A Friend of Medjugorje tells that Our Lady is coming because faith is dead. What does it mean to speak of God with your life? Get an inside look at a beautiful way of life..

The subject matter contained in this presentation is based on Biblical principles, and designed to give you accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is provided with the understanding that neither the presenter nor the broadcaster is engaged to render legal, accounting, or other professional advice. Since your situation is fact-dependent, you may wish to additionally seek the services of an appropriately-licensed legal, accounting, real estate, or investment professional.

[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC]

"No one can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you shall eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

"Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap. They gather nothing into barns. Yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you, by worrying, add a single moment to your life span?

"Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field-- which grows today, and is thrown into the oven tomorrow-- will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

"So do not worry and say, "what are we to eat?" Or "what shall we drink?" Or "what are we to wear?" All these things, the pagans seek. Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

"Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil."

[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]

This is Radio WAVE Mejanomics, with your host, a Friend of Medjugorje.

Our Lady said 1991 to look into the Sacred Scriptures, and you'll find out the true reason I'm coming. It's amazing-- that's the 10th anniversary. That was the day that Croatia declared independence from the Communist Yugoslavia. And that was one major change. There were many changes in '88 with Communism.

In '84 it was referred to. Ivan said, that one of Our Lady's plans-- was to remove Communism. Didn't say it in that context, but it's part of Her plan.

But Our Lady's plan, after 35 years, is clarifying more and more and more. And what's amazing about it is it's bigger than we ever thought. I remember years ago, thinking, Medjugorje is always bigger than what you think. No matter what you believe about Medjugorje, no matter how much, or how expert you might think you are, or you are, you don't understand Medjugorje in its completion, or how big that it's going to be-- no more than Peter and the 12 apostles understood what they were in the midst of.

This is the way it works. God's mind, His plans, what He does, is still hidden in our ignorance, it's hidden in our cognition, it's hidden in our biases that we can't accept, the things that we reject.

And so immersing ourselves in the messages-- starting in '83, when I first found out about Medjugorje, and then going there in '86-- I knew nothing then, what I know now, and I know nothing now compared to what I'm going to know 10 years from now.

One thing that just happened, that many people who go over are not even paying attention to it in a strong sort of way, I think, is very profound. It was just done on March 2nd, 2017. "Speak of My Son, and of Me, to all those around you, with your life." We've got a Protestant mentality. You say, is that criticizing Protestants?

Some Protestants criticize the works. Catholics have got to work their way to heaven. Saints worked their way to Heaven. It's all about work.

And they-- including Martin Luther-- said it's by faith alone, are you saved. And we've let this prevail into the Church. Because it's a mentality in the Church, that I go to adoration , I go to daily Mass, I do this, I do that-- where are your works? They think that's sufficient.

No, that's just to keep you and your nose above the water. You're not elevating anywhere, by just doing those things alone. It has to be something associated with your adoration, and your faith. It has to materialize in something. If it's not, you're not growing.

Our Lady's come to correct that. Yes, she says, adore My Son, at the Altar, in adoration . So don't think I'm not saying not to do that. But what most people think-- and many daily communicants I've dealt with, when I was a daily communicant-- thought it was just enough to do that. No. That's the basic line that you have to do. You've got stuff over and above that, beyond that.

And how do you do that? How do you change things? "Speak of my Son, and of me, to all those around you, with your life." It's not your preaching. It's not standing there telling people about the Gospels. It's not telling people about the messages. It's got to be in your life.

So how do you do that? The messages have to manifest into the way you live. And if they don't manifest into the way your life is, then you can speak all you want to about Jesus, all you want to about Our Lady, and you're not going to convert anybody.

Why? Because, She says, "So that the world would be different." We've got 35 years with Our Lady. And the world's different the other way. It's gotten worse and worse.

Our Lady just recently said, that more and more, the people are indifferent.

So here it is. She says, "so that the world would be different." How? By the way you live. It's the way you live, it's not the way you worship. It's not your Sunday clothes you put on. Well, I do this, I do that. It's your whole life.

Your life is the message. Your life is a walking Bible. What you do. How you think. How you do at your work. How you run your corporations and your businesses. This is the life that you will change the world to be different.

How, and what kind of different? She defines what's going to be different. The world that's coming, "That simplicity and purity will return." She wants that to return to life.

Have we got a simplistic society? Is it simple, the way we live every day? Going here, going there, and doing nothing? Busy being busy? Not producing anything but air and electronics in cyberspace. In the end it's nothing. It's not simple. It's very intricate, very complex.

"And that purity would return." Simplicity and purity. Our way of life is built by the messages transformed into life. It's a physical place, here, where it's manifested. The message is that Marija is even very impressed-- that Our Lady is impressed with us.

You think, oh, I can't say that. Our Lady told us in a message, I know that it's hard for you to believe that. I know it's hard that I am calling you to be an apostle. But don't waste time.

Actually, She said February 2nd, 2015-- "prayer, which carries out works and sacrifices. Do not waste time thinking about whether you're worthy to be my apostles. The Heavenly Father will judge everyone. I know that this confuses you, but accept it."

We accepted it. We accept it when She said we're apostles. And it did confuse me, in the beginning. Because the bishops are the apostles. Until Our Lady came, one day, and She said, you know what? You're My apostles.

She ends the message, and She says, the shepherds are those chosen by My Son. There's two different groups going on, right here. And you say, how do you reconcile that? To Louis de Montfort-- how did he reconcile that? Well, he said, "There will come a time when Mary would raise up apostles of the latter days. And they will travel across the earth on silver wings. And they will sleep next to the clerics."

In other words, they'll sit next to the clerics. In other words, the apostles of Her, and the shepherds of His, will be next to each other, and no less equal.

I know. You say, I go to Adoration. And you're saying about that, and now you're saying that, that we're equal level? No. Actually, we're above this right now. Not in the power of the Sacraments, but in the power to change the world. It's in our hands.

And Our Lady says, don't waste time thinking about it, whether you're worthy to be my apostles. Because that's what I had a hard time with. But I'm over that. "The Heavenly Father will judge everyone. I know that this confuses you, but you accept it, that you may comprehend that you are worthy to the work of Heaven."

And so we've got this Protestant mentality-- it's just faith. It's just adoration. It's just Mass. And I give a little bit of money here. And I do good. What do you do the rest of the day?

All the time you watch TV is a total, total waste. She says, don't even waste time about thinking whether you're worthy. I want you to get away from the TV. She renounced the television. She says, renounce-- for you as an individual-- renounce the television. What else do you need hear?

Have you done that? You're still playing with it. You're still using it. You don't know who you are. We know who we are. We're apostles.

The Book of James says, in the second chapter-- while it's quoted by most people, and Protestants-- that "by faith alone, are you saved." Our Lady is correcting something that's invaded even the Church, from Martin Luther's time. Because that's what he's basing it on.

Actually, Martin Luther wanted to erase the book of James. He wanted to take this verse out. Because it contradicted what he was doing. Because the Church did a lot of works back then. And yes, maybe some of it was abusive-- the Purgatory, and indulgences, and whatever it was.

But it always has that. Jesus had abuses in His Church of 12 people. And it wasn't just Judas. It was Peter and all the way through. So don't come with that argument, or that thought.

You say, well, I'm in agreement. Are you really in agreement with everything we do here? The way we live? Our Lady's formed this place into a people that speaks with a life, and simplicity, and purity. And people judge us in the wrong way.

James says, "what does it profit if a man says he has faith, but not works? Can his faith save him? Faith by itself, and the Protestans say "by faith alone." Because the Bible does say that. But we also teach, in the Church, what is faith without works? It shows your faith.

Bible goes on, and says, "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." We have death in the Church. There is no animation in the pulpit's speaking to us to convict us. Very rarely, can you go bright eyed, without getting starry-eyed, listening to the homilies today. Yes, there's some good priests, but we have death even in the Mass now.

"Show me your faith, apart from your works, and I, by my works, will show you my faith. For, as a body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead." Our Lady's coming here because faith is dead.

What does She say in the beginning of days, over and over and over? Faith is beginning to extinguish itself. That was one of Her main messages. The first message She says. Faith is dying. And now, 35 years later, we see it. And so Our Lady's coming, infusing us with messages about works.

She says, June 2, 2015, "I desire to work through you." Remember, Our Lady's handcuffed. She says, I come from the people. She says, I can't do anything without you. You're my extended hands. You're my instruments. She told us that, as a community.

She says, "I desire to work through you. I am praying for you, that through your works, you can convert others." How? By your way of life. Not going and passing out literature. Your way of life brings in the questions, who are you? What are you about? Where are you from? And then you give them the literature. Then you tell them about it. They got to be attracted by something different in you.

She goes on, and says, "because the time has come for acts of truth." Not acts of faith. We go every Sunday and see people doing acts of faith. That doesn't convict me. I can tell you, Sunday, at Mass, not one person in that Church made me want to convert. And not even what I was hearing on the pulpit.

"The time has come for acts of truth." It's your life. That's the plan of Medjugorje. That's the plan of Our Lady, and that's God's plans, and that's Her Son's plans.

"By your works, you will convert others." It's the way you work. What is work? What do you do at work? Are you putting yourself second? Are you helping people? Even if you're having to carry a unjust load, because other people might be slacking? You'll convert people by that way.

Be silent, non-complaining. There are those things you've got to rectify, certainly. But it's by your work. Whatever your career is, how you perform that.

November 2nd, 2015-- "Do works of love, because faith alone, without love, and works of love, is not what I'm asking of you." And She says it-- faith alone, I'm not asking you for that. You're doing your Adorations. You're doing it. I'm asking more than that. That's supposed to be filling up your gas tank. And then you go out there, and start driving, and consume that gas, in your works.

"I'm asking of you--" and I'm speaking of grace. "I'm asking of you, my children, this is an illusion of faith." Let me read that in full context. That's awesome. "Do works of love, because faith alone, without love, and works of love, is not what I'm asking of you, my children. This is an illusion of faith."

We're living in the Church an illusion of faith. We're going to Mass, we're going to Adoration, we're doing it. Even you daily communicants-- what do you do, in proportion to other things, your pleasures, as far as your work? Or transforming your life into work?

"It is a boasting of self." I've had people boast, "I'm a daily communicant." OK. That's nice. I'm not able to go to Mass every day, because we live out. We've got to go through two hours of traffic to get in and out. But I work all day long for Our Lord. I'm grateful to do that.

She continues, " My Son seeks faith, and works." It's both together.

June 2, 2016-- "Many of My children do not see and do not hear, because they do not want to. They do not accept My words, and My works." She's in Heaven, and She's saying, "My." Who is "My?" That's Mary. The Holy Virgin Mary. My words, My works. She's working. She's in servant clothes. She's in a gray mantle, to work on the earth. "Because love invokes love, and makes works more important than words."

February 2nd, 2017-- "Therefore you apostles of my love, pray with the heart, and with your works, show the love of My Son. This is the only hope for you, and this is also the only way to eternal life." the proportion of your pleasures, entertainments, what you do with your life, your relaxations-- in proportion to your work, and working for the Kingdom of God, may not get you there.

February 25th, 1983-- "I wish that each of you decides himself for a change of life, and that each of you works more in the Church. Not through words" --and let me qualify that. That don't mean go be on a committee at the church. The Church is outside of that. It's work in your office. You bring Church there, through a living temple that you're supposed to be.

Not just being nice and kind. A performance. "--more in the Church. Not through words and thoughts, but through example, God will give you what you concretely have to do." She's asking you to do something physical. Concrete-- it's as physical as you can get. It's hard. It's solid. It means something. It's a physical thing. She wants to see life of yours into concrete. "Speak about Me, all those around you, with your life." We live something concrete.

March 18th, 2001-- "Do good works, not permitting them to wait for you too long."

March 18th, 2013-- "Live in faith. Through me, My Son is preparing you for works which He desires to do through you-- works through which He desires to be glorified." And I've got more. I could continue on, but we've got some other things to speak about.

And the reason I'm bringing all this up is because we have people, sometimes, that have a bad judgment of us. And Our Lady just recently said, "do not judge." That was March 2nd. On March 18th, Our Lady says, "never judge."

I want to ask you a question. What does it mean when the Amish say, "many a fine barn built a fine house. No fine house built a fine barn." What does it mean? Think about that.

So if you understand that, then what does it mean, a fine Caterpillar loader builds a fine house-- no fine house built a fine Caterpillar loader? I spent eight years building my house. Living in a trailer. Years before that, we lived in very low-income housing when we got married.

All the while, you know what we were doing? We were building up equipment. When I bought a Caterpillar tractor, our neighbor told my wife to divorce me. That's a quote. I would never let somebody do like that to me. How could you go put that money in that machine, that loader, and not in your house? And you're in a trailer.

Did it make me mad? You bet it did. The man has no right interfering in my marriage like that. But I bought that loader. And in six months, paid it off. And then it made, in the next 12 months, enough money to bring my house almost to completion. And I already had several other pieces of equipment. But combined with that, it made a full circle, as far as what I was doing-- excavation.

Had I not bought that loader, I would have gone three or four or five more years, building my house. Because many a fine barn built a fine house-- no fine house built a fine barn.

Many people today do not understand the economy we're working with, here. It's what I did in business. It's what I'm doing now. It's what I do with Caritas. You're upside down, everybody out there. I reject the economy-- buy it now, and finance. I've always rejected that. I was raised that way. I wasn't just raised there-- God put that in my heart.

Sacrifice is the way to salvation. A simple way gives the purity of salvation. That's what Our Lady said-- simplicity and purity. Our way of life, here, is manifested based foundation completely on the messages. Giving the slant on a Biblical view of life. Helping us understand the Scriptures, and bring it to life.

So we know there is people out there who thinks that this community, now, lives in a substandard way, and that they should be living in a better way. Because we've got so much equipment. And the truth of the matter is, we have a lot of equipment that we've gotten free. Because when we've built something, went into a project, instead of paying the excavator, we buy the machine. So the money we would have paid for the excavation, to the company that was going to do that, and then he walks away with his check-- we took the check, and bought the machine. And that way, we have a machine left over, and the contractor didn't leave. We have the machine then, because we did the work ourself.

We're building a system, here. And it's upside down to most people's systems, and the way they do it. We're upside down to other people, they're upside down to us. Because they're on the wrong way. Our Lady has shown us this way. And it's a beautiful way to live.

And so we do things in our mission that is contrary to what people would agree to do, or accept to do. But we're here, living a life, like there's no other way to live.

February 25th, 1988-- "Sacrifice your life to the salvation of the world." We literally have taken that to heart. We do what we want to do, because Our Lady has asked us to do that. People completely give voice to their walk with God, and it's just words. It's nothing-- when you preach, I can say good things, I can give good homilies-- whatever. But what's in their lives that makes me want to be different for Jesus?

June 18, 2010-- "Dear children, I desire for you to do works, and not words." We have too many words going on. We're fighting out of a jungle that has no trail out. No blueprint. Except that we interpret the message to do what we do.

So we're going to do something different today. A different thing we're going to do-- we're bringing in some of our community members. And I'll let Joan take over at this point.

Here in the studio, we have several community members that are kind of a cross section of our whole community. But we have Will, here, who's been in the community for 21 years, with nine kids. And Johnny, who has been here for 12 years, with four kids. Erin, who started off as a single consecrated, has been here for 20 years, and married in the community, has five children. Zach is a single consecrated male. He has been here 11 years. Jessica is a single consecrated female, living here for seven years. And I am also single consecrated, living here almost 30 years.

I just got inspired. I want to ask Will a question. You've got nine kids?

Yes, I do.

You've got eight girls and one boy?

Yes, I do. The youngest one is--

Hey, this is no trial. This is not a trial.

I know it.

This is a general conversation. How many are still in burlap bags, of clothes?

They're all fine. They all have their--

I don't believe that.

--Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, and they got their regular clothes. They're just doing fine.

That's hard to believe.

Well--

How do you do that?

We pray to God. I mean, we live our life, where we live it, and God supplies. I mean, it's not that difficult to understand.

Well, our way of life-- if you want to just share it with us, what you were doing, you and Patty-- how you lived before, compared to what you do now, have your house, and all that. What are your thoughts on what we do now, and what you did then?

Well, I was a factory worker. I did-- basically, I worked to eat. I worked to live. I worked just to supply money, so I could pay my house rent, etc., etc. Just like the whole world does, nowadays.

But here, I live for God. I work for Our Lady. And I'm not worried about the roof over my head. I'm not worried about the clothes on my back, and my kids' backs. That's all taken care of by my God, because I don't have to worry about any of that. All I need to do is live for God, for Our Lady, and She takes care of me.

I gave my life over to Her when I moved here, and I don't have to worry about anything, when it comes to that kind of stuff. It's-- God is going to take care of me. He's going to take care of my family at home-- not at home, at-- take care of my family away from here.

Why do you think he's going to take care of you?

Because I gave myself to Her, She's going to take care of me. That's just my faith, and I just believe that. And that's what's happening.

It's really hard for people in the world to even understand where we're coming from.

This is Erin.

We hear, so many times-- especially Will and Patty, who have so many kids-- I don't know how you have all those kids. How do you afford them? How could you have all those children? Aren't you thinking about all the weddings, and college tuition, etc.

It's a very big sin in the world today. When we're at the hospital, giving birth, always people ask us, are we done? How many more are we having? How can we afford that? How can we even think about that? That's not a concern that should be from a true Christian. Because of the Bible reading-- we read every Thursday-- that we know God will take care of us.

But in the world, the amount of hours that Will would have to participate in to feed a family of nine people-- eight of whom are young girls, and young women-- would be-- you can't comprehend it. So, to try to state our blessings, that we have here, is very hard, when you're looking through the eyes of the world. Or the lens of the world.

He has beautiful girls. They're all very well-dressed. They're very talented. They could really outshine-- I would put them against any girl in the world, of what their talents are. But mostly because of their heart, and their love for God.

And that's not what people in the world are looking for. They want to know the amount of money they have. They want to know why that pair of socks they had on last week had holes in it. Maybe Patty didn't get their socks matched, because of the laundry of 10 girls.

But when you seek it from the ways of the world, I think Will would understand-- is that, we have a simplicity, just as Friend of Medjugorje just read, in Our Lady's message-- that we are not concerned with those things that families in the world are concerned with.

Even though, thinking or looking in a positive lens, what is your goodwill? You want Will's children to have a spiritual heart, a longing for heaven, a desire to serve Our Lady? Or do you want them to have the latest trend of the world, what every other youth has here? And so we're kind of not-- we don't compare apples to apples, when people try to look at us.

This is Joan. And I'm teaching a class in our school, right now, on Saint Teresa and her family. And we've actually gone weeks into just looking at the home of Saint Teresa, and the parents, and how they raise their girls. And how all of these girls have turned into saints, that the Church recognizes saints.

So after we went through all of their home life, and how the parents viewed life, and how they wanted to raise their children, I took all of those characteristics, of what it took to build a family where saints were the results. And I said, OK, with every one of these characteristics, let's see if we live that, here, in our community, and in your homes.

And at each characteristic, each of the kids in our in a class said, yes, we live that here. Yes, this is what we do in our home. Yes, this is the way of life that is here. There was not one characteristic in that home, in that holy family, of Saint Teresa's family, that is not present here.

And I said, isn't that a beautiful thing? Do you see what Our Lady has given us, here? We have a way of life that can produce saints. In fact, all of you should become saints because of this way of life. Because everything that Our Lady and God gave to Saint Teresa was established here.

Some of you out there know that many of us in the community live in trailers. And in the world's view, trailers can connote something negative. In our world, it doesn't. We live comfortable lives. We have heat. We have hot water. We have air conditioning.

But Joan-- they got to get the firewood. The kids got to go outside and get firewood to heat the house. And crueler than that, they come to school on a cold morning, it's 22 degrees, and they got to crank up a firewood stove to get their heat. And they have all these bad memories of how horrible that is. Because they all get around there with their hands, to get warm. And they're cut up, and laughing, because it's so bad.

You know Our Lady said the word "sacrifice" when she said, "sacrifice your life for the salvation of the world." And for me, I've always thought, well, what does that mean? That sacrifice? I always envision Our Lady holding Jesus at the foot of the cross. That is sacrifice, to Her.

So whatever we're asked to do in our lives, we do it cheerfully and joyfully. And our children are growing up not really feeling that sacrifice, because it's a way of life for us. And there is joy in everything that we're offering. So for the outside world to look at us, and say, oh, poor, poor community-- you just don't even know. Our greatest joy is to walk down to the Field every day, and look at that expanse-- beautiful creation of God, and see the place that Our Lady has appeared over, and over, and over again. Called us Her community.

So, I think that people on the outside just have a whole different view of who we are on the inside. And I would hope to think that if we all had beautiful homes, here, that you would probably be thinking, well, look at that wealthy community over there, living in these beautiful mansions. That's not what we are called for. That's not what we want. We want eternal rewards. That's what we're raising our children to do, and have, and go for. And bring a lot more souls with them than just their own, when they go to Heaven.

We have a closeness in our community, and our family-- my particular family. The kids don't go run to their bedroom, and close the door and watch TV all night, before they go to bed. We come together at a meal. We talk, we pray together.

Sure, the kids also go into their rooms and pray. You know? They have their time-- their own special time with God. But it's not a drudgery. It's a joy. What people think is a sacrifice, it's a real joy for them to go and get the wood, and light the fire, and have fun, and talk, and giggle with each other. And just-- it's a regular, true life that we live. And it's a joy.

I get to be with my family all day long. I don't go away to work for eight or 10 hours, or 12 hours, however long.

And you don't think, when you go home, you have to walk home to a trailer, after being with them all the time?

No.

It's a different thought.

It's a closeness. We have a closeness of family. We can't sit on the other side of the house from each other. We sit together, wherever we are. And we as family-- we're together. That's our life.

Well, let's give a square foot. You got two trailers together, it's 2,400 square feet.

Well, I ain't worried about square feet. I'm worried about losing my daughter on the other side of the room, or other side of the house-- not knowing what she's doing, not-- you know, is she on a computer, somewhere? Now, I don't have to worry about stuff like that. I have a closeness with my family, with my kids, with my wife. I can't get away from them.

I teach school. And the other day, I was teaching confirmation class. And I come to realize, am I teaching these kids how to love God intimately? Or am I just giving them a bunch of figures that they've got to memorize? And I realized that I probably am giving more numbers than teaching them how to actually get a close relationship with God.

So I told them that. I said I was sorry for doing this kind of teaching. Because I want them to have a life of closeness with God, not something distant. Not adoration every day, and just going by the book. We need to-- I want my kids to learn how to love. It's like our school prayer says, that a Friend of Medjugorje wrote-- "it's not from a book, but how to love." That's what we want to teach these kids, here.

Just as Will was saying--

Who are you?

This is Johnny.

Hi, Johnny.

Hello. Not worrying about your kids-- when our kids wake up in the morning, I'm out of the house, going to prayer, before they're out and about. And I don't have to worry about where they're going to be that day, who they're going to be with-- whether it be any of the 20 community members, the adults as well as the children.

Everyone here lives the same way of life. And we all have the same morals. We all have the same views. We're all-- one mind, one heart. And we have no worry with our children.

Actually, a Friend of Medjugorje has spoken about this a lot-- the evening World News, when we come home at night, we hear-- you know, what did our kids do that day? Did Jesse get run over by a cow when he was helping move cows? Did Annaleah fall in the mud when she was playing with pigs?

It's just a beautiful way of life. And it's always a joy, each day, that they do different things with different community members, and you never have to worry about who they're with or what they're doing.

Johnny, is it true-- I heard it through the grapevine that the news-- the World News of the community-- that Jesse was so impoverished that he had to sleep outside the other night?

He did. He was 10 miles from our house-- when he was literally no more than 200 feet from our house-- but he was up in the woods, camping with Bishop. And they had a camp fire, and they cooked their own meal. And in the morning, we could hear them playing. They were just right behind the house, in the woods.

Six-year-old boys.

Two six- and seven-year-old boys.

This is Zachary. I'm from an area of the Midwest that's a lot of small farm families. Small acreage, but large families. And since we're on the subject of Will's family, and whether the kids are taken care of, and everything-- and whether our life is one of impoverishment here-- the way I grew up was way below this, in standards of living, as far as people would be concerned.

But it was like this, in that it was a community way of life-- without the community. We didn't have the community around to support us. So we were together as a family. We didn't have nice clothes. Many times, we didn't have anything but a pair of rubber boots. We didn't even have a pair of shoes, except for maybe a hand-me-down pair to go to mass with. If we didn't grow it, we didn't eat it.

And all of us grew up loving our life. I would never want to be anywhere else. I've never looked at anybody that grew up with money, and said, I wish I could have been that way. But when I graduated from high school, I went straight into working construction, and started earning a pretty decent paycheck. And within about a year of that time, I started hating every other Friday when I receive that paycheck.

Now, that may sound strange, but I had spent my whole life living a way that everything we did contributed to our life completely-- what we ate, and everything. And all of a sudden, somebody was just handing me a piece of paper that said, here's what your past two weeks was worth. And it really bothered me.

And it was about a year into that that I went to Medjugorje with Caritas. And during that trip in Medjugorje, a Friend of Medjugorje gave a speech to the group, or talked to the group, and he mentioned that. And I've never heard him say that again since then. But he said, do you really want to spend your life receiving a piece of paper that says, here's what you're worth?

And it struck me very hard, because I had been having that exact thought, in the exact words that he used. And that's how I received my call to join this community. But in this community, I've received the freedom of not having to have that money, that check that says, here's what you're worth. But I can live every day, offering it completely to God. I can live it in joy, not worrying about how I'm going to cover all of the expenses, or take care of a family like my parents had to do, with 12 children who they could barely-- I mean, I never had a new pair of jeans until I moved to this community.

So I'm not really too worried about whether the children are being taken care of here. Because there's many people that live way less than anything we would ever live here.

And then, as far as a trailer goes, It's not a house that matters. It's a home. Several of the community youth and I hiked up to a fireplace, that's the only thing left of an old homestead in the mountain, last Sunday. And we were sitting around it, just talking about the way the life must have been for that family.

And we stepped off the pad-- you can see the pad of where the house was-- and it was probably a shy 30 by 20. And they raised a family in that. And it's on the top of the mountain we were talking about. Probably the closest neighbors were a mile walk away. Because that's the closest wells, or anything else like that, that we found and know of.

But these people probably had a very special way of life, a united-ness. And they probably gathered around that fire place, and had a home. It didn't matter what the house was-- they had a home.

And I think people looking out from the world, just wanting us to have this physical shelter around us-- with good intentions-- and thinking that they don't want us in a trailer-- you know, now I have a house. I married, and I do have a house, not a trailer. But before that, I lived in several trailers. I burnt down the house that the girls lived in. We lived on the floor.

Yeah, you sure did. Now tell-- now, you burnt down the house. It's true--

Yes. I burnt the house down. In Florida, in the first cold weather I had, made the largest fire I could possibly think of. And very prideful of it--

And where did the consecrated single girls have to live, at that point?

So, actually, you took us in for the first couple of weeks. And provided all of our needs with love, and not even a thought of putting your own self out of your bathroom, and--

Well, I wasn't asking for that.

I know. And then after that, we lived on the floor, in the third-floor hallway, on sleeping bags. We did not have a bed. We didn't even have a-- the sleeping bags were actually from Wal-Mart, and probably the thinnest, cheapest you could get. And we slept on the hallway floor for many, many, many months-- maybe into a year. We didn't have another option for living. So we went into the auditorium, and slept in beds that we brought up, air mattresses. And sometimes, we made-- we had so much fun out of it, that we even stood up on our bed, sometimes, and sang, "it's the hard-knock life for us."

But it was a joy. We made joy out of that situation. And we went from there, and showering at other people's houses, and many, many years like that, back into a trailer. And then, where I'm married now, and have a house.

But what I hear so often-- and you don't really hear any of the community ever complaining about the trailer. It comes from the outside world, who looks down upon it. And it puts that thought within the community. And if any of us have ever failed in our witness about that, it's simply because somebody who-- thinking with good intention, but really not good will-- wants a physical structure for us, and not concerned with our spiritual insides.

But I say-- just one point, is that if a Friend of Medjugorje lived in a trailer, would you have a problem with that? Those people who question. If his home was still a trailer, would you have a problem with all of us being in trailers, or sleeping on the floor for years? You have a problem for no reason. He was there first, in a trailer before we were.

But his home hosted the Mother of God. Should he throw it away? Should he abandon it? Should he give it to me, or Will, because he has more children? Think. Reason. That house is as much mine as it is my grandchildren. It's as much Will's children as it will be his grandchildren. That house belongs to all of us. A Friend of Medjugorje has sacrificed to the utmost for that.

And put yourself in his shoes. Those of you who think that we shouldn't be in trailers-- would you allow what he does in his house? Would you allow thousands of people to come into your bedroom? Would you, as a wife-- would you really, could you put yourself into Friend of Medjugorje's wife's shoes, of having a finally-finished house after all these years, and watching all this sacrifice that they made together, and finally, with the final completion on the floor, the mother of God comes, and thousands of people tramped through it. And still do, every single year.

Can you imagine not having any privacy? Can you imagine people just showing up on your doorstep one day, thinking that that bedroom's open all the time? Can you imagine every single holiday, and every single breath of your life, that the community's needs come first? That the community is looked at, even before your own needs?

You don't reason if you think this way. And so it's why that we don't see the same way the people of the world look at us and say, you're in a trailer, and a Friend of Medjugorje and his wife are in a house. Could you do what his wife does? He gives 99% of his every breath to Our Lady, and she gets what's left over.

She doesn't get to change, and decorate her house. She doesn't get to change the furnishings in there. She doesn't get to rearrange, like you would your own personal house. That house belongs to the Mother of God. She knows it. He knows it. And it's a sacrifice that I very strongly doubt, if someone knocked on your door and asked you the same.

Would you rather have a Friend of Medjugorje's house, and his sacrifice? Would rather have that, or would you rather live in a trailer? There's not a lot of reasoning behind that, as why you don't hear the complaint from the community about living in a trailer. And as a matter of fact, I don't live in a trailer, right now.

And my children often-- many, many times-- speak about life in the trailer. They speak about when Will's children sing, how it fills the whole, entire house up, and they sound like a beautiful choir. And when we sing, you can't even hear our voices.

There's not a negative longing like that in our children, that people from the world see, and want to get rid of for us. Maybe with good intentions, but really, is your will-- do you have a good will, in wanting to see us out of these trailers? Or do you see our lives, and understand that the beauty, the sacrifice, the witness, the way these kids are molded-- a lot of it has to do with being raised in a little trailer.

This is Jessica. I've been here seven years, now. But before I became a missionary, part of the community here-- when I graduated from high school, and gone into college, and even throughout college, one of my biggest fears and concerns was, how was I going to support myself? How was I going to provide for my health insurance? How was I going to provide for paying for my car? All of that.