The Stations of the Cross, statues, and crucifix for the New Church are being hand-carved from wood and painted by Artesanos Don Bosco in Peru. 

1967 saw the beginning of Operation Mato Grosso (OMG), a charitable youth organization born in the mind and heart of Italian Salesian Father Ugo De Censi.  Following the invitation of another Salesian missionary (the congregation founded by Saint Don Bosco) in Mato Grosso, Brazil, Father De Censi accepted the challenge to go into the poor region with a group of Italian boys for a long period of time, thus founding the organization.

Deeply moved by the conditions of the poor people, the organization in Italy continued supporting the charitable works and development activities carried out in the mission by means of fund-raising, sending supplies, medicine and clothes, as well as organizing the collection and sale of recyclable materials.  Many missions have been set up in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

The idea of a wood-carving school came to Father Ugo after seeing the imposing 17^th century altar-piece dominating the apse of the church in Chacas, Peru.  The first carpentry school was set up in 1979 with the assistance of a master woodcarver and some Italian sculptors and teachers.  Throughout the years the school has grown and improved.  Orphans and poor children receive free room and board at the school as well as free instruction and vocational training.  After the five-year training period at the school the craftsmen can join the Familia Artesanal Don Bosco, an association of artisans set up to make furniture, sacred art and other handicrafts that are sold both locally and worldwide.

From a letter of Father Ugo de Censi:

Dear Friends,

You are looking at genuine masterpieces, local handcrafts from Peru….  The trip to Lima alone was a tremendous undertaking:  carried by porters or packed on the backs of mules, they were conveyed along Andean footpaths which have to widen before trucks can take them to the city.  It was a struggle just to transport the wood from which the furniture is made up to the 9,000 – 12,000 feet of the upper slopes of the Cordillera Blanca, navigating rivers which flow down to the Amazonian forests.  The very route these objects take is unconventional, even the young artisans who skillfully make them are willingly unconventional…. 

And so we cherish the dream that these masterpieces will bring faith in God into the homes of those who buy them: faith in the most glorious dream of all, He of infinite understanding and forgiveness, our healer and our saviour.  How can these objects speak to us of God?  They do so because they are made by his beloved children, the poor.  They are made with God-given gifts—time and patience.  They speak of freedom as God is free; intelligence cannot buy Him nor does He require payment for His gifts.

All profits made from the sale of these masterpieces will be returned to the poor, to the craftsmen.  Do you believe that this furniture speaks of our faith in God?  Help us to spread the word and to make us worthier.