This past week, my mom and I took a quick (too quick) trip to Playa de Oro, to surprise the students with a gift from my Alma mater, Bishop O Gorman Catholic Schools! It seems like such a small thing to us, but these children having their own lunch trays is huge. They have not been served lunch in school before. This year when the program started in February, they had to bring their own containers to eat out of.
Of course, the trip was not just to surprise the children with this gift, that was the bonus, but we had some business to take care of as well as we begin to plan the building of the San Miguel Center in Playa de Oro.
We had some practical things, like opening a bank account and meetings about the land and construction, but even more importantly we needed to know from the families, what is their desire for our on going presence in the village? See, we never want to go in and say, here let us do this for you, because this is what we want or feel you need, but we ask what do you desire for your community and how can we assist in that.
The common answer to that question was assisting in the education of their children. And that is exactly what we were hoping the answer would be. Education in the village is limited and has not always been a priority and for some, it is still not and that is ok too, but to hear that same answer from many was very promising.
As we continue this journey towards the San Miguel Center, pray with us through the intercession of Mother St Frances Xavier Cabrini, that we too may persevere in our desire to be resourceful, to find people who would donate much needed in support and labor and have faith that if it is of God's will our prayers will be answered!