Putting Your Gifts Into Action
By Carol Braun, Fond du Lac Associate

As an associate reflecting on the theme “Putting Your Gifts Into Action”, I realized that over 20 years of scripture study has laid a foundation and a thirst for knowledge of God’s purpose in my life. Our teacher was challenging and the lessons learned were formative of my understanding of faith. Through my experiences in the last 10 years, I am learning that faith is not something you possess but rather something you practice.

After our children had grown, we went on an adult mission trip in 2001 to the Appalachians in West Virginia. Our mission was not just doing things for people but being with people, listening, and sharing. I was disturbed and unsettled with the poverty I saw and that led me to make the decision to better use my gifts to help people.

Two trips to our sister parish in Rosita, Nicaragua (2002 and2005), ignited a fire of compassion for the poor and trust that God was moving me in a new direction in my life.

Spending time with the people of Nicaragua changed my life. I fell in love with a people rich in faith and spirit, living in oppressive poverty, where injustice is their daily life. When in Nicaragua, I felt so much closer to God.

I came back to the U.S. challenged with a responsibility and a need to become informed, and to respond with action, to the injustices affecting them. I learned that living justly means we can no longer keep doing what we have always done without an awareness of how our living is impacting others.

In Nicaragua I made the decision to chair our sister parish committee and have lay witnesses speak at Mass about our trips. I felt compelled to tell the stories of the people with a passion and courage that was God inspired, a gift I had to dig deep to summon up because of my fear of speaking in front of large groups of people.

I joined others who were called to protest at the SOA in 2003 because I had witnessed injustice and poverty and felt a responsibility to be an advocate for those whose voice can’t be heard.

Going through the JustFaith program in 2004 was another turning point. I learned more about the injustice and poverty all around us and I felt the need to be closer to the poor, not just those in Nicaragua.

I found friends and mentors who nurture and support me as I grow in awareness of my role in justice and peace issues when I became an associate of the Sisters of St. Agnes in the fall of 2005. United in spirit and mission, the relationship guides me as we pursue spiritual growth and service together.

Twice I have traveled with other volunteers to do flood relief after Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. We listened to the stories of the people, as these homeowners’ lives were not only torn apart by the structural damage of the hurricane, but were distressed emotionally and spiritually. Volunteers helped to turn their despair to hope. The experience was rewarding and humbling, physically exhausting and spiritually uplifting.

I have become involved with Fair Trade as a way to help farmers and artisans in countries all over the world lead a better life. I volunteer with and am on the board of directors of Just Fare Market. Just Fare Market is an ecumenical initiative in Fond du Lac dedicated to educating our community about the social and environmental benefits of Fair Trade and encouraging people to be more mindful of their buying and consuming, in relation to actual need. We provide an outlet to market Fair Trade items created by artisans and farmers in developing countries, improving their lives through our global partnerships.

These gifts of mercy, compassion, faith, and giving grew as I served the poor in developing countries and led me to want to do more for those in need in my own neighborhood. I joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society to help meet the needs of people right here in our community.

After CSA’s Chapter 2009, the theme being community and building community resonated with me when I was offered an opportunity with the St Vincent de Paul Store. That theme was a big factor in my prayer and discernment on choosing to leave my job to become a part of the management team and the volunteer coordinator at the St. Vincent de Paul Store. I felt I could be in community and build community with the poor daily.

I feel very fortunate to have found my gift of administration, assisting the store to become more effective, profitable, and efficient, creating order from chaos. To oversee the volunteers who give of their time each day is humbling and rewarding. Recruiting and coordinating over 50 volunteers is a challenge I have been led to and can only manage to do because I have been blessed with gifts I did not know I had.

Last year, associate Nancy Schmitz and I spent 21 weeks in Engaging Spirituality, a Just Faith module. The program created community among the participants with centering prayer, dialogue, and listening to the grounded wisdom of 24 spiritual leaders as they taught us to engage in the world as part of our spirituality. This program, along with prayer, spiritual reading, retreats, and other spiritual opportunities help me to live my life with faith and integrity.

As my gifts are uncovered, the wisdom and faith shared by the Sisters of St. Agnes and associates guide me as I strive to live the mission of Christ, as I realize that I, too, am among the needy and that I am enriched by those I serve. I have been very blessed and am committed to using my gifts, along with the Sisters, associates, and others to be instruments of God’s love.

Introducing RUAH ~ to BE and BUILD Community

Are you interested in making a new friend, keeping in touch with old friends among the CSA community of associates and sisters, or having a prayer partner? A group of associates and sisters have created a simple way to facilitate meeting, keeping in touch, and holding one another in prayer. RUAH is the name given to this means of relating in spirit with other associates. After the initial connection is made and information shared through the RUAH committee, you are free to keep in touch as often as you agree upon and in the manner you wish: letters, phone, e-mail, Facebook, etc.

You can choose to let the RUAH committee select a partner for you based on the information you provide, or you can suggest a name of someone with whom you wish to partner.

If you would like to connect and communicate with another sister or associate for a year (or more!) just fill out the information below and return it to the RUAH Committee, CSA, 320 County Road K, Fond du Lac, WI 54937 by July 10.

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___Yes, I would like a RUAH partner

___Please select one for me

I prefer to partner with_________________________________________________________

Name_________________________________________ Date of Birth_____________________

Address__________________________________________________________________________

Phone ______________________ E-mail______________________________________________

Preferred way to be contacted_________________________________________________

Number of years in the CSA community as a sister or associate_____________

Employment: past or present__________________________________________________

Passion or hobby________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

Sunday Love

Yesterday I went to visit a county facility with my friend Joe. Joe is from Minnesota, a Vietnam Vet, around my age. He plans to live out the rest of his days in Vietnam with his Vietnamese wife, Moon. Joe is the spirit of compassion, probably because he’s lived on the street in his worst years. If he sees someone hungry, he’ll give him food. If he sees him trade his food for a cigarette, the next time he’ll give him food and a cigarette. Every Sunday he and Moon go to the county home along with a group of volunteers who call themselves “Sunday Love”. On Sunday the home doesn’t provide food, so if volunteers don’t bring food, they don’t eat. The volunteers bring sandwiches, drinks, fruit, candy and cigarettes.

The home is a combination of things, an orphanage, an old age home, a home for the mentally challenged and a prison. There are many orphanages in Vietnam and many abandoned children. Just three of the stories I heard yesterday: a 3 year old boy who looks like he might be mixed race was found on the street when he was just a day old. He has lived at the orphanage all his life. A beautiful child with a sad face. Two sisters, who look to be about 8 and 10 years old, were abandoned by their mother in the park and have lived in the orphanage for 5 years. A 13 year old boy, whose both parents have died, was brought to the orphanage by his grandmother at the age of five. She comes to visit him every few weeks. Grandma comes with love and a sack of fruit for the children, but she feels that she can’t provide a home for her grandson. The children live a dreary existence, never leaving the grounds, but they have loving caretakers who live on sight. They are educated and trained for work when they are released at 16.

The old people are mostly women, who have been found living on the streets. They are brought in and if nobody claims them in 90 days they are made permanent residents. My students tell me that they might be women whose family has been separated by the war, and have nobody to look after them. There’s no social security in Vietnam.

Finally the prisoners, the snake pit; nobody can tell me why they are imprisoned, I don’t know if they are simply residents who’ve misbehaved or if they have committed some criminal act. They are kept in cages, some naked, some chained to the wall. They have no mattress, no toilet, and no running water; in inhumane conditions we would never consider keeping anyone in. They’re hosed down once a week.

Cigarettes are their currency. They collect them on Sunday and use them to get what they need from each other or their keepers. The group of volunteers includes some nuns who go each week to bathe the residents, give them haircuts and trim their nails. They look forward to Sunday because they have company and diversion. They never leave the grounds, which might be 10 acres. Some of the healthy ones work on the farm or in the kitchen.

Vietnam is a land of contradictions. The Vietnamese love their children, I see it everywhere. And yet these children have been abandoned. The Vietnamese love their elders and revere old age and their ancestors. And yet these old people are left to live their final years in a county home, alone and in poor conditions, dependent on the kindness of strangers. It’s a dull and dreary existence, for the elders, for the orphans. There are so many layers here, like an onion. As I keep peeling the layers away and go deeper into the culture, instead of becoming clearer it becomes more contradictory.

Back in Vietnam

Computers and I will never be friends! I've tried sending this several different ways without success. I'll try again...
After 10 months at home, I've returned to Vietnam for 10 weeks. It's good to be back here. I'm welcomed as an old returning friend. The weather's blessedly warm, some might call it hot, but it's just right for me. And the people are warm too. I'm staying at the Redemptorist Monastery in Saigon, teaching English 4 1/2 hours a day. After 2 more weeks I'll go to NhaTrang and teach there for a bit. This monastery is beautiful. It's near the river, outside of the city of Saigon, and it's peaceful and quiet. (except for the talking bird outside my door, who spends his day saying "hello" fifty thousand times, Tay Oi, and many other things I can't understand.) My room is basic, but comfortable and everyone falls all over themselves trying to provide for my every need. I've had my first bout with digestive problems, but I'm fine now. On Saturday my student Duoc from NhaTrang took me to his brothers hairdressing salon for a shampoo and facial. Not too shabby. And I visited with his mother and brothers.

On Sunday I was taken to a convent that supports blind students while they study at university and helps them earn some money by making small crafts. The nuns are wonderful and the students are talented and courageous. A few of the students are studying music and they played the most beautiful music for us on keyboard, flute and mandolin. Then we visited some migrant workers who live in Saigon to work, leaving their families behind in the countryside where they can't make a living. The live 4 to 8 people in an 8X10 room with little furniture. Father Quang took me around, and of course the people provided a wonderful feast that they couldn't afford, because of the honor and respect they need to show the priest. Next Sunday we'll visit some HIV patients. The charism of the Redemptorists is serving the poor, and they truly live it here.

The students are studying for their final exams that will determine whether they will move to the next step in their formation for the priesthood. They're fun to teach and full of life and good nature.

Blessings from Ho Chi Minh City. I'll keep in touch as the weeks go by.

June Bayard
May 2011

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For more information contact:

Ellen Swan
Director of Associates
Congregation of St. Agnes
320 County Road K
Fond du Lac, WI 54937-8158
Phone: 920-907-2318
Email: eswan@csasisters.org