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La
Navidad in the Borderlands
Candles flickered with a soft dusky light in their paper bag and
sand-weighted New Mexico-style luminarios. These were lit just
before the Vigil Service on the Eve of the Nativity of Our Lord began at
St. George's Orthodox Parish in Pharr. On the Southern-most Border
of Texas, Pharr is on the Rio Grande River which divides the US from
Mexico. Parishioners and guests began to arrive at St. George's to
sing and pray this beautiful service - people from a diversity of ethnic
and national backgrounds including Greek, Romanian, and Russian, Serbian,
Ukrainian, African, Asian and many Hispanic and "Anglo" converts
to the Orthodox Christian faith.
Located in the Borderlands, St.
George's Orthodox Church ministers to year-round Parishioners, Orthodox
"winter" Texans and those native to the area. Many local
residents speak only Spanish. Fr. Antonio Perdomo has been at St.
George's for almost a year now. A Hispanic who was born in the
Dominican Republic, he is able to use his first language and cultural
skills to connect with the Parishioners at St. George's, the local
community and across the border in Mexico.
This year for the first time, the
Parish's "Choir Ensemble" sang traditional Eastern European,
Orthodox Nativity Carols at the annual early December "Las
Posadas" Festival in McAllen, Texas. "Las Posadas" means
"The Inns" and is a traditional play done during the Christmas
season in many Spanish-speaking cultures. Most in the audience had never
heard the lovely Orthodox carols before. Our ensemble was
well-received and its performance was aired on a local television program.
During the performance, the ensemble sang the "Troparion of the
Nativity" in both English and Spanish.
Saturday, December 14th was St.
George's "Open House and International Bake Fest." This
event was a great success. We sold many of our Parishioner's
delicious ethnic baked goods. Our Parish's homemade olive oil based
"St. George Soap" was also a big hit. Many people browsed
our bookstore for gifts and to learn about the Orthodox Christian faith.
Father Antonio and our adult acolyte were kept busy all day with Church
Tours and many questions. Other guests from the community just came
to have a cup of coffee and a few sweets with us, and to have the
opportunity for a friendly visit.
In the early evening of December
22nd, twelve Parishioners and friends of St. George's met at Father
Antonio's home to sing Christmas carols in the neighborhood near the
Church. Again, we sang traditional Orthodox as well as Spanish and
English Christmas carols to our neighbors, elderly Parishioners, friends
in nearby trailer parks and to families we had helped during the year. The
songs in both English and Spanish were warmly received by all.
Monday the 23rd of December found us
rising early to meet and cross the bridge into Reynosa, Mexico. We went to
help our friends, Mark and Kathy Evans, provide their "6th Annual
Fiesta de la Navidad" in one of the poorest of the poor neighborhoods
in the border town of Reynosa. The Evans are dedicated Christian
missionaries who staff and facilitate a year-round weekly "free
clinic" in Mexico. They run the clinic is a shack and shanty
neighborhood and serve many who live (as "squatters") in the
nearby Solares colonia, which was a former brick factory and city dump.
Prior to the Fiesta Day, the Evans family and other volunteers spent weeks
getting food, blankets, clothing and medical supplies "across."
Many began the Fiesta Day wearily.
The Evans' and others had spent the entire previous night up until 2 AM
preparing tamales de pollo (chicken tamales) and cooking them in large
pots over smoky wood fires. Christmas tamales are a long-standing local
tradition here in the Rio Grande Valley and in many parts of Mexico.
These were meant to "feed the multitudes" at the Fiesta.
After our contingency from St. George's arrived, the single paved street,
deeply pot-holed and donkey-cart driven, was blocked off for the day's
festivities. White plastic chairs, musicians and musical instruments
also began to arrive and be set up by neighborhood volunteers. We amateur
"tamalitas" helped out by making a final pot load of tamales de
frijoles (bean tamales) for the day's feast. We spread the thick,
white masa de harina dough on pre-soaked ojas or corn husks, filled the
masa with frijoles and wrapped up the husks to be steamed in aluminum
tamale pots.
As larger than expected crowds began
to gather, Father Antonio was asked to begin the festivities by reading
the gospel account of the Nativity of Christ in Spanish. After this,
Christmas music and Spanish songs filled the dusty streets. Local
teens presented a street play with a moral theme. Later, the
hundreds of children enjoyed breaking traditional, candy-filled piņatas.
Then, bags of candy and bottles of juice were given to each child. A
few days earlier, a Rio Grande homeschool group called HEART prepared
six-hundred and forty-seven of these candy bags for the Reynosa clinic and
a Mexican orphanage. Both the Evans and the Perdomo families are
part of this homeschool group.
From the beginning, it was apparent
that although huge quantities of frijoles and tamales had been prepared,
in no way would we be able to feed and accommodate the large and hungry
crowd. Father Antonio blessed the food and it was served to all
adults, children and helpers present. Yet somehow after all were
served, there were still enough tamales left to feed the hosting family at
least a meal or two. One Parishioner commented that instead of
gathering up fragments of leftover loaves and fishes, we had gathered the
miraculous fragments of tamales de pollo y frijoles.
Father then assisted Mark Evans in
distributing 200 warm blankets and bags of clothing to each family.
Even though they ran out of blankets well before the line was finished,
they managed to find something to give each family.
December 29th, the Sunday after
Nativity (Holy Innocents), Parishioners from St. George's again crossed
the border - this time to take food, candy, toiletry items, school
supplies, baby blankets, diapers and necessities to a girl's orphanage
overseen by some very dedicated Roman Catholic Nuns. Approximately
200 girls are cared for at the orphanage. They range in age from
infants through late teens. In addition, the Parish gave small icons
of the guardian angel holding the hand of a small girl to each child.
It has been a busy season of the
birth of our Lord in this borderland Parish. Pray for us that our ministry
and outreach blossoms and grows. Come visit us - as winter Texans,
on a short-term medical or mission trip, or just to come and share in the
warm and generous hospitality found here in the OCA's Southernmost USA
Parish.
If you would like to donate supplies
or funds for the Evans family's ongoing health care work in Mexico,
especially medical supplies and equipment for the Reynosa Clinic, funding,
help or materials for housing repairs and/or for the girl's orphanage,
please contact Father Antonio Perdomo at 956-781-6114 or send him an email
at: padreantoniop@aol.com
. Donations are tax deductible and can be made out to St. George's
Orthodox Church - earmarked as "For Project Reynosa."
Matushka Elizabeth Perdomo mateliza@aol.com
St. George-the-Great-Martyr Orthodox Church
P.O. Box 667
Pharr, TX 78577-0667
956-781-6114
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