Posts Tagged With: housing
Changing hearts in the Philippines
Whenever I see the results of Cross Catholic’s Gawad Kalinga house construction projects in the Philippines, my first thought is, “Wow! This used to be a slum?” The newness, the cleanliness, the bright, cheerful colors are a visual repudiation of poverty. This is the tangible part of ministry. It’s also, in some respects, the easy … Continue reading
The Eternal Rock
It’s not a good sign when the community you live in is called Laroche, or “The Rocks.” The Haitian community of Laroche outside of Les Cayes can be difficult to access because of—you guessed it—the rocks that permeate the terrain. While driving to visit several families who received a new home through our ministry partner … Continue reading
Full House
Fr. Bob of St. Martin of Tours Church told us that every time he visits the Webster home, he finds sacks of cement on the floor. And lo and behold, when we dropped in to meet Aura Webster – a saintly 66-year-old woman who receives monthly food assistance through Cross Catholic – there it was…a … Continue reading
Oregon Teen Helps Cross Catholic Build a Home in Haiti
Caroline Newman of Coquille, Oregon may be young, but her Christ-like actions are making a huge difference for a family in Haiti. The 14-year-old Girl Scout was deeply impacted after a priest visited her local church. He told her congregation that though it’s been a year and a half since the earthquake, many Haitian families … Continue reading
A Mission Trip Full of Surprises
Several months ago our missions VP, David Adams, visited projects Cross Catholic supports in Belize. Fr. Perl, a priest who runs some of the projects there, took him to visit Maria Natividad Tracey, a very poor, elderly widow and her mentally handicapped adult son. Well, David was more than disturbed by the condition of this … Continue reading
His sheep shall not want
Assfu Halfon is one of the women chosen to receive a newly constructed house this year through Cross Catholic and the Daughters of Charity in Ethiopia. Assfu’s current housing conditions are better than some – which is to say she has a bed to sleep in (only since she inherited one from her deceased father), … Continue reading
Happy Homeowners
On our way through Nicaragua, we dropped by Villa Catalina to see how things have been going at the Cross Catholic homes from our recent Amigos for Christ house-construction campaign. When we last visited the village in February for the dedication ceremony, the fields were a sea of dust under the punishing midday sun that … Continue reading
From Hurting to Healing
“I wish my mother was alive today to see this house.” That’s what David Massinga said through his tears when he and his sisters first moved into a new home given to them by Cross International Catholic Outreach and its generous benefactors through one of our ministry partners in Mozambique. The Massinga children were hurting … Continue reading
Progress at Pwoje Espwa
It’s always encouraging to see a tangible result of our donors’ generosity, especially in a place like Haiti that is in such desperate need of good news. One of those tangible results is the construction of two new girls’ dorms at Pwoje Espwa (Project Hope), an orphanage led by Father Marc Boisvert in southern Haiti. … Continue reading
Shelter from the cold
You know it’s going to be a cold winter when south Floridians kill the A/C and drag their furnaces out of retirement. Last night, our Florida office experienced temperatures around 30 degrees – frigid for us, but mild for those of you enduring heavy snow and strong winds up north. While Florida worries about damage … Continue reading
