When we learned that the next international World Youth Day would take place in Panama, we knew we wanted to try to take some of our youth from Juarez to it. Panama is much closer to our area than Poland, or even Brazil, where the last two events were held.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with World Youth Day, it was started by St. John Paul II and is a week-long gathering of young people organized by the Catholic Church. Thousands, often millions, of young people come together to celebrate their faith and to meet with the pope.
The youth we are hoping to take have been a part of our ministries for many years. For example, two of the young men started attending our catechism classes when they were 7 and 8 years old. Now they are 17 and 18. Their father was an alcoholic and beat their mother badly, so she left him. She had to get a job, so she left her two little boys locked inside the room where they lived. One day, the older brother tried to cook something for the younger one and almost burned the place down, so she had to put the boys in a foster home during the week. She took them out every Sunday, but it was a miserable place for them, and they ended up abused and malnourished. When they came to us, the boys had trouble learning anything due to the bad state they were in. But over the years, with good food and loving support, they have flourished and are doing great.
None of these youths have left the city of Juarez, except for two of the girls who have family in the interior of Mexico. Traveling to a new country is going to be a thrilling experience for them, and they are very excited. They are working hard doing different fundraisers to earn money for this trip, and they meet together every Sunday to pray and make plans. They’ve got a long way to go, but we know with their hard work and determination, they are going to be part of the multitude of youth from around the world who join Pope Francis in Panama in January 2019.
Please say a prayer for them.