December 2021 eNewsletter
School with Emma
Every Wednesday morning missionary Emma goes into the neighboring village of Mojaguay to teach a very informal class to any student who can attend. She bring along a teenager from the Farm as her teacher assistant. A typical class consists of coloring, drawing, reading and looking at books, and doing puzzles. Normally classes take place in the church, but on this day, they were putting in windows and welding in the church so she had to go for plan B-- the beach!
La Inmaculada
¿Quién causa tanta alegría? ¡La concepción de María! On December 8th, we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We honor and pray especially for our Nicaraguan and US community members as she is the patron of both of these countries. The Farm of the Child community celebrates this day and remembers the many ways that Mary intercedes for us!
Family Strengthening and Reintegration
We are blessed to share our commitment and project goals for our Family Strengthening and Reintegration Initiative. Mary Beth (Stryker) Iduh (Former Missionary and current Board Member) wrote this article for our Fall Newsletter and we are excited to share it electronically as well!
Recently I was asked to identify who has been the most instrumental in my faith journey. I immediately thought of my parents who were my first teachers of the Catholic faith, who have shared with me God’s unconditional love and helped me become the woman, wife and mother I am today. I then recalled the many friends, mentors and saints who have inspired and influenced me over the years, sometimes in unexpected ways. Of these, one person in particular stood out in my mind and heart: Zulena Pescatore, who with her late husband Vincent, founded our beloved Finca del Niño. Through Zulena’s surrender and trust in God; her embrace and radiance of Christ’s love; and her dedication, wisdom and strength in serving the children of Honduras and Guatemala, while also raising her own family, she embodies for me what being a disciple is all about.
I first met Zulena over 20 years ago as a senior at the University of Notre Dame when she spoke about the Finca to my theology class. Although we only exchanged a few words after class in my then-very-broken-Spanish, I felt God’s love through Zulena in such a powerful way and knew God was calling me to follow Him by serving at the Finca. Since then, the Finca has transformed me, as it has so many, and has been a primary way I live out my Catholic faith – first, as a lay missionary in Honduras and now as a Farm of the Child USA board member, entrusted with upholding and supporting the vision and mission of the Finca del Niño.
As a new lay missionary social worker at the Finca in 2003, I was trained to recognize that the love we give cannot replace the love and permanence of a child’s family. Poverty alone is never a reason to bring children into our care at the Finca. This message initially was difficult for me because I could see with my own eyes the transformation of children who arrived at the Finca malnourished and emotionally distant, who began to grow, play and laugh after a few months in our care. However, I also witnessed the pain and sometimes numbness our children experienced when the trusted adults they had come to know and love, including house parents, Franciscan sisters and international lay missionaries, completed their service and departed the Finca with others taking their places. The Finca wisely has helped our children maintain connections with their families and communities of origin through home visits and family invitations for special events and children’s milestones, such as the celebration of sacraments. Yet, I’ve realized over time that our children need deeper relationships and connections with their families than short, occasional visits allow.
I also have come to appreciate our long-standing practice at the Finca to reunite children in our care with their biological family members when safe, healthy and feasible, and to help our youth remain connected with their communities of origin and with former long-term Honduran house parents who have left the Finca after serving several years at the mission. Our extended global Finca community of 25 years is strong and plays a significant role in the independent lives of our youth and young adults, particularly through providing ongoing support, including emotional, spiritual, financial and material -- even former house parents opening up their homes to recent Finca graduates and our young adults in times of transition.
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