 |
| Staff at AFYA at workshop I help facilitate with Sr. Efu |
What You Will Find in my November Newsletter
- Life Lessons.
- Your support can keep me in mission.
- Plans for a new building at AFYA.
- Story about a women who came to AFYA for healing.
- Pictures, and more pictures.
Life Lessons
Five
months have passed now since I have returned to Brazil as a Maryknoll Affiliate. In that time I have become ever so grateful
for all the lessons I have learned in life.
I am amazed at how many skills and resources I draw upon in order to
live my life as a missionary.
I
have had many different types of work in my life from accounting, youth
ministry, communication, and missioner. I
find I use so many of those different skills on a daily basis. For
example I studied accounting 20 years ago but I have more knowledge of it then
others and so I am now the bookkeeper. We
are beginning a construction project at AFYA and I am one of the staff members
responsible for it. I have been thinking
how grateful I am for the experiences I have had like building a barn with my
dad and mixing cement by hand in Mexico.
Last
week we had a staff training and I used my skills from communication and youth
ministry to create teaching dynamics with Sr. Efu.
Some
of our staff members are taking a class to learn to read and write. I have been able to understand their challenges
of reading because as a child I struggled with it and now have the same
experience in learning a new language.
Every
day I learn something new about myself or about life. I am
becoming so aware that all the experiences I have had have shaped me into who I
am and provided me with knowledge I sometimes take for granted.
 |
| Maria and Julia. Maria is a cook at AFYA. |
Now
as a missioner I am learning even more. I
am fortunate to work with women who may not have the same education I do but
who have so much wisdom and life experience.
Life has a lot to teach us and I have learned we never know when those
lessons will come in handy.
 |
| The neighbor girls of AFYA. |
Your
support can help keep me in mission.
Please consider making a donation to help me continue serving the
marginalized in Brazil.
Since I
am a Maryknoll Affiliate I do not receive funding from an organization. If you have the ability to contribute to help
me stay in mission it would be very helpful so I can cover the basic necessities
in life.
You can donate by:
Pay Pal: this is the best way for me. Go to paypal my info is Carolyn
Trumble at trumble100@gmail.com.
You can send a tax deductible check made out to Maryknoll
Sisters and indicate it is designated to Women’s Holistic Center, in Brazil
and under care of Sr. Efu Nyaki. P.O. Box 311, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0311
NOTE: YOU
MUST ADDRESS THE DONATION EXACTLY THIS WAY IN ORDER FOR IT TO REACH ME!!!!!!!!!
Thank
You!
 |
| The New AFYA after March 2015 |
 |
| Staff standing in front of building to be torn down |
.jpg) |
| Photo of the current AFYA buildings. |
Using Bricks and Mortar to
Reform Lives
AFYA A
Center for Holistic Healing will celebrate 15 years this coming March. Started
by Maryknoll Sisters Efu Nyaki and Connie Pospisil alongside a group of
Brazilian Women, the center works to provide holistic healing in a poor
neighborhood of Joao Pessoa, Brazil.
Starting on November 17th AFYA will begin a reform which will bring not
only new improvements to the existing buildings but a restaurant which will
service healthy, natural food,
As the opening
of construction begins on the compound, the
women of AFYA are not only beginning to lay a new foundation of bricks and
mortar they are beginning a process of building onto the foundation of a
collaborative working team that provides the women with a livelihood and the
community with therapies for healing.
With a vision of evolutionary
consciousness, Sr. Efu will lead the women in workshops focusing on ways to
revitalize the staff and create new ways of working together, communicating and
visioning for the future.
The
architects that are working with the building project have entered into a
strong collaboration with the women capturing the spirit of AFYA. For one of the first meetings they gathered
all the women and asked the opinion of all 18 staff members. Each person gave their ideas and
opinions. The final plans of the project
remarkably included every idea that was presented at that meeting.
Next week
some of the old buildings will begin to be torn down and new bricks and mortar
will be used to build up the new. The
building will provide AFYA the ability to serve our clients better and offer a
healthy alternative for food in a community which needs more health education
and options. At the heart of AFYA the
thing that cements the spirit and healing that happens on a daily basis are the
women who have been trained and nurtured over the last 15 years in the
therapies of healing. They are the
foundation of AFYA. Their love, care and
talents are the building blocks on which the center rests.
Maria
Ausciliadora
 |
| Maria Ausciliadora |
I work at Afya a
Holistic Healing Center located in a marginalized neighborhood situated in the
periphery of the city of João Pessoa, Brazil.
It is an organization run by Women from the nearby communities. Afya receives many people from the communities
who have suffered from daily stress of domestic and urban violence, extreme
poverty, drugs, alcohol abuse, etc. The
holistic healing therapies we offer have provided a lot of awareness and
wellness for many people. To be specific, the following is an amazing story of
one of the women who came to Afya for healing and after her transformation
became a member of the team who work at Afya.
Maria Ausciliadora, 42 years old came to Afya 9 years ago with
severe and frequent epileptic attacks. She was diagnosed with Epilepsy since
she was 5 years old. Since then, she
used medication to try to control the attacks knowing that there was no cure
for this disease. When she was 33 years old her epileptic attacks started to
occur more often to the extent that she was afraid to leave her house by
herself. By the time she came to Afya
her attacks were as often as twice a week or even more depending on the stressful
situations that she encountered.
Auscilliadora lives in a neighborhood that is in the periphery of the
city of João Pessoa with high indices of violence, drug use, regular assaults
on buses, etc. and she told us that at night she has a hard time sleeping
because she often hears the sounds of gunshots.
Maria Ausciliadora had chronic muscle
tensions as well as constantly being angry and irritated. After two years of therapy sessions Maria
Ausciliadora became more playful and started experiencing some moments of
relaxation and joyfulness. She also noted that her epileptic crisis were fewer
compared to before she started doing her sessions at Afya. Then she was able to negotiate with her
doctor about taking less of her medication. She eventually stopped taking
medication and today she is doing fine with no medication. A couple of the years after Ausiciliadora first
came to Afya seeking healing she asked if she could join the team that works at
the center. She had the desire to help other women who come with the similar
situation.
