About the Mission of Hope
The goal of the Mission of Hope (MOH) of St. Joseph Parish is two-fold: first, to seek out areas to work where a need exists either from a natural disaster or poverty; and second, to commit and respond to this need as a community of faithful believers in Jesus Christ as directed by the Holy Spirit.
We, as a team of youth and adults, strive to relieve the suffering of families and individuals by the strength of our hands and hearts. This work may include cleaning, building, replacing and/or rejuvenating homes and community work.
The skills of our missionaries grow each year and we are able to accomplish increasingly more difficult tasks. When necessary, we provide training through-out the year to develop the skills of our missionaries to ensure that all of our participants feel capable and safe as they strive to do God's work.
Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another. Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times.” — Romans 12:10-13
Our History
The Mission of Hope ministry of St. Joseph Church was first introduced to the parish in November of 2006 with the words: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” The parish wanted to send volunteers to assist with the ongoing disaster relief work needed as a result of Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast region of the United States in 2005. With the generous support of our parish and our pastor at the time, Fr. Robert Sanson, forty-five parishioners, ranging in age from 15 to 76, raised over $19,000 to cover the cost of air transportation to New Orleans and van rental upon our arrival. Our Parochial Vicar at the time, Fr. Barry Gearing, traveled with us to provide spiritual direction and liturgical support. The original Mission of Hope logo was designed by parishioner, Pam Connell. It included the year, 2007, and the “fleur de lys” symbol because we were traveling to New Orleans. The symbol and date were later dropped to make the logo more generic and allow it to be used for all of our future outreach efforts. We invite you to be a part of writing the next part of our history...