Here’s what we at the HCMC have been up to this past month:

1. Holy Cross Missions 2024 Student Essay Contest: Have you submitted your essay yet? All students who visited a Holy Cross ministry in Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Peru, Tanzania, or Uganda in the past academic year are eligible to apply for a chance to win $500 for themselves and $1,000 to the Holy Cross ministry that hosted them. Applications are due August 15. Read the Student Essay Contest guidelines by clicking here.
2. Preparation for Twinning in 2024-25: We are designing Twinning Packets and pop-up banners for registered Twinning partners. Contact Assistant Director for Community Engagement Michael Jezewak at mjezewak@holycrossusa.org to learn how your residence hall, parish, school, sports team, or club can begin Twinning with an international Holy Cross ministry. More than 12 ministries are currently awaiting U.S. Twinning partners.
3. Baraka Bouts 2024 Preparation: Michael touched base with 2024-25 Baraka Bouts President Anna Prest to coordinate efforts for their fall practices and boxing tournament. 
4. Preparing for Holy Cross Missions Weekend at the University of Notre Dame, September 27-29: The HCMC is grateful for the support of Notre Dame’s Campus Ministry and choirs, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and Baraka Bouts in the first-ever Holy Cross Missions Weekend. Join us for Masses featuring music from Holy Cross’s international mission territories and preaching on the Congregation’s mission. 
5. Exploring ways to engage campus partners: Michael met with a few campus partners at the University of Notre Dame to explore ways that their student groups can learn about Holy Cross’s missionary history and the ways that research might contribute to the services provided at the Congregation’s international ministries. 
6. Strategic Planning Days: We set aside July 8-9 to gather as a team to consider how to align our mission, vision, and values with our work in the coming years.
7. Summer Speaking Invitations: Michael shared lessons from Holy Cross’s missionary history at Holy Cross College’s Cross & Anchors Summit and Saints & Scholars Summer Theology Institute, both of which are for high school students. Fr. Fred Jenga, C.S.C., our friend from Uganda and the Director of Holy Cross Family Ministries, was a featured speaker at the McGrath Institute’s Vision Program for high school students. Thank you to Maria Gorecki and Craig Gould for allowing Holy Cross to share some of their missionary history at these student events!
8. Ganguly Exchange Debrief for six men in formation: From July 30 through August 1, Fr. Tom and Michael joined Fr. Jim Gallagher, Fr. Dan Parrish, and Fr. Eric Schimmel to lead the second Ganguly Exchange Debrief. This retreat-like experience offers the six Holy Cross men in formation who spent their summers at an international ministry placement an opportunity to reflect on their experiences and understand how God was at work in them. Learn more about the Ganguly Exchange here. Better yet, if you see these men in the coming months, be sure to ask them about their Ganguly Exchange experiences:

    

   1. Andrew Copp, C.S.C. – Sreemongal, Bangladesh

   2. Ed Donnelly, C.S.C. – Monterrey, Mexico

   3. Br. Jacob Gorman, C.S.C. – Bandura, Bangladesh

   4. Chris Mulholland, C.S.C. – Canto Grande, Peru

   5. Bobby Weltner, C.S.C. – Dandora, Kenya

   6. Tim Wymore, C.S.C. – Monterrey, Mexico

If you have collaboration ideas for the Holy Cross Mission Center, please email our Assistant Director for Community Engagement, Michael Jezewak, at mjezewak@holycrossusa.org. 

Have a wonderful August!

Published: August 1, 2024