Mission

Diocesan Youth Mission Trip - July 2009

This coming July 40 youth and adults from the Diocese of WNY will travel to New Orleans on a week long mission trip. Hard as it may be to believe, the Gulf Coast region still has not recovered from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Many folks still have not been able to return to their homes. The following article by Samantha Cutlip that explains how this summer's mission trip was born.

You can help. Go to the WNY Payment Page to make a cash donation today. Select "Special Event" from the drop down menu, then specify "New Orleans Mission Trip." Be sure you have your credit card handy.

by Samantha Cutlip

I went to New Orleans last summer with a group from St. Peter's Eggertsville. There were eleven of us, and we stayed at St. Mark's in Harvey. We worked on a house for the Gaffney Family who were all legally blind.

We were very fortunate that the family was there everyday. They thanked us so often, helped work on the house and fed us, literally and figuratively. They gave us the drive to get the job done and made us delicious native foods. I came back inspired and motivated.

I conveyed my enthusiasm for mission at Junior High Camp where I was a counselor a week after I returned from the Big Easy. We celebrated our last night of camp with a U2charist, which allowed these young middle schoolers to look beyond themselves and wipe the mud from their eyes to really see the world around them. We had a debriefing circle during which I discussed my trip and Chaplain Colleen O'Connor talked about her own mission trip the year before. Seeing global poverty is heartbreaking, but knowing you have the power to do something about it, inspired them. The kids were amazed at their own potential, fired up, and ready to change the world.

A lot of the kids at camp that year also happened to be from Advent Kenmore. They naturally started to bug their Youth Group Leader, Paul Csonka, who was also on staff at camp, to take them to New Orleans. Paul was up for the challenge, and he and I began to plan this trip the last day of Junior High Camp. Then, it snowballed.