He is born...what could be better?

¨Before his gaze all falsehood melts away.¨

Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI

Dear ones,

Peace to one and all. He is born! Let us rejoice indeed! Well, in this week of Christmastime on this little peninsula, all is blessed indeed. Things have been very tranquil with the school closed for the week and a majority of the children away for vacations, and it has been a blessed occasion for this little nurse to have a little rest and extra prayer time. I have been blessed to be able to spend more time in Adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist...and indeed have experienced what Pope Benedict speaks of in his new encyclical letter. Sitting before His Eucharistic Heart, alone in His Presence, in His loving gaze, all that is not of Truth is illuminated away and I am penetrated to my innermost being. Interiorly, in a manner that cannot be articulated, I am reminded of my mission in this life, of who I am striving to be. Held in His arms, gazing upon the Face of Jesus, opening my heart to the love He so ardently desires to pour into hearts. Recognizing my littleness and inadequacy, and trusting completely in His Mercy for His little ones.

This week, in addition to a beautiful Christmas Vigil Mass (the Birth of our SAVIOR...wow), we had the annual Mass for the elderly people of the surrounding communities. Hundreds of ¨ancianos¨ (ancient ones, as they say) came to the Santuario for Mass and a meal. Dear ones laying on mattresses, blind ones with canes, from far and wide. A beautiful thing. On top of all of the beautiful liturgical celebrations, we have been taking many trips to the beach with the kids who remained with us for vacations. Ah, life on the beach...watching all these dear ones jump and giggle in the waves as the sun starts to set over the water. Life is beautiful.

May His perfect peace be in each of your hearts in this time of Christmas. Our Savior has been born unto us. Our Savior. Amazing.

En Cristo,

m

Gloria!

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

--Luke 2:8-15--

Greetings of Christmas peace and joy to all!

Well, after a week of wrapping up the last medical consults with the kids for the year and saying farewell to the children who left for the week to celebrate with relatives, we have arrived to the eve of the Birth of our Messiah. Beautiful. Instead of snow, we have rain (usually it is sunny...Maribeth has been telling me that the Lord is blessing me the precipitation, even if it is not snow...ha). Instead of my family, here I am with these dear children who need the love of a family and these beautiful misioneras who give up their life for Jesus and this work. It is different, but it is perfect...because it is His Will.

I pray that each of you have a very blessed, very peaceful, and very joyful Christmas...surrounded by those you love and who love you...thankful for our Messiah who was born and died that we may live...

In His Love,

m

My little Superman.

¨Jesus touched them and said, ¨Rise, and have no fear.¨

-Matthew 17:7-

A blessed third week of Advent to each of you!

Peace of Christ. In this time of expectation, awaiting the celebration of the Birth of Our Savior, I hope all is most well and blessed for each of you and your families.

This week was wild...hey, aren´t they all! A little one of our´s, 8-year-old Fernando, had his guardian angels working overtime. This little one has been with us for about one year. He is the only child of parents who most likely will never be able to care for him again, and he had been in a foster family before coming to us. It is the goal of the foundation to re-unite families after the appropriate rehabilitation, but sometimes it is impossible. Therefore, hopefully, someday he will have a family to belong to. In the meantime, he belongs to our family here, and we love this crazy one dearly. He apparently was a really difficult child upon arrival with a really difficult background. For example, he had grown accustomed to having to defend himself, whether in the streets or his own home; therefore, he was always carrying rocks in his hands, even when sleeping. Although still difficult sometimes, the love of this place has greatly transformed his sense of self and security. Praise the Lord. Well, last Tuesday, with aspirations of flying like Superman, Fernando climbed the roof of the little store attached to the high school and ended up falling through the roof onto a stone staircase below, about an 8-meter drop. Thus, he was brought, with a significant loss of blood, into our mini-consultorio where the doctor and I were attending patients. After assessing the little one and controlling the bleeding from the laceration on his head, we had to embark on the 1-hour-plus ride in our old, old van with roads in terrible conditions to the nearest hospital with emergency and xray services. By the grace of God, Fernando is free of fractures and there is no evidence of other cerebral damage. A miracle. We spent the night in the emergency room, and then he was released to our medical staff here at the base. Therefore, for the past few days, Fernando has been my life. He had to stay in a more tranquil environment than the house with 29 boys in which he normally lives, so we moved him to the house of the misioneras for the week. There I spent my week, giving his medicine, cleaning his wound, reading books, playing cards, and sleeping by his side. Oh, my little son. There were also many others (including Maribeth and Jim) who gave of their time to care for him this week with great love. Blessedly, Fernando is doing incredibly well, and he has returned to life as usual...hopefully, with a different vision of how he can emulate Superman, minus the roof-climbing escapades. :)

Now back to life as usual for me as well! This is the last week of school for the children before Christmas vacation, so we are wrapping up all our check-ups with the doctor. Most of the children leave for vacations, either to their own homes or to foster families, but there are some who stay with us. What a joy to celebrate Christmas with these dear ones!

Well, I must be off. I hope to get back to email some time this week to reply to ya´ll who have so kindly emailed with your love and prayers. But in the meantime, I love you all dearly and hold you in my heart of prayer.

LOVE,

m

A trip to the Amazon

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, send now Your Spirit over the earth. Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts of all nations, that they may be preserved from degeneration, disaster and war. May the Lady of All Nations, who once was Mary, be our Advocate. Amen.

Hey, all...peace...

Well, off we went to the edge of the Amazon this week. We headed out (Maribeth, Jim, Co, and I) to explore the possibility of having the Franciscan University medical mission go to this location in Ecuador when they come in March. It was a blessed trip, and it could be a truly amazing thing to have the mission group there. Highlights? Swimming in the Rio Napo and meeting a really beautiful bunch of mission priests. Oh, need I mention having a monkey climb all over me? (Check out the new pictures I posted.) This area, especially the pueblos deeper into the jungle, is really quite isolated. How amazing to have the chance to make the sacrifice to come serve these people, with hearts full of Christ´s love and medical attention.

The majority of my week was spent traveling, and although I love everywhere I have visited in Ecuador, it was great to come back to the Santuario. We arrived just in time to celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a beautiful celebration of Our Lady...not to mention, two new misioneras made their consecration to the Lord and the community and another group of young people received their First Communion.

This weekend there is also a group of Ecuadorian seminarians staying with us. As impromptu as can be, the priest they came with asked me to share my testimony with them. It was such a beautiful thing. With Maribeth and Jim as well, we ended chatting with them for quite a bit...what is cooler than hanging out with future priests. :) Let us pray for our priests worldwide! What a vocation!

Well, the sun is shining this Sunday afternoon in December. Wild not to have snow or cold...but it is Advent time nonetheless, as we await Christmas when Christ is born anew in our hearts. And all is blessed.

My love from afar...

LOVE,
m

It is love alone that counts.

"Without love, everything is painful, everything is tiring, everything is burdensome. The Cross, taken up hesitantly, is crushing; taken smilingly, by free will, and with love, it will carry you much more than you carry it. Love makes time eternal by giving a divine value to everything."

-From I Believe in Love, a book based on the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux-

Peace of Christ to all!

*Living love. This is the call of my little heart. St. Therese also says, "It is love alone that counts." Rereading the little collection of quotes I have of St. Therese, the Little Flower, has been a beautiful inspiration for me to remember that in everything I do, whether it be cleaning a wound, attending to the fever of a little child, organizing files, sweeping my floor...if I am not doing it in love it does not really matter. On the other hand, if I can commit myself to living love in the small things, being attentive to the dignity of every person...therein lies true peace, joy, fulfillment, and sanctity. It is love alone that counts.

*So what has living love entailed for Mariya Papaya this week? Well, I am more and more accustomed to the 6:30am blood draws for lab work, and I am well practiced in my pep talk for the more reluctant patients. Oh, my. The climate is changing from rainy to sunny season, so as typically accompanies climate changes, we have many sick ones. I am also well practiced in the ¨Drink Water¨pep talk. :) Finding a way to facilitate availability of water is the trickier issue...when the water from the faucet cannot be drunk without being boiled first, when there isn´t proper storage for the water once it has been boiled, when it uses precious resources (gas and manpower) to attend to the issue, when the kids are at school all day...it is enough to keep me thinking and acting. The majority of the kids leave for Christmas vacation in two weeks, so we are working in getting all the control check-ups accomplished before the end of the year.

*Other randomly exciting news? Our fellow missionary volunteer, Jim Campbell, arrived safe and sound, and the base is excited to have him back...us too! There seems to be a lack of strong male role models for the children here, so it is an amazing gift to have a great Catholic man, such as Jim, serving here, loving these kids. Also, Padre Othmar, founder of the foundation, returned from his trip to his homeland of Switzerland, and it is wonderful to have his prayerful presence among us once again. And a really beautiful surprise for me this weekend was that at the last minute I found out he and a few others were going to La Rinconada to celebrate the Mass yesterday...so this crazy gringa was able to go with! What a joy to be back in that little pueblo! My work there has been set back due to my responsibilities at the base, but my heart is there in so many ways. I need to return soon. My love for maternity nursing was also rekindled when I realized how many pregnant women there are there at this time...SO beautiful. I am going to look into how I can serve this dear ones and their growing wee ones.

*Ha. Funniest occurrence of the week? Well, the 15th birthday for young women here is a really big deal, so every month there is a fiesta for whichever dear one is celebrating her 15th birthday that month. Yesterday one of the gals, Gabriela, in the pre-community (women discerning misionera life) turned 15; therefore, there was a fiesta last night. A typical part of these fiestas is that each group (boys´ home, girls´ home, misioneras, etc) present a dance, song, or something of the sort. Well, the gringos were invited to present as well. Just imagine. We had decided this time we just didn´t have the creative energy or time to plan something, but at the last minute, Maribeth and I decided that for Gaby, we just must. So there we were, lip syncing to ¨My Heart Will Go On¨ in a little peninsula on the coast of South America. What a funny life. Gaby had asked us to sing it weeks ago, so Maribeth had bought the song to give to her at some point...didn´t imagine we would present it in such a manner, but I think she enjoyed our craziness. It is love alone that counts.

*Also, I have the great joy of letting you all know that Jim started a stateside foundation, Mission Santa Maria, to help out the base financially. Please check out the website: http://www.missionsantamaria.com/.

*Hey, I love you all and hold you dear to me always...may the Lord bless and keep you, may the Spirit enliven you in your own missions, and may we live His perfect Love...

En Cristo,

m