The Peru Gazette

Good day everyone,

There always seems to be plenty of information to share as to what is happening in the Mission of Hope, so let’s begin.  I think you’ll find this news/notes quite full of info.

1.  Ukraine humanitarian aid:

First, while I don’t have the exact figure yet, we have gone well over the $60,000 mark for our monetary collection which is being used to assist orphans, disabled, women and children who are all refugees in the Lviv area of Ukraine and some over the border in Poland.  The Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate have sent numerous messages of gratitude.  May you all be blessed for your generosity.  I was asked this week if we are still accepting funds and the answer is yes.  Just please mark your donations with Ukraine.

Second, we sent our second shipment to Ukraine out this past Wednesday.  These items will be sent to Poland and then trucked across to Ukraine’s areas of greatest need.  At this time, we are “in a holding pattern” for specific items for Ukraine except for the Enhanced Trauma Care Kits.

Finally, we are also facilitating and partnering a number of organizations with this special request.  Funding is being accepted for this and we are already well over the $56,000 mark for the Trauma care kits.  Again, any contribution you wish to send to this area of need must be flagged for Trauma kits.

Sadly, it’s easy to become almost numb to the horrors unfolding in Ukraine.  And sadly, Ukraine is not the only area of our world dealing with war and crimes against civilians.  I just don’t understand how humans can become so inhuman…it’s beyond my grasp.  But thank God, we live in HOPE.

2.  What’s happening in Nica, you wonder?  It’s important that you know all of our programs and projects continue, but with daily fear and worry, due to the overall environment in this beautiful country.  COVID continues to reign, political atmosphere is extremely difficult and food is both scarce and expensive.  

If you are so inclined and able to assist with a donation in this area, please flag it “food”.

5.  Home Shelters: This coming week, 10 more shelters will be built by families for families in Nica.  And speaking of shelters, if anyone would want to give a unique gift for Father’s Day, a shelter for a family would be especially meaningful.  Each shelter costs about $750 and they are assigned via triage for greatest need in the 13 barrios we serve.  If interested, you can email me or just send a check with shelter on memo line.

6.  Great news about eye exams.  We can finally resume our eye exams at our Mission clinic in Nica and there are 2 scheduled for early June.  This is a much needed service that was temporarily put on hold due to COVID safety concerns.

7.  Buddhist Global Relief Grant:  I am very pleased to share with you that this week, we received notification that the Mission was awarded a $20,000 grant to educate females in Nicaragua.  We owe a debt of gratitude not only to BGR but also to Carol Herring who is our grant writer.  What a blessing!

8.  Want to learn a bit more about why I became a Religious Sister and the events that led up to my entering back in 1974?!  If so, see Vocation issue article 2022 article which was in a recent issue of the North Country Catholic.  By the way, the interview for this article took place weeks and weeks before my most recent cancer diagnosis, so you will find a glimpse of how I handled the first time back in 1998.  Oddly enough, that year was the same year we founded the Mission of Hope.  Hopefully, you will enjoy the article.

9.  Color Run:  Don’t forget to register for our annual Color Run at the end of June.  If you want details, you can go to our FB page or reach out to Bonnie Black at bonblack@yahoo.com.  We hope you will support this fun event which helps to fund our medical clinic in Nica.

We’ve all witnessed young children as they anxiously await Christmas or their birthday or a parent to come home from wherever, or a child waiting for a parent to pick them up after school.  Each of us, in our own way, has waited to hear about a job application, a college we want to attend, or how our favorite sports team did late last night.

Waiting is not a strength for me.  I’ve always wanted to “know” and to get to the finish line as soon as I can.  At this stage in my life, waiting for cancer surgery is stressful, distracting and worrisome.  Of course, it is!  It would be worrisome at any stage of our lives.  There’s a piece of me that wants it over, and there’s another piece of me that hopes I will wake up and it will all be a bad dream.  On some level, we’ve all been at this point for some reason in our lives.

And yet, I look at the people we serve in Nicaragua who have waited all their lives for the security of daily food or a shelter over their heads, or the children in orphanages waiting to be adopted, or the people of Ukraine longing to experience the wonderful silence of peace and not bombs…and I realize that there could be much worse “waits” in life other than cancer surgery.

I am not naive.  The road ahead of me will be a challenge.  Yet, I know I have health care.  I have prayers from many people.  I have the support of a whole Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Hope.  I have love and compassion of close friends, family members and Mission of Hope contacts.

So, on some levels, I feel it’s a bit like being in a tomb between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  We have the blessing of knowing there is an Easter after Good Friday.  That makes it a bit easier on our faith, I think.  Yet, the human part of me prays and hopes I’ll experience healing without a lot of “waiting”.  June 8th can’t come soon enough….

I’d like to share the poem Waiting by Jan Richardson.  May it bring peace and hope to all of us.

Who wait
for the night
to end

bless them.

 

Who wait
for the night
to begin

bless them.

Who wait
in the hospital room
who wait
in the cell
who wait
in prayer

bless them.

Who wait
for news
who wait
for the phone call
who wait
for a word
who wait
for a job
a house
a child

bless them.

Who wait
for one who
will come home
who wait
for one who
will not come home

bless them.

Who wait with fear
who wait with joy
who wait with peace
who wait with rage
who wait for the end
who wait for the
beginning
who wait alone
who wait together

bless them.

Who wait
without knowing
what they wait for
or why

bless them.

Who wait
when they
should not wait
who wait
when they should be
in motion
who wait
when they need
to rise
who wait
when they need
to set out

bless them.

Who wait
for the end
of waiting
who wait
for the fullness
of time
who wait
emptied and
open and
ready
who wait
for you,

o bless.  (Jan Richardson)

And so, we live in HOPE as we wait.

Peru, NY 12972
Cell: 518-572-4246
Office: 518-643-5572