Charlotte missionaries Jon Studnek, Eric Warren and Ryan Monk tackle needed construction projects in El Cerinal, Guatemala. (Photos provided)CHARLOTTE — This July, 17 missionaries from three Diocese of Charlotte churches, including eight students from Charlotte Catholic High School, traveled to support continued mission efforts in El Cerinal, Guatemala, and to aid in preparations to dedicate a church they began in 2022.
Father Joshua Voitus, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Charlotte, led the week-long trip, bringing two other new clergy members, Deacon Daren Bitter from St. Matthew Parish in Charlotte and Father Juan Miguel Sanchez, priest-secretary to Bishop Michael Martin.
The trip originated with St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte in 2022, when organizers Chris Turley and John Bonner formed relationships in the village and started campaigning for a new church.
On this trip, Bonner and Turley introduced a new group of missionaries to an almost completed Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and a village filled with Catholics desperate to thrive physically, mentally and spiritually.
“God was staring at us through the eyes of the Guatemalan people as we became the hands and feet of Christ,” said Deacon Bitter, who recounted the missionaries’ recent work in the impoverished town in southern Guatemala, not far from the Pacific Ocean.
“It’s fascinating because you can verbally say we are building a church. And yes, it’s the building and the pews, but it’s ultimately the people. In both avenues, we’re building a facility for Christ,” he said.
Amid the breathtaking landscapes of hills covered with coffee bean plants and the misty waters of the Laguna el Pino lies the hamlet of El Cerinal. Its small huts have tarps as doors and dirt for floors. Electricity in the village is spotty, and the water that occasionally flows from the tap is undrinkable.
While 85% of the population of the small town is Catholic, the tiny church also has a spiritual drought with only one priest serving 10 parishes scattered across the province of Santa Rosa.
One Mass is celebrated at 6 a.m. every Sunday. Confession, daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration and anointing of the sick – like the water – are inaccessible luxuries.
Father Juan Miguel Sanchez, priest-secretary to Bishop Michael Martin, was one of three diocesan clergy who celebrated the sacraments with villagers in an area where priests are scarce.
A week of love and charity
Father Voitus and Father Sanchez celebrated daily Mass in Spanish.
A smiling villager named Don Chilo walked an hour and a half each way on his one leg and crutches to attend each day.
“It was touching to see,” Deacon Bitter said.
More than 60 children ran, skipped and jumped their way down to the church every day for coloring, crafts, songs and faith-based lessons at Turley’s Vacation Bible School.
Bonner and his team installed 21 home water filtration systems. Clergy traveled the dirt paths, stopping at doorsteps to pray, drop off medication and assess needs.
Small acts of God were evident. One occasion stuck with Turley, who was with Father Voitus when they came across hysterical women kneeling next to a casket.
“They were praying for a priest because they had been unable to find one to perform the funeral for their family member,” Turley said.
Father Voitus immediately celebrated a funeral Mass.
“To me, it felt like a miracle that he appeared exactly when they were praying for a priest,” she said.
Father Sanchez and Father Voitus blessed homes, anointed the homebound and heard confessions.
“When you have extra priests, the community feels blessed. As we made our rounds to visit families, 90 percent asked for blessings or prayers,” Father Sanchez said. “The homes are not comfortable by U.S. standards, but the people are happy. That is the striking part. Sometimes we associate happiness with luxury and comfort, but in reality, it comes from the heart.”
Erika Lopez, a native of Guatemala, longed to share memories of home with her children. As she traveled with her son, she was reduced to tears of appreciation for her almost-lost culture.
“The connection was immediate – there was no pretense, just a shared sense of love,” Lopez said. “It brought back those childhood memories of this foreign little place that I used to know.”
By week’s end, even though there were spurts with no electricity, no air conditioning and no water, the group had difficulty saying goodbye, shifting to “hasta luego” (“I’ll see you later”) at that final Mass.
The tears flowed freely and were abundant, Deacon Bitter noted.
In 51 weeks, the group plans to return with more missionaries from more churches and schools. In 10 years’ time, Turley envisions visiting four times a year, operating from the cornerstone they laid once upon a time in the small hamlet with little hope but overwhelming faith.
“This trip is more than just people who want to go off the grid, put down their phone, and commit time, money and energy,” Deacon Bitter said. “It is spreading the love of Christ through prayer, through experience as one human family, and making the world a little smaller.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
Children take part in Vacation Bible School led by the missionaries.
Building the Mt. Carmel Church from a coffee seed
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Building the Mt. Carmel Church from a coffee seed
Although it is not yet complete, parishioners of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel gathered to dedicate their new church in late July. Construction began in 2022. (Photo provided) CHARLOTTE —The Guatemala mission started in 2022, when a group of St. Gabriel Church parishioners visited the hamlet of El Cerinal.Then first-time missionary John Bonner fell in love with the people, as did Chris Turley.
“I always wanted to be a missionary, but when I graduated from college, life somehow got in the way. So, when this opportunity came up, I jumped,” Bonner recalled. “It feels like the path I was intended to be on.”
Turley felt similarly and shared, “God is in control there, not me. It is the grace of God that keeps everything moving, and the joy of the children keeps me going back.”
During that trip, on a donated three-acre parcel of a coffee farm owned by Catholics who employ most of the villagers, the missionaries left a physical cornerstone for a church, unsure if they would return.
After they left, the idea of building that church grew. Through parishioners at St. Gabriel and St. Matthew, the group raised $500,000.
To connect on a more personal level when they reunited, Bonner and Turley started taking Spanish classes. Turley focused on designing lesson plans for the children, while Bonner focused on home construction projects and water filtration systems.
Each time they returned, they were revitalized by the growth of that small cornerstone.
And in 2024, when the priest who introduced them to the ministry left St. Gabriel Church, they kept going – taking a handful of missionaries twice in 2025. When Father Joshua Voitus, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte got involved, Turley thought it was an answer to prayer.
Between visits, the cornerstone grew as the people of El Cerinal rallied behind construction efforts, adding a roof and a crucifix and finishing the walls.
By the time the missionaries returned this year, the church dedication was the talk of the town – despite its lack of indoor plumbing, electricity and stained-glass windows.
“We certainly don’t have the funds to finish the church at this point in time, but I don’t know any of us that’s worried about that,” Bonner said. “The Holy Spirit seems to want the church done, and so it’s moving along.”
Chris Turley and John Bonner were part of the first St. Gabriel Guatemala mission trip in 2022.The bishop of Santa Rosa de Lima, Bishop José Cayetano Parra Novo, met with Bonner, Father Voitus, Deacon Daren Bitter from St. Matthew Parish in Charlotte and Father Juan Miguel Sanchez, priest-secretary to Bishop Michael Martin to break bread and thank his friends.“The purpose of the church is to bring people together. It’s large enough to invite people who don’t live in the immediate community,” Bonner said. “The people here are Catholic, and the bishop wanted to use this as a central church, with meeting rooms in the basement for retreats – especially for young men and women discerning religious life. It’s very important to the diocese.”
The bishop told the men that the needs across Santa Rosa were as vast as priests were scarce. Villages just like El Cerinal dotted the landscape, some even more impoverished. Throughout the hills were people without clothing, without food and without frequent access to the sacraments – all people they could help through the new church.
As Bonner said, “This is about moving people from relief to sustainability. The language and faces may change, but the needs remain the same.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
