St. Mary's Central High School in Bismarck, North Dakota, offers various pilgrimage opportunities to its students each year. Seniors have a chance to tour Europe. There are trips to St. Thomas University in Minnesota. And juniors occasionally have the chance to travel to Antigua, Guatemala, to be part of service teams for the Bismarck-based organization The God's Child Project.

Over the course of a few days, each service team builds a home for a poor family near Antigua. In addition to construction work, these students may witness poverty in a homeless shelter or orphanage. They will interact with the children of the God's Child Project who have suffered so much. And they will see the beautiful countryside in Guatemala.

In August of 2006, I was given an opportunity to participate in one such trip to Guatemala as a chaperone. Thirty of us, led by Father James Shea and Mr. Jerry Richter, went down to participate in God's Child service teams. It was an amazing experience. In this web page, I share it with you as best I can.

As always, I appreciate comments or questions. E-mail me at jason@jsignal.com.

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©2006, Jason Signalness