Day 4

Good afternoon everyone, we started out the day with mass at 7am again, its really great to celebrate the Eucharist as a mission and be reminded of how much of a blessing it is to have this oppurtunity to do God's work. The individual groups continued their projects throught the whole day. The girls dormitory crew finished 5 and half rooms and got the chance to meet two of the very appreciative girls who will be living in the dorms while in school. It was so great to see the excitement on the girls' faces and really helps the day go by. The basketball crew accomplished yet another day of successful training for the youth of lukulu. Bible camp went awesome and 300 of the children received "Love For Lukulu" and "Orange For Aubree" brecelets. They were so excited to see such little gestures of kindness. A select few: Alexis, Liz, Audrey, and Annette got to tour the hospital in the town of lukulu. It was such a great experience and really makes one appreciate what we have in the states. So many things are really taken for granted everyday and this trip has really opened all of our eyes. Jonathon Foldie has the oppurtunity to sit in on 3 surgries later on this week to give him a broader perspective of medicine and other parts of the world. Lastly the same group got to observe while Sister Pat managed to help over 200 babies and give the mothers, grandmothers, and/or foster parents tins of milk and a protein supplement. These babies are either malnourished or very underweight due to problems in the pregnancies. This was a very eventful day and we thank God each and every minute for this oppurtunity! Thank you for spreading the word about our blog and all of the prayers! God Bless

Day 3

hi again, the Sancta Maria mission group accomplished many great projects today! To start off the day we all went and celebrated the Eucharist as a mission group at the early hours of 7 am. Right after we split up into our groups consisting of the girls dormitory construction crew, the basketball coaches, and the bible camp leaders. For the girls dormitory crew: Trent, Mike, Jonathon, and the local helpers, put up ceilings in 2 and half of the 16 rooms. Its quite the project and is going very smoothly. The girls will love their new dorms once everything is put together! As far as the basketball coaches: Lisa, Dave, Alisha, Brandon, Judy, and Michelle, set up shop at the basketball court from 8am-5:30pm. the players consisted of 4 groups of 10 year olds- 30 year olds boys and girls. They had a great time sharing their love for the game. The bible camp leaders: Alexis, Annette, Liz, and Audrey, tamed 200 kids all under the age of 12 with nail painting, coloring, soccer games, and volleyball games. it was so great to bring endless smiles to their faces and was the biggest reward we could ask for. thank you for all your prayers they are definitely working!! We will keep everyone posted on the updates!

P.s. Happy Birthday Mary! :)

Day 2

Hello again everyone, today was a very sucessful and busy day for the Sancta Maria Mission group. We all split into two groups to accomplish more projects overall. Group One: Brandon, Liz, Jonathon, Alexis, Audrey, Annette, John, Vincent, and Father Chibesa, went across the Zambezi River to an outreach parish to celebrate the Eucharist and show our appreciation to the people of Mitete by bringing gifts. They received kazoos, bubbles, beads, rosaries, soccer balls and, handmade dresses. the smiles we brought to the people were priceless. To them its really the little things that count. It just goes to show that matieralistic things really don't matter when it comes to happiness. Group 2: Coach Dave, Michelle, Alisha, Judy, Lisa, Mike, Trent, and the children of Lukulu worked together to patch up the cracks and divets in the basketball court.  The children were so eager to be of help to the missionaries and would be pleased to do anything they needed. It was a long day for all of us and we all feel the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst us. Tomorrow the beginning of basketball camp, Bible camp, and renovations of the girls dorms will take place. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers so that everything goes as planned and the people of Sancta Maria Mission stay safe. God Bless

Arrival

Hello everyone, we made it to Lukulu in the Sancta Maria mission. On our first full day here we met the parish council through Father Chibesa and Vincent. We got a tour of the whole mission and saw all of the projects we have ahead of us. In the girls dormitory John, Mike, Trent, and Johnathon are putting up new ceilings, fixingup the bunkbed frames, fixing all of the doors, and repairing some of the walls. Coach Dave and his other coaches: Brandon, Alisha, Michelle, Judy, and Lisa, went to the basketball court and received a list of all the basketball applicants that will be attending camp.  He plans to begin working on the court tomorrow and starting camp Monday morning.  Annette, Audrey, and Michelle worked hard to sort all of our donated supplies and Liz, Alexis, and Annette gave several girls their dresses.  For the remainder of the day we had to pleasure of meeting and playing with many of the children from the Sancta Maria mission and plan to see most of them for the remainder of our time here. Monday the Bible camp crew Annette, Alexis, Liz, Audrey will designate the "playtime" to bring christ into their daily lives and be able to share our faith with all of the kids. Tomorrow morning half our our missionaries will be attending mass on the mission while the other half are excited to cross the Zambezi river to attend mass at the outreach parish.  Our stay so far has been very welcoming with great hospitality.  We are looking forward to what the remainder of the trip will bring!