Wonderful people, natural events—even earthquakes—have been proofs to Emily of God’s guiding care in her life. “God always sends me the right people at the right time to affirm me in my religious call, to help me in rough times.  Just when I feel like saying, ‘Lord, where are you?’—God responds in what has become a pattern in my life.  Each person, each event has been a reaffirmation of my religious missionary call, so I have learned to trust completely that God is in charge.”

Carolyn Kosub grew up in San Antonio, Texas, climbing trees and enjoying the wide expanses of her native State.  Even by her sophomore year in high school, becoming a nun was the farthest thing from her mind.  And then something happened.  During a presentation by visiting missionary sisters, she says, “I was struck by God, as if by symbolic lightning! In a personal encounter, God took over my whole being at that moment, and I knew what I was to do with my life.  I had received so much within my loving family, and now I was to give of myself, to spread the message of God’s love in foreign lands.”

A visionary, a dreamer, a risk-taker—these words describe Sister Tellie Lape. Tellie grew up in Balamban, Cebu, Philippines, as the second eldest of ten children. Her home was a lively place where her parents always emphasized that people should not “settle for less. There is always something better to discover.”  Tellie’s father was a teacher, a hard working-man who was a jack of all trades. In this home, the emphasis was on generosity and service to the least of God’s people. It was not unusual for Tellie’s mother to give her own plate of food to a hungry neighbor and be the voice for anyone who was oppressed.

Would you make a career change at the age of 72?  That’s what Carol Rochtus did!  Talk about embodying the missionary spirit of Mother Marie Louise De Meester!  For all of her 45years as a missionary in the United States, Carol was a teacher in cities: Yonkers and Los Angeles.  During her 40 years in L.A., Carol taught first grade and kindergarden in the gangland areas of East L.A. where drive-by shootings are simply a fact of life.  She knew all the freeway links and the location of every dollar store where she could buy inexpensive supplies for her teaching.

Fatima Santiago says of herself, “I am a dreamer of a just and a loving society, and I am an idealist in this.  I also know that I am not a savior, but at the same time I will not sit back and relax. I will do my part to make this world a better place, and others will also do their part.   I believe that if all do their share, the world will be a better place in which to live.”