Chrystal – Part 2

“When I came back from Medjugorje, I started serving as a nurse to help take those with special needs over to Lourdes. I have done four trips with an organization out of Syracuse, New York, and it’s called the North American Lourdes Volunteers. They’re a wonderful organization. 

I was just looking for a way to give back. I felt like we had received so much, as a family, and I was like, 

“What can I do? Who am I? I live in Omaha, Nebraska. What can I do?” 

So I just started googling different things, and I went on the Nurses Association website, because I’m a nurse, and I thought, “Well maybe I can do something with that. That’s something that I know.” 

Their organization popped up, and I contacted them. I said, “This just fits.” I know how to be a nurse, and I know the Blessed Mother is the one that interceded and helped do this. She gave us this for our family. 

I’ve volunteered for four different trips now. They bring people with special needs from the United States on commercial airlines and go on pilgrimage to Lourdes. Because Lourdes is very much set up for all the wheelchairs and has all the medical equipment and everything is handicap accessible. It’s a beautiful pilgrimage, and it gives those people access to experiencing what we experience in Medjugorje, but they have access to a lot of medical care and there are nurses and doctors, and 24 hours a day people taking care of them. 

I love it. It just really puts it all together, my job and what I know how to do, worldly, but the spiritual aspect of it and serving and giving back. 

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Through these pilgrimages, we get to meet all these wonderful people. I think the Blessed Mother puts exactly the right people on your trips.

I met Father Wee on my second pilgrimage to Medjugorje. Father Wee was our spiritual director for the pilgrimage. He was just such a holy, humble soul, and yet he’s fun. He has that joy in him. 

We are really called at a certain time to go over there. We’re just so blessed because we did meet this community of people that are just like we are. We’re just trying to do the next right thing every day in our lives. We met Father Wee, this wonderful shepherd who is just there to help us always do that next right thing. He knows all four of my kids, and he’s a dear friend to my husband and I. Anytime we need to talk through anything, he will sit down with us. He’s sat down and talked with my kids over things they’re struggling with. 

It’s a continuation of what the Blessed Mother is offering through our shepherds, through what the Lord has for all of us. 

God willing, and we’re praying, that hopefully the borders open up and we’re able to go again in November with Father Wee and just see what the Blessed Mother has in store for us. 

iMedj note: Chrystal also told us about the upcoming catholic conference she will be attending in a few days… 

Christ Our Life is this huge conference that they do in Des Moines, Iowa every two years. It is like Catholics on steroids. It is amazing. Everybody comes together and we celebrate our faith and what the church has to offer us. It sparks that community to give us that spark of faith again and that courage to say you’re not alone and we’re in this together and we can go out and live this and bring the light, be the light that God wants us to be every day. 

Every two years they have the most dynamic amazing speakers come. It really is such a huge thing that they do. 

It’s September 26th and 27th. We are all excited and ready to go.”

~ Chrystal from Omaha

To learn more about the conference visit: https://www.christourlifeiowa.com/

For more iMedjugorje stories visit: www.iMedjugorje.com