STEUBENVILLE, OHIO – Thirty Franciscan University of Steubenville students, staff, and faculty used their summer academic break this year to serve others as part of the Missions of Peace outreach program.

One group of 18 went to the Ecuador Summer Mission for three weeks, to help children at the Santa Maria Orphanage and to tutor at a Catholic high school in Olôn. Another group of 12 stayed in Steubenville, ministering to neighborhood residents for 10 days out of St. Anthony Mission House.

Communication arts major Sam Ellis co-led the Ecuador Summer Mission team, which helped teach English to children from the orphanage and local Catholic high school, played soccer and did homework with them, and cared for infants. Ellis said caring for a 1-year-old girl who had been left at the orphanage when she was a few days old put things into perspective for him, showing him what really matters.

Education major Sadie Smith, who was part of the St. Anthony Mission House team, said her eyes were opened to those who live “off the hill” of the Franciscan campus. She has served on other missions here and abroad, but said she appreciates the Steubenville outreaches because they reveal the needs of those living nearby.

“When we think about mission, we often think about exotic places and all that, but I really liked that this was just right where we were,” Smith said.

A key part of the Steubenville outreach was “porch ministry,” in which the missionaries open the St. Anthony Mission House porch for a few hours, inviting neighbors to stop by for snacks and conversation.

“The primary thing is to build relationships with people,” Smith said, adding that porch ministry was the aspect of the mission she enjoyed most. “A few people were regulars and would come every day, so we got to know them.”

One day, Smith recalled, a woman who had previously come to porch ministry knocked on the door.

“She was going through a time and felt a dark presence over her,” Smith said. “She asked us to pray for her. It was cool to see how that house had become a safe place for people to go and know people would be there for them.”

A student outreach of Franciscan University, Missions of Peace trains and sends forth over 300 students annually during summer and spring breaks to more than a dozen locations in the United States and abroad. Students raise their own funds for travel expenses and organize and lead each mission with faculty and staff advisors.

Ellis likened his experience of co-leading the mission with another student to being a parent because the leaders had to make sure everyone was fed, keep track of plane tickets and luggage, and managed pastoral and logistical details.

“It was very exhausting,” he said, “but everyone was so joyful because of all the fruit that happened.”

Learn more about this Franciscan University outreach program at Missions of Peace.