A Guiding Light?
We are all familiar with the story of Baby Jesus asleep in the manager with parents and a guiding star to provide protection, love, and care – every child’s need and hope. Four year old Sergito’s and six year old Carlita’s story is very different. One day he and his sister walked hand in hand into our children’s dining room at Fatima. No one knew where they came from or where they lived. The boy was bone thin and devoured three helpings of food.
On another day, the boy came to the dining room with black eyes and what appeared to be a broken nose. Our staff learned the shocking details. The children’s mother did not want them and left them with their grandmother, who also did not want them. Sergito was forced to stay outside; to sleep on a board (refer to picture) and to forage for food. Starving and seeking food in the house, he boldly ran in and was beaten with a pipe. The police were notified and took the children. With God’s guidance, our kind and persistent team implored the police to allow the children to live at the Hogar Paz y Bien, an orphanage formally funded by the CFO until it became self-sustaining. Today Sergito and his sister, under the care of the good sisters at Hogar, are thriving and happy with their new “family”. On weekends, the Mission staff take the children into their homes where they are also treated as family.
How did Carlota know of our children’s dining room? How did she find it? What would have happened to these children if she had not? What if we had not opened a children’s dining room In Fatima? This is only one of the many stories of a guiding “light” bringing those in need to the Mission’s services and a God that cares.
You are a part of Sergito’s and Carlota’s family. Without you and your donations, Sergito would still be sleeping outside on a board, starving, suffering abuse or, perhaps, dead. Yes, you are a part of God’s plan that brings light to our Mission family every day. Please help to keep that light and protection shining by being extra generous this blessed Christmas season.
May you be filled with light and peace,
FR. Martin Ibarra, OFM