Holy Family youth and adults serve the community during 'Let's Color our City'

Forty teens, eight young adults and dozens of volunteer adults from different ministries and organizations at Holy Family Catholic Parish came together for a two-day service camp, entitled “Let’s Color our City.”

Color is an image for Love, that Jesus teaches in the Gospel. Together, we aimed to forget about ourselves a little bit and focus on loving our neighbor the way He showed us. The Gospel supported us in this endeavor, through Jesus’ words: “You did it to me” and “…love one another. As I have loved you...” (Jn 13:34).

During June 11-13, Holy Family Parish partnered with Catholic Charities, and together they reached out to the community of clients and staff at the Mother Teresa Shelter, and we helped paint and worked some odd jobs to complete two homes for families affected by Hurricane Harvey In Aransas Pass. 

The afternoons were dedicated to building community among us with moments of fun, reflection and prayer. We finished with Sunday Mass by serving and bringing back to God and the community all the fruits of these days. 

We saw a lot of pain and suffering in our city. One of the teens expressed it saying, “Life is not fair.” It is true that often our actions cause pain to ourselves and to each other and make life unfair. This camp represented, in a very small way, a response to that unfairness. We strived to be Jesus’ hands and feet and together, “His body,” restore dignity, love, and fairness where it is lacking.

Most of the teens experienced in a very real way the family of the Church through the witness of the parish community – serving as one family. Many teens discovered that giving of themselves and loving others as Jesus did is the way to happiness. 

“My mom forced me to come, and I am glad she did because while I was serving at the shelter and the houses, we were helping to fix I experienced so much happiness. It filled up my heart with joy,” said Isaac Lopez, a member of Connect youth group at Holy Family. “I connected with the people at this camp while serving. We were strangers and all I can say now is that we have become like brothers and sisters. Everyone at the camp became like my second family.”