A passion for mission ministries

Sister Jeanne Goessling entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) in the former St. Louis Province at the age of 18, on August 28, 1970, extremely interested in mission ministries. Shortly after joining the SSND, she was able to go to Honduras for a summer. After her summer in Honduras was over, Sister Jeanne went back to St. Louis going about her day-to-day activities at Sancta Maria in Ripa. One night at a community gathering, Sister Carolyn Collins, who has since passed away, came to Sister Jeanne and asked if she would be interested in African mission ministries. From 1996 to the summer of 2000, Sister Jeanne taught at St. Theresa’s Girls’ Secondary School in Kisii, Kenya, before moving into administration.

During the fall of 2000, Sister Jeanne came home to work in education administration at Sts. John and James School, in Ferguson, Missouri. Sister Jeanne became the director of religious education for a parish in Springfield, Missouri, where she served from 2004 until 2018. When a sister from Africa came to visit at Sancta Maria in Ripa, Sister Jeanne asked the sister if there was a need for Americans to still to be in Africa. The sister told her, “Oh yes, yes, yes come.” Sister Jeanne said, “I also knew that there was a need for sisters who were willing to mentor other sisters in Africa and I knew that being a mentor would be the perfect fit for me.”

In August of 2018, Sister Jeanne returned to the Province of Africa as part of the formation community. She did taught theology, assisted with responsibilities at the house and mentored sisters. One of the other things she also participated in was teaching the history of the Catholic church in Africa. “When the early missionaries traveled from Portugal, the whole mission was to baptize and move on, but what happened is that the faith was not planted or nurtured to grow. Therefore, SSND went as missionaries to not only plant the faith, but also to assist in growing the faith as well,” said Sister Jeanne, as she continues that tradition by nurturing the faith of those around her in Africa.