by International Samaritan | Oct 27, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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,...
by International Samaritan | Oct 20, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
by International Samaritan | Oct 13, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
by International Samaritan | Oct 6, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
by International Samaritan | Sep 29, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
by International Samaritan | Sep 22, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
by International Samaritan | Sep 15, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
by International Samaritan | Sep 8, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
by International Samaritan | Sep 1, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
by International Samaritan | Aug 25, 2023 | Weekend Reflections
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...
