The Pequenos Are Coming! Please join Good Shepherd Parish on the weekend of October 22–23 when we welcome members of Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos—Spanish for “Our Little Brothers and Sisters.” A troupe of musicians and dancers from NPH Mexico will provide music at the 5pm Sunday Mass at St. Zepherin Church, and will perform at a Fiesta Dinner following Mass in St. Zepherin hall. A university student who grew up in the NPH home in Guatemala will speak at the other Masses that weekend (8:30 am Sunday at St. Zepherin church, and 4:00 pm Saturday and 10:30 am Sunday at St. Ann church). Tickets for the dinner are $10 per person, and are available after Mass or by contacting Jody Pongratz at Good Shepherd Parish at 508-650-3545 or jpongratz@goodshepherdwayland.org. Everyone is welcome at the Mass.
Good Shepherd has been helping support NPH for four years. NPH is raising more than 3,400 orphaned, abandoned, and disadvantaged boys and girls in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. An additional 2,300 children who live outside the homes receive scholarships, meals and healthcare.
Children at NPH homes are not available for adoption. Instead they are welcomed with their siblings to the NPH family environment that gives them a chance to focus on education and personal growth. The children grow and learn in their culture and language and become contributing citizens in their own countries.
Children stay at NPH until they are ready to support themselves, which for many includes vocational training or study at a university. Thousands of Pequenos are now self-sufficient adults with families of their own. Many are educators, doctors, accountants, carpenters, farmers, mechanics, artists, administrators, and social workers. Right now, support is particularly needed for the higher education program to help the children to achieve their dreams.
For more information about NPH, or to sponsor a child or university student, please contact Thayer Lawson at 617-206-490 or tlawson@nphusa.org.
