Operation Mato Grosso

Jack Deatherage

(11/2022) I'd planned to tell a tale of drunken Mount students stealing clothes off the line, leaving the yard gates open, getting into my unlocked car, urinating in people's flowerbeds and on their houses, blocking alleyways, stealing holiday decorations from my neighbors' porches, cursing a neighbor when she called them on using foul language within hearing of her small children and generally behaving badly. However, I'm turning the Idiot column over to a Mountie instead. Yep, 'tis a strange time in my life.

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I'm currently a junior at Mount St. Mary’s University. I am starting this sub-group of Operation Mato Grosso (OMG) that will serve here in Frederick County and some parts of Southern PA. The group will be aged roughly around 14-22 and we are dedicated to the cause that we serve.

What is Operation Mato Grosso?

Operation Mato Grosso started off as an adventurous trip with the idea of helping others. In 1966, Fr. Ugo asked a group of young Italians to travel to Brazil for the summer to help his missionary friend, Fr. Pietro, build a school and health center. By July of the next year, 21 young people left for the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. After four months of hard work, they were unable to complete their project – so some decided to stay. Those who returned to Italy started to raise money to support the mission by finding any work they could. Today, there are over 120 groups and 1,400 volunteers.

After its positive impact in Brazil, OMG expanded its mission to Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. As of 2020, Operation Mato Grosso has a total of 110 communities in South America: 69 in Peru, 18 in Ecuador, 12 in Brazil and 11 in Bolivia. Its missionaries – young people, families and priests who volunteer their work completely for free – perform numerous activities in different sectors: education, labor, health, agriculture, technology, social and religious.

In 2008, a young American from Boston was traveling in the Peruvian Andes when he happened to come across some Operation Mato Grosso volunteers working in a village. He immediately fell in love with their mission to support local people and decided to become a volunteer himself. Upon his return to the U.S. and after spending two years as a volunteer in the mission of Yungay, Fr Ugo suggested he start gathering young people in the U.S. to create OMG groups like the ones in Italy. He decided to take Fr. Ugo’s idea seriously. Since then, youth from the U.S. are gradually becoming more involved. After two summer month-long mission trips, and many other activities, Operation Mato Grosso can now count in their ranks three American groups of teenagers and young adults. Like our fellow Italian friends, we are raising money to support the missions. We meet 2-3 times per week during our free time to do volunteer work such as landscaping, painting, moving, cleaning – or any other work we can find. Pay we earn from the work goes directly to the charity.

We and our other groups operate by working as contractors for homeowners and churches throughout the year and hosting food drives. These acts of service allow us to send money and goods to our missionaries who do many things to serve poor communities in South America.

Beyond Borders

Beyond Borders was established to support the American youth in their effort to raise money and goods for Operation Mato Grosso’s missions in South America [---] in Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, our volunteers carry on numerous activities in different sectors: education, labor, health, agriculture, technology, social and religious.

Why We Have Two Names

Fr. Ugo knew that Operation Mato Grosso was more than a name – it was a mission, a movement to change the hearts and lives of young people across the world. He never wanted our charities to legally carry its name so that, in this way, we could preserve the movement as an idea. Instead, each country/region has its own legal name for its OMG charity, and in the US, we chose "Beyond Borders" to challenge ourselves to see humanity as one family. And when we put all these charities together – in Italy, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, and now the US – we find the true spirit behind Operation Mato Grosso.

Operation Mato Grosso allows young people to give their lives to something greater, encouraging them to take the extra step into servanthood, empowering them to be like Christ. Our young people are accompanied by peers and dedicated mentors on the path to sacrifice and love; we surrender our time and gift our effort for the poor and needy who live destitutely in our neighboring continent. OMG is much more than an organization, it is a community of young people who desire one unifying thing: living true sacrificial discipleship in camaraderie with others who wish to do the same. In this way, OMG’s beauty is found within the young people themselves. Father Ugo always said that OMG cannot be fully witnessed until one participates in this economy of joy, love, and service that is offered. It is much more than a name, much more than an afterschool or weekend club, much more than learning about the faith—it gives young people the option to finally echo the words of Matthew 19:21, "‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’"

So many people today talk or preach about this verse but fail to make any substantial attempt to truly realize it. OMG seeks to show and invite young people live Christ’s call in their own feasible capacity. When young people do join and trust in the mission of OMG, they are transformed through friendship and hard work into on-fire missionary disciples who strive to share with all the love and faith they have received.

Quote about OMG from the first US volunteer: "Operazione Mato Grosso doesn’t run as a hierarchy. No one has a business card. Not many even have a title apart from Volunteer. There seems no requirement to join apart from an unflinching willingness to try and to do something for someone else with no expectation of anything in return. This message of volunteerism in its purest form is evident in the people who grow up, live, and breathe Operazione Mato Grosso…Operazione Mato Grosso is difficult to explain. It’s far easier to simply live it." (Nicholas Bruce, First US OMG Volunteer)

Best,

Hunter Luers
Ph: 443-422-4006
Email: h.j.luers@email.msmary.edu

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If this winter's electric and food bills don't leave us too deeply in debt I'd like to ask the Mr. Luers to bring the crew back to do the heavy work of rebuilding our garden. (I'm not up to digging a new garlic bed.) I do think I'd be able to manage building some bread and cakes, and grilling some meat for sandwiches to feed them though. Might even ferment a ginger beer to wash the eats down.