Mission from the Depths, a novel inspiring its readers through tales of Catholic mission work, is available on Amazon!
10% of all sales will go to support the mountain villages featured in the novel

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0153SBMY6/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0153SBMY6&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwchanco-20


Gazing at the breathtaking stars over the mountains, Michael Rhoades can’t believe how much his life has changed over the past few days. He never thought he’d find joy. He never thought he’d find peace. He never knew it could be so easy.

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Michael had spent most of his freshman year at Tulane University feeling alone amongst thousands of students. After turning to alcohol to forget his problems, he faces expulsion for a drunken mistake. He’s mercifully offered community service hours instead.

Later that day, he’s presented with an invitation that will change his life forever: join a mission trip to Honduras. The last thing he wants to do is spend spring break “doing good” with a bunch of strangers. But to erase the required hours in one fell swoop, he agrees to the trip.

Over the course of three missions to Honduras, Michael experiences the highest of highs and lowest of lows. He finds love, develops a relationship with God, and learns valuable life lessons. But then he becomes consumed by pride, gives in to temptation, and almost loses it all.

I can't speak for all mission trips, but my experiences had a much more powerful impact on everyone's faith than a peace corps stint would. We pray with the people and help with their services. When a group of people come together to serve those in need, amazing things happen. People experience joy and God's love from being truly selfless. We become family with the people.

I was inspired to write this novel because of that impact -- I started college rarely going to Mass, but after going on a mission and experiencing God's love so powerfully, I was motivated to grow in my faith. It completely changed who I was.

I wrote the novel to inspire people in a similar state as I used to be. I hope the readers who are dealing with their own struggles will see the main character experience so much joy from serving others, and a more meaningful relationship with God as a result of it, and want that for themselves.

10% of all sales will go to build a school in the Honduran mountain villages featured in the novel! Check it out!  :applause:

I doubt you're going to get many buyers from CathInfo.  Might I suggest you advertise on Angelqueen, Catholic Answers, Fisheaters, and EWTN.

I live in Latin America and I highly doubt that the "missionaries" in that book did any converting at all. They boast about not "proselytizing" or "shoving their faith down anybody's throat."

I've seen dozens of these fresh-faced liberal youngsters, with a few older women in pantsuits and avuncular, live-and-let-live type men to accompany them, come down on "mission" trips and they don't behave any differently than any typical foreign aid agency, whether it be the Peace Corps, OXFAM, the Qatar Foundation or whatever. They purposely downplay even the little bit of watered-down Catholicism they may or may not have, promote indifferentism, laxism, ecuмenism, and liberal college-kid ideas in general. The adults who come with them are all products of the Vatican II revolution. The villagers typically have recieved no proper catechism at all and their religion is a mix of folk beliefs, Vatican II doublespeak and liberation theology.

By far, though, the worst aid agency of all is Caritas. It has probably done more to drive millions of Latin Americans into the evangelical sects than the last five popes combined!  

The people in the mountain villages are already Catholic, so we don't have to convert them. We go with our priest and help lead their Catholic Masses and Holy Week services. Through our mission work, we've become a family with them. We all experience God's love so powerfully, and share the joy and peace that results from that.

cWriter15, I was wondering if you could clarify what you mean by "helping lead their Catholic Masses." ?

If they already have a priest, is there any "leading" that needs to happen from laity or a different priest? Mass is straight forward, and has been for the ages. What part of Mass would anyone but the priest need to lead?

I know in Protestant worship services someone "leads" praise and worship music with guitar, and leads a few other more charismatic practices throughout the service. Unfortunately I've seen a couple Catholic Masses turn into protestant type worship services. I hope this is not what you are referring to, as this would certainly not be a service to the Catholic people there.

What type of school is being built? Catholic or secular?

It does, thankyou!

Indeed, it is easy to take our priests for granted. It makes me thankful to have the sacraments so close.