Through the long rain, hope remains

MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Winter 2025

Theresa Glaser, Kenya

Father David Kiprono of St. Patrick’s Missionary Society celebrates Mass at St. John Bosco Rehabilitation Center for the closing of the 2025 school year, offering prayers of gratitude and hope for the year ahead.

I’m not exaggerating, but this has got to be the longest, coldest, rainiest winter season in recent memory here in Kitale, Kenya, where I serve as a Maryknoll lay missioner. For months now, we’ve awakened to finger-numbing cold mornings and have been spared continuous downpours for only a few hours a day. Hand-washed laundry, with only a brief window of opportunity to dry, threatens mildew in seams and edges. You can imagine the inner grumbling that accompanies the thought of stepping into a wood-fire-heated shower—which may or may not fall far short of blazing hot.

Each student at St. John Bosco Rehabilitation Center receives a donated Christmas gift—bright blankets to bring warmth and comfort home to their families during the long, wet season.

But then I think of my students who return to their family homes on the weekends. I’ve been to those homes—constructed of mud, with leaking roofs, dirt floors, jerrycans for seating, and a scarcity of recognizable furnishings. I have not seen behind the curtain that divides the small space into two parts to glimpse the sleeping quarters, but I have seen the clay figures my students mold in class—often including a tiny infant sleeping on a small clay coffee table.

Within the brick walls of my one-room cottage, I can prepare a queenly breakfast for myself. My students’ families may have chai (milk tea) if they are fortunate, but most will wait for their first and only meal—rice and beans—at dinner. There will be no shower for them, only a basin of cold water to wash with.

I am here on mission, a witness to the lives of families whose daily reality includes none of the comforts I have always taken for granted. What would it be like to live in the unforgiving space of their homes—struggling against the cold, the damp, the mud, with hunger ever-present? And the questions never leave me: Why me? Why them?

The start of the week brings our students back to the St. John Bosco Rehabilitation Center, where they stay in residence until the following weekend. Here, they experience a God-centered, stable environment: a bed to sleep in, regular healthy meals, and housing secure against the rain and cold. They attend “informal school” classes that prepare them to enter Kenya’s formal education system. It’s a million-dollar opportunity for the lucky ones selected by our social worker—an opportunity to change the course of their lives. Many of our graduates have become teachers, social workers, nurses, and other professionals. And perhaps one day, they too will ask the question: Why me?

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If you are able, I invite you to walk with me as a “COMPANION IN MISSION.” Companions in Mission are friends and generous donors who give financial gifts on a regular (usually monthly) basis. For more information, visit Become a Companion in Mission. Thank you so much for your generosity!