The Power of a Witness

The Power of a Witness is one of our best blog posts. It is my hope to keep these coming and post more often as I get them. Read below from our recent January 2024 trip to Playa de Oro, Gt.

I have spent the last 5 days trying to think of the words to sum up the week I spent with my family, friends, new friends, and more importantly, our Guatemalan friends. It was soul-renewing, humbling, and inspiring. I worried that it could never be as good as the first time I went 4 years ago. I was wrong and I trust it will only get better every time as I see the progress that the ‘Love is the Mission’ people are making.

Playa de Oro now has clean water available, monthly food supplies to over 100 families, children getting additional education beyond what their families and village can provide and most importantly, hope. The work this mission does is not just feel good work to come home and talk about to make ourselves feel better. Love is the Mission is in this village for the long haul to change the future of these children and it’s working, and it’s amazing.

I am blessed to have been invited to be a part of this and I remain in awe of the generosity, devotion and persistence that my sister-in-law, Rhonda Aikins Kelsey and niece, Taylor Klubben have for this beautiful mission that they along with the Parish of St Michael

have created. Thank you for allowing my friends and I to be a part of it. We can’t wait to go back! Love is the Mission~el amor es la mision.

Kala Shepherd , CNP Sanford, Chamberlain, SD

(Jan 2020 and returning January 2024)

What a blessing and an honor it was to serve on the January 2024 Love is the Mission tour! I went into the trip with the thought of being of service in a nursing role to support the clinic operation, knowing there was more to the trip than medical care. However, I could not have been prepared to witness the incredible things happening in Playa de Oro, directly resulting from the work of Love is the Mission, and the St. Michael’s parish. 

It is evident that the success of the mission is obtained through the constant support provided by the mission and faith of the village that the help will return. Personally seeing the living conditions and the food insecurities made the monthly food distribution day such an emotional experience. Even the kids helped with the unloading of the trucks. Seeing the stacks of food and supplies allotted for the month was truly humbling. Your donations to this program are life changing for these families! And they are so grateful!

I am so excited to begin to participate in the student scholarship program as well! While some of the children go to work after they complete the “elementary school” program, several of the kids are so excited to be able to continue their education. What an amazing opportunity to support the dreams and ambitions of these students!

Heavy on my heart is the prayer for the future of the mission. The dreams that Love is the Mission has for these children is incredibly inspiring. Plans for an after school/health center is so exciting! Our clinic served over 140 individuals for a variety of concerns, including general well checks for children. The clean water project has played such an important part in the overall health of the children and community, and that was apparent during the assessment of the children. 

I pray that I return to Guatemala soon with Love is the Mission. I am truly honored to have been a part of a group doing the work of God. 

Megan Permann, Sanford Nurse, Chamberlain, SD

We go to BE SENT!

In our consumerist culture of today it can be assumed that we go to Mass to be a

receiver. And while this is true, we do and should go to receive Jesus in the

Eucharist, our mindset needs to be changed a bit. We go to receive Jesus and then

BE SENT!

The word Eucharist is derived from the Greek word eucharistia, meaning

thanksgiving. So what if we, for this one hour a week, or a bit more if you go to

daily Mass, changed our mindset to be the giver instead?

What if we spend this time at Mass in Thanksgiving? In thankfulness of all the gifts

God has given us, but most importantly, in thankfulness for the gift of His son.

Thankful for the gift of the Eucharist, the gift of His body and His blood poured out

for us and our salvation. Thankfulness and gratitude is what changes us from the

inside out.

But what good is this change, if we do not do anything with it? The term mass

is derived from the dismissal of the congregation: Ite, missa est (“Go, it is the

sending [dismissal]”). It is in thankfulness and reception of the Eucharist that then

from Mass we are being sent. The “Go” at the close of the Mass is the same in

meaning as the “Go” at the close of Christ’s earthly ministry. “Go; it is the dismissal.”

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I

have commanded you.”

Our Bishop, Donald DeGrood has stressed that we are all to be Missionary Disciples

through God’s love. All of us are to be sent near, in our homes, our neighborhoods,

our cities and to make disciples. Each month St Michael Parish volunteers go out

and serve in missionary discipleship in our city at the BDHH, Banquet and MoW.

Some are called to take that further and go to other cities, other nations. Each June

we take a youth mission trip here somewhere in the US and each January and July St

Michael Parish takes people on a Love is the Mission trip to the village of Playa de

Oro, Guatemala. Are you being sent?

It has been awhile

Not since we have been to Playa de Oro, but a while since we have written about being in Playa de Oro! That is certainly not because it has been uneventful. Quite the opposite actually! We have purchased land! It is right next to the school and our water treatment plant!

The San Miguel Learning Center and community garden is the dream for the land. We will start small and continue as the Lord provides!