"We believe if we are doing God’s work, God will provide.

Friday, November 10, 2000

"We believe if we are doing God’s work, God will provide."

These were the words of Sister Nancy Meyerhofer at an early morning meeting on Thursday at St. Olaf Lutheran Church. Meyerhofer, a St. Franciscan nun who has spent the last 20 years working in South America – first in Chile then El Salvador – was in Austin to raise awareness and funds to help with a unique treatment program she is running in El Salvador.

In El Salvador, she first worked with youth but then shifted to mental health as a result of the 12-year war.

Here the guerrillas were not the bad guys – the military had the planes, missiles and bombs. Meyerhofer pointed out the results of the war was a giant cemetery and she described three major massacres.

She pointed out the civil war takes eight generations to heal. In their community, they are still in their first generation.

Meyerhofer works in a trauma center helping the people in poverty deal with the trauma war leaves and post-war readjustment. She told dramatic tales of the criminal element that exists after the war: criminals who attack and rob the people of El Salvador and kidnap for ransom. There have been 12 kidnappings since January.

She also pointed out that after the last kidnapping, of a 15-year-old youth, the poorly armed community men came together with knives and a few guns, and went after the criminals while the women went in force to the church to pray.

They recovered the youth. Meyerhofer cites this as a new step.

At the trauma clinic, staff assist the peasants in three ways: by first providing psychological work; second, body work, where they teach simple techniques like pressing the cheek bones to relieve stomach pain; and third, by giving essence drops of flowers of plants.

To operate they rely on donations. These have come from a Minnesota insurance group, a nice donation from the Conrad Hilton Fund and one from The Gap clothing stores.

Meyerhofer hails from these parts – her parents met at a dance in Lyle.

The St. Ansgar, Iowa, native unabashedly states that she is here "begging" for money and if anybody would like to contribute, they can send it to: Mt. St. Francis, 3390 Windsor Ave., Dubuque, Iowa 52001-1311, and designate the funds to Sister Nancy Meyerhofer in El Salvador.