“When He saw them He has COMPASSION for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd” Mt 9:

I know many of you have been checking my blog faithfully, thank you for this but most especially for your prayers for the mission, the missionaries, the kids, and me. Perdoname, I have not been as faithful to you as you have been to me. However that good news is my not writing for a long time means I have indeed been living the adventure of my life and there has not been a free moment to sit down and write you about it…

Much as happen since I last wrote… I have indeed been trying my best to keep up with where He has been guiding me gently, like a little girl tries to keep up with her Father’s long stride. It continues to be a beautiful walk with Him everyday as He continues to reveal to me His Beauty, Glory, and Grace in this place.

Keep Maribeth and Mariya in your prayers as they are now both back in the USA following their FIAT to study. The gringo clan at Rosa Mystica has slowly decreased to only three, Jim, Marie, and myself. Needless to say my hallway has because a little more quiet except for the occasional visitors. However we will soon be welcoming another group of Missionaries from Franciscan University of Steubenville for a two week mission here at the Santuario. Keep them in your prayers as they prepare their hearts to serve the people here. Also this passed week we welcomed a psychologist from Guayaquil to the Rosa Mystica, Katty. She is really sweet and plans staying here at least for a month, pray she is called to stay and serve the kids here longer we could really use her help.

I’ll try to sum it all up as best I can. Again forgive me, please carry me in your heart of prayer as I hold you all in mine…


Kidnapped by Missionaries:
Two weekends ago Fatima invited me to help/partake in a retreat in San Domingo. It was hard to make the decision to go because it was also the same weekend Maribeth was leaving from Quito to return to the States for University, however in my heart I felt I need to be at the retreat. We left early Friday morning for San Domingo, accompanying Maribeth and her Mom as far as Guayaquil.
It was a really beautiful retreat about making the decision to live ones life for Christ. There were 18 retreatens and myself. I was surprised how much of the talks I understood… slowly my Spanish is improving. The most beautiful part of the retreat was encountering the family who put the retreat on with the missionaries. I meet a beautiful couple from San Domingo, Daniel and Verna, who helped with the music ministry. They are such a beautiful couple and literally radiate with the light and love of Christ for one another and those they encounter. They are a real witness and hope for me …
The retreat ended around noon Sunday afternoon, Fatima and I decided to make a quick trip to Quito from San Domingo to surprise Maribeth before her flight. We left by bus from San Domingo at 2pm and arrived in Quito at 5:30pm. It was a beautiful surprise, and Maribeth was truly surprised. We had a short visit with her and the Arroyos, then Co, Sebastian, Fatima, and I took Maribeth to the airport. Please keep her and her studied in your prayers.
Fatima and I then returned to the bus station planning to go to Guayaquil, however after a phone call from Momita we and got on a bus to return to San Domingo. We arrived at the Missionaries’ house in San Domingo at 3am. The next day, Monday, was a day to rest, recuperate, and begin packing and clean the house to move the missionaries back to the Sanctuary in Olon. Tuesday we packed up the house into their van and left San Domingo around 5pm. I was a beautiful change to travel by van rather than bus. As we drove the missionaries taught me which crops were which. We traveled for about three hours before we arrived in Balzar, another pueblo where the missionaries have another house. At first we simply were stopping to eat supper but supper ended with us deciding to stay the night and leave 6am for Olon.
One of the missionaries living in Balzar took the opportunity to show me the church. It was really beautiful to walk around the church as she explained the stories about each of the statues of the saints in the church. One in particular was Bl. Narcisa de Jesus who is to be canonized this coming October. I hope to write more about her another day.
The next, Wednesday, we rose at 4:45am but did not leave for Olon until 6am. We arrived in Guayaquil around 8am and stopped at Fr. Patricio’s house for breakfast (Fr. Patricio used to be on base but was moved to help with a parish in Guayaquil). It was good to see Fr. and the Missionaries living in Guayaquil. We left Fr.’s house around 9:30am with the intention of getting to Olon before noon. However we ended up stopping at the bank and market in Santa Eleana for a few things. POR FIN, finally we arrived at the Santuario just in time for lunch.
This is how my two day weekend turned into a five day trip, and how things work here in Ecuador, you simply have to take things in stride, be flexible and plan that your plans with indeed change. I love every minute of this adventure or should I say kidnapping by the Fatima. I look forward to future adventures with my traveling companion.

Don Marciano
A week ago Jovanka brought me to Olon to a small hut where a blind gentleman lives alone. Mariya and Maribeth used to visit _______________ and it was a blessing to finally meet him. A real gentleman in many ways, especially his hospitable manner in welcoming us to his small hut. We had brought him his medication, took his blood pressure, and then sat, talked, and prayed with him. What struck me was his desire to hold our hands while we talked, Jovanka on one side and I on the other. It was indeed the manner in which he reached out for our hands and kept holding on which made me think about hunger for love which Mother Teresa and our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI have talked about. I hope to keep visiting him when I can.

Lost and Found
This past Monday was a crazy day… I had early morning blood draws with the Jato Menor, a house where boys ages 8-12 years old. What a zoo! Some came and dropped off their urine samples then left, others didn’t bring their samples and it was a real fight to get them to sit in the chair to draw blood. I smile and laugh about it now but truly what a crazy morning. The missionary who looks after them, Fatima, is truly a living saint in her patience and love with them as they are always, always, always getting into trouble. What baffles me is how they think up their schemes and then carry them out as well. However, let it be known these are the boys I love the most… there smiles melt your heart in an instant and they always come running to me with open arms calling out “Sarita!” ready for a hug.
When I returned in the afternoon for consults and began to get things ready I noticed the book we use to register each person who comes for consults along with their age, height, and weight was missing. Three times a year we send this information to INNFA a government program and the foundation in turn is given aid, the next time this information was due was the end of April. Needless to say I was worried… the first major thing I am responsible for and I have lost the information. I retraced my steps from the passed morning hoping I’d find the book but I didn’t. I began to think the little boys had been in the office unattended in the morning and perhaps hide the book on me. I went through my desk, filing cabinets, the doctor’s office, the hallway; I looked high and low everywhere but did not encounter this important book. I even talked with Fatima Suarez as best I could about in my broken Spanish about this.
The kids came and went for consults and all through out this time I fought to hold back the tears … what was I going to do… I only had three days to go through all the files and enter the ages, heights, weights of those I was missing a task much more time consuming then using the registry book. Meanwhile Flor, one of the missionaries who works in the Social Work office was bring in the new kids for me to measure their height and weight. I kept thinking I don’t know how I am going to tell her about the book. When I began to tell her about the book in my broken Spanish the tears started to come. She took me in her arms and then said “Sarita, yo tango este libro” “Sara I have the book”. Praise the Lord, He indeed looks after us in more ways than we could ever imagine. I continue to learn to trust…

The Difference between Humanitarian and Missionary Work:
About two weeks ago one evening on our porch at the Rosa Mystica we had an interesting discussion about the difference between Missions and Humanitarian work. Marie our Austrian volunteer is Catholic but was moved to come and serve her for humanitarian reasons, while Jim, Maribeth, two of Jims visiting friends (missionaries as well) have felt the call within our hearts to serve the people here. We talked for a long time … about the goals and motives of both types of service… exteriorly they appear the same yet they origins are and ends are different. We talked about preaching the Gospel and how it is more so a way of being present to those we encounter and being and instrument of His Grace in their lives than the words we may preach. It was a really interesting discussion but when it ended I felt as if we had not quite defined the difference between the two types of work. It also was really convicting for me in that Marie is here not in the name of Jesus (directly) but through her works He touches the people’s hearts whether she knows it or not… then here I am called in His name and do I constantly offer Him my best? I indeed have a greater responsibility to constantly be at His disposal since I claim to come in His name… but am I really?
The next day when I was reading “Come be My Light” a really beautiful book about Mother Teresa she summed it up perfectly:
“My dear children- without our suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the redemption. – Jesus wanted to help us by sharing our life, our loneliness, our agony and death. All that He has taken upon Himself, and has carried it in the darkest night. Only by being one with us He has redeemed us. We are allowed to doe the same: all the desolation of t he poor people, not only their material poverty, but their spiritual destitution must be redeemed, and we must have our share in it. – Pray thus when you find it hard – “I wish to live in this world which is so far from God, which has turned so much from the light of Jesus, to help them- to take upon me something of their suffering,” – Yes, my dear children- let us share the sufferings – of our poor- for only by being one with them – we can redeem them, that is, bringing God into their lives and bringing them to God.”
I have much too learn in embracing the sufferings of those I encounter everyday… In this I find consolation that our sufferings and their sufferings are not without meaning but have a great redemptive value, if only we offer them to Him.


I love and miss you all very much… again sorry for the silence for so long. Please continue to pray for the mission, Maribeth and Mariya, the group coming from Steubenville… for my heart to be open to love each person as He calls me to. Indeed I continue to learn it is the small things I am called to do with great love that will make the difference… making gaza, cleaning floor, sterilizing instruments from sutures, cleaning cuts and scrapes, and simply keeping the consultario door open for who ever wants to come and talk while I try my best to listen and love them. I am so small, the need here is so great… but His grace is enough. May the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts guide, protect, and intercede for you all.

Love and Prayers Always,
Sara