We have kept our gates and doors open to serve the people who come here with different needs of survival, as our group of volunteers, workers and medical staff manifest their good will to care and attend what each day presents in so many cases and persons as we fight the pandemic.
We have heard lamentations of hunger, nothing to eat at home, struggling to buy tortillas, “please may I have an extra lunch for my grandchild at home”. No work, no money to pay rent or shelter, nights sleep in the streets, loneliness and cold, asking for a blanket, their only company. Misery in front of our eyes, dressed in torn clothes, bare feet, walking all the way up the hill to get here with walker, crutches, or a piece of wood serving as a cane. Sickness, no medicines, no family, no treatments. Mothers caring for a son or daughter with severe disabilities. So many watery eyes of women covering their face with their ‘reboso’.
In all these painful and ‘holy’ situations, we have attended in the best way we could, answering to the needs, with love and care. In spite of everything, the faith of the people is deep, their praise and thanks to God expressed in various ways, is very inspiring.
Each morning at 5.30 a.m. as the steam generator starts the kitchen springs into action and meals are prepared and ready to be distributed to persons in line on both right and left sides of our mission; may be in bags, may be in plates and complete with bread and juice. We praise God for he has provided daily for his little ones and has given us the gift to serve Him in them.
Casa de Los Pobres was assigned to Good Shepherd Church, San Diego in 2018 and St. Joseph Cathedral, San Diego in 2019 for Missionary Cooperation Plan. They are assigned to St. Therese Church, San Diego for Missionary Cooperation Plan 2021.
– Sr. Armida Andrade, MFP