| Greetings in our Lord Jesus
Christ!
A few years back, I made a mission trip to a town high up in the mountains of Guatemala where the morning air is crisp, the mountains majestically peer out from behind the clouds and where the blue waters of Lake Atitlan all speak of God’s creation. But here, the people - a gentle and kind people - live in poverty. The houses are roughly assembled and provide little cover from the drenching downpours of the rainy season. The floors are mostly of bare earth and all cooking is done on an open indoor fire which accounts for the serious burns children sustain when they fall into it. Early in my tenure as Director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Charleston, SC, I began thinking how the good people of our diocese could serve the poor - both at home and afar - since poverty has no geographical boundaries. I remembered my visit to Guatemala, the poverty of the people there and how limited the medical services available to them was. And so the idea of a medical mission sponsored by Catholic Charities was born. A small group of us went on a fact finding trip in October of 2006 and, upon return, began planning for our first medical mission. The word was sent via parish bulletins and the diocesan newspaper that we were looking for parners in our missionary work and people from all over the diocese - just like yourself - responded: “I’ve always wanted to go on a mission trip.” And now, perhaps, the time has come for you to respond to Christ’s call. “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Mt 25: 34-40
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Yours in Christ,
