Two ways to bring hope to a family
Volunteer or donate to furnish a home
Are you feeling down about the state of the world? Here are two ways you can bring hope to a family.
Hundreds of social service agencies refer people who are recently homeless, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, low income, immigrants, victims of disaster, or are coping with illness or disability to Household Goods. Last year they furnished over 3000 homes including the home of our newest refugee family. Watch this video to see inside this amazing operation.
Join a team of Shepherds Jan. 24 or 28 12:45-4:00 doing a variety of tasks at Household Goods. Volunteers must be 14 years or older. Click here for the link to sign up.
Donate to our Linens and Lamps Drive. We are collecting towels, sheets and blankets in excellent condition and lamps with shades until January 28.
Food drive is a success
“For I was hungry and you gave me food.”
Thank you to everyone who contributed food, funds or time to the food drive. And thank you to the leaders of this drive for your incredible flexibility.
As the weeks of collecting food extended into a time of suspended SNAP benefits, we found out that the Acton Food Pantry was full and could not accept more goods until after Thanksgiving. How wonderful to hear that local communities had filled their shelves!
Loaves and Fishes, the food pantry at Devens, had lots of room and was able to take everything on Sunday as planned. It was 582.1 pounds of food - an amount that impressed the pantry staff!
El Ocotillo celebrates our sister relationship
Read the letter sent to us from El Ocotillo and photos of their gathering.
On Saturday, July 12th, 2025, a day we expected to be in the village, the community of El Ocotillo gathered for an Acción de Gracias por Hermanamiento which means Thanksgiving for our Sister Relationship. Many people were in attendance, including our scholarship students. The village sent a letter to us which is translated here:
Dear sister community of the Good Shepherd in solidarity,
Please receive a fraternal and warm greeting from the Leadership committee and the scholarship students of Ocotillo. With much affection, we wish to express to you how profoundly sorry we are that you have not been able to visit us as previously envisioned. We understand that current circumstances, in the United States with the deportations as well as in El Salvador with the current regime, are not favorable for your visit.
Nevertheless, we remain firm in the hope that a time when we can be together will come again soon. With faith in God, we believe that there will be better times ahead. He gives us the strength to forge ahead, even in the midst of difficulties, and we trust that his will, will reunite us again soon.
In the meantime, we want you to know that we hold you present in our prayers and in our hearts. We close with the living hope that you will soon return to Ocotillo. Here we await you with open arms and hearts, full of joy for that day, that with the help of God, will come soon.
With affection and hope,
The leadership committee and scholarship students of Ocotillo
To view pictures of the gathering click here.
To read about why our trip this summer was cancelled, click here.
Cristosal flees El Salvador
Read about the conditions that have led Cristosal to make this difficult decision and how we can provide support.
Good Shepherd has a long standing relationship with Cristosal, a human rights organization founded in 2000 by two Episcopal bishops in New York and El Salvador, to address democratic and civil rights concerns following the civil war. It has evolved to become the largest human rights organization in the country and is respected worldwide. We have participated in courses through Cristosal's Global School three times, including one that was created in collaboration with the El Ocotillo community. Our longtime friend Jeanne Rikkers, the past director of the Global School, and Noah Bullock, the Executive Director, have visited Good Shepherd many times, most recently in November 2024.
On July 18th we received a letter from Cristosal that begins with this statement:
After 25 years in El Salvador, Cristosal has been forced to suspend operations in El Salvador in response to escalating attacks on human rights defenders, the authoritarian Foreign Agents Law, and the collapse of judicial independence. Our work now continues from our Guatemala and Honduras offices.You can read The New York Times' reporting on this here and in many other news outlets.
On July 23 Noah (who is now in Guatemala with the remaining staff) and Ricardo González, an expert on the effects of exile, participated in a conversation on Field Notes about the larger issue of exile as a form of political violence that has a domino effect far beyond the displaced individuals. You can access this profoundly interesting interview here.
Cristosal is raising funds to cover the expenses of its displaced staff. If you would like to donate to this worthwhile cause, please send a check to COGS with "Cristosal" in the memo line. We will forward any donations to them with a letter of solidarity.
Please keep all of the Cristosal staff in your prayers as they navigate this traumatic experience.
Our Rise Against Hunger meals have shipped!
Our meals have shipped!
The 10,000 meals we packaged on May 4th are headed to The Democratic Republic of Congo. Located in the center of Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the second largest country in Africa, with the fourth largest population. Despite its many natural resources, corruption and weak institutions have delayed the country’s development. Child malnutrition is widespread, and most of the population lives in conditions of moderate to serious food insecurity. The Global Hunger Index, which assesses food insecurity based on indicators that measure undernourishment and undernutrition, categorizes the DRC as having an “alarming” level of hunger.
To read more about how RAH meets the standards of the United Nations sustainable development goals, click here.
Increased repression in El Salvador puts our scholarship program at risk
On May 11, 2025 Rafael Pupo and Barb Magee from the El Salvador Committee had a lengthy Zoom meeting with the Fundahmer staff in San Salvador, Wendy, José, and the Executive Director, Javier, at their request. They needed to make us aware of the deteriorating situation in El Salvador and the effect it could have on our scholarship program with the youth of El Ocotillo.
In the month of May there was a serious ratcheting up of abuses of power and repressive legislation intended to silence any dissent against the Bukele government.
Continued and accelerated repression of the free press.
Seven journalists working for the now exiled news organization El Faro had to flee the country recently when they learned arrest warrants had been issued against them. Their “crimes” have been to document and expose the secret agreements Bukele made with the gangs to ensure his rise to absolute power. Despite the very real danger, many of these journalists have continued to report on the abuses of power justified under the “state of exception,” the Salvadoran version of Marshall Law. Declared in 2022 to fight gangs, it has now been extended to include anyone who questions government policy.
Jailing of human rights and judicial aid advocates
Internationally recognized civil rights attorney, Ruth Lopez, has been arrested and charged with embezzlement dating back 10 years and with no details provided. Ruth was currently serving as Director of Anti-Corruption and Justice at Cristosal, an organization we know well and have supported for years. Ruth is the most well-known of several human rights workers who have been arrested.
Redistribution of farmlands
According to this excellent explanation in The Guardian: Following the 12 year civil war, in the early 90s, “land redistribution was promised as a key step toward peace and social justice, a process that led to the formation of hundreds of rural cooperatives.” Recently, “megaprojects, extractivism, real estate and tourism developments, and agribusiness are all driving a new wave of dispossession. About 11,000 families are in extreme vulnerability.” These families often face legal uncertainty and sudden eviction notices, backed by the presence of police or private security.
When the farmers being evicted organized a peaceful protest to appeal to President Bukele, they were met by violent police action and the arrest of their leaders including their pastor and a civil rights attorney. So far, the area around El Ocotillo has not been impacted.
Foreign Agents Law
This is the greatest threat to our long-standing scholarship program and the reason that Fundahmer urgently reached out to us. The new Foreign Agents Law goes into effect in less than 90 days. It requires any organization (e.g. Fundahmer, Cristosal) receiving funds from outside the country to re-register with the interior ministry and pay a 30% tax on all such donations. The authorities can impose fines and revoke legal status of non-compliant organizations. This is another page out of the totalitarian playbook. Similar measures have been used in Putin’s Russia, Nicaragua and other authoritarian regimes. Bukele will use this to pressure, control, or remove any NGO which dares to speak against his policies. The legislative language is purposely vague, giving the government more power to easily weaponize it.
Our friends at Fundahmer are courageous and determined to move forward as long as they can despite any personal risks they and their families may face. They have explained that the 30% tax on donations will not go into effect until September 7, so the balance of this year’s scholarship funds, which we always send in June or July, should not be affected. Fundahmer will try to use a provision of the legislation to submit a letter requesting exemption from this regulation, but the outcome of that will be completely in the hands of the government.
For now, they ask for our prayers, and they expressed how much our solidarity means to them and to our brothers and sisters in El Ocotillo.
Celebration of Ministry
On Wednesday June 4th Bishop Julia Whitworth officiated at the (belated) formal installation of Rev. Ellie as Good Shepherd’s fifth rector. We also celebrated the nearly five years of service Ellie has already given since she actually began as our rector.
Here is the service in its entirety.
Rev. Ellie Terry is officially installed as fifth rector of Church of the Good Shepherd and her nearly five years of service are celebrated by Bishop Julia Whitworth. Watch the full service using the link below.
We did it!
We did it! Rise Against Hunger, May 4, 2025
10,000 meals and an abundance of enthusiasm!
Fifty-one pairs of hands did God's work on Sunday packaging 10,000 meals for Rise Against Hunger. Children brought their grandparents; and grandparents brought their grandchildren. Some joined for the first time and other "experts" took their favorite stations for the third year in a row. A hearty crew helped set up, arriving at eight in the morning and more generous souls stayed to clean the parish hall and load the truck. Thank you to all and to the many generous donors!
Ken's quote from St. Francis says it all: "Preach the Gospel always. When necessary, use words." No words were needed on Sunday.
It's almost here!!!
Get ready for May 4th!
Our 2025 Rise Against Hunger meal packaging event is Sunday, May 4 12:00-2:00. Once again we will package 10,000 meals to send to a part of the world where food is scarce. This year, with the dismantling of USAID, it is more important than ever! Check out this video of last year’s good work.
We will need 65-75 volunteers to set up, fill the bags, and clean up; and $4100 to fund the ingredients and the shipping costs.
Sign up to volunteer here. Send donations to our RAH webpage or to the donation page on the church’s website. (Click “Add Gift to another fund.”) Or, you can write a check to Church of the Good Shepherd with RAH in the memo line. Funds are needed by May 4th.
It feeds our souls and it’s FUN!
News from the International Institute of New England (IINE)
Gift Cards for Perfect Attendance
As of this date, the International Institute of New England (IINE) has not had to lay off anyone in spite of the loss of all federal funding that supports refugee resettlement. The Institute has enough funds from private and state sources to continue their programming for now. They have many new immigrants who arrived before the January termination of all entrees and need the services necessary to transition to living in the U.S. IINE also manages a state funded shelter in Lowell and some employees have pivoted to provide additional services and support to those residents, including English classes, cultural orientation, employment, legal services and stable housing.
The staff at IINE is stressed and tired. Many of them are immigrants themselves and are juggling issues in their own extended families such as the pause in expected resettlement of family members and the loss of USAid programs in their home countries. They are also worried about their jobs.
The clients at IINE are amazingly resilient and show up for English classes ready to work hard, to help each other, and to talk and laugh together. One student who arrived in December from Afghanistan, is a father of seven children. He is here with his wife and six of his children, but there was a snag with the passport for his infant daughter, so she has been left behind to be cared for by grandparents. There is no way to know when they will be reunited. But he is grateful to be here and diligently engaged in learning English.
Last week four students in the Level 1 English class received Dunkin Donuts gift cards, donated by Good Shepherd, for perfect attendance at February classes. Remember those very cold mornings!! They showed up three mornings a week at 9:00! In the fall we provided 40 gift cards to DD and Market Basket that have been distributed to students in the in-person classes. We recently purchased 20 more. As you can see in this photo, they are proud to receive acknowledgment for their consistent attendance.