I do not know God's plans for my family, but I do know its going to be GOOD!
The Del Castillo Family will serve in Peru for our
1st year's mission assignment!
It has taken me a long time to surrender to God's will, but once I let go of my human desires I have been able to see Our Lord’s amazing plan for my family and I. For the past two years He has guided us along a path so amazing that I would have never imagined it for myself.
This last week here in General Cepeda Mexico, has been so incredible. We've been living here among the poor and having a chance to encounter Christ in each of them. I have been given a great confidence, God is running through my very veins. Feeling His presence among us each day gives my family and I the strength to do the impossible. Up to now, I often challenged our Lord. I ask why He chose my family to a life of foreign missions. He has gently called us deeper each and every day to be obedient by becoming his faithful servants. I know now that all the sufferings of my life were meant for the Glory of his Kingdom and I realize there is no need to question the plans of our Lord.
We are so excited to announce we will be going to Peru as our 1st mission assignment. You see, with the little bit I have learned about the country of Peru, it seems as though God knew exactly why He created me and my family. The suffering we have endured cannot be looked at as a short coming or in a negative way. It is human nature to look at our own sufferings and struggles as something that is bad but Pope Benedict says, "The world promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness."
I have found out that the small town of Shimbillo, Peru we are assigned to has a very high rate of single mothers struggling to raise their children. I have spoken with a few missionaries that have served around the small town of Shimbillo and have found that the area is greatly plagued with a high rate of sexual abuse against children and young women. Prostitution has been a source of income for women in the area in the past. I have come to understand the importance of answering God's call with a YES! Answering His call for us to leave everything behind and solely rely on our intimate relationships with our Lord Jesus Christ to direct us, to provide for us, and to humble us. As my family and I continue to pass away from ourselves, we are reborn as vessels of His love for those He is sending us to.
I can relate so closely to these women. These women that feel unworthly, unloved, and unwanted. It is very hard to comprehend that He chose my family and I to lead others to know His undying love for them but in this place it makes sense.
In the book, A Call to Mercy, Mother Teresa spoke of “the physical situation of my poor left in the streets unwanted, unloved, unclaimed. This feeling of being rejected, abandoned, let down, or not belonging anywhere, or not having a reference point or a safe haven while passing through life’s struggles was a real suffering that she wanted to remedy along with providing physical shelter.” It's hard to believe that God has chosen us to help the women of Shimbillo find where they belong, which is in the arms of our savior.
There is so many unknown practical questions that run through my family's minds about Peru like... Where will we find a house? What's the food like? What's the weather like? What is the priest like? Who will we be serving? Who will hear the call and become our financial mission partners? How long is the flight? Even though the list seems never-ending and we cannot answer any thing on this list of questions, we can confidently say IT'S GOING TO BE GOOD! Simply because its God's will!
There are so many unknown practical questions that run through my family's minds about Peru like... Where will we find a house? What's the food like? What's the weather like? What is the priest like? Who will we be serving? Who will hear the call and become our financial mission partners? How long is the flight? Even though the list seems never-ending and we cannot answer any of these questions, we can confidently say IT'S GOING TO BE GOOD! Simply because its God's will!
Saint John Paul II wrote in his Encyclical Letter Mission of the Redeemer
“Living the Mystery of Christ, "the One who was sent"
88. An essential characteristic of missionary spirituality is intimate communion with Christ. We cannot understand or carry out the mission unless we refer it to Christ as the one who was sent to evangelize. St. Paul describes Christ's attitude: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:5-8).
The mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption is thus described as a total self-emptying which leads Christ to experience fully the human condition and to accept totally the Father's plan. This is an emptying of self which is permeated by love and expresses love. The mission follows this same path and leads to the foot of the cross.
The missionary is required to "renounce himself and everything that up to this point he considered as his own, and to make himself everything to everyone."172 This he does by a poverty which sets him free for the Gospel, overcoming attachment to the people and things about him, so that he may become a brother to those to whom he is sent and thus bring them Christ the Savior. This is the goal of missionary spirituality: "To the weak I became weak...; I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the Gospel..." (1 Cor 9:22-23).
It is precisely because he is "sent" that the missionary experiences the consoling presence of Christ, who is with him at every moment of life - "Do not be afraid...for I am with you" (Acts 18:9-10) - and who awaits him in the heart of every person.
