what are you leen's about?

Ashley and I had a conversation the other day about values. And it was fun!

We asked ourselves, "Do our family and friends know what we're about? Are the values we espouse evidenced by the way we live our life, or would we have to verbally articulate them for anyone to know?"

A primary motivation for becoming Maryknoll Lay Missioners is to sincerely live out our values, and in doing so, communicate our values to others - not in an over-the-top-heavy-handed-kind-of-way, but in a put-the-pieces-together-for-yourself-kind-of-way.

Beyond the lived experience as missioners, however, we decided to draft a personal mission and vision statement - because that's a super fun and totally normal thing for people to do, right?

The below mission and vision serves not only as a compass to keep us focused, but also to clearly articulate our values to others. Enjoy!

Our Mission & Vision
Together as a married couple, we seek to immerse ourselves in the reality of life as Jesus did.

We choose to do so by living in solidarity with the poor and contributing to a full and dignified life for Tanzanian women and children.

Our hopes are:

• to improve community health, especially people living with HIV/AIDS, while reducing poverty and advancing development through the economic empowerment of women and youth.
• to inspire and facilitate youth and children to realize their roles and full potential in society, focusing on rights advocacy, policies, and education.
• to communicate personal stories and social analysis of the issues affecting the poor and marginalized, especially Tanzanian women and children, to family, friends, parishes, policymakers, and peace and justice organizations.

So that's what we're about. While the tactical components of our vision will evolve overtime, our mission to immerse ourselves in the reality of life as Jesus did will be our constant driving force. Neato!