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Oak Park Migrant Ministry at St Catherine-St. Lucy Rectory

September 2023

It has been a blessing to unexpectedly be in migrant ministries in the Oak Park and Austin neighborhood of Chicago. As part of an ecumenical / inter-faith collaborative, our migrant families come to St. Catherine – St. Lucy Rectory two days a week for fresh clothes, breakfast and showers. Through the generosity of many people we are able to feed 60 migrants three meals a day, clothe them, get them access to medical services, assist them with their immigration / asylum papers.

During the week of September 11-17, 2023, these were our Migrant Ministry updates:

• Donated clothes have been moved to a larger room in the Rectory.
• Araceli’s Bakery from Cicero donated Pan Dulce, which was a big hit with the migrants!
• Quite a few new faces from the new arrivals last weekend. Many of the young men who arrived were in need of basics…
• Fr. Carl stopped by to visit and also had a chance to spend some time with the migrants in the kitchen.
• Celine Woznica and her husband, Don, did their magic in the coordination of shower day!
• What a great community… The volunteer team receives more blessings than we can possibly give. Our hearts are full of joy!

Welcome to America! – A group of local friends joined together and asked what was needed immediately for the migrants. Most have worn the same shoes for the 3,000 mile journey. We had lots of donations of women’s shoes and tennis / sneakers for men. I came home to find this delivered to my home. Heart-warming notes were also written.