A Call to Love; A Call to Living Water

I have been accepted to join formation with Living Water Community to become a lay consecrated missionary in Trinidad!

Whew! For those of you who have heard me talk non-stop about this community for the last two years, this may not be a surprise but the process is officially on the move. I am so excited to get started on this new journey, but I have some standing commitments in the states that I need to work through first. For those of you who haven’t heard about Living Water, let me share a little of my story with you:

When I boarded the plane to Trinidad in May of 2013, I would have told you that my summer ministry immersion with Living Water Community was going to be a great experience, but most importantly that it was preparation for all that was coming next. It was a blip on my radar in between graduating college with my Bachelor Degree in Religious Studies and my year of service with FrancisCorp in Costa Rica. Though I had been discerning religious life, the life of a lay consecrated missionary was never what I had in mind. But our God is a God of surprises.

Household members of Living Water Community ~ Chapter 2015 

From very early on in my trip, living and working with community felt natural, felt like “home”. It was over the next two months that God slowly whispered into my heart. At first, my response to that tugging was I’ve barely known this community for a month, this must just be a ‘mission trip high’ to God, you cannot possibly be calling me to this community! WE HAD A PLAN! Despite my hesitancy, I began falling in love with the spirit, prayer and people of Living Water Community.

In retrospect, I can tell you the moment when I started to truly pray about the possibility of joining household. I was working in the food bank, packing food hampers to give to our clients and singing praise music with the woman in charge. They had just been telling me that I needed to come back and help for Christmas and it hit me – my trip was going to end. My only thought was I can’t imagine this not being my every day. God had brought me to this community and had opened my heart to His call without me even knowing it! There was no turning back after that moment and over the last two years, His call to live and serve in Living Water Community has been confirmed over and over.

Not only do I believe that this community has changed and will continue to change me, I believe that God gave me gifts and talents that I can offer them. During my time with community, I have been able to use my experience and background in education and religious studies by helping with youth and children prayer meetings, as well as helping with Vacation Bible School. My background in Spanish has allowed me to work with refugees from Spanish speaking countries that come to Living Water. Each of the ministries that I have been a part of during my short visits have shown me ways that I could be of service to the community.

So, what comes next? While I was in Trinidad in May of 2015, I met with the foundress and current Director of Community – Rhonda Maingot – and expressed my desire to enter formation to become a consecrated member living in household.  I have been accepted to begin formation in September 2016!

This is where I need your help! Becoming a missionary and moving to another country presents its challenges! There are 3 ways that I could use your help- Pray, Give, Share

 Pray  – While I am so excited to begin this new journey, I know that it will not be easy. It has never been easy to leave my family and friends while traveling and add in learning to live in community and assimilating to a new culture, I can use all the prayers I can get. I also have a lot of work to do so that I am able to join community in September, so I ask that you please keep me in your prayers as I embark on this journey.

            Give - I am extremely grateful for the Catholic education I received at the University of Dayton and would never have landed where I am without my time at UD, but it has left me with student loans. To begin my formation and join community, I must be free of any financial obligation or debt, including student loans. I will be committing to communal poverty, I will not receive a salary and will rely on the community to meet my basic needs which means that I will not have the means to continue paying off debt once in community. My current debt is $96,000 in both private and federal student loans. It seems like an impossible amount, but I truly believe that God has placed it on my heart to join this community and will provide in big ways.

That being said I need your help! If you would prayerful considering

There are 3 ways that you can donate:

Online for non-family members you can go to Joy to the World Foundation to donate. This foundation is able to give you a donation receipt so you can claim your charitable donation on your taxes. This money is sent to my account with the foundation and then at the close of my account will directly be paid to my loans.

            Online for family – due to the nature of the fund above, family members are unable to receive a charitable tax deduction. If you would like to give, you can go to this gofundme.com/h686pnkk. This fund is linked directly to a separate bank account specifically for this fundraiser. It will then be disbursed to my loans on a monthly basis.

            By snail mail – if you would like to help out, but would rather meet with me personally or send your donation through snail mail, it can be sent to the following address:

                                                               

Joy to the World – Tax deductible/non-family

Joy to the World Foundation

c/o Cassandra Schemmel Benevolence Fund

5550 Tech Center Drive Suite 305

Colorado Springs CO 80919

       Share my story – If you know someone who might be interested in my story, please feel free to share it with them! I believe that this is the perfect time for sharing with young people that there are many ways to serve God, you just have to tune in to the still small voice. If you know someone who might be interested in supporting my fundraiser or a business that would like to become a sponsor, please let me know and feel free to share this blog with them!

I want to thank all of you, because without the support and prayer that you have gifted me with thus far, I would never be where I am. It is through the constant encouragement of family and friends that the little girl who used to play Mass with her siblings and stuffed animals is now moving forward to become a consecrated women serving God’s people.

Discovering Christ in Christmas: A True Trini Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all who happen to read this.

I know that I have been neglecting my blog, but since Mono left my system and my energy came back, it has been nonstop! After being home sick for three weeks, I slowly reintegrated myself at work, took a trip to Nicaragua for Thanksgiving and then barely had time to breath before heading off to Trinidad for Christmas.

I have been asked multiple times “Was Trinidad everything that you hoped for?” I can’t even begin to answer that question! I was a flood of emotions leading up to my trip and had no idea what I hoped for. I was anxious about going back. I kept thinking what if it was too soon; maybe I had not had enough time to process. I thought maybe I had missed Trinidad so much I began to romanticize how I felt about it. Well, I was right to think that something had changed and honestly the trip was not how I'd expected it to be at all.

I was right to expect it to be different because I, had in fact, changed in the four months I was gone. Although, my time in Costa Rica has not been easy, it has been a time of growth. While I’m still very strongly extroverted, I have had to learn new ways of processing. My understanding of service has stretched and grown as I navigate my way through my work site. My understanding of community life has changed as I have lived my first few months with my Costa Rican housemates. The space from my previous experience in Trinidad had given me a chance to process what exactly had touched me so deeply.

That being said, despite having been to Trinidad and having processed a little bit of my experience, I was no more prepared for this experience than the first time. I remember packing and realizing I had no clue what to pack because all I knew was that we had a lot of work to do! Needless to say this trip was full of surprises and blessings.

The first surprise was finding out that “early morning” no longer meant 5:30 prayer in the chapel. For the week leading up to Christmas, early meant getting to the center at 4:30am to make breakfast before Aurora mass. Those Aurora Masses became one of the greatest parts of my Advent journey. Sitting in a dark chapel with only candles lighting the altar, looking onto the Laventille hills, and watching the sun rise over them as the Eucharist is consecrated before us. The insane symbolism of walking into a dark room, not knowing who was sitting beside you yet feeling a strong sense of community and safety and the symbolism of the sun rising and light coming to the chapel as the Light of the World becomes present in a physical way on the altar before us. That is powerful. It was a beautiful way to clear out the distraction that liturgy can bring along with it - especially for someone who is passionate about studying the liturgy – and recognize the Christ that came before me.

That was the beauty of Advent for me – removing the distraction and noise. For the first time, I truly celebrated Christmas. Being so far away from what I had always associated with Christmas was surreal. Instead of praying for snow and a “White Christmas”, I was seeing palm trees and sweating from the humidity. Instead of shopping for gifts, I was preparing goodie bags and food hampers for poor families. Instead of gathering with my friends and family to celebrate, I was gathering with my community to pray and to work. Without all of the distractions of what Christmas has become, my Advent journey became about one thing – focusing on opening my heart and preparing for the birth of the King of Kings. I can’t even begin to explain how blessed and wonderful that time was.

Another surprise, and blessing, was that even though I’d been gone for three months, it felt as though I had never left. It was amazing to be back with a community that I love and watch them live out their mission to serve joyfully. On Christmas Day, community members gather together to prepare and serve a lunch for 2500 people. It was amazing to watch everyone work to make such a big event happen on a day. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t just watching, I was able to help hand out gifts to all of the children that came through. :) I also got to spend time with the community outside of work and prayer, being part of the Boxing Day and Old Year’s festivities was also a great time. For a community that knows how to work, Living Water Community also knows how to have a good time! They truly have become a second family to me.

Many of you know that I could go on (and on and on) about Trinidad … so be warned if you choose to ask me in the future how my trip was. While it was a strange Christmas away from home, it could not have been blessed with greater people. To my Trini family who reads this, I’m so grateful for you welcoming me back with such love and allowing me to be part of that special time. I already miss you and cannot wait to come back. To my family and friends at home, I missed you and you all were in my prayers every day I was gone, but I’m so grateful for your support this last year. With 5 different trips, it was a big year and I couldn’t have done it without your encouragement and prayers. I cannot wait to see you all again as well!

Blessed, blessed New Year!