God willing, a Mission Team will visit the Hogar Rafael Ayau orphanage February 21-28, 2011.  This team will be led by Matushka Sally Nielsen and Fr. Andrew Moulton.  Persons interested in applying for this team should contact Matushka Sally via info at orthodoxquincy dot org.

Previous Mission Teams

    The St. Raphael of Brooklyn Orthodox Mission, with the support of many contributors from the Quincy area in 2007, sent Mission Teams to the Hogar Rafael Ayau orphanage in Guatemala City, Guatemala in February 2007, 2008, and 2010. Team members set good examples for the children (many of whom had too much of bad examples in adults); they played with them, held the infants, prayed with them; in 2007 the women took the older girls on a field trip to an ecological park (the boys went three months earlier) while the men painted hallways and doors between the kitchen and storerooms.  Team members brought donations of money, toys, crafts, clothing, etc. and gave them to the orphanage.

    In 2007 nine children at the orphanage between the ages of 2 and 7 were received into the Orthodox Church through the Mysteries of Holy Baptism, Chrismation, and Communion on the Sunday we were there.  The eight lay members of the Mission Team each sponsored one or more of the children, promising to pray for the child they sponsored for the rest of their lives.

    Children at the orphanage are fed, clothed, and sheltered; they are educated and receive medical and dental care.

    The orphanage is operated by Orthodox nuns from the Holy Trinity monastery; the Mission Team toured that monastery.  The monastery raises rabbits and fish to supplement the diet of the children.  The team also took a half-day to simply be tourists in Antigua.

    A similar trip took place in February 2008 but with fewer team members and without any baptisms.  Most of the children at the orphanage made their own quilt under the instruction of team members.

Another trip took place in February 2010.