Photo Courtesy of SOLT Family Mission Experience

ATLANTA—Following her son Luca’s confirmation earlier this year, Cristina DiMarzio was looking for a way to continue engaging the 13-year-old in the journey of faith. 

“This is the year I kind of wanted to capitalize on the graces,” she said.  

A parishioner of St. Peter Chanel Church in Roswell, DiMarzio owns a small online Catholic home store and follows other Catholic accounts on social media.  

DiMarzio learned about SOLT (The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity) a couple of years ago, then more recently stumbled across the social media posts of Deacon Ken Dawson, one of the founders of the SOLT Family Mission Experience. He is a deacon at Our Lady of the Mountains Church in Jasper. 

“The algorithm served me his account,” she said. 

The program invites families on week-long missions to the communities served by its priests and religious, providing the opportunity to help others grow in faith and create family memories.  

“I lived in Honduras in the third and fourth grade,” said DiMarzio. “I always looked back on that experience.” 

Deciding to “strike while the iron is hot,” DiMarzio and her son joined other families on a summer mission trip to Belize City, Belize.  

Another Georgia family was also on the mission trip, and their children had a lot in common with Luca including a love of baseball and soccer.  

“It enhanced the experience overall,” said DiMarzio about the new friendships. “It was really Holy Spirit-led.” 

While Belize is a tourist destination for its beaches and jungles, “it’s very much a developing country,” said DiMarzio. 

Colonized by the British in 1840, Belize is on the northeastern coast of Central America. It has both Creole and Latin American influences. Belizeans speak English, Creole and in rural pockets, Spanish. 

SOLT, as a religious order, “goes to regions that are underserved,” explained DiMarzio.  

In Belize, priests serve at Divine Mercy Parish in Belize City and at San Pedro Parish on the nearby island of San Pedro. 

Cristina and Luca DiMarzio, parishioners at St. Peter Chanel Church, took a SOLT Family Mission Experience to Belize to serve others in need. While there, they also enjoyed an excursion to the Mayan ruins. Photo Courtesy of SOLT Family Mission Experience

Mission participants are immersed in the parish experience. The DiMarzios and fellow volunteers helped with the Vacation Bible School during their July trip, prayed on a rosary walk in a shack neighborhood, visited health clinics, fed the homeless and spent time with residents of the only public-funded nursing home in Belize.  

DiMarzio said the conditions at the nursing home were deplorable and depressing. The people living there have no relatives or anyone who wants them. In a ministry of presence, Luca played dominos with the residents, and she conversed in Spanish with one man.  

Father Scott Giuliani, SOLT, pastor of Divine Mercy Parish celebrates Mass at the home weekly. 

“It’s so beautiful what he’s doing,” said DiMarzio of the priest’s work in spreading the Catholic faith into the culture and to “make SOLT’s presence known.”  

She said Luca noticed the priest’s efforts, commenting that “Father Scott is everywhere.” 

“He’s an incredible human being,” said DiMarzio. 

The mission participants were able to help with a construction project at the St. Mary Magdalene Center for women in crisis situations. They celebrated Mass daily, split into teams each day and would reconvene for dinner. Families also had the opportunity to visit Mayan ruins in Belize.  

DiMarzio, a mother of four, wants to be able to take all her children on the mission experience.  

“It’s got me hooked,” she said. 

SOLT trips are created for families of all sizes and ages, focusing on activities that are accessible for each person. DiMarzio said there’s a lot to be learned from the life of a missionary and serving others in need. 

“It really is the small, little acts of love. Yes, you are doing for them. But your own heart is expanded,” she said. 

The Rosary Walk and seeing the living conditions of some Belizeans had an enormous impact on her teenager, noted DiMarzio. 

“His eyes were wide open,” she said. 

The structures in the shack neighborhoods were rapidly built, sinking at the foundations with rickety bridges as connectors, and no access to sewage services. 

The weather was hot and there was no air conditioning. Luca counted 40 mosquito bites on the first day. Seeing the priest’s joy in working alongside others was hugely impactful. 

“We live in Roswell. It’s a bubble. It is a blessing, but I was starting to see a little bit of entitlement creep in,” said DiMarzio about her son.  

Post-mission, she believes Luca is more gentle. “There is more gratitude,” she said. 

Added horsepower 

Deacon Dawson, ordained to the permanent diaconate in the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 2022, founded the SOLT Family Misson experience the following year and does the day-to-day driving of the nonprofit. 

“I left my job to do it,” he says. Dawson credits the work of board member Maggie Glemkowski in the success of the lay-run program. 

“She’s been involved since the beginning,” he said  

The deacon’s focus now is to “get more laity to our missions.”  

In his own family life, a mission experience prompted a shift. Deacon Dawson said his daughter is an example of someone who continues to feel connected to the people she met on a mission even after returning home.  

“She wants to pray for them,” he said. 

Another advantage for those who take mission trips is an opportunity to spend time with priests or religious, particularly important for those who may not have a strong or close relationship to clergy or sisters at home. 

“It really kind of changes their view of religious vocations,” said Deacon Dawson. 

Families work on a mural as a community beautification project while on a trip with SOLT Family Mission Experience in Belize. It’s often a ministry of presence and practicing small acts of love. The program was cofounded by Deacon Ken Dawson of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Photo from SOLT Family Mission Experience.

He’s guided six trips this year. In addition to Belize, SOLT offers mission trips to Colon Mexico; and North Dakota’s Turtle Mountain Reservation. Additionally, families can drive to South Texas to participate in SOLT’s efforts in communities near the border. 

Deacon Dawson is available to speak to parish groups and shares that the program has the infrastructure to help with trip fundraising. SOLT Family Mission Experience commits to providing an affordable experience so that it’s accessible. Families pay for airfare; the cost of the trip itself pays for food, accommodations and local travel. 

Mission work is done in conjuction with SOLT parishes, not as separate works. This approach strengthens the parish’s existing ministries overall. 

“We’re adding a whole lot of horsepower” to their outreach, said Deacon Dawson. 

In Belize, volunteers can take on tasks at a parish-run Montessori School or help meet unique needs like teaching a woman served by the crisis center how to drive a car.  

For Luca DiMarzio, the week of mission work made an impression.  

“I learned that people are living way differently than we are in America,” he wrote. “I have grown by not taking things for granted.” 

When reporting service hours for a school project, he shared a Bible verse from Galatians that summarized the works of mercy undertaken in Belize—“Bear another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”