As we begin a new year, all of us at Missionhurst CICM would like to thank each of you for the continued care, compassion, and generosity you show our missionaries and the people they serve throughout the world.
Last year your prayers and generosity were a blessing for all of our brothers and sisters whose lives have been touched through your support of our different projects.
Below are some of the highlights of 2019 — all made possible by your dedication to our mission.
In 2019, we embarked on a new journey and launched an exciting initiative — MercyWorks. A project of Missionhurst CICM, MercyWorks focuses on bringing dignity to the world’s most marginalized children by meeting their basic educational, psychological, and physical needs. MercyWorks is made up of mission ministries serving children at every stage of life, from building schools in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to providing medical care to infants in Guatemala.
The specific projects we support through this initiative make a tangible and meaningful difference in the lives of children, projects and activities that work to change the amount of love, truth, well-being and opportunity that will enter into the life of a marginalized child.
Because we are dedicated to corporal and spiritual works of mercy and because we know from experience that acts of mercy and compassion work to change the trajectory of children’s lives. Every penny donated to support these projects goes directly to those most in need.
Our Back-to-School campaign raised $2,500 for the St. Jean Bosco School in Haiti — that’s enough to send 20 students to school for an entire year. Due to your generosity, these children will now receive a year’s worth of education, including books and lunch (for some students this is the only meal they get all day). We can’t thank you enough.
This simple act of kindness means a great deal, not only to the child you have helped, but to the families you have touched. Many families in Northeast Haiti have to choose between educating their children and putting food on the table. When they can no longer afford to pay tuition, their child is forced to drop out of school and give up the dream of getting an education.
Without you, ensuring that these children remain in school would not have been possible. We want to thank you again for helping provide the gift of education in Haiti.
This summer our Director of Development, Fr. Andre Kazadi, CICM, visited our mission ministries in Guatemala where he met with beneficiaries of the ministry and witnessed firsthand the impact of our work. He also saw that the needs of this community remain ongoing and are in need of continued support.
The Bethany Center, a network of locations spread throughout rural Guatemala, exists to provide support to the poorest of the poor and specifically to women and young children in need in the area. The maternity center serves mothers and their infants and children on a daily basis, dining halls feed approximately 200 children daily, and our school, inaugurated in October 2019, will open its doors to begin classes in January 2020.
The Bethany Center staff work to save the lives of as many children as possible by providing them with basic nutrition and medical care and ensuring their future through education. But these ongoing ministries require continuous funding that does not always come easily.
Our Giving Tuesday and Year End Campaigns to benefit the Bethany Center raised over $8,400. These funds will go entirely to the Bethany Center and the services they provide. Through your generosity we will be able to fully fund our dining halls and provide comprehensive medical care to women and their children for the coming year. Words cannot express the depth of our gratitude for your support of the Bethany Center.
These great results could have never been achieved without the prayers and support of you, our Missionhurst-MercyWorks Community. Our missionary priests and brothers are giving their lives to works of mercy. The mere fact that you think about and pray for our missionaries is very comforting for them. Through our combined prayers, work, and sharing of the Good News, we can make a lasting impact on the lives of those who are most in need.