The harvest is abundant...

¨After this the Lord appointed seventy others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this household.' If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God is at hand for you.' ¨

-Luke 10:1-9

My dear ones...

Peace of Christ to each of you in abundance. I pray that all is well and blessed for each of you...and I congratulate my Minnesotan counterparts in successfully coming out of the deep freeze! ;) Believe or not, although the oceanside in this sunny weather is marvelous, I do miss the Minnesota winter. I am a crazy girl.

Well, I write with a week delay because there has been much excitement on my side of the equator lately. First of all, many goodbyes with the majority of the children leaving for a month or so of vacations, and second of all, my sister and mum came to visit! It was lovely to share my little Ecuadorian life with them, and they are great travel pals. We hugged children, visited the beautiful city of Cuenca in the Sierra, and spent some time of the beach...it was great. I hope to have pictures up of their time here soon. It was such a gift just to see them after four months of being here but also a great joy to share firsthand with them just exactly what their Mariya is doing down here. :)

With the absence of most the children, my work at the base has drastically slowed down. I am taking a few days to recollect, perhaps have a little self-retreat, and make a plan for this month. I plan to travel to the areas where this foundation has mini-extensions of their work (for example, locations where two or three missionaries live working in parishes in outlying communities). Also, we will be returning to the Amazon to complete the planning for Franciscan University´s medical mission in March. Soon, on February 7th, we will celebrate the arrival of Miss Sara Ogrodnick to our growing gringo population. Much to look forward to in the days to come.

I promise some better stories of the children here in the posts to come...I think the Ecuadorian sun is getting to my storytelling abilities today! :)

Much love and blessings,
m

Anti-lice campaign! And more! :)

"His love is brought to perfection in us..."
1 John 4:12

Hello dear ones, from afar...

Peace of Christ to all. All is well. I might as well begin by saying that if any of you have heard the news about the volcanic activity in Ecuador, we are not affected by it. A difficult situation for the people there, but to calm any concerns, I am nowhere near it. No worries, Mum and Dad.

Besides the excitement of volcanos, life is so beautiful here. The last few weeks, other than the day-to-day tending to the sick ones, I have been working on the paper work for the Ecuadorian National Institute for Children and Family who we collaborate with in caring for the children of our foundation. As tedious as re-examining each child's file can be, it is great to see that the children have been well-attended and are growing as children should. In other medical news, we have been waging a war on head lice the past few days. Apart from our boys' and girls' homes at the main base, we have 30 children who live together with their siblings and misionera mothers in a cluster of homes in a local pueblo. With head lice abounding, we did a full treatment on all the children plus misioneras...shampoo, laundered bed clothes, you name it. What excitement!

The elementary and high school are wrapping up their classes for summer vacations, which means that many of our kids will be leaving for about a month...either to their homes or foster homes. My, goodness, I love these kids immensely...it will be so different without them here! So I am hugging them a bit longer these days in anticipation of not seeing them for awhile. :) Let's take advantage of every moment we have with the ones with love, eh?

Speaking of which, I am thrilled to announce that my mom and sister will be arriving in Ecuador next Tuesday! What a gift! It will be amazing to have the joy of their company and to share this life with them.

It is time for this missionary nurse to sign off...that each of you may be exceptionally blessed...

En Cristo,

m

***A reminder...www.missionsantamaria.com for anyone interested in supporting this work. It is truly incredible what they are doing for the families of Ecuador. Truly amazing.

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