in not of

so we have returned from Mexico, alive and well, with a new outlook on life.

i learned so much from these people. the missionaries who guided us, the missionary family who took us in, the people of General Cepeda, the people of the ranchos... everyone taught me something. it will take some time to process everything i gained and left behind, but i'll do my best to put it in words for now.

we were asked to reflect on 3 questions the night before we left the FMC Misson. what affected us the most, what are we leaving behind and what are we taking with us. this will be a 3 parter...and i'll start with what i'm leaving behind:

i left what i thought about missionaries in General Cepeda. when i used to think of missionaries, i thought of overzealous white people going into foriegn lands and doing anything they can to "save souls". how wrong could i be. well, i'm sure there are some exceptions out there, but from what i saw, mission means a whole lot more now. every missionary i encountered seemed like a living saint, but they would never tell you that. these are some of the most humble people on fire for Chirst that i've ever seen. these are people who are dedicating thier lives to loving God's people in places most would never go. they aren't screaming REPENT on the streetcorners, they arent verbally abusing people with scripture, they arent telling others how wrong they are...they simply love God, have felt His love and want to show it to other poeple. they are laughing with children in the streets, they are dedicating years of their lives to serve the poor, they are giving from their poverty without a second glance...and they do it all with a joyful heart. these people are holy and striving to be better everyday. they are making a mad dash for heaven and they are taking as many people as they can with them. they have sold what they have and given to the poor...then the kept giving. they are giving the very fiber of who they are as people. they give, love and pray until it hurts.

please pray for all missionaries, but especially the Family Misisons Company. they are doing wonderful things in General Cepeda and the surrounding Ranchos. and they have opened my eyes to the call of the Gospel. please lift up Joseph, John Paul, Niel, Chris and the Brown family, all who are serving in Mexico. they are an inspiration to me.

two more parts to follow and plenty of pictures. thank you all for your prayer and support. they have made the difference. God bless.

Posted by adam at 10:12 PM Comments

here is an awesome picture Carlos took of me and his son, Luca...two of my favorite people....

Carlos and Luca of course. not me and Luca.

someone told me it looks like a GAP advertisement. i just think its awesome.


God bless the Weavers.

Posted by adam at 8:42 PM Comments

we are leaving for General Cepeda, Mexico. Click here for a map.

please pray for us, those who are traveling with us, the missionaries and others we are meeting up with from Covecrest and those we will meet along the way. we are in for the trip of a life time and will be praying for you all while we are away.

many stories and reflections to follow! God bless.

Posted by adam at 10:07 PM Comments

yesterday i had the opportunity to be a part of the latest Life Teen Life Support video shoot. Life Teen puts out some awesome video content in the Life Support shipments that go out to parishes all around the world. yesterday was a day long shoot for a short narrative story that will be in the next shipment. i was there to be an extra set of hands on set and get a great first person view of what its like to produce content like this. it was tons of fun and very educational. i had no idea how much goes into production for quality film. also, we got to play around on a "cyc", one of those all-white room like back drop with no corner to give the appearance of empty space. Here's a couple pictures i got.needless to say, it was a wonderful day and experience out of the offices with the Life Studios crew.

today i was really able to get into the Christmas spirit. Carlos, my prayer partner, and Erika, his wife, have become my family away from family. they invited me to spend the day at their house for a day of home-cooked breakfast and Christmas cookies, tree decorating and some solid hanging out. their baby boy, Luca, is a joy to be around. they are truly amazing examples of faith and hospitality to me.

to my family - you're not be replaced! haha i miss you all very much and can't wait to get back to our Christmastime traditions!

we will be leaving for Mexico in two days. i am getting nervous and excited for the trip. this will be a different kind of Advent...

God bless you all. i love you all and hope you are having a blessed season of preparation for the coming of our Lord!

ps - i recommend checking out Matt Maher's new Silent Night.

Posted by adam at 12:35 AM Comments

i had a wonderful chance to see many family friends over this past weekend. praise God for vegetarian thanksgivings!

to all those i recently saw i say thank you. it was so good to see your faces and hear your voices. i have missed you all. however, the greatest thing might have been the sense of support i felt being home. it was inspiring hearing how happy you were for me and to know that you were checking up on me occasionally. it truly makes life in az much easier knowing the wonderful people that care about me back at home are rooting for me.

i will say, though, its amazing how easy it is to fall back into old habits and ways in comfortable places. no sooner did i drop my duffel bag in my bedroom did i also drop my prayer book and desire to get to Mass the next morning. yes, the time off for decompression was nice and very relaxing, and nothing is more important when at home than spending quality time with my family and friends. but, why can't i do both? this will clearly be the challenge for me once i leave this place. i know this won't be for some time, but these habits that are challenging me in new ways, helping me grow in new places and teaching me so much must stick.

i ask for your prayers that i may continue to be stretched and that my longing for holiness never ceases.

no matter my personal struggles, i love you all and it was wonderful to see you! God bless you all. know that i am praying for you.

Posted by adam at 10:34 PM Comments

so we've been up at Camp Tepeyac for the past week doing what we can to help improve the camp and spend some quality time with the camp director's, Wade and Cathy Woodall. its been a fun but tough time up here. although we're not used to the high altitude, cold temperatures and manual labor...all three have been a nice change of pace from the busy world that is the Life Teen offices. we've been getting the camp ready for winter, specifically, for the snow: making sure roofs are cleared, path are accesible for the snow-blower, creating sled runs... all good stuff. its been nice to get some community where the 6 of us can just pray together and be together.

last night, however, something different was in order. we went into the town of Prescott (down the mountain) to visit with the young adult group from Sacred Heart parish. the youth ministers there provided us with fellowship and generous dinner...then told us we were going to see a local high school's production of...Les Miserables. we were all happily suprised by how much fun it was. the kids did a great job and i respect them for tackling one of the most successful and popular musicals of all time. also, you gotta love supporting local theatre.

thank you all for your love and support. ill be coming home to california in a couple days for thanksgiving.

God bless and keep the prayers coming. know that i am praying for you.

Posted by adam at 3:33 PM Comments

the lifeteen web offices recently picked up some puppets...yes, muppet style comedy is on its way. keep an eye on build.lifeteen.com in the near future for puppet appearances. and please visit the site anyway to check out our annual appeal and see how you can help the cause.

we had a conference call today with the missionaries at Covecrest in Tiger, GA, and Joseph, our mission team leader from Family Missions Company. we now know we will be heading to General Cepeda, Mexico on Dec. 8th and will be there for about a week and a half doing a number of different things with the community there. we are all very excited about this new opportunity to serve and grow.

Inspiration LA was a great event. it was wonderful to see so many of my friends in ministry there as well as many teens, especially those from St. Martin of Tours. i was so proud to see former teens at an event that so affected me as a high schooler. matt, todd and lisa all were wonderful witnesses and worship was amazing as always with matt maher and band. running lyrics for that guy is another story, though. how am i supposed to help people sing when the man writes a new song in the middle of Adoration? no matter what, it was a wonderful time spent in what felt like home. 3000 teens praising God like that can never leave you feeling down.

God bless and thank you for the support.

check out build.lifeteen.com

Posted by adam at 10:28 PM Comments

was amazing. i love my family and friends.

Posted by adam at 10:26 PM Comments

today is All Saints Day and i just had the wonderful opportunity to share in the joyous occasion of the baptism of one Luca Weaver. he is the 3 month old son of my prayer partner, Carlos Weaver. Carlos is a graphic designer for Life Teen and is a fantastic role model for a young man of faith. he and his wife, Erica, are two wonderful people who have been very generous and welcoming to me. i am so glad to have that young family around as often as they are.

last night was All Hallow's Eve and to celebrate we went to an 80's themed party. i was happy and sad to say i spent no money on my costume as i already owned enough brightly colored and strange enough items to pass for a hipster of that glorious decade. marty mcfly was definetely an inspiration. pictures will ensue shortly. it was an awesome and radical evening of dancing to michael jackson beats and laughing at was once cool. it makes me dread what i will think of my current "style" 20 years from now. oh dear.

to cap of the month of october, our house finally shaved. throughout the month we had forgone shaving in a sort of last man standing competition. it was fun change of face that everyone survived through. although my facial hair could not compete with the grizzlyness of my housemates, it was still fun to laugh at gross everyone looked. and now i give you the week by week of... octobeard.


week 1
week 2
week 3
week 1
week 2


week 3
octobeard 31st

shaving

and now we look a little cleaner...

i'm still having fun with random facial hair combinations. i'm taking requests as well. haha. thank you everyone for you prayers and support. know that we are praying and thinking of you here. God bless.

Posted by adam at 4:28 PM Comments

sorry about the lack of postage. we have actually been out of town this past week at Camp Tepeyac in Prescott, AZ. although i was previously led to believe i would be surrounded by cacti in an arid abyss of sand, i quickly learned what northern arizona was really like. it was freezing. no kidding. we will be making monthly trips to the lifeteen owned camp to help with upkeep and renovations, and as always, to pray. we found plenty to praise God for there, from the ponderosa pine forrests to the home-made apple pie. it's difficult to not see God in the beauty of nature up there. check out this picture from "the outlook" at the top of the camp.



that's me marveling. needles to say, it was a wonderful trip packed with hard work and lots of community. camp managers Cathy and Wade Woodall are amazing witnesses and are a blessing to us. this weekend will be a great time of rest and catch up. more posts to come. expect some pictures soon.

God bless and thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Posted by adam at 7:22 PM Comments

to start, the serial killer i am referencing is entirely fictional; however, part of me wishes he wasn't. of course i'm refering to DEXTER, the showtime series about a a serial killer who only kills bad guys. all the missionaries and several staff members are now habitual viewers. its one of those addictive crime-drama shows but with a very interesting twist. i would call it a dark comedy series, but others may say otherwise. i would advise checking it out for it's good writing, acting and sense of humor.

this past week, i have been really been able to get into the swing of things at work. while Mark is out of town, resource development slows down for me and i am able to help out where i can with the web design team. for the last several days i have been working with Matt Smith (formerly of MTVs Real World, now web master for lifeteen.com) and Greg Iwinski aka Gary Jackson aka Action Jackson. although its been long days of data input related tasks its been really nice to feel like i'm really contributing to the LifeTeen team. i have been blessed with some awesome and fun tasks to take care of in the office. from taking notes of the catholic themes in movies to building maps to help people find LifeTeen across the country, i've really been enjoying my work here.

please continue to pray for us here and keep checking the LifeTeen websites for cool stuff!

Posted by adam at 10:51 AM Comments

although we are now in our second official week of the lifeteen missionary program, it feels like we are just now starting. the first week was a whirlwind of activity and business culminating with a weekend reatreat with 80+ high school teens in prescott, az.

After our moving in and welcome day, we began some of our formation with our director Tricia. Tricia is a long time friend of mine and we are blessed to have her journeying with us. i met Tricia when i was only 14 years old at CLI (christian leadership institute) where she was mentoring me and hundreds of other teens. luckily, we have stayed friends and she has continued to mentor me throughout my involvement in ministry.

the rest of the week we we're getting acquainted with the house, the office and each other. meals, stories and prayers were shared as we prepared to jump headfirst into st. tim's lifeteen program.

friday afternoon we left for camp tepeyac (lifeteen's camp in the mountains of northern arizona). the 6 of us, 20 other CORE members (adult volnteers), the st. tim's lifeteen staff and 80-odd teens all spent a wonderful weekend praising God and learning about Him and ourselves. it was great to be with teens again.

upon returning sunday night, we attend the 5 pm teen Mass where the homily was essentially given by the teens via "cardboard testimonies". to see more about "cardboard testimonies" watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ. then, Fr. Jack Spaulding, st. tim's pastor introduced the 6 of us to the parish and had them all pray over us. needless to say, it was a moving Mass.

monday we had the day off to recuperate and do a little costco shopping. buying in bulk will save us this year.

today is tuesday and we are back in the offices. however, i don't think i've ever been to happy to say that. we are all so excited about the work we will be undertaking. i, personally, will be working with Lisa Epperson and Mark Hart in the rescource development department. i am somewhat nervous but also very excited.

i am also very excited about the habits being formed here. everyday begins with Mass. everyday there are specific times dedicated to prayer. every week we have community meals. its a wonderful feeling. i feel as tho i am replacing old laziness with new dedication to spiritual improvement.

as this continues i ask that you continue to pray for me and the other missionaries as well as the lifeteen and st. tim's staff! thank you so much for your support. i miss you all.

Posted by adam at 12:47 PM Comments

this morning all the lifeteen missionaries were welcomed into the lifeteen family. the day began with the Lord, at 830 morning Mass. however, in the guys house, we were all up and awake by 630. apparently in arizona the sun comes out earlier, is much brighter and shines directly thru our windows. after our spiritual meal we went off to a veritable feast at the lifeteen offices where most of the staff and st. tim's youth ministry team was there to welcome us. a wonderful morning spent in community.

after some time in prayer, we began out bureaucratic parade. forms were filled out, copies were made, papers were filed. after the fun of paperwork, we had our "called to protect" (child abuse prevention) session. officially, i am now a protector of children in 3 different dioceses.

despite how it may sound, today was a wonderful day. we truly were welcomed into the family that is lifeteen. between lifeteen and st. tim's, we have the ultimate support system. i am getting very excited about the work we will be doing here. so much is going on, i can't wait to learn and be a part of this movement.

God bless and please continue your prayers for us. we will be praying for you.


ps - the missionaries were mentioned in the news box on the website. to check it out or learn more about lifeteen check out lifeteen.com

Posted by adam at 10:12 PM Comments

so, i'm leaving my home town of claremont, ca in 4 days. for the next few days i will embracing my family, friends and the sacraments. i cannot wait to see my new home in mesa, az and get to know my fellow missionaries. this is going to be an incredible experience no matter what.

please pray for me and the others who will be joining me in arizona.

thank you all and God bless.

Posted by adam at 11:30 PM Comments