“Something about this place grabs your heart and does not let go.”

Below is a post contributed by Friend and past mission trip participant, Richard Jordan. Enjoy!


August 2011 and another trip to Casa San Salvador in Miacatlan, Mexico, the location of what most of us Holy Namers simply call NPH. When my daughter, Claire was planning to go on her second of her three trips to NPH after her senior year in high school, I was lucky enough to go along as a chaperone. Having never done any sort of “mission” trip before, I was not sure what I was getting into. What I did know was the Claire had fallen in love with the home on her first trip in 2007 and so had friends of ours whose high school kids had been on the trip.


Within days of arriving at NPH, I too fell in love with the home. As a priest told me at the end of that week there, “Something about this place grabs your heart and does not let go”. How right he was. I had the privilege in August to make my fourth trip to NPH as a Holy Name chaperone and I feel more strongly about supporting NPH than ever before. I would go back tomorrow if I could.


I have been able to meet and hang out with our Godson, Alex, who Claire met on her first trip to NPH. He had just arrived at NPH and was a skinny, malnourished nine-year old. Over these last several years, I have had the opportunity to see Alex grow into a healthy, polite 13 year old who is an excellent student in school. I have gotten to know Raul, Gill, Ivan, Daniel, Carmen, Geraldo, Rodrigo and many others year after year. My son Andrew traveled to NPH for the first time on this year’s trip and I saw him make an immediate bond with Jordi, who we now sponsor. My wife Kathy is heavily involved with fundraising for NPH and has worked to spread the word about NPH. I know our 9 year old, Matt can’t wait to make the trip, and I have a feeling that we will be doing that as a family one day because I don’t think he can wait until he is 16, the earliest that he would be eligible to go through Holy Name. NPH has truly become a family cause that has touched all of us, and I know many others where the whole family has been touched as well.


The NPH organization still follows the vision laid out by Father Wasson 57 years ago in his tiny church in Cuernavaca. God’s will is truly being done for thousands and thousands of children who have grown up in an NPH home and gone on to lead successful lives after being given the opportunity to escape a life of little or no hope.


I hope you will take the opportunity to come to the Fiesta at Holy Name on Sunday, October 9 in Wayzata, Minnesota to meet some of the children from NPH Mexico and open your heart to be grabbed by these children.