Hello family and friends,
I am sending this brief mass email to rekindle old friendships and create new ones by telling you about two incredible things happening in my life. First, I would like to invite you to pray and donate to help a charitable cause I helped start in May to support a Ukrainian orphanage and the Catholic Church's fight to end human sex trafficking. Secondly, I leave in one week for a trip around the world, and you are cordially invited to join me and my companions.
The Pysanka Children's Home in Potelech, Ukraine is run by Sr. Romana Musenko, an inspiring 33-year old nun who is starting her own orphanage. When I met her in 2009, I was humbled by her youthful optimism, determination and the harsh reality of Ukrainian life: over 200,000 Ukrainian children roam the streets every day with no place to call home. Coupled with a $14 billion dollar sex industry that is thriving in Ukraine and the human disaster of orphan trafficking quickly takes shape. Sister Romana's model of family-style, Catholic orphanages is not just a step in the right direction, it is the model the rest of Ukraine should follow and we believe the right answer to human trafficking.
Since May, we have raised over $11,000 to help finish the orphanage by publishing newspaper articles, speaking at Catholic churches in the Rockford, Illinois Diocese and selling artwork in Toronto. This means the nuns have raised over $200,000 US total, but still need approximately $50,000 more. We have sent all the money we can before Christmas, but all help is deeply appreciated. Please keep the sisters and the orphans of Ukraine in your prayers, and if you feel inclined to give you can make checks out to UCEF, and write in the memo "Sr. Romana."
Donations can be sent to:
Matthew Matuszak
Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation
2247 W. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622-4828
On January 1st, I leave for Auckland, New Zealand for a trip around the world with my best friend, Tim Malone and his brother, Daniel. You are invited.
This is an open, collaborative trip, meaning anyone can join at anytime. Of course, we don't expect you to quit your job, buy a plane ticket and fly across the Pacific Ocean to embark on the trip of a lifetime(like us). But if you are so inclined, or you have a week, month or year of vacation, consider sending us an email and joining up.
The catch is if you join, you have to post your photos, videos, and stories online so they can be geo-tagged. Then we will patch your trip together with our trip and map out where you were with us on our blog and Google Maps. We'll do the same with the next person, and the next, and . . . . Soon, it will be like you went around the world with thousands of other people.
The patchwork quilt we are making isn't made of a lot of money-we aren't especially rich at this time in our lives and plan to work our way around the globe. It's not made of hotels or first class seating- we plan to couchsurf, WWOOF, and help along the way, avoiding air travel as much as possible. And it's not about living vicariously. We are inviting you to join us, or to contribute in your own way by living life beautifully everyday and posting your story for others to be inspired. That is, after all, the title and theme of our blog, Life is Beautiful.
If you are in this email, then I am thinking of you and keeping you in my prayers. God Bless and Merry Christmas!
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Mike Rudzinski
Photojournalist
Skype: rudz1985
