New Logo

I'm SO excited to be able to finally show these to everyone. These are the logos created by Cassie Pease (cassiepeasedesigns.com) for  ETL and they are perfect! She did a phenomenal job. I am thinking about making t-shirts. Please let me know if you'd like to buy one! E-mail me at catherine@bringhope.org

Also, please pray for Ellen. She is traveling to Romania today. She will be serving for 3 weeks at the Franciscan orphanage in Satu Mare and then for 3 weeks in Turt. I've posted a link to her blog on the link section at the top of the page.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to Romania in a mere 20 days. I can't wait to hold the kids in my arms again! I can't wait to hear my favorite sound in the world: their laughter! I can't wait to see the people in Turt who have shown me so much love! I can't wait to get the final blueprints from the architect and begin construction on Casa de Copii Don Bosco! Right now, I have raised $26,000. As I've said in pretty much every single blog post since I announced this project, if you can donate anything, big or small, please click here. The smallest donations really do add up, so please don't think that a small $5 can't help. It does. Trust me.

I'm really excited about my next 6 month stay in Romania. Huge things are going to happen. I know it. And hopefully, by the summer of 2014, Casa de Copii Don Bosco will be open and as insane as it sounds, I'll be a mom. I never would have thought that by the time I'm 24, I'll be the mom to 10 kids. Well, here it comes. Haha.

As always, please pray for the mission. As A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, once said, "Prayer is the mighty engine that moves missionary work."

Just An Update

Here's what's going on.

My shoulder is getting better slowly but surely. I no longer have to wear the sling, but I'm still in quite a bit of pain. It gets a little better each day, so, I'm keeping my head up. I'm going through pretty tough physical therapy right now. That's probably going to be going on pretty much until I leave. 

I am leaving for Romania on June 9 and I'm very excited :) I plan to be there until December. What I am even more excited about is the fact that I am going to have a summer missionary with me for 6 weeks! Ellen is a freshman at Notre Dame (GO IRISH! My older brother went to Notre Dame, so we are big Irish fans at my house). She visited Romania for her spring break about a month ago and wanted to come back, so we made that happen. Welcome to the Missions of Hope family, Ellen! 

I made a video of some of the pictures from my first couple months to the song "Kings and Queens" by Audio Adrenaline. I wrote about the song in an earlier post - the guys wrote it about the kids in their orphanage in Haiti and I found that it really rang true to what I'm doing in Romania. Click here to watch the video. 

I am very excited to be working with graphic designer Cassie Pease (cassiepeasedesigns.com) to design a logo for the mission (maybe I should make t-shirts. Hmm...Now there's an idea!). Her designs are beautiful and you should check out her website!

Fundraising wise, I've hit kind of a plateau. At the moment, I'm sitting right at about $21,300. I just applied for a grant from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and I sent letters asking for help from two very large foundations in Cincinnati. I'm praying that I can get help from all three places because fundraising from Romania isn't going to be easy and I would really like to have the orphanage open by next summer, but whatever God wants and in His time. If you can help financially, large or small, please click here. 

I saw this picture on Facebook today and it reminded me EXACTLY why I chose to name the new orphanage after St. John Bosco. That man was just so plain stinkin' awesome. I am so insanely excited about the future and what God has in store. It's more than I ever would have thought when I began praying about being a missionary 2 years ago. 

Please continue to keep ETL: Mission Romania in your prayers because it's the prayers of our supporters that keep us going.

The Smallest, Most Heartfelt Donation

Today, I received a letter from a 10-year-old girl named Sarah who I used to babysit when her family still lived in Cincinnati. Here's what it says:

Dear Catherine,
Happy Easter! I hope yours was incredible! Mine was. My family has a tradition of putting up charts so we know how well we are doing with our give ups and take ons for Lent. If you do both give up and take on correctly, you get 2 nickels. The first one you earn goes to the Church and the second one you keep. This year, however, I am not giving my money to the Church. I am giving it to your orphanage in Romania. It isn't much ($2.30) but I hope it will help you.
Love, Sarah

When I read this letter, my eyes began to tear up. What a beautiful witness this young girl is. She has always been such a delight and her generosity has really moved me. It reminds me of the Parable of the Poor Widow: "And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put more in than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she our of her poverty has put in everything she had." -Mark 12:41-44. Her donation has even humbled me. If someone as young as Sarah sees the need, then I, as someone who has the chance to change the world, shouldn't pass up the opportunity to do so.

Sarah's donation brings the grand total of fundraising to date for Casa de Copii Don Bosco to $21,002.30. Everyone who has donated has been so generous and I could not be more thankful for our benefactors. I am so excited about this project and God has made it very clear that his is what He wants.

I had surgery on my shoulder 3 weeks ago and everything went well. I will be in a sling for another week and a half and then I will have 6-8 weeks of physical therapy after that. I'm hoping to be back in Romania by mid-June.

If you'd like to donate to the orphanage fund, on the side bar is the link to the donation page. Just choose the orphanage fund designation.

I find great joy in these words. I hope you do too. "My greatest pleasure if to serve the Lord in His poor children rejected by other people." -St. Damian of Molokai

Habemus Papam!

A little thing about me. I love the pope. I love the entire concept of the papacy and my love for it grew even more when I visited Rome for the first time 2 years ago this month and I first saw Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. I was very blessed to see him a total of 7 times during 2 visits to Rome and one of those times, he was a mere arm's length away from me. It was at the conclusion of the Easter Vigil 2011. It was during the recessional hymn that he passed right by me. I could have touched him if I'd tried. But that moment wasn't when I first fell in love with the papacy. I was standing in St. Peter's Square on for the pope's Sunday Angelus with my friends waiting for Benedict to come to the window. As he did, cheers rose from the square and he began to speak. There is no way to describe the feeling of hearing his voice in person for the first time. It was so comforting and I felt like I was in the presence of a shepherd.

I took this picture with no zoom. That's how close I was. 

I am so excited about our new pope. His profound humility has left me very humbled. Pope Francis' episcopal (from when he was just a bishop in Argentina) motto is Miserando atque eligendo (Lowly but chosen). How fitting that he then choose the name Francis. Cardinal Dolan confirmed it in his press conference that it's in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis of Assisi was an incredible lover of the poor and was called by God to rebuild His Church.

I'm also very excited that he is a Jesuit. He doesn't have the stigma that most Jesuits have. And from what I have read about him so far, he genuinely lives out the Jesuit motto of Ad Majorem Dei Gloraim (For the greater glory of God). I do my best to live my own life by that same idea.

If you didn't hear, this is what our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, had to say to the world:

"Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Good evening.

As you know, the duty of the conclave was to appoint a bishop of Rome, and it seems to me that my brother cardinals have chosen who is from far away. Here I am.

I would like to thank you for your embrace, also to the Roman Catholic Church and the bishops, thank you very much. And first and foremost, I would like to pray for our bishop emeritus, Benedict XVI.

Let is pray together for him so that he is blessed by the Lord...

Let us begin this journey together...this journey for the Roman Catholic Church. It is a journey of friendship, of love, of trust, and faith. Let us pray always for one another. Let us pray for the while word. Let us have a big brotherhood.

I wish that this journey for the Church, which we will start today...will bear fruits for the evangelizing of this beautiful city.

I would like to offer you my blessing. But I would like to ask a favor first. I would like to pray to the Lord so that the prayer of the people blesses also the new pontiff. Let us pray in silence your prayer for me."

To watch the Holy Father bow down and ask for the blessing of the people he shepherds was absolutely breathtaking. Such profound humility. A true example for every one of us to follow.

I am so proud to say that I work for the Church that this man now leads. I am excited to call him our new Holy Father. I am excited to follow his example of true humility.

God's Plans vs. My Plans

You know that saying, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans"? Well, that's definitely been the epitome of what's gone on the last couple weeks. At the end of February, I was cleared by my orthopedic to go back to Romania. A few days after that, my shoulder popped funny and I was in excruciating pain. I went back to the doctor and he told me that I need to have surgery. So, on Thursday, I'm having surgery on my shoulder with an expected recovery time of 10-12 weeks. PLEASE, PLEASE say some extra prayers for me. I'm actually really nervous about this surgery (it's not the first time I've had surgery, so I don't really know why). My return to Romania has been postponed to June. As extremely frustrated as I have been with all this, I'm doing my best to see this whole situation with eyes of faith. God has a reason for needing me to be in the U.S. for a couple more months. I don't know what it is and I may never know what it is, but I know He has His hand on this whole thing.

Yesterday, I spent time with the Newman family. Mark is the one who interviewed me on Radio Maria in August and then again in January. He's been a huge support in my mission work and knowing him and his family has been a huge blessing to me. Yesterday, we recorded my conversion story and some stuff about missionary life for a podcast for Mark's internet radio station (www.crossroadsradio.us).

Click here for the podcast.

Last week, I was very humbled to find out that a little blurb had been written about me and my mission in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's Missions Office news letter. I was also interviewed by someone from Franciscan University's alumni magazine for an upcoming article. Right now, I'm working on an article for my parish's newspaper to hopefully be published in June. I'm currently in the process of scheduling some talks around the country. Trying to get to Illinois, Las Vegas, and Minnesota. Pray those all happen! I'm so excited that the word is getting out about this. I LOVE sharing my love of Romania and my kids with people!

Casa de Copii Don Bosco update: At this time (6:02pm on Monday, March 11), I have raised just over $20,170! Praise God, that's so glorious!!!!!!! He has been so amazing and the benefactors have been so generous. Oh my goodness. It's been so overwhelming to me. I wasn't expecting this amount of support this quickly. My initial goal was to raise $10,000 so that I could put in the foundation of the building. Then my next goal was $15,000. We hit that the other day. Then it was $16,250, which was 1/4 of the total cost and today, I received a very generous donation that took me over that to where we are right now. Praise God, He's just so good!! Only $45,000 more to go! If you can help make a dent in that $45,000, please go to the link on the side bar to my donation page and choose the "Romanian Orphanage Fund" designation.

Jesus (very smartly, I mean duh! He's God, remember?!) said in the Gospel of Matthew "Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's trouble be sufficient for the day." I'm clinging to that verse and the promise of Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

Pray for me, but most especially, pray for the people that this mission serves. Pray for the kids God will place in our care. I'll be praying for you.

St. John Bosco and St. Raphael, ora pro nobis.

Where We Are

Well, 6 months ago today, I got on a plane in Cincinnati for my 25 hour journey to the little Romanian town that has held such a special place in my heart since April 2011. I miss it like crazy. I miss the chaos of the orphanage. I miss the kids like crazy. I look at some of the pictures I have of them hanging up over my desk and man, my heart aches for them. I look at the picture of a dragon that Beni drew me and I long to hold him in my arms. I long to hold them all in my arms. I've been back in the U.S. for 2 months now I can't wait to get back to the country I love so much.

Right now, the question is when that will be. Well, I'm not completely sure at the moment. Four days before I left Romania, I hurt my shoulder. I waited until after the holidays to have it looked at, and now having the diagnosis, well, it's going to take some time. At this point, I can't pick up more than a few pounds with my right arm, which is a problem. I wouldn't be able to pick up any of the kids or George (Fr. Remus and Iulia's  2-year-old son). I recognize that I can't do my job without more strength and less pain in my shoulder. And I can't really get adequate orthopedic care for it in Romania, so I made the decision to stay in the States until things are at least to where I can pick up the smaller kids. I'm hoping that I can be back by the end of March, but I honestly don't know. Please pray I can heal correctly so I can get back.

Onto the REALLY good news! I wanted to raise $10,000 so that we could begin putting in the foundation for the new orphanage when I get back. Well, at this moment, thanks to some very generous donors, I have raised $14,100!!! Praise the Lord! It's so amazing. And I could not be more grateful to God, our donors, or St. John Bosco (I prayed a novena to him. Looks like we're going to be naming the orphanage after him after the way he came through for me). Of course though, I still need to raise $50,900 more to make this happen. If you can donate, even just $5, please go to https://www.egsnetwork.com/gift/gift.php?giftid=F7E26965-8FDC-4418-863E-EF472F4950E9 and choose the "Romania Orphanage Fund" designation.

I wanted to share this song with you. It was written by the guys of Audio Adrenaline about the kids at the orphanage that they built in Haiti. So much of this song resonates with me, having gone to Haiti on a mission trip last March and also with our new project. Check it out and get even more pumped up about the building of Casa de Copii "Don Bosco"!!

Please continue to pray for me and for the kids at the orphanage in Halmeu and the kids that God will place into the care of our new orphanage. I will be praying for you.

Radio Maria and Blueprints

Last night, I was on Radio Maria, a worldwide Catholic radio station, talking about my time in Romania and what the plans are for the new orphanage. It was such a blessing to have met Mark Newman, the host of the radio show, this past summer at Franciscan. I was first on his show right before I left for Romania. He has been a huge support of my mission work and I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. Here is the link.

http://radiomaria.us/crossroads/2013/01/08/january-8-2013-catherine-england/

So, I'm excited to be able to share this with you. These are the blueprints for the orphanage. Fr. Remus and I met with the architect just before I came home to get an idea of what the new orphanage is going to be like. This is a building plan designed based off a house that the architect designed not too long before we met with her. This isn't the final design, but it will be similar. So, here you go :) Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Main Entrance - left side of the building

Front of the building

First Floor

Second Floor

We are still deciding on what to call it. We are trying to decide on whether to name it after St. John Bosco or the Blessed Mother. I prayed a novena to Our Lady promising that if she helped us, we'd name it after her. So, It's between John Bosco or Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception. We will see.

Talking about this new project makes me so ridiculously excited for what God has in store for the future of my mission in Romania. It's definitely not going to be easy, but I know that this is what He wants for the children. I'm humbled everyday that God called me to Romania and placed this project in my hands. It means that He trusts me with the care of his precious children.