Last Sunday, our Faith Formation students participated in a group activity to support the Holy Family Mission. This mission serves the very poor in the parish community of Cevicos, Dominican Republic. Miss Kathleen McDermott, one of our Faith Formation teachers, travels with the Mission yearly to work with a medical team from New England. Medical clinics are held in the town and the rural villages for the Dominican residents as well as the many Haitian immigrants in this impoverished community.
Miss Kathleen told the children about the living conditions of the children and their families. In the rural villages, the families live in one-room homes with dirt floors, no windows, no running water or indoor toilets, and many with no electricity…so no lights, TV, internet, or computers.
She gave an overview of her work in the clinics and explained how much the children and their families welcome the help and support of the Mission.
The children then filled gifts bags that said, “Jesus loves me” (in Spanish) with religious themed coloring books, crayons, rosary beads, and religious stickers (in Spanish). They put their name on a nametag that said “Hello, I am…” in Spanish and added it to the bag. Miss Kathleen will take the bags with her when she goes down to serve in the Mission this week. She’ll distribute the gift bags to Cevicos children and tell them the children from St. Joseph’s wanted to share Jesus’s love and that they are praying for them and their families.
The activity was a very meaningful and powerful way to help our youngest parishioners understand our responsibilities as Christians to be Missionaries and spread the Gospel no matter what our age!