Deborah Balmes, a member of Transfiguration Church in Marietta, is one of 11 women and men who were commissioned as Samaritan Lay Missioners by the Medical Mission Sisters on Sunday, Aug. 8, at the community's North America headquarters in Philadelphia.

In mid-August she began a one-year commitment with Communities in School, a stay-in-school crisis intervention program for children in grades kindergarten through 12 in Dallas.

Others to be commissioned have been assigned to serve the sick, homeless, abused and indigent in Weslaco and San Antonio, TX, Washington, D.C., and Tucson Ariz.

A 1992 graduate of Oglethorpe University, Ms. Balmes has completed one year of a master's degree program in art history at the University of Georgia. From January to June of this year she worked at the University of Georgia as a slide library assistant. She also has served as a home construction volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and as a peer guide to a mentally retarded person for Best Buddies.

Ms. Balmes' commissioning brings to 66 the total number of Samaritan Lay Missioners to serve under the auspices of the Medical Mission Sisters, both in the U.S. and overseas.

The Medical Mission Sisters are an international community of Catholic women who offer professional health care services and health education in 21 countries on five continents. The Sisters describe their mission as "being present to life in the spirit of Jesus the healer."

In mid-1986 the Medical Mission Sisters began their Samaritan program in response to repeated requests from lay men and women to participate in their healing mission for a limited period of time.