Walking With the Poor - Notes From the Field

MISSION AWARENESS TRIP TO GUATEMALA

August 6-13, 2005

Bob’s Report from the Projects—August 6-13, 2005

As I write, I think of you and I really appreciate your traveling with me on these CFCA adventures of love and hope. Last time I wrote from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Our youngest son Robert Jacob traveled with us in northern Mexico and is with us now in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. In God’s loving care, we have been given two sons, four daughters and seven grandchildren who understand and appreciate our special love for them and our special call in CFCA.

We come home to a full house at CFCA San Lucas Toliman. Hundreds of wonderful people visit the mission parish of San Lucas Toliman annually. In addition to God’s grace, I attribute this to the spirituality and creativity of this mission parish. At this time of year, with the school vacations in the U.S., every available room in town is taken. At the CFCA Center, we are pleased to house the volunteer group from Strickland Construction Company in Kansas. As usually happens when volunteers visit us, a good number of the Strickland volunteers decide to become sponsors of CFCA children in La Providencia, where they had constructed a metal building for the community.

Our dear friends at Holy Trinity Parish, Lenexa, Kan. graced us with their presence and testimony. They had organized parish to parish, school to school, people to people activities. With the leadership of sponsors Anabella and Scott, our teachers at the parish school were offered training and a practicum in the Catequesis del Buen Pastor (Catechesis of the Good Shepherd).

A rough beginning

On our way to meet the sponsors in Guatemala City, vehicles were swerving to miss a teenaged boy lying on the road. He had apparently been struck by a vehicle which did not stop. This occurred at the entrance of Chimaltenango. Thanks be to God, an ambulance was on the scene right away. In the Prensa Libre newspaper the next morning, several pages were given to cover the pleasure trip of a wealthy 16-year-old to New Orleans, Louisiana. No mention was made in the paper of a bleeding young boy on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, Chimaltenango.

Delayed

Donald and Charlotte called the Pan American hotel early Saturday morning to say that they were delayed and would arrive on Sunday. They were able to arrange the same Delta flight, but one day later. When our travelers are delayed or stranded, through the on-call diligence of our Kansas City-based MAT team, we are able to arrange special care and safe transportation for sponsors to join the group.

On Sunday morning we experience the testimony of a 12-year-old sponsored girl from the CFCA subproject in Ciudad Peronia. Maritza, accompanied by her mother Felina, spoke confidently about her sponsorship, her family (five siblings--brother Amilcar bugs her the most), and her health challenges. Maritza has leukemia. Felina belongs to a group of CFCA mothers who are receiving training in sewing and the production of soy milk and other high protein derivatives of soy. At breakfast, Maritz, Felina and Astrid, our CFCA staffer who brought them, have a good interchange with the sponsors. On the ride through the cane fields of the Pacific coast, sponsors comment excitedly about seeing so much green. Many of the sponsors are from areas in the U.S. which have experienced high temperatures and lack of rain this summer.

A fine week with a fine group

We are having a full and very good week. Physically everyone is blessed with good health. They appreciate a safe, clean place to rest at night. They also enjoy one another, staying up to play cards and converse late into the night. Sponsor Walter works hard rearranging our small museum and picture gallery. Sponsors enjoy good sharing sessions with Bob, Tim (CFCA-Kansas, Preacher Liaison), Toribio and Andres Chajil. Our picnic on the shore of Lake Atitlan in Cerro de Oro is most enjoyable. We are leaving San Lucas tomorrow morning after breakfast. Our closing Mass is celebrated in the CFCA chapel by Fr. Robert Haas and Fr. Jerry Knueven. After supper, the sponsors give a wonderful testimonial to the Hermano Pedro staff—complete with the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey.

The children, mothers and staff of subproject Escuela de Cristo (School of Christ) in the Antigua area prepare a warm reception for the sponsors on their last afternoon in Guatemala. Surrounded by a dozen of the nearly 3,000 children in this subproject, I read this beautiful poem written by Marta Cota Antillon, a CFCA community promoter in Matachi, Mexico:

Dreams and Realities
(by Marta Cota Antillon)

When misery imprisoned
In its arms
My right to triumph
When poverty tore to pieces
My desires to study
When a helping hand was needed
I found an angel in my life!
It was an angel dressed as a sponsor
Who came to make my path joyful
To fill it with sweet counsel
And with it change my destiny
As moved by divine power
You came to change my life
Inviting me to lift up in flight
And giving me what my soul desired
Today my future does not seem as dark
And although misery always lies in wait
Now I can confront it
Because with you my bravery increases
Today my life is the most beautiful color, the most pure!

I dream with the knowledge
That in a far away place
Someone worries about me
Waiting with hope
For news and letters from me
A gift a photograph
Any news sparks your interest
All that happens to me
That which makes me happy
You want to know everything
This is what I want to write
Taking care of our friendship
As one cares for a beautiful crystal
Or a precious metal
When God gave himself the task
Of bringing together generous sponsors
With sponsored children in need
He saw with complete satisfaction
That His children were more loved
He had formed this wonderful Foundation!
So with His divine power
He helps every day and every night
All those that work toward the Mission
So that all can work together in harmony
And to all He sends his Blessing!

We close this mission awareness trip in Guatemala on the morning of Saturday, August 13, 2005. That same afternoon, we open the MAT with 28 sponsors and staff in Nicaragua.

Bob Hentzen
San  Lucas Toliman - Guatemala
August 13, 2005