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| From left to right around the table are Faye Gallegos, Maurine Hale, Sister Barbara, Sister Nancy. |
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| Under the table is Elvira, Mistress of the Night who thinks she is in charge. |
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| Sister Barbara and Sister Nancy |
Pastor Faye listening intently and Pastor Maurine taking notes.
This little gathering was one of my better ideas. What better way to break in my new floor than to have four sainted women over for lunch and discuss a matter dear to all of our hearts? Just nothing else would do. A little background here will help you understand. Pastor Faye is a retired UCC minister and lives in Colorado Springs. She was Interim pastor at First Congregational when I attended there. More importantly she was then and still remains my very dear friend and confidante. She marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and was most vocal and active in the fight for Civil Rights passage. She is very active in all ministry work including the animal shelters and Heifer International. And she raised kids at the same time.
Pastor Maurine is very active in the UCC Conference and various groups around Colorado Springs one of which she was representing this day. This group takes on a project and this time it is Sister Nancy and her Los Pobres Migrant Center. (An aside here. Maurine is married to Max Hale, who is still very active in Pastors for Peace and does a blog that you can reach by clicking here! ) While her husband is retired, Maurine remains very active.
When I write about people I usually like to list 4 or 5 things that they will be remembered for, but that is not going to work for this bunch of women.
So I have introduced you to the two UCC ministers and now we move on to Sister Nancy and her mission with the migrant workers of Southern Colorado. I finally got a little of the skinny on how Los Pobres came to be the operation it is today. Seems that many years ago , 1979, to be exact, Sister Nancy was having dinner with Father Gallagher at his parsonage at Sacred Heart of Avondale. As the evening progressed there would be a knock at the door. Father Gallagher would excuse himself and step out for about 10 minutes and then come back and set down and resume his job as host. About the third time this happened, Sister Nancy decided to "spy on him", and was surprised to see him sacking up clothes and food for a man who was clearly an illegal immigrant.
When she confronted him, he confessed and she told him, "Well, it is clear you are sort of organized, but let me help you and I think together we can do a lot more good." In the beginning of their operation, it was run from a room in the parsonage. Sister Nancy began to keep records of the immigrants who were accessing provisions and services. Of course all this was done behind closed doors as the workers were all illegally in the United States.
But thank God for people who will do what ever is necessary and trust that good will win in the outcome. In the year 2000 they built a small shed behind the rectory and the operation was moved to that area. This is how it works in the real world...People die, babies are born, INS arrests and deports illegals to Mexico, women cry, and every day the business of living is a matter of course. Children who do not know where Mexico is, are sent back there to live in a land they have never seen with people they have never known.
(An aside here to a personal experience. I think it was back in about 1980-81, I had daughter Debbie and her husband living in this town with or near me. Patty and Dona were also here. Well, Tex and Patty decided to go "work in the fields", since it was ready work and they could make lots of money. So they piled into my Chevy and off they went. 8 hours later they returned. Patty's eye was bloodshot and looked very bad. Seems they were picking peas and Tex had pulled a weed and flipped it over his shoulder into her eye. They were sunburnt beyond belief, exhausted, dehydrated, generally out of sorts with life. The opened their hands to give me the fruits of their labors. This grand total amounted to $3.28. I was disappointed, to say the very least.)
The point with that story is that wages have nothing to with hours spent bent over in the hot sun. I recall several years back that there was a lot of uproar about the illegals coming into this country and taking jobs from the locals. So Pueblo County "cracked down" and the illegals were deported and none came from Mexico. As I recall, the crops rotted in the fields because no one came to pick the produce. I think they have lightened up since that little fiasco!
Back to Los Pobres. In 2002 they received a grant from the Packard Foundation and built the big shed they are in now. There are 5,000 families registered. 200-220 families weekly access the food bank. The center distributes 1000 pounds of pinto beans, 600 pounds of rice and 720 cans of vegetables. Everything at the center is done by volunteers. Donations are made to the center by word of mouth, mostly. Got clothes you want to donate? Sister Nancy east of town, Furniture, blankets, diapers, hygiene products, appliances, pots and pans, and on and on. Sister Nancy east of town. Everyone knows who that is. I have a bag of coats in my car awaiting delivery. Last summer I packed up a house full of clothes and household goods. Took me 7 trips, but I got it all out there. They are always in need of cooking oil, flour, beans, rice, canned vegetables. I have a brochure here that I would love to send you. Just call me. 719-546-1555.
Well, I have once more digressed. We did have a lovely lunch of one of my better offerings; home made chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, some sort of veggie and gluten free biscuits with cheese and garlic just because I wanted to make them. Finished that off with a fresh peach cobbler with ice cream. So after several hours of visiting, I gave them a tour of my little corner of the world and then they hopped in their cars and away they went. All things considered, I thin we had a very lovely day and would love to do this again very soon.
Want to join us?
When I write about people I usually like to list 4 or 5 things that they will be remembered for, but that is not going to work for this bunch of women.
So I have introduced you to the two UCC ministers and now we move on to Sister Nancy and her mission with the migrant workers of Southern Colorado. I finally got a little of the skinny on how Los Pobres came to be the operation it is today. Seems that many years ago , 1979, to be exact, Sister Nancy was having dinner with Father Gallagher at his parsonage at Sacred Heart of Avondale. As the evening progressed there would be a knock at the door. Father Gallagher would excuse himself and step out for about 10 minutes and then come back and set down and resume his job as host. About the third time this happened, Sister Nancy decided to "spy on him", and was surprised to see him sacking up clothes and food for a man who was clearly an illegal immigrant.
When she confronted him, he confessed and she told him, "Well, it is clear you are sort of organized, but let me help you and I think together we can do a lot more good." In the beginning of their operation, it was run from a room in the parsonage. Sister Nancy began to keep records of the immigrants who were accessing provisions and services. Of course all this was done behind closed doors as the workers were all illegally in the United States.
But thank God for people who will do what ever is necessary and trust that good will win in the outcome. In the year 2000 they built a small shed behind the rectory and the operation was moved to that area. This is how it works in the real world...People die, babies are born, INS arrests and deports illegals to Mexico, women cry, and every day the business of living is a matter of course. Children who do not know where Mexico is, are sent back there to live in a land they have never seen with people they have never known.
(An aside here to a personal experience. I think it was back in about 1980-81, I had daughter Debbie and her husband living in this town with or near me. Patty and Dona were also here. Well, Tex and Patty decided to go "work in the fields", since it was ready work and they could make lots of money. So they piled into my Chevy and off they went. 8 hours later they returned. Patty's eye was bloodshot and looked very bad. Seems they were picking peas and Tex had pulled a weed and flipped it over his shoulder into her eye. They were sunburnt beyond belief, exhausted, dehydrated, generally out of sorts with life. The opened their hands to give me the fruits of their labors. This grand total amounted to $3.28. I was disappointed, to say the very least.)
The point with that story is that wages have nothing to with hours spent bent over in the hot sun. I recall several years back that there was a lot of uproar about the illegals coming into this country and taking jobs from the locals. So Pueblo County "cracked down" and the illegals were deported and none came from Mexico. As I recall, the crops rotted in the fields because no one came to pick the produce. I think they have lightened up since that little fiasco!
Back to Los Pobres. In 2002 they received a grant from the Packard Foundation and built the big shed they are in now. There are 5,000 families registered. 200-220 families weekly access the food bank. The center distributes 1000 pounds of pinto beans, 600 pounds of rice and 720 cans of vegetables. Everything at the center is done by volunteers. Donations are made to the center by word of mouth, mostly. Got clothes you want to donate? Sister Nancy east of town, Furniture, blankets, diapers, hygiene products, appliances, pots and pans, and on and on. Sister Nancy east of town. Everyone knows who that is. I have a bag of coats in my car awaiting delivery. Last summer I packed up a house full of clothes and household goods. Took me 7 trips, but I got it all out there. They are always in need of cooking oil, flour, beans, rice, canned vegetables. I have a brochure here that I would love to send you. Just call me. 719-546-1555.
Well, I have once more digressed. We did have a lovely lunch of one of my better offerings; home made chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, some sort of veggie and gluten free biscuits with cheese and garlic just because I wanted to make them. Finished that off with a fresh peach cobbler with ice cream. So after several hours of visiting, I gave them a tour of my little corner of the world and then they hopped in their cars and away they went. All things considered, I thin we had a very lovely day and would love to do this again very soon.
Want to join us?
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