Donors help make First Communion special

A Honduran girl with AIDS tries on a veil donated by Arkansans. The nuns operate a home for women and children with AIDS.
A Honduran girl with AIDS tries on a veil donated by Arkansans. The nuns operate a home for women and children with AIDS.

RATCLIFF — When the call went out across the diocese for new and gently used First Communion dresses and suits for poor children in Honduras, dozens of people responded.
This spring the young girls will be wearing white dresses and veils and the young boys were wearing suits thanks to generous Arkansas donors.
Kenny and Pat Stengel, members of St. Anthony Church in Ratcliff, were contacted last fall by Sister Divia of the Missionaries of Charity in Comayagua, Honduras.
“Even for something as special as First Communion, many children must make-do, wearing the best of their threadbare clothing,” Pat Stengel said.
The Stengels have worked with the Missionaries of Charity over the years as Lay Missionaries of Charity.
Other LMCs from around the state also started to collect needed items. Kenny Stengel approached fellow students from the Little Rock Theology Institute to donate items or money.
Sister Divia said she wanted each child to have donated clothing or none would.
“So we needed 30 to 40 First Communion dresses and boys’ items to take to Comayagua in order to have enough for all of Sister’s mountain children,” Kenny Stengel said. “We were leaving on Nov. 9 for Honduras and hoping to take a suitcase filled with donations. We had no idea what the response would be.”
Several women bought material and made new dresses. Veils and white gloves were donated by the Benedictine sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery in Fort Smith, and one volunteer bought the supplies and material to make several dozen new veils.
“The donations in dresses were matched by nearly an equal number of white shirts, ties and black slacks for each young boy,” Pat Stengel said.
By the time the collection ended two months later, there were more than 120 dresses and boys outfits, 100 rosaries, 60 veils, several baptismal gowns, several pairs of white shoes, socks, belts and $600 in cash donations.
Donations came from out of state and as far away as Colorado and South Dakota, sent by travelers who read the local bulletins and decided to help.
More than half of the clothing donations, along with the cash, were delivered to the Missionaries of Charity, Kenny Stengel said. The remainder of the donations will be delivered this spring.
He said the sisters plan to reuse the dresses with each new group of communicants so that for many years young girls in the village will have special dresses to wear.
What is not used by the sisters in Comayagua will be shared with other Missionaries of Charity houses and parishes in Honduras.
“We are so grateful to all those who helped make the effort a success,” Kenny Stengel said. “We had the fun part of making the delivery and seeing the pleasure of the sisters who work with the poor.”
Sister Divia told the Stengels, “When we ask, God will always provide more than we expect. His generosity is immense.”

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