Felician Sisters of North America Mission: Haiti

On Christmas Day our chapel was transformed into Bethlehem. It was filled throughout the day with children and young people who came to adore the newborn King, Christ the Lord. With each group, we shared the story of Christ’s birth and His coming among us. During the singing of “Angels We Have Heard on High,” each person came forward to adore Jesus. Some of our children were very poorly dressed, and we thought about the Shepherds who came from the fields to worship Jesus. Everyone received a gift from Jesus. For the children that we have been working with this past year, we had special gifts prepared. The children we had never seen before were given bags of candy and little stuffed animals. It was truly as if God had provided the gifts for his little ones. We had enough for everyone. After we shared a delicious meal prepared by the ladies in the community. We added our own baked goods, too.

We both shared that this was the most meaningful Christmas we have ever had in our lives.

Today we bring tidings of great joy; for you, today, is born our Savior, Christ the Lord. Wishing you–our Felician family, our families and friends–a blessed and holy Christmas season.

We are very aware that our children and their families do not have the opportunity to share and celebrate Christmas the way we know it. Knowing this, we decided to make this Christmas special for them. We started preparing with the children spiritually–every Sunday evening during Advent we had catechesis, prayer and singing (all in Creole). They are great listeners and singers!

For the past few days, we have been preparing gifts and food. We baked peanut butter cookies and went to the market with our Haitian cooks for the food to be prepared for our Christmas dinner for our community. We are expecting about 50 people on Christmas Day.

Being busy with these preparations, we almost forgot about Wigilia for ourselves. Until now, we have been living in places where Wigilia was prepared for us😊. We decided to make pierogi. This was a first for us😉.

Without our friends from all over the world helping us, we would never be able to help others. Our Sister Honorata gathered some of her Polish friends to help pack boxes of donated items to be sent in our container. Phil Vaz, who works with our Felician Sisters in Lodi, NJ, brought these boxes to East Amherst, NY, where the container was being prepared. We thank all those who have made this shipment possible.

Our young Felician artists keep coming to our door with their future plans and ideas, even though we said we will meet with them after January 6, 2014. One day they asked for our Felician t-shirts to show that they are a part of our community here. The next day they came to the door dressed in our t-shirts, wanting their photo taken. So here they are…

Another project done by Sr. Francis while she was in Jacmel was the painting of our Haitian kitchen wall. The kids organized themselves around her, and they all wanted to help her. They appeared very quickly and did not want to leave for a moment. What Sr. Francis had first designed was not the finished creation because the kids took over. This wall is the work of many hands, something Mother Angela would love.

The morning after Sr. Francis left, we noticed that there was a meeting of our young kids with our older boys. They were having a meeting about a new club they wanted to start. The older boys came to us with a proposal to begin an art program called “Felician Sisters Artist Haiti.” They have some creative ideas and projects. After Christmas, we will be looking into this project. Sr. Francis, you need to come back!

After we returned from the Conference today, we had visitors from St. George Parish, Buffalo, NY. They are involved in the Twinning Program with St. Michael the Archangel Parish located just outside of Jacmel in the mountains. They heard about our mission in Jacmel from our Sisters in Buffalo. They have a medical clinic and help to support a water purifying system for the villages that the parish serves.

December 13-15 was the 4th Annual Charismatic Conference for the Diocese of Jacme,l held at Immaculate Conception Parish in Zoranje, Haiti. Everybody talks about the conference for months before it happens, and every Catholic attends. It seems as though Charismatic prayer is the prayer of our Haitian brothers and sisters. Hundreds of people, young and old, attend this great holy event. We participated two days of the three-day event. Lwanj pou Jezi! Praise the Lord! Alleluia!

Thank you, Christine Millington and family, for donating these beautiful t-shirts! What a touching idea that your family did this as your Christmas gifts to one another!

DuDu is a young teenage boy who lives with his father; his mother is deceased. He loves to learn, so he started school in September but could not continue because he could not pay for school. He came to us for help the day before Sr. Francis arrived in Jacmel. We told him that we are not able to help him at that time, but we would pray that he would be able to finish school. The next day, Sr. Francis arrived not knowing about the situation with DuDu. Imagine our surprise when she gave us a donation from St. Michael’s Convent and said the sisters would be happy if this would be used for someone to go to school. It was an answer to our prayers and to DuDu’s prayers! Thank you, Sisters from St. Michael’s Convent, Livonia, MI!