What's happening in Guatamala?

The pictures and comments below are from Fr. Damian's Facebook site. :

See the village in the valley? That is where

the Ixim group is staying these days.

At the water project in Huehuetenango that we installed years ago. It now produces 14,000 gallons of pure water a month.

Archbishop Lucas and others on the trip are in the procession at San Miguel Acatan Guatemala

The Ixim Trip to Guatemala

As part of the Ixim trip to our sister diocese of Huehuetenango, each of our travelers will bring one bag for themselves and a second filled with medical supplies.

 Fr. Damian said, "One of things we teach during the preparation for the trip is the difference between charity and solidarity. The goal of our mission trip is a relationship between Catholic brothers and sisters across cultural and economic divides. The relationship precedes any act of charity. If we want our actions to truly benefit our brothers and sisters, then we first have to walk with them and know them. I really like what Pope Francis teaches in his encyclical, The Joy of the Gospel. He calls what we are doing on our mission trip 'accompaniment.'"

As part of that accompaniment, the group will stay with families in the region and live like they do.

As mentioned in last weekend's bulletin, Missionaries will supply fluoride and varnish to the teeth of children, to prevent tooth decay

Among those on the trip are parishioners Judee Chmura, Ben Fleming, Rick Fleming, Trish Franck, Dr. Mark Goodwin, Debra Kawa, Tracy Ortgies, Katie Pfeiffer and Fr Damian. The group includes two doctors, a nurse practitioner, and four RNs. In addition there are several retirees, a teacher, three college students, a seminarian and Fr. John Montag S.J.

On the trip they shall visit St Columbkille's sister school Santa Eulalia. There they shall deliver items donated by our school children.

It should be quite a celebration.

There will be a second collection at Masses this weekend to support the works project they are doing.

Visiting with Santa Eulalia

Santa Eulalia in the Huehuetenango diocese of Guatemala is the sister school of St. Columbkille Catholic School.

Through Ixim, Mrs. Dethlefs was able to visit Santa Eulalia.

 When she was there, the students gathered together ...

 ... did some presentations ...

 ... and gave some gifts.

She enjoyed her trip.

Monday there was a chance to reciprocate the trip as Padre Maco and Jandy visited from Guatemala as part of the Ixim leadership team. It is the Ixim team which organizes the "sister" relationships between schools in the Huehuetenango diocese in Guatemala and the Omaha Archdiocese. They were in town for a series of meetings between the dioceses to see how each can learn from the other and improve their relationship.

 Our students gathered together.

 Each grade had a presentation ...

 ... and gifts were given.

We also received a packet of letters

 from Santa Eulalia students.

Padre Maco and Jandy were able to visit our classrooms.

It was delightful to have them here. Mr. Makey and Jandy discussed how they may be able to skype to keep in better touch. We look forward to many future visits -- in both countries.

Santa Eulalia

Yesterday at VBS we learned about our

sister school in Santa Eulalia, Guatemala.

We learned that we are a lot alike.

We like to do activities.

And we like to get our picture taken.

But some families struggle to pay their tuition which is
about $45 per year. That means some families have to
choose which of their children to send to school.


This morning each child or family who donated
$5 or more to Santa Eulalia got to ring
the bell before the start of VBS.


Thank you to everyone who is helping
our friends at Santa Eulalia!
If you missed it today,
you can do it tomorrow.

Ixim & the Guatemala Earthquake

People who have heard about the earthquake in Guatemala have naturally wondered about Fr. Damian and those on the Ixim mission trip. The following is a statement from Susan Naatz who is part of Ixim's leadership:

Dear family and friends of the Guatemala mission group,

I have received a couple of inquiries from some of you about a news item that was released around lunchtime today. This morning there was an earthquake off the coast of Guatemala about 60 miles from Guatemala City. We immediately contacted the mission group through Bruce McGregor of KVSS who called his wife Kris. We were relieved to find out that they were not even aware of it. Not only had they experienced nothing, they had no news nor had they received any phone calls (from Guatemalan associates) about it.

Katie Zimmer left a voicemail shortly after that just saying: “Please let family and friends know that we are doing wonderfully well and have been totally unaware of this occurrence.”

From what I’ve read online, it looks like people in Guatemala City felt the tremors in Guatemala City but (at least so far) the news doesn’t indicate that there was much damage. Since the group is flying out of Guatemala City on Wednesday, our travel agent is checking with the airlines to make sure all is well at the airport.

One of the articles online explained that the Guatemala quake occurred 60 miles or more underground. The Haitian quake was “surface”…only five miles underground which makes a big difference.

Please know that Terry Wood, Bruce McGregor and I will be staying in contact with one another and keeping an eye on the news.

If you hear from your loved ones and have any updates or news, please let me know and I will pass it on.

Thank you!

Susan Naatz
Ixim Leadership

Packing for Guatemala

On Saturday our IXIM missionaries leave for Guatemala. They are a patient bunch as they were supposed to leave last summer but political unrest moved back the trip.

Although they will get away from our snow, they are visiting a mountainous region, not a tropical one.

Sunday night they were packing.

For the International Flight, each person will bring one suitcase filled with medicines and another for themselves.

They are very thankful for all the donated medicine that will benefit the people of the Diocese of Huehuetenango.

Have a good trip. You will be in our prayers.

Guatemalan Visitors

On St. Patrick's day the school had a number of visitors from Guatemala. They were:

Carlos Humberto del Valle Cano: Director of Catholic Schools of Huehuetenango, Padre Marco Aurelio Alonzo: pastor of the Cathedral of Huehuetenango, Maria Alejandrina (Jandy) Gomez Vasquez: Director of Social Ministry, Nora Elizabeth Marroquin Lemus: Director of the Disciples of the Good Shepherd, and Alfredo Lopez Lopez: Medical Director.

The K-2 students sang two songs for their visitors, greeted them in Spanish and sent along some gifts to their sister school in Guatemala. Among their other stops in the school were visits to other classes, lunch in the faculty lounge and a visit to the computer lab.