Settling in

 We are so thankful for you all and feel immense Joy to be apart of your life’s in such a Holy way! We pray this blog finds you well ! In this crazy fast pace world it seems that there is so many negatives and so very few positive things in our day to day life’s. But our hearts are over joyed to be able to pray for each of you every day and to have the confidence that we are not alone here at our new post, because we know you are praying for us. 

 Its December already. Since October we have been settling in to our new mission post. Patiently waiting like a horse chopping at the bit to run out of the gates.  However we knew we needed to know the lay of the land a lot better before we started running straight into ministries.  After a lot of prayer and a heavy dose of patience,  we were able in November to begin our full time ministries.

Warning - Photo overload


Blessings in abundance

We have received so many blessings from our ministries in the alturas (the mountains).  Nestled up high above the town we live in,  is a little pueblo called Buenos Aires. When roads are dry we can make it in a bit over an hour. Each Saturday we play games, volleyball and catechize the children and a few devoted adults. We share fruit with them like mangos watermelons and tamarindo,  a cherished commodity that is unavailable to them in the cooler mountain pueblo. Its so amazing how our world here is not based around money. The fruits we bring are given to us from  the generosity of those we live among here in our home town. It’s not uncommon to  receive a knock on the door of people bringing us fruits, rice or yuca. We receive so much there is no way we can eat it all. So we take it to those who go without.  It’s amazing to see there eyes light up when we bring them such simple gifts of fruits and Jesus. You can tell they feel so much love and amazement that we would take time to visit them. The best part is they have no Idea of the wonderful gift that they give us each Saturday. Our hearts are so filled up from our visits with this simple and loving community.

Arriving to Buenos Aires 

Where the earth reaches the sky

Some of the girls enjoying watermelon

Watermelon and Advent wreaths 

Mangos 

And more mangos 

Tamarindo

Learning about Advent

Young and Old enjoy making an Advent Wreath 

Taking turns reading out of the bible

Games , games and games

The abundance of rain in the mountains creates these little water falls everywhere

There is something magical about balloons here in Peru

Stillness and Silence before the Lord

We have been asked by the priest here in Cajaruro to expose the blessed sacrament each Thursday. We take the task we have been given with great honor and respect.  It’s a very new ministry here among our town and it has indeed had challenges for the first day. Despite explaining to them what adoration is,  the concept has proven a bit difficult for the faithful to understand, and that there is no need to do anything, but sit with Jesus. The silence of adoration has not been very appetizing to them.  Please pray that we can endure the strange looks,  and the confused attitudes of those who attend each week.  It seems my entire time in adoration is spent on my knees begging Jesus to speak to them loud enough for them to hear and to soften their hearts so they may be tender enough for him to reach into the depths of their hearts. 

Come, You Spirit of Quiet.
Guide me into your Stillness that I might hear in myself the Word you speak.
Free me from all Fear hat all which binds me leaves me and leaves me to who I am.
Open as a vast chalice I want Your wonders, Your fullness, Your holy presence gently to seize me. Come You Spirit of Breath, breathe your breath into my thoughts, into my feelings. Come and take your place in me.My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.

Amen

The Lord's Supper

Through our training with Family Missions Company in 2017 we were introduced and participated each Saturday night in the Lord's Supper.  An evening filled with Songs, Reading of the Gospel, food and friends. In our old post in the Jungle our community did not partake much in the Saturday night Lords Supper. We were so spread apart from the other missionaries and everybody’s schedule made it difficult to make it happen. However while making our new families schedule both Julianna and Gabriel felt a great desire to open our home each week and invite people in our home to share a meal with them. To break bread with them.  They were truly excited to have it on our schedule. Me however that’s a different story.


I knew Christ was moving us to a new post to teach us something profound and to grow us in Holy  virtues.  To soften our rough edges and make us more into His likeness. Becoming a Betty Crocker here in Peru is not easy and it was not much on my agenda. So you can imagine how God is working on my prideful thinking. Second of all He is working on my humbleness. It has proven to be difficult to keep things simple because I feel I must provide more for our dinner guest. Most days as the locals do we eat rice, bananas and eggs. Of course, inviting others over to your home to eat, I feel it calls one to make something fancier for them. After all in America that’s what we do is make a big Lasagna with a  nice tossed salad and bread sticks or have a BarB-Q of the finest meats or plump juicy burgers, when guest come over. But I have found our two burner camping stove to be a bit limiting.  So it’s been a bitter sweet ministry for us (Pun intended) . Serving a big helping of Eggs, rice and bananas. Along with a side of nervousness because, well I am not the best cook. We open our small one room home each week, pray with those we invite to dinner and share a meal with them in Christian fellowship. The highlight of the night is when we get to invite them to walk to the chapel to attend our pueblos weekly Adoration. Even though  this ministry is not an easy one for me that I tend to dread  while preparing for , it has indeed been very rewarding and fruitful. And more so a chance to grow and become more like Christ. 

Gabriel playing a game of Jenga after dinner with Mrs Rosa 

Sunday’s spent in Paradise

We have been spending some time in a Pueblo called Paraíso (Spanish for Paradise) on Sunday mornings. Its about a 20 minute drive from our home. The road is a small two lane road most of the way. Luckily we have been in a bit of a dry season and have not had to much trouble making it down the dirt portion of our travels to them. The community has not had anyone to open the Church and lead Celebrations of the word each Sunday. So we felt called to help them out. It’s a community with not many youth mainly elderly people but they are so loving. The education level of their Catholic faith is the equivalent to a small child with only the basic knowledge of who God is. Many, many of them cannot read. We have been so delighted and blessed to have the opportunity to teach them new and wonderful things about the Catholic faith. Like how to pray and lead the rosary. Or like last Sunday we introduced to them the meaning of Advent and made advent wreaths. I pray fervently that one day God will see our work and teaching worthy and  fitting  enough for us to bring Jesus to them in the Eucharist each week. 

Of the beaten path

We are blessed to have transportation to reach the small town

After a drive through a bit of mud we have arrived

These cuties always are waiting for us

 


Walking into the Darkness

We also visit a nearby Pueblo called Chariaco, that is walking distance from us. It’s a very desolate place. Dry in the Physical sense as well as Spiritual sense, it’s one of the poorest pueblos in which we visit. And is home to a strong spirit of darkness and despair. You could say the majority of the Pueblo do not care for our presence there. We knock on doors and have had quick opportunities to introduce ourselves, with no warm welcome to enter. Despite the reaction of most of the Pueblo we have been grateful for the two homes that have welcomed us. Both very stark in contrast. One home in which we visit each week is the home of three beautiful children. The mother is warm and welcoming but with reservations. The Father is a well-known  medicine man or witch doctor and he leaves eagerly when we arrive. We can feel an evil spirit among the home. However we have been welcomed and we go each week into the field of combat. In our standards we seem not to be making headway. The most we can do is just have pleasant conversations  about the weather or  the children’s school. But never failing to cease the opportunity to pray the rosary with the 8 year old and 15 year old girls who live there. The two,  seem to be more open to us than anyone else in their family. While praying the rosary at their home I often wonder if they know the power of the rosary. The spiritual battles that have been won by faithfully praying the rosary. We offer our silent intentions for this family to come to know and have a relationship with Jesus; for Jesus to open the doors to this pueblo so they may one day come to have a relationship with Christ.  

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.  May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits

 who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

A typical home in Chariaco

Catholic Church that has been under construction for 4 years.

It now has been a project that has been abandoned

Soccer Fields 

Finding Light in the Darkness

The other home we visit in Chariaco is set apart from the rest of the pueblo. Far enough away that it has not been engulfed by the evil spirit in which lurks and prowls about in the main area of the pueblo. It has been protected in a sense perhaps due to the faithful family who lives there. At first glance of this home you would not ever know of the Joy that lives within its walls made of Bamboo. To be honest when we first found the small bamboo hut we were a bit scared of what we would find. After knocking on doors and having them shut in our face we were not in high hopes that this home would welcome us. However we were greeted with such kindness and love.

In the home lives Milton and his wife with there three children. Faithful and devoted Catholics despite their hardship and poverty.  Doing all they can for others before themselves.

As Marixa stays at home caring for their three children. Milton struggles to find enough work to provide for the needs of his family at times holding down 3 different jobs. If that’s not enough Milton was recently told to leave one of his jobs,  as he confronted his employer and tried to defend the 32 underage children (some as young as 8 years old) working in the factory where he had been working at. Even with the struggles this family has seen financially both Milton and His wife know that they must praise the Lord and to be obedient to Gods will for them. That they must not lose faith.

 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. - John 1:5

A Home for the Poor

Milton and his family  have become such wonderful friends to us.  I am so ashamed to admit that I struggled to see the poverty that they lived in.  After all there is no illness or addictions in the family, there is both dad and mom in the picture and the entire family attends mass every Sunday together. However God insisted that I see them with His eyes. To see their needs and their worth. I am so grateful that God placed such a desire within me that allowed me to see the great need our new friends have.

To know that Jesus had it planned for our families to become friends with each other and that he would place a desire within us to try to help them with a home. Giving us, a chance to reflect on all the rich opportunities that we as Americans have. Even as my family lives here in among the poor of Peru, we as Americans, if the struggles become to unbearable we could always return back to are wealthy country. Where I have been guilty of not ever having to worry about the rain storm coming in . Never have I feared that it would soak the dirt floors that lay within my home. Or have been in fear if the storm comes in with a wind that it will soak everything within my home such as the beds, and clothes. I as an American am guilty of being consumed with what I can fill my home with or  what  decorations should I purchase to hang on the wall. Furthermore I have never had to worry a bit about having to cut bamboo to replace the rotted wall before it falls. So I am so grateful for this opportunity to become friends with Milton and his wife because they have become such treasures to us.

A humble area. Clean dry clothes hang on a line, because their is no drawers. A table made of blocks and bamboo.

The children's bed, with sweet little Alondra taking her afternoon nap! 

They have reminded me and my children why we are here. Of the great wonderful opportunity to have been given to know and love such a beautiful family. To see the poor as God sees them, which is VALUABLE. A bit of a oxymoron, if you will, one can not help to think, how can the poor who suffer and go without basic needs be so valuable?

One of their beds, made with blocks and bamboo 

   Pope Francis’s call to all Christians 

to remember the poor “the treasures of the Church”.  Pope Francis asked “ Do I, a Christian have at least one poor person as a friend?”  Pope Francis reminded all, that

 “the poor are valuable in the eyes of God”, that “they need someone to take them by the hand”. 

But more so “the poor remind us how we should live the Gospel: like beggars reaching out to God.”

We have launched a campaigned for them called “A home for the Poor”. For under $5,000.00 we can build them a more suitable home. Made of bricks and with concrete floors. 

If you fill called to help build Milton and his family a home please make a donation at our homepage:
https://www.familymissionscompany.com/p…/karen-del-castillo/



If you have more questions about the Project or feel the Holy Spirit is calling you to come in person to Peru to Help with the Construction please feel free to contact us. 

Karendelcastillo@familymissionscompany.com



Christmas in Solidarity with the poor

We beg for your prayers during this advent and Christmas season. Most missionaries travel back to the States for a time of rest and to visit family during this wonderful season. Although my children and I would love to return this year, it was not in God’s plans for us to. He made it known that he needed us here among the poor this year. To make humble use of our benefactors donations in which were made to us.  We felt a profound call to be  present among the poor of our new mission post. The call we have heard is not an easy call; it’s even harder to be cheerfully obedient to Gods will.

Our homemade tree. Made of wire, garland, and homemade paper ornaments.

Please pray for us as we live in true solidarity with the poor whom we serve this Christmas. Pray we will be strengthen and that Christ fills us with his immense love for us, especially Julianna and Gabriel. Please pray that our presence can be felt and our unity can become true within the Eucharist among our family, friends and benefactors back home as we courageously serve  Christ in ways that sometimes are very difficult for us and our human desires to understand. Pray that this years Christmas may be filled with immense Joy, and Love.

We pray for each of you to be filled with the true Spirit of Christmas. That you will open your hearts to receive your King wrapped in swaddling clothes, whom was humble enough to be born in a stable, poor and lying in a manger. We pray that your heart will rejoice over His birth. 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel 

The Del Castillo's

Karen, Julianna and Gabriel

Thank you to all who have heard the call to help us bring the Love of Jesus to the poor here in Peru. The mission here would not exist without your generosity and sacrifices. 

If you would like to become a monthly supporter of our mission here please click on the link:   

https://www.familymissionscompany.com/p…/karen-del-castillo/

All donations are tax deductible.  

Your donations make it possible for us to live here among the poor of Peru and allowing us to bring the Gospel to those we live among.

Our Christmas wish is a home for the poor!

Lately I have been a bit frustrated, 

asking myself,  if I have become so

 blind that I can not see the poor whom I serve?

  I am ashamed to say that I struggled a bit to share this with you. Embarrassed and ashamed that it is very possible that I have, become so blind and poor to see the needs of others. Losing sensitivity to the poverty we live among day in and day out. Perhaps because it has just become the new normal for my children and I.  Where it does not faze us to see and experience the living conditions of our friends we visit each week.  After all there is no illness or addictions in the family, there is both dad and mom in the picture and the entire family attends mass every Sunday together. However God insisted that I see them with His eyes. To see their needs and their worth. 


   For the last two weeks I have awaken in the middle of the night with a great desire to help them. With a burning desire within, that I must do something. Knowing that they have no way to build a home for themselves, As Marixa stays at home caring for their three children. Milton struggles to find enough work to provide for the needs of his family at times holding down 3 different jobs. If that’s not enough Milton was recently told to leave one of his jobs,  as he confronted his employer and tried to defend the 32 underage children (some as young as 8 years old) working in the factory where he had been working at. Even with the struggles this family has seen financially both Milton and His wife know that they must praise the Lord and to be obedient to Gods will for them. That they must not lose faith. 

   It reminded me of Pope Francis’s call to all Christians to remember the poor “the treasures of the Church”.  Pope Francis asked “ Do I, a Christian have at least one poor person as a friend?” I was overwhelmed with great Joy to know, I do. I truly do have friends who are poor! Pope Francis reminded all, that “the poor are valuable in the eyes of God”, that “they need someone to take them by the hand”. But more so “the poor remind us how we should live the Gospel: like beggars reaching out to God.”


  Knowing that many of you are gearing up for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and giving Tuesday. Scoping out the ads for the best deals for this year’s Christmas Gifts for that special someone. Or perhaps you’re a business owner trying to find that perfect charity in which to make your companies end of the year donation to.  I knew I must seize the moment and yet again become a beggar in the name of Christ and to reach out to each of you.

This is where they cook

Kitchen area

Buckets used as a sink 

   I urge you to prayerfully and carefully take a look at the pictures of our friend’s home.  This is what we as missionary see every day. Ask yourself what you would do if these were your friends. Perhaps even reflect on the things you see in each picture. The hanging clothes with no dresser drawers to go in. The beds, the walls in which anything and everything crawls through. Or perhaps your eye notices the dirt floor. Whatever strikes you about these pictures ask yourself if God is asking you to forgo one or two items on your Christmas list this year to help this family out.   We cannot allow ourselves to just overlook the poor or to pass them by. We must see them as Christ sees them.  VALUABLE!  And as the treasures of the Church.  

One of their beds, made with blocks and bamboo 

The children's bed, with sweet little Alondra taking her afternoon nap! 

A humble area. Clean dry clothes hang on a line, because their is no drawers. A table made of blocks and bamboo. 

Despite what it may seem, the home is very incredibly clean and in order. 

  Please prayerfully consider making a difference in this families life. Giving them a gift that they could not ever possibly return. However your gift will not go unnoticed in the eyes of our Lord. We invite you to make a special onetime donation to help build a home for our friends. Milton, his wife Marixa and their three children all live in this hut made of bamboo, over a dirt floor in which contains no doors.  


  Our goal is to give them a small one room home with a concrete floor, brick walls and a door. If its Gods desire to provide more than enough funds for the small one room home, than we would use the extra funds to set them up with a water storage tank and an outdoor bathroom.



  Our Christmas wish this year is that you will prayerfully consider making a donation so together we can build a home for this wonderful family. Whom have become are sweet friends. Because God sees the poor as the Treasures to the Church. 

“Do I, a Christian have at least one 

poor person as a friend?”

 Pope Francis

17 November 2019

To make a Special Donation

Online: Follow the link

https://www.familymissionscompany.com/project/karen-del-castillo/

Mail: 

12611 Everglade Road, Abbeville, LA 70510

***  Important please place in the memo:

 HOME FOR THE POOR

*** If you have any question about the home that we would like to build or would like personally to make the journey to Peru to help build the home feel free to contact us at : Karendelcastillo@familymissionscompany.com

Never ashamed

Matthew 10:32-39

Don’t Be Ashamed of Your Faith

 “If you stand before others and are willing to say you believe in me, then I will tell my Father in heaven that you belong to me.  But if you stand before others and say you do not believe in me, then I will tell my Father in heaven that you do not belong to me."

Julianna my daughter is never ashamed of her faith or her call to missions.

Wednesday our new Priests we our serving called us for a meeting in the bigger town of Bagua Grande in which they live in. To our surprise they gave us a monstrance to take, so we could expel the blessed sacrament in our home town. What a wonderful gift.

It was our day off and we had to purchase supplies while in town and could not leave it in the truck. My faithful daughter said "I will carry it into the market with us. "
"No shame at all", she said.

As we bought our supplies , she carried it with knowing that the monstrance is a showcase for Jesus. She even turned to me and asking if I thought Jesus was still present inside it, in tiny fragments?

He must have been. A store owner where we were buying balloons from, for our youth group meeting, starting crying and telling us she has cancer and that her boyfriend is cheating on her. All we could do is gasp! Knowing what was under the veil was the monstrance. We knew she was not just telling us about how she was scared to die or how sad she felt that her boyfriend is cheating. She was telling Jesus in the tiniest fragment what her heart felt. It was an awesome experience to see Jesus at work. Julianna placed the monstrance on a nearby table and laid her hands on sweet Lily and began to beg our Lord to heal her from cancer and to heal her broken heart. God is so wonderful!

From Jungles of Peru to the Heart of the Amazon

It’s been almost 2 weeks since our move to our new mission post. From the Jungles of Peru to the heart of the Amazon.  as it’s known by its inhabitants. It was a 10 hour drive through Peru and its mighty mountains, where on the other side lay await our new home,  sight unseen.

We arrived safely with the belongings that we were able to fit in our truck. Reluctant to give away what we had accumulated over the past 2 years, we found ourselves trying as hard as we could to tie and strap everything as tight as we could. I can freely say that we looked a lot like the 1970 TV series the Beverly Hillbillies.  We soon realized that not everything was meant to make the move with us. God had other plans for some of the things he so carefully provided for us while we served in the Jungle, such as our stove,  chairs and our very important baldes (plastic buckets) to hold and collect water. With a quick prayer we were given the graces which allowed us to unclutched our tight grip of these material things and walked them to our sweet neighbor, Juanita knowing that she would put them to good use in her own home. It felt good not to worry and to trust completely that God would provide exactly what we would need, again in our new mission post as we meditated on the Bible verse found in the book of Mathew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

I often tell others there is no other place I rather be than in the mission field, because here you must rely on God and it is amazing to see him at work and to be close enough to Jesus to feel his breath. Upon our arrival,  we were welcomed with such love and anticipation it was like it was Jesus himself welcoming us, we have not experience this kind of love anywhere else but among the poor. Within moments we were handed a small, 2 burner stove top and three chairs and trashcans full of water in which someone had already thoughtfully collected for us. If all of those gifts were not enough 30 mins after our arrival a lady was at the door with a small fold out bed. She had said she heard we only had two small twin beds. I said yes that’s all we have used for two years. The three of us just sleep on two beds or we would rotate sleeping on the floor or with each other. She hastily (with a purpose) left the bed and ran off saying she was going to find us a mattress and would be back later. We were beyond blessed by Gods gifts for us. It’s not easy for us to receives gift.   It’s much easier to give than receive. However I can hear Mr. Andy a fellow missionary saying“ just let God Love you”!!!!!! With a smile we did just that!  

 The faithful women of Cajaruro (the little town we live in) are so delightful and full of Joy. Last year they raised funds to build a small one bedroom home behind the church. They explained to us that they had really no idea why they had all of a sudden decided to build a home behind the church after all these years, after all no one had told them to do it,  they just felt that it was something that they were supposed to do.  However they were quick to say “sometimes you just have to trust in God”.  They did just that, together they worked faithfully and did as God asked of them and they called on neighbors, friends and even the town’s mayor for donations and materials for the home. Little did they know that they were building the home for a missionary family! We are so grateful for their faithfulness and obedience to Gods plan. I can not help to think that they might have felt a lot like Noah as he was building the Arc, as others watch and criticized his faithfulness. 

We have not yet started any active ministries, per say. We are spending the rest of the month of October getting acquainted to our new town and its beautiful people.  We ask for your prayers for patience and for a spirit of docility , we trust that the Holy Spirit wants to leads us to those he has sent us too, we just need to be patient and allow him to guide us. We have already seen so many needs here and have had many ministries placed on our hearts and we pray that we will receive confirmation soon on the work that God is asking of us. But until than we continue to meet with our new neighbors and community. We have enjoyed playing with the children and participating in the youth group,  which currently has no one to lead them.  The entire month of October the town’s faithful pray the rosary each evening as the image of the Señor de los Milagros (The Lord of Miracles also known as "Christ of Miracles) travels throughout different homes here in Cajaruro,  it was such perfect timing for us to arrive this month, it’s created the perfect opportunity for us to join our new community each evening. It has been nothing short of Gods mighty hand in it all.   

Our new mission field is very different from our past mission post in the Jungle. In many ways, but for starters,  we have water that comes in every day for an hour. A huge change from the last two years of collecting rain water and hauling water from the river. Now when it rains in the middle of the night we just enjoy listening to the rain instead of sitting straight up from a dead sleep to run outside to collect water.  Or when we walk by the river we do not become overwhelmed by the trash dumped in it or fixated on the cow that is being butchered next to it for easy clean up,  wondering if we will get sick from using the water. Mosquitos do exist here but they do not desire to eat people alive. Our home is made of cinder block walls which have been covered in plaster with a beautiful new fresh coat of paint. I haven’t had to have Julianna chase out not even one Lizard, wasp or cockroach yet. The children and I have even learned to live with the two huge iguana lizards who lurk high above us as we walk about the hallway between the church and our tiny home. The 4 resident bats have adapted to us living here as well.  The climate is a bit cooler and most days we are greeted with a nice breeze. Further up in the mountains of course it’s much cooler. 

Our 1^st days here It was hard not to feel guilty, It seemed like we were far away from the poverty and the harsh conditions we have lived in for our 1^st two years of missions. Since our arrival  to our new post we have awed and marveled at the fact that clear water comes into our home through our pipes each day all though not drinking quality for us and our American immune system,  but it’s visibly crystal clear and no need to remove bugs or trash as we have had to do since our time here in Peru. It’s feels like we have the pinch me syndrome,  were perhaps we should pinch each other to make sure we are not dreaming as we find ourselves admiring the pretty plaza and the cleanliness of the church. However after nearly two weeks of living here we have begun to see the different kind of poverty that we live in now. We have been warned about traveling alone and have even been offered a police escort after the locals heard we made our way by ourselves up the mountains as we followed a prompting of the Holy Spirit in search of the pueblo that had been praying for us. As a mother I do not take these warnings lightly. I knew a bit of the violent history if the area before we came. However it is harder to digest when you find out the little girl next door, Maricielo who is 9 years old (the same age as Gabriel) is now living with her grandmother,  because her mom was killed and left dead in a rice field down the road, just 7 months ago. 

 Maricielo lost her mom less than a year ago.

 The fear that most of the locals have regarding the violence and robberies have been issued and passed on to us too serve as a warning. In response to these warnings we must faithfully and fervently pray and we must lay our lives in the hands of God. Knowing he will protect us in the same way he protecting  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were placed in the fiery Furnace (Daniel 1-3). Along with these warnings given to us we can see just a glimpse of what poverty the locals live in. Many without a strong relationship with Jesus which can create a great deal of fear among them.     

 On our way up the mountain

Amazing group of Catholics living on the mountain

The mountains in the background, home to our new mission field

As many of you may have heard Pope Francis has called together an Amazon Synod to discuss and advocate for the rights of indigenous people and their land in the Amazon region. With debates about land rights, protecting water, to protecting children from sex traffickers and slavery to the super-hot steamy topic of married Priest and the role of women within the Catholic Church in the Amazon region. Giving many laity an opportunity to have their own debates on social media and on the news about the Amazon Synod. I can tell you I have not followed the Amazon Synod as I should, the irony of it all, is as a single Catholic missionary mom living in solidarity with the poor, I just do not have the time nor the internet connection to be able to follow this amazing meeting of such Spirit led and Godly people; Whom with much prayer and desire wants to help the indigenous people and longs to find a modern way to bring the Catholic Church to them.

A lot of our work in the jungle apart from meeting material needs and just living in solidarity with the poor, was finishing the education and formation of the poor which had been started by former Priest, Religious Sisters and Missionaries who served before us. Although there were other dominations of churches they had a very small number of faithful. The Catholic faith was the dominant faith in the Jungle. For two years my children and I worked under two great missionary Priest from Spain whom had huge missionary hearts.

 My children and I now serve under two Peruvian Priest all though loving and wonderful they are a bit overwhelmed with the over 200 pueblos between the two of them. As they serve with very few religious sisters whom live in the area. The Catholic church is here but it has very much forgotten its missionary heart. It seems to be that there are cells of faithful men and women mostly in their 70 and late 80 who try to keep the religion alive but it’s just not enough. The Catholic faithful here are disappearing. The other churches in the town are filled with the towns children who eagerly and devoutly attend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday  afternoons as each of the children are assigned a sponsor from the USA which faithfully sends them material goods or money biweekly, which motivates the attendance levels. An approach that seems to be working for the leaders of the church but very much a contradiction to the saying,  Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Earlier this week I was sitting with a group of school kids in front of the church. All of them full of questions for my children and I. As we sat playing the 50 questions in a minute game. I heard one of the older girls who was very polite but very assertive with all her questions she had for us, say to the group “they are Catholic, they believe Christ is dead, that’s why they have Jesus nailed to the cross”.  I honestly could not catch my breath. I am not one to debate religions. I, being a convert to the Catholic Church as an adult, raised with the concept that we do not need a “church to believe in God”. I never had the knowledge of the Holy Trinity or the understanding of the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  I owe a huge gratitude to my grandmother (a devout Catholic) in which undoubtedly prayed and petitioned the saints and angels for help,  that her granddaughter would one day enter into the fullness of the church. So hearing the young girl say that Catholics believed that Christ was dead really drove my heart to proclaim my passionate love for the Holy Eucharist and the understanding and the belief the church has of the Holy Trinity. I of all people began to defend my faith. Not merely preaching it or teaching it to those who desired to know more which I have done for over 2 decades or more,  but I was in a middle of a war with a young girl who had been obviously taught to disregard the teachings of the Catholic church; to become in a sense an enemy of the Catholic Church. She could not have been more than 10 or 11 years old, but she could recite the bible like an adult, at least better than most Catholics. I could not just let her profess lies about our faith and as much as I did not want too,  I engaged in the battle. I simply asked her if she had ever heard of the last supper and the institution of the eucharist and the words that Jesus spoke to his Disciples. As I was trembling with fear of the battle I began with the words from Matthew 26:26 “Jesus took bread and said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” I paused, and asked her if she had ever heard that part of the bible. To my confusion she said yes and then she began to recite the rest of the bible verse saying “Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” I explained to her that very same supper that Jesus had with his disciples, we as Catholics get to partake in that very same banquet every time the Priest comes to celebrate mass with us. Than it dawned on me, that this is part of why Jesus sent my children and I here. Why the Holy spirit went before us to open the doors to this diocese that has never had fulltime lay Catholic missionaries living within its territories. It’s why the holy spirit  inflamed the hearts of the small number of faithful Catholics to build a house for us and why He spoke to each one of you to help us obtain the funds for a truck so that we can reach the further lying pueblos up in the mountains, who have already pleaded desperately for my children and I to return weekly to help teach them and their children learn about our Catholic faith. He sent us here to be a witness to so many who have been kept from the temple because of man’s deceitful lies and twisted words. To re- ignite the flame to those who have remained faithful both to the hierarchy of the church and to the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

Led by the spirit and high in the mountains found a town who not only welcomed us but was praying for someone from the church to come help.

We as baptized Catholic have a duty to go out and Proclaim the Gospel. To become disciples and to win souls for Christ. I understand that it would not be wise for everyone to go out and sell all their belongings and set off for a new land to proclaim the Gospel. That’s not what God wants. Not everyone was meant to sell everything included their only place to lay their heads, their beds and hit the road to a unknown land with what only fits in a suitcase like my children and I did. However I encourage each of you to pray fervently and ask yourself,  in what way does God want you to partake in this mission mandate. If He is not asking of your own life to enter into foreign missions, perhaps God is asking you to be a supporter with a sacrifice of your prayers or by supporting our families mission financially. For the love of the Catholic faith and the Mother Church, I beg you all to continue to pray for us and for the Amazon Synod. More so for an increase in priestly vocations even for my own young son Gabriel and his discernment. For our new mission post, and for my family to have strength, courage and wisdom to bring people back to Jesus and His Church. Lastly, I plead for your prayers for protection for whatever evil spirit which lurks about that wishes to harm us here at our new post.

The Church needs everyone of us to take part in the Mission Mandate. I only share this with each of you out of the extreme need of the Catholic Church and for our love of the Church and our love of the Eucharist. I beg of you to prayerfully ask yourself what it is Jesus is asking of you.

I also humbly invite you to partake in a short term mission trip to anyone of FMC’s mission posts to see what we as full time missionary do and what we are up against as we try to win souls for Christ. If you would like to visit our mission post here in Peru with my family and I for a week or two let me know, I can get you connected to those who can help you state side make a mission trip a reality for you and your family.  There is no better way to understand the great need of missionaries in this vast world we live in than to walk side by side with us in the field. Which would allow you a chance to see into the eyes of the poor and feel their heart proclaim their desires for the Catholic Church and its sacraments.

To our family, friends benefactors and prayer warriors, every step we make, we make with you in our hearts and in our prayers! We love you all and thank you for Loving the Lord as you do!

Karen, Julianna and Gabriel Del Castillo   

Walking around the top of the mountain smell better than walking into STARBUCKS, coffee plants are everywhere

 Mountain Top View with a cute little Donkey