Advent & Christmas Novena in Chontal 2017

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:

Different guides ...

... and themes ...

... and hosts and homes.

La Nochebuena (Christmas Eve)

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.”

— John 15:13

Bridging Lawrence to Alao for Christmas

In Lawrence, MA, there is a sizable indigenous Ecuadorian community from the two small adjacent communities of Alao and San Antonio de Alao, in the County of Riobamba, in Chimborazo. We've been discussing for a while how I might make a connection with their villages back home when I go back to Ecuador. Here we were meeting during the novena that the community has been holding in preparation for Christmas, and we are taking steps to do a project that would bring Christmas gifts to the children and seniors of their villages back home, including a special day celebration when I go.

As there is widespread poverty in Alao, children - or anyone - there don't typically receive Christmas gifts, and seniors don't have retirement funds to cushion their later years. Please pray for this effort, I just think it would be a wonderful experience for everyone involved, as the community has never come together like this to do something to this scale for their families back in Riobamba!

As update, come and check out the summary of my visit in early January 2017! What a special time, and a great success for the people!

Ministry in San Isidro

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. 

Christmas Gifts for Special Kids in Ecuador

Sr. Meir Montiel of my friends the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph asked if there was any way we could get gifts for a number of children with disabilities who she works with in Quito. We were able to put together enough to be able to buy therapeutic gifts for 9 children, including a baby carriage for one, and another 25 small gifts for other children. The people are grateful as you can see from the pictures below.

Sr. Meir noted at the beginning of the meeting that the gifts were donated by generous people from Boston. Hopefully one say they can come and visit!

---

***UPDATE: Our goal of $275 has been reached, and then some: $457! A great big thanks from me and Sr. Meir and everyone at Fe y Alegría! We're now able to also get a small Christmas gift for the other 25 children in the program, so thanks so much for your generosity and being a part of lifting the kids up. These children have a whole array of disabilities that include Cerebral Palsy, epilepsy, Down's Syndrome, paraplegia, among others. But as I like to say, they have "Dios"abilities! ... And you would always be invited to come some day and meet them, so they can lift you up, too ...  I will have an update soon.

---

Join with me in helping Fe y Alegría (Faith and Joy) in Quito, Ecuador to give badly needed therapeutic Christmas gifts to 9 kids with disabilities in their inclusion program. With your gift, you join hands with their families and the staff in their daily care of lifting up some very special children!

Sr. Meir Montiel of the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph is a good friend who works with children with disabilities at Fe y Alegría in Quito, Ecuador. This organization works to advance integrated education that includes students who normally are marginalized or left out, including children with disabilities. The kids that Sr. Meir works with have a range of disabilities, especially cerebral palsy and epilepsy and different degrees of physical paralysis. There's a great need for therapeutic tools, and this Christmas is an opportunity to be a part of the love and care that these children are receiving for their development.

Santa Comes to Town

In 2014, for the first time, I received a donation to buy a Santa outfit and arrived in Chontal to visit the children in the school.  When I asked a girl in the village beforehand if Santa was coming this year, this looked down and said, "Santa never comes here."  It was the first ever visit from Santa, and gave the children an experiences of being valued like other children. I also bring fake powdered snow that turns into snow with water, and that's a favorite with the adults as well! Each visit comes with a spiritual message that is relevant to the year that the people have had.

I returned in 2015 again, and this time encountered a school suffering the effects of 4 suicides in the previous 2 months. With the snow and the Santa outfit, I was able to honor the memory and the continued presence of the children lost, and joy sprouted for a day.

In 2016, I visited a gathering of about 40 children in Quito who were receiving gifts from a donor:

And on Christmas day in 2016, I came as Santa to the children of San Isidro for the very first time, in the first Christmas since the earthquake of April. We made 150 caramelos for Santa to give out, along with a whole bunch of snow to make.

Christmas Bracelets for the Schoolkids of Chontal

After sharing a presentation on Barriers To Bridges and its history with several members of the hispanic community at St. Anthony Shrine in Boston, several wanted to participate by making hand-made crafts for the kids in Chontal. After several trips shopping and buying supplies, we set to making almost 200 bracelets by hand for me to bring at Christmas time. They include colorful plastic beads and Marian medals for the girls, and wooded beads and crosses for the boys. On the last day, Fr. Carlos Suarez happened to be present for the Mass and he helped by blessing the bracelets.

Not only was it a good experience for everyone chipping in and forming community together, but we all learned how to make bracelets by hand. An activity like this - scaled down a bit - could be a part of a great spiritual workshop someday.

On December 9, I arrived at the school in Chontal to give out the bracelets, and later on the kids from the youth group met and I gave them the earrings and other bracelets for the boys. The kids were really happy with their Christmas presents!

Earthquake Disaster Relief for San Isidro

After the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador in April 2016, I was able to be a lead in organizing two relief trips to one of the most affected areas. Joining with many generous friends and the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph, the parishes of St. Mary of the Assumption, Milford, MA, St. Monica and Lucy's parishes of Methuen, MA, and the Archdiocese of Portoviejo, we were able to bring over $10,000 worth of food and goods to the people of San Isidro, who had already had been living a challenging life affected by poverty.

Check out the presentations below to find out more.

St Mary of the Assumption, MIlford, has since given another $3K, and I'm continuing to facilitate bridges for more funding. A local parish with an Ecuadorian has over $10K of funding that is likely to go there, and through that parish, there is the possibility of a much larger follow-on project.

I went to San Isidro in December to live there until the new year, doing pastoral ministry and projects and facilitating bridges.

Hispanic Ministry at St. Anthony Shrine Boston

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.

Animating the Community in Lawrence

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.

Book Published: Luz en las Tinieblas

In October, I finally had printed a shortened version in Spanish of Flowers In Winter, a collection of meditations from my blog A Living Monstrance that I self-published on Lulu.com in 2010. This shortened version, Luz en las Tinieblas, or Light in the Darkness, contains 20 of the 150 reflections from the original, translated into Spanish by a good friend. It was a long process of over a year, with selecting reflections, having them translated, formatting, getting the publishing process moving, etc. - all slowed down because of all of the other activities going on! But it is done. Click on the image below to find it on Lulu.com. I hoping to distribute it among Spanish speakers, so please feel free to pass the word!

Assisting Welcoming Milford with Bridging to Ecuador

As part of the relief effort for the victims of the earthquake in April 2016, a friend, Fr. Dario, organized assistance in his parish St. Mary of the Assumption in Milford, MA. There is a sizable community of indigenous Ecuadorians there from the sierran province of Cañar. At the follow-up presentation in the parish in June, a member of the organization Welcoming Milford was in attendance and wanted to explore furthering the relationship between Milford and the people of Ecuador. Through a few meetings and offering my own experience and perspective, Welcoming Milford was able to resolve initial plans for beginning a sister-like twinning relationship between Milford and the local home community of the immigrants from Cañar.

Poverty Relief for the Bazurto Family

For a month in 2015 I lived next door to my friends the Bazurto family, a household of 13 (several of whom have severe physical disabilities) in a tiny wooden house in Puerto Quito.  One day, the grandmother of the house Rosa approached me and asked me for $10 for food. The next day, I brought them a roasted chicken, and was invited to eat with them - the whole household would have had only rice to eat that night.

Over the days, I continued to bring them food and other household items like lightbulbs, mosquito nets, etc. Basically, if I got it for myself, I got it for them too. The kids needed eyeglasses, and I got some funding and brought them to the city to get eye exams and new glasses. Other funding was dedicated to more food support. And in 2016 after the earthquake drove them out of their home, we funded the updating of the house's support posts, which badly needed reinforcements.

Here is a presentation on the recent hose reinforcement, and enjoy the house party below!

I had a housewarming party in the new cement house I was staying in next door. I had a number of guests, and the Bazurtos were a little shy with other people around. But after everyone left and it got late, they brought their own music and had a dance party!

Computer Training for Carolina

Carolina was affected by the landslides that occurred in Chontal in 2014, as her house was on the side of the mountain and the family had a horrific experience when a landslide knocked down a whole side of their house in the middle of the night. Her family received a part of the support that we were able to put together, and we've become friends.

She has very low computer skills, and once a week I would spend an hour with her learning the basics of how to use a computer. She was able to put together simple Powerpoint pictures to send to her penpal Charlotte back in Boston.

Youth Group in Chontal

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...

Penpals: Boston to Chontal

In March 2015, the daughters of two friends began writing to each other as penpals. Carolina in Chontal, Ecuador and Charlotte in Quincy, MA started sharing handwritten letters sent electronically. With help translating between the two languages, each was able to understand the other and a friendship has begun.

Carolina was affected by the landslides that occurred in Chontal in 2014, as her house was on the side of the mountain and the family had a horrific experience when a landslide knocked down a whole side of their house in the middle of the night. Her family received a part of the support that we were able to put together, and we've become friends.

Vacation English Class in Chontal

As school vacation started in the middle of February 2016, I began an English class in Chontal, first buying a bunch of English books in Quito and selling them at a discount to kids between 9 and 13 years old. The local school had been starting English with 7th graders, so I started this summer vacation class (theirs is in February to April) for kids the years preceding 7th grade. Not only did we get about 12 kids each time, they wanted more than the 2 hours we did each week! I used a combination of the book with videos and music and other tools.  We started off the class with a little warmup dance each time that the younger kids loved (Check out the video below). It did also challenge my classroom management skills!

Ven Comes Back to Life

In 2016, I started to take care of a stray dog that was left for dead in Chontal. I named her Ven, which means "come" in Spanish, because that is how I called her. I fed her and she got over her skin-and-bones appearance, but she had scabies. I got some medication from her in Quito, but it didn't work. Finally, I got one of the neighbors to give her an injection of what they use on their animals in their farm, and after a week or so, it worked! Ven found a permanent home in the village next door and currently lives there.

Living in Chontal

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.

Ministry to Don Olmedo's Last Days

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. 

Holy Week Mission Quito - Chontal

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!