In Kenya’s season of unrelenting cold and rain, Maryknoll lay missioner Theresa Glaser reflects on the stark contrast between her own simple circumstances and those of her students’ families. At the St. John Bosco Rehabilitation Center, she sees how warmth, learning, and faith can change young lives—and how gratitude can rise even from the mud.
Maryknoll lay missioner Theresa Glaser follows her calling to Kenya, where she serves as a teacher for children at risk of homelessness.
When Theresa Glaser arrived in Kenya as a Maryknoll lay missioner, she longed to serve the “poorest of the poor.” At St. John Bosco Rehabilitation Center, where vulnerable children prepare for formal schooling, Theresa found her calling not just in witnessing poverty, but in changing futures. By helping equip a computer lab and printer station, she’s helped lift both students and teachers from the margins of the digital world into a space of opportunity and hope.
In the heart of Kitale, Kenya, the resilience of the very poor offers a profound reflection on love as described by St. Paul. Through their patience, humility, and endurance—writes missioner Theresa Glaser—they embody virtues that challenge the comfort of wealth and privilege.
Theresa Glaser on the St. John Bosco Rehabilitation Centre in Kitale, Kenya
The Covington, Kentucky, Messenger profiles one of the newest Maryknoll lay missioners.
Maryknoll lay missioners are sent to serve in Kenya, El Salvador and Cambodia.
Watch a recording of the Dec. 2 Sending Ceremony of the MKLM Class of 2023 here.
Theresa Glaser answers a call in her heart: to return to and serve in Africa.
