Master’s program. I chose Liberal Arts because I was always in to poetry.

-In the Liberal Arts program you are required to do a thesis.

-This past January when thinking about my thesis I thought that if I have to write one I want to do it on something I am passionate about. I had the idea of going on a missions trip and using that as part of my research. The desire to go on a missions trip has always been in the back of my head, it was just never the right time…and now I know why!

-When I moved to Philly I wanted to join a church parish and because of one of my roommates friends and my conversation with her about the type of parish I was looking for I went to a Mass at St. Malachy’s and it was exactly what I didn’t even know I wanted let alone needed! And so I joined!

-I become friends with some of the parishoners and they would ask me what I was doing with my life. And so I would tell them about school and how now I am trying to figure out a thesis topic and how I would love to go on a missions trip as part of my research.

-I met this one woman who told me she went on trips a lot and so we met for dinner and talked about possible opportunities because she knew people in Latin America where she has gone before.

-She emailed her friends in Latin America and copied me on the email explaining to them what I was looking to do.

-Well one of the women on the chain, her last name happened to be my last name, KITA!

-She emailed separately and said, if you family is from Poland we could be related!

-Well my entire family is from Poland!

-She told me where some of her ancestors landed when they came through Ellis Island..... Philadelphia and Bayonne, New Jersey.

-My Grandfather was born in Bayonne!!!

-After this connection and further conversations with her she told me that she would love if I came down where she is to do a mission. Sister Bernice Kita lives in San Gasper Chajul.

-Before I knew it I was buying my plane ticket to go down there. I had and have no doubts that this is exactly where I am supposed to go next. I will be teaching children in a school and will also be focusing on teaching them how to play sports!!

-Oh yea not to mention where I live now, there were actually some Kita’s that lived right in my neighborhood! AMAZING!!

-We have not yet figured out the direct relation of our family members but the connection is already there with us.

A former roommate has a sister who is a Spanish teacher and she has been tutoring me for the past month on Spanish!

-And just like that God is fulfilling this desire I have always had in my heart and it is better than I could ever imagine!

That is the short version of the pinpoints to bring me to this trip! However, I am not writing my thesis on this topic because The Lord through other pinpoints directed me to another thing that I am passionate about and will share at another time.

My thoughts!

-This year the one word I choose to live by is “SERVE.”- praying to do that one word God has blessed me with this opportunity to serve the people of Chajul.

-I find it amazing that the choices and the paths that other people take in life are created to help one another. It is important to recognize the paths of others and when and how our paths cross.

-Trusting the Lord and trusting that His plans are greater than our plans.

-In my heart I always wanted to do a trip, I never had any worry about it. I think it’s important that we verbally tell others about things that interest us and pray to keep our hearts, eyes, and ears open to recognize when we are being called for something. We are all instruments in God’s orchestra so let’s create music.

I am beyond excited and feel beyond blessed to have encountered so many people in my life to help me get to this point. Everything doesn’t always make sense now but just keep having faith.

No wonder why it was never the right timing for me to do a missions trip before hand because if so how would this connection with Bernice Kita have been made! God’s timing is perfect! Be patient and in your patience, trust your struggle!

I am asking you all to pray for me the next week as I prepare to make my way down there. I ask that you pray to help me be an instrument to help others get closer to God.

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."-Luke 11:9

God Bless!!!