Phil Stepanski, Mission Director for Service of Holy Apostles Parish in New Berlin, WI, writes about his Parish trip to La Sagrada Familia Parish in Sabana Yegua.
“During the first week of April, a team from Holy Apostles in New Berlin WI returned to La Sagrada Familia Parish for its 4th annual medical mission trip that specifically serves the parish´s Haitian population. This was my second trip. As the Mission Director for Service at Holy Apostles, making and maintaining outreach relationships both at home and abroad is an important part of my job. But by partnering with the Community of Saint Paul, serving our brothers and sisters at La Sagrada Familia has become so much more.
Seeing so many familiar faces. Being met with friendly smiles and hugs. Seeing true appreciation and kindness not only from those we worked with, but those we served, we were able to provide basic check-ups, vitamins, medications and self-care items to well over 150 Haitian immigrants during our three clinic days. These are basic needs that so many take for granted. But, thanks to the generosity of Holy Apostles parishioners, this group of people facing incredibly difficult circumstances have their lives made a little bit brighter. The gifts, “regalos”, that we provided were hand decorated bags and handmade cards written in Spanish and Creole. The bags included photos of those Holy Apostles families that decorated them. It was a way to personalize the gifts and show support through prayer.
We pray for the people of La Sagrada Familia often and hope that because of the connections we´ve made, that they pray for us as well. We also for the first time arranged a video chat between Holy Apostles school students and some students at La Sagrada Familia. It was a powerful way to connect young people in different parts of the world with a fun discussion about weather! We are looking forward to many more years of shared prayer and community from New Berlin, Wisconsin to Sabana Yegua. We thank you Lord for bringing us together. God Bless!”
