Dear friends,
Let me summarize what has happened to us and what we are experiencing. On day 6 I fell down an embankment while walking and I have a cracked vertebra. I should be in bed at least 1 month, until I do another x-ray. They excluded neuronal damage and internal organs.
Thank goodness is only that. From the first time I realized what had happened, I also realized that the Lord had taken care of me. I fell down a slope of rocks, sand and broken glass and I only make myself superficial wounds. I have even recovered my eyeglasses untouched.
Many times I’ve walked out there, shortening, knowing it was dangerous, but trying to do as everyone here. Why do I fall down now?
Now we spent every day with strength. Children notice it a lot, they are very anxious, scared of what could have happened to me. And all the work falls on Isabel. Life tests us.
We are trying to deepen this experience. We know that only in the Lord we can walk through this stage. This painful occasion is an opportunity to feel the Lord’s tender love and admire how He opens new paths.
First of all, the maternal host from the Comboni fathers. From the bottom of the gorge I called them by phone, in addition to Isabel, and two of them came down in a hurry through the same risky path that I went. They bring me water, fruit, comforted me and prayed with me. I felt in family. In these early days, as I strengthen a bit, the fathers have welcomed us into their home; they are more equipped and closer to the hospital. Children, with their concern, are also a joy in this house usually so quiet. They go around giving hugs and tickling the tummy of the fathers.
Then, the visits of the neighbors and friends, especially the poorest of Villa Ecológica. The clinic guard warned Isabel that it was coming suspicious people asking for me. In the three days of hospital I felt that I had no ability to receive more love. The neighbors gave me the soup carefully while Isabel conversed with the doctors. The fruit and yogurt they brought spending what they had gained in the day. Those who opened the Bible and prayed for me, as we have done in their homes when they have needed.
And the experience of stopping the activities, such beautiful projects that we were carried out, as adult catechesis, just one week ahead of the celebration of Confirmation. Trusting that this is a new time of the Lord where He is giving us new lessons that we need to be happier. Knowing that He will monitor the task because they belong to Him.
Thanks always to be near us, and a lot of encouragement to your missionary work.
Gonzalo Violero
We ended the first day of the CLM meeting in Brazil. 11 people attended, including Marco and Valentina, couple of Italian lay missionaries who are working with the Comboni Missionaries in Açailândia, Maranhão, and Emma, Italian CLM who arrived on 2 of this month to join the CLM community of Ipê Amarelo.
