Meggie Feran's Spring Break Mission Trip

Hey to everyone out in blog land. My name is Meggie and I am the young alumni and student programming coordinator in alumni relations office but also a huge fan of the annual giving team, obviously (!);  I work with them collaboratively when given the chance. When asked if I would guest blog about a recent spring break mission trip, I was totally honored! So, here goes (hopefully I don’t bore you to tears) . . .  

I helped advise six students who ventured to St. Benedictine Monastery located in good ol’ Erie, PA, for their Spring Break. It was one of eight mission trips. Instead of going to the beach, these students stayed in a cloister with nuns! Yes, it is true. And, they chose to do this, really. Talk about amazing students with open minds. To give a bit of insight to the schedule, here’s what a typical day looked like:
6:30 a.m.: Morning Praise
7:00 – 8:00 a.m.: Breakfast (with the Sisters)
8:30 – 11:30 a.m.: Ministry Work
11:45 a.m.: Noon Praise
12:00 p.m.: Lunch (with the Sisters)
1:00 – 4:00 p.m: Ministry Work
5:00 – 5:30 p.m. – Lectio/Silent Individual Prayer
5:30 p.m.: Evening Praise
6:00 p.m.: Dinner (with the Sisters)
7:15 p.m.: Reflection with team and Sister Dorothy
10:00 p.m.: Lights Out


Needless to say, the days were regimented! It took the students (and me!) a few days to get used to the schedule, but we quickly fell into the rhythm and adapted. One night, we went to Sister Dorothy’s house, had some pizza and her specialty homemade chocolate chip cookies (she was super sweet and didn’t want to make us eat the liver and onions (puke!) that were being served at the Monastery). Soon we got the sisters talking about the “good old days”. One of the stories entailed sneaking wine into the monastery. Another one was about sneaking into an all boys college down the road. Pretty funny stuff.  You should have seen the 30 shades of red that some of the sister’s faces turned.

The ministries were inspiring. My personal favorite was the St. Benedictine Education Center (SBEC) where they provided a Welfare to Work program. Erie, PA has a very high rate of refugees, namely from Bhutan, Nepal, Iran, and Iraq. We were able to work with them one-on-one, teaching English and practical lessons like sewing and what to say in a job interview. It was funny when all of them asked if we had boyfriends or were married. I think they had mini crushes on all those college girls.

Other than driving the 15-passenger van and hitting every curb imaginable, the experience was amazing. I give these students so much credit for their hard work and open minds. That’s all for now. Enjoy the pictures. One is a group shot and another is me cleaning the chapel with Sister Jean (nothing is ever clean enough there)!

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures