Touch Jerusalem from Texas!

Okay, so let's start off with our mission here at Pilgrim Center of Hope, right? I mentioned kind of a summary of it at the beginning, but our mission, people always kind of say, well, are you a church? What are you, right? We are an evangelization apostolate, which is the fancy terminology of saying we provide people opportunities to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and with the church.

And we do that through events, experiences, and media.

So we try to initiate this desire in people to encounter Jesus Christ, not only here or wherever we are out in the community, but in their everyday life, their journey of life.

That's why we're called Pilgrim Center of Hope.

Not because we offer pilgrimages, although we do, but because we are pilgrim people as Christians.

You know, we are on a journey with a purpose.

as in our daily life.

And that's what we wanna bring people's awareness to, that we are pilgrims, we are a center here, and that we should have hope every day, that we live with hope because we are those pilgrims on a journey to our Heavenly Father and His home, right? And so our mission being that we are here to help people recognize this, to create this awareness and this spark of hope in their life, we wanted to provide more opportunities for people to truly connect with not just our Lord Jesus Christ, but his homeland, right? Where he came from on earth that leads us deeper into the scriptures, deeper into the gospel, the good news, right? And that's one of the unique things about Pilgrim Center of Hope, as you know, Jason.

Because our founders, Deacon Tom and Mary Jane Fox, they weren't always gung-ho Catholics.

And they will tell you this themselves on many episodes of Journeys of Hope programs that we have.

They were just everyday Catholics, like people going to church on Sunday, maybe, you know, and trying to just kind of do their life however people do.

And they both had unique experiences where their hearts were kind of awakened to the reality of God and the awesomeness that is our Catholic faith.

They especially found that in the Holy Land.

They had an opportunity.

Mary Jane Fox was a, she was, she was a travel agent and she had this wonderful opportunity.

She won these tickets to go anywhere.

And at that time, Tom and Mary Jane were saying, gosh, you know, if we have an opportunity to go anywhere in the world, well, we're getting to know Jesus more.

Let's go to where he's from.

Right.

And that's where their life was really changed dramatically.

And so we know over these last 30 plus years that we have experienced this ministry, Pilgrim Center of Hope, founded in 1993, that people, do find this unique connection with God through the Holy Land.

And we can bring them there, even here in San Antonio, because we have those relationships that Tom and Mary Jane established over the years in the Holy Land, going more than, I think, 50 times to the Holy Land that they've been able to have these unique friendships, bonds with the people of the Holy Land and with the custodians of the Holy Land.

Now, most people don't realize that the holy places that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles, You know, the early saints of the church that we read about in scripture, the places where they lived, the places that we read about in the Bible are actually protected by churches that have been built by the Christians over the centuries to protect them.

And the cool thing is that so many of those places, those holy places, are actually guarded by the Franciscan friars.

Yes, Angela, that's actually one of the early facts, I guess I would say, that I learned once I jumped on board ship here at Pilgrim Center of Hope.

Okay, so let's start off with our mission here at Pilgrim Center of Hope, right? I mentioned kind of a summary of it at the beginning, but our mission, people always kind of say, well, are you a church? What are you, right? We are an evangelization apostolate, which is the fancy terminology of saying we provide people opportunities to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and with the church.

And we do that through events, experiences, and media.

So we try to initiate this desire in people to encounter Jesus Christ, not only here or wherever we are out in the community, but in their everyday life, their journey of life.

That's why we're called Pilgrim Center of Hope.

Not because we offer pilgrimages, although we do, but because we are pilgrim people as Christians.

You know, we are on a journey with a purpose.

as in our daily life.

And that's what we wanna bring people's awareness to, that we are pilgrims, we are a center here, and that we should have hope every day, that we live with hope because we are those pilgrims on a journey to our Heavenly Father and His home, right? And so our mission being that we are here to help people recognize this, to create this awareness and this spark of hope in their life, we wanted to provide more opportunities for people to truly connect with not just our Lord Jesus Christ, but his homeland, right? Where he came from on earth that leads us deeper into the scriptures, deeper into the gospel, the good news, right? And that's one of the unique things about Pilgrim Center of Hope, as you know, Jason.

Because our founders, Deacon Tom and Mary Jane Fox, they weren't always gung-ho Catholics.

And they will tell you this themselves on many episodes of Journeys of Hope programs that we have.

They were just everyday Catholics, like people going to church on Sunday, maybe, you know, and trying to just kind of do their life however people do.

And they both had unique experiences where their hearts were kind of awakened to the reality of God and the awesomeness that is our Catholic faith.

They especially found that in the Holy Land.

They had an opportunity.

Mary Jane Fox was a, she was, she was a travel agent and she had this wonderful opportunity.

She won these tickets to go anywhere.

And at that time, Tom and Mary Jane were saying, gosh, you know, if we have an opportunity to go anywhere in the world, well, we're getting to know Jesus more.

Let's go to where he's from.

Right.

And that's where their life was really changed dramatically.

And so we know over these last 30 plus years that we have experienced this ministry, Pilgrim Center of Hope, founded in 1993, that people, do find this unique connection with God through the Holy Land.

And we can bring them there, even here in San Antonio, because we have those relationships that Tom and Mary Jane established over the years in the Holy Land, going more than, I think, 50 times to the Holy Land that they've been able to have these unique friendships, bonds with the people of the Holy Land and with the custodians of the Holy Land.

Now, most people don't realize that the holy places that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles, You know, the early saints of the church that we read about in scripture, the places where they lived, the places that we read about in the Bible are actually protected by churches that have been built by the Christians over the centuries to protect them.

And the cool thing is that so many of those places, those holy places, are actually guarded by the Franciscan friars.

Yes, Angela, that's actually one of the early facts, I guess I would say, that I learned once I jumped on board ship here at Pilgrim Center of Hope.