A Cry With Mary
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...
50 New Chances
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...
A Good Day in Their Lives
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...
Laying the Foundation
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...
Where was the Lord?
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...
Do Unto Others
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...
Lost and Found
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...
What Would You Wear?
I stopped by my mom’s house on the way home from work recently, and she ushered me into the living room to show me the design she was working on for the IntSam 5K T-shirt this year. A pretty stoic woman from the Greatest Generation, my mom was perceptibly proud of...
Down But Not Out
Last week, I continued with home visits to the potential scholars to see and experience their life after their daily work at the Dandora dumpsite. Families working in the dumpsite have become my friends, and they all welcomed me warmly. Sarah and her children are...
Confronting a Giant
“Conflict is an inevitable part of life. Our job as leaders is to choose whether we want to resolve it in a healthy or an unhealthy way.” I learned this lesson a long time ago from the late Duane Hurtt, one of my first bosses, and it has helped me immeasurably in...
Losing Our Angel to Cancer
In June we lost one of our scholars, fifteen-year-old Matheo Flores, to cancer. Matheo was a very happy, intelligent, very sociable child who loved to play video games and dreamed of becoming a doctor to help kids just like him. He was the only boy in his family and...
Going Uphill
When we created the IntSam 5K four years ago, I wrote a reflection about the advice Kevin Hofmann, a friend for almost 50 years, gave me when we were at the cross-country state championship together in high school: “Run your race and attack the hills.” I hear his...
