We have been praying often for each of you and
give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for your docile hearts and your desire to
serve Jesus’s beloved poor.
We are so eager to share with you what Jesus has
been doing here at Santa Maria Magdalena’s home. There are so many glorious and
holy things that have taken place because of your love for Jesus, for us, and
for those, the home supports, it is safe to say that we are excited about this
newsletter.
With that being said, we would like to take a
moment to honor just exactly what Jesus has been doing here because of you.
The Gift to Serve: The Priest Retreat
Thank you to those who helped with prayers and
donations for the 3rd annual Priest retreat. It was such an honor to
be allowed once again to serve the Priests of the Chachapoyas Dioceses along
with our current Bishop and as well as our Bishop of Moyobamba Dioceses where
we served our 1st year in Missions. Having both the bishops together
was a blessing for Gabriel and I.
Please pray for our Priests who desperately need
reinforcements, and please pray for an increase of Priestly Vocations in our
dioceses. But more so please pray for our current Priests that they may be
protected by attacks from the Devil. That they will be committed to prayer,
rest, and renewal. They are in a lot of danger spiritually speaking as they are
very overworked. Some say up to 6 masses a day with at least an hour's drive or
more between communities, which is not at all a schedule that allows for intimate
personal prayer.
Please join us in asking the saintly women, Maria
Magdalena, Joanna, Susanna, and all the other women who provided prayers and
financial support to Jesus and his disciples to intercede for us on our behalf.
Join us in our pleas, that these brave and generous women intercede for us for
an outpouring of wisdom on how we as lay missionaries can help our priests find
rest and renewal through Jesus Christ.
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| Not all of the Priest could attend because of a mudslide |
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| The last day of the retreat |
All Saints
Once again, this year we celebrated All Saints as
a community together. We began the evening with the celebration of the word,
and then after we had a costume contest. The children dressed up and presented
their Saint’s history to us. They all did such a wonderful job. And of course,
we broke bread together and shared a meal with the community.
Check out some of these great saint costumes.
Sacrament of Confirmation
On November 4th our community of Santa
Clara traveled down the mountain together to attend the Confirmation mass. 9
people from our community received the sacrament of confirmation on this
remarkably blessed day for our little Catholic family.
Gabriel’s Confirmation
Gabriel received his sacrament of
Confirmation in Chachapoyas at a stunningly beautiful Church. Gabriel was so
blessed to have Father Robert as his padrino for confirmation and he was also delighted to be surrounded by so many
wonderful priests who have watched him grow in his faith over the years.
The Priests even had a special private lunch with Gabriel's favorite
Peruvian dish called Lomo Saltado waiting for him after mass.
Pastoral Visit
One of the most incredible things occurred this
past October for Gabriel and I. We were blessed to receive Sarah Granger and
Teresa Reardon to our mission post. To receive the Director of Family Missions
Company was such an honor and so life-giving. To be able to share with them our
little community and the home’s mission was more than we could have ever
dreamed of. They both were able to meet those we serve and to see in person the
miracle that Santa Maria Magdalena’s home is. On top of that, they came loaded
down with supplies that we needed from the USA.
Teresa blessed Gabriel and I so much with her
ability to take pictures for us while we served throughout the week they were
here. It is a challenge for Gabriel and I to take pictures because we are
always on the front lines, Gab with a guitar in his hands and I often times in
front of those we serve leading or praying with them making it nearly
impossible to discreetly take pictures. So the photos she took are such a gift
for us.
Here is a short testimony that Sarah Granger
wrote about her visit here.
Felicita is Not Forgotten
By Sarah Granger
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| Felicita |
Eighty-eight year old Felicita
feels forgotten. She wakes up every morning up in the mountains of Peru next
door to a locked Catholic chapel. As the number of Catholics in town dwindle,
the catechist has given up opening it for a liturgy of the Word every week as
he once did.
In the evenings, as she carefully
walks down the mountain from her farm, she hears joyful singing from the
Seventh Day Adventist church up the road. Almost all of her friends and
neighbors have joined that church, or the Evangelical church around the corner,
and they have invited her many times.
As much as she longs for community,
longs to hear the Gospel preached, she can’t bear to leave her Catholic faith.
Her parents baptized her Catholic, made sure she received her sacraments, and
when the priest from a town hours away comes once a year to say Mass, she
rejoices to receive the Eucharist.
She doesn’t blame Father for coming
so rarely, after all, he has 250 towns like hers to attend to, and an
unreliable car.
She feels heartbroken about her 12
children, though. Each of them were lovingly baptized when she and her husband
were younger, and the Catholic Church was the only one in town. Fewer priests
and newer protestant churches led to them leaving the Church, one by one. Now
she is the only practicing Catholic in her family. She loves her children, and
though they have moved away, they occasionally visit. They ask her why she
doesn’t join their church. She can’t, she says, she loves her Catholic faith.
Though she agrees with her friend Luisa, people get hungry for the Word of God.
Who can blame them for leaving when the chapel is locked up?
One day, an American lady named
Karen with a big smile and two beautiful kids comes all the way up to her town.
Karen’s family gathers children in the center of town and plays games, teaches
them praise songs, and then visits Felicita. She’s a Catholic missionary! Karen
and her kids share the word of God and visit. They listen to Felicita say how,
although she feels lonely in her faith, she’s never alone.
“My kids tell me not to walk alone
to my farm,” Felicita smiles, “but I’m not alone. I talk to God all the time.
They say ‘What if you fall?’ I do fall, but God helps me up. He’s always with
me.”
Karen gets permission to bring the
Eucharist to Felicita. Felicita and Karen rejoice. They have a communion
service on a little bench outside of the locked church. Jesus is palpably
present.
Felicita is not alone, not
forgotten.
--
Sarah Granger
Executive Director
Family Missions Company
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| Watching our special guest to get off the plane |
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| 1st picture taken after tons of hugs |
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| Everyone in Santa Clara came to great Sarah and Teresa |
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| After a Mass in one of our pueblos |
Healing Retreat
Though we were extremely blessed by a pastoral
visit, I cannot help but believe that the women who the home serves received
the largest gift. FMC’s director Sarah Granger led a two-day healing retreat.
It was so life-giving for all those who attended. It was so remarkable to watch
Jesus and the Holy Spirit in action. The women who attended were set free from
so many lies that the world had told them. They encountered love, mercy, and
forgiveness during the retreat, and for many, it was their first time to experience
Jesus in such a real way. Please join me in praying for each of these beautiful
women, I also ask you personally for prayers for myself as I continue to
journey with each of them. Lastly, please join me in prayers of thanksgiving
for the incredible gift that the retreat was for this community, and in lifting
up Sarah Granger and her servant’s heart for leading the retreat. And for
Tereasa Reardon who so humbly served during the retreat.
I feel my director’s testimony that she shares is so beautifully written and worth sharing with you all.
A God Who Heals
By Sarah Granger
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| The group of women who attended the retreat |
Over twenty years ago, God called
me into foreign missions.
I came with a lot of woundedness.
My difficult marriage had ended, leaving me to raise three beautiful children
alone. I felt shame and fear as I faced the future. In that place, God led me
to an awesome counselor, walked with me to healing, and called me to serve Him
as a lay missionary with my kids.
I felt certain that my wounds would
hinder my ability to serve the people of Mexico, but I was wrong.
When women saw that I was a single
mom, they immediately knew there must be some pain in my past, and felt drawn
to share their brokenness with me. Many, like I had been, were in abusive
relationships, many were raising kids alone, so many were hurting.
Talking to my counselor after my
first year, I felt overwhelmed by the pain that I was encountering. “I think I
need to come back to the US and get a counseling degree,” I shared, “I have no
idea what to say or do with all of the mess that these amazing women are
dealing with. All I can do is hold their hands, and cry with them, and share
with them how Jesus has saved me. Sometimes they let me help them in other
ways, but usually crying and praying is all I can do.” “I think that’s all you
should do,” he told me, “I think they need a missionary. Therapy is great, but
it takes years of commitment from them. You meet them where they are, and lead
them to a God who heals.”
I returned to my mission
post, determined to keep leading as many of my friends as possible to Jesus,
the God who heals. In my current role as director of FMC, I always keep that
goal in mind.
Last week I had a chance to
lead 20 women in a Healing of Emotions retreat in the mountains of Peru. We
only had two days together, and I wondered if they would feel safe opening up
and receiving healing from God.
I was blown away. Thanks to
the trust that Karen, the full time missionary in that place, had built with
each of the women there, they came ready to share their hearts and receive
God’s mercy, grace, and love.
I told them of my brokenness,
and they opened up about theirs.
So many of their stories were
much darker and harder than mine - one sweet older lady had been abandoned as a
baby in a small town where no one took her in for months as she crawled from
house to house to beg for food; one had been beaten regularly by both parents
and then by her husband; one had been married to a witch doctor for 18 years
who abused her and their children; many had to leave home at 9 or 10 years old
to work full time to help support their families.
One beautiful lady wept as she recalled the
joy she felt as a seven-year-old when she was told she would be able to go to
school and learn to read, only to be pulled out of school soon after to care
for her younger siblings because both parents had to work full time.
“I have never felt loved,”
another heroic woman shared, “not by my parents, not by the father of my
children, never.”
The brokenness was
overwhelming. It was hard to understand what God could do with my little words
over two short days.
Part of the retreat is to
introduce the women to “safe space” prayer, a type of Ignatian imaginative
prayer where we invite Jesus to come to us in a place where we feel safe, share
our hearts with him, and listen to what he has to say. After this prayer time,
one of the ladies said, “I never knew prayer could be like that. Jesus really
loves me and comes to me. I can’t wait to tell my children and husband!”
“I feel like a huge weight
that I didn’t even know I was carrying has been lifted,” another woman shared,
“I can’t wait to tell everyone I know about what Jesus can do.”
Jesus heals, he meets us in
our darkest and most broken places. He lifts our burdens.
Even after more than twenty years
of sharing, I can’t wait to tell everyone I know about what my God who heals
can do!
--
Sarah Granger
Executive Director
Family Missions Company
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| These women are priceless |
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| The 1st night we had a celebration of the word and many received the body of Christ |
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| Sarah giving a talk |
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| Preparing Dinner for the retreat |
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I
truly desire to share so much more with you about what Jesus is doing here, but
I know you all have so many tasks at hand each day, and do not desire to keep
you from them. I am grateful for the time you have allowed me to share with
you.
However, I would like to ask you to
pray for the following
Please
pray for Gabriel and I, to decrease so that Jesus can increase within us.
Please
Pray for my two oldest sons as both of their wives are expecting their second
child.
Please
pray for my daughter Julianna
Please
pray for our Priests here
Also
please pray for the upcoming mission trip planned for March 1-8, 2025. That it
will become a reality and that those who Jesus invites to give a week of their
lives to the poor will truly encounter Jesus in a real way through those they
meet.
Please send us your prayer request,
it would be a blessing to pray for your intentions.
May we learn how to love like Jesus!
Karen and Gabriel Del Castillo
Mission Post: Casa De Santa Maria Magdalena: Caserio Santa Clara, Amazonas, Peru
