Guatemala Sister-ParishOur Previous Sister Parish in GuatemalaA letter from our Sister Parish…(March 14, 2010) We are hopeful that God our Father, Jesus His beloved son, and the Holy Spirit, will fill you and your families with abundant blessings…We need your help and support in prayer because our community in Santa Maria Del Camino is in trouble…We are facing some very difficult times. On Thursday the gangs came to ask for “protection” money. Many of us expressed our opposition to paying it, and the man who was here to collect left very upset. He later came back later and said that we could relax – they would not bother us any more. However, since then we have been afraid because what they do is attack the houses where people refuse to pay. We are thinking that this may be done to our church and its parishioners. Today a man who was waiting in line to buy water, in front of lots of people, broke into our water distribution center through the office window. The man was restrained by several of our parishioners and the police took him, but since the man did not take money there was no hard evidence and the police set him free. We believe that in some strange way it is good that they set him free so that there is less retribution. We need your prayers because these same young men are asking questions to learn who are the community leaders for Santa Maria Del Camino, so that they can track us down. We are in anguish. I feel sick and very nervous about this because this year has been very hard for my family. Jesus (the man who runs the water distribution center) and his family are very afraid as well, and this makes things even more difficult for him because he is ill. We are leaving our safety to the Holy Trinity because we believe that the Holy Trinity will accompany us. We do not want to stop doing our jobs as church leaders. We have lots of projects to still be completed especially the construction of the second floor and the associated conference rooms. We are waiting for the completion of the blue prints and the time and cost estimate, but we are so busy with this stuff, that we have temporarily stopped. However, we know that with the support in prayer from so many people, many of us are going to make it and make it in a strong way. – Gladys, (from our Sister Parish in Guatemala, Santa Maria Del Camino) Please include Gladys, as well as the other people of our Sister parish, in your prayers. Our visitors in 2009…
Our recent 2008 trip…
Our 2007 trip to Guatemala
2006 Dedication
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
To contribute to our sister parish, make checks payable to St. Joseph Church — Andamos Unidos. Put them in a clearly marked envelope and drop them in the Sunday collection. |
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