Mission Partners Update – November 2018

For the poor in developing countries, obtaining safe housing is a dream beyond reach. Day-to-day life is a constant struggle for these families. Many suffer from chronic illnesses they can’t afford to treat. They are plagued by malnutrition. They live in crumbling shanty homes because it is all they can afford.

At Cross Catholic Outreach, we believe God hears their prayers for help and works through our Mission Partners, including YOU, to lift them up. Of all the good you do as a Cross Catholic Outreach Mission Partner, providing safe housing for our poorest sisters and brothers is one of the most life-changing acts of mercy you take part in.

When YOU provide safe housing for the poor, YOU manifest God’s love and mercy. Your gifts help answer the prayers of families living in horrendous conditions. Your generosity makes possible a tangible demonstration of the Gospel and allows both practical and spiritual needs to be met.

May God bless you for remembering the needs of the poorest of the poor!

LETE’S NEW LIFE

Lete, 40, lived with her mother and three children in a broken-down home with a leaky roof. The family had been living in the home for over 20 years. When Lete’s husband died in 2014, the Daughters of Charity sisters, Cross Catholic Outreach’s partner in the field, noticed the family’s impoverished situation and got involved. With funds provided by you and other Mission Partners, we repaired Lete’s house, including building a new kitchen and a bathroom with a toilet, which are luxuries for poor Ethiopian families.

THE POWER OF PARTNERS IN CHRIST

Arlene Jamisola says having her own house gives her a sense of security — something that was greatly lacking as she struggled to raise her daughter on her own. Arlene’s situation improved when she married her husband, Wilfredo, who has four grown children and works as a tricycle taxi driver. However, his typical earnings of around $23 a week aren’t a lot to live on, so they’d been living with Arlene’s mother in Sorsogon City.

92 AND GOING STRONG

Ninety-two-year-old Hortensia Francis lives alone and supports herself by making crafts. Her home was in complete disrepair, but with the support of Cross Catholic Outreach, the Diocese of St. George came along to help. Your generosity as a Cross Catholic Outreach Mission Partner made it possible for Hortensia’s roof and flooring to be repaired, as well as simple improvements to be made to her kitchen and bathroom. “If you knew how good I feel now!” she said. “It was really bad.”

THANK YOU FOR SHARING THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS

Each year, you bring the joy of Christmas to some of the poorest children and families in the world! Last year, thanks to your compassion, 46,360 children received a Box of Joy, a special token of God’s love. This year, we will distribute the boxes in five impoverished countries — Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic — where local Catholic parishes give the gifts and the Gospel message to the most vulnerable children in their communities.

Your gifts as a Cross Catholic Outreach Mission Partner have helped fund the construction of sturdy new houses for impoverished families across the developing world. If not for YOU and other caring souls, our sisters and brothers described in these pages and many others in need would still be sleeping on dirt floors in crumbling mud-and-straw huts. You’ve cooperated with the Lord’s grace to build safe, durable and weather-resistant homes made with quality materials, including upgraded metal roofs that provide even more reliable protection against the elements.

Please know how God has used your generosity to lift up today’s poorest families from pits of desolation, setting their feet on solid ground. Because you were obedient to his call to care for the poorest of the poor, people who were in desperate circumstances are now praising the Lord, grateful for a better future.

Thank you for being God’s instrument of grace to the poor around the world. Cross Catholic Outreach depends on the generosity of friends like you to accomplish our mission of serving the “least of these” in the name of Jesus Christ.

May God bless you for your compassionate heart!