CEM POC Fall Newsletter – Fall 2025

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away. "And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”— Revelation 21:4-5

Our New Grantees

Wow!! It is hard to believe that we are rapidly heading into the holiday season. The summer has come and gone and it has been a tempest of activity in the CEM POC world. Our summers are spent receiving and responding to the missionaries who are asking for help. As our applicants increase, it is clear that the word

has gotten out about the help that we offer. There is a need to help these amazing young people who knock on our doors in their pursuit of evangelization ministry in the Church. Last year we had 16 applicants with only 5 of the applicants being new requests. This year, we had 20 applicants with 15 of the applicants being new requests for help. There were more who had incomplete applications or who had missed the deadline that were not considered.

While the new requests are increasing, the flow of donations has sadly remained more or less the same. This discrepancy between need and resources has made it necessary to continue our search for someone to help with development and administrative tasks. I’ve been busy visiting any Church that would let me make an appeal and I’m looking to expand that effort beyond the state of VA where we are based. The exceptional missionaries that we have supported serve all over the US (as well as one from Canada). Our desire is to be able to help more and the only way to do that is to find new donors to invest in the new grantees. To that aim, if you believe in the work that we’re doing then I would encourage you to do what you can to connect us to good people who are able to contribute to this work. Please consider asking your pastor if we could make an appeal and if you have a particular ministry/ fellowship that would be open to investing in this work then please let me know. And as you spread the word about their work, may the faces of this year’s Missionary Grantees inspire and encourage you. We’ll be featuring each of them in turn in future newsletters. Happy Fall!!

Our New Chaplain

Father Eduardo Rivera, CSB

When we started the CEM POC grant, we were greatly assisted by the incredible work and ministry of Fr. Joe Goldsmith. So it was with great sadness that we received the news that he would no longer be able to serve in this role with us. He was an amazing asset and we are grateful for all that he did to help us launch this much needed service to the Church. His absence left a hole in our board that we needed to fill. We intend to ground this work in the traditions of the Church and so the presence and the insight of a Catholic priest is critical as we labor to show our commitment to remain within the walls of mother Church and to show our desire to support the ongoing work of her ministers. It was not easy to find a replacement for Fr. Joe and I reached out to several individuals that I knew with little success. The best priests for the job are spread pretty thin and are already committed to a great ministry projects ourside of their own work as priests. And so, it was a small work of providence when I met Fr. Eduardo Rivera, CSB. I was working at SPO’s guests/partner days at training this summer and we chatted briefly during that time about his work in TX. I was initially just interested soliciting his help in being a chaplain on one of the many short term international mission trips that I was leading this year. The idea came to me in prayer that as I reached out to him to gauge his interest in going on a mission trip with me that I might make inquiry into his ability to serve on our Non-profit board. Surprisingly, he did not have time to help with a mission trip but was willing to be on our board. As an American priest with family roots in Mexico, he was a perfect fit and an answer to our prayers. Please pray for him and his work especially as he steps into this new role and enjoy the little bio of his life and work below.

Father Eduardo Rivera, CSB is a priest of the Congregation of St. Basil (Basilian Fathers). He is the chaplain of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. Fr. Eduardo is an alumnus of the University of St. Thomas and native of Houston. He discovered his vocations to the priesthood and religious life at the university, where he was active in Campus Ministry as a student. He now serves at that school as one of the Campus ministry priests. He grew deeply in his faith while at school and he wants to help others encounter Christ both inside and outside of the classroom. One of Fr. Eduardo's favorite saints is St. Matthias, who was selected to replace Judas Iscariot in the Acts of the Apostles. As the Apostles were choosing a replacement for Judas, one of their main requirements was the person must have been with them and Jesus throughout his ministry. Matthias was never in the spotlight, yet he was with the disciples throughout all of Jesus' earthly ministry and he stepped up to lead when he was needed. Fr. Eduardo seeks to follow St. Matthias' example of humble leadership.

Fr. Eduardo is honored to serve on the board of The Catholic Evangelical Missionary People of Color Grant (CEM POC). From his own experience in young adult and university ministry, he recognizes a profound need to cultivate missionaries who understand the unique stories of each student. As the first apostles understood the unique stories of their communities, CEM POC seeks to support the apostles of today who know the unique stories of their communities because they find their roots in them. Fr. Eduardo realizes that CEM POC's mission is crucial to fulfilling this need in the Church and empowering missionaries to journey with young people understanding their stories firsthand.

News of Our New Pope

Since this newsletter is focused on some

“new things’ in our ministry, I wanted to

also take a moment to share some thoughts on the very exciting

election of the new pope which happened May of this year. During the conclave, many asked me who I would want to be pope. Although the process of selecting a pope is influenced by very human factors, I’m also firmly convinced that the election of the pope is a work of the Holy Spirit. In the writing of scripture, the human authors were guided by the Holy Spirit with truths to lead and guide the Church and I believe that this same influence persists in the work of the Papacy. So I would just simply reply, I don’t really care, the Holy Spirit is in charge! Most were not satisfied with my “overly spiritual” Holy Spirit answer and persisted in pressing me to give my opinion of who I thought would be best. I knew little to nothing about the candidates and possibilities and so after a superficial investigation I said, “I definitely would NOT be in favor of one of the Cardinals from the USA being considered because I believe that the Church in the states is too young and not sufficiently connected to the Global Church. But then I was quick to add, if there WOULD be a pope from the states, the only one that I might be able to consider was Cardinal Robert Prevost because of his international experience as a missionary in Peru.” What a surprise to discover that my words were confirmed by the Holy Spirit and the college of Cardinals.

Let me continue by stating that public opinions of the pope and his suitability for the office have little worth. Whoever sits on the Chair of Peter has been sent to us for “such a time as this” and the Church in the USA has struggled with accepting the authority of someone who comes from outside of our boarders. That places Pope Leo in a very unique position historically. While I encourage robust questioning and discussion especially in the realm of issues of faith, in general we Americans don’t want anyone to tell us what to do or how we should believe. Our spirit of radical independence often does more harm than good. Jesus saved us through his humility and it was the devil who fell from grace because he “would not serve.” To that end, I believe that Pope Leo has been selected uniquely to address our current challenges as a Church. The strength of this voice of truth has already been sounded in the Pope’s most recent Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi te (“I have loved you”) which addresses the very real call of the Gospel to care for the poor. His words are challenging and timely and are a very real encouragement to examine how well we serve those in the world

with a greater need than our own. Too often the call of Christ to “take up our cross” seems to have been twisted into a call to “take up our pillow”. Jesus never promised that we’d always be comfortable and comfort is not the aim of the Christian life...heaven is. The pope is calling the Church to love sacrificially like Jesus did and sometimes that’s VERY uncomfortable.

Our Newness in Christ

When I travel, I often meet people on the plane who ask me what I do. It’s the standard

“small talk” question that, in my case, can lead to several responses. When I mention that I work with missionaries, I typically get one of two responses. Either they will try to quickly change the topic of conversation to avoid any possibility that I might try to “convert” them or they’ll respond with curiosity. As an aside, while I look for any opportunity to evangelize, I do so with an aim always to respect individual free will so that faith remains an invitation and not and imposition. The response of curiosity is the best response however and people are dying to know why anyone would want to be a missionary and why would a young person give up a year or more of the best years of their lives to tell others about Christ. This is a fair question that goes beyond the desire

to be obedient to the mandates of scripture and of the Church. After reading the faith

stories of the countless missionaries that we serve, the answer to that question of “why” is always described differently by each individual but it essentially boils down to

new life in Christ.

Jesus really does make a difference. With all due respect to the countless beautiful expressions of faith in God that are followed by countless believers in the world, the impact that Jesus makes is really rather unique. In my own life, I wasn’t raised with any real faith focus. My family wasn’t exactly atheist but they followed a faith that was pieced together from the bits and pieces of my mom’s cultural Catholicism from Panama, my dad’s cultural evangelicalism from the USA mixed with a generous helping of new age and morally realistic beliefs. They weren’t hostile to Christianity but they definitely weren’t living it out in any real way. In high school, my mother made an attempt to return to the religion of her youth more out of Catholic guilt and put my sister and I in classes for confirmation. Although I’d not been in any religious education class prior to that, the things that we were taught actually made sense. It was, however, more of an intellectual acceptance than anything that impacted my heart. Then, through a retreat connected to my confirmation process, I encountered a Jesus that went from my head into my heart and I discovered something real. That encounter with the living Christ changed my life and I’ve never been the same since. Everything in my life changed and I was made new.

My story is not unique. That same story, with a few variations, is the same story that motivates the countless missionaries that give of themselves in service to the Church. Some were raised Catholic but were only sacramentalized and never evangelized. Some were without any faith at all but were searching for more and others were raised in other faith traditions but felt that there was something missing. The details vary but the encounter with Christ is the same. Jesus breaks into our lives and we are faced with the decision to embrace something new like the apostles who left their nets to follow Christ. Is it hard...yes, at times it certainly is. Is it worth it...without a doubt! These young people give us hope because they remind us that the treasure in the field is

still worth selling all that we have to gain it because it represents a prize that that lasts forever.