Author Archives: Willeke Franken

Glorify God in Relationships

By | October 10, 2012

Have you ever had a crush on someone? You know, how you just think that everything they do is cute. Most of the time, after a little while these crushes go away, but sometimes it turns into a relationship. That is what I want to talk about. I started dating someone a month and a half ago. When I was talking to someone about it from our Covecrest community she asked me a question: what is different about this relationship than your previous one? After our first date, I texted her jokingly saying

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Not My Plan But Yours!

By | June 25, 2012

When I applied for Life Teen Missions, I applied for only one year. I knew I had to go back and finish school in six years so that I don’t have to pay back the money I got from the government. Until January, I thought this was God’s plan for me, even though I never prayed about how long God wanted me to be in Life Teen Missions. I was really stubborn in this. After my eight-day silent retreat, I talked to someone, and he told me he thought I really had to stay another year and told me to pray

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Victim or Victor?

By | April 25, 2012

Happy Easter, or as we would say it in Dutch: Zalig Pasen! I was in Colorado this Easter and went to mass in a town called Breckenridge. The priest had an awesome homily! He talked about being a victim or a victor in life. As a victor, you claim your own life. You do what God asks you to do, you choose to be happy during the day. You rose with Christ: you claim victory for everything you have overcome with Christ. As a victim, all the bad stuff happens to you, people mistreat you, and you

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God Qualifies the Called

By | February 26, 2012

Do you ever think, “Lord, I cannot do that. Why me? Why not someone else?” I did and still do sometimes. I remember my first excuse for not becoming a missionary: “Lord, I am not good enough. Why do you call me? I am not a good example for teens. I do not know all the prayers. There are so many people better than me.” But, God chose me and not someone else. Even when you look at the disciples, you see that they were just fisherman. They were not more special than other people. God chose

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I Win!

By | February 23, 2012

When we came back from Christmas break, we had one day to talk to everyone. After that day we had an eight-day silent retreat. We had to be silent for eight days! I was not looking forward to it! Even though I don’t like sharing, I don’t like being quiet either. I need to talk! How can I be silent for eight days? That was the thought that went through my head before the eight-day. Every day we had an hour of spiritual direction, but that was the only time we could talk. I was so scared to be

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Go Make a Difference

By | January 21, 2012

It seems so long ago, but I am going to write about my Christmas break. I was able to go home for two weeks, back to the Netherlands. I was excited to see all my friends and family again, but I also did not want to go because I had to leave Covecrest which is my also my home with family. It can be easy here at Covecrest to do a holy hour in the morning and to follow our rhythm of prayer, and I knew that I had to do this on my own at home. At least that is what I thought it would be, but my mom went

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I Love Confession

By | December 30, 2011

Yes, Confession. I never thought I would say that because until last week, I hated going to Confession. It was hard for me to say everything I did wrong to a priest. Every time I went to Confession, I decided beforehand what to say and what not to say. I held things back on purpose. Every time I left Confession, I would feel worse, and I could never figure out why. It was on my heart for a few months to go to Confession and to be completely honest about everything. I talked about it with another

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Glorify God in your bodies

By | November 16, 2011

As missionaries here at Covecrest, we live according to the Life Teen Missions Rule of Life. The purpose of the rule of life is to root our lives in Jesus Christ. Obedience to this rule of life leads us to form certain Christ-like habits, transforming us into witnesses of the Gospel. One of the sections of the rule is Glorify God in Your Bodies. It seemed pretty simple. We commit to not eating too much, to exercising, to getting a healthy amount of sleep, etc. Until Wednesday, November 9th I

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Do Not Be Afraid

By | November 2, 2011

Do not be afraid. How often do we hear these words? As a child, our parents say it a lot – if you are afraid of the dark or if you think there is a monster under your bed. As a child of God, God the Father says, “Do not be afraid.” Jesus says it to His apostles. I was reading the gospel recently and it said: “Do not be afraid.” – Luke 12:7 The day before I read this phrase in the gospel, we were sitting in our house with all the female missionaries and Jessica asked who wanted to share about

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