Help is Greatly Needed
Caminando Por La Paz in Guatemala has been an Affiliate mission since Father Tom Goekler, MM, died in 2010. If you are one of the 1,000 recipients of Caminando Por La Paz* quarterly E-news, you read Ron Covey’s apology for its lateness; he said he was “suffering a lack of energy.” In the newsletter, Ron makes a plea for assistance on the role he has assumed for the last 12 years.
One of the most difficult aspects of a mission role is ensuring it will continue when it is time for a missioner to bow out.
Ron, seeing that he cannot “keep all his balls in the air” much longer, listed the many facets of his role where others could help without having to travel to Guatemala:
Family Coffee project: procurement, sales, managing online store, working with Honduran growers and Texas roasters, advertising
Internet presence: manage two websites, conduct email blasts, handle PayPal, maintain two banking sites, and more
Quarterly E-news*: lay out the newsletter, basically a photo essay using stories and photos provided by the Guatemalan staff
YouTube channel: apply video production skills to add to the videos currently available
Fundraising: besides coordinating current opportunities to donate—on websites, in newsletters—grow the donor base by following up with mission groups that visit Caminando
Sponsorships: publicize program that supports students in schools and work with the Guatemalan organizer who monitors the sponsored children
If a few new Affiliates answer Ron’s call, we Affiliates can continue to support the work Caminando does in a poor area of Guatemala City. Perhaps several members of your Affiliate chapter could make it an ongoing mission project to handle, or join a committee handling one of these areas. Ron asks anyone who is interested to contact him at ron@fathertomscoffee.online.
*Sign up to receive Caminando Por La Paz E-News at https://www.fathertomsmission.org/.
Visit the Family Coffee project at https://www.fathertomsfamilycoffee.org/.