“I remember my first trip down,” Garcia said. “Five months prior, I had lost my fiancé unexpectedly. Then I went down to Honduras and experienced overwhelming joy and gratitude for my life, my parish. Going to Honduras reminded me that people need each other.”

Led by Katrina Villarreal, a parishioner of St. John Vianney Parish in Round Rock, Friends of Los Niños began more than 20 years ago to support the COPPROME orphanage in Honduras. The nonprofit benefits from those who donate money, but also those who travel as missionaries. These helpers assess needs, make repairs and bring supplies.

Katrina’s husband, Deacon Rudy Villarreal, who volunteers with Friends of Los Niños in addition to his diaconal responsibilities at St. John Vianney Parish, said Friends of Los Niños helps build relationships.

“People need to know that they are not alone and that they are loved,” Deacon Rudy said. “This is the core of the Gospel.”

Friends of Los Niños schedules four mission trips a year. Deacon Rudy and Katrina work to ensure missionaries are prepared emotionally and spiritually to understand the severity of poverty they will encounter.

“We need to see a conversion to embrace reality,” Katrina said. “At first, people can be very angry when they see the degree of poverty. They’re angry when they see the abuse the kids have been through. We have kids who were sold into prostitution to pay the rent. Our missionaries have to learn to see God in the mess. And they can’t try to be superheroes either. They have to allow the children to learn to help themselves.”

Garcia said she fell in love with the children immediately, so much so that she wanted to commit to helping some of them in a more long-term way through the Padrino Program. This is a commitment to send money each month to help a specific child with education, personal needs and gifts.

“I sponsor four kids in the orphanage and three in Brisas del Salto,” Garcia said. “They’re such beautiful children, and I’m so proud of them!”

The children can also get help to attend college, trade schools or cooking schools. Katrina said they have found it important to help the children transition to adulthood with training and some kind of community, otherwise they end up in gangs or unwed and pregnant.

“Everyone needs a sense of family,” Katrina said. “We have the kids write letters to their Padrinos twice a year, and they also have Zoom calls. We have a 2-year-old who loves to make faces into the camera. And we have one 15-year-old with an upcoming quinceañera. All three Padrinos are coming! It’s such a cool experience for a girl with such a tragic backstory.”

Many of the children come from extreme circumstances, but Deacon Rudy said these children amazingly become a light to the people they serve.

“The missionaries see people with nothing, but [they are] filled with joy,” he said. “It changes how the missionaries see their lives at home. It’s an eye opener.”

Katrina said sometimes it seems that the children serve as missionaries to the missionaries.

Father Patrick Ebner, pastor of St. John Vianney Parish, said Friends of Los Niños helps change people’s perspective.

“Going to Honduras helps us see our brothers and sisters in need,” he said.

Recently, Katrina and Deacon Rudy jointly received a national award that took into consideration the couple’s work at Friends of Los Niños as well as the work Deacon Rudy does with elementary school faith formation and evangelization, which focuses on building relationships.

“The parish is a family,” Deacon Rudy said. “Teens are overwhelmed, seniors need to feel honored, and young families need friends. We have to take opportunities to create community.”

The award reception gave the Villarreals the opportunity to learn even more about adoption support, which has caused the couple to begin discerning other ways God wants them to help others, locally or even internationally.

They have been reflecting on a trip to Medjugorje that took a detour to a taxi driver’s orphanage. “I hurt my knee and couldn’t climb Apparition Hill,” Katrina said. “But then our taxi driver spent our two-hour drive talking about how he was an orphan. We couldn’t believe it!”

The Villarreals have been married for 31 years. In addition to their three biological sons, they have a teenaged daughter, Sofia, whom they adopted from an orphanage in China. They are thankful that God has guided them to help others since they first met during Mass at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

“I think we have a gift for invitation and asking people to help us,” Katrina said.

Deacon Rudy said, “My favorite prayer is the Jesuit one that says, ‘God, what are you doing, and how can I help?’”