Fall Orientation: Fired up for Mission

By Jeanne-Marie M. and Jordan K.

Jeanne-Marie M. – missionary in El Salvador, starting October 2025

I found the orientation to be very interesting in that through the talks I was able to learn more about the virtues that make up Con-solatio as well as learning practical points for my time on mission. The talks have helped me find the profoundness in many of my current experiences in a way I wouldn’t have thought about beforehand. I also really enjoyed talking with the missionaries coming back from their time abroad as it was super helpful to discuss common points across all the missions; such as things they wished they had brought or how their first and last moments were. It was pretty inspiring to have them there and to think that one day I would be in their place, but that somehow I wouldn’t be the same person because I will have lived out a full mission, of which I cannot even begin to imagine the extent of. I really enjoyed all the parts of the orientation and really feel that it prepared me and made me look forward to my mission despite all of my nerves.

Jordan K. – missionary in Romania, starting November 2025

My orientation with Con-solatio got me fired up to go on mission. Of course, I had already committed to leaving for Romania this fall: I had begun my fundraising, been learning Romanian, and had a decent sense of the beauty and purpose of this mission. But the radical and holistic nature of the mission came to be so much more real for me during orientation. Each talk, each cultural experience, each visit drove home to me how we are seeking Christ in every aspect of our lives. 

One detail of orientation grew in significance for me over the course of the week. Soon after we arrived, the dining room walls were decorated with dozens of paper stars and photographs. On one of side of the room, these pictures were of volunteers and their friends from all over the world. On the other side were named portraits of all kinds of people: saints, artists, writers, musicians, leaders, and creators. I recognized half or so of these mostly famous names and faces, but what I came to learn was that these people too fit into Con-solatio’s “constellation of friends,” a phrase they have taken from Hans Urs von Balthasar, a long-time “friend” of the mission. The people I am going to meet in Romania will become part of my constellation of friends just as St. Joan of Arc and Vincent van Gogh are, too.