Homeland Mission 2011 - A Look Back

It's hard to believe that Homeland Mission was three weeks ago.  It seems like just last week that we were all together, waking up early, praying together, working, going to Mass, and growing in faith and friendship.

I received a number of thank-you's from the worksites, and I'm going to share a few of them with you.

"Please know that we are very appreciative of the students who came to St. Mary's Child Center this week.  They were extremely helpful with our young 3-5 year old children and even helped us by going on the field trip to the splash park and cleaning around our building. 

We are very grateful that you recognize our site as one which fits your criteria for serving those less fortunate and we know that your students were able to see Christ in each child's face and spirit."

-St. Mary's Child Center

"I want to thank you for another opportunity to serve our refugee population. We all had work accomplished, had great time and fun doing it too."

-Refugee Resettlement

"Thank you for including 'A Caring Place' as a host site for your Archdiocesan Homeland Mission Project.  We enjoyed having the students participate with our clients.  They were able to enjoy some different activities with the students that we normally cannot do because of the number of staff and volunteers needed.  Some of the comments from our clients [were]: 'What a great bunch of kids,' 'It is wonderful that they are here,' and 'A well mannered group, I enjoyed talking to them.'  I hope the students benefitted as much as our clients and staff did."

-A Caring Place

These are just a few of the letters, e-mails, and phone calls I received from the work sites about how great it was to have all of you there.  So much great work was done over that week, and it can be hard to realize the true impact that all of you made.  Between our youth participants and young adult and adult team, over 1500 hours of volunteer work was done during those 5 days!  Not only did you do the work, but you were also a witness of Christ's love to every person you helped.

As I watched every evening at Mass and prayer, it was clear to me that, though everybody was tired from a long day of volunteer work, you were making the connection between the sacraments, our faith, and the good work you were doing.  It truly was an inspiring week and one that I was glad to be a part of.

I pray that it was a great experience for you as well, and that it inspires you to continue to be Christ's hands and feet by bringing His message of comfort and aid to a world that is so desperately in need of it.

If you want to check out some pictures from the week, visit our Facebook page by clicking the link at the top of this blog, by searching for "Arch Indy Youth Ministry" on Facebook, or by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/43zomms.

Thanks again to everybody who was a part of the week and who prayed for its success!

Peace in Christ,

Kris

Learning to serve through hard work

Humility is an admirable quality that most of us don’t seem to have. We definitely learned it today when we helped at Gleaner’s Food Pantry. All of our group’s patience was tested. We participated in activities such as packing and the production of food, stocking shelves, distributing food, and just tearing apart boxes all day. Emily W, Catie, Danielle, Nick, and of course Ricky helped stock the food pantry and helped customers pick up food. The customers that came through even got to the emotions of the best of us (NICK). Joanna, Claire, and Rebecca took a trip to the cooler and put together orders for customers and spilled noodles all over themselves (Joanna.) At production Emily H, Jacob (whose birthday was today, haha), Emily P, and Emily W (for a short while) sorted coffee for hours. (Yeah, it’s safe to say none of them will be enjoying coffee for a while.) Isaac had the lovely task of cutting up boxes all day. God love him, he literally cut boxes for 5 hours straight (minus a 15 minute lunch break.) All in all, we had a good experience and we can all agree…we need to get some sleep.

Catholics In Action at Homeland Mission

Through the first two days of our retreat, we’ve learned that Jesus takes on appearances that we don’t expect. At times we will be called to do things that we do not want to do, but we learned to do them anyway because it is the right thing to do.

At

A Caring Place

there was a man that called me and a few others his new friends. This made us feel as though we did what we were called to do and that we did make a difference in his life. He made a difference in mine.

-Abbie Sommer

Hi mom and dad!! Today we went to

A Caring Place

and helped older people. Yesterday we helped out at Sister’s of Charity, which helps younger children to stay out of trouble and learn about God. Tomorrow we are going to a

Miracle Place

. On Thursday, we are going to Refugee Relocation. On Friday, we are going to Gleaners. I can’t wait to experience all the other different things ahead of me. I am having so much fun and I actually took the initiative to talk to some people I don’t know. I also made new friends!! :) I love you guys and can’t wait to see you! Tell Vito I said that I love him and miss him too!!! <3 <3 Love You!!!

-Rebekah Rivelli

Embarking on mission trips has become the new hobby of teens and adults in different parishes around the country. Thousands set out every year to various places around the world in order the help those in need. All of us here at Homeland Mission had this intention of help, we just didn’t think that it would be in our hometown of Indianapolis. Every day, we help in whatever way we can at various charities and organizations. On Monday, we visited the Sisters of Charity, an order started by Mother Teresa, and helped children who needed a place to stay for the day. On Tuesday, we visited

A Caring Place

, where we chilled with older folk who just needed a friend to talk to. With two days under our belts, we now know the power of helpfulness and plan to use it throughout the next 3 days. This mission trip was a great experience for me and I encourage others to participate in it as well.

– Collin Kloc   

Day two of the Homeland Mission Trip brought Van 5, the C.I.A. (Catholics In Action) to the doorstep of

A Caring Place

, an adult daycare in Indianapolis.  Caring Place provides a place where elderly people can go during the day to be with others.  This was a trip to the other end of the age spectrum for us, as we had been to the Missionaries of Charity day camp for children on Monday.  Though many residents of

A Caring Place

were not as physically active as they used to be, several still possessed a zest for life and a warmth that filled the room.  Most of my time was occupied playing Scrabble with a gentleman there..  Despite an occasional forgetting of the rules, he was a challenging opponent (in the first game, he played “etats”, the French word for “states”!)  Our new friend displayed not only a greatly varied vocabulary, but also a wealth of wisdom.  His past memories of reading “Les Miserables” in school and researching his family on Ancestry.com revealed an excellent memory for someone so advanced in age, and his Bible trivia skills were unrivalled (we took a break from Scrabbling to listen in on their Bible study).  Visiting

A Caring Place

was an excellent experience for me, and not just because we got to play Scrabble.  I had a great time meeting the elderly residents and spending time with our other van members.  To Mom and Dad and Sydney, I love you and I anxiously await coming home.  Please say a few prayers for me!

- Josh Orndorff (Van 5)

I saw God today in the smiles and laughter of the peoples at

A Caring Place

as well as the amazing kindness shown by my group the C.I.A.. I also found that bingo is often a rigged game. Carl didn’t win twice because of O 72 but he was enjoying himself and that is what really made me smile. Van 5 is without a doubt the best van and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

-Andrew Brinkman

Day 2 with group J.P. II

Van #4, also known as the J.P. II with the inspiration of Pope John Paul II in mind, traveled to St. Mary’s Childhood Center.  We began our day with a groggy, half-interested, getting-to-know-you info share on the ride over.  Immediately, we were briefed on St. Mary’s history (Happy 50^th Birthday, St. Mary’s Childhood Center!), and were split up into different rooms.  For some of us, engaging these at-risk children was a little outside of our comfort zones, but we caught on pretty quickly.  There was reading, painting, building, and experimenting in every room.  When the rain let up, there was even a bit of swinging, tag, and gardening.  We were even able to go on a nice picnic by the canal.

            On the trip back to St. Bernadette, we gave reflection and discussion a shot.  Almost unanimously, we decided that the most inspiring thing we experienced was the Childcare Center itself.  The work that the people do there, the children that they’re teaching, the method by which they teach them are all amazing.  Artwork and quotes line the hallways so that every child feels important and is showcased in their own unique way.

            The positive influences of all that the center does are evident in every child.  The children there, though all experiencing some sort misfortune, all have smiles on their faces, paintings to paint, and fun facts to learn.  St. Mary’s is a beautiful and inspiring place that glows with God’s Grace, and every member of J.P. II had a great time there today.

J.P. II Members:

Dee

Annie

Samson

Delaney

Emily

Kayleigh

Bobby

Jared

Victoria

Gina

Ian

Teresad

Day 1 Complete

Day 1 is now complete.

We started off the evening with the Mass for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.  Our new Auxiliary Bishop Christopher Coyne celebrated the Mass for us and gave a great homily about becoming the embodiment of the Eucharist as we begin our service work this week.

We then had some time to get to know our van groups and the people that we will be spending the next 5 days with.  I can already tell you it's going to be a lot of fun.  Such a great group of young people here with a desire to serve and grow in faith.

Fr. Peter Marshall gave a talk introducing our patroness for the week: Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  If you don't know much about Blessed Mother Teresa, it would definitely be worth your while to search the internet for some of the work she did in Calcutta during her life.  She is such a great model for all of us.

We concluded the evening with night prayer before having everybody get ready for bed.  As I write this, all of the participants and most of the team are sound asleep in preparation for a great week of serving those in our own backyards.  It's such a blessing to be a part of this, and I'm glad that you are getting to follow along with us.  This can truly be a life changing experience if we all allow God to work in our lives.

With that, I'm signing off and getting some sleep myself.  Tomorrow you will start to hear from the high school youth about what they have been doing and experiencing.  I'm sure it will be fun and interesting for all of us!

Peace in Christ,

Kris

T-Minus 7 hours to launch

As we sit here making final preparations for Homeland Mission 2011, we have reached the 7 hours left mark.  It seems as if time has flown by this year as we have worked on getting everything ready for the service week, but we are all excited for it to finally be here.

Over the course of this week, we will be having youth from each of the groups post some reflections on things they did or saw as well as explaining what else we have going on.

This week will consist of a lot of volunteer work, but it will also be a time for everybody involved to grow in their faith with Christ our Lord.  Christ called us to serve the least among us because by serving them we in turn serve Him.

How appropriate and fitting it is for us to begin this Mission Project on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.  Just as Christ gave us the Eucharist for our salvation and well-being, so He is calling those of us on this Mission Project to give our own bodies (hopefully no blood though!) in service to our brothers and sisters in our own community. 

We are each called in a particular way to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world and to spread His message of salvation and hope to those we meet.  For those of us on Homeland Mission 2011, that call for this weeks takes the form of service, which is why Homeland Mission's defining statement is "Seeing Christ in those we serve and allowing those we serve to see Christ in us."  This simply and beautifully sums up what our entire week is about.

As we begin this week of service, we ask that all of you keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  Please also continue to pray for the health and recovery of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein who asked that this mission project be started 7 years ago to serve the needs in our own community.

Much more will follow as the week unfolds, including (hopefully) pictures from the work sites and activities!  Please check back with us and feel free to post appropriate comments!  We would love to hear encouraging words from our friends and families back home, and we want to share our experiences with all of you!


Peace in Christ,

Kris Casey
Associate Coordinator of Programs
Youth Ministry in the Office of Catholic Education

Welcome to our blog!

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the various mission trips and events that are hosted by Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis (part of the Office of Catholic Education).

The first major event that will be featured here is the 2011 Homeland Mission Project, which takes place in June. Photos and reflections from the participants will be posted here on a regular basis throughout the week of service.

Check back soon!