Volume 113, No. 7
Houston, Texas
September 2010
Education is Foundation of Mission in Belize Slippery Slide
Camp is Extra Special, Page 14-15
Miriam Rodriguez (front right), scholarship recipient, and her family.
By Jimmy and Barbara Hemphill
M
iriam’s mother needs a miracle. Every morning the first thing she thinks about is what she can sacrifice to help assure that her daughter finishes high school. The second thing she does is pray for a family at Good Shepherd, Kingwood – a family that donated the scholarship for Miriam’s first year of high school. Miriam and her mother live in San Mateo, one of the poorest parts of Belize, a tiny, poor country between Mexico and Guatemala on the Caribbean Sea. Her family cannot afford the cost of high school and the government does not financially support public education beyond the eight grade. See more of San Mateo, a community of about 1500 people, is a barrio built over a swamp with no sewer or sanitation the story at: system, no roads, no running water or electricity. Most of the families live in homes built from scavenged pieces of plywood and sheet metal. Most of the 175 families who live here came to work in the booming construction and tourism business on nearby Ambergris Caye. But the cost of living on the island is high, and the typical San Mateo resident earns the equivalent of $20 a day. Until 2006, there was no primary school for children in San Mateo to attend. In September 2006, starting with 60 students, American Episcopal missionaries Vernon and Francis Wilson co-founded Holy Cross Anglican Primary School. The school has already become the cornerstone for an ongoing series of miracles. Today, Holy Cross has more than 500 students. It has the largest library in the area and a state-of-the-art www.epicenter.org/youtube computer center. Graduates score extremely well on standardized tests and demonstrate amazing results when given the opportunity to attend high school.
Miriam graduated from Holy Cross in 2009. She completed her first year at San Pedro High School this year and was third in her class. Her sponsors have already committed to paying tuition for another year of high school. When asked about the value of education in Belize, Miriam’s mother said, “I have suffered for not being educated. Because I am not educated, I remain as I am. I am not bad, but always I have work that is hard for me. I have to work many hours to have a little bit of money to eat ... many hours to have a little money.” This year, Nancy Schorr, director of Youth Ministries at Good Shepherd, Kingwood, raised money for scholarships See Mission in Belize, page 10
INSIDE Bishops’ Calendars......................... 27 Bishop’s Column.............................. 2 Calendar of events.......................... 17
Diocesan News.................... 18-24 Parish News.......................... 3-13 Sam Todd’s Column..................26
Mission Funding Goes Green this Fall, Page 16 Episcopal Diocese of Texas Diocesan Center 1225 Texas Ave. Houston, TX 77002-3504
Find us on the web at www.epicenter.org
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Texas Episcopalian
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2 0 11 M i s s i o n f u n d i n g Opportunities CD