T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY From left to right, St. Francis of Assisi Parish members Jessica Williams, Kevin Duncan, Theresa Orlovsky, Carmen Angel Melendez, Maria Gomez, Elly Mack and Mark Mack are headed to Santiago de Maria, El Salvador on a “Sister Parish” trip for the next week.

As this issue of the T-R hits mailboxes and newsstands, seven members of the St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Marshalltown are headed south on a weeklong ‘Sister Parish’ trip to the St. Martin de Porres Parish in Santiago de Maria, El Salvador, a small city of about 20,000 people in the eastern part of the Central American nation.

Some of the travelers have visited the country before on previous Sister Parish trips, which began in 2007 and have occurred on three subsequent occasions since then, and one of them, Carmen Angel Melendez, is an immigrant from El Salvador who came to the U.S. in 1989.

“As an immigrant, I know how hard it’s been for people. Even if they said it’s been improved, there’s a lot of poverty there still. We’re still struggling with a lot of stuff like water, food and education, and we are trying to help them to live better,” she said.

Theresa Orlovsky went for the first time two years ago, and she noted that members of the St. Martin de Porres Parish have also visited Marshalltown as they build a mutually beneficial partnership, even holding Zoom meetings during the pandemic. Because they are working with another Catholic parish, these aren’t traditional mission trips, but as Mark Mack explained, the goal is to see how they can be of assistance to the people.

“We go out there. We get to meet the people. We find out what some of the needs are. In one community we went to, it was water, so we tried to help them with that,” he said. “One of the priests down there was really into gardening, so we tried to help them with their gardens and grazing chickens and doing things like that. So we try to find out what they want instead of telling them what we think they need. So it’s a slower process, but I think it’s a better process.”

Jessica Williams is headed out on the trip for the first time and, after offering donations for those going in the past, she’s excited to play a more active role this time around.

“This year, we’re doing vision. We’re helping with vision screenings and fitting with glasses, and that spoke to me because although I work with hearing… being able to make sure that they can have access to vision care is also important, so I was excited to participate in that too,” she said.

Thanks to a parishioner from the Swift Greenhouse located in rural Marshall County, local seeds will be planted both figuratively and literally as the group deepens its ties to the St. Martin de Porres Parish and the Santiago de Maria community.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.