UPDATE FROM PRZEMYŚL, POLAND #9
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Dear Friends,
Greetings from Poland!
As our story continues, we would like to share with you some of the great things that have been happening recently thanks to your wonderful support, both spiritual and financial.
But first, a glimpse at a very special event. In Poland, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated on Thursday, and it is a national holiday. In some cities, including Przemyśl, we have the beautiful tradition of the processions from different churches in town coming together, merging, and gathering for the central Eucharistic celebration.
A few photos as the procession passed by the cathedral:
Volunteers spotted our director Fr. Marek among the priests walking with the procession:
Speaking of volunteers, we have just said goodbye to a group of American volunteers from Detroit (St. Clare of Montefalco Parish.) They have done a fantastic job, introducing some major changes in the „landscape” of our Przemyśl reception center: they built a deck so that our guests could enjoy sitting outside, especially now that the weather is favorable. They were busy with many other duties too, such as sorting donations or cleaning storage spaces, and they also found time to socialize with our Ukrainian guests.
A few “Before/After” photos tell the story:
The deck was immediately tried out by one of our volunteers, Rafał, although at nighttime and for a slightly different purpose than the one intended. 😉
We continue to look for partners in other European countries in order to help some more of our guests find a stable place with good living conditions. Our French friends from the organization Guides Sans Frontières, who had already participated in our resettlement project, returned to us with a fresh additional offer. Their long-awaited coming was a happy event. After a friendly meeting with our guests, and giving them a hand as far as packing was concerned, they departed for France.
We have also heard from one of the families who had emigrated to France through our program. They are happy in their new environment and they shared a photo by their new home.
Back in Poland, your financial help makes it possible for us to continue renting apartments for our guests in various places, and to look for new ones according to their needs. In Tarnawa Niżna, our location closest to the Ukrainian border, the inhabitants have many opportunities to marvel at nature and spend their time outdoors. Among many other fun activities, they recently had a chance to try horse riding:
Our guests staying in Tarnawa also had a unique opportunity to watch European bison graze by the woods! A very large population of that animal has its home in the Bieszczady mountains.
If you are interested, you can find more details here: https://poland.pl/tourism/nature/polands-pride-european-bison/
Last, but certainly not least: we were overjoyed to hear about abundant additional support which we received from our friends at Cross Catholic Outreach! We are infinitely grateful to you for helping us in this challenging task of providing at least a feeling of home to the people whose home was torn from them with such brutal force. Thank you so much for your generosity!
As we are heading into this weekend, we’re preparing for some more great events. We hope to share that with you in our next update.
