Monday, August 20, 2018

Poverty and the lack of courage to face a challenge


 Poverty and the lack of courage to face a challenge.
  Fighting the poverty with the Gospel. 



Facebook is inundated with everyone posting their child's back to school picture sporting new back to school clothes and shoes.  What a wonderful why a child can start the new school year, knowing their parents love and adore them so much to brag about them on social media.

 Lex does not receive such honors. Lex is one of the boys that friended us over 7 months ago, on the 1st week we were here. He loves to play with Gabriel and he looks up to Julianna as a big sister. We seldom see Lex with shoes on. He is always walking around barefoot, besides when he goes to school. Here the students are under a strict dress code. They are to wear a school uniform which includes a tie and dress shoes. Boys hair must be cut short and neat.  Girls must have their hair pinned up.  If the students can not keep up with the strict dress code they will just stay home rather then receive a merit or deduction of points from their grades.

Its true I have wrote about Lex before. I have blogged about how he helped paint the church and of his hard work. I also have blogged about how smart he is,  but he has a hard time writing and reading.  He enjoys coming over to our house and having us help him with his school work.  I guess you can say we feel apart of this young mans life. So when we notice he was out of school for two days we were concerned. When we asked why he was not in school with much shame he told us its was because he had a hole in his school shoes and that he could not afford to have points deducted from his grade.  I asked him if he needed us to help get him shoes but he humbly replied no, that his dad was going to buy him new ones. Almost a week went by and he still did not have new shoes. The second time we ask if he would like us to help get him shoes his reply was with much relief in his eyes with a YES!


He was super excited to try on his shoes and pose for a picture.


He than asked me, " how we are were able to spend money on shoes for him.”  I told him that their were many people in the United States that loves him as much as we do and that they sent money for us to buy shoes for him. He is the 1st person to have asked this question after we have helped them with their material needs. You could see something very different in his eyes, as if he meant something to someone and that he really felt like there was someone that cared and loved him.

From my heart to yours, Thank you to all our mission partners for your  donations and Corporal Acts of Mercy.

“When you see the naked, clothe them” (Is 58:7). 

In the letter of St. James we read: “What good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to
 “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well, “but you do not give them the necessities of the body what good is it?
 So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-16)

                                                             
            "I needed clothes and you clothed me" Matthew 25






Remember Magaly? I ask each one of you to continue praying for her and her family. We are so desperately wanting to take her to the doctor to find out why she passes out and why the right side of her body does not function properly. We have ran into a set back of sorts. We have been told we can not take her to the doctor because she does not have a DNI (which is a Peruvian Identification card.) We went last week with her and her children to take her birth certificate to Picota (a town close to us just about a 20 min moto taxi ride away) in hopes we would be able to help her get her ID card. With no luck we were turned down because the birth certificate she has is not an official copy. 



We are currently trying to figure out how to request an original copy of her birth certificate without having to make the 8 hour trip to the pueblo where she was born.  I have been advised when I offered to go to her hometown that I might not be able to find her Pueblo with ease. It is strongly suggested that only a person who knows the pueblo should go. We are praying we can reach a relative that lives close that would be willing to help us obtain her original birth certificate and somehow bring it to us or willing to meet me half way with it. Although we cannot yet begin the road to finding treatment for  Magaly’s sickness we visit her and her children each week and bring them food to help them through the week. We were giving this opportunity from God to be able to show them Christ's amazing love for them and how Christ can be enough for them. Even in sadness, sickness and poverty He is enough for them. 


 “ I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread  that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. “ John 6:51-58. 

I cannot lie it hurts to know that we could not help Magaly with her sickness, but I am confident that it’s not the physical illness that God wishes for us to heal at the moment. It’s the spiritual darkness and Gospel poverty that this little family lives in,  day in and day out that we are to heal first. So we will continue to visit with them each week to read scripture and pray the rosary. We will soon see the dark turn into light. I have faith in Christ that all things are possible!







Gabriel and Magaly’s three boys (whom have never traveled out of our pueblo of Shimbillo; something we take for granted) enjoy playing a game 
of tag while waiting for the government offices to open. 



We were super blessed that the children  in our three pueblos that we work in were invited to attend a day retreat with Father Francisco and Father Rafael. The retreat focused on the Holy Eucharist. They were able to attend Mass which Father Rafael called a learning Mass. He explained every step and every prayer to the children while celebrating Mass. The children played games and were able to win prizes.  The prizes were humble gifts that were donated from Spain that consisted of clothes, balls, and religious posters and candy. 
We had over 80 children attend the retreat. Please keep them all in your prayers as many of them will be receiving sacraments next month. 

Please enjoy the pictures

7am in the morning and we are waiting for all the children to arrive. 
They sing and dance for an hour as we wait for Father Francisco to pick us up.

Well not much say other than Father’s 
Monkey was my traveling companion.

Its now 10am and the children are still singing and dancing.


 These great youth leaders I could not live without. 


 Nothing weird about it. 
Playing games while the monkey keeps score. 


Yes, he’s pretty but he pooped on me. 

 Please keep these kids in your prayers as they are preparing to receive sacraments this year. 




"If you can’t feed hundred people then just feed one” 
Mother Teresa


Thank you so much for your generosity and your prayers.
Bringing light into the darkness and empowering the poor to have courage against the poverty which bind them; would not be possible without your support and financial sacrifices.

Karen,  Julianna and Gabriel Del Castillo 





 FMC Missionares / Serving in Shimbillo Peru 

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