Inspired by their faith, nine students from the Catholic community of University of Maryland Baltimore County recently completed a service trip to Guatemala March 16-23.
While there, they attended daily Mass, helped build homes for the poor, learned about the culture and visited sites connected to Blessed Stanley Rother, a graduate of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg who was murdered while serving as a missionary in Guatemala.
Under the spiritual direction and guidance of Father Matthew Himes, associate director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Baltimore and chaplain of Catholic Retrievers (the Catholic campus ministry at UMBC in Catonsville), the students spearheaded this revitalized effort that had once been sidelined by the pandemic.
Father Himes said the right timing combined with faith-filled students meant only one thing – this was the year to reinvent the program.
Jeshuwin Prabakaran, a junior bioinformatics major from St. Ignatius Parish in Ijamsville, felt his immersion started from the minute he landed.
“I learned so much about what poverty looks like up close,” he said. “I also learned about humility and how to really appreciate what I have.”
He will never forget the experience as being a significantly memorable first visit to Guatemala. One moment in particular stood out for Prabakaran. While he was delivering groceries and other supplies to an exceptionally poor woman, Prabakaran saw a beautiful image of the face of Jesus on a door to the woman’s home.
“That really touched me and reminded me that her love of Christ outweighed the more difficult aspects of her life,” he said.
Prabakaran sees service work as being incorporated into his future acts of ministry. “This was really life-changing,” he added.
Emily Kosloski, a junior mechanical engineering student from St. Agnes, Catonsville, and St. William of York, Baltimore, described the service trip as her “first trip but definitely not her last” and said the opportunity to immerse fully into another culture brought much to light for her.
“This experience included such warm and welcoming interactions with a culture I knew very little about,” she said. “I learned so much about their way of life.”
Kosloski spoke with joy about learning to make homemade tortillas while she was there. While the days varied in terms of schedules and tasks, local traditions and interactions were woven in as much as possible.
Father Himes described the mission trip as a “true blessing for all of us who went.”
“God blessed us with the opportunity to encounter him in each other and the people we met and served,” he said. “I was particularly moved by the way the group grew as a community by sharing this experience. We met people who, in their poverty and struggles, were resilient in their faith and filled with joy.”
The priest said he was grateful for the time the group spent in prayer at Santiago Atitlan, the place of martyrdom of Blessed Rother.
Spring break experiences like these are not unique to only the UMBC community. They are offered at other local colleges as well. Towson University students served in the Carolinas this year. Johns Hopkins students alternate locations each year, including opportunities in South America and domestic locations.
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