Walking with the poor - notes from Guatemala

MISSION AWARENESS TRIP TO GUATEMALA

Feb. 2-9, 2008

	Happy faces greet Bob Hentzen upon the arrival of the mission awareness trip participants in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala.

Our 33 mission awareness trip participants arrived today from many different places, including two sponsors from Barcelona, Spain. Fresh from the Philippines, it would be an understatement to say that we are still energized by the mission awareness trip there and the concert in Zamboanga.

Long-term sponsorship gives hope to Anamabilia

“I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit as this girl spoke,” said one of the sponsors. The sponsored youth is 16-year-old Anamabilia, born poor but healthy and strong. Now, this bright-eyed girl with a big smile is afflicted with lung cancer, which put her in a coma and nearly snuffed out her life in 2007. She has had the same faithful sponsor since she was a baby.

Anamabilia is the youngest of the four children of the widow Clarita. Within her own abject poverty, Clarita arrived this morning caring for 4-year-old Alison, one of her six grandchildren. They live as squatters along the old railroad line in the capital, declared a “red zone” by civil authorities because of the presence of gangs and other undesirable conditions. Sponsors were edified by the example of Carmen Santos, CFCA community worker for these neighborhoods. The fact that these families are visited and loved is what it’s all about. These visits and the example of our struggling families help the staff and all of us in our ongoing conversion. Thank you, sponsor Michael for your fidelity to Anamabilia. You are truly giving her and her family life and hope.

A week of deep emotion and high impact

These sponsors have had a week of

	Sponsors listen as Brenda Xic translates the reality of CFCA families resettled after losing their homes in Hurricane Stan.

deep emotion and high impact, surrounded by sponsored children, parents and staff. They have been taken in and inspired by their respective sponsored families. The families have quite naturally let their faith, their gratitude, and their resilience shine forth. The sponsors have witnessed the context in which their sponsorship lives and functions. They have had the advantage of the San Lucas Parish experience. All week they have reflected on Father Greg Schaffer’s talk. We all appreciated the early morning Ash Wednesday Mass with Father John Goggin, and then the sobering martyrdom site of Father Stan Rother and the landslide area of Panabaj.

Sponsors learned something about mountain roads on the ride to and from Santa Cruz del Quiche. An enjoyable few hours with the CFCA community of San Martin Jilotepeque was topped off with the sponsorship of three children and one aging. Sponsors had a couple of free hours in Antigua and got a glimpse of Lenten processions.

As we put these fine sponsors on their flights home, Cristina and I board a Copa flight for Managua to begin the mission awareness trip there this afternoon. As always, I thank you for being with us in solidarity and prayer.

Bob Hentzen
Ciudad de Guatemala
Feb. 9, 2008

Sponsor a child in Guatemala

Read the notes from other mission awareness trips