PARAGUAY, Ani Souberlich. It is 21:41 here in Paraguay and the temperature is still 34ºC. So you can imagine how hot it was throughout the day…at 38ºC which felt like 42º C, heat that split the earth! The good God organized everything perfectly since usually, today, December 23rd, it is a normal work day. But His leadership was perfect, and today I had the day off from work and the people who collaborated did too. About a month ago, the idea emerged to distribute one hundred little Christmas bags to one hundred needy families.
At the beginning, we had thought about the families who had the gift of being a part of “100 roofs of Covenant Solidarity,” but then we decided to go out to encounter the one who needs it as Pope Francis so beautifully announces…and this is what we did!
The joy on the faces
The joy on the faces of the people was indescribable, the gratitude and the surprised looks…priceless!
We are heartily grateful to all the people who made it possible to fill these one hundred Little Bags of Solidarity. Thanks to the team of collaborators who joyfully gave their time to fill the little bags, to distribute them beneath the blazing sun, and above all for giving an embrace, a smile to each person with a single phrase “BLESSED CHRISTMAS, MAY GOD BE BORN IN YOUR HEARTS AND IN YOUR HOME.”
I do not know if God gives more joy to those who receive or to all the people who give what they have with so much generosity yet sometimes they also give what they do not have.
A motorcycle to go to work
A short story: a person donated a motorcycle that was almost destroyed. A collaborator put his mechanical knowledge at our service, he repaired it, and we gave it to Porfirio a young man who had to walk two kilometers every day carrying his lawn mower, looking for work to support his three little sisters and his Mother. Porfirio now has a way to get to work.
I believe there is nothing more to say. Simply THANK YOU FATHER because you reveal these things to the small ones.
We heartily pray that we do not turn a deaf ear to the outcry of so many people who need us not only here in Paraguay but also throughout the world.
Original: Spanish. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, Texas, USA
