Mission Trips

Single missionaries live together in intentional men’s and women’s households, while missionary families live in their own homes and remain closely connected to the wider missionary community.

As you enter into this shared life, you’ll pray together, share meals, serve alongside one another, celebrate feast days, laugh, rest, and carry each other through the challenges of mission. Over time, what begins as simply living alongside other missionaries becomes something much deeper: a community of brothers and sisters striving for holiness together.

Ministry does not come first here—your relationship with Christ does.

Each day begins by returning to the One who called you. Missionaries are formed through personal prayer with Sacred Scripture, the prayer of the Church through the Liturgy of the Hours, the Angelus, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Eucharistic Adoration, and the sacramental life of the Church. Through these rhythms of prayer, you will learn to recognize Christ’s voice, remain close to His Sacred Heart, and carry His presence into the lives of those you serve. 

You’ll serve alongside experienced missionaries, learning the needs of the community and discovering how Christ is inviting you to respond. Our outreach has a particular love for the poor and those on the margins — walking with families who are struggling, bringing hope where there is hardship, and encountering Christ in the people we serve.

This may include visiting families in their homes, praying with the sick and elderly, delivering food or medicine, once helping repair a home, teaching catechesis, serving in youth or parish ministry, or supporting other works of mercy and evangelization.

One of the greatest gifts of a mid-term mission is that you have time to stay. Instead of meeting someone once and moving on, you may return to the same home week after week, pray with the same family, encourage the same young people, and walk alongside someone through both joys and struggles. As trust grows, conversations deepen and the Gospel becomes something you share not only through words, but through a life of faithful presence.

This is where mid-term mission can become something short-term mission simply cannot: the opportunity to see relationships take root and witness the Lord changing a life over time.

You’ll learn the language, shop in the local market, listen to people’s stories, discover their customs, and celebrate the traditions that make the community unique. You’ll learn to navigate unfamiliar routines, and begin to understand what matters to the people around you.

There will be moments when you feel out of place, misunderstand something, or simply miss home. But as you listen, learn, and keep showing up, the unfamiliar becomes familiar. Over time, you learn to love both the people and the beauty of their culture, while discovering how the Gospel can affirm what is good, heal what is broken, and lead us all more fully toward Christ.

Alongside the ministries shared by the whole team, you’ll have opportunities to prayerfully discern how your own skills, experience, passions, and interests might serve the people around you. 

A soccer player might start a team for local children, building friendships while creating opportunities to introduce them to the Faith. A musician might teach guitar to a neighbor and use those moments to share the joy of the Gospel. A skilled tradesman might build a friendship with an elderly couple while helping repair their home. Someone who loves crafts might gather young girls together each week to create, build friendships, and learn about the love of Jesus.

Eventually the season comes to an end. You will pack the same suitcase you arrived with, but you will not be the same person who unpacked it.

Months spent close to Christ—in authentic community, serving the poor, and walking faithfully with others—etch an indelible mark upon the heart. The true fruit of a mid‑term mission is not only what God accomplishes through you, but the fire He kindles within you. 

Though your time abroad may come to an end, the missionary life continues. You return home carrying the flame of mission wherever Christ leads.

“After high school, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, so I decided to take a gap year. My mom suggested that I consider going on a mission trip to Peru. I had been raised Catholic and was active in my faith, so mission work had always been something I was open to. But I don’t speak Spanish, so honestly, going to Peru for six months seemed like a pretty bad idea.

But God works in mysterious ways, and He often calls us to do things that seem unconventional and uncomfortable. After a lot of wrestling with discernment, I decided to go.

Those six months in Peru were incredibly fulfilling and I learned a lot. I experienced the freedom that comes from living simply and trusting in the Holy Spirit to provide what I needed day by day. I lived in a house with other young men, and we grew in our faith together, prayed together, and went out to serve and minister to others.

I learned to minister and love the poor whom we prayed with despite not being able to communicate well with them. Through that experience, I began to understand that the Gospel is something you can proclaim not only with your words, but with your presence, your love, and your willingness to follow wherever the Lord leads.

But most importantly I experienced the peace and joy that comes from taking a risk and responding to God’s call no matter how radical it may seem.”

—Joe Towers, Indiana

“I always had a small kindling desire in my heart to go on mission, but I wanted to experience the raw reality of life as a missionary. I had been on a couple of mission trips, but always left wanting more. After my first job as a nurse, the Lord kept nudging my heart to make more time for Him and to encounter Him through the poor. The Francis Institute fell into my lap, and going to Peru for three months has been one of the greatest gifts from the Lord.

The flexibility of a mid-term mission allowed me to experience the fullness of mission without committing to only a week—or to several years. I had never experienced mission quite like this: truly living a life with the poor, in all its beauty and difficulty, craziness and calm, joys and sorrows. There was no pre-made schedule. I simply arrived with hands wide open to the Holy Spirit, and He never ceased to surprise me.

I initially planned to volunteer as a nurse at a local clinic in Tingo de Ponasa. But after a few weeks, constant obstacles seemed to stand in my way. I became discouraged, but eventually opened my heart to something more uncomfortable: simply going out and seeking those in need. That small act of surrender led me to meet many people in need, some of whom couldn’t even get to the clinic for help. I also met Angie, a young woman from Tingo de Ponasa, who became a dear friend and accompanied me on visits to the sick.

I came to Peru thinking mission was something I needed to plan and accomplish. Instead, I learned that mission is simply opening our hearts to the materially and spiritually poor around us and allowing the Lord to use us as His instruments in every moment of our lives. The people of Peru will forever be in my heart. If you feel drawn to Jesus in the sick, poor, suffering, and needy, do not be afraid. Come along for the Lord’s incredible adventure!”

- Teresa Miller, Pennsylvania