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MINISTRY FUNDRAISING AND BENEFACTOR INFORMATION UPDATE ON RESOURCE CENTER

I thought this month would be a good month to update you on the focus of the ministry at this point in time. As you can see from the front page we are going to raise monies to take a group of our youth to World Youth Day in Australia. That is going to take a lot of work as we want to take a minimum of 35 youth along with the seven adult chaperones (one for each of 5 youth). The amount we will need to raise is about $175,000.00. We have most of our group from Santa Cruz Parish which is a very poor parish in the Diocese of Tucson and one that we focus most of our effort on. Needless to say, we will need a lot of help and benefactors to help them experience this great event, one that will shape the rest of their lives. 

Jesus, Mary and Joseph Ministries is still here through the grace of God. We have had some really rough times (as all true ministries do) especially financial. We provide trips for Priests that bring so many graces to the pilgrims but most especially to our Priests.  This has been going on since 1995 but not without a lot of financial problems in itself. It is very difficult to do pilgrimages as a group depends greatly on the numbers. All we try to do is come out even but often that is not the case because of circumstances and numbers.  Because we are a ministry (not a business) our trips are not vacations and as such we do not penalize people for any reason. If a person cancels at the last minute, they will receive a complete refund. If they book late there is no additional charge and if a trip is cancelled by the providers, this ministry tries to raise the money to pay them back so that they do not lose out. This is totally contrary to other businesses as others would NEVER do this. It takes time but one trip in particular was cancelled through no fault of ours but the people will still be paid back. All pilgrims sign a form that holds no responsibility to JMJ for any damage, expense inconvenience, omission, cancellation etc. from any of the companies that provide the tours; however, all efforts are being made to pay the rest of them the money they invested. Some have been paid, others have taken trips and the rest will be getting their money as soon as possible. Thank God for their patience and the fact that this ministry will take responsibility when even the airlines and the ground services will not.

As a whole we can relate to St. Paul in a small way as he looked at his suffering in this world as nothing compared to the knowledge of the next. All members of the ministry are focused on the prayers we pray for all that request them of us, the requests of our Priests in their needs, the needs of our youth which is so very important today as well as our elderly. If it means hardships whether it is financial, spiritual, personal, family problems, health etc. we are happy to unite them through the intercession of Our Lady for all the intentions.

We Praise God that we are still here and are working every day to achieve the goal of having the bigger place to do more for all that need us. We also want to thank all our benefactors that have been so generous and ask that as you read this you might consider helping us with our goals. You can indicate whether your donation is for the Resource Center or for World Youth Day so it can be disbursed as such.

As our prayer for this year indicates we are asking the intercession of St. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles to help and intercede for us. We feel he already is doing just that and was so pleasantly surprised to find out that the Holy Father has announced that from June 28th (vigil) of 2008 to June 29th of 2009 will be a year dedicated to him. We here in the ministry are really looking forward to the coming TWO years with him.

May God Bless You and reward you for your generosity.

Gayle