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Testimony: It is truth, the poor ones are evangelizing us

on 26 Nov, 2018
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La Paz (Bolivia), 11/27/2018, Sr. María Olga Gómez Botero.- Mrs. Maria, lived for a time in a small house that took care of her husband Juancito, old and very disabled. They were evicted from that little house, and a young neighbor allowed them to make a room where he lived, this was an area of his uncle who lives in La Paz.

I cannot stop telling what I "have seen and heard"

We motivated the parish for a solidarity aid. Many people moved, young and adult and in a few days they had somewhere to stay. Unfortunately, three months later the owner of the land arrived, extremely displeased with his nephew whom he took out of his room and the old people gave them 24 hours to leave. We began again the search for a place to take them. A lady offered us a wide corridor, there we could put the room back together. We perceive conditions that did not favor them, in that place ... It was 4 pm. and a truck is loaded up to the top, with everything they have, everything old, but they are their belongings ... and they were attached to what is not useful.

What to do? Mrs. Maria insinuated going to an old friend, Mrs. Martina, whom she had known as a girl. We arrived there, it was a ramshackle house, the most precarious of the neighborhood, with rotten boards, old and broken corners, dirt floor and the doors were old rags. It is a neighborhood of invasion in a swamp, there was nowhere to go. There we arrive. Juancito stayed in the truck, did not realize what was happening.

Mrs. Maria entered where Mrs. Martina was and, crying, told her about her difficulties. MARTINA is evangelical, she is 93 years old and a catechist in her Church. Teachs children praises while their parents attend the service. Moved, she said to Mrs. Maria. Why are you crying, I am not your mother? Here we will room for all of us. Quickly, she put her bed and other things to the other room that makes the kitchen, to give them the largest one. In the small courtyard that is a pasture and in the middle of the mud, they unloaded their belongings from the truck and organized the bed for the new guests. There was Juancito who must be treated as a baby. She herself helps to take care of him, when Mrs. Maria has to go out to some stagecoach. What charity! Three months later Juancito died there.

Yes, the poor ones evangelize me! Today I say to the Lord: give me a generous heart like Martina's, give me the patience and fidelity of Mary.