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What drew you to mission?
Karen: As a kid I remember wanting to be an exchange student when I got to high school. I think I was drawn by the sense of adventure and a romantic notion of different worlds. In high school one of my teachers had been a missioner in Colombia with his wife and two children. That's when I translated that desire for adventure and discovery into becoming a missioner. But it wasn't until I was in my late 20’s that I applied to Maryknoll. By then, in addition to the romance and adventure, I think I was looking for a way to allow suffering to enter my heart. I hoped to be transformed a little bit by its touch.
Jim: I wanted to use my agricultural skills to actually help feed people who are hungry, I wanted to be involved in church more than just on Sundays, and I wanted to be able to look forward to going to work each day.
What made you choose Maryknoll Lay Missioners?
Karen: I grew up reading the Maryknoll Magazines that my parents subscribed to off and on. I resonated with the values portrayed in the magazine and had the sense that Maryknoll was the organization that people applied to when they were serious about mission. So, Maryknoll was my top choice from the very beginning.
Jim: I had been exploring volunteer options when I met Fr. Frank Higdon, a Maryknoll priest who had worked 25 years in Bolivia. Through his stories of Maryknollers working with small farmers in the altiplano of Peru, I began to see "I could be a Lay Missioner." Before, I had this image of a missioner working mainly inside a church building. This opened my eyes to the many ways we spread God’s Word. I also saw myself as making this choice for the long term and MLM was an obvious choice for long-term lay mission service.
How did you find your current ministry?
Karen: Well, to be honest, I think my current ministry found me! I worked in Peru's altiplano for five and a half years. During that time I met and married Jim, who had also chosen to be a Maryknoll Lay Missioner in Peru. We returned to the U.S. in 2000 just before our son Daniel was born. We chose at that time to come to Colorado where we could live and work here at Casa Karibu Sze-Ming or Mission Welcome House. Here we hope to open up people’s imagination to alternatives to the lifestyle promoted in most sectors of American society. At Casa Karibu Sze-Ming we live in community and seek to live simply. We pray together, grow some of our food together, and participate in activities that bring us together with our neighbors. We also invite people into our home. Our work in Mission Outreach and Recruitment puts us in contact with people all over Colorado and its neighboring states. We find it a grace to be able to invite these people to come experience the ministry of our house, and through the house to live a sense of mission. CKS is centered in a poorer neighborhood of inner city Denver, so it is an ideal place for people to come experience – even for just a few days – a cross-cultural immersion right in their own "backyard." We host short retreats and days of reflection. Also, college students from all over the central U.S. stay for a week at a time serving in the inner city and they sleep and eat at CKS. The gift for us is that we have come full circle. We are always able to include a bit of our story of mission in Peru, and how our opportunity to live and work with the Aymara people in Peru's altiplano was for us a turning point of conversion. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, that conversion has led to our current ministry, which allows us to share and live our conversion with others.
Jim: Serving in Peru with people who live so close to the land and know dependence on God is what brought me to our current ministry. In Peru I felt I had been given something that many here in the U.S. struggle to find. The diocese where Karen and I worked in Peru definitely needed our talents and witness as missionaries, but I am convinced that right now inviting people from the U.S. to be missionary by opening their hearts up to the rest of the world is even more important.
How has being a Lay Missioner impacted your life?
Karen: It has BECOME my life.
Jim: My cup overfloweth!!! I have what Jesus promises: life to the fullest... a beautiful wife, two beautiful children and the wisdom to spend as much time as I can with them; a love and trust for our God that lets me see the beauty in my mom’s recent death even though I miss her terribly; feeling at home with myself even though my hairline is receding, my car is a ‘93 Sentra and my income is $ 8,771.
I trust and rely on God more fully than I could have imagined ten years ago when I first considered being a lay missioner. Living outside of our culture for six years gave me a much broader perspective of the world and allowed me to both appreciate and be critical of our actions as a country.
What is it like living and working with other Maryknollers?
Karen: We used to joke in Peru that the hardest thing about mission was getting along with the other missioners! Fortunately, that’s not entirely true. Our life as a community of missioners working pretty closely together had its share of tensions and hurts, and it was also a time of very, very special shared experiences and learnings. The Maryknoll missioners that we worked with in Peru will always be very dear to my heart, and I know they feel the same about me.
Becoming a Maryknoller is also like suddenly being adopted into a huge family. Maryknoll has broadened – and brightened – our world. I am proud to be part of such an alive, caring, growing, wise community.
Jim: I could go on for days about the great Maryknollers I have had the privilege of working with. I have learned so much about what it means to be a missionary from the other Maryknollers that I have come to know. Maryknoll, like our Church, continues to grow in living out the call of Vatican II that church is us, not an institution. In this time of transition we have been able to witness to the importance and validity of each vocation.
What advice would you give to someone considering a program like Maryknoll?
Karen: Apply immediately. You will begin a process that will help your heart to grow bigger, stronger, more tender and much, much wiser.
Jim: I see over and over the beauty and depth of life for people opening themselves up to God’s voice. Maryknoll will allow you to grow in faith and as a person in such profound ways that all I can say myself is that it has been a great blessing and a lot of fun.
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