Two students at St. John Vianney Catholic School in the city of Wyoming demonstrate that even when you’re young, you can help make the world a better place.
Claire, 5th grade, and Marian, 4th grade, are step-sisters who went on a mission trip with their family in November to meet the boys and girls who live at Samaritan Children's Home in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The home is a Christian organization that houses roughly 450 young people from around 4 years old through about age 25. The girls' family has close ties to Samaritan Children's Home; their grandparents first went there on mission about 20 years ago and founded the International Promise Foundation about five years ago to help support the home.
Ahead of their trip, Claire and Marian collected donated eyeglasses to give the boys and girls. Glasses frames are very expensive in Bangladesh, said IPF executive director Jenna Kape, but lenses are affordable. If the donated glasses aren’t the right prescription for anyone at Samaritan Children’s Home, the lenses can easily be removed and replaced with the right ones for little cost. The girls brought more than 300 pairs on their trip.
In addition to delivering the glasses, Claire’s and Marian’s mission trip also involved playing with the kids at Samaritan Children's Home, serving lunch, and sharing the love of Jesus Christ with them. Claire and Marian were also excited to learn new things about Christ from the kids they meet.
“I’ll show them all the prayers we do at school and at home, which they might not know,” said Claire ahead of the trip. “It’ll be fun to learn what prayers they do.”
“Even though we go to a Catholic school and we learn about God,” added Marian, “there’s still more to discover.”
Sharing the love of Jesus with the world follows a motto Claire and Marian have learned at St. John Vianney: S.H.I.N.E. When they S.H.I.N.E., SJV students show Self-control, they’re Honest, they Inspire, they Never quit, and they Exemplify Christ.
“I think it’s the most important thing we do in this school and in any school,” said SJV principal Mr. Gregg Bruno. “We can talk all day about academics, but at the end of the day what makes our school, and Catholic schools in the Diocese of Grand Rapids, special is this piece: the ability to be Christ so others can see Christ.”
Claire, an avid softball player, said she was also excited to learn about the game of cricket. Marian loves to dance and enjoyed learning how the Samaritan Children's Home kids dance.
While this was their first time traveling to Bangladesh on a mission trip, Claire and Marian are familiar with helping people. They’ve volunteered before with Kids Food Basket, a West Michigan organization helping provide meals for kids in need. Claire’s and Marian’s grandparents also have a Christmastime tradition of asking how the family would like to help people throughout the holidays; they recently chose to give care packages to people who are homeless.
On returning, Marian said the trip opened her eyes to others’ needs and to the abundance we experience in the United States.
You can visit the International Promise Foundation website at this link to learn about ways to support the Samaritan Children’s Home. IPF has helped arrange sponsorships for all but 60 or so residents, according to Kape, and $40 a month provides food, education, clothing and housing. Kape said needs are growing at Samaritan Children’s Home because food prices are rising in Bangladesh with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar. Visit the Catholic Relief Services website to learn about ways to help refugees.
See media coverage of Claire's and Marian's effort by clicking the following links: