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LOS
TOROS OBSERVATIONS
Espanol
May
2008 Mission - Feelings
Don's Reflection Katie's Reflection
Sentimientos–las
Emociones–los Sentimientos
Las
personas del “Encuentro Matrimonio” tienen un refrán; “Los sentimientos
no son buenos ni malos, ellos solamente son.”
Vaya
a Los Toros y si usted es perceptivo usted reconocerá el “los sentimientos”
eso existe en la comunidad. Vaya a su biblia y se vuelve a los Profetas y usted
reconocerá los sentimientos profundos ellos experimentaron y cómo ellos
pusieron Dios en el medio de esos sentimientos profundos.
Cada
sola vez que yo devuelvo de Los Toros yo reflejo en mi experiencia y yo me
siento triste; pero normalmente no dura demasiado mucho tiempo. Para mí la
triste es un sentimiento de desesperación combinado con un poco la ansiedad
para el futuro. La triste es una reacción normal a una visita al Tercer Mundo y
toda su pobreza y sufriendo. Alguien con el menor pedazo de sensibilidad será
afectado por las condiciones extremas en el tercer mundo; personas que viven en
casas con suelos de tierra, falte de recursos para el cuidado médico, a la
comunicación, educación inadecuada, le falta de oportunidad y la hechura de
corrupción política para una vida muy difícil. Estos negativos pueden
agobiarlo.
Por
otro lado, hay muchas personas generosas que esperan apoyar el pobres y hay líderes
dentro de las comunidades pobres prepare organizar y trabajar con otros superar
las dificultades que ellos toda la cara. El espíritu humano refleja valor y una
actitud positiva que “nosotros podemos superar” el sufrimiento y felicidad
del hallazgo en nuestras vidas.
Una
parte grande de nuestra solidaridad con los pobres es aceptar sus sentimientos y
ayudar que ellos trabajar de esos sentimientos para encontrar una solución
positiva a sus problemas. Los sentimientos y emociones son una parte íntegra de
vida y no hay ningún evitando de esta dimensión de existencia humana. Esto es
lo que usted puede esperar cuando usted une en solidaridad con personas sufridas:
hay un sentimiento en primer lugar de “el miedo” que ellos no sobrevivirán,
y hay “la ansiedad” sobre el futuro. Hay “la confusión” y las personas
no comunican hechos con precisión. Hay “el enojo” que ellos son atrancado
en semejante situación terrible, ellos golpean fuera culpar otros y aunque
usted puede ser inocente que usted podría volverse el objetivo de su enojo. Y
hay entonces “celosamente” porque alguien más fue ayudado y ellos no
consiguieron las ayudas que ellos necesitaron. Estos sentimientos son toda la
parte de la composición humana–ellos no son buenos ni malos, ellos solamente
son. Es importante reconocerlos, los entiende y intenta ayudar a las personas
que los tienen trabajar a través de ellos y usarlos crecer en una persona mejor
capaz de resolver algunos de los problemas de vida y encontrar un poco de
contento en esta tierra.
¡Cuando
nosotros leímos nuestras biblias y nos volvemos a los Profetas es importante no
reconocer sólo la situación que ellos exponen pero también los sentimientos
involucraron con la situación y cómo ellos transcienden esa situación y esos
sentimientos a través de su relación con Dios–su fe! ¡Cuando nosotros
viajamos a Los Toros y trabajamos en una situación de pobreza y sufriéndolo es
importante no reconocer sólo la situación pero también los sentimientos de
las personas involucraron con la situación y cómo ellos pueden transcender esa
situación y esos sentimientos de nuestra relación mutua con Dios – nuestra
fe!
Feelings
– Emotions – Feelings
The
Marriage Encounter people have a saying; “Feelings are not good nor bad, they
just are”.
Go to Los Toros
and if you are perceptive you will recognize the “feelings” that exist in
the community. Go to your bible and turn to the Prophets and you will recognize
the deep feelings they experienced and how they placed God in the middle of
those deep feelings.
Every single
time I return from Los Toros I reflect on my experience and I feel depressed;
but it usually does not last too long. For me depression is a feeling of
hopelessness combined with a little anxiety for the future. Depression is a
normal reaction to a visit to the Third World and all of its poverty and
suffering. Anybody with the least bit of sensitivity will be affected by the
extreme conditions in the third world; people living in houses with dirt floors,
lack of resources for medical care, poor communication, inadequate education,
lack of opportunity and political corruption make for a very difficult life.
These negatives can overwhelm you.
On the other
hand there are many generous people waiting to support the poor and there are
leaders within the poor communities ready to organize and work with others to
overcome the difficulties that they all face. The human spirit reflects courage
and a positive attitude that “we can overcome” the suffering and find
happiness in our lives.
A large part of
our solidarity with the poor is to accept their feelings and help them to work
through those feelings to find a positive solution to their problems. Feelings
and emotions are an integral part of life and there is no avoiding of this
dimension of human existence. This is what you can expect when you join in
solidarity with suffering people: first of all there is a feeling of “fear”
that they will not survive, and there is “anxiety” about the future. There
is “confusion” and people fail to communicate facts accurately. There is
“anger” that they are stuck in such a terrible situation, they strike out to
blame others and though you may be innocent you might become the target of their
anger. And then there is “jealously” because someone else was helped and
they did not get the help they needed. These feelings are all part of the human
makeup – they are not good nor bad, they just are. It is important to
recognize them, understand them and try to help people that have them to work
through them and use them to grow into a better person capable of solving some
of life’s problems and finding some contentment on this earth.
As we read our
bibles and turn to the Prophets it is important to recognize not just the
situation that they expose but also the feelings involved with the situation and
how they transcend that situation and those feelings through their relationship
with God – their faith! As we journey to Los Toros and work in a situation of
poverty and suffering it is important to recognize not just the situation but
also the feelings of the people involved with the situation and how they can
transcend that situation and those feelings through our mutual relationship with
God – our faith!
Don's Reflection
I went to Los
Toros with an extra $600.00 in my pocket. When I left a number of people had
predicted that my ailing 97 year old father, who recently had an “event”
(heart attack?) would not make it for much longer. The $600.00 was to buy a
ticket home for his funeral. Some people in Los Toros knew before I left that my
father was seriously ill but I did not tell them how serious nor did I say much
when I got there.
Andres is about
70 years old and lives in a dilapidated house near one of the discos with his
son Vladimir. It is a two room house with a dirt floor, when it rains the water
literally runs in the back door and out the front door. It is a mud hole, the
kitchen, a separate building, is even worse; the situation is really bad. Yet
Andres still works in the fields and struggles to keep his life and the life of
his son together.
I had not yet
seen Andres on this trip; in fact it is almost a year since I last spoke with
him. As I walked past his house on a rainy afternoon thinking to myself, “how
can they live in that place?” out runs Andres, he embraces me and says; "I
heard your father has been ill and that you were worried, I hope that God helps
him to get better”. I was walking around Los Toros with a lot of buried
anxiety about my father’s situation, for some reason a lot of that anxiety
left me after my encounter with Andres.
The gospels of
Jesus Christ have many instances of Jesus healing people, John’s Gospel does
not have as many as the others, but John has the story of the “woman at the
well”. I always saw that woman as a person with a lot of anxiety and saw the
action of Jesus during their encounter as an action of healing some of her
anxiety. Andres literally ran through the mud in the rain to meet me and express
his concern not just about my father, but also about my anxiety. He brought the
same healing to me that Jesus brought to the woman in Samaria (John 4).
They have a
fancy term for this reflection, it is called “theological reflection” and
Father Steve talked about it in his homily of June 8th. The term may
be a bit intimidating to some people but the point is very valid in that it is
important as people of faith that we recognize Jesus as a person and a God that
enters into our lives. Andres seized the moment to become a bit like Christ and
brought a little healing to me; he only spoke about 15 words to me, but the
encounter was timely and significant.
When I returned
from Los Toros I went to visit my father, he was out of his bed on his knees
trying to figure out how to disassemble his new wheelchair so it would fit into
a car so he could be taken out for a ride and visit the new chapel they built in
Poland, WI! .............As
my sister says, “Go figure…..”!
Katie's Reflection
 
More
Katie Photos - Go
Another
year has come and gone, and I find myself once again returning from Los
Toros. This year’s trip back to Los Toros was just as fulfilling as the
previous year and filled with many smiles and laughs. One of the things I
love the most about Los Toros is among the poverty and suffering, through
the good and bad times, the faces of the young and old, God is present
throughout Los Toros each and every moment of every day.
When going to Los
Toros, it is hard to escape a touch of culture shock. We go from having
the luxury of indoor pluming to a lovely outhouse, and from clean sanitary
water from our faucets to huge jugs of purified water that was bought
specially for us. But despite these slight alterations to our everyday
living, there is still one thing that remains constant no matter where we
go. That one constant has always been God. Even though the people continue
to struggle with poverty, I can walk down the dirt and gravel roads of Los
Toros and sees God’s presence in the faces of each and every person
within the community.
It is easy to get caught up in the stressful moments, like having
300 little kids show up for a dental hygiene program, or an overflow of
students wanting to participate in our English and computer classes and
not having enough open computers for them all, or even just dealing with
the obvious language barriers that exist. But during these moments of
stress and anxiety, something or someone will enter my life at the perfect
time that will calm me down and put things back into perspective. Whether
that is the smiling faces of the little kids, Olga’s bear hugs that are
guaranteed to put a smile on your face, an inside joke about a red ramada
with Don and the gang, or Bimbo’s unending hospitality and hour long
conversations. Throughout each one of these instances, I can see God’s
grace mirrored through the people of Los Toros.
Personally, I have
only had the opportunity to go to Los Toros twice now, but each time I
have grown in my faith and as an individual. It never seems like we are
down there for a long enough time to truly accomplish the things that we
want to. It was hard making the transition from a mission trip like work
camp, where you can physically see the impact that you have made on the
lives of the people you have helped, to the Los Toros mission trip. The
Los Toros mission trip was different, because we were not entering the
community and rebuilding their homes or re-thatching their thatched roofs.
Instead, our goal was to empower the people of Los Toros and give them the
encouragement to take control and responsibility of their own life.
When
we taught our English and computer classes, I felt like there were two
reasons for having the classes. The obvious reason for teaching the
classes was the education aspect of it all. Personally, I feel like the
real reason we were down there teaching these classes, was to spread the
message that education is important and can be fun at the same time. Each
one of us was practicing what we preached in terms of, being hands on with
the children, motivating them to continue learning, and expanding their
minds and imaginations. Just in the short time that we were down there, we
were exposed to children who truly had the desire to learn. Although we
may not have a finished house to look at the end of our trip, one day I
hope to see one of the students who came to our classes become the
next St.
Joseph scholarship student in Casa San Jose.
I
think that these mission trips down to Los Toros will continue to be an
eye opening experience for me, but I can truly walk away from the
experience confident in knowing that I have in some way contributed to the
empowerment of the people of Los Toros. The relationships that I developed
with certain people throughout the community last year has continued to
grow, and new relationships have been formed this year. I believe that I
have proved to the community that I am committed and passionate about
helping them anyway that I can. The action of going back to Los Toros a
second time, has spoken louder then any words I could ever speak, and in
turn has blessed me with new friendships and relationships. I continue to
pray that if it is according to God’s will for me, I will continue to
have the opportunity to travel down to Los Toros and continue helping the
community.
Don's Infamous "Rojo Enramada" (note Passport required to enter)
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Partners
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For
More Information about the Los Toros Mission Committee......
Please
contact:
Mike Haischer - 262- 375-2625
or
Don Kabara - 262-377-7527
mailto:lostorosmission@lostorosmission.com
email
Los Toros Mission
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