Story by Reagan Scott
(SNR) - In April of 2019, Daniel LeDuc, a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University students) missionary at the University of Virginia and graduate of Pius X High School in Lincoln, began planning a spring break mission trip for 2020 that would allow college students from across the country the chance to encounter Christ in the poor.
The trip turned out much different from what they expected.
Originally, the group was planning to volunteer with a mission in Guatemala, but on Friday, March 6, the day before the group was scheduled to fly out of Washington D.C., they received word that due to COVID-19, the mission was not going to take volunteer groups for the next 60 days.
“When I heard that we weren’t going to Guatemala it was a little scary at first,” LeDuc said. “We went to noon Mass and I told God, ‘Send us where you want us to be your hands and feet.’”
LeDuc said they found out that they wouldn’t be going to Guatemala around noon, but by 5 p.m., FOCUS had redirected their flights to Peru.
They left at 8 a.m. the next morning.
The group was comprised of 15 students from colleges across the country, three FOCUS missionaries, including Jon Brackenhoff, a FOCUS missionary at Auburn University and 2013 Pius graduate and Father Craig Clinch, who served as the group’s chaplain.
LeDuc had asked Father Clinch, a 2003 Pius X graduate and pastor for St. Andrew Parish in Tecumseh and St. Mary Parish in St. Mary, to serve as the chaplain for the mission trip last fall. Father Clinch had some Spanish-speaking ability and had been to Guatemala before to study Spanish.
Father Clinch discovered that the group might be rerouted when he flew into D.C. to meet the group for orientation before leaving the next day.
“The FOCUS missionaries picked me up from the airport and informed me that we wouldn’t be going to Guatemala,” Father Clinch said. “That was a big surprise.”
In Chimbote, Peru, the group worked with Friends of Chimbote, a mission run through Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in the City and overseen by the Diocese of Fargo, N.D.
There, they worked to build three houses alongside construction workers who work full-time for the mission’s partner, Asociación Civil Apoyo Familiar (Civil Association Supporting Families).
LeDuc said that coming from the United States, where COVID-19 was much more prevalent at the time than it was in Peru, meant that the group had to take measures to prevent any potential spread of the virus.
He said, “Being in another country we are more used to taking measures to protect ourselves than taking measures to protect another.”
When it came time for the group to leave, LeDuc said the group flew out of Peru on a Saturday at midnight. By Monday, Peru had shut down its airport.
“While I am grateful to be home, I am very grateful God sent us to Peru on mission,” Father Clinch said. “His providential care guided us there and brought us home safely. Perhaps this is an example of the Lord drawing something good out of the coronavirus. There, in the families we encountered in Chimbote, we experienced the merciful love of Jesus and in the FOCUS missionaries and the college students whom I accompanied on mission, I met many witnesses to hope.
Having completed his fourth mission trip, and second mission trip as a mission director, LeDuc said he is thankful for the interactions the group was able to have, even if the trip turned out different than he expected.
LeDuc said, “We were very blessed. God obviously wanted everybody to come on this trip to Peru and have these encounters.”
