Posts by Helen Houser

On Earth Day 2022,we shared our new pilot project of home gardens.  The vision is that the fruit and vegetables will provide wholesome vitamin rich food for the family and to share with neighbors. Perhaps, in the future, they will grow large enough gardens to sell some of their produce to other villages. One of…

My dear sisters and brothers , SHOES!  Imagine never having a pair of shoes or imagine sharing shoes with siblings to take turns going to school!!  During COVID, our Casa Franciscana Mission buildings were shut down; so we took our ministries directly to the people. We discovered even more children deprived of education due to…

When people are asked “what would you take if you were forced to quickly evacuate your home?” the answer is always family photos. But imagine not having any! This is the situation of many of the poor that the Casa Franciscana Mission serves. Frequently, as our team distributes shoes, they take pictures of the children…

Gracious God, Thank you that in our nation today, we are free to worship. We are free to pray. We are free to read your Word.  We are free to speak.  We are free to share. For this, we are incredibly grateful. Yet, we understand how quickly these freedoms can be taken away. On this…

Christmas and angels go together.  The final touch of the Christmas tree is often the angel on the top.  Yet, I’ve met angels in the disguise of ordinary people.  One was Sabina, the mother of 12 and 14 year old daughters.  We discovered her during our external ministry into the barrios.  She was in unbearable…

My dear brothers and sisters,                                                                October, 2021 As the Transitus (passing from this life to the next) of St. Francis approaches, I reflect on the Janet Sullivan Whitaker verse: The hungry, the lonely, the forgotten, the neglected, abandoned, invisible, the homeless, the battered, the frightened, the hopeless, the dying.  All of these are Me. These…

Dear Sisters and Brothers, Meet Araceli; she is one of the thousands of children in Mexico who have NEVER had shoes.  In the winter her little feet are cold and in the summer she scurries across the hot gravel and dirt and trash. This sweet child wants to go to school.  Even though it is…

The children, elderly, homeless, widows, single mothers, hardworking migrant farmers and all of our marginalized brothers and sisters served by the Casa Franciscana Mission count on us for the basic necessities that we offer.  We depend on you to care and to help. However, the Casa Franciscana Outreach board is always looking for other opportunities…