Confirmation students at both St. Peter Parish in Petersburg and Holy Family Parish in Athens raised funds to purchase a new Mass kit for a Catholic community in Ghana. The fundraising was led by Lisa Reeves, director of parish ministries at the two parishes, and assisted by Father Christopher Brey of St. Augustine Parish, Ashland, and several other parishes.

Reeves organized a parish viewing of the Eucharistic Miracles exhibit (available through the Diocesan Archives) and asked for a free-will offering to support the purchase of a Mass kit. The confirmation kids who were present at the exhibit contributed to the Mass kit after Father Gerard Zienaa, a hospital chaplain in Springfield who is also from Ghana, gave a talk on the value of such a Mass kit to the community of believers in his country. The students' efforts were matched by Father Brey, who ordered the Mass kit, which was then forwarded to Ghana through the diocesan Office for the Missions.

According to Vicki Compton, director of the Office for the Missions, the idea to donate a Mass kit was a result of an earlier donation of a chalice. In the past, chalices have been donated to the mission office by families of deceased 4th Degree Knights of Columbus. It is the national custom of the K. of C. to have a chalice engraved with the name of the deceased Knight and then presented to the Knight's family. The families in turn often donate the chalice to the Office for the Missions to be sent to the missions.

On a visit to Ghana last year, Compton presented a chalice, donated by the family of Carl Strube, to Father Seth Anthony Yeboah a priest working at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral in the Diocese of Yendi in Ghana. In his thank-you letter, Father Yeboah asked for a Mass kit for his outstations. Compton published this letter in a mailing sent to all parishes where it caught the attention of Reeves.

After receiving the new Mass kit, Father Yeboah expressed his gratitude to Father Brey and Reeves "for their great love for God's people in this part of the world."

"Not knowing us they have loved us. We love them too," Father Yeboah concluded.

A Mass kit comes in a durable, secure case, and includes a chalice, bowl paten, host box, cruets, crucifix, stole, candles, as well as altar, hand and finger cloths.