Jesús ha resucitado! Aleluya!

A very happy Easter to all. I hope this finds you all well recovered from all that rejoicing, Easter egg hunts and jelly beans. This monday, life is back to business at El Santuario as we are busyly preparing for the return of more of our children from vacations and the arrival of new ones. Easter and the days leading up to it were lovely here and oh-so-latino, I loved it. I will insert a photo from Palm Sunday where the people of the town put a statue of Jesus on a donkey and then lead a procession before Mass, you know, Jesus ¨entering Jerusalem on a donkey with palm fronds across his path¨, yep, we acted it out, it was amazing. Then we the Masses for Holy Thursday and Good Friday with stations of the cross acted out by some of our older kids and then our really long but pretty cool Easter vigil Mass Saturday night and our Easter day Mass yesterday morning. Lots of Masses, lots of processions, lots of love for the risen Christ - it was unforgettable and my words can never do justice.



Our trip to Cuenca was a mild success, we were impressed with the foundation, met with the director and got to see one of their homes. But, they can´t take Jamil right now. We have hope that in June, when they are supposedly opening a new facility, it is then that they have promised to take him. In the meantime we will continue to look for other options for this precious baby. Please continue your prayers for that.

I have four more weeks to spend in this place that I love so dearly and I am trying to spend them well and get a few projects done. I need your help with one of these. I need to come up with $3,000 in the next few weeks so that some of our kids can stay at home with their newly rehabilitated families. It takes $50 a month to support a family with schooling and groceries. I am looking for 5 kids ($600 per kid) for a year, equaling the $3,000. If you can help, please go to www.missionsantamaria.com where you can pay with credit card or bank transfer and then please send me a message so that I can have that money set aside from the general account. Whatever you can give, whether be 1 time donation of $20 or a promise of monthly support, it would be so very much appreciated.

Off and running to get back to the children and misioñeras that I love. I am so sorry that I cannot better express to you how wonderful a place this is and how much it means to me. Suffice it to say that as I sit and stare into the Pacific ocean and think about being on the other side of the world away from it all, all the love that I have for this place presses against my chest and threatens to explode. The difficult thing is that I know that I am going back to new and exciting things and people I love as well, I just don´t know how I´ll ever say goodbye here. Jesus, I trust in You.

Felices Pascuas from the flipside...