Recently, it was my privilege to escort the TWO winners
from Boston and one of each of their parents to the awards celebration and Mass
at the National Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington
DC, where their artwork is on display for all of Advent!
Dominic Udoakang from the Cathedral School in Boston and
Jacinta Karanja from St. Patrick School in Lowell, both fourth graders, were
awarded plaques with copies of their drawings by Msgr. Robert Furhman,
Assistant National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United
States.
Their artwork was also made
into e-greetings on our national website (www.MCAkids.org) so that children
around the world can send their friends and family online mission-themed
Christmas greetings. In addition,
Dominic’s and Jacinta’s beautiful drawings was made into Christmas cards
here in Boston and used as our own office’s Christmas greetings to schools,
parishes and benefactors.
Both Dominic and Jacinta represented Boston admirably in
Washington DC: they are bright, polite, and attentive children who are a credit
to their families, their schools and their Archdiocese. What made their awards particularly moving
for all of us was the mission connection. Dominic’s family is from Nigeria and
Jacinta’s is from Kenya. Both parents were quick to admit that were it not for
the work of Catholic missionaries in their home countries, they would not have
received a quality education themselves.
As we admired the children’s work, an older couple looked
over our shoulders and congratulated Dominic and Jacinta. They happened to be
touring the Shrine that day and asked what the art exhibit was about. When we related the whole story, including
the winners’ family origins, the couple’s eyes welled up and they smiled. They
explained that they were from Finland but had spent two years of their lives in
Kenya as missionaries, teaching children.
And so, there we stood, young and old, African, European,
American connected by the Good News…and
the missions.
To enter this year’s Artwork Contest by January 31, 2013, go
to www.propfaithboston.org, click on the Missionary Childhood section and go to
the artwork page.
-Maureen Crowley Heil
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