Mission coordinators prepare for new year of ‘Children Helping Children’

The Missionary Childhood Association, a ministry of the Archdiocese of New Orleans ’ Pontifical Mission Societies, is led (above, from left) by Father James Jeanfreau, executive director; Lisa Miller, Missionary Childhood Association director; and Kristie Vollentine, office manager. (Photos by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

As she addressed two dozen mission coordinators last month, Marianite Sister Judy Gomila realized that a passage from the Acts of the Apostles could easily be adapted to sum up the “consciousness-raising” work these educators do at local Catholic elementary schools:

“You will receive the Holy Spirit,” Sister Judy told them, echoing the Risen Christ’s words to the apostles who were beginning their own work of evangelization. “You will be my witnesses – on the East Bank, the West Bank, the Northshore, the River Parishes – and to the ends of the earth!”

On Aug. 23, the mission coordinators – mostly teachers who volunteered to take on the role at their respective elementary schools – rededicated themselves as adult helpers in the Missionary Childhood Association’s (MCA) goal of “Children Helping Children.” They do this by encouraging their students to pray and make sacrifices for their foreign-based peers – who are also doing the same for them.

“As we expose our children to other cultures, the one thing that remains clear is that we all laugh and we all cry in the same language,” said Sister Judy, noting that mission coordinators educate both the minds and hearts of children on their baptismal call to spread the Good News of Jesus. “We are related to people all around the world because we are that one body in Christ!”

Sister Judy said the work of the mission coordinator boils down to: being adult embodiments of Christ’s unconditional love on their campuses; and helping youngsters cultivate “grateful hearts” – not guilty ones – for all that they have. For example, not every child in the world can press a button on the refrigerator to fill his glass with clean water; not everyone can switch on a light.

“In a sense, we’re ‘tour guides,’ because we lead children from what they don’t know to what they can learn,” Sister Judy said.

Lisa Miller, the MCA’s new director, offered some ways schools can build a spirit of gratitude, generosity and fellowship toward their foreign-based peers:

• Throughout the year, schools could observe “Mission Mondays” in which MCA student ambassadors could give classroom presentations on the country or countries for which they are praying this year. The ambassadors could also make awareness posters and collect students’ contributions to the MCA’s “Mite Boxes” – into which youngsters can place their small monetary sacrifices. A poster, available from the MCA, shows just how far their nickels and pennies will go: 25 cents buys a pair of socks in Haiti; 50 cents buys one nutritious meal in Fiji; $1 can protect 20 children from tuberculosis in Guatemala, etc.

• In the lead-up to Children’s Mission Day (observed this year the weekend of Oct. 22-23), the whole student body could learn about the World Mission Rosary, in which each of the five rosary decades is color-coded to focus prayers on children who live in five geographical areas: the Americas (red); Asia (yellow); Africa (green); Europe (white); and the Pacific Island Nations (blue). Pastors could be asked to design an October school Mass around a mission theme.

• Submissions to the MCA’s Mission Prayer Card Contest will be accepted through Nov. 18. In alliance with parish Thanksgiving-food-basket efforts, students could make additional prayer cards to place inside each basket.

• Advent is a great time to compare and contrast the Christmas celebrations of different countries and to teach youngsters that some of their peers in other parts of the world must make their own toys out of recycled trash. Other December ideas include erecting a Mission Christmas Tree (with color-coded ornaments reflecting the World Mission Rosary). Advent mission packets are available from the MCA.

Schools are invited to schedule on-campus visits by Mission Office staff to educate young people on their missionary calling. The office’s airy new headquarters at UNO’s Newman Center has a wide variety of multimedia and other resources to share, such as crosses, toys and musical instruments from around the world. If your school does not have a mission coordinator or would like to set up a mission presentation, call (504) 527-5771.

MCA-sponsored activities for the second half of the school year will be highlighted in upcoming issues of Kids’ Clarion.