Tri-Parish member sent to Bolivia with Salesian Lay Missioners: It’s either sink or float and nobody has sunk yet
by Kathryn Pasker Ineck
ICR Assistant Editor
Commissioned by the Salesian Lay Missioners in August and headed to Bolivia to serve at an orphanage home to girls aged infant to 18, Noelle Chmelik does not speak Spanish— Yet.
Chmelik, Tri-parish member, Cottonwood, grew up on “the Prairie” in central Idaho, the youngest of eight children born to Jim and Coleen Chmelik and aunt to 17 nieces and nephews, “so, a big Catholic family,” she describes with an affectionate laugh.
Enter the Salesians
While attending SEEK 2025 in Salt Lake City as a high school senior, Chmelik met a representative for the Salesian Lay Missioners (SLMs), described on their website as “a Catholic association of men and women seeking to answer God’s missionary call in their own lives by dedicating themselves to works of education, evangelization and human development among poor youth,” and she was intrigued by their conversation...
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