Jackie Nenninger with two 7th grade students from Woodlands Academy.

By Jackie Nenninger

It was February of last year when I decided to become a coworker, but I wasn’t so sure if that was going to be the “best decision.”  I was wondering if my decision to give a year to Christ was really going to do something productive for the world.
 
So I decided to face up to Christ. I entered the chapel one day and said: “You know what God?  You know me; I really like to help others and bring them closer to you, but would I really do that if I was to give a year as a coworker?”

He just turned his eyes to me and said “Do you trust in me? There´s nothing you need to know… I just need your yes TODAY. Don’t worry for a tomorrow that you don’t even know will come. Say yes today and I will be letting you know what I want one day at a time.”

How could I possibly say no?  And now looking back, I can say my experience as a coworker at Woodlands Academy was definitely the best choice I could have made.

Being a coworker is not just doing a lot of things for souls. No, it goes much further. It is an attitude of life.  Deep inside, it is being who he wants me to be, which is the best I can be. Whatever the place--Ireland, the Philippines, Africa or Mexico—being a coworker is just an excuse of God to be with him, to encounter him and know him, and to follow him. 

	"Being a coworker is an attitude of life."

In conclusion, I can say that God has given me much more than I ever imagined I would receive during my year in Ireland working as a Dean in Woodlands Academy.  In going to give I have received the hundredfold that Christ promises in the Gospels. To prepare teens to be ready to share and defend their faith with Christ as the center and meaning of their lives - this has been my experience that is more of a reward from God than a gift to him. 

How can I but thank him for all the graces he has given me! I even had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land and walk where Jesus did.

I want to continue in this path as I now finish my year and return home. This path is not so easy, but it brings true happiness.  Now, at the end of this year, I realize I have one desire in my life: to arrive to Heaven and bring many souls with me.

This year has only been a beginning of real life - the life that everyone wants to have, but so often they look for it in all the wrong places. It is better to give than to receive, for it is only in giving that we receive life filled with real happiness here and in the life to come!