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February 8, 2021Tears that Led to a Project
There was a wedding, everyone was dressed immaculate and laughing joyfully, except for a little 5-year-old boy. I recall his face with tears running down his cheeks as he reached out for his mother’s attention in embarrassment, “Mommy, I wet my pants.” I noticed the mother’s frustration at the scene while waiting in line to use the only parish restroom for women in the church facility.
That incident remains engraved in my mind and motivates me, as a pastor, to begin searching for ways to provide the proper facilities for children, men, and women. It is the desire of every pastor and parishioner that every member of the family feel welcome and comfortable when they come to worship God and visit us during parish events at Immaculate Conception Church in Hartford, Michigan.
With respect and humility, I am reaching out to you for your financial donations and prayers to help us build the restrooms that our rural parish desperately needs. Our parish facility is small but not the number of children, teens, and young families that are members of the parish. We have 220 children in Religious Education, two youth groups, and eighty adults attending faith formation every Sunday.
In addition to the bathrooms (currently we have only one toilet for men and two toilets for women), this parish expansion project will include showers for weekend spiritual retreats, and a larger, suitable kitchen. This project is estimated to cost a little more than a million dollars.
In weddings, baptisms, and funerals, or other parish events, I cannot imagine how many children and elderly people have gone through this similar experience of the little boy. Help us, so that embarrassing incident will never be repeated in our little church.
Certainly, we have no money, but we have faith. We trust in the lord who always provides and in the generosity of people like you.
May the Lord bless you along with those who are engraved in your heart!
Father German Perez
Pastor
