The Holy Spirit Goes To Work

I love watching the Holy Spirit at work in our world today. 

This story is about how the Spirit made a wish come true for one of the people we met on our Maryknoll pilgrimage in January this year. 

My fellow priests, deacons and I had a special experience while in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala.
  
The Catholic Church there was founded by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and is the site of the martyrdom of Fr. Stanley Rother in 1981. 

We actually slept on the floor in the rectory a few hundred feet from where Fr. Stan was shot and killed.  

We also were honored to concelebrate a special Sunday Mass with the Bishop and all who experienced this now carry a beautiful, lifelong memory with them.

While staying at the parish, Director Felipe Coche shared a need at the parochial school. 

The school desperately needed new computers for the elementary and secondary school
children. The mustard seed was planted.

When we got back from the trip we went to work quietly raising the funds for this project. 

To date, we've successfully raised just under six thousand dollars.

This week, we got pictures from Felipe of his dream coming to fruition.


Not only did they have enough money for the computers for the kids, but they were also able to get new laptops for the three parish priests, too.

A special thanks to the following donors to the Parroquia Santiago Atitlan Computer Project:


Dcn. Jose and Lucinda Blakeley - Redmond, WA
Fr. Bob Williams - Anderson, IN 
Dcn. Bruno and Agatha Bahk - Bellevue, WA
Dcn. Stephen and Dorothy Tobon - Staten Island, NY
Fr. Tom Peyton - Tybee Island, GA
Fr. Tom Connery - Glenville, NY
Dcn. Joe and Mary Sifferman - Seattle, WA
Dcn. Rey and Amor Ronquillo - Lacey, WA
Dcn. Bill and J.T. Batstone - Shelton, WA
Richelle and Scott Shields - Everett, WA
Judy and Tim McNamara - Everett, WA
Dcn. Dennis and Mary Kelly - Mukilteo, WA
News Talk Concepts Inc. - Mukilteo, WA

(Since donations continue to come in I will update the list)





Another big thanks to Little Rock (Arkansas) Bishop Anthony B. Taylor for his personal assistance in our fundraising effort.

He personally helped facilitate getting the funds to Guatemala for us. 

Bishop Taylor was formerly an Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese Oklahoma City and has been a friend of the Santiago Atitlan parish for years.

Bishop Taylor is leading the effort to have Fr. Stan Rother made a saint.  (Who knows? Perhaps this will count as a miracle toward his canonization).
  
The Spirit moved generously throughout this experience and made a dream come true for some of our lesser sisters and brothers in the mountains of Guatemala.

Thank you to all who took part in this successful fundraising effort.

I'll be returning to Santiago Atitlan this summer while studying Spanish for six weeks in Antigua, Guatemala.  It'll be a joy to see Felipe's vision as a reality with my own eyes.  Peace...