José Manuel Cotelo, Spanish family film director, author of such titles as Let's keep the party in peaceand Carlota Valenzuela, the young woman from Granada who made a pilgrimage from Finisterre to Jerusalem, decided a few months ago to embark on a very special project: Make a mess.
Taking as a starting point the famous expression of Pope Francis addressed to young people at the World Youth Day in Brazil, José Manuel and Carlota decided to pool their experiences and qualities to carry out a project that would not only involve them, but would make known many of the stories and the protagonists of unique initiatives, spread around the world, and that have, as a common background, an evangelizing zeal and service to others.
In the words of the creators of the series, it is about "tell all the good that the Church does". There are many realities of service linked to the Church that are often overshadowed by bad news or actions.
In addition, they set out to tell these good things in a professional manner, with the best possible quality and always putting at the center the real protagonists of these stories and the strength of faith that has been the driving force behind each one of them.
Make a mess began broadcasting its chapters in December 2023 after many ups and downs. It is an audiovisual series, available free of charge, broadcasted through YouTube and through which they share stories, projects and initiatives of people who, moved by faith, carry out in various parts of the world.
The series, financed through crowfundinghas already completed its first season, consisting of six chapters thanks to the generosity of some 2,000 donors who made possible the production of the first chapters which, to date, have had more than 300,000 views.
In its first season, Make a mess has put the spotlight on realities such as Futuro Vivo, a project for children from vulnerable environments in Guatemala City, led by a community of Carmelite nuns, which rescues children from a future marked by delinquency, drug trafficking or prostitution.
Other chapters focus on the project Conjugal Love, which has helped tens of thousands of married couples to grow in their common life and strengthen it in faith, or Father Aldo's homes in Paraguay, where the elderly, the chronically ill and the handicapped are welcomed and cared for.
The chapters are monthly and the first season will culminate, according to the calendar, in May 2024. However, as they emphasize in this conversation with Omnes, both José Manuel Cotelo and Carlota Valenzuela want to continue with this mess and launch a second season to continue telling the story of the hundreds of good things that the Church does and that are spread around the world, sometimes in an unknown way.
How is it born Make a mess?
-By an impulse of the Holy Spirit, from whom every evangelization initiative starts. It was born from the reading of the Gospel: "You are the light of the world, do not light a lamp to hide under the bed, let your light shine before men, so that all may glorify your Father God." This gave rise to Make a mess: to be aware that we know little of the wonders that God works every day through the Church, and yet we are very well informed of any negative aspects. It is not fair, we must balance the scales.
We would like to bring these mess to all the people of the planet, so that this fire can burn throughout the world; and to bring these realities closer to every home, we have gone to the bottom: living it ourselves to tell the story.
What is the path to the stories that appear in the chapters?
-It is not difficult to find many points of light, bright and warm, as soon as one approaches the church. Every mess has the appeal of a fire in a cold house. Naturally, everyone in the house ends up by the fireplace. So it is in the church.
The stories appear naturally, in contact with people: a conversation, an Instagram message... The beauty of the Church is so great and so diverse that it is rare not to come across it if one is open to discover it and be surprised!
How does this series influence you, what reactions do you receive from viewers?
-Every day we receive messages from people who have been pushed by these problems to start their own messto get out of their comfort zone and place themselves at the service of God.
That is the craziest effect of all this: not that it "pleases", but that it mobilizes.
Does an evangelization project always involve some kind of madness? What is the craziest thing about Make a mess?
-The greatest folly is, in reality, the only reasonable option: to trust in God. If we wanted to evangelize with our own strength, believing ourselves capable of doing so, we would be in for a big shock. And Jesus warns us of this: "Without Me, you can do nothing.". Perhaps we could only succeed, in which case we would listen to Jesus' diagnosis: "You have already received your reward."
The fruits of conversion, the transforming spiritual effects, are beyond our capacity. What is reasonable - crazy in the eyes of the world - is complete trust in God, so that He may continue to work miracles through our small contribution.
Make a mess is a project of crowdfundingHow is the response to this project?
-The response has been very good, with small contributions coming from the most remote corners, from the children's piggy banks, those two widow's coins that the Gospel tells us about. And there are also people who contribute large amounts. But we need more, we need to make a team to be able to continue carrying out these projects. mess to every home and spreading the joy of the Gospel.
For now we have been able to produce the first season, thanks to about 2,000 people. We are now in the middle of a campaign to fund the second season, through www.haganlio.org and already 850 people have joined, contributing 25 %.
We must continue to ask for the involvement of many donors in order to produce more chapters. It is a great team work, in which small contributions achieve a great goal.
