Serving Those Who Have Given It All to Serve Us by Chris
My grandfather on my father's side, John Christopher Carmody, served in the Naval Reserve during WWII. He was a tool and die specialist at the Model T assembly plant and was older than most of the other guys serving (he was born in 1910) and was stationed for a time in Grosse Isle, MI helping to train PT boat operators on how to maintain and fix the engines on the boats. He then got called into active duty in the Pacific and was honored to take Douglas MacArthur around on a few occasions. My uncle Ed was also in the Navy but my father, Alfred Joseph Carmody, was declared 4F (unfit for military service) due to the fact that he had contracted Polio at the age of 12 and suffered from the effects of that virus in his legs mainly. Otherwise, he was of the age that he would have fought in Korea (he was born in 1933).
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for our U.S. Veterans as does Karen. So, when we learned of a place in the next town over that is called "Casa del Peregrino" (Pilgrim's house) that helps U.S. Veterans get situated in Puerto Rico, we felt called to learn more about it. The name explains that they are meant to be a transitional housing facility for U.S. Veterans for up to two years and they offer assistance to find them a more permanent place to live. What we have observed is that many of them do not know how to speak Spanish and can feel very isolated and lonely here. We have seen some of them fall into drug and alcohol abuse among other things and we felt called to minister to them and their needs. So, we modified our schedule to include a Friday late-morning ministry to them in English where we serve doughnuts and juice. We read scripture and invite them into a discussion about it. It is also welcome to the general public at large at the same gathering corner where we do a similar ministry on late Sunday mornings in Spanish. Many of the same faces attend both of them. Please pray for our U.S. Veterans that may feel isolated or all alone, especially during this time of Covid. Pray that those who have fallen into bad habits can break them and have "New Beginnings". We have been ministering to one of these veterans for the past few months and he just entered into a rehabilitation program in San Juan called "New Beginnings" and we pray that he is able to leave drugs and alcohol in his past.
We are all having a lot of fun as a family doing this ministry and we ask for your prayers that we are able to be good instruments in the Our Father's hands. Allow us to be clay in The Potter's Hands! Come Holy Spirit! Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Pray for Us!
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| We had a praise and worship session with one of the veterans on lead vocals!!! |
Here is video we made of this veteran singing a popular praise and worship song and making up his own ending!!!
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| Just one of many dominoes games going on simultaneously on the corner in Aguadilla! |
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We stopped along the way to drop off doughnuts and juice to one of our new homebound veteran friends and to pray with him. He is very lonely and has trouble taking care of himself. Please pray for him, his name is Pablo. |
