GVM Annual Impact Report 2025
Seen. Fed. Educated. Trained. Formed. Sent.
As we share this annual report, we do so with heavy hearts and deep gratitude. This report would ordinarily have been written and signed by our President, Paul Verderber, whose steady leadership and generous spirit shaped Gratia Vobis Ministries in profound ways in the past six years. Instead, we pause first to honor his life and legacy.
Paul passed away on the eve of Advent, November 29, 2025, and his Funeral Mass was celebrated on December 4th. He served as President of GVM for six years, during which he inspired, strengthened, and guided this ministry to where it stands today. His leadership was marked by faith, humility, wisdom, and a deep love for the poor and vulnerable.
We hold Mary Ann Verderber and the entire Verderber family in our prayers and constant remembrance. May they be assured that Paul’s legacy lives on in every life touched through this ministry.
May God grant him eternal rest and peace. Amen.
It is in that spirit of remembrance, faith, and hope that we present this report.
A Year of Grace, Service, and Witness
As we reflect on the past year at GVM, our hearts are filled with gratitude for God’s grace, the resilience of the communities we serve, and the generosity of our partners and donors who made this work possible.
This year was not simply about numbers or programs. It was about people, names, faces, families, children, elders, and consecrated women and men whose lives were touched through compassion rooted in dignity and faith.
Feeding the Hungry With Presence
Through your generosity, GVM provided over 150,000 nutritious meals to more than 5,000 people in one of Nigeria's poorest regions during the Jubilee of Hope Event 2025. At the heart of this effort were 1,009 families, each known by name and accompanied with care.
We did more than distribute food. We stayed with the beneficiaries and listened to them. We prayed, laughed, sang, and danced with families who reminded us that the poor are not statistics, but brothers and sisters. One elderly mother, through tears, shared that it was the first time in years she had gone to bed without fear that her children would go hungry.
Opening Doors Through Education
Education remains one of the most potent pathways out of poverty. This year, GVM supported 25 primary school pupils, 20 secondary school students, and at least 10 young people in higher education by covering tuition and school supplies.
Through our partnership with Paulines Publications West Africa, we also donated 600 children’s books to our elementary schools, helping spark imagination and hope in communities where books are often a luxury. Many of these children now speak openly about becoming nurses, teachers, and community leaders, dreams once unimaginable.
Restoring Dignity Through Shelter and Water
Because of donor support, one struggling family received a simple, safe home, replacing life under tarps and leaking roofs. We also provided a borehole water system, allowing families access to clean drinking water close to home, ending daily journeys of miles to survive.
Strengthening Rural Communities Across Borders
Your contributions supported missionary transportation for pastoral workers serving in isolated rural communities in Guyana and Argentina, ensuring continued presence, accompaniment, and ministry where access is most difficult.
Serving at Home in the United States
Our mission also touched lives in the United States. In North Carolina, for example, GVM offered food-for-the-soul meals and pastoral presence to dozens of struggling households, providing encouragement, prayer, and companionship during difficult seasons. This initiative is particularly dear to Paul’s heart, and we would continue it through your support.
Protecting Consecrated Religious Women
This year, donors also helped advance efforts to build a safe house for consecrated religious women displaced by Boko Haram violence in Northern Nigeria. These sisters, called to prayer and service, deserve safety and peace. This initiative remains ongoing and deeply urgent.
Volunteer Formation: Serving With Dignity
More than 400+ volunteers were trained this year in how to serve the poor with dignity and respect, not as numbers, but as people made in the image of God. This formation emphasized presence, listening, cultural humility, and Gospel-centered charity, shaping a growing culture of compassionate service. We would operationalize the lessons learned to amplify this way of serving, inspired by our founder, Fr. Maurice Emelu.
Storytelling and Witness: SEEN
We documented powerful stories from rural communities that are often overlooked, stories of faith, struggle, resilience, and hope. These narratives will be released in the coming year as part of SEEN, a documentary series that ensures people with low incomes are not invisible but truly seen.
Digital Evangelization and Global Reach
We continued our legacy project of daily reflections, centered on the day's Catholic liturgical readings. It is the program's tenth year. Through daily reflections, testimonies, and Gospel-centered storytelling during this past year. According to iContact® email performance analytics, GVM received A+ ratings for overall delivery, engagement, and subscriber trust. Besides, overall we had the following reach:
- 512,340 emails delivered with A+ trust and engagement ratings (iContact®)
- 5M+ digital impressions across platforms
- 365+ daily reflections published
- 40 lay and religious contributors sharing lived faith
These reflections bear witness to Christ through diverse cultures, experiences, and vocations, reminding readers that faith is lived daily, in ordinary and extraordinary ways. Most of the writers are lay Catholics. If you would like to be a contributor, please let us know.
Looking Ahead
As we prepare to enter our 13th year in 2026, Gratia Vobis Ministries remains committed to stewarding your gifts faithfully so that every dollar continues to heal, feed, educate, form, empower, and evangelize.
Our commitment to bearing witness to Christ as Catholics across diverse cultures worldwide remains steadfast. We do this not only through words, but through concrete actions rooted in our love for God and for one another. Through your support, you have helped us continue to be instruments of God’s grace in the ordinary, everyday moments of Christian life, where faith is lived, shared, and made visible through action and word.
As this year comes to a close, we invite you to consider ways we might collaborate or partner to sustain the momentum. Whether through sharing ideas, forming new partnerships, volunteering, or donating to support our ongoing work, your involvement helps ensure that lives continue to be touched with dignity, hope, and the light of the Gospel.
Please know that our donors and their families are remembered in prayer every day. Your partnership makes this mission possible, and your generosity continues to shine Christ’s love through concrete works of charity and evangelization.
With gratitude, grace, and hope,
Mike Cooper, Acting President, Gratia Vobis Ministries, Inc.
Fr. Maurice Emelu, Founder, Gratia Vobis Ministries, Inc.