Christmas greetings from Jiñocuao

Our brothers and sisters at the San José Church in Jiñocuao, Nicaragua -- our sister parish for 30 years -- send their love and greetings for a joyous Christmas season in a letter dated December 1st.

"It is wonderful to be able to write to you with a lot of love and affection after such a long time. It fills us with joy to express our greetings and thanks to you for maintaining that spirit of brotherhood and solidarity with our community. Although we cannot see each other physically, we know that spiritually it is possible; we always have you in our prayers. We want to share beautiful things with you in these difficult times of pandemic, from a distance but still full of hope and advent."

In the photo, a farmer stands in a sorghum field in Jiñocuao. The seeds were provided through the TPPC Poinsettia Fund earlier this year.

The letter reports a poor rainy season but they still have faith that they will be able to harvest corn, sorghum, and vegetables.

They report that "the entire community" (at least those over the age of 2 years) have all had two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. But they are still "always applying preventive measures."

Finally, they share that many people from Jiñocuao are emigrating to the U.S., Spain, Panama, and Costa Rica in search of better living conditions and support their families with remittances.

The English translation and original Spanish version of the letter are available on this website.