For the students at St. Theresa Catholic School in Des Moines, Iowa, the idea of knowing God and reacting to the call to evangelize as disciples is not put off until they are old enough for high school or college. For St. Theresa students, the day of Baptism is a day of commissioning into active missionary work.

As a link between past and future, it is the grandparents who plant the seed, knowing full well they may not see the fruit of their harvest.

They plant anyway. Sue and Marv Prins have grandchildren in Milwaukee — an eight-hour drive from home. Facebook and phone calls help shrink the distance, but Sue, who lives with a chronic illness, reasons, “I probably won’t live to see my grandchildren as adults.