English
Spanish-
Summary:
- To see each person in Wharton County personally accompanied in their walk with the Lord.
- To see religious sisters here (perhaps Discipulas de Jesus) to organize the evangelization and catechesis of Wharton County.
- To see the Grupo de Oracion create a training center for charismatic prayer leaders and Hispanic formation.
Vision: Vision is a God-inspired picture of the future that inspires passion and hope. What I hope to paint today is a God-inspired picture for the future that gives us all passion and hope. Let’s start with the biggest vision – “Make disciples of all nations.” For us that means our parish (all people living in Wharton County minus the city of Wharton and St. Philip’s parishioners, so conservatively around 25,000 people) of St. Robert’s. What does it look like to “make disciples” of Wharton County? Our vision is that we can accompany each person in their walk with the Lord, which means being able to drive by each house, know the residents, and where they are at in their relationship with the Lord. This will require a huge volunteer corps of missionaries. For just serving the city of El Campo (Population 12,000) we will need around 50 full-time missionaries if they are dedicated to accompanying 250 people each in their walk with the Lord – that is, if we are serious about making all people disciples of the Lord.
To lead the charge in these evangelization efforts we would like to have evangelizing sisters, such as the Discipulas de Jesus (Disciples of Jesus) to organize these efforts and train our evangelists. In July the endowment president expressed a vision of seeing sisters return to our parish. Six months later we are working on acquiring housing for sisters and I can see us having sisters here within two years. In the upcoming months I will visit with the Discipulas de Jesus in Austin to establish a relationship with them and see if they are a good fit for our parish, as well as to see if they have sisters to send here to start a convent. We are currently seeking financial resources and housing for our sisters.
Another piece of the vision for evangelization comes from our parish Grupo de Oracion (Prayer Group). Many of the members from the Grupo de Oracion received training and formation at the Charismatic Center in Houston. The vision for our Grupo de Oracion is that St. Robert’s would be a training center for English and Spanish speakers in charismatic prayer and evangelization. This would allow the resources available at the Charismatic Center to be available to all of the parishes in the Diocese of Victoria. St. Robert’s would lead parish renewal in the Diocese of Victoria by providing this training in both English and Spanish. -