Our January Team
Blessed Trinity Mission
In response to the Gospel mandate, the Blessed Trinity Mission is a twinning relationship with our sister parish Santisima Trinidad (Blessed Trinity) in Calobre, Republic of Panama. Rooted in an active, mutual, and on-going faith commitment, this ministry seeks to build a relationship of solidarity between the two communities through prayer, mission trips for adults to Panama (18 years and older), education, fundraising, and other activities. Through this bridge of faith both communities are evangelized and assisted in our journey of faith.
Fr. Narciso, Bishop Brown, and Fr. Bill
To find out how you can support this mission, email: contact Twinning@ststephencatholic.org
Hola St. Stephen Family,
God is so amazing all the time! From January 18th to the 25th, Blessed Trinity Team VII experienced the Holy Spirit working all around us. This was an incredible mission with an amazing group of people and our lives are changed forever by this experience.
I would like to thank you all for your generous support, both financial and in prayer during this trip to our sister church, Santisima Trinidad. All of you were in our daily prayers during this mission.
We all worked very hard and accomplished so much during this trip. On Thursday, our first day, we drove to Pereque for the dental mission and marriage enrichment. We saw 75 dental patients and had 15 couples for marriage enrichment. Two dentists from Calobre worked side by side with our team allowing more people to be seen. We also had a mean game of soccer going with the children.
On Friday, we drove to Llano Colorado where we saw over 100 dental patients, 100 medical patients and 10 couples for marriage enrichment. This area is considered one of the poorest areas and everyone waited so patiently to be seen. We were again blessed to have the dentists from Calobre working with us, and we also had two doctors from the Minister of Health Office in the district of Veraguas working with us. It was an amazing site to watch both teams work so well together.
On Saturday, we drove to Chitra and experienced the beauty God created first hand. Driving through the mountains was breathtaking and we even saw the most beautiful rainbow. We knew it was going to be a blessed day. We saw 86 dental patients, 90 medical patients and 11 couples for marriage enrichment. Again, we were so humbled at the hospitality of the people and their strong faith.
On Sunday, we celebrated mass at Santisima Trinidad. We experienced 7 couples being married, which was so beautiful to witness. We also held our last dental mission that afternoon seeing over 60 patients in just a few hours. Our marriage enrichment team also held a portion of the marriage enrichment program to many couples, including the newly married couples. It was a true sight to behold.
Each morning we celebrated Mass in the village before starting the day. It was wonderful partaking in the Eucharist with our brothers and sisters in Panama. On Thursday and Friday evenings, we went to Limon and La Capilla de Hoyitos to share the Divine Mercy. Each night had a beautiful witness from a team member and the locals loved learning about the Divine Mercy. The children were captivated by Fr. Bill’s story and everyone departed feeling renewed.
On Monday, we visited the medical clinic in Calobre and were given a tour of the new emergency area. This is outfitted with the equipment we took down last July. We were also able to give much needed medication to the clinic including antibiotics and parasite medications. We then traveled to Laguna for our retreat day.
During our retreat, we all shared moments that touched us throughout the week. Everyone had God moments and it was so beautiful to be a part of. I want to thank each team member for everything they did to make this mission such a huge success. I am so proud to be a part of this team. Fr. Narciso was so impressed with our team and grateful for everything we did. We were all sad to see the week end but know we’ve made friends for a lifetime.
Elvis and Tina
Thank you all again for your support during this mission. God has truly blessed St. Stephen with so many wonderful and talented members.
Dios te Bendiga,
Tina Mytych
**The next mission will be July 18-25, 2012. If you are interested in learning more about this wonderful mission, please email me at twinning@ststephencatholic.org. The next information session will be held in March. Please keep an eye out for the date and time in the bulletin or on this church website.
