Two months ago, I arrived at the airport here in Dakar, Senegal. I had previously heard stories of other missionaries being welcomed with big signs or parties and I had honestly hoped that such would not be the case. Thanks be to God, I was met by a tall French guy and a Ukrainian girl...
This past week, four fellow ex-volunteers and I were blessed to attend the SEEK 2025 conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Together, we represented Con-solatio at a booth amidst over 40 other organizations, sharing our mission with more than 20,000 college students. It was an incredible way to share our mission and invite others to...
Home. Just the word conjures up an ache in my heart. I lived in one home my entire childhood and it was a blessed place. I was homesick in varying degrees during my entire mission in Honduras, so I was grieved to find, when I finally returned home, that my homesickness immediately switched to being...
After working for many years in a professional field in NYC, I spent over a year in the Ukraine doing work for a humanitarian NGO. Having returned from a conflicted country, I was feeling out of place and having difficulty adjusting back to our affluent society....
Every Wednesday we take a short bus ride to the hills outside the city, to a town called Mintia, where we visit many Roma families and play with the kids. Many of the families here live in poverty, and the conditions are hard to see and harder to forget. However it’s the beauty of the...
There is such a simplicity in what we do every day. Every visit, event, or meal that we have is simple and sometimes very small, but still done with great effort and intentionality. I remember being struck by this on my first day here. After finishing Adoration, I figured we would immediately go out and...
On Friday, October 25, Gabriel M. (alum who served in Argentina) and Diana C. celebrated their wedding in San Antonio, TX. This joyous occasion was special for many reasons. It allowed us to witness the couple’s heartfelt “yes” to one another, support them on their journey, pray for and with them, and give thanks to...
Before I started my mission, I did not have to interact with kids very much; and I used to say I didn’t really like them. I would often imagine the rowdy kids that are loud, mess up what had been just cleaned, yell, want everything on demand, cry, fight, and so on. This past month, however,...
Many of the children in our colonies are used to getting attention only for negative behaviors. So naturally, many of them act out around us in order to get our attention. As all kids do, each one is walking the line and testing the limits. Parker and his siblings continued to come back every day...
Late this September, I had a full week of testimonials in the beautiful, green state of Michigan. As I prepared the talks and organized when, how, and where I would go, a friend reminded me that while outreach technically means sharing with the hope of inspiring someone to follow God's call on mission, in the...