A domestic mission with a global mindset

COLLEYVILLE —  Since 2008, the Mission Outreach Council at Good Shepherd Parish in Colleyville has sent many groups to its mission partner in Honduras, but its latest mission work has been close to home. Within the diocese, in fact.

Good Shepherd parishioners met with Nikki Leafgreen, the principal of St. George Catholic School, and determined a plan to improve the outdoor learning spaces at the Fort Worth school.

School students and families partnered with the mission team from Good Shepherd Parish to improve the existing bleachers, clean the grounds, and create a rosary garden.

The rosary, made of a gold painted cross and large painted stones, represents the World Mission Rosary, inspired by Archbishop Fulton Sheen to encourage prayers for children living in poverty and adversity at home and throughout the world.

Each color symbolizes a continent. The Rosary Garden design with a gold painted cross set at the beginning of the rosary; large gold painted stones for the “Our Father” and smaller colored stones painted to form the decades to signify an area where the Church continues her evangelizing mission. Green for the forests and grasslands of Africa; Blue for the ocean surrounding the Islands Of The Pacific; White symbolizing Europe, the seat of the Holy Father, shepherd of the world; Red calling to mind the fire of faith that brought missionaries to the Americas, and Yellow, the morning light of the East, for Asia.

When their work was accomplished, the mission day concluded with a hot dog lunch and kickball.

“It was an amazing time of fellowship,” said Tere Martin, mission ministry coordinator at Good Shepherd Parish.