Fireworks, Graves, and Frisbee: Our 4th of July Celebration!

Union Cemetery!

The 4^th of July was fully awesome over here in Steubenville. We started off our day with Mass and prayer, which included a trip to Union Cemetery. If you find yourself in Steubie at any point, make it to that cemetery. It’s so gorgeous!!!! I had heard about it from a household sister (who went there on her first date with her now-husband), but had never made it there for whatever reason. We came across the grave of a soldier from the Revolutionary War (and it was the 4^th of July—I think that’s totally awesome!!!), and two young deer. Then, we came across a little hill/descent with a path that led away from the graves. Following this path, we looked up to meet the gaze of Mama Deer. She just sat there, several feet away, looking at us. Then she left. And we continued to explore. Aside from the plethora of bugs, the little forest-y area was quite lovely. I told Jacob we could live there, if we had a pet bat to eat the mosquitoes.

Seriously, who wouldn't want to build a cabin/put up
a tent and live here? 

After our jaunt to the cemetery, we went up to campus, and ran into a former classmate, who is now a religious sister in New Mexico! It’s insanely cool that she lives near-ish my Godfather (a Catholic priest), and has seen him a couple times in the last 6 months, so she could give me updates on his life (I haven’t seen him in several years). God is so good!

We played at the park in the afternoon, and Jacob was the hero and saved some other women and I from a tent that went flying in the wind straight towards us! In the evening, we went back to the park for the fireworks. Ah…I love fireworks! They put on a really great fireworks display, with an awesome pre-finale and finale! We ran into some friends from FUS, which was cool, and we finished off the night with Wreck It Ralph. Can I just say it was an epic 4^th of July?

Amid all of the many awesome things about our Fourth of July celebrations this year, I have to say one of the coolest aspects was my ever-growing appreciation of how God uses the Frisbee. Yup, this comes from the girl who has tried to stay away from Frisbees for much of my life (before I met Jacob, who has been teaching me how to throw a Frisbee—and I actually enjoy it now!). After all,

1.  I am not—nor do I pretend to be—athletic.

2    2. Watching a piece of plastic spin through the air at top speeds straight towards my hand is not my first idea of “relaxing, fun activity.”

  3      3. I have a terrible sense of aim, direction, and can’t approximate the distance between myself and the Frisbee to save my life

But have you ever thought about how God uses the Frisbee for evangelization? To bring about communion between people? As Jacob and I were throwing it around in the park before the fireworks, I was struck with the beauty of the situation. See, as the two of us were playing with the Frisbee, a nine-year-old-ish boy came up and joined us. Then, a little girl came along. A little boy—probably about two years old!—even came up and started playing with us. As did a group of young teenage guys. Yes, we all live in a town that is infamous for rape, prostitution, drugs, and gangs. Who knows what kinds of circumstances these kids live with? God brought a group of us together with a circular piece of plastic! We didn't have to sit down and have deep conversations with the kids; God gave us a chance to be a shining light of joy in their lives as we all played together. He gave us a chance to love these kids using a Frisbee!

It makes a lot of sense, really. Frisbees aren’t made for solitary enjoyment; you need other people to really enjoy a Frisbee for what it’s meant to be. Frisbees are like a magnet— how many of you have seen a group of individuals playing Frisbee, and you immediately have the burning desire to join them?

Throwing a Frisbee in the park=great evangelization opportunity.

Also, for anyone who passes through Steubie and likes Frisbees/throwing discs, Jacob and I also visited a local “Disc Golf” park—Beatty park—which was awesome. Just wear shoes, because it’s basically a forest with hiking trails and a couple disc golf holes thrown in the mix.

Have an epic day!