MERRILLVILLE – Missionaries are welcome to join the Diocese of Gary on its first international mission trip this autumn with the Office of Missionary Discipleship and Evangelization (MDE).
A group of up to 40 people will travel to Mexico City, Mexico from Sept. 25-30 under the auspices of Hope for the Poor, a Nebraska nonprofit serving in Mexico City “to alleviate the poverty of being unloved.”
Recently, Claudia Sadowski, Ph.D., diocesan coordinator for intercultural ministry with the MDE team, hosted a Zoom meeting for those interested in joining the mission.
“Since 2019, different local parishes have led mission trips, but this is the first diocesan trip,” Sadowski said.
Father Declan McNicholas, diocesan director of Missionary Discipleship and Evangelization, will lead the group, having accompanied a 2024 Hope for the Poor mission trip from St. John the Evangelist in St. John, where he serves as associate pastor.
“I have taken many mission trips, but I haven’t gone into the streets yet,” added Sadowski.
Hope for the Poor hosts numerous mission trips each year. The visitors stay with a group of 12 religious Sisters of Concepiones who house and feed up to 40 at a time, share daily Mass and are transported in two 20-passenger vans to the streets and trash dumps where the poorest of the poor, many of them children, live and interact.
Katherine Carlson Lukas, a Valparaiso University graduate, made her first mission trip in 2019 as a VU student. “We were looking at people living in a trash dump, and we went to a women’s shelter to bring them clean water,” she recalled. “They were so joyful, despite their conditions, that it really impacted us. I was encountering Jesus in everything around me, and it changed my life so much that I became a (FOCUS) missionary for two years after college.” That led to her current position as pastoral associate for discipleship at SJE.
Kelly Venegas, human resources director for the Diocese of Gary, took her first mission trip to Mexico City last year, during what she called “probably the most challenging year of my life. I was very concerned about my safety, and about food safety,” but she found her experience so life changing that she hopes to return this year.
“I don’t speak Spanish, but we communicated so well with the local people and they were so warm and friendly,” Venegas said.
Elizabeth Szell, now assistant to the Hope for the Poor director, Craig Johring, helping to plan mission trips and organize the logistics, changed the entire focus of her life after her first mission trip. “I first visited 11 years ago, while in college, and then became a teacher for seven years before becoming Craig’s assistant,” she said.
The cost for the mission trip is $1,600, which includes all necessary transportation, safe housing and food, and a donation to Hope for the Poor for its ministry. “All donations for the people go through Craig, even food that we distribute, for safety reasons and because he knows the people,” Szell explained.
Sometimes missionaries share the expense of an extra checked bag (approximately $70) filled with donation clothing, blankets and shoes for the Mexican people they will meet.
“We will leave on a United Airlines flight from Chicago on Sept. 25, with one carry-on bag and one person item, and return to the diocese on Sept. 30,” explained Sadowski. “Hope for the Poor will determine our exact itinerary in Mexico to all the most interaction with the greatest number of the poor. Each of you will have the beautiful experience of saying ‘yes’ to discipleship and you do not need to know in advance what to say and do.”
Applications, along with a $150 deposit, are due by April 30, and application forms are available by contacting Sadowski at 769-9292, ext. 88269 or csadowski@dcgary.org.
Caption: Katherine Carlson, a staff member at St. John the Evangelist in St. John on a 2024 mission trip, interacts a young girl who was taken off the streets of Mexico City through the ministry and work of Hope of the Poor. Carlson will return with a group of up to 40 on a Diocese of Gary mission trip in September. (Provided photo)
