One of the over 400 children in Lewis County, Ky., who received a gift last Christmas thanks to Project Merry Christmas.

• 'I Learned the Meaning of Life From a Priest Who Reminded Me of John Belushi,' by John Rosengren

• Project Merry Christmas: Kentucky Program Delivers More Than Gifts, by Jean Bach
• The Manger or the Mall? Alternative Ways of Celebrating the Meaning of Christmas, by Father John S. Rausch
• Still Room in the Inn? A Christmas Reflection on a Post-9/11 America, by Father Vic Subb
• Four Golden Jubilarians: Brother Robert Hoffman, Father John Otterbacher, Father Gerald (Pete) Peterson, Father Leo Schloemer.
• Giving Gifts Is Good—But So Is Learning to Receive Them! by Father Jerry Dorn.

 
Glenmary priesthood candidate Austine Duru gets into the swing of mission life at summer Bible school in Crossett, Ark.

• Bible Schools Rule: Vacation Bible Schools in Crossett, Ark., and Madisonville, Tenn., by Jean Bach and Paul W. Witte

• Father Rollie Hautz: Nobody Has More Stories, by Father John S. Rausch
• Connecting Glenmary to the Universal Church: Remembering Father Don Levernier, by Father Gus Guppenberger
• Everyone's Personal Mission: To Be in Mission in 2002, by Father Jerry Dorn.

Sister Alies Therése, with a young person from the Catholic Community of Choctaw County, the only interracial church in the area.

• Walking With Others Through the Struggles of Life: Remembering Father John Garvey by Father John S. Rausch

• Glenmary’s Newest Missioner in Glenmary’s Newest Mission: Sister Alies Therése in Choctaw County, Miss. by Jean Bach
• Farm Couples: Four Marriages Molded in the Glenmary Spirit, by Margaret Gabriel
• Blueprint for the Future: New Five-Year Plan Outlines Glenmary’s Home Mission Ministry, by Karen Hurley.

 
Glenmary Father Gerald Peterson helped facilitate the visas for three of Glenmary's newest vocation prospects during his trip to Nigeria last year.

• Ministering Behind Bars, by Father John S. Rausch

• Glenmary Research Center Does it Again!, by Ken Sanchagrin
• Theta Phi Alpha—Sharing Glenmary With a New Generation, by Karen Hurley
• International Vocation Prospects: What Do They Mean for Home Mission Ministry, by Karen Hurley. To download this story, you need Acrobat Reader. If it is not installed on your computer, it is available for free download.

 
A train display in Metter, Ga., is putting a Glenmary mission right in the middle of a new community Christmas tradition. 

• A Strange and Wonderful World: A Report From Rural Mississippi, by Sister Kris Vorenkamp, SLW

• All Aboard! Christmas Comes to Metter, Ga., by Karen Hurley
• Do Catholics Evangelize?,  by Jean Bach
• Denise Harper: Evangelizing Catholic, by Jean Bach
• Six Golden Jubilarians Celebrate 300 Years of Home Mission Ministry: Father Joseph Gartner, Father Roland Hautz, Father George Mathis, Father Raymond Orlett, Father Robert Rademacher, Father Frank Schenk

Nine years ago a handful of Catholics began meeting in a  storefront. Today they are "planted" permanently in Tennessee soil with a new Church building.

• New Church Planted, Blessed in Tennessee, by Jay Gilchrist

• Youngest Glenmarian Makes Arkansas Home, by Jean Bach
• Jubilarians Celebrate 25 Years of Brotherhood, by Karen Hurley ...
  Brother Virgil Siefker: Making the Mission Concrete
  Brother Jack Henn: Behind the Scenes Ministry
• Keeping Women Safe in Rural America, by Father John S. Rausch

• Wanted: Pastoral Associates, by Liz Dudas

• A Family Vacation in the Home Missions, by Dennis O’Connor

• Joining Brother Joe’s Crew, by Colleen and Sean O’Connor

• Building Up People—and the Neighborhood, by Susan Stevenot Sullivan

• Building to Need, Not Just Specs, by Susan Stevenot Sullivan

• Father Thomas McElhinney, 1933-2001, by Father Bob Dalton

Father Steve Pawelk presides at an Easter Vigil in Mississippi. Photographer Lynn West also captured the reenactment of the Passion.

• Growing Awareness About Growing Food, by Father John S. Rausch

• Uncovering the Human Costs of Cheap Chicken: An Overview of ‘Voices and Choices,’ by Susan Stevenot Sullivan

• Sharon Henderson: Loved Into the Fullness of Life by God and Her Husband, by Karen Hurley 

Glenmary Challenge is the quarterly publication of the Glenmary Home Missioners. Its purpose is to keep before U.S. Catholics the challenge Glenmary has been sounding since its founding in 1939: to bring a Catholic presence to the small towns and rural areas of the United States.
All donors and diocesan clergy receive copies.

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