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Sometime in the beginning of 2020, I heard these words throughout the day “Traveling Mary”. Several times a week, those words played in my head. On February 27, 2020, I heard those words again and had the strong feeling that Our Lady was calling us to start a Traveling Mary Mission. This feeling became stronger throughout the day and as it grew, I also received this understanding that our Lady wanted to travel, She wanted to be known, She wanted a greater devotion to Her, She wanted to visit homes and be present there. There was this strong feeling that our Lady wanted me to do this in my daughter’s name, April-Marie. This was a very sudden desire and sudden request from our Lady and so I decided to take it to prayer and asked a friend, Woyen Nchanji, to pray about it for me as well.

On February 29, 2020, I stopped for adoration after work at Saint Matthew’s Catholic Church in Winder, Georgia, to seek the Lord’s counsel and help with regards to the traveling Mary mission. This thought persisted for a while. During my time in adoration on February 29th, 2020, I heard our Lady speak to my heart and asked that we start a traveling Mary ministry and to name it “April Marie’s Traveling Mary”. I also discerned that the Blessed mother was calling me to complete this task by April’s seventh birthday on March 25, 2020 Feast of the Annunciation and to give this to my daughter as a seventh birthday gift. So I asked Our Lady to find a statue appropriatefor traveling. At the time, I was not sure what title the Blessed Mother wanted to travel under. However, I had a feeling She wanted to travel under the title of “Our Lady of Grace” as our home Chapel is named “Our Lady of Grace Chapel”.

As God would have it, my big brother, Father Pontianus, was visiting from Italy. I brought this to him and told him how much Our Lady was moving my heart to do this and he encouraged me to obey. A week later, on March 6, 2020, I stopped at Home Goods to ppickup a household item. As I turned the corner in the store, there was a big beautiful white statue of our Lady of Grace. I had this overwhelming feeling of Her presence and felt this was the statue She wanted for the mission. I hesitated because there were a few chips on the statue. I thought her fingers were cracked and there was a crack in Her head. This couldn’t possibly be the one She wanted. But I picked it up anyway and was amazed at the ridiculously low price of $39.99. When I got to the register to pay for the statue, I was given a 50% discount leaving the statue at only $20. I also encountered an unknown man standing behind me, who for no reason at all, gave me tips on how to repair the statue.

This unsolicited advice was encouraging so the statue was purchased. Fr Pontianus, who was visiting from Italy was elated. As an added blessing, Father Maurice Akwa was also visiting from Maryland and they both scheduled a mass for March 8, 2020 when the statue was blessed. Two weeks later, our Lady of Grace started to travel from home to home, thus instilling in these homes the habit of family prayer. As soon as the statue began to travel, there was a 5-month waiting period. About a week after the statue was blessed, COVID 19 pandemic made its entrance and then I understood why Our Lady had requested that this mission be started by March 25, 2020, as a remedy for a pandemic She knew we would soon face. Despite the social distancing and no contact as well as fear caused by COVID-19, the Blessed mother was embraced by many families and she continues to travel until this day.

With the help of God and the Blessed Mother, this ministry spread to a few states very quickly earlier on including Texas (Ms. Gemma Jumbam), Delaware, Oklahoma, Maryland, Arizona, Canada, Cameroon, and most recently, North Carolina. There have been many testimonials by families willing to receive the traveling statues.

The expansion of ATM to the establishment of ATM Travels and Pilgrimages was born from a desire to visit Medjugorje, a seed planted by the Blessed Mother. With the radical encounters experienced during these pilgrimages, we felt the Blessed Mother calling us to bring many to Her. After a 30 day novena to the Holy souls in purgatory, that desire grew even stronger. Through these pilgrimages, we hope to foster spiritual connections and help others experience their faith journeys. We pray that this seemingly small inspiration may grow into something that impacts many lives.