Author Archives: Pam Savoia

Acts 16:6…Thanks, Mark Hart

By | June 24, 2011

It has been a while since my last blog, so, I will take some time and catch you up on my life. I’m still in Arizona. It is very hot and dry here and we have been battling lots of wild fires. Please pray for rain. Over the past few months, my life has also been in a desert state, much like my homeland.  During my last doctor’s appointment, I was told that I’m not allowed to travel back to Germany and the Netherlands. My lungs are air-trapping, and it is too dangerous for me to fly to my

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Jesus Felt Abandoned

By | April 21, 2011

Standing and singing the words, “Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ, King of Endless Glory” at the Palm Sunday Mass, opened my heart to listen deeply to the Lord’s voice.  It was the twenty-third time I had heard this long interactive Gospel recited during the Mass. I asked the Holy Spirit to provide me with the grace of hearing His Word in a new way and that I would be kept from distraction.  As I listened, the Gospel came to life and my eyes started streaming with tears. The reality of Jesus’

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Being Thankful

By | April 19, 2011

Lent is hard. Being thankful during Lent is even harder. I entered the desert a few days early this year. It started as I was preparing to begin my journey to Covecrest’s staff retreat; the doctor’s office called saying that my blood tests had come back abnormal. After our staff retreat ended, I did not fly back to Europe with my community. Instead, I sat on Delta Flight 2715 headed to Phoenix, Arizona, to pursue more medical testing. Weeks later, I still find myself in my parents’ house

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Lent: The Invitation to Draw Closer to Jesus

By | March 17, 2011

A few weeks ago, a close friend and I were discussing Lent and the sacrifices we were going to be offering. Afterall, Lent is all about prayer, sacrifice, and almsgiving, right? While this is true to an extent, my friend helped me to realize that I was missing the point that the deeper significance of Lent is developing a greater relationship with Jesus. I was getting caught up in thoughts about me and the sacrifices I was going to make. While I was focusing on myself, Jesus was just waiting patiently

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Trains to Jesus: Part 3

By | February 10, 2011

The rest of our weekend in Haarlem was blessed and taught me so much. We even had the chance to visit the chapel of Our Lady of All Nations on December 12, which was Our Lady of Guadalupe’s memorial. I felt so honored that we were able to visit on one of Mary’s special days! It was especially powerful for me since Our Lady of All Nations played a huge role in my discernment process of becoming a European missionary.   Sunday’s Life Night quickly came and went, and then, it was time for us

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Trains to Jesus: Part 2

By | January 14, 2011

We planned to meet one of the parishioners, who is very active in the parish in Haarlem, at the train station.  Once we got off of the train, Ashley and I suddenly felt very alone as we found ourselves in one of the largest train stations in Holland; it was also during rush hour on a Friday night. There were literally hundreds of people passing by us and we had no idea which direction we were supposed to walk towards. We ended up outside and on the across the street from the train station at

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Trains to Jesus: Part 1

By | January 14, 2011

Three weekends out of the month, some of us travel to different places in Holland. Recently, we were scheduled to do outreach in Haarlem. Haarlem is quite far from our village; thus, our optimal choice for travel is by train. Since we would have to travel across the whole country of Holland, we needed to take more than one train to get to our destination. During this particular trip, Ashley and I were the only ones from our community who were able to travel. We have never traveled by train before,

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Fröhliches Weihnachten…Merry Christmas!

By | December 25, 2010

We baked Chocolate Chip Christmas cookies (an unfamiliar rarity in Germany) with some of the youth who live close to our home. It was a cold Friday night when we decided to go Christmas Caroling (another unfamiliar rarity) to bring joy and homemade cookies to the villagers.Walking through the streets, singing old favorite Christmas tunes, a little variety was added  to our English renditions. To inculturate on a deeper level, we sang some songs in German; such as, O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)

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Emma

By | December 13, 2010

Feeling the warm love of the people who have been interceding for me and our mission community for many months was what my heart needed to thaw from the snow that was falling on the cold streets of Holland. As I entered the chapel in the Church of St. Tomas in Roermond, I saw pews filled with our prayer warriors that I had never met before. It was the first time that I got to receive the Eucharist with those who were committed to praying for me here for such a long period of time.   After Mass,

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My Sisters,

By | November 14, 2010

My dear sisters in Christ, There are so many beautiful things in life. We look to art, music, nature, people and much more to see the daily masterpieces that God has created for us. But, how many times do we actually recognize the beautiful images that God has painted within our own lives and hearts? Do we allow ourselves to be filled by the One who calls us “beloved’? Or, do we seek our fulfillment in mere things? Over the past few months, I have heard story after story of the sincere struggle

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