Newsletter March 2005

Welcome

Hi once again from sunny Ecuador where my work on the Missions continues to throw up daily challenges and many unexpected surprises. I hope that, through this newsletter, you will be able to have a further insight into my work here in one of the poorest suburbs of Guayaquil. Since writing before Christmas I have
been asked to provide a monthly column for the Scottish Catholic Observer and I have entitled that column “Poverty with Dignity” following on from a story I heard where a charity worker here realised that he would never be able to eliminate totally the desperate poverty he saw, but felt that if he was able to help the poor live their life of poverty with a little bit of dignity, then he would have done a great job. I choose to call this newsletter by the same title and hope that you also will be able to share in the journey of our poor people towards a dignified life.

In this Newsletter:

  • Welcome.

  • Our Parish School.

  • Soup Kitchen.

  • Christmas & New Year.

  • Looking Ahead – Building.

  • Fundraising.

  • Reverse Charity.

  • Thank You!

  • And Finally…

The Soup Kitchen

The Soup Kitchen, which is supported through generous donations from Scotland, operates in one of the straw classrooms. I try and have lunch there at least once a week and the food that they serve up is excellent. Normally there is a plate of home-made soup with plenty of vegetables; this is followed by a main course of rice and chicken or sausage along with a cup of home-made juice. It amazes me that such good food can be produced in such cramped surroundings. I hope to be able to ask the architect who is building the new classrooms to also add a further classroom that will serve as a purpose-built Soup Kitchen.

Looking Ahead – Building

When I arrived in Guayaquil in August, I was appointed as Parish Priest to Nueva Prosperina and the newly-named Parish of the “Most Precious Blood of Christ”. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a house but was told that the land destined for the building of a parish house and Church was approved by the City Council. So, with the help of thirty parishioners, we set about clearing the land. However, the local overlord turned up to tell us that, in his eyes, the land belonged to him. Immediately I had to stall plans to build. That was back in September and, since then, through quiet Scottish diplomacy at the City Council, the help and advice of Fr. Tom Oates and a few quiet and personal words with the overlord himself, we are now in a position to move forward with the building programme.

At the moment, a land survey has just been completed and this means that work in preparing the land for construction can go ahead. The land that we have is on a steep incline and there will have to be several retention walls and platforms put in before work can begin. I hope that the first building to be put up will be a house, so that I can reside within the Parish; then after that, a temporary chapel so that we can celebrate Mass before (perhaps in a year or two when money comes through) the Church itself can be built. All of this, of course, will cost a lot of money and I am in the process of writing to several foundations and wealthy people to see about funding. Which brings me nicely on to….?

Read the full March 2005 Newsletter here:


A4 Newsletter 2 (March 2005)

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