On October 21, we had the great joy of celebrating our 20th anniversary of Con-solatio. These twenty years have been a grace—an amazing grace! Countless encounters, generous support, and deep friendships have blossomed—all these have been given to us beyond our efforts or our desire to serve. Many friends and some Alumni missionaries joined us that...
My community sister and I went to visit a woman and her four children. I had visited this family before, but this particular visit stood out to me. Most of this woman's children have mental disabilities. The oldest child is in school and from what I can understand is doing quite well! For the two...
We arrived at Senhor José's house and saw through the window that he was all alone, resting on a hospital bed. The other missionary, Valeria, and I got worried because he was lying under a blanket, covering his entire body, even his head. We realized he had the blanket that way because he thought he...
One of our friends here that has really impacted me is Manuel at the Garden of Peace–the community we visit where the Missionaries of Charity are. Manuel is handicapped and unable to walk, talk or feed himself....
A large part of the culture that I have grown to love in Costa Rica is that the friendships of the people are very deep and their doors are always open to friends and family no matter the time. Here in Costa Rica, we show up to visit and our friends are in their PJ's and...
R is a very close neighbor of ours who works selling a typical Honduran food called baleadas on the side of the street. A few days ago, R really portrayed the importance of family when a friend came to our gate to tell us that R’s kids were at her sale stand crying. When we...
In the big living room of the nursing home that we visit, a woman walked past me, taking small, unsteady steps. I thought she needed a little support, so I offered my hand so that she could safely walk to one of the chairs and sit down. Sigrid gently took my hand with a smile...
Every week, for the past 28 years, our volunteers have visited this village near Deva called Mintia. There, we often visit Elena, a mother of four boys. She had her first boy at age 13 or 14, and she is now in her early twenties. Her boys are Nicholas, Christopher, Lucas, and Michael. These boys...
I met Beatrice, a 44 year old woman, in the soup kitchen that we help with several times a week in the mornings. She was a very small, fragile looking woman. At first, she kept her distance from us, but slowly this physical distance became a familiarity and then a friendship. Beatrice had had lung...
We had the joy of welcoming a beautiful and diverse group of 8 young people for our 2023 Summer Orientation - the biggest group in many years! Each orientee brought a different flavor, having heard Christ’s call from across the States, Central America, and the Caribbean! It was a grace for each of us to...