“Blessed is she who believed, for there will be fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord” (Lc 1, 45) (GUATEMALA)
“Jireh” settlement (The Lord my provider) is located on 23rd avenue in Guatemala City. By watching how a group of women from this settlement live and coexist makes us think about how they can organize themselves among many uncertainties and are able to move forward with their families. The capacity of generating joy and optimism in their everyday lives and the encounters they have every Wednesday to share God’s word.
When you share a God’s experience, instead of studying it or explain it, you vibrate in a special way. In each woman there is an encounter history with this close God, the God of history. As we find in the bible the narratives about Rajab, Ruth, Bathsheba and many other women’s lives who had deep experiences with God, we also find women from “Jireh” settlement, who taught us life lessons and evangelize with their lives.
Each of these women choose to climb the hill to give their families what is necessary. This climbing is the only option they have due to the settlement location and at the same time is the only piece of land they were able to find (some of these women pay a rent because the land is not theirs). This is what happens in a society where the economic system produces poor people and these people then is not taken into consideration.
Most women enrolled their children in primary school. One of the activities they have is to take their children to school, which even though is not far away, they do not feel their children would be safe if they would go by themselves. Once one of the women told us that one of the mothers did not take her children to school. She got worried and found out that this woman was sick at home. When she knew it, she asked us how we could help her. This is an example of how these women worry about each other and how communication and a solidarity network can help these women to overcome difficult situations.
These women are reference for local community by developing their potential and multiplying it for the whole community from their everyday chores. They are transformation agents for a fairer and equitable society. They start in their environment climbing and descending their lives’ hill, just as they do in the settlement.
This experience with these women -in this stage of deepening with the person and Project of Jesus in which I am as a novice of the Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary- reaffirms me that I must trust in the loving God who walks beside us, and that Jesus continues to bring us the Good News every day in the daily coexistence with those who surround us. Jesus continues inviting us to look for God’s kingdom in the simplest things, trusting that from the smallest thing occur life’s miracles, where everybody -without exclusion- could have an important participation.
Angelica Maria Gomez Gomez (Mexican novice)
Novice Postulancy
Zone 9 Community
Guatemala