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Last week, 13 young adults left their homes in the Diocese of Phoenix and their comforts of modern technology for a 12-day mission trip to Haiti.

Young adult missionaries from Ss. Simon and Jude are headed to South Africa (image from SSJ South Africa Facebook page).

Today, more Phoenix missionaries are crossing international lines in the name of the Gospel. Eleven young adults from Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral are headed to South Africa through an Amor Ministries outreach project. They will spend time in community with local families, visit historical Apartheid sites and spend five days on a building project in Johannesburg.

I’m awaiting membership confirmation — member #810 — to the SSJ South Africa Mission page on Facebook to find out more specifics on this building project.

The group returns August 1. Fr. John Lankeit, rector at Ss. Simon and Jude, offered a special blessing and prayer for the 11 young missionaries during the weekly TV Mass July 18. Jump ahead to the 74-minute mark to see the blessing.

By the way, you can also request to join its Facebook page read their daily reflections from South Africa.

Kristin Niedbala, a young adult missionary who has served in the Phoenix Diocese for six years, began a mission abroad this month as well. She’s planning to spend the next three months in England and surrounding areas teaching the people because of a simple thought a priest shared with her last year:

The Church will die without missionaries like herself.

Niedbala remembers a woman in Switzerland crying when she saw Niedbala praying in church last year because she said it’s a rare site.

Tune in to the May 27 podcast for words from a missionary.

This summer, Niedbala will further evangelization efforts in England, specifically to youth and young adults in the Diocese of Westminster and lead a four-day Catholic young adult festival in England. She’ll be an independent missionary, but Niedbala will also help Life Teen open a new mission base in the Netherlands and host a Life Teen camp at the site of a Marian apparition in Belgium.

Hear a short interview with a missionary on Life Teen’s “The Mix” podcast from May 27. Niedbala closes the podcast in prayer.