Prayers and support pour into D’hanis

By Diana Aguero
Special to Today’s Catholic

Archbishop José H. Gomez listens to a resident as she shows the destruction of her home due to heavy rains this summer in D’Hanis. He visited the area on Aug. 24.
Deacon Pat Rodgers | Today's Catholic

    “Let’s get the bus rolling!” That was the command on an early Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. when the youth group from the Shrine of San Juan de los Lagos headed to D’Hanis on Aug. 26. Every year the parish’s youth ministry collects school supplies for some of the struggling families around the community. After seeing the local news coverage of the flood damage in D’Hanis, youth minister Maria Rodriguez asked the young people if they wanted to help.
    Father Arthur Flores, OMI, pastor, and Eddie Rodriguez, youth minister, contacted Father Wallis Stiles,VF, pastor of Holy Cross Church in D’Hanis, to talk with him about the youth group’s request to help. Father Stiles told them that there were 150 to 200 children from elementary to high school in their community. So the young people at San Juan de los Lagos donated enough school supplies to fill 150 bags!
    The bus left early so that everyone could attend the 9 a.m. Mass in D’Hanis. Afterwards, the young people distributed the bags of supplies to the families there. Big smiles were on both sides of the bags — those giving and those receiving them.

    The young people from San Juan gained a new appreciation of what their parents give them each day as they saw that the families in D’Hanis lost a lot — their clothes, their electronics and even houses.
    Our young people send their thanks and love to all who contributed to the collection in the San Juan community, and send their love to their ‘new’ family in the D’Hanis community too.

    Two days earlier, Archbishop José H. Gomez traveled to D’Hanis to meet with Father Stiles and went to parishioners’ homes to visit and pray with them. Deacon Eugene Ebner is coordinating assistance with the families who still need housing. The needs include a crew to donate labor for approximately $5,000 in sheetrock and tile repair; a single bedroom trailer to replace one destroyed in the flood; and a tractor and crew to repair a third house, funds are already in place for materials for that one. If anyone can help, contact Deacon Ebner at (830) 931-3746.