Our 2020 Collaborative Lenten Gift for the POWIR Ministry Program
Our Collaborative Lenten Gift Collection has been postponed until this crisis is over. We will let you know as soon as we have a new collection date.
Each year, in preparing for Lent, we reach out as a community to one particular place of suffering, amid so many in the world, through our Collaborative Lenten Gift.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus reminds us not only that we must love our neighbors – without boundaries – but that our love must be manifest in action. This year, our Collaborative Lenten Gift will help us manifest our love into action by establishing a St. John-St. Paul POWIR Ministry Fund to support our ongoing immigrant and refugee resettlement work in partnership with Catholic Charities Boston. POWIR (Parishes Organized to Welcome Immigrants and Refugees) programs have helped thousands of refugee clients find places to live, make friends, learn English, find work, receive pro bono legal counsel and medical services, and achieve social integration.
Throughout Lent, in the bulletin and on the websites, we will share the POWIR story with you as we prepare for our collaborative-wide Special Collection later this year.
Our gift will allow each of us to share in easing the suffering
and to answer Lent’s clarion call to love extravagantly.
TELLING THE STORY
The most recent chapter appears first; scroll down for older entries.
We are so happy to be able to share some wonderful news - our POWIR family, Emile and Rosine Rwamuhinda and their children, are now settled in their new apartment in Revere! As you will recall, the family arrived in Boston on March 18, and have been staying in temporary housing in Quincy while we worked with Catholic Charities Boston to secure permanent housing. Late last week, we received word that an apartment would become available on Monday, March 30 – and that the family would need to move in on Tuesday, March 31. This seemed like an impossible task, ...
It is with hearts brimming over with joy we announce the truly miraculous arrival of our new POWIR family, Emile and Rosine Rwamuhinda and their children, in Boston! The family landed at Logan Airport today at 2:20pm. During these unimaginably difficult days and circumstances, Catholic Charities and our POWIR Team remained uncertain whether they would actually be able to come until the very last moment. As we explained in last week's bulletin, Emile and Rosine and their children fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007, and they’ve been living in a refugee camp ever since. We were notified during ...
As many in the collaborative heard during last week's Masses, we have exciting news to share regarding our partnership with Catholic Charities to assist in the resettlement efforts of Immigrant and Refugees into the Boston area. On March 18, 2020 our SJSP POWIR Group will be welcoming Emile and Rosine, and their five children, from a refugee camp in Rwanda. The family fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007. They’ve been living in a refugee camp ever since and their two youngest children were born there. As many of you know we’ve been praying for the opportunity to assist a ...
Jesus calls all of us in the parable of the Good Samaritan to be responsible for those in need, no matter who they are or where they come from. The St. John - St. Paul Collaborative Lenten Gift this year recognizes Jesus’ call and will direct all contributions into the St. John - St. Paul Collaborative POWIR Fund to support our POWIR work going forward in partnership with Catholic Charities. What is POWIR? POWIR is an acronym that stands for Parishes Organized to Welcome Immigrants and Refugees. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched the program in 2010 to intensify ...
