In January of 2023 Jessica (Smith) Cisneros will be sent with her family to spend two years abroad on a Catholic foreign mission trip.

Cisneros, Class of 2007, lives out the faith the school loves to see in its graduates. 

While at NDA she played volleyball, sang in the musical and went on the mission trips to Canton. 

Their family’s mission with her current organization is to respond to the call of the Great Commision to “Spread the Gospel and Serve the Poor.” 

She and her husband Marcos, whom she met while teaching in Phoenix, Arizona, have both spent time on service missions in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and India in their past. 

Married in 2017, the couple now are a family five.

“For the past five years we have served as a Missionary Family at St. Therese Parish in Appleton, WI. After attending a discernment retreat with Family Missions Company, we found peace in the fact that God has called us to serve as a family back out in the mission field abroad,” said the former Triton.

The Cisneros are going to be sent to one of ten countries and are trusting the Holy Spirit to send them wherever they are meant to go to fulfill their duties as Catholics. 

“Through the relationships we build, and through striving to live out Christian family values by the grace of prayer and the sacraments, we hope to speak to others about the love of Christ and look for ways to meet the needs of those suffering from both spiritual and material poverty. This is our mission,” said Jessica. 

Cisneros has seen many things like corruption in government and the police, a lack of education, poor health care, malnourishment, a shortage of priests, lack of formation in the faith, and other factors that cause great suffering and a lack of hope in many people’s lives.

The Cisneros team will serve on the mission field under the auspices of the FMC (Family Missions Company). 

“Over the next three years, our family will ‘cast out into the deep’ to bring the message of Jesus to the hearts that need to hear it. However, we cannot respond to this call alone. We need friends and family to be our partners and join us on this endeavor,” she explained.

“Having taught Jessica and her siblings, I can only say the Smiths are among the best of our best at NDA,” said veteran English teacher Carolyn Brown. “There may be others in the NDA community that would want to support their ministry.  Jessica and Marcos are proven servants and will be worth every dollar any of us might give in sponsoring their efforts.”

Jessica and her husband have a goal of everything they want to achieve. 

“Acts 2:42 speaks about how Christian communities shared everything they had and supported one another in prayer as well as financially,” Cisneros said in explaining their  situation, which is dependent upon financial support from fellow believers. 

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, were in fellowship with each other, ate together, and prayed,” she continued.

For additional information about the Cisneros and their mission endeavor, go to https://www.familymissionscompany.com/project/mjcisneros/