Last month I had the opportunity to return to El Paso Texas to serve at Annunciation House, a shelter for migrants coming daily to the U.S. seeking asylum. While working in the laundry room at the shelter, I met a migrant (I’ll call him Juan) who volunteered by collecting the daily dirty laundry. He told me he did well on his ranch in southern Mexico with many cattle and horses. The cartel came and threatened his family if he didn’t pay an enormous amount. He had to sell the ranch and all the animals. They returned and said the money wasn’t enough and that they would return the next day for more, or else. He had nothing left to give them. He packed his family in the car that night and drove for days to the U.S. border. “I lost everything”, he said one day incredulously many times through many tears (both his and mine) and just as many times reminded himself that he still had his wife and 3 children. He added that we were now his new family. How prophetic! We are all the human family, all with the same needs, all parts of the Body of Christ, all God’s creation. There is no “us” and “them”; there is only “us”. I worked with many others from all over the country who lived this ideal. Juan lived it too. He said he helped at the shelter as pay-back for all God had given him....a “glass half full” kind of man.
Srs. Marylou Lyons, Joan Mahoney, Mary Ann Rossi and Maryann Calabrese took part in the Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Service held at the Al-Madany Islamic Center in Norwalk. Religious leaders from the Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, and Christian communities offered prayerful reflections, and civic leaders challenged us to show our gratitude at this Thanksgiving time through acts of service. A song, Deep Blue Sea, performed by Alman Nusrat brought us together in praise of our one God who knows and loves us all.
The OK Clean Water Project committee in Ottawa has made it official that 2019 is the last year it will raise funds for the OK project in Cameroon. The on-going socio-political crisis has limited the work in the villages, and OK Cameroon’s is being recognized by the government of Cameroon as an Association providing the official status needed for future fundraising opportunities. Since “education for sustainability” has been a key component of the OK project from the beginning, the village water management committees are able to maintain their village water projects.