The streets of Grenada are enlivened by the sounds of people going about their daily business. Some are on their way to work, either by foot or by beat-up car, and will be selling fruits or clothes in the brightly colored marketplace; others will have no work and will spend the day begging. Many children, all dressed neatly, will be going to school in the morning; other children will not receive an education and will sell trinkets on the streets to help support their families. A group of students and community members from St. Thomas witnessed these sights earlier this month during a second-annual mission trip to the capital of Nicaragua. Grenada is located in Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras.
The group’s mission is considered “relational ministry,” according to the Rev. Jim Morrison, pastor of St. Thomas. This means that the focus of the trip was not for the team to actually build houses themselves, but to build relationships with the people of Nicaragua. However, Morrison said that St. Thomas has funded the building of five homes since the mission began two years ago and plans to continue to donate towards this cause. During this past trip, the team was able to paint the two houses that St. Thomas funded.
Morrison said that it is important to give to our brothers and sisters here and throughout the world.
“It is exciting to see that the people of our area continue to reach out to the poor in the third world, despite our own struggles after the hurricanes,” Morrison said. “I believe that it is true wisdom that we don’t see it as an ‘either/or’ choice.”
The team visited the Missionaries of Charity, who not only have a school that young children attend in the morning but which also provides an education and shelter for girls who have been abused. The team was able to go to mass with the girls and have dinner with them at a pizzeria.
The team also visited Hogar de los Ninos de Cristo Sana, a home for young boys who, before arriving there, were either living on the streets or struggling with addiction. Along with a busload of boys from the home, the mission team traveled to the beach at San Juan de Sur for one day and celebrated mass with them on the beach.
Chris Monier, biology sophomore from Thibodaux, said that his favorite experience in Nicaragua occurred the day he played a sloppy game of kick ball with a fifteen-year-old boy named Louis-Carlos.
“I felt that a special connection was formed,” Monier said. “I was trying my best to get to know him, and I could tell he was sincerely doing the same.”
After the game was over, Monier said that the boy took him into his home and showed him the book he was reading and handed him a newspaper clipping of his dream possession- a clarinet. Monier said that two days later he went back to the boy’s house to give him some sketchbooks and markers. The boy was not home so he presented the gift to his mother.
“A mere drawing kit was enough to put tears in the woman’s eyes,” Monier said. “Words fail to describe how I felt at that moment; it was just so special.”
For Andrew Cooley, general studies sophomore from Thibodaux, going on the mission trip fulfilled a life-long desire of his. He said that the best part of the trip for him was witnessing a woman being told that she would have a house built for her. Cooley said that he and other members of the team noticed that the house behind the one being painted was falling apart. After hearing a baby cry, he said they went speak with the woman and found out that she had one child with her but also had another that her grandmother had taken away because the woman’s house was inadequate. She said that the grandmother was trying to take the other baby away, too.
“She was basically going to lose her whole family, so with the help of Father Jim’s parents, we paid to have a house built for her,” Cooley said. “I’ll never forget the look on her face when we told her that she was going to get a house and be able to get her baby back.
