I pray God is with you during this Christmas season. Although, it is just the start of the new year, I am preparing now for an extended mission trip with the Missioners of Christ in Comayagua, Honduras. The last three summers I have served on shorter mission trips with the Missioners and through prayerful discernment, God has presented me with this opportunity. The challenge is raising the needed funds while continuing my college studies at Christendom College. An extended mission experience will allow me more time to live among the Hondurans, spreading the Gospel. I will spend more time with the poor, both monetarily and spiritually, listening and praying with and for them. There will be opportunities to travel and stay in isolated, mountain villages where the Mass is not readily available and the Hondurans are thirsty for the message of Christ. I will also work with the Franciscan Friars or the Renewal and the Missionaries of Charity, visiting orphanages and serving the most marginalized and vulnerable. Lastly, I will be involved in planning and holding retreats and catechesis. On the surface, it sounds like my work with the Hondurans is the emphasis of this mission trip but the reality is that God uses these humble people to …show more content…
In order to serve there, I need to raise $3000 to cover housing, food, transportation, insurance, and two weeks of language school and preparation classes. The mission group is a non-profit and therefore every penny I raise does go towards the work of the mission, which provides programs for catechesis and sponsors some of the Hondurans to go to college there. Since I am in my freshman year in college at Christendom, I am limited in time available to raise the money I need through physical labor as I have done in the past. I am truly relying on donations and prayers from people like you. Any amount will help me reach my goal so please prayerfully consider
It was back in the summer of 2004 when all was calm. The trees filled w/ dry green leaves, the grass barely green as patches of yellowness overcame its dried burned look, dandelions arose in monstrous amounts as the white cotton-like blooms of a dandelion flutter in the midst of an arid breeze, and visions of heat waves could clearly be noticed along a paved street on a clear afternoon. Yep, this truly was mid summer. But I do prefer summer over winter any day of the year. Around the hottest time of the year, a.k.a. middle of July, my church travels on a mission trip over to the Appalachia Mountains to help people in poverty rebuild their homes. I, among 14 other youths and leaders enjoy this yearly mission trip. Only to leave one week after my birthday the ASP (Appalachia Service Project) crew fled the town of Glen Ellyn and headed east towards the mountainous Appalachia Mountains. The mission had not only been to help people in distress but to also give an insight on personal faith, life, love, friendship, and a better understanding on why we are really here and why we have chosen to come here, as certain personality traits that we possess are revealed throughout the trip. I do remember last year's trip very clearly, and we've had just a few major dilemmas, but this year just clearly out does last year in every way, shape and form.
Where is A Mission? The thought had always lingered inside of my head, aimlessly suspended like a climber stuck in an awkward position. Debating whether to reach for the next gap or to give out and abandon the idea. I had always dreamed of going on a mission trip, unfortunately my actions didn’t concede to the idea as easily as I imagined. Each time I was given the opportunity to go, I would push it back further and further by using a different excuse to cover my hesitation.
Mother Teresa said “let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” Many times in life the only way we can extend love to others is through a smile and an embrace. A great example of those times is on a mission trip to a place that speaks a different language. I have experienced just how true this is firsthand. This trip truly changed my life, completely affecting my outlook on my daily life as well as the “big picture” plan for my life. I now appreciate things I once took for granted, luxuries that we have come to expect in our sheltered lives that we live here in America. In my life, I have never experienced extreme poverty for myself, but this trip gave me just a glimpse into what life is like for those who are not so pampered as our country.
I spent every spring and summer in middle school doing mission work and community service. I loved the opportunity that it gave me to build relationships and share my beliefs with people I didn’t know. Little did I know that this would pave the way for a life-changing experience that I would encounter one day. Each spring my church would host a missionary event called “The Ignite Project.” I felt an urge to join the group, recognizing that it was a calling to profess my faith in Jesus. These mission trips helped me to go out
If someone was to ask me two years ago what I wanted to be I would have greeted them with silence. Before I was a very anti-social person and I didn’t really like speaking much in front of a public, audience, or even my small group of friends. I was the type of girl who preferred staying home in the weekends and watch Netflix instead of going out. But everything changed when I went on a missionary trip with my church to Mexicali. The church I attend has a group of volunteers who go every 2-3 months on the weekends to Mexicali. In these trips we distribute clothes, food, essentials, toys, and candies for all the kids and people in Mexico that live in poverty. Many people who live there live in harsh conditions and are struggling to provide a home for their families. My first trip was a life changing experience because it changed the person who I was. I became an active and outgoing person. I became to appreciate and value the possessions I have at home. Every time I see the kids at Mexicali content when they receive a pair of shoes or a piece sandwich it makes me pleased of myself because I’m able to help them with what I can. Throughout these series of trips I discover my passion and how I have a soft spot for kids. Since Mexicali and where I live have a very large driving distance and I can’t go every day I also volunteer to help kids and adults around my community also. I have help
Throughout the world, missions are taking place, changing lives forever and for the better. As people serve in various places of the world, they can learn a lot, not only about themselves but also about how one person can truly make a difference in another person’s life. There are many groups and organizations out there that travel together and share their stories with the world. All God’s Children is a group that travels to various third-world countries to help children in orphanages. They stay with the children in, generally, worn-down buildings or huts, with no indoor pluming or running water. Sharing how their experiences have impacted their lives, express the hardships of the children and suffering they go through, and sharing the Word of the gospel are only a few of the things most organizations do among many others such as branching out into local communities.
On the summer of 2017 I would like to be part of a missionary team of nurses and doctors from my church, who travels to various countries in South America helping those in need of medical attention. By going to this trip I want to be exposed to the needs these people have, and perhaps recruit other nurses to accompany me in future trips.
As Catholics, we profess a universal church; encountering Christ brings with it the responsibility of reaching out to those on the peripheries. This service and need to bring with us the joy of the Gospel to all starts with those around us who are overlooked and reaches to the furthest ends of the globe. As missionary disciples, we must make the Universal Church a presence at the peripheries; for example, we help persecuted Christians in Egypt, homeless and displaced civilians in Ukraine, child refugees from North Korea, typhoon survivors in the Philippines, flood victims in Mexico and people with physical disabilities in Vietnam, Cuba, and Haiti.
Last summer, I was given the amazing opportunity to go on my first mission trip. My church, Berlin Baptist is a very small church, with a congregation of thirty people and only around seven youth, including myself. Despite our small numbers, we wanted to do something of significance. Our youth minister Micah wanted us to go on a mission trip, but because we were such a tiny group we would have to accompany another church in order to go. In a stroke of luck, Spring Arbor from Fairview invited us to help minister to a few apartment complexes filled with Nepalese refugees in Fort Worth, Texas.
This lived experience over there has been very intense, very full of God and a true experience of the Church. what happened to the first off the plane was a peculiar smell, “did I forget to put on deodorant?" I wondered to myself, but only a few minutes were enough to realize that they were the people who smelled so. when I left the airport the mission began. I have had other experiences short of Mission when I was in Mexico, but nothing compare whit Sierra Leone; before to go to Africa, I have felt very close the suffering of the needy, the poor and those who suffer and trough this experience I felt the presence of God, but non at the beginning. I could see the love, joy and sacrifice that lay missionaries and religious communities and their efforts to bring Christ to every corner of the earth. In each of these experiences, the Lord gives light to understand and to love in a different way, God is always ahead. An example of the missionary work and the example to love other was with Henry an 8 year old kid who was attacked by a strange virus, which was eating his bones; Support Missionary Sisters of the Poor Clares was enormous, they took Henry to Spain to heal him and within six months he was back in Sierra Leone, after that through surgery the virus was removed from Henry´s body. Even with difficulty walking, I still remember his smile and his perfect Spanish. "I
“Closing the Gap” “Closing the Gap” is the journey being taken between the Australian government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to work together to empower these minority groups to live healthy and prosperous lives. The Closing the Gap plan was established in 2008 to address Indigenous disadvantage. Now, ten years later, the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have improved but more achievements need to be made. Prime Minister Turnbull presented the 10th annual report of the “Closing the Gap” program on the 12th of February 2018. Over this past year.
I did not want to leave. I had been here for ten days and I had established relationships and friendships with people from everywhere and all sorts of backgrounds. We all sat in the car preparing to leave. Every single one of us, my parents, brother and me, sitting in silence. Wanting to cry, waiting for someone to say the first word. Each of us had learned something that trip. For me, this experience had taught me what gratefulness was, the impact a good attitude has, what a servant looks like, and really how the relationships we make with our life is the most important aspect about life.
Ever since I was a little boy, I have always wanted to serve a mission for my church. Every day I would think about that future date when I would receive my call and go serve the lord for two years. About two months ago, the day that I was waiting for had arrived. As much as I had been looking forward to that day, I was so nervous to open my call and find out exactly where I was going. I was filled with joy when I found that I would be serving in the Spain Madrid mission!
Last Sunday (November 13th), I helped make food for the homeless and afterward went there to give them the food in a cafeteria. At first, I didn't want to go because I didn’t know how the homeless people were like, if they were on the streets or living in poor houses. Even though I thought I wouldn't l like it, I went to support my team, Jerusalem. My mother and I went to the JCC (Jewish Community Center) by car. It was where the food was going to be made.
It is highly recommended that company officials visit the countries to examine the markets where they are considering selling their products before any transaction occurs