UPDATE ON COSTA RICA

Many will recall a few years ago our parish provided support to a Costa Rican mother and children who were fleeing an abusive husband, needing a new home and a new lease on life. Peter Reid, father of our own Reader Sean Reid, on a recent trip back to Costa Rica, caught up with Alicia and has provided an update on the very positive turns her life appears to have taken in recent years, thanks be to God.


Peter writes: As you know I have just returned from Costa Rica. I want to share a story from my time there. Just two days before I headed back to Canada I passed a village bus stop and thought I recognized someone waiting for the local bus. I wheeled my truck around and stopped to discover it was Alicia and her eldest daughter, Nadeline. If I had been 5 minutes later I would have missed them. Many of you will recall that Pat and I first met Alicia and her family through a church ministry providing beans and rice to needy families. We soon learned that Nadeline had been sexually abused by her father and there was suspicion that her younger sister Marilyn also was being abused. That was four years ago. Nadeline is now 13 and Marilyn is 11.


With your help we moved them to a secure safe house, brought them to our church, got them established in a new community while Alicia worked things out. They jumped in my truck after big hugs and I took them back to their river community to see the rest of the family. Alicia told me she has a new husband, a really nice guy and a fisherman, a new baby and although, still dirt poor, is very happy.


Nadeline is a strong, confident young woman at thirteen and is doing really well in high school. Her younger sister Marilyn, although still a bit shy, is in last year of public school and is full of life. Nathan is growing up and a bundle of impish energy, back living on the river. I didn't get to see the two other kids as the tide was in and it was too difficult to cross the tidal estuary to get to their home.


Our rescue effort four years ago, that you helped to support, has changed this family's life. I could not believe how God has given them new hope - especially Nadeline. Thank you again for being some of God's agents of transformation. You truly have made a difference!