Guest Post: Meet the CHRISTUS Team in Haiti, Pt. 4

As Dr. Royer is in Haiti with the CHRISTUS team, updates on the team’s work there will be posted by the CHRISTUS Communications team in Dallas.

Each day this week, we will post photos and biographies of members of the CHRISTUS team in Haiti, as well as a prayer to offer on their behalf.

Aaron Mason, MD, currently serves as a pediatric plastic surgeon at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. He has 16 years of experience in pediatric care. His current focus is cleft, craniofacial, vascular anomalies and general traumatic reconstruction. He enjoys outdoor activities and his 2 mutts. This is his second medical mission trip.

Prescilla Velasquez, RN, is an Operating Room Nurse at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital - Westover Hills in San Antonio Texas, which opened in June 2009. She has worked at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa since 1998, starting at the City Centre Hospital in San Antonio. Prescilla has experience in both pediatric and adult cardio-thoracic, neuroIogy, orthopedic and general services. She has been an Operating Room Nurse since 1986. Prescilla is single, and she and her 77-year -old strong, independent mother travel together each year. Last Lenten season they went to Fatima, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, and Prague. This will be Prescilla’s first mission trip.

Randie Villarreal, RN, has worked for 12 years in the Operating Room at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital - City Centre in San Antonio Texas. She has a total of 24 years of OR experience, with five of those years as an OR tech. She primarily works in the pediatric open heart operating room. On a typical day, the OR she serves in does about 20 percent adult cases and 80 percent pediatric cases. She is married with one 24-year-old daughter who currently is living in Rome. She has two dogs and two cats. She has never been on a mission trip before, but worked with Hurricane Katrina evacuees who were brought to San Antonio. She feels very blessed to have been picked for this mission trip and can't wait to get started.

Guillermo L. Casipong currently serves as one of the chaplains at the brand new CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital - Westover Hills in San Antonio, Texas, and has worked as a chaplain at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital for almost 4 years now. Guillermo was once a religious missionary priest, and worked in Haiti from 1994 to 2007. He is very glad to be part of the CHRISTUS mission team for Haiti, and hopes to use his in-depth knowledge of the country and its people for the benefit of the team and the people they are sent to serve. He asks for prayers for the success of this mission.

Please join the CHRISTUS family in praying for our team in Haiti and their work there, as well as all those affected by the earthquake:

In order to extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, we offer prayers for our CHRISTUS family serving in Haiti and those whom they serve. The Scriptures tell us in Hebrews 4:16:

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Let us come boldly to the throne of grace as we ask prayers and intercessions. Almighty and everlasting God, we come before you giving you thanks for all that you have done and all that you continue to do in the lives of the CHRISTUS Health Team in Haiti. We ask for your grace upon them as they serve as both ambassadors of the CHRISTUS Healthcare System but more importantly as ambassadors of Christ. We are called by our Baptism into Christian Vocation which requires each of us to sacrifice for the greater good of all humanity. In this we send the hands and feet of the Christ into the world in the persons of:

Dr. Aaron Mason
Prescilla Velasquez
Randie Villarreal
Guillermo Casipong

Let these, your humble servants in Haiti be the light that the Gospel calls us to be in Matthew 5:16:

“Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We ask you, Lord, that you may grant them the peace of the Holy Spirit and the comfort that God gives to His creation. Give them the wisdom, courage and strength to handle each and every situation; but above all allow that light to be bright in the darkness that the Haitian people face. Let the Haitian people feel your loving arms through the CHRISTUS Health Team. We ask this and add our silent intentions in the name of Jesus the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.