Begging on the Blog

My wife Marion and I are going on our 3rd Mission Trip in August to Nicaragua with our local parish to help a charity called Mustard Seed Communities. The trip is to an orphanage for abandoned and/or disabled children and we’ll be working with the staff there to make repairs on their home and to help with the children’s physical therapy and educational needs. I will also be serving the group as a spiritual coordinator and conducting communion services each day since there isn’t a priest available to join us.

We've been asked by Mustard Seed to ask all friends if they could help support our mission financially. The money goes directly toward our expenses for the trip. The money enables us to buy medical supplies and equipment, diapers, food, clothing, and countless other things to bring with us. In short, we've been asked to raise $1500 apiece for the trip. That's 3 thousand simolians!

We would really appreciate it if you could help us with a donation of any size--no amount is too small.

As some of you know, we’re considering adoption at this point in our lives. Last year we hoped to adopt a little girl, named Patricia from the orphanage. However, Patricia’s mother plans to try to raise Patricia herself when she improves her financial situation. We were saddened that we would not be allowed to adopt her, but we pray for her and her mother daily. The good news for us is that we hear that there are 6 new children down there this year, so we’re excited about the possibilities. We’re praying that God will show us who our child is on this trip and we have great faith that we will be united with a child. We were deeply touched by your overwhelming support and joy of our announcement that we’d be adopting a child from Nicaragua. It comforts us to know that our child will be accepted by such a loving, warm and welcoming extended family and caring and devoted friends.

Needless to say, we both hate asking people to reach into their wallets and their hearts to assist us but, we also know that the children of Nicaragua need this support badly, so we're asking you if you can help, by sending us a donation according to your means. You can send the your checks to us at:

Mike and Marion Hayes
St Paul the Apostle Church
415 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019

The check should be payable to "Mustard Seed Communities" and our names should be written in the memo.

You can read about the children we are going to help at www.mustardseed.com. Hope you can help and thanks. Please continue to pray for us and for the child that waits for us. Know that we will pray for you with the children on the trip.

Love,
Mike and Marion