AGORA XXI: BLOG OF THE COMMUNITY OF SAINT PAUL

BUILDING PEWS AND BUILDING FRIENDSHIPS

Summers are exciting times at our La Sagrada Familia parish.  Many small groups of volunteers come each year to share their time, talents and love, helping us with various activities...including medical assistance, building projects and social services.  Others come just to give witness to their support and love for the people of our parish.  This June, however, something new was added!  For the very first time our volunteers were not adults, but were teenagers.  This highly energized band of motivated boys and girls are from Fond du Lac's Holy Family Parish. The visit was arranged with the cooperation of the staff of the Mission’s Office of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. These young adventurers came on a mission to share their talents and their love, expecting to experience the differences of culture and living conditions. Little did they know they would get more than they ever expected.

The eleven boys worked shoulder to shoulder with the youth of the small community of Proyecto 2C, home to about 370 families, totaling about 1,400 persons. Together they were able to erect a perimeter fence for the chapel property and construct twenty-six pews within the chapel.  They anticipated doing this work, seeing a little of a difference side of life and, then, go home. What they experienced was much more...they built a physical fence and  wooden pews but also they built a surprising friendship with the local community.

The fifteen girls worked in the community's important nutrition center and also taught the young children how to play some new games.  They saw the importance, especially in a land of difficult living conditions, of providing young children with wholesome food, teaching good hygiene habits and developing interactive social and leadership skills through playing. Like the boys, by the end of the weeklong mission, the barriers of culture and language, which seemed so enormous at the beginning of the week, were worn away.  By the end of their stay, everyone was completely at ease with their local counterparts and their surroundings....just like home.  All was cool.

At the end of the week, deemed by all to be a grand experience, a festive Youth Mass was celebrated at a Caribbean beach with all the youth from the parish sharing the table of the Lord with the visiting group.  Included were lots of hugs and high fives!