LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF.

Pope Benedict 16th has said .....Love is the soul of Mission -. The same theme was expressed in the chapter on Mission in this blog. The Pope also said............We must become friends of the poor and suffering, casting the light of Christ upon the earth. The Mill Hill Missionaries in Ecuador have tried to do just this.

In a slum of 250,000 poor people living on top of one another, there is an awful lot of suffering. There is the poverty and suffering that you see ,and the poverty and suffering that you don’t see until some good person points it out. In our Sunday Masses we have always asked if any parishioner knows of a family or person suffering unduly in the confines of the parish. .The response has been good and the MILL HILL missionaries have been able to help people in terrible distress and suffering , thanks to the community who are becoming more aware of families who are living the poverty ,sickness and suffering of the worst kind. Here in Guayaquil the temperature this week 20 Abril 2009 has reached 40 degrees. Many families dont even have a simple fan so it is not surprising that people dont sleep too well. But when the temperature drops to 20 degrees the people complain of the cold!! . Whereas in the UK 20 degrees would be considered rather warm, and families would go to the seaside. The people here go the Pacific Ocean from December to the end of May when the temperature is between 30 and 40 degrees. For the rest of the year the beaches are almost deserted except for foreign tourists and Ecuadoreans who live in the Andes and come to Guayaquil for a holiday. It is now November 2010 and the tourists were frozen at the beach very recently during the public ho9lidays 1st,2nd and 3rd of November.The people on the beach at Salinas were wearing sweaters and jackets. the temperature was 20 grados.

Maria Toledo and her seven children. St Rose of Lima parish

Isla Trinitaria. Guayaquil. Ecuador.2009

Maria Toledo y sus 7 niños en la Iglesia Sta Rosa de Lima.
Maria Toledo is a young mother of seven children, six girls and one boy. She is almost as tiny as her children, Her husband is constantly looking for work but had no success because he had no documents. They live in our parish and they are as poor as church mice.. With the world economic recession the number of poor people in Ecuador and in Latin America. is increasing. Maria and her family struggle to live on a dollar a day. Their diet is cheese soup and boiled rice with vegetables. Since Maria brings her family to Mass every Sunday.I asked the parish council to take Maria and her family under their wings. They did so willingly.. As a result the parish helped Maria and her family to get all the necessary documents. The children had no birth certificates. They should have been registered at birth but the parents never bothered.. . This is a big problem here because it costs money to register late.. A child without a birth certificate cannot get into school. A man without a birth certificate cannot get a job.. But the parish succeeded in getting all documents and in putting the children into school. And in getting the husband the chance to get a job. Our dispensary gives free medical treatment to Maria and all her family. Her mother has a spacious bamboo shack so Maria and her family lived for a time with her mother but now she has her own plot of land and her own bamboo house. You can see Maria and family in the photo. The future wont be easy for her but at least someone has given her a chance to survive. The parish community has put her children into school.The parish has helped many families like Maria Toledo,s to get their documents.. and to get into school and to get their property,their shack and their plot of land recognised by the town council.To see the joy on the faces of those who have received their documents, is a reward in itself.,…Love your neighbour as yourself.

Maria Fernanda Ortiz is a 22 year old mother of two children. She lives in our parish. Her children are ok but she isnt. She has Hodgkins disease which has caused lymph gland swellings in her neck. You can see them on the photos. Her mother died when she was a little girl and she comes from Esmeraldas on the NW coast of Ecuador and she has a sister and a brother. She is separated from her husband. She was brought up by her father and her stepmother .She had no problems until about a year ago when she felt exhausted and noticed swellings in various parts of her body. The medical profession diagnosed Hodgkins Disease which in the old days was a death sentence. The cause of Hodgkins disease is not known.Nowadays with chemotherapy the patient sometimes can claim to be cured. Maria Fernanda came to the church St Rose of Lima because the chemotherapy was 480 dollars.She asked for help. The parish council agreed to help her and they took her to the cancer hospital and talked to the social worker who reduced the costs to $250. She was interned for a week and then given injections for week. She is with her children now until the next chemotherapy. The parish will continue helping her until she gets better. Will she come back'? She may not. We must look for her to encourage her to continue.The doctors are hopeful. Love your neighbour as yourself.

Maria Fernanda has Hodgkins disease. April 2009

Maria Fernanda has lymph swellings in her neck

The young mother with her two children. April 2009

Lupe Bravo is a young mother with three children. Her eldest son Luber is 12 years old and completely paralysed from birth. He is blind and dumb but hears something. He knows his mother. Lupe has really looked after him and her other two children. She isnt a beggar. She works every day to find the money for her family. The father abandoned her after the birth of her last child. Our dispensary gave her the first wheelchair and has helped her with medications. Our parish have built her a room with a special toilet. Luber is beginning to lose weight alarmingly. She has to feed him all the time. Mothers make such tremendous sacrifices in bringing up a family. I would say fathers too but in this case the father abandoned his children.

Lupe Bravo y Luber 2009


Lupe Bravo and Luber 2009

Our next story is about a wonderful mother who suffered almost beyond human imagination.Her name is Sandra Vera Burgos aged 54 with three children. I heard about Sandra from a parishioner who told me that the woman was decomposing in her own shack from putrefaction of her breast. The shack had seen the best of its days and Sandra was sitting on a bed which seemingly had no mattress. On the floor lay a human heap. It was her son Juan totally paralysed and covered in bed sores. You can see the scene on the photos.The smell was absolutely nauseating not only in the shack but outside. Sandra said she had been like this for two years. She had gone to the Cancer Hospital but they had demanded $8,000 for an operation. Since she had no recourses she returned home and now she was decomposing alive. We took her back to the Cancer Hospital to be reassessed. The doctors were surprised by the state of the decay and said that nothing could be done.We took Sandra to the Diocesan Hospice for the Dying called El Hombre Doliente. She was admitted on the strength of the photos alone. She told us her story.

When she was young , her common law husband used to beat her up. When she pregnant with her son John , he kicked her in the stomach and the breasts repeatedly. As a result when John was born he was totally paralysed. Sandra had a rough time. She said her husband was around somewhere. We located him and he seemed oblivious that he had caused big problems. In fact he seemed to be mentally retarded. He was incapable of doing anything for his wife and son but he agreed he would come with us to the Hospice for the terminally sick. Both Sandra and her son John died in the Hospice but they were very well looked after. The suffering of Sandra was most upsetting but what a valiant mother she was.Even though she cried a lot and couldnt find a comfortable position in the bed and found it very hard to sleep, she never complained.She had received the Sacrament of the Sick. May she and her son rest in peace.Amen. Here are the photos.

Sandra Vera Burgos.Isla Trinitaria. 2008

Juan Rojas Vera. Paralysed from birth.

He accompanied his mother to the hospice for the terminally sick. They both died within a few months. May they rest in peace.,

Yessenia Quiñonez is a young afroecuadorean girl who has syphilis and her baby Maria was born with the disease as you can see in the photo. Our parish did everything they could to hospitalise the baby and get excellent treatment but the baby died. Maria was baptised. Yessenia was sent for treatment and her partners were visited by the government social diseases nurses. We wouldnt have known about Yessenia except for a member of our Afroecuadorean Dance group. She disappears for months on end. The last time she had a test she was still positive. We have a big problem with Aids patients since the Aids virus is increasing in Ecuador. Several young men and women have already died in our parish. The government now has the medicines and also the Archdiocese of Guayaquil has an excellent Dispensary to help the patients.

Yessenia with her baby daughter Maria

Fanny Caicedo with her eight children.

Fanny Caicedo has a large family and they live in the worst part of the slum.Her husband Juan does odd jobs here and there but the family of eight children are very poor. Our parish gave her a cement floor and a more solid house.The got all the documents for her family since none had been regiostered at birth. This took several months. Fanny was a Catholic (she says she still is) but she began listening to the Protestant radio and was convinced of the need to fast in order to be close to God. This had serious consequences because the children became malnourished and our dispensary had to treat them and feed them. The situation got so bad that we had to rescue the children and send them to a Childrens Protective Care centre on the coast run by Father Dumas and Lay Missionaries. We sent four children. Fanny kept four. She is coping much better. She sees her children who are in care regularly and they spend their holidays with her. They are being well educated and well fed and they bathe in the Pacific Ocean every day. Nobody likes taking children away from their mother but if we hadnt intervened the children would have died of malnutrition in the name of God which would not have been right

Isabel Toledo and her children

Isabel Toledo is a good mother with a poor family who lived until very recently in a wobbly bamboo shack. Isabel is well known to the doctors and nurses in the dispensary because she suffers from poor health. They had visited her shack many times. They advised her to ask the new government to build her a house. She did but she was turned down because the land on which her shack is lodged belongs to her mother in law who is on a bad debt list- So she cant have a house. The parish council decided to help her build a house step by step. This is where we are at right now We have built the walls, the pillars and the floor. We still have the roof to do and the doors and windows. She and her children have been given all their documents and the children go to school. They were among the 30% to 40% of children who dont go to school in the Isla Trinitaria. The new president Rafael Correa is achieving wonders in Education and I am sure he will see to it that every child goes to school and that every adult can read and write. The President has just been re elected for four years so he is free now to achieve his programmes.

Isabel Toledo

The old wobbly shack fell apart .

A house to be built on rocks


Making progress with Isabel,s house.


It is beginning to take shape.


still building

As donations come in, the house progresses.

Father Frank Smith mhm with the Caicedo Family

An important part of Mission is to train leaders especially among the youth. Our Mill Hill Lay Associates Mary Kilcoyne from Southport, Anne Harrison fromTyne and Wear(May Anne rest in peace.) and Ildi Dunai from Budapest, were extremely successful in training leaders from the many Basic Catholic Communities in the Isla Trinitaria. Boys and Girls, Men and Women responded to the call to serve their Saviour Jesus Christ. They are now disciples and missionaries. To see so many young people involved personally with the Church, is a great consolation to an old Mill Hill Missionary like myself who began the Mill Hill IslaTrinitaria Guayaquil Mission in May 1991. Here is a photo of our Catechists in our St Rose of Lima parish,Isla Trinitaria, Guayaquil, Ecuador and a photo of our Catholic Youth who took a theatrical part in our Good Friday Procession April 2009. The money to train the Catechists came from the Association of the Propagation of the Faith(the APF). Many thanks to all the wonderful people in England and Wales who contribute to the RED MISSIONARY BOXES. Their generosity achieves wonderful projects in the Missions. As a Mill Hill Missionary I would like to thank EACH AND EVERY ZELATOR AND CONTRIBUTOR with a RED BOX for their marvellous support. The Missions need your help. Thank you very much. Guayaquil. Ecuador. May 2009.

The Catechists St Rose of Lima parish .Isla Trinitaria. Guayaquil.Ecuador.

The Youth Drama Group "Mi Getsemani". St Rose of Lima church. Guayaquil. Good Friday April 2009

Mothers Day. May 2009.

A group of adults who made their First Communion. May 2009. Sta Rosa de Lima.

The Adult First Communion Group.
OUR DISPENSARIO RECEIVED A HUMANITARIAN AWARD ON SEPTEMBER 21ST 2010 FROM THE FOUNDATION MEDICINESFORHUMANITY FROM BOSTON USA CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR STAFF., AND TO THE MILL HILL MISSIONARIES WHO WERE THANKED PROFUSELY BY THE FOUNDATION IN BOSTON FOR THIRTY YEARS WONDERFUL SERVICE TO THE POOR, THE SICK, AND THE TERMINALLY SICK IN GUAYAQUIL ECUADOR.

I PERSONALLY THANK THE MILL HILL MISSIONARIES FOR GIVING ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE THE POOR, THE SICK AND THE TERMINALLY SICK IN GUAYAQUIL ECUADOR. MANY THANKS TO FATHER NOEL HANRAHAN MHM A FORMER SUPERIOR GENERAL FOR GIVING ME PERMISSION TO STUDY NURSING AND THEN WORK WITH FR FRANCIS OLEARY MHM. FOR A FEW YEARS.I THANK FATHER FRANCIS OLEARY FOR HIS MISSIONARY VISION TO THE POOR,THE SICK AND THE TERMINALLY SICK WHICH WHICH ABSOLUTELY INSPIRED ME.MY GRATITUDE TO JOSPICE INTERNATIONAL FOR SUPPORTING OUR JOSPICE CLINIC ADMINISTERED BY MARIA LUISA PLAZA VERGARA,

MANY THANKS TO BISHOP DE WIT FOR ALLOWING ME TO WORK SIX YEARS FOR THE MILL HILL MISSIONARIES IN ST LOUIS MISSOURI. MANY THANKS TO FR MAURICE MCGILL MHM FOR ALLOWING ME TO BEGIN A NEW MILL HILL PROJECT IN THE SLUMS OF THE ISLA TRINITARIA GUAYAQUIL.ECUADOR I HAVE BEEN IN THE ISLA TRINITARIA TWENTY YEARS . ALTOGETHER I HAVE WORKED WITH THE POOR THIRTY YEARS IN GUAYAQUIL. FIRST TEN YEARS IN THE PARISH OF ST VINCENT DE PAUL IN SUBURBIO, AND NOW TWENTY YEARS IN THE PARISH OF ST ROSE OF LIMA IN THE ISLA TRINITARIA. I RETIRE WITH GRATITUDE FOR THE SUPPORT, INSPIRATION,AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE MILL HILL MISSIONARIES., AND FOR THE SUPPORT OF ALL MY BENEFACTORS.,AND FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL ECUADOREANS WHO HAVE COOPERATED IN THE EVANGELISATION PLAN OF MILL HILL MISSIONARIES. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THIS IS AS FAR AS THIS BLOG GOES ON THE WORK OF THE MILL HILL MISSIONARIES AND JOSPICE INTERNATIONAL IN THE ISLA TRINITARIA.. I WISH TO THANK EVERYONE WHO IS IN THIS HISTORY. GOD BLESS YOU ALL. I WILL MISS YOU ALL TERRIBLY WHEN I RETIRE BUT YOU WILL ALL BE IN MY PRAYERS AND MASSES AND I PROMISE TO COME BACK TO SEE YOU. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS THIS BLOG ANYTIME YOU WISH. I WONT SAY GOODBYE.I WILL SAY HASTA LA VISTS OR AU REVOIR. UNTIL WE SEE ONE ANOTHER AGAIN. HOPEFULLY SOON. I HOPE TO COME BACK EVERY YEAR TO GUAYAQUIL IF SOMEONE PAYS MY FARE. TAKE VERY GOOD CARE OF YOURSELVES. YOU ARE ALL VERY SPECIAL TO ME. AND YOU ARE ALL ENGRAVED IN MY HEART.MANY MANY THANKS. MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL. FATHER FRANK

FRANCIS LIAM SMITH JONES .NOVEMBER 1ST 2010. STA ROSA DE LIMA .ISLA TRINITARIA

PHOTO OF ONE OF MY FAREWELLS

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