Summer 2023 Outreach Service Trips

This year, Lumen Christi Summer Outreach will focus on loving our neighbor who is truly our neighbor! Our young people will minister to and serve communities within the greater Milwaukee area through the Archdiocesan program Love Begins Here. There is one mission week for middle school and one mission week for high school.

Middle School Mission Week: June 20-23, 2023, Kenosha (current 6th-8th grade)
High School Mission Week: July 16-21, 2023, Beaver Dam (current 9th-12th grade)

Why Love Begins Here? In her 1979 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, St. (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta said, "And so here I am talking with you – I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people. And find out about your next-door neighbor – do you know who they are?"

Love Begins Here (LBH) focuses on the needs right here in our own Archdiocese. While it is good to travel across the country and world to serve those in need, God has willed for us to be in this time and this place for a reason - to be His hands and feet to those directly around us. LBH seeks to facilitate an encounter between our youth and those in need in our own homes, parishes, and neighborhoods. They will meet individuals and serve in places they can continue a relationship with.

LBH will have all the same experiences and opportunities as any other mission trip, without the hours of driving! Every day of the trip will include prayer, service, formation, community building, and fun activities and outings.

We love this model and mission and are SO excited to be a part of it this year! We hope you are too.

Middle School Outreach Trip Recap 
We sent 5 middle school missionaries and 2 adult lead missionaries to Kenosha to live in & serve the community.  The missionaries served by gardening, a variety of painting projects, meal preparation projects, helping a daycare facility, cleaning up and organizing classrooms at St. Elizabeth, and so much more.  The missionaries had daily opportunities to attend Mass, pray the rosary, group discussion/reflections and one night we had the adoration and confession available.  Confession lasted almost two hours!  We had 38 missionaries and almost all of them wanted to go to confession!