Eight Memorial Hospital employees, who also serve as Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Associates, lay mission volunteers, and others helped victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in May of 2011. Here is a video of their experience.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Botswana Volunteer Video
Luke Boiarski, SCN, along with three SCN Associates, (Evelyn Faldowski, Trudi Maish and Pat MacIsaac) and five other volunteers were in Botswana in April, assisting the Sisters in Kayne, Lobatse and Metsimotlhabe. Here is a video of their journey.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Memorial/Chattanooga SCNA Mission Trip Day Three Reflection
Today we divided into 2 crews, similar to yesterday, so we could finish as much as possible. One group of us went back to Mr. Frank's home. We asked him what color he would like his front porch painted; he chose gray. Off to Lowe's we go gathering supplies and paint. We come back to Mr. Frank's house and we started getting the porch ready to paint. Mr. Frank realizes that we are here for awhile today and he opens his front door; out comes his electric guitar and up goes the volume. He entertains us with Amazing Grace and This Little Light of Mine. Next he sings 'God is so Good,' a simple tune we sang with him on Day One of this journey. Four of us begin rolling and brushing his porch with the gray paint - teaming up to cover the details in his steps and front porch floor. While we are painting, Mr. Frank entertains and intermittently peeks around his chair to see outside - what activity is happening; his response always is "I am so blessed. God is so good to me. He brought you to me." We completed the porch painting and went to Lowe's for some more River Stone ground cover for his new garden areas. Ten bags were spread. That coupled with the painted porch present a very nice view from the street. As in our other days' experiences, the neighbors came by and thanked us.
The second group went back to Pastor Dylan's home where there was more insulation to place. Our 'A' insulation team went into formation and completed placing ALL the insulation for this home. Our worker from Honduras, William, who was with us yesterday, was also there today. His role is to put up the drywall. Through Translator Betsy, we offered to assist William with his project for today. He realized that we were there to assist him, not take any work away from him. Our team was able to learn more skills today as well as learn more about each other.
Meeting our Grace - we each experienced our own component and together we further finessed seamless team building and communication skills. Our sense of accomplishment looms large.
Our closing Prayer Service allows each of us to reflect on what we have learned and what we will take with us. Candles lit, we sing the song 'Light Your Candles' - we are refreshed and ready to light our world! In the words of Mr. Frank - We are making it look like somebody lives here!
Our time for this work in New Orleans is complete. We will leave Thursday at 0700ish and travel back to our destinations - Martha to Little Rock, Sister Luke to Nazareth and the rest of us to the Chattanooga area. Our trip planning started one year ago. It will soon be concluded......or will it?
Thank you for your time reading our story. Thank you to Sister Celine, our Chattanooga Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Associate leader, to Sister Luke SCN for being with us and guiding us and "letting us", to Sister Renee, Sister Claire and Sister Monica for their leadership and warm hospitality. Thank you too to Mr. Earl, Mr. Frank, Pastor Dylan and all the other people we have encountered during this time.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Memorial Employees Continue Journey to Help in New Orleans
Eight Memorial employees who also serve as Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Associates Lay Mission Volunteers and others are helping victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans this week.
We began this second day of our mission with morning prayer and devotion in the beautiful chapel of the Charity House on Apricot Street. We prayed and remembered Saint Louise deMarillac; a Saint who was very practical and realistic; co-founder of the Daughters of Charity — a community of women religious dedicated to serve the poor. We focused on our purpose here and set out to further this mission. From her quote, we were reminded by Saint Louise to "Teach me to show great gentleness toward all and to imitate your goodness in welcoming all."
We continue to pray for those hurting from the devastation from the storms in our area and others who are suffering.
Brown bag lunches packed, we head out in 3 vehicles. Today is cool and windy; temperatures are in the 60's; much different than yesterday!
We have so much work to get done in our short time remaining here, so today we divided up into 'crews' to be stationed at our two work sites; the home of Mr. Frank in the 7th Ward and the home of Pastor Dylan in 9th Ward.
As we headed out, we all made a caravan to Lowe's to get some plants for Mr. Frank's front yard. While gathering up supplies, we encountered the sweet sound of a chirp chirp. We found a small bird under one of the flatbed carts — he appeared to have tape on his beak. Jerry picked up the bird and then realized he had swallowed the tape. Steve and Jerry, with Cindy's oversight, managed to free the tape from our new feathered friend. We left him in stable condition and hoped he would be able to find his family soon.
Our 7th Ward crew consisted of Steve, Martha, Cindy and Karen. The front of Mr. Frank's home consists of two patches of black dirt, surrounded by concrete from the sidewalk, his porch and his driveway. He is not able to mow grass anymore so he has had the areas sprayed with weed killer — brown dried strings of what used to be grass remained. We cleared these areas picking up broken glass, nails, coins and other remnants of the history of that spot. The soil is rich — like the history that we were learning there. It was important to choose low maintenance perennial plants that can withstand hot dry weather so he can enjoy the yard without any maintenance — we found 4 unique varieties of flowering plants and shrubs to plant for him. River rock as ground cover adds a nice touch and makes the garden 'pop' with a newfound glow. Like our first day, Mr. Frank's neighbors made it a point to come out and see what we were up to — both admiring the pretty view they will have from their homes and thanking us for helping Mr. Frank and their neighborhood. Mr. Frank peeked out of his door, smiled so all his teeth showed and said "I am so blessed! Now it looks like somebody lives here."
As Mr. Frank's home and yard was being revitalized, it seemed like he was also. While we were working in the garden, Mr. Frank's son came by — he ran up to us and thanked us for helping his dad. Next we sanded the beautiful wrought iron railings that lead to Mr. Frank's front door. We came up with a creative way to use black Rust-O-Leum spray paint on a windy day. We had time to chat with Mr. Frank and learn about his life and career, including the prejudice he has experienced over the years. We left there with many offers of food, shrimp boil, and invitations to return. We will be back on our last day, to paint his front porch.
Our 9th Ward crew is Sister Celine, Sister Luke, Betsy, Lisa, Deb, Jerry, Jackie and Pam. Pastor Dylan met us at his home site and is very surprised with what we have accomplished there. He has had to restock insulation material two times — this group has a system down to near perfection for hanging insulation! And we still need a little bit more to complete this project tomorrow. Pastor Dylan has reborn energy and is overwhelmingly grateful for the work that we have done in two days. Pastor Dylan hired a young couple from Honduras to help with the hanging of drywall; since they knew no English, our faithful interpreter Betsy was called upon to communicate with these hardworking, dedicated folks. It was amazing to see how everyone worked smoothly together, without barriers.
We had time to spend with our leader and mission trip organizer, Sister Luke. She's very interested in our SCNA Faith Group, how we started together and our backgrounds.
Today we were able to 'be in the moment' with communication and listening for our thoughts of focus for today. Like Saint Louise, we were welcomed and we welcomed.
After a delicious meal downtown, we are resting, getting ready for our final work day tomorrow.
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| New Orleans SCNA Volunteer Trip - May 2011 |
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Being In the Moment in New Orleans
A group of SCNA Lay Mission Volunteers have traveled to New Orleans, La, with Marie Celine Osbourn, SCN, to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Luke Boiarski, SCN joined the group that consists of SCNAs Martha Borders, Cindy Carroll, Karen Frank, Lisa Harrison, Jackie Jackson, Betsy Kammerdiener, Pam Lawson, Jerry McCrary, SCNA candidate Deb Moore and lay mission volunteer, Steve Newton.
Below is a message about their experiences thus far.
It's been a hot tiring day, but we don't even notice. The blessings we have experienced since coming to the House of Charity with the Federation of the Sisters of Charity are unending. The hospitality provided to us by the Sisters has been awesome. We are staying in Orleans Parish in a restored house that was flooded in Hurricane Katrina. There is a chapel in the house where we had a most reverent blessing for our week. We are sleeping on air mattresses, this home is used to house volunteer workers who come to New Orleans to help the hurricane victims. Our mission challenge is to go out into the world and see the face of God and to be God to those we encounter. This is the spirit of St. Vincent dePaul.
Day One - We packed our brown bag lunches and we have received our direction for work from Mr. Earl, a retired contractor who organizes volunteer efforts to assist hurricane victims in his Parish. Today we worked in the home of Mr. Frank, a retired 90 year old man who served in the Navy in the seventh ward. He is proud of his service and showed us his service picture in his sailor uniform; he and his wife have been married 66 years. He also told us stories of his experience with the hurricane. He sings and plays an electric guitar - "This Little Light of Mine" is his favorite. He serenaded us while we worked. He has had 2 contractors come to repair hurricane damage and they were scams; taking his money and ruining his home. His 2 story home needed a drop ceiling in his kitchen - we accomplished this with the help of Mr. Earl - we learned new skills with this work! Steve Newton and Pam Lawson are now the experts. The second side of his 2 story home contained a lot of assorted debris; we cleaned out the 2nd side, two stories. We found a young girl's jewlery, clothes and shoes - reminders to us that folks had to leave what they had behind to save their lives. We bagged up the items, covering the sidewalk with garbage from the house and filling the trash can - it happened to be trash pick up day for Mr. Frank; we all stood outside and applauded when we saw the garbage truck come by. The trash collectors immediately got big ear to ear smiles on their faces and were waving to us as we cheered for them. We tried to help them put the mound of trash in the truck and they insisted to do it themselves. These young men were happy doing what they do; no matter what they had to pick up. During the morning, Mr. Earl asked us where were are from; we said Chattanooga and he said "oh, my Parish is collecting supplies and money to send to Chattanooga." What a humbling vision - people still struggling from devastation from Hurricane Katrina, and now they are helping others. Wow.
Several neighbors came by and thanked us for helping Mr. Frank. A pastor stopped by and asked us if we could also help him.
Sister Luke and Mr. Earl met with Pastor Dylan the pastor who saw us working and stopped; Sister Luke and Sister Monica went to his building site, this one in the ninth ward, the area most devastated by the floods. Water had been over the roof of his home, where he raised his six daughters. This home was stripped to the outside walls and new studs were up. We were asked to install insulation, clean the site and review putting up drywall. Again, skills we learned just at this time - and we now have many skilled insulation hangers! The building and site were cleaned up by us and we'll see tomorrow about putting up the drywall and doing some other work. This pastor lost several family members in Katrina; his father-in-law was found dead in his floating home; three family members drowned when the water overtook their vehicle as they were attempting to evacuate. Stories of stress and sorrow abound here.
We stopped by a friend's home that Sister Luke has helped rebuild her home; there we were graciously treated with delicious authentic red beans and rice. She invited all of us into her home for this meal. It's surreal to see so many homes in disrepair, yet the people here are so happy and welcoming. We are relearning perspective and priority in life. They are teaching us a lot.
As a group we are learning the importance of 'being in the moment' and letting life happen. We're a group of organizers, delegators and busy people. Slowing down to listen and learn and let God be God is a lesson for us.
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