FIESTA SIEMPRE!!

FIESTA SIEMPRE!!

This weekend we gather to celebrate the long-standing relationship we have had with San Francisco de Asis in Temascalapa, Mexico. Please come to eat, learn, and enjoy!

Our sharing has really taken a blow these last few years, as have so many other things, thanks to COVID. For two years we were unable to make the trip to Mexico because of travel restrictions and health concerns. Meanwhile, we learned that our once-thriving program “Keeping the Kids in School” was suffering because of deaths, families leaving the area, children forced to drop out of school to work, and so on. We were reduced by about a third. It is heart-breaking.
We are striving to re-invigorate the relationship. We were able to send monies down to help with school expenses for the children (gifts supervised in their distribution by the Timon, our “on the ground” steering committee. We did this without a formal appeal this year, in large part because of the funds we were unable to use these last two years. We’ll return to the appeal this coming spring.
At the fiesta this year we’ll be able to listen to the first-hand reports from Rhina and Rochelle Guillen-Gomez and Rebecca Reinhardt, who journeyed there this past July. They met so many families! As someone who has been to San Francisco de Asis three times, I’m especially eager to hear their perspective on where the parish, the program, the Timon, and the families are, compared to my remembrances of the times I was there. Two highlights for me from my last time were being made to sing Pescador de Hombres accompanied by an 11-piece mariachi band, and then dancing with everyone from grandmas to a little 4-year-old who was flirting with us. Pope Francis talks about inter-generational communication and contact: we had it there!
This is a short essay because I hope everyone will be able to join us for the “unedited version” this Sunday evening. Bienvenidos a todos ustedes, y gracias for todo que haces.

-Fr David