Charism: Service

Thursdays are my favorite day of the week.

On Tuesday I begin to get excited that it’s almost Thursday, on Wednesday I’m bursting at the seams, and on Thursday morning I’m jumping out of bed to turn on the coffee and get going. Thursdays are our service day. This past Thursday I was so excited that I didn’t realize until the day of that Thursdays are also pretty awesome because we get to sleep in a little bit, have breakfast/lunch/dinner in household, and have free time in the afternoon which is a prized thing around here.

“They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.” + Galatians 2:10

Mrs. Glendia

She might be my favorite person here, but don’t tell the other missionaries that. 😊 We visit Mrs. Glendia every Thursday for our service day. Her local priest asked another full-time missionary family here to catechize her in preparation for the Sacraments (Confession, Confirmation, and Holy Communion). They took us to meet her our second week here and in our third, we began teaching her about the faith.  

Her husband is Catholic and kids grew up Catholic, but she bopped between the Baptist church and their Catholic one through the years. I found her story to be beautiful about how she was led to reach out to the priest and all of her hopes for family unity at the same church together. From the outside we have absolutely nothing in common and yet when we visit with her and hear her pains and her life story and teach her more about the Catholic faith, I feel like I’ve always known her. There are many of my own life choices that I can relate to her own- I simply had the privilege of a better-off middle class home and really good education. Those are really the only differences between us.

Every time we’re there she tells a new part of her story past or present that strikes me as crazy and only possible through God that we happened to be the family picked to go catechize her.

Two weeks ago she was ready to start learning but also very upset because her step-son (I'll call Q) had almost committed suicide. He has some serious mental health issues and was not on his meds. By law he was instituted for 5 days. We had hoped he could stay the full 15, but he was at the house when we came to visit the next week and sadly he doesn’t have insurance yet and cannot afford the medicine he needs to help his mind. He’s a sweet young man and very quiet. We pray and sacrifice for them often.

With him there last week, we taught about the Holy Spirit and the many gifts we receive in Baptism and the fruits we may have throughout our Christian lives. At the end I asked what gifts Mrs. Glendia would like us to pray over them for and she asked for patience and joy for herself, wisdom and joy for her husband (Mr. George suffered a stroke a while back and joins us when he can), and understanding for Q. After the prayer Q began to speak for the first time since we got there and was full of questions about the Bible and God. We asked the Holy Spirit to give Q understanding and there he was immediately asking questions trying to understand God more. Beautiful!

Today we found out that the priest would like Mrs. Glendia to be confirmed into the Catholic Church before we leave for home in December so we can be there and I just can’t explain how happy that makes me feel.

We also learned that we don’t have as many Thursdays left as service days as we had originally thought so, I’m going to teach her on other random days in the next couple weeks, while the guys are there building new stairs to the back house/efficiency that Q lives in. Service is a major charism of Family Missions Company as we should all have servant’s hearts and be proactive in seeking service opportunities with each other on our teams and, of course, in the communities which we will belong to.

“Even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve…” + Mark 10:45

Lord Jesus, please send your Holy Spirit to Mrs. Glendia’s family to give them peace, joy, and understanding in their lives. Help Q to obtain the medicine that he needs and send someone with a missionary heart to love and serve them after we’re gone. Please bless this family as they strive to become unified in loving You.