STEUBENVILLE, OH—Mother Teresa once said, “Joy is the net in which we catch souls.” As spring break approaches, more than 300 Franciscan University of Steubenville students are preparing to spread this joy by bringing the love of Christ to others through week-long mission trips.

On March 7, the students will begin their travels to 13 mission locations:

• Arizona: Students will work in a Catholic school just inside the U.S. border, serving the Hispanic students who cross the border to go to a school run by the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles.
• Belize: Middle and high school students of villages and cities will be taught how to live out their faith, practice chastity, and build up each other as the body of Christ.
• New York City, the Bronx: Students will be missionaries in the inner city, working in soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and with the city’s many different religious orders.
• Chicago: Emmaus Ministries will work with the students as they help homeless men struggling with addictions.
• Ecuador: The sacraments and basic medical care will be brought to rural Ecuadorian communities.
• Honduras: Students will bring Christ to the poorest of the poor through the sacraments, prayer, music, and personal ministry to families and children.
• New Mexico: This mission will minister to the Navajo at the Gallup Catholic Grade School and High School and St. Michael’s Special Education.
• Nicaragua: Missionaries will teach John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and work with the poor and orphaned of Nicaragua.
• North Dakota: Students will minister to the Chippewa Indians on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation by leading retreats, working in the schools, ministering door-to-door, and visiting those in jail.
• San Diego: Students will lead retreats for junior high and high school students.
• SonLife: This evangelization trip to the beaches of Panama City, Florida, brings the word of Christ to other college students, the marginalized, and to non-believers.
• Steubenville: This mission focuses on bringing the light of Christ into the downtown areas of Steubenville through door-to-door evangelization, street ministry, soup kitchen, homeless ministry, and other service projects.
• United Nations: Ten students will attend the Commission on the Status of Women in New York to lobby for pro-life causes.

The trips are organized, planned, and funded by the students themselves, with oversight by the director of Missionary Outreach. More than 30 priests, sisters, and adult volunteers will accompany the students during their week of service.