Since April 1999, Church of the Risen Savior has been part of a fruitful “sister parish” relationship with St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gris Gris Haiti. This mutual relationship, which our parish still supports, has evolved over the last 25 years. Your support during our Sister Parish Weekends have enabled St. Rose of Lima to create a thriving school, solar powered-wells and many other life-giving improvements and medical missions.

As dynamics have shifted in Haiti, however, maintaining a true “sister parish” partnership with St. Rose is no longer a viable option. Risen Savior will continue to support this parish as a benefactor, and your support is still very necessary.

Our relationship with St. Rose of Lima Parish began in 1998 with a liaison through the Parish Twinning Program. In April 1999, a delegation of five parishioners went to Gris Gris, Haiti, to start our partnership. Those first Risen Savior volunteers embraced a very poor parish in a remote part of Haiti with five satellite “chapels” serving as many as 10,000 Catholics. The existing small school had dirt floors and half walls. Lack of clean water was an overwhelming reality.

What grew out of that first visit has been remarkable. As missionaries, we were called to live out our faith in the world by building a mutual relationship with St. Rose of Lima. This meant experiencing the Haitian culture, the day-to-day lives, hardships, stories of faith, and rituals of the people of this parish. In return, our volunteers and Risen Savior parishioners became aware of the injustices affecting the people of Haiti. This provided opportunities for our parishioners to grow in faith, hope, and love. For their part, the parishioners of St. Rose of Lima, have blessed us with their stories, prayers, and resolute faith.

In the years 2000- 2008, Risen Savior completed at least one mission a year. These missions provided much-needed medical and dental care for residents. Our parish financed the completion of the rectory, roofs on two chapel churches, four cisterns, three new wells, and water pumps with generators. Additionally, these missions saw the creation of the Catholic school for St. Rose of Lima, which has been transformational for the residents of Gris-Gris.

Between 2009-2018, annual mission trips to St. Rose of Lima continued. These missions focused on agricultural initiatives, eye exams and glasses, teacher training, as well as multiple dental and medical missions. We also arranged for the priest from Haiti to travel to Minnesota to talk at several Sister Parish weekends. Renovations for the St. Rose parish and its satellite chapels continued. This Sister Parish dynamic also saw the construction of the St. Jude House which housed the poorest of the poor. Significantly, our volunteers and local parishioners converted an existing water pump to solar energy, a real windfall for a people who often lack consistent electric power or fuel to run generators.

Since 2019, our relationship with St Rose of Lima has changed dramatically. The global impact of COVID-19 curtailed our missionary trips. Haiti’s evolving reality also prevented mission trips. Growing gang violence, political instability, and travel restrictions have made real-time interactions impossible, and it seems unlikely that conditions will become safer anytime soon. Against these great odds, however, we have been able to get funding transferred to the parish.

Risen Savior pastor, Fr. Matthew, has asked that we continue as benefactors for the good works that have taken life at St. Rose of Lima in the last 25 years. To that end, the Sister Parish committee will continue to host its weekends with the expressed goal of raising $36,000.00 a year to support three areas: $18,000.00 annually for the St. Rose of Lima School program, $9,000.00 for parish programming, and $9,000.00 for maintaining the existing solar wells and emergencies.

Haiti desperately needs our prayers and support! To date, your generous support of $924,708.00 and the hard work of Mission volunteers have given life to our “sister” in faith, St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gris Gris. Please continue your financial support during our fundraising weekends for these projects that have been so lifegiving to those in Gris Gris AND the Church of the Risen Savior.

Contact: Sherwin Pasillos, Parish Administrator, administrator@risensavior.org, (952) 698-1720