MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Spring 2025

Bob and Liz Cunningham, El Salvador

Liz and Bob with the Montano family after Mass.

EL ZAITE, EL SALVADOR—We don’t always recognize the gifts that we’re given. They sometimes come in small gestures or simple experiences, as challenges that require us to step out of our comfort zones or invitations that we hesitate to accept. It can be like that when God calls us to a particular mission.

When Jesus entered the synagogue in his hometown and read from the scroll of Isaiah, he proclaimed his mission:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

– Luke 4: 18-19

As disciples of Jesus, our mission is His mission. Maryknoll Father John Sivalon wrote that under a Missio Dei understanding, mission is belonging to or being of God. One participates in God’s mission as a way of being that in turn leads to a totally different way of mission as something we do. It accepts as the guiding principle of our lives the self-emptying love of God and recognizes our union with God and with others in love.

Bob and Liz with Ruth celebrating her quinceañera.

Entering into the life of another involves sharing in that person’s suffering. Like people everywhere, people here in El Salvador suffer from all kinds of physical and spiritual poverty, captivity, blindness, and oppression. Liz and I have shared moments of darkness and experienced the depths of sorrow with people in our community—young women scarred by violence; older adults unable to get essential medicines and waiting interminably for critical operations; children with racking coughs lasting weeks and months; and mothers folding under the pressure of working long hours in low-paying jobs, struggling to provide for their families.

Working at the El Patronato after-school program, I’ve had the privilege of helping children learn. I’ve also seen the hopes and dreams along with the fears and sorrows in the eyes of their parents. A 10-year-old boy was coming to our program until recently. He was an avid reader, particularly curious and smart. He’d devour the books I gave him such as Oliver Twist and Treasure Island. I met his mother on the bus one day, and she broke down crying as she told me her husband had left them and they were struggling to get by. She said her son was crying himself to sleep at night, but the books and the after-school program were helping him. I tried to console her, but words failed me. She and her son have since left the community, and we’ve lost contact, but I see their faces in my prayers.

Entering into the life of another also involves sharing in that person’s joy. Liz and I have experienced the heights of exultation and been showered with love here. We’ve celebrated life achievements and milestones of our friends—graduations, birthdays, and quinceañeras, but it’s often the small things that bring the greatest joy, like the way the kiss of peace at Mass has taken on a whole new meaning for us as we share group hugs with the family we sit with each Sunday.

The word “Mass” comes from the Latin word missa, which means “mission” or “sending”. With the final blessing, we “go forth” … to raise a family, care for an elderly parent, accompany people who are poor, all the many different ways we are called to serve. Our mission in Christ is one of presence, affirmation, and love—giving of ourselves to support the growth of another and opening ourselves to receive such support.

Just like mission, home involves more than location. It is a state of being one with our surroundings and with others. Liz and I will be leaving El Salvador and heading back to the U.S. this spring, but we won’t be going home. We’re already there. Our home and family have gotten bigger.

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time.” – T.S. Eliot

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