Something is going on at International Samaritan that reminds me a lot of a guy I saw at our local pool last week. That guy is me. I started swimming laps for the first time in my life a few weeks ago. It’s pretty embarrassing. Older people fly by me, and they keep...

Energy and excitement filled the air as Samaritan Scholars, families, and friends gathered to participate in the IntSam Global 5K last weekend. It was a joy-filled experience here in Ethiopia where stories were shared, prayers were offered, and laughter echoed...

One of our Samaritan Scholars in Ethiopia, Baye, grew up with an abusive father. His father's harsh and unbearable presence inflicted deep wounds on Baye and his mother. Despite summoning the courage to leave and forge their own path, the pain would resurface,...

Elizabeth, age 14, hopes to become a journalist. That looked like an impossible dream just a few months ago as she didn’t have the money to continue with school past the sixth grade.  Money is tight because Elizabeth’s mother is the family breadwinner, and she’s a...

As the program director in Jamaica, I spend a lot of time praying for the scholars in my program. As I’ve been praying, the word resilience has been echoing in my head for months. Looking at the definition, resilience means “the capacity to recover quickly from...

This past spring, I went on a service trip to Guatemala with 11 other parishioners from the St. Mary Student Parish in Ann Arbor. I had no idea the impact this trip would have on me.  We started off traveling in our minibus to the Francisco Coll elementary school. We...

Nalubega, a 19-year-old from Kawanda, Uganda, lost hope of pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor when her mother could no longer afford the cost of her school fees. Her mother, a waste picker at the Kiteezi dumpsite, had six other children to provide for too. But...

When you see children working in garbage dumps, it changes you.  You know there is nothing they did to deserve such a punishing life.  You can’t pretend you didn’t see it and just assume that everything is going to be OK, because it is fundamentally not. A person...

I’ve been so happy to watch the construction underway on the new Family Life Center in the El Buen Samaritano (The Good Samaritan) neighborhood! When it’s finished, the scholars and children in this neighborhood, which backs up to the city garbage dump, will have...

This past week, my son, Jacob, launched The Emmaus Podcast, to offer encouragement and advice to young men like himself who are committed to living righteous lives.  His show will feature interviews with friends and others he looks up to for the integrity of their...

Here in Ethiopia, we've been gathering our racers, creating our teams, and preparing for this fall's IntSam Global 5K event.  This year's event raises more money for scholarships, and I have experienced the difference that scholarships make for our scholars. An IntSam...

The most disturbing video about our mission wasn’t made by us.  In 2017, Food for the Poor created this video about Anthony, who was then an 11-year-old boy working in El Ocotillo, the garbage dump outside of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where we have been serving since...