Tend my Sheep
UPDATE: New missionaries in town!
Class of 2025! Emily, Emmet, and Isabella arrived on September 30, and it has been a seamless transition. Each of them brings new light, life, and joy to our missionary community. Welcome!
Sheep!
So, what I’ve been praying with this month, Jesus took literally. We are now tending sheep!
I had a vision for a sweet image 0f one of our kids adoring our sheep for the cover title, but that is just not reality. So, here is W attempting to ride them…
Feed my Lambs, Tend my Sheep
“Each person should ask the Lord for a motherly affection for their neighbor so that we may serve them with all charity, both in soul and body, because we desire, with the grace of God, to serve all the sick with the affection that a loving mother has for her only sick child.”
(Pope Leo XIV, 2025, Dilexi Te, para. 50).
This month, I want to share a little about what I have been praying with. Every Wednesday night in our missionary community, we have a Holy Half Hour followed by an hour of “faith-sharing,” as we call it. Each week, a different missionary leads the rest of us in a reflection or activity.
This past week, Nate had printed part of chapter 3 from Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical, Dilexi Te (“I Have Loved You”), for us to read and reflect on as a group. Helping raise children here in the Finca has been the best decision I’ve ever made, and it has been truly transformative in my heart. At the same time, it is the hardest thing I have ever done.
After reading this quote, I felt the Lord inviting me to reflect deeply with Him: Do I love these children as if they were my own? The answer is no, and I understand that it is a big expectation. Yet Jesus is gentle and patient in showing me how He wants to prune and purify my heart. I desire to love well and to love as Mother Mary does. Isn’t this disposition straight from her heart? She takes each of us into her heart as her own, and I pray for the grace to love even an ounce as she does.
Quiceñera!
Y celebrated her 15th birthday! It was a crazy couple of months planning the invitations, dances, decorations, etc., but it was all worth it, being able to watch her shine on her special day. At one point in the night, we watched a slide show of her life. Former missionaries sent in pictures they had of her, and she’s been here since she was 2 so they added up! She sat on the floor in her big puffy dres,s watching the screen, and Theresa and I snuggled up with her. It was quite an emotional moment for her and it made me reflect on what an honor it is to be able to be part of these kids’ lives. I could have sat with her, sharing the stories the pictures prompted all night. She is truly stunning inside and out. I feel so blessed to know her.
