Ministries of Mercy - Life Ministries at 6363 9th Avenue North , St. Petersburg, FL 33710 US - Parishes Say Twinning Results in Double Blessings

These weren’t the makings for a traditional spiritual retreat. But, “they just bonded with each other,” said Patricia Eddy, executive director of Help Brings Hope for Haiti, about the teens from Christ the King parish in Tampa who attended the mission trip in the summer of 2006 to Haiti.

“You want to see miracles happen, start doing work like this.”

Eddy is talking about international missions, reaching out to the world’s poor and offering a helping hand. Another word for it is parish twinning, the pairing local parishes in the United States with less-fortunate parishes, whether outside the borders or even within.

“Some organizations can twin you with parishes that are inner-city or in the Appalachia region,” said Sabrina Burton, director of Life Ministries for the Diocese of St. Petersburg, which also oversees parish twinning.

Whether it is helping the homeless on downtown Tampa’s park benches, the hungry who knock on the parish mission’s food pantry or showing concern for the poor in developing nations, Burton said that solidarity is one of the principals of Catholic social teaching.

“It is not an either-or thing,” said Burton, referring to those who question international missions when there are poor in the diocese’s backyard. “We are called to both. We are called to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters wherever they are.”

The Church celebrates its missionary spirit on World Mission Sunday on Oct. 22, which is organized by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Donations on this day help the poor and missionaries working in the mission fields.

Dominican Republic

For Terry Montalvo, being involved in LaVictoria, a parish in the Dominican Republic twinned with Nativity parish in Brandon, has changed her perspective.

“My husband and I think (LaVictoria) is one of the most beautiful programs at Nativity,” said Montalvo. “You come back and you thank God for what you have. We are very privileged here. (The Dominicans) are so happy with what little they have.”

For the last 15 years, Nativity parishioners have filled shoeboxes filled with toiletries, shoes, clothes and toys which they distribute at Christmas parties, held in the nutrition center Nativity helped to build in 1998. The nutrition center doubles as a retreat center for malnourished children who are transported from the rural villages to the center where they are fed two meals, bathed and transported back.

Since the twinning began, Nativity has helped build a medical clinic and a school, and they have sent an average of two 40-ft containers filled with donations every year. Parishioners can go on any of the six mission trips a year to LaVictoria, all they pay is airfare and about $100 for five days of room and board at the retreat center run by nuns in the village.

These same nuns from LaVictoria come to Brandon once a year to meet Nativity parishioners, talk and pray with them and express their appreciation.

“The nuns in the town have so little materialistically but they are so generous,” said Anne Tragesser, who serves on the LaVictoria administrative board at Nativity. “It makes you appreciate your life.”

These back and forth exchanges build meaningful and strong bonds between parishes, said Burton. However, for parishes just getting started with a twin, small steps are still rich ones.

“Some parishes will celebrate the saint’s day of their twin,” said Burton.

Sending supplies, donations collected during a specific holiday or exploratory visits are just some ways to get involved and learn more about a potential twin parish.

El Salvador

This is exactly how St. Patrick Parish in Largo got started with their twin in El Salvador seven years ago. Nina Meyers, who helps organize the mission ministry, said parishioners traveled to El Salvador to check out the village of Gotera. All it took was one trip before they were hooked and have returned every summer since.

“We pray for them in Mass on Sunday, and we finance a priest to come up right after Easter to visit us,” said Meyers. “They are so humble. They can’t do enough for us.”

What St. Pat’s has done is create a retreat house for the elderly in El Salvador to come for a hot shower and a meal. Parishioners have funded a car for the priests to use to get into the rural villages where transport is difficult.

Through business connections and ingenuity of a St. Pat’s parishioner, hearing aids are collected and fixed here and distributed to adults and children in El Salvador. This past summer, more than 150 hearing aids were distributed.

Meyers said many children lose their hearing from common childhood diseases such as measles and chicken pocks that go untreated due to lack of medicines. And every year, St. Patrick’s sends between $2,000 and $3,000 to the twin parish, or the total sum of their Thanksgiving collection.

“It’s a long-term impact that I will see, even when I am 100,” said Meyers. “I see how faith is so important to them. Their faith is so alive. I know some of these children will be our priests and nuns. It has secured my faith.”

Haiti

Christ the King has used Help Brings Hope For Haiti to develop their relationship with the people in Haiti. This past June, Help Brings Hope for Haiti led its first mission trip, one week for youth and a second week for medical professionals.

Started by two Christ the King parishioners, Patricia Eddy and Barbara Byars, and a Haitian priest, Fr. Desinord Jean, doing an internship in Tampa at the diocesan radio station, WBVM, Help Brings Hope for Haiti has been in the making for three years, but has exploded in growth in the last couple of months.

Since June, Eddy said God has been busy. In the last four months, Help Brings Hope For Haiti:

- Gave 1,000 Haitians medical treatment and medicines

- Handed out soap, vitamins, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and worm medicine.

- Painted St. Suzanne School

- Shipped three, 40-foot containers to Haiti, full of medicine, food, clothing and school furniture

- Dug three wells to provide potable drinking water

- Stocked the local clinic with medicines and basic medical supplies

- Finished construction on St. Suzanne Convent

- Completed two Boy Scout and one Girl Scout project of supply collections

- Started construction on second phase of Christ the King elementary school, plus paid $20,000 in teacher salaries.

“That’s when you know God’s behind this,” said Eddy. “No human being could accomplish this much in such a short time frame.”

They have been blessed, said Eddy, and continue to gain volunteers and momentum as the days pass.

“God calls different people to do different things. Some are called to minister to hospitals, to prisons, to the wealthy,” said Eddy. “Everyone in this world is God’s creatures. When you view the spirituality of people in Haiti to American’s (spirituality), it’s sort of a mission for us too.”

For more information:

--The Culture of Life with Justice committee is organizing a parish twinning forum for the exchange of ideas, information and encouragement. Contact Burton, 727-344-1611, Ext. 325, to participate.

--To learn more about Help Brings Hope For Haiti, contact Eddy at 813-258-5585, e-mailing hbhh22@gmail.com or going to the web site, www.hbhh.org.

--More on LaVictoria and the work of Nativity parish can be found at www.nativitycatholicchurch.org.

--Nina Meyers at St. Patrick parish in Largo said she would be happy to give parish talks about mission work in El Salvador. Contact her at menina49@aol.com or go to the parish web site, www.stpatrick-largo.org.