Summer 2024 Appeal Dear First name / Friend, During our weekly office meetings, we have a section called “Share Something Good!” As staff members, we get to share a nugget of awesomeness from our personal lives—maybe a personal achievement, an answered prayer, or a family update. That’s how I’m starting our summer appeal with… |
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1. ECHO Milestone Looming: We just finished our 49th ECHO retreat…which has us thinking about our 50th coming up this fall. That’s an epic amount of redemption-drenched, TOB-infused, community-building, life-changing events since 2010! |
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2. “Studio 38” Renovation: We will finish our building renovation in early August on-site at the Echo Community headquarters in Folsom, LA! Honoring St. John Paul II and his underground theatre group, we are naming it Studio 38. Take a look at the progress! |
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The front of Studio 38 before and after the porch went up! |
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The back of Studio 38 before and after the deck went up! |
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3. Property Blessing: We had Archbishop Aymond dedicate our chapel last year, and finally had the entire campus blessed a few weeks ago by Fr. David Frank! |
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4. Sabbatical & Service: The Conn family came from Georgia and in May finished a 6-week stay of family sabbatical and service, cultivating our property and serving alongside us! |
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5. New Roof Gift: Just last month, we needed a new roof on the main structure onsite. I budgeted for it, but with this economy, it was looking tough. As I began getting estimates, I prayed for help. The next day, God brought a new friend along— a contractor who offered to put on the new roof at cost - and it was finished a few weeks ago! God is so good!! |
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THREE BIG GOALS - Food @ ECHO: With explosive inflation, food costs for retreats have gone sky high. To keep retreat costs from also going sky-high, $10,000 will defray costs for the rest of 2024.
- Sponsor @ ECHO: We give thousands of dollars in scholarships each year, but need help to ensure $$ never stops anyone from coming. So, $12,000 will help us give scholarships and pay hard costs for our volunteers, leaders & priests on 2024 retreats.
- Rest & Learn @ Our New Space: We need to buy indoor chairs, tables, storage shelving, room decor, outside rockers, and patio furniture for the new “Studio 38” renovation, and $13,000 will cover it!
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Many have asked me recently how to best approach disturbing events in our culture regarding sexuality (ie: Olympics opening ceremonies, PRIDE parades, etc.). Do we engage with love? Do we protest? Do we just pray? There are many ways to respond with an informed conscience— but all of them, I contend, would have a prayerful balance of truth and love. As Mary Bielski, one of our ECHO presenters, has put it, “Love without truth is empty. Truth without love is cold.”
St. John Paul II taught that in the beginning, man and woman had a “consciousness of the gift” and entered the world as subjects of “truth and love” (TOB 19:6). As we invite men and women to a renewed “consciousness of the gift,” God shows their own bodies to them as unique gifts, as revelations of Truth and Love. Shortly after experiencing this original glory, our first parents fell in pride, believing they could decide for themselves what was true and decide for themselves how to love. Thus began the memory fade from a consciousness of the gift to a distorted forgetfulness of being created with dignity in the image of Truth and Love. We all forget and sin! What do we all need to return to consciousness of God’s original plan? Truth. Love. And… Humility. This is precisely what the Eucharistic processions around the country have been— humility parades of truth and love. The God of the universe stoops low and does not count power as something to be grasped but empties himself in humble obedience unto death. The Eucharist is a Heart of humility and invites us to love the same way! Allowing our desires to die, we bow down before Someone greater, before the One who is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (Jn 14:6) At our ECHO retreats and other events, we place Christ and His desires at center-stage. We desire to imitate Christ, saying, “This is my body, given up for you.” Not “this is my body, and I will do whatever I want with it.” But, this is a hard prayer! None of us make that prayer perfectly! Rather than casting stones, we remember we are all like the woman at the well and forget that Christ offers us the life-giving water we desire! We need to be converted anew, making Christ and His priorities the center of our lives. If we live the truth in love, our example will inspire others who pay attention and invite them to “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” (John 4:29) Rather than deciding for ourselves what is true and how to love, we entrust ourselves to Christ. Rather than identifying ourselves with our attractions, our confusion, or our sins, Christ invites us to identify ourselves with Him and inherit the gift of His faithful love in the Church! |
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We bow in gratitude before our perfect Father as His broken and beloved sons and daughters, unworthy of His love and praising Him for his mercy. Recently, after a Broken & Beloved retreat (our Theology of the Body and healing retreat for women) a participant told me, “It was just so beautiful. I wish so many others could have tasted and seen the fruits of that retreat.” With your support, our ministry trajectory is aiming up, for many more to grow alongside us: - Two weeks ago, we finished our summer ECHO retreats with a bang, touching roughly 250 people with the message of the Theology of the Body!
- Last week, our three interns completed a fantastic summer of learning and service with us— a big thanks to Ayane, Mary-Grace, and Carina!
- Last weekend, we did another TABOR retreat— JP2 style— in the Montana mountains, but this time with women too!
- This week, we will finish our building renovation onsite at the Echo Community property in Folsom!
- In September, we’ll launch New Horizon, our new young adult leadership program!
- In October, we’ll offer our 50th ECHO retreat (this one, for Married Couples) and later that month, a Total Vision Theology of the Body Seminar in Lafayette, LA!
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All of this, alongside our monthly Holy Hours, small groups, prayer meetings, personal retreats onsite, one-on-one mentoring, parish and school talks, and so much more… all for what? To help people grow deeper into truth and love, integrating God’s plan for love and sexuality into their lives! How can you help make a difference? Pray and Give! For 22 years, our ministry has grown and our needs have grown. Whenever I see our needs outpacing our resources, I recall God faithfully gives vision and provision for what He wants, and then I pray! I always say, “We do not want money to be the reason we do not get to serve you.” To keep that promise, we need friends like you to help pay our bills, do excellent ministry, pay our staff, and not turn anyone away due to financial strain. We constantly walk with young people and proclaim Truth and Love in a world that is confused and full of broken and beloved men and women. God is so clear in His word: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find… For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds…” (Mark 7:7-8) It is humbling to ask for help. But, we do need your help, so I am asking! Will you donate today to bring truth and love to those God has entrusted to us? |
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83335 N. Factory Road
Folsom, LA 70437, United States |
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