On the 3rd through the 5th of August of 2015 we conducted a meeting with the sisters that will ministering in Eutaw the new extension of “La Casita”. The sisters at the meeting were: Sr. Gabriela Ramirez, Sr. Martha Elena Garcia Perez and Sr. Juventina from the community of Hoover, AL. The sisters from the new community in Eutaw: Sr. Felicitas Almanza, Sr. Rosa Maria Reyes and Sr. Alicia Lopez.
We started putting together the dreams we have for this ministry that we will be undertaking together. Besides working on dreams, we learned the history of how social work support has been provided until now and how “La Casita” came to be established. How the sisters the preceded us have been working and how they managed to have a community of sisters in this place for both evangelization and for social work. This information came from Mr. Al Manzella, our director, and Sister Carol from the Consolata Sisters.
Moreover, the psychologist, Cecilia Reyes, gave us two helpful topics on how to develop our skills and how to face issues on how to work with the public. We did some ice breaker activities that helped us develop communication among the team members.
Truly a blessing was the presence of the Consolata Sisters, which began this important mission in Eutaw and with them it lasted 43 years. They came to share with us their experience of how they lived and conducted their mission among the African American community. They gave us some very useful tips on how to minister with them and how to proceed on how to give continuity to this mission. They told us that today is our Kairos, which means that today is our time and that we should feel free to make this mission our own an making it a new phase. In fact they told us that they will not go to the “Open House”, so not to distract people from what we want in this place to be done. They emphasized that it is our time, our space. They will join us during all this time with their prayer. We feel grateful with God for this opportunity to serve his people and to continue the mission to serve among the poorest.