April 2005 Volume 1 Number 4

Megan’s Hope 

This is a publication of Su Misericordia 

(His Mercy), Inc. 

Enkindle in us the fire of Your love! 

April 2005 Volume 1 Number 4 

We have a special story for this month’s newsletter. On our last trip, April 8, 

9 and 10, we had, as with all other trips a “first timer”. What is different 

about this person’s first trip is that they sat down and wrote about their 

experience. What follows is that story. 

Mission to the Oaxacan People of Mexico, by Yolanda 

First of all, I want to say thanks to all of you who so generously donated 

what you could for these Oaxacan Indians in Mexico. All the blankets, soaps, 

shampoos, baby wipes, etc. all came in handy in our distribution. 

I also want to thank my generous and loving PAL, and I still don’t know who 

my fiend is for the $25 which I received in the mail along with a personal 

loving card; I wish I could recognize the handwriting. I am also grateful to 

my son who left me $40 cash when I was sharing about this trip to Mexico 

with him. With this help I was able to make this trip which was really a 

special calling from God. Since I was interested in this outreach for PAL’s, I 

thought this opportunity would be awesome to experience first hand. 

I now have so much more admiration for Ana and I look forward to her 

coming to share her story. Seeing her in action was almost like seeing 

Mother Teresa, especially after studying our book. Ana showed her love for 

God by her compassion for these people through her actions. She was the 

face of Christ to me. She got totally involved in communicating with each 

and every one of them. She seemed to know their needs and she said she 

knew almost all of them by name. Ana has a definite relationship with these 

people who were lined up from early morning outside the convent where we 

stayed. They were the most patient people, mostly women who were very 

docile. I never heard them reprimand their kids which were many. They just 

waited for whatever handout that was given. I think they must have had 

good bladders because they were there from morning till night. Now for the 

kids, that’s another story all together. I hand this opportunity, which I 

thought was a great privilege, handing our candies. Well, no one told me 

what to expect and it felt like I was in a Lion’s den wit hungry lions!!! I 

should never have done this alone as we needed security guards to surround 

me. I don’t think there was a space between me, the candy and the children. 

I felt like I was being mauled. It was actually quite scary. All I saw in front of 

me were finger tips and eyes! I should have been smarter by just throwing 

the candy up in the air and let them go for it! I didn’t think of it until later. 

Ha, ha! 

Ana, her husband and some of the Youth Ministry group leaders have come 

here for over 13 years so they are quite familiar with the setting and the 

needs. When Ana retired from Youth Ministry she decided to dedicate her 

retirement to working full time with the Oaxacan Indians. Ana’s missionary 

group consists mainly of Youth Ministry leaders and their teens who are high 

school age and some a little older. This weekend they came from Hesperia, 

Victorville, Upland and Ontario. Each group had a leader in charge of them 

so the responsibilities were well divided. These trips are done 4 times per 

year. 

I was impressed with the youth and their spirit of giving and their 

spirituality. It was very rewarding to see “good Christ centered young 

people”. That alone was a gift to me, besides being with people who are so 

giving, so faith filled. Truly, I was surrounded with God’s love. I also didn’t 

have to sleep on the floor and had a room which I shared with a nun and 

another lady who ironically I knew as she was from my sister’s parish. Small 

World! 

This location (Maneadero) was about 2 hours south of Tijuana, Mexico. We 

left Ana’s house around 3:30pm, met up with a bunch of other people and 

then caravanned down to Mexico in 7 car loads, a total of about 40 people. 

These Oaxacan Indians are the poorest of the poor. I witnessed an incident 

that brought tears to my eyes. Two little girls, 4 and 6 years old were 

brought in to Ana for personal observation and we were told they were 

abused. Both didn’t talk and looked like wounded birds. They were filthy, 

barefooted with lice on their heads. Ana had some of her local helpers wash 

these girls and someone went to the store to buy them clothes and shoes 

and it’s amazing, when clean and dressed decently, their self esteem 

seemed to jump many notches up. They will be taken care of by follow up 

from the local helpers who Ana trusts to deal with their own people. The 

mother doesn’t have a home and lives in a car with 5 children. 

Friday, April 8, 2005 

We arrived around 10:30pm rather tired from the long drive although we 

stopped for dinner at McDonald’s. We had a meeting upon arrival once we 

got settled and formed teams. Saturday was our full work day. The teams 

were: Food and Clothes distribution, I was in this group. A medical team as 

we had a doctor with us donating his weekend. We had a nurse and a helper 

to assist the doctor in getting information from the patients who came for 

medical care. There was a Clean up crew, prayer leader, children’s activities 

group, building crew and each of these groups had a staff leader. We ended 

up with a prayer service reminding us why we were there which was to serve 

God through the service of God’s people. We finally got to bed around 

11:30pm. 

Saturday April 10, 2005 

I awoke at 6:30am, had a quick cereal breakfast and some coffee and off to 

work we went. My group bagged rice – tons and tons of it, and beans. Some 

others sorted canned goods, clothing, etc. and each was put in a big trash 

bag for handout. 

The men and older boys went off to complete the house they were building. 

It is a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 living room home in the middle of a field.  

Oh yes, cows were free to roam around, some even were on the road we 

had to drive on. By the way, except for the main highway, every road felt 

like you were on a roller coaster as we bounced our way in the car and had 

to drive very slowly. 

The convent was beautiful. It was like a castle in the middle of no where! I 

heard that the sisters (cloistered) funded the convent on their own by 

making home made tamales and selling them when they came to the States. 

All the floors were marble and we had this huge area just for us and the 

sisters had their own private area and we only saw them when they went to 

chapel. 

There were about 6 bedrooms with baths of equal number and showers. 

Most of the girls slept on the floor in the kitchen area and on couches. The 

men and boys were all upstairs which was a huge room where we all met for 

prayer service. 

 

Breakfast was cereal and milk and juice. Ana had a lady who did the cooking 

for our lunch and dinner which were simple meals like chorizo and egg 

burrito, beans and rice and a great Mexican salad with avocados, lettuce 

diced up and tomatoes and cilantro. It was delicious! For about $40 we were 

all fed. For our dinner that night we just had tuna sandwiches with leftover 

rice and beans. That was good too. What was nice was her “local staff”. They 

cleaned up the floors, etc. which left us free form that chore. 

Sunday April 11, 2005 

We did get to bed quite late on Saturday night. We didn’t have to wake up 

early as it was treated as a day of rest! That was nice although I didn’t feel 

like I did much work at all. Mass was at 10am in the beautiful chapel. Well, 

wouldn’t you know my battery died so I couldn’t take pictures. 

We packed and loaded the cars and headed to La Buffadora ( the blow hole) 

where there were shops etc. and we were treated to a taco lunch by the 

ministry. We spent a couple of hours there and felt like a tourist. Arrived 

hope that night around 10pm tired but happy.  

In closing, personally, I am looking forward to Ana’s talk and I see a definite 

call to do this as a PALS outreach. We could help with clothing, blankets, etc. 

4 times a year but I see the need to help the kids with the scholarship 

program which is $100 a year per child. So, lets pray about it. 

 

For Information about, or Donations to, Su Misericordia or to receive a free 

subscription to Megan’s Hope newsletter, send an email with your request to 

Ana Gmeiner at aegmeiner@hotmail.com , phone (909) 985-7160, visit us 

on our web page at www.oaxacanmission.org , or mail us at 862 W. 19th 

St., Upland, CA 91784