Project San Pedro is a medical mission trip taken twice annually by Catholic Charities and medical professionals. Staff and volunteers have visited Guatemala for over a decade. The mission trips began when Deacons Ed Peitler and Gabriel Cuervo discovered a need for medical assistance in the town of San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala. Their first group took off in April 2008, and Catholic Charities has returned every year since. Over the course of the week-long mission, professional medical volunteers serve as nurses, doctors, dentists and companions to those who reside in the town.

What sets Project San Pedro apart from the rest is its compelling duality. It is both a hands-on medical mission and a sponsorship program to ensure that 300 children of San Pedro have access to a quality Catholic education. Each year, CCSC asks the people of South Carolina to sponsor a child from San Pedro La Laguna, which ensures the child's education is funded and allows for a brighter future. Volunteers on each trip get to know the children and their stories, allowing these sponsorships to serve as relationships rather than transactions.

During the Gratitude Event, attendees were asked to consider sponsoring a child through the mission. By the end of the day, all 20 students in need had sponsors.

The impact of Project San Pedro reaches across communities and nations. It allows medical volunteers and town residents to feel the love and power of Jesus Christ through this meaningful work. Some volunteers have returned each year since they first began their mission journey to San Pedro.

Dr. Marcella Dolores Farrer, a podiatric wound care physician, gave her mission testimony at the Gratitude Event. She said that in the busyness of daily life, "it is easy to lose our way. But San Pedro reinvigorates me as a physician. It grounds me. It strips away the noise, makes me less selfish, and forces me to recognize the endless blessings in my own life."

The event also recognized Barbara Mathis, who was honored for her exemplary service to the mission. Mathis has taken 25 medical mission trips with Project San Pedro as a pediatric nurse. For her dedicated service, Barbara received an array of gifts, including a statue of Blessed Stanley Rother, which was taken to his shrine in Oklahoma City and touched to his grave just days before the event.

Catholic Charities of South Carolina has taken Blessed Stanley Rother as its patron and as an example for all its missionaries.

"We use the image of Blessed Stanley Rother to highlight his love, commitment, holiness as a priest, and his martyrdom, that we may look up to as we do mission," said Rhett Young, executive director of CCSC.

The Gratitude Event and mission as a whole serve as reminders that people are called in many ways to pick up the cross of Christ and tend to those in need. As Blessed Stanley Rother said, "My life is for my people. I am not scared."

To learn more about the mission and how to get involved, visit charitiessc.org/guatemala-medical-mission. To sponsor a child in San Pedro La Laguna, visit charitiessc.org/sponsor-a-child.