Feeding the Hungry and Sheltering the Homeless

I was talking to a friend over Christmas break, and she was wondering if there is anything happening back at our mission posts.  I was convicted that I have not sent an update in a long time informing you of what is happening.  My apologies to all of you in the United States as well as to those abroad in Coopevega, Costa Rica and Leoncio Prado, Peru.  You all deserve to have these stories be told.  

We continue to send regular funding to Costa Rica to help feed the hungry.  We navigate that by sending funds to the Waldrop family, FMC missionaries living in Santa Rosa, Costa Rica.  They take that funding to go buy the supplies, deliver it to the Claretian Sisters in Coopevega, who then distribute it according to need in the area.  The sisters are very grateful for this assistance, as there are a lot of people in need, and they wouldn't be able to help them without this extra food coming in.  

Sister Vanessa and an FMC missionary family delivering food.

Daigle family leading prayer for a family in need.

Sister Vanessa and Angela Waldrop delivering food to a family in need.

The Waldrop family and Sister Vanessa praying over a man's hurt leg on their food delivery mission in Coopevega.

Don Mundo and Petrona are still serving in Coopevega. We send regular funding to them as our local missionaries.  They continue to lead prayers at their house, go on home visits around town, help those in need, witness the goodness of a sacramental marriage, and encourage others to participate in the life of the Church, especially to attend Sunday Mass.  They are so grateful that God has asked them to do this work, and they humbly ask for your prayers as they face many challenges.

Prayer gathering at their home.

Don Mundo and Dona Petrona, our local missionaries.

Leoncio Prado, Peru has continued to reach out with some very real needs.  This past year we were able to help Rosemary and her daughter Katia, Luisdina and Ober family, and Sarina and Crespo. My friend, Rosemary, lost her husband.  She has a lot of health needs and struggles to care for her young daughter.  They have been living in a room in the house of her husband's parents, which is causing some problems.  So, she asked for help to build a little house of her own on the same property.  Thanks be to God with the help from some extra donations, Rosemary and her daughter now have their own place!

(NOT a video)
Sarina and Crespo working on Rosemary's house.

Rosemary and her daughter in their new house.

Luisdina and Ober were a couple we helped prepare for the Sacrament of Matrimony.  We were at their wedding and at their little reception where we danced on the dirt floor of their tiny house.  Unfortunately, this house of theirs is on the edge of a cliff that falls into a large river. It is unfortunate, because the land is washing away and getting dangerously close to their house.  Luisdina has called me numerous times telling me that she is worried that her house and her children will be washed away into the river, but that they have nowhere else to go.  Praise the Lord, with some extra donations, we were able to help purchase land for their family!

 

Their land falling into the river.

Luisdina, Ober and their children.

Their new land where they will move their house and be safe from danger.