Stuck in Folsom Prison...

Each of us has a heart for a different need in the world, its beautiful how God has created each of us with different gifts and desires. Our ministries and projects here are varied because we are varied. And what is beautiful, although sometimes challenging, is that we have the freedom to discern what God is calling us to, what is prudent, and what it is that we personally have to offer. Frederick Buechner described it beautifully when he said, "The place that God calls us is that place where the world's deep hunger and our deep desire meet."

In this update we wanted to share with you a new ministry we've begun due to the open heart of one of our missioners. Always at the heart of all we do is love, especially for those most in need: the poor, the broken, the abused, the sick and...the imprisoned. Tracy had been feeling a very strong call to serve vulnerable men, almost to the point of looking for another mission or ministry, she had been thinking about homeless ministry, but God had another plan for her. Erika, a friend of the Missioners (and sister of Etelvina) expressed interest in visiting the prison here in Comayagua, but she hadn't yet found the path by which to do so. When Tracy heard about the opportunity she knew it was God speaking to her desire. She (along with a group) has been going faithfully once a week to visit and pray with the men there. This is her reflection on her experiences so far:

“Don’t judge another squaw until you’ve walked a mile in her moccasins”...... they’re not quite squaws and it’s more flip flops than moccasins but anyway….the guys inside the depressing edifice that is Comayagua’s local prison are doing time for an interesting variety of crimes: murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping….to name but a few. I try not to dwell too much on the reasons for their incarceration, or to judge, remembering the often pitiful circumstances and poor example in these lives, not to mention the powerful enemy we are all battling. I try to focus more on the truth that each of them is a soul created by a loving Father, for love, and for an eternity spent in a peaceful place very far removed from where they are right now.

Their souls, like ours, are thirsting for God, and in an environment where drugs and prostitutes are readily available, the prison guards busy themselves lounging around chatting (when not openly watching pornographic films) and rosary beads joyfully handed out by naïve missionaries become currency for indulging vices……the thirst is that much more intense. I thank God for the many good men I have encountered in the prison who are striving in the midst of such darkness to lead others to conversion and holiness through daily scripture study, prayer and good example.

I am blessed to be a witness to our wonderful Lord, who paid the price for all our sins, in such a crazy place, and implore your intercession for this new ministry we are undertaking. Please pray that God might use us as His instruments to help set the captives free from the sin, fear, doubt, despair and false masculinity that poisons the hearts of His poor children and keeps them from His tender care.

St Dismis, Patron Saint of Prisoners, pray for us.

-Tracy McGee, Scotland

Mountains and Teeth

The Friars host 6 Medical Brigaides a year in their hospital San Benito. A medical team of doctors, dentists, nurses, surgeons etc is brought in for a week to provide surgeries and medical care to the poorest of the poor. Each brigade brings new faces, new cases, and new challenges. We as Missioners support the Brigades by preparing food for the patients and their families, helping prepare patients for surgery, translating, and visiting with the patients after their surgeries. Two brigades ago we were finally able to realize a hope we've had for quite a while to bring dental care to the mountains. There are several priests with whom we work that had been asking for dentists for quite some time. God definately provided because an American dentist with years of experience working in the mountains of Central America had been consistently arriving with the brigaides to work out of San Benito's clinic but had at the same time been expressing interest in returning to work in the mountains. With the help of a portable dental unit he is able to go anywhere there is electricity, light, and water to work, he can work then even, as he says, "on somebody's front porch." So he and three of us Missioners (to help assist and do intake, translate) set off for a trial day. We drove the three hours into the mountains of San Luis, set up all the equipment and attended to 10-12 children, basically just doing extraction dentristy. It was my first experience assisting and I learned very quickly it takes patience, a sense of humor, and a strong stomach...sucking blood and spit and being handed extracted teeth is not for the faint of heart. It went very well and Father Balthazar was really excited to finally be able to offer the service to his people.
So...this last brigaide we set out again for three days working in two different villages of Father's this time. We worked again in San Luis but then traveled for the day to the even more remote village of San Rafael. Its really incredible the need in the mountains. A combination of poor education, lack of supplies and lack of dentists makes for some pretty unhealthy mouths. It was difficult to see at times the results years of lack of care can produce. We worked on a young girl who was only 12 years old, already her four front teeth were false and we removed three more permanent teeth, if we had had time we could have removed more. Many many people even at a young age wear dentures. We took 7 teeth out of one woman, finishing off her upper teeth. The majority of the people we saw had seen a dentist maybe once or twice before, some never. It is really convicting as always to experience the lives of the poor first hand, to see what becomes normalcy when living without. In many ways their lives are more simple and more beautiful but we cannot lapse into idealizing the situation. There lives are also very hard and burdened; there is a great amount of suffering and struggle that exists that we have no concept of. We must be honest and real about our responsibility to love them and serve them. Our hope is to continue to return to these aldeas and to not only treat the emergencies but work on prevention and education, to improve their quality of life and quality of care. Hopefully they will experience the love of Christ in us in this humble opportunity to care for them, as always we returned more changed and affected by our encounter with the poor than they ever will be by us. We hope to return in June to the mountains, this time making two different trips and hopefully bringing along a Hygienist for more cleaning and prevention work...as always keep us and the poor in your prayers.