What It's All About

In 1976, Liz Mach’s life as a lay missioner began. In an article she wrote for The Catholic Standard And Times (1985), Liz touches on her early years in mission: “My overseas assignment was to Tanzania where I was to spend six long, yet wonderful, years with the people of the Wasukuma tribe. My nursing skills were used to help train Tanzanian medical people in the area of preventive medicine, mother and child health care, labor and delivery.”

Through her early assignment to Africa, to her time in Sudan, to present day in Tanzania, Liz has and is experiencing Mercy. In the story that follows, Liz reflects on a particular moment.

“The other day I had a very typical special thing happen on the way to the clinic. Typical in the sense that it was a birth, and birth is always happening out here. It was special in that I could be of service to my people here. A woman was giving birth on the side of the road – so, we stopped, put her into the Land Rover and took her to a government dispensary.

I held her the whole way – praying that God let her arrive where we could help her the most – and thinking – how strange it would seem all those fighting over black/white supremacy that here I was holding her – comforting her in her language and being a servant to her. Isn’t that what mission and our lives are about?”