“I want to share a story with you,” Pastor Carlos Vargas said yesterday on his visit with our staff. A long-time partner of Cross Catholic, Pastor Vargas is the founder of Esperanza de Vida (“Hope for Life”), a holistic ministry bringing food, medical care, and the hope of Christ to rural, mountain communities in northeastern Guatemala.
It was a stormy day at our office headquarters in South Florida, but Pastor Vargas’ smile lit up the room as he began to share a familiar parable:
In the middle of the road, there lay a man fighting for his life. He was attacked by robbers, beaten, and left for dead. He had no money, no access to medical care, and no resources to improve his situation. He was in desperate need of mercy.
Thankfully, a priest happened to be traveling down the same road. But when he saw the beaten and broken man, he ignored his plight and passed by on the other side.
Then another respectable man, a Levite, came upon the scene. But he too passed by without a second glance.
Finally, a third man, a Samaritan, saw the poor man and took pity on him. He tended to his physical needs—bandaging his wounds, providing him with shelter, and paying for his care.
“Each and every supporter of Cross Catholic is that third man,” Pastor Vargas said. Compassionate Catholics help Cross meet the urgent needs of the poor and provide whatever possible to bring physical, emotional, and spiritual relief to impoverished men, women, and children in Guatemala, and around the world.
Together with Esperanza de Vida, Cross Catholic helps provide food for 22,000 needy children in the rural communities Pastor Vargas serves. We also equip their emergency nutrition center with the food and medical supplies they need to nurse severely malnourished children back to health.
And that’s why I am so thankful to work at Cross Catholic. Because we as Christians are called to live our faith—to “love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” (I John 3:18)
Thank you to all of our supporters who help us in our ministry to the poorest of the poor. May God bless you for seeing the desperate need and responding with love and mercy. You, indeed, are “that third man”!
-Annie W.