Even the YMO Team doesn't know what will lurk behind the bus when the 2014 YMO Mission concludes but they have been busy preparing.  

The architects have been drawing, the tool guys have been organizing all of the stuff we have to take, the cooks have been planning, and all have been mentally preparing to, by the Grace of God, transform the home of Rev.  Catherine Plummer who has dedicated her life to the church and her Navajo people yet, today, lives in a condemned trailer.  

The money raised will go to the building of a new hogan, a traditional home for the Navajo.  Following tradition, the door will face east to welcome the rising sun for good wealth and fortune.  Building this hogan allows an ancient tradition to brought to life while assuring the survival of the Navajo cultural heritage.  

Wheels up is at 0400 on Saturday, 7 June, as the team begins the journey to Bluff, Utah.  The team is primarily made up of 25 teens from Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Western Springs, La Grange, and Burr Ridge.  Each of them sets forth to help but also to learn what kind of adult they are becoming and what they want to become in the future, a person they can present to the world without hesitancy, open to the full experiences of life. Their doors face east and they are on their way!

This Sunday, May 11, at 1000am, YMO will be commissioned for their trip to NavajoLand!


The Rt. Rev. David E. Bailey 


We welcome today the Rt. Rev. David E. Bailey, Bishop 
of Navajoland, to Grace Church. In 1978, the Episcopal 
Church founded the Navajoland Area Mission, covering 
26,000 square miles of some of the most spectacular 
scenery in the Southwest. Today it encompasses growing 
missions in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. 
The Grace Church YMO will shortly be undertaking 
mission work in this part of the country. During the 10:00 am Service, Bishop Bailey 
will commission all those who will be participating in this 
mission trip. 

For Immediate Release…………..Thursday, April 30, 2014

FROM:     Louise R. Meyer – Y.M.O. Communications

                   847.518.4344                 

                   Louise.meyer@leonardo.com

 The 2013 Missions Team...and it has grown this year!

Grace Episcopal Youth Missions Organization Rocks All Night Long

This past weekend, the Grace Episcopal Church-based Youth Missions Organization (YMO) held its second annual Rock-a-thon with 17 teens rocking in their chairs for 24 hours straight in order to raise money for the group’s up and coming mission trip to Bluff, Utah. These teens came from Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Western Springs, LaGrange and Burr Ridge (and attend Hinsdale Central, Lyons Township, Fenwick and St. Ignatius to name a few).

The group raised $17,000, which is just a part of what it will need for its week-long trip. The mission group—which will ultimately comprise about 25 teens and 25 adult Grace Church parishioners—will leave from Grace Church on June 7, 2014 early in the morning and travel two days by bus to Bluff, Utah, which is about 10 miles northwest from the “Four Corners” where the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet.

In Bluff, they will be serving St. Christopher’s Mission, which is part of the Episcopal Church in Navajo Nation. There the Grace church mission group will build a hogan—a traditional Navajo dwelling—for Catherine Plummer, wife of the late Rt. Rev. Steven Tsosie Plummer, the first native Navajo to server as an Episcopal bishop in Navajo Nation.

St. Christopher’s Mission was originally built in 1943 by Baxter Liebler, an Episcopal priest from Old Greenwich, Connecticut.  It was named St. Christopher's Mission after the patron saint of travelers. It is now part of the Episcopal Church in Navajo Nation.

Catherine Plummer herself was ordained in 2013 and grew up with the aforementioned Baxter Liebler as her teacher and priest. She became the second Navajo woman to serve as a priest. Today, she lives about nine miles outside of Bluff in a trailer that has been condemned as it is unlivable.  

All donations are gratefully received and welcomed!  To donate, please simply send a note to one of the youth involved or, alternatively to the blog master, (louise.meyer@leonardo.com ).  Please indicate the amount of your donation and that it is for Y.M.O. Mission trip.  

For more information about YMO or Grace Episcopal Church, 120 E. First St., Hinsdale, visit www.gracehinsdale.org or call (630) 323-4900.