It started with just conversation and snow balled into beautiful unselfish acts of giving from our Dominican family. My husband, Anthony, and I are Associates of the Dominican Sisters of Peace congregation. Annually, since 2007, we have been blessed to go on mission trips to a small village in Haiti through Lifeline Christian Mission out of Westerville, Ohio, where we plunge whole heartedly into performing whatever service asked of us. Our motto is we are there to serve those in need in the name of Jesus; we are His vessels to be used as needed. It's hard work, long hours under extreme heat, but all worth it. We receive enormous blessing from helping build homes, outfitting children mostly with clothes and shoes in the hot clothing and shoe pantries, working in the health clinic and nutritional programs, and attending a number of church services, even the 4am one.
"There is a season for everything…a time for everything under heaven."
On October 7, 2011, the feast of the Holy Rosary, two Associates of the Dominican Sisters of Peace were married at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dodge City, Kansas. The story of their separate life journeys -- and how they intersected to arrive at the opening of this current chapter -- is not only unique, but intimately entwined with their common Dominican connection.
Dominican Sisters have served the Alaskan Diocese faithfully in years past, but now only a small Associate group remains, the Northern Lights OPAs. This is why Associate Peggy Frank usually tries to recruit people to the vast mission field that is her state.
Associate Rebecca Peacock-Creagh (Columbus, OH) works with children surrounding St. Dominic Parish through a program called F.E.A.T. in the NEIGHBORhood. F.E.A.T. is an acronym for the streets surrounding the church, with "NEIGHBOR" capitalized to remind the children that they live in a neighborhood and not a "hood." Currently, Rebecca is working with the area children on a garden project, improving St. Dominic’s garden and teaching the children life lessons in the process.
If she could, Associate Lucy Strohl would take you all to her home. Though she resides in Great Bend, her true home is about 70 miles away: a south-central Kansas farmstead. Always buzzing with John Deere activity, this was where she grew up working long hours with her family preparing soil, planting seeds, and praying for a good wheat harvest.
