Ministries & Projects
On March 15, the country of Ecuador began to enter into lockdown in response to the novel coronavirus. I stayed for 4 months in a house in the community, living with a family in quarantine, visiting homes, facilitating financial resources for the most in need, and facilitating and preaching at the Sunday Mass in the pueblo.
Coupled with, and as a fruit of, sharing life in Chontal, a variety of pastoral ministries naturally arise as seasons ebb and flow, that are at the core of the mission of turning barriers to bridges as brothers and sisters from the USA to Ecuador. These include:
Facilitating and preaching Celebrations of the Word
Spiritual accompaniment, personal and communal.
Visiting seniors, remote homes, and the poorest.
Facilitating the development of new groups and local movements, providing initial support and guidance and impulse, empowering sustainable local vision, leadership, community.
Facilitating new service-oriented projects and bridge-building.
Teaching and forming others for church ministries, including catechists, lectors, altar servers
Initiating and facilitating special faith-based celebrations, including Our Lady of Guadalupe, New Year's, local patrons, etc.
Formation in tools for advancement: language and technology. An emphasis on service to the human person and relationships.
Sharing of simple written materials, media, that are relevant to the local way of life and particular seasons. These include sharing my own book Luz en las Tinieblas, distributing foundational devotional literature, as well as showing of movies with quality themes.
A workshop for young women under age 20 who had recently become mothers, where they had the opportunity to recall, share, and memorialize their experiences together of becoming a mother. The story of Mary becoming the mother of Jesus is included in Luke’s Gospel through her remembering, sharing, and memorializing the experience, and this is a stimulus for the faith dimension of the workshop.
Each mother had the opportunity to opens a gift bag stage by stage as they went through the 3-stage process. First, to receive a candle of their own, and have the opportunity to share their own story while everyone listens. They covered from the time of conception through pregnancy to the birth of their child. Each story is different, but you could see all that was in common, too, and how they were glad to share about it all. The next piece of the gift was a piece of jigsaw puzzle, that all put together to form a small poster that accompanies Mary's candle. It includes a Scripture passage which is the guide for the workshop: "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." (Lk 2:19) The final piece of the gift included a large wooden heart, made by the pueblo carpenter. There were a lot of decorating materials for them to choose from and make a memorial of their own heart, with a spot for their candle.
It was really well liked, and a powerful experience, something very different for them. What made it more interesting was that the mothers all came with their kids for one reason or another! But each finished and decorated their hearts, of course with their child's name and the candle in the center. Afterwards, each got a chance to talk about their design, and share their thoughts on the experience of the day. I took about 2.5 hours total.
I hope to be able to grow this and offer it to more mothers.
I accompanied the people and facilitated the Christmas activities in Chontal in 2019. For all the details, please visit the post Make Room. Enjoy the pictures!
I’m accompanying the youth group JUAP (jovenes unidos para el amor al prójimo) in Most Holy Redeemer parish in East Boston, enjoying their hospitality and learning from them and sharing some spiritual wisdom along the way! The members are immigrants and youth of immigrants, largely from El Salvador.
I continue to share locally here in Boston about this mission, and am always open to new ideas for others' participation and for bridge-forming between families, groups, communities, and institutions such as parishes, schools, and others (seniors, children, people with disabilities, etc.)
If you're interested in hearing more, I'd love to hear from you - come on over to the contact page.
I accompanied the people and facilitated the Christmas activities in Chontal in 2018. For all the details, please visit the post Come and Eat. Enjoy the pictures!
In April 2018, I and some friends initiated the first immigration retreat. I had been accompanying the Hispanic community at St. Anthony Shrine for several years until last year, and we had taken steps to organize the retreat before it ran out of support. But friends from the Shrine decided that we would do the retreat together in a small group format, which I think is the best way to do it. Accompaniment and sharing in the community life was the baseline for ministry. It opens the door for extending this retreat experience to other immigrants after an accompaniment period in a type of mission, as a grassroots, bottom-up retreat.
The retreat itself was supported equally financially by the participants, though I did most of the organizing, ideation, and procurement. It is a participatory retreat with a balance of listening, vulnerable sharing, teammwork, and personal arts and crafts. About 4 to 5 hours, the retreat environment allows Latino immigrants to identify, remember, unpack and recount their migration experience in the intimacy of small community of other immigrants. Afterwards, and each person can memorialize their story in a personal way by decorating a candle-holder/lantern that can be taken home and continually reused as a memorial of their migration experience and God's hand in it.
The retreat is placed in the context of the mystery of God's salvation as experienced by the Israelites' crossing the Red Sea. Retreatants are guided in relating their experience to that of the People of God, and a safe, trusting environment is established with sacred symbols, songs, interactive activities, and media.
Everyone who participated reported having a fantastic experience that had changed them to some degree and had changed our relationships. We all had a desire to continue with more meetings and workshops and activities that fed us spiritually and socially and communally. We have meetings planned to do this.
A new social outreach ministry is being formed in the parish San José de los Manduriacos, which is the parish in which Chontal is located. The aim is to integrate folks who have or have the intention of reaching out to those in the local communities who have the greatest needs: spiritual, emotional, material. As an initial participator and strong supporter, I aim to continue as a participator and supporter.
In December 2017, I had the opportunity to guide the community in the Advent season and the Christmas novena, which culminates in La Nochebuena (Christmas Eve). The life of the community rejuvenated during that stretch, and it was a special time for everyone involved. Many remarked that it was the best Christmas they had experienced to date - for me it was a fruit of many years of listening to and trying to follow God's voice, and of visiting and accompanying the people.
The youth, setting up the manger scene in the church, on December 8:
Preparations for an evening of Our Lady of Guadalupe for adults, December 12:
Each night of the Novena has its own theme, its own host, and the catechists rotated as the guides:
The last night of the Novena, the Pase del Niño, the Procession of the Posadas, the Presentation of Christmas Carols, Mass, and hot chocolate and Christmas gifts
Some of the youth inviting, and decorating the church for the Nochebuena:
Getting ready:
The procession from the church:
Arriving at the house for the Novena. The young woman playing Mary in blue is pregnant, and this is her house, where the first scene of the annunciation of the angel Gabriel is acted out.
The Angel Gabriel (Giovanny) announces to Good News to Mary (Alva) that she will be the mother of Jesus. This is Alva's house, a restaurant her grandmother owns. She is 19 yrs old, and 7 months pregnant with her first child. She volunteered for the role in the Pase del Niño.
After the novena, a procession through the neighborhood, including the Posadas: organized, sung visits to 3 houses on the way in the name of the rejection of Mary and Joseph searching for a place to stay.
Finally, we return to the church where the holy family gathers inside the porch. The annunciation and visitation of the shepherds is re-enacted. Then, the wise men make loop following a large, hand-star, after which they dialogue with Herod and finally reach the manger scene to leave their gifts.
Right afterwards, we moved upstairs inside the parish house for the Christmas Carol presentation, where there were 8 performances.
Some people dropped off non-perishable gifts for the new social outreach ministry:
And afterwards we had the Mass and then hot chocolate and navidades (bags of candies)
The next day, on Christmas, Ines and I went around handing out the leftover bread, and started to take down the decorations for the Pase del Niño. The leftover branches and wooden posts somehow popped up in way that left a sign for the mission:
You might notice that this is the only photo I appear in. I'm glad. The guiding and teaching and preaching comes from serving from the bottom up, from behind to the front. The people here are the center, and that I don't appear in the photos much, for me, that is the sign of the cross.
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
In the Christmas season and the New Year of 2016/17, I shared in the ministry to the people of San Isidro, including leading and participating in celebrations of the Word, funerals, visiting communities and the youth and children, as well as families and people with disabilities.
At St. Anthony Shrine in Boston, I've been accompanying the Hispanic community in the Masses as a Eucharistic Minister and Lector, as well as sharing some of my mission with the people. Lately, I've been playing my charango in the choir for the Mass, and that has helped me prepare to be able to play in Ecuador when I go.
At the end of July, the Ecuadorian community at St. Mary of the Assumption parish in Lawrence, MA had just begun their novena to the Virgin of Cisne, one of the primary Marian devotions in Ecuador. Instead of 9 straight nights, they chose to celebrate nine straight Saturday nights, because of work conflicts. When I arrived, there were a few people in a chapel and we awkwardly moved through a few prayers and a Gospel reading, and then wrapped up. Afterwards, we all met in the back of the church.
I came to find out that there were disagreements among the organizers, that we were already in the third week of the novena, and they were considering canceling the whole thing and only having a Mass on the feast day, nothing else. I started suggesting other ideas for the novena nights, and we began to resurrect the idea of going to different peoples' houses, having dynamic activities and music, an engaged reflection, and also movies and other activities. The people's spirit picked up, and we started doing just that. My first night, I showed my presentation of my visit to their home village in Alao, Riobamba, kept things light and engaged, and everyone had a good experience. I also brought my charango to play some songs, and we played some games and I shared videos I took of their family while I had been in Ecuador. From there, each week we covered a different theme, with different activities that were engaging, including a movie on the Virgin of Cisne made in Ecuador, and the crowd grew and continued to come. Finally, the planning for the fiesta was coming together and people were getting along - the miscommunications had ended.
On the fiesta, I invited a few of my friends to come, and they were given the royal treatment by the organizers - everyone had a great time, and the classic Ecuadorian party was in full swing, though it ended at a reasonable hour without much alcohol. I was gifted with an team jersey of the Ecuadorian national soccer team, which will obviously make everyone back in Ecuador jealous when I go. The whole month and a half was really was a coming back to life of the novena and fiesta, when it was basically left for dead!
Currently, there is another novena for the Child Jesus to lead up to Christmas, and I am participating a bit as I prepare to leave for Ecuador.
On Easter, a new youth group was born from the visit of the youth group from Quito and Sr. Meir. It was actually basically the kids from the English class that formed the new group. A great theme of my time in Ecuador regarding English and language was the theme of water turning into wine, especially from the story of the Wedding at Cana from the Gospel of John. That theme really picked up in my time in Chontal when "Santa" turned water into snow, and shortly afterwards, this English class turned into a youth group. We do a whole variety of dynamic activities in our meetings, including a spiritual theme, and we use videos, music, dance, and arts and crafts, and more. The kids had already started fundraising by selling jello and watermelons, and we talked together about services we could do for the community. We came up with our own name, Guardian Angels (the patron of Chontal is St. Michael the Arcangel), and theme song, "My God, Give Me A New Heart", which you can hear here.
I had tried to start a youth group for about a month or two before the kids from Quito came, but with no luck. The older kids - high school aged- were not responding, as I didn't have as good rapport with them, having never visited any of the high schools because they are an hour's drive away and I don't know any of the the faculty. But I do know the kids and faculty in the elementary/middle school, and so as it turns out that's what was happening all along!
In 2014, these kids lived through the natural disaster of the mountains collapsing on the village in landslides that destroyed seven homes. Several of the kids' families were directly affected - in fact one family lost their house completely and just escaped alive. These kids also experienced the loss of 4 of their schoolmates - and for some, classmates - to suicide just several months earlier. So, it was such a grace and gift to be a part of! I love the kids!
My last day in Chontal before leaving in May 2016 was spent in a spontaneous pick-up soccer game with the kids of Chontal, a memory I will never forget! And despite troubles finding another adult to continue, the kids continued to meet throughout the rest of 2016. I'm planning on returning for a visit in late 2016. and introducing them to a youth group from St. Monica/Lucy parishes in Methuen,MA. And the story continues...
I've lived in Chontal for various durations, mostly as a short-term visitor between 2010 and 2014, but since then as a part-time "resident". Coming as a stranger with a message of "family" to a mostly isolated, poor, rural place on the other side of the world is a huge challenge in human trust-building! Accompanying the people of Chontal and sharing in the their life has been a joy for me, and has developed me into not a benefactor from beyond, but a family-member, a friend, a missionary who brings good news in relationship.
Don Olmedo was one of the original founders of the community in the mountain called Chontal Alto. He came down with cancer in his right foot in the beginning of 2015 and moved to Chontal, where a bus route passes, so that he could be closer to a trips to the hospital and medical assistance. He played the guitar, and so I started to visit him with my charango, hoping to learn a few local songs from him, to give him something to do, and to pray with him and bring him communion when no one else could.
I had the idea of bringing young people to him to learn the guitar, but it didn't have time to pan out, as Don Olmed
Don Olmedo's condition worsened quickly in late February. I had the opportunity to accompany him and his family through his last days and then through the wake and funeral and the follow-up weeks. I especially had some private moments with him in his last days of consciousness, it seemed I always left him with a smile.
Don Olmedo died on Easter morning. We had invited a youth group from Quito to come and spend the Easter weekend with youth in Chontal. Several youth from the group came to Don Olmedo's bedside to pray on Easter morning, moments before boarding their bus to return to Quito. it was a beautiful sight, the room filled with people and some inspired young people praying. Right after they left, they boarded the bus, and as the bus pulled away, Don Olmedo took his last breath.
I noticed in my visits that there were no flowers or cards or anything cheery in his room or near his bed. So a few of the kids from the English class made a little poster expressing our support for him and his family. This poster was placed in the wall above his bed, and remained to the end.
In February, I spoke with my friend Sr. Meir about her youth group in Quito and if they had plans for Holy Week. That turned into a visit from this youth group to Chontal, to join up with and inspire the youth from Chontal. It had only been about 5 months since there were 4 suicides in the school at Chontal, and the kids had 3 months of vacation with nothing to do. It turned into a magical experience for everyone, as they held a workshop all day on Saturday leading into the Easter vigil, and afterwards a new youth group was born in Chontal (see photo below).
Organizing it was a huge challenge, because there were almost 25 people in total that came from Quito to this village of about 250. Over 25 families volunteered to invite groups of the kids into their homes for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners over the 2 day stay, it was remarkable and a great sense of unity. Everyone was happy with how it turned out, and the youth from Quito were great!
In 2015, while living in Chontal, I was able to get 20 bibles at about $10 each, and then sell them discounted to $2. To follow up, I began a Bible study on the Sundays of Lent to prepare for Holy Week and Easter. I used Powerpoint presentations and we covered different themes chosen by the people. Anywhere from 4 to 20 people came each time, and it was a good introduction to the Bible while providing some cool insights to different stories.
In Lent 2016, I organized a retreat for the local religious ed teachers in Chontal. We went to Mindo, which is a well-known tourist area that also has retreat ground belonging to a religious community called Communio Sanctorum.
I incorporated a trip to the butterfly farm at the beginning to prepare for the retreat. We finally arrived a the retreat center at lunchtime Tuesday, and we left late afternoon the next day. A visit like this is rare for the people here, and it stretches their funds, but the parish priest donated a bit of money to support too.
The retreat experience was awesome, and each person had time to share with me - there were some amazing stories! We had fun coming back (we have to catch a few buses), and that turned into an adventure as well. There were some landslides that stopped the last bus route, but we got a truck to take us to the landslide in the rain, and a group of us walked across it in the dark, At the other side, a truck from Chontal picked us up and took us home. When I got back, I was up til midnight hand-washing my clothes and backpack that were covered in mud!
In October and November of 2015, four students from a local family in the local elementary/middle school in Chontal committed suicide. The faculty and the local people were at a loss at what to do, and although after I arriving in December I had offered to assist them if they wanted to memorialize the students, they were reluctant to react.
In January, another student tried to commit suicide. A teacher came to me at night, and decided she would be open to doing anything. We met the next morning with two other teachers, and the idea for the butterfly memorial was born. The next day, I entered a class, and after doing a bit of English, transitioned the conversation to the recent tragedy. I shared about my own losses, and how I learned that when I memorialize someone who has died, I feel their presence with me. In fact, just like the caterpillar turns into a butterfly, we don't ever leave - we transform. We are still present, just not recognizable. And the church down the street is a memorial to my mother, and I feel that she is always with me. I offered that we could if they wanted to, make our own butterflies, and describe our friend on one wing, while putting our own personal message to them on the other. I finally finished with a question: would you like to do that? It was a universal and resounding "yes".
The butterfly making spread from classroom to classroom as all the teachers one by one wanted it for their own. These memorials filled the walls in the classes of the deceased students, and a big weight was lifted from the school atmosphere.
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