The month of January flew right on by. January was a good first month of 2011. I enjoyed this past Christmas Season and beginning a brand new year. Normally, I have the opportunity to visit my sister and her family in New York, but this year, I elected to postpone that visit for this February. However, I did have the opportunity to visit the country of Haiti from January 16 - January 20 with three other parishioners of Saint Alphonsus Liguori. Our objective was to meet Fr. Nova Garcon and his parish of Saint Anthony of Padua in Croix Fer. Croix Fer Haiti is approximately 3-4 hours north-east of Port-Au-Prince close to the border of the Dominican Republic. I had previously visited Haiti in 2002 with a group of parishioners from Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Carmel. They have had a twinning relationship with a parish of Saint Genevieve in Duvall. That visit to the country of Haiti changed my whole perspective on our world. The people were poor and had very little, but they did have an amazing faith. Their families were their world. The people in their lives including close relatives and friends enabled them to live their lives with joy and hope. I am very thankful for this most recent visit last month. We met with Fr. Nova and saw his parish, his school and his two chapels. The hope is that we will bring the information we gathered back to our parish of Saint Alphonsus Liguori in order to communicate with the parishioners about the needs of St. Anthony of Padua Parish. I believe it will be a good fit. The Haiti Team and I will meet with parish groups in the next several months and we will share with the parish during the weekend of February 12-13. We will share some information after the Masses and have a display set up for Coffee and Donuts. I am excited to see this Haiti initiative unfold. I know in my heart that our parish will be blessed by taking an active role in supporting a sister parish in Haiti. Fr. Nova and I have become friends. I love priest friends. He is such an inspiration to me as a priest. This guy is smart too. He studied theology in Rome. He had the opportunity to meet Pope John Paul II in his seminary days. He speaks many languages: Creole, French, Italian, English and probably a few more. The picture below is one that Father Nova showed us when he met John Paul the Great.
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| Fr. Nova Garcon, then a Deacon, greeting JPII |
I am so blessed! I absolutely love our God for all that he has done for me. I will conclude my first blog in 2011 with a few more pictures that are special to me. The first is a group shot with Fr. Nova and some of his school children in Croix Fer. Also, I wanted to share that Danielle Rose, a Catholic musician, came to our parish to help us with a retreat for some of our teenagers in the group the Daughters of the Immaculata. She also had a concert for our parish. Some of her words and prayers encouraged me as a priest, especially as I had been struggling a little bit. Thank you Danielle Rose for encouraging me. Thank you for your faithfulness and your prayers. God is so very good and He places people in our lives to encourage and support us. :)
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| Fr. Joshua, Fr. Nova, Donna, Michelle, Terry and children |
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