MENSEN met een missie, this is Dutch and stands for People with a mission. People with a mission is a funding agency from Holland. It comes out with a yearly report. Recently I received the report over 2014. It is a beautiful report with many beautiful pictures of poor people from the underdeveloped world in South America, Africa and Asia.
The director of this organization, Jeroen Goosen, says in a cover letter: As a Catholic missionary organization we have dealt with the question how we can keep the missionary fire burning. How can we continue to be committed to a dignified existence of people, to solidarity and the common welfare of poor people. We have looked at the question how we can formulate our mission in such a way that many more people can be touched by our work, aside from our faithful donors who have been touched already. Not only so that we can collect more money for our project but also to carry over to people that strength of hope and faith that we have experienced in every encounter with our partners.
In this report you can find some of the answers to our questions. We cordially thank you for your support and concern for the people who need it so badly. We call our partners local heroes in Africa, Latin America and Asia who in their turn continue to make a difference for the life of thousands of people.
The letter concludes: I hope that this year we may continue to count on your support and I wish you all a happy reading.
In a foreword the director says: I submit to you this year report with pride because with this issue we present a design and logo that marks a new future. It is an important milestone.
People with a mission is an organization through which we want to contribute to a society wherein everyone counts. Through our work we want to help people that they can live together in peace, they can develop themselves so that they can build up their own society. We present to the people the Catholic social teachings of the Church. There must be the same rights for everyone so that they can reach a good life for everyone and they have the duty to assist each other so that they can reach this life.
In this lies our task as Christians: to believe in God’s Kingdom and all people of good will have the duty to work on that together. This may even be against the spirit of the times, which is characterized by a strong individualism that often does not go beyond the small circle of friends. The system, business and politics are acting in a more and more so-called macro-environment. They pretend that they realize great changes wherein you can make big money. But the rich are becoming always richer and the poor always poorer. People feel that they get lost in this one-sided, neo-liberal model and they don’t want to connect any longer with this system. Their brains get confused with all those big numbers. And what is worse, religion and faith disappear to the background.
People with a mission see religion as a binding force which can cause positive results. Faith can be a personal source of inspiration and an inspiration also for the communities in which they live. Faith means to keep hope and trust in a world without divisions and violence, a world where everyone counts.
People with a mission go their own way inspired by their missionary spirit.
I believe, we Christians are supposed to become all like those people with a mission. If people living in the so-called First Word can act like that, how much more do we have to fulfill that mission towards the people who are living right in our midst. Everyone must count, especially the poor and those who are in need of our help.
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[Email: nolvanvugt@gmail.com]