St. Gerard Majella parishioners labor in love to benefit teens aging out of children’s home in Guatemala
A 20-foot shipping container bearing an image of picturesque Guatemalan mountains sits on the blacktop of the St. Gerard Majella Parish parking lot.
On a recent 90-degree Saturday morning, three parishioners were hard at work inside. Marilyn Schoolman climbed a stepladder to screw brackets into place, securing electrical conduit, as Steve Long fed wires from the electrical box on the back door through to the outlets spaced along the wall.
“We’re making an electrician of you yet!” Long cheered her on.
Led by Long, St. Gerard Majella parishioners are transforming the shipping container into a microbusiness for teenage girls living at Hands of Compassion Children’s Home in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. The microbusiness will offer the chance for the older teenage girls to learn how to run — and eventually own — a soap-making operation.
The project is the first of the new parish ministry named Hands of Christ Missions. Construction work has included painting the outside and inside, adding insulated walls and ceiling, installing solar panels and electrical wiring and more. Some of the modifications, like installing a door and window, will be done in Guatemala.
“I’m a retired school teacher, and I have been blessed with health and energy, and I felt very guided to be here,” Schoolman said. “I’ve been praying very hard for guidance on where to be put to use.”
Long became acquainted with Hands of Compassion Children’s Home through prior work with the organization Wings of Hope; he helped restore a small airplane that is now used as transportation for the children’s home to travel easily to Guatemala City. About eight years ago, Long founded One Spirit Engineering, a nonprofit that seeks to bring engineering innovation and technology to impoverished communities worldwide.
Through his relationship with Hands of Compassion, he learned that as teens in the home approach adulthood, there are often not many opportunities for solid employment, especially for the young women.
“So we thought, OK, let’s build microbusinesses, and then when they turn 18 and age out of the system, they’re already plugged into a business. They become owners of the business. And then, being in a container, they can take it anywhere in the country,” he said.
St. Gerard Majella parishioners donated around $25,000 to cover the project’s costs, Long said. Several people have shown up on Saturday mornings to pitch in on construction work. The women’s ACTS group painted the interior and also created a mosaic depicting praying hands that will be mounted on the inside wall.
The desire to get involved in foreign mission work of some kind came about over the past couple years of parish mission planning, St. Gerard Majella pastor Father Michael Grosch said. The parish has a dedicated group that plans regular pilgrimages, including a recent one following the footsteps of St. Paul in Greece.
“I think that there is also a call that I was kind of discerning as well, as far as, how is it that we can maybe also involve people in a pilgrimage of service?” he said.
The parish already has a strong St. Vincent de Paul Society and is a hub for Caritas Connections, serving the needs of their neighbors in Kirkwood and the greater St. Louis area. “I was kind of feeling that call to: How is it that we can serve the larger Church as well?” Father Grosch said.
Long is the “man with the plan,” Father Grosch said. “It really worked out great, because there was this desire, and then seemingly out of nowhere — but I guess inspired by the Holy Spirit — Steve approached me and laid out this idea that he had.”
As the Hands of Christ Missions ministry continues to develop, Father Grosch hopes that even more parishioners and parish groups can get involved in this and future projects, through continued financial generosity but also the “sweat equity” of the physical service work, he said.
“That’s my hope — that it becomes a collective gift from our whole parish to the people that will be receiving it in Guatemala,” he said.
Before the container-business is shipped, the parish plans to fill it with additional supplies like a washer and dryer, tools and a welding machine, in addition to everything needed for soap making. Then, it will be loaded onto a truck, then a train, and finally a ship, traveling through the Panama Canal up the west coast of Central America to Guatemala, Long said.
The idea to make soap came from the local community in Santiago Atitlan. Long’s One Spirit Engineering partners in Guatemala will work alongside the staff of Hands of Compassion to mentor the girls in the microbusiness endeavor. They’ve been consulting with small-business soap makers on recipes and methods for bar soap, which will be made inside the business and then sold wholesale. They plan to use oils native to the area, like coconut, palm and avocado, as well as other natural materials like pumice.
Long hopes this is the first of many shipping-containers-turned-microbusinesses for Hands of Compassion; next on the list is a medical clinic, and they’ve tossed around ideas of a bakery, a laundromat, a cafe, a workshop. The idea is that girls approaching adulthood will be able to try out several different skills, then two to three of them will take on each business, according to their interests.
“It’s not going to (change) the world in total, but it’ll be the world of several girls,” Long said. “And we can build it right here and have a hands-on connection, and then do a mission trip down there to see it in action. I think that’s where the Holy Spirit can shine.”
“This is 100% led by the Holy Spirit,” he added. “I just do what I’m told.”
