When It All Starts to Hit You...

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for reading this and for being with me as I start this incredible journey! Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I am going to be leaving for South Africa through the Fr. Smith Fellowship Program at Providence College. Just typing that sentence sends a flood of emotions through me, excitement and nervousness being the top two! It’s amazing to think that something that I have been planning and thinking about for so long is finally beginning to unfold.

            The Fr Smith Fellowship Program has given me this incredible opportunity. This summer, myself and eight other Providence College students will be traveling to Dominican Catholic Communities across the world to serve alongside the Dominicans for 6 weeks. Please keep myself and the eight other Smith Fellows in your prayers this summer (Here’s the link to the Smith Fellowship Page if you're interested I the program: http://providence.edu/mission-ministry/smith-fellow).

            MY THE GAME PLAN: When I am in South Africa, I am going to be staying with two different Dominican communities, the first being the Dominican Friars in Pietermaritzburg. I’ll be with these Friars for about a week and a half, and the plan is to serve in their universities as the students there have their final exams that week. The Fathers have loads of different ministries that they serve in, so I hope to poke my head in a few more while I am there as well! After this time in Pietermaritzburg, I am going to be spending the rest of my Fellowship with the Dominican Sisters in Montebello (around 4 and a half weeks). There, I am going to co-teach a biology class in their local high school and also serve in Vianney Children’s Home, which is a home for children who either do not have parents or their parents cannot take care of them.

            While that is the spiel I’ve been giving for a few weeks now, it is incredible to think that in a few short hours it will actually be happening! I’ll be leaving at 8 tomorrow morning (5/17) and will have two layovers at JFK and Johannesburg before arriving in South Africa on 5/18. I’m so excited for this experience am looking forward to all the ways that the Lord will use this time to touch my life.

            I also think that it is important at the beginning of any trip, especially one like this, to just lay out some goals that I have. While there are many that I have in mind (and that I know that the Lord has in mind for me), here are a few that are really important to me:

            1. Putting everything that happens into the Lord’s hands. With so many moving parts and uncertainties, I would go crazy worrying about everything. I want to give this whole experience to Him so that He may lead me where I am most valuable to others and where I will have the best experience. God, I give this all to you.

            2. Showing the love of Christ to those that I am serving. Especially with the children I am going to be working with, I would love to be able to convey to them just how much they are loved by our Father in Heaven. I’m working on some different activities to do with them to drive home this fact, but I think that it is most important to show it to them through how I act and live my own life. In the words of someone much wiser than myself: “preach the Gospel always, and, if necessary, use words.”

            3. Breathe, and take it all in. I know that during my Fellowship there are going to be many events happening and so many people to meet. One of the goals that I have is to make sure that in all of these encounters, I take a step back a cherish the experience. I am going to be able to see so many different perspectives on life during the Fellowship: how the South African schools are run, how the Catholic Church operates universally, and even how the ways of life are similar/different between the Fathers and Sisters. These are just a few; I will keep my eyes open to the other ones I am able to find on the trip.

Thank you so much for being with me during this incredible journey. If anyone is interested, I am trying to raise money to donate to the different groups that I will be serving with during the Fellowship (these groups include the Dominican communities, South African schools, and Vianney Children’s Home). Here is the link to that page if you’d like to donate, and thank you so much for your help in this endeavor: https://www.gofundme.com/supporting-south-africas-students

The next time you hear from me, I'll be living life in South Africa!

God Bless,

Jen Conroy