The Power of Yes

In June 2023 at Mt. Carmel Pharmacy in the Bronx, NY, down the street from Aquinas High School where I used to teach, I made my annual visit to see my friend Armand Paganelli, the owner of the pharmacy. During the course of our conversation, Armand asked me if he and his family (four sons and daughters with their spouses) could come to Sicuani for a service project in our parish. And I answered “Yes.”

That was the first of many Yeses! The plan evolved to include assisting in the repair of one of the six community churches in Patacalasaya, a mountain community 13,080 feet above sea level; a sports-day for the children in a local elementary school near the church, and a weeklong soccer camp for the young people in the Sisters’ San Felipe parish and volunteering in the parish library program. I asked Sister Donna Korba to
design 6 murals to be painted on the walls of the church and she said “Yes.” Irene Espirilla, director of our IHM House of Studies and catechist for the community of Patacalasaya said “Yes” to helping me outline the murals on the walls so the volunteers could then paint them. Sisters Eileen and Norma said “Yes” to organizing the meals for the week even though we all went out to dinner three times.

Armand invited his family members to come and they all said “Yes.” They arrived on Sunday, August 11, and began their work in the mountains the next day. They had come
from sea level to Cusco (10,000 ft) and then to Sicuani, (11,500 ft) and then to 13,080 feet – and no one got altitude sickness which was a miracle! Brian Crowley, Jillian Paganelli’s husband, was an amazing gift as he was an accomplished artist and directed the painting. Others hauled heavy bags of sand up the hill to the church, tore broken plaster off the wholeoutside and reinforced the roof. In Sicuani, 70 children showed up in the afternoons for the soccer camp and on Wednesday all the children from the little school came out to the field near the church. Mrs. Janice Paganelli had brought balls, streamers and plans for several games plus gifts snacks and drinks, for all the children and their teachers. The Principal of the school who had said “Yes” to the project, told us that no one had ever done such a wonderful thing for his children!

By the end of the week, the church had been painted and adorned with six beautiful murals depicting different Gospel scenes, and the outside walls were ready for the cement which the community members were going to do. The nine smiling, but exhausted Paganellis, left saying they didn’t know how they were going to ever be able to describe their wonderful week!

On the following Sunday, as they came to Mass, the people were all smiles as they entered and enjoyed the beauty of their church for the first time. In the coming weeks another smaller church in the mountain community of Marcani will also be repaired and beautified, this time by members of the community there.

Funding for the project came from donors in New York, Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming.