cover story Laverne has faced challenges many people would find insurmountable, but she is a giver. Find out how the North End Soup Kitchen helped Laverne when she was hungry and homeless, and how she is now helping others. from homeless to hopefull By Bob Horning
	our story Three students from Michigan State University talk about why they went on an alternative spring break ­ and why you should think about it, too. what we did on our spring break By Marybeth Hicks
	profile When a visiting priest described the conditions in his home village in Uganda, the people of Old St. Patrick Parish in Ann Arbor rushed in to help. Read about their partnership with the village of Yerya. to give drink to the thirsty By Elizabeth Solsburg
	exclusive You can learn a lot about children by asking what they would like to be when they grow up. fame and fortune? well, maybe By Marybeth Hicks

From homeless to hopefull
Laverne found a new purpose in life
at the North End Soup Kitchen.
By Bob Horning | Photography by Jim Luning

A little more than two years ago, Laverne was living “in a daze.” She had to move out of her mother’s house when her mother’s cocaine habit meant that Laverne’s money was disappearing. She alternated between being homeless, living in a shelter and living with her sister. She said she had no purpose and no sense of hope.

But things changed for Laverne when she found the North End Soup Kitchen (NESK), a service of Catholic Charities. Not only did the soup kitchen help feed Laverne when she was hungry, but now she works there almost every day – Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. “Things have started looking brighter, and I have more hope now,” she says. “I have fun working there. It’s relaxing, too.”

Laverne was born in Missouri in 1965 (on New Year’s Eve, she likes to tell people), but came to Flint with her brother, sister and mother, after her parents were divorced. Since she was a child, Laverne has had epilepsy, for which she takes medication twice daily. In addition, she has had cerebral palsy since she was a baby, which affects her left side. She walks with a limp, her left hand and arm are weaker than the right, and her hand is contorted.

Still, she says, “I can do it all when I put my mind to it, and the Lord has need,” referring to keeping up with her work at the soup kitchen when it gets busy.

Her job, as she calls it, is being in charge of clothes that have been donated to the kitchen. She separates them into men’s, women’s and baby’s. Then she folds them and organizes them on a table for people to take. Three hundred pieces of clothing are given out each week.

John Manse, director of NESK, says, “Laverne is very responsible, coming in every day even though she is a volunteer and has no obligation even to show up.”

The favorite part of the job for Laverne: “Seeing the people take the clothes once they find something that will help them.” Her eyes reflect delight as she talks about that. Because her job is important to her, she doesn’t like it when clients mess up the neat piles of clothes set out on the table. A sign reminds them to please re-fold the clothes when they are finished going through them.

“Some of the people will ask me to set aside certain-sized clothes for them when new donations come in. I do it if I can,” she says.

She takes her job seriously, and sometimes gets upset when clients get out of hand at the kitchen. “I may forget myself and talk to them in bad language sometimes.” She has been known to have a seizure when a lot of clothes come in and she feels the responsibility to get them organized quickly, though John reminds her often that she has a whole month to go through them all. She calms down from the stress by sitting down at work and resting, or by reading a book when she gets home.

Still, Manse talks with amazement at the changes in Laverne since the day she first started coming to the soup kitchen. “She was cautious, afraid, nervous. She didn’t talk to many people, didn’t even want to say hello. She was concerned about the possibility of a seizure.

“Then she started arriving early, and after a few days we asked if she would like to come in and give us a hand. Once she learned what to do, she took ownership of it. When we got busy, we just asked her to take over with the clothes. Eventually, she was able to coordinate groups that came in to work in the clothing area. At first, she giggled and was shy with them, but she learned to give directions.

“It worked out well. Her demeanor has changed so that now she is in command and valuable. She has gained knowledge, and aspects of her character have been brought out. She has progressed to the point that she could be a cashier at a retail outlet. That’s why she takes her job so seriously – because she recognizes the changes that have resulted within her.”

Debra Carter, cook supervisor, attributes much of the change in Laverne to the encouragement she has received from other workers. “And now she is at a place where she can return what she has received from them,” Debra says. “Laverne is high-spirited. She keeps us laughing. She says things to people that put a smile on their faces, especially if she notices that they are down.”

When she has finished catching up with the clothes, Laverne helps serve the noon meal, packs lunches and assists with clean-up afterwards.

Besides the 200-250 hot meals served on-site 365 days a year, NESK also provides nearly 500 sack lunches for two other locations five days a week. Manse says they distributed 12,207 meals in July. According to the latest survey, almost 60 percent of the meals go to the homeless, or those living in a shelter or with family and friends. Only three percent of their clients have never been homeless.

NESK has provided meals for the poor, hungry, and homeless since 1941, and has been a part of Catholic Charities of Shiawassee/Genesee Counties since 1987.

In addition to serving food to the poor, NESK is also charged with providing a place for volunteers to work. Manse says they range from those who want to volunteer, like members of churches, businesses, and service organizations – to those who need to put in service hours, like students, honor societiy members, those on government assistance and those ordered to do so by the court. Even students in the intermediate school district come to improve their motor skills by breaking down diaper packs or lunch items. It is these groups that Laverne coordinates in the clothing area.

Besides food, clothes and small household items that are donated, the kitchen also receives books and personal need items. Once every two months, clients are allowed to receive from the Personal Needs Bank, the amount being dependent upon their family size and income. The bank includes things like toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper, soap and diapers and formula.

Laverne has also helped with the food in another of the soup kitchen’s outreaches – the NESK Kids’ Camp 2005 – which is for children from 5 to 10 years old. The camp employs youth workers to help them develop career skills.

As she likes to say about her different responsibilities, “I move around like a cat. I have fun doing what I do. I like teasing with the other workers.

“Before I started working here, I came every single day to eat, and to get personal needs. When John asked me to be a volunteer, it changed my life. I found a purpose in my life, of helping others. I get satisfaction from working here.” She still comes to eat every day, and indicated that finances would be tight if she didn’t.

When not working at NESK, Laverne likes to watch TV, read mystery books, listen to blues music on the radio and sing in the choir at Greater Galilee Baptist Church.

“I am thankful every day,” she said, “and I read my Bible almost every day, especially Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. John. God is like a father and mother figure to me. When I have a problem, I go to the Lord. He gives me ideas for a solution, then I go do it.”

She is grateful for what she has received from the soup kitchen, and says, “Volunteering is my way of giving back for what I have received. I am happy to do that.”

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The North End Soup Kitchen is a ministry of Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties. The many Catholic Charities agencies in the Diocese of Lansing provide for a wide-ranging list of needs for their clients. For more information about Catholic Charities in your county, contact the following agencies:

• Catholic Charities of Lenawee County
517.263.2191
• Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw
734.971.9781
• Outreach East (Davison)
810.653.7711
• Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties
810.232.9950
• Catholic Outreach (Flint)
810.234.4693
• Catholic Charities of Livingston County
517.545.5944
• Catholic Charities of Jackson
517.782.2551
• St. Vincent Catholic Charities (Lansing)
517.323.4734
• Cristo Rey Community Center (Lansing)
517. 372.4700

what we did
on our spring break
God’s call to serve the poor
By Marybeth Hicks | Photography by Tom Gennara

Last spring, four teams of students from Michigan State University participated in Alternative Spring Break programs sponsored by St. John Student Parish. Among those were 16 students and an advisor who boarded two southbound vans headed for Buena Vista, Va., a tiny, poor town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There, armed only with power tools and open hearts, they volunteered nearly 700 hours in the service of two families by assisting to build Habitat for Humanity homes. For most, this Alternative Spring Break was a first experience in hands-on help of the poor. For all, it was eye-opening, spirit-lifting, life-changing. FAITH Magazine sat down with three ASB participants to ask how they were changed.

FAITH: You could have taken a vacation like most college students – gone to Florida or Cancun or taken a cruise – but instead you chose to spend your break doing hard labor building a house for total strangers. Why did you do it?

Megan McCullough: I went on the trip to make new friends. I had done the retreat in the fall and met some nice people from church there. I didn’t know anyone going on the trip but now the students I met are some of my best friends.

FAITH: So your reason for going was really to get something for yourself.

Megan: Yes!

Antonius (Tony) Aditjandra (Coordinator): Being with friends was also my first thought. I was in a state of transition with the church; I was going to Mass but I wasn’t very active. I reluctantly went on an ASB trip the first time, but the experience wasn’t very rewarding for me. I was asked to go again this past year and I nearly backed out. It was almost like a reconciliation because the second trip gave me all the things I had wanted to experience the first time. The group that traveled to Virginia really bonded and got very close.

Tom Brennan: I was almost “forced” into going. My parents gave me two “gifts certificates” last year – one was for a retreat through St. John’s and one was for the ASB trip. They had already paid for most of it so I felt obligated to go. I didn’t look forward to it until I learned the ASB trip would be a home-building experience for Habitat. My roommate had signed up for the trip as well, though I didn’t know that until it was time to go to the organizational meeting. At that time, we looked around and thought, “This doesn’t look like much fun.” My big concern was about the people going on the trip.

FAITH: The common theme for all three of you is that your reason for going was really about you. None of you said, “I always wanted to find a way to help the poor.” Do you think it’s possible that the yearning to have fun with friends is God’s enticement to get you to serve the poor?

Tony: We’ve talked about our reasons for going. Lots of college kids don’t go for the purpose of helping the poor – they just want to have fun and make new friends. But on the trip, I tried to help connect everyone to our real purpose. College students don’t necessarily see what the larger issue is until they get out there and experience it. Once I had been on an ASB trip, I realized it was important for me to do the feeding instead of being fed all the time.

FAITH: Your ASB trip could have been just a “feel good” junket but instead you made it a spiritual journey. How did serving the poor help you grow spiritually?

Tony: I put in a structured time for discussion because I wanted it to really be a faith journey, and not just a trip to build a house. I assigned two or three people to lead a prayer service each night with Scripture passages and songs and then some time for discussion about the day – what we got out of it.

FAITH: What did you learn about the two families whose homes you helped to build?
Megan: They’re really excited about their homes and they told us all about what they planned for paint colors and curtains. There was no embarrassment about helping them or them needing help. The first time I met one of the families, I was installing their insulation. They just joined in and worked side by side with me.

Tom: I was struck by their gratitude. When you see their reaction, it gives you that much more motivation to do quality work. They’re so grateful that you really want to give them what they deserve.

FAITH: What did you discover about the poor?

Tony: I grew up in Indonesia, which is a Third World country. I grew up in poverty – you never forget what it’s like to live poor. My parents worked hard, but they started out in a house made of plywood with dirt floors. That’s what I thought about when I was building that house – it’s not just a house, it’s someone’s home.

Tom: This was one of the biggest parts of what I got out of the trip. Before that trip, I never had a connection to the poor – never really thought much about it. This provided me with my first personal experience working directly with the poor. Before, I never really considered them the same as me – they were different, because otherwise they wouldn’t be poor.

FAITH: Did you assume poor people weren’t hard-working?

Tom: Yeah. Also, before the trip, none of the service I did I ever directly helped people living in poverty. What I got out of my ASB experience was a feeling that I was helping bring people up – really changing their lives.

FAITH: Do you think you sent a message to those two families about their dignity – perhaps to rediscover their dignity?

Tony: I think they feel like “we belong somewhere” – that there’s another part of the world that cares about them. It’s not just us who came from a distance, but even people around the area were generous toward us when we told them what we were doing.

Tom: Without a doubt, they were touched in a very deep, emotional way. I’d say we gave them some confidence because we showed them they have a connection to us, which was really affirming for them.

Megan: I’m sure I have no idea how much of an impact I had, but I’m ready to sign up for another trip. It was totally worth it.

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Diocese of Lansing
student parishes

To learn more about Alternative Spring Break, contact one of the diocese’s student parishes:

St. Mary Student Parish, Ann Arbor 734.663.0557

St. John Student Parish, East Lansing 517.337.9778

Holy Trinity Student Parish, Ypsilanti 734.482.1400

to give drink to the thirsty
how Deb Buzzy and her parish
brought clean water to Uganda
By Elizabeth Solsburg | Photography By Christine Jones

Dr. Deb Buzzy’s eyes brighten with tears when she talks about the children drinking filthy water from the river in the village of Kasali in Uganda. “When we saw the water, oh my Lord have mercy. It was filthy, with bugs in it. There were young children and young men and women scooping up this water in big cans that looked like gasoline cans. They were carrying it home on bikes or on their shoulders. The water was so filthy I couldn’t get over it.” Deb didn’t “get over it.” She decided she and her parish, “Old” St. Patrick’s in Ann Arbor, had to do something about it.

Deb had gone to Africa as a result of another parish project. In 2001, Fr. Terry Dumas, the pastor of Old St. Pat’s, had gone on sabbatical. Fr. Robert, a member of the Ugandan priest exchange program, came to fill in. Deb remembers, “The parish fell in love with him, and when he told us about his people and his country and how water was so important and what it was like for the poor people, we decided we would do the YAFE (Yerya Action for Empowerment) project, which was a microeconomic program. We pledged three years of collecting $6,000 a year to send over there.

“The premise is this: ‘I borrow two or three hundred dollars to start my own transistor radio shop or bicycle repair shop or sewing shop. I then pay it back at 1 percent interest.’ YAFE teaches them how to keep their books. We started out with 32 families and then grew to 76 families. In the first year, everyone paid back the money except for one family, and that was because the mother died of AIDS and left the 14-year-old daughter with six other children to take care of. Fr. Terry made arrangements to pay that daughter’s school fees so she wouldn’t have to quit school.

“Because we had done this project, we decided we were all going to go over and see what had grown from the seeds we had sown in the hearts of the Yerya parish and the people there.”

Deb traveled to Yerya, in the Diocese of Fort Portal, Uganda with a group of her fellow parishioners. It included Fr. Terry, his son, two of his grandchildren, Deb’s son Jordan and other members of the YAFE committee from Old St. Pat’s. “Seven adults and three children went to Uganda – the children were 10,12 and 13. The people there were impressed that we brought our children; they took it as a sign of trust in their culture that we would bring our children there.”

As they toured the country and visited the businesses that had been funded by YAFE, Deb was struck by the warmth and hospitality the Ugandans showed them:

“When we arrived in Fort Portal, they had a welcoming dinner for us. In their culture, they have about six pet names they use as terms of affection. There might be 10 Apoulis in the room, but everyone understands about whom they’re speaking. To be accepted into the Watoro tribe, we were named by the chief in a formal naming ceremony. My name is Amawi, which means ‘the wise.’ My son is Apouli, which means ‘first-born son.’

“We went to a lot of Masses there. Every culture brings its own focus to Mass – in Uganda, it’s joyous. Lots of singing and dancing. It’s nothing to see them dance up the aisle to receive the Eucharist and dance back down the aisle. They are so happy to receive the Lord. It was such a joyful thing, it was humbling to watch.”

Deb and her fellow travelers were also very impressed by how well the microeconomic project was working, but concerned about the drinking water they saw. “The water was so filthy ... when we came back and gave our presentation to Old St. Pat’s, I said I thought we definitely needed to do a water project. As far as I was concerned, this was of the utmost importance. Many children there die of typhoid and malaria. Typhoid is in the water, and mosquitoes breed near stagnant water. They try to boil the water, but children, being impetuous, and thirsty – drink it.

“Coincidentally, Paul McGuire of our parish said an ad hoc committee had already formed and was beginning to think about the idea of a well project.”

That ad hoc committed was formed by Ray and Jude Huetteman, who invited Janet and Dee Elgas, Paul and Christie McGuire, Kathy Biess, Alice Schmitter, Fr. Terry and Deb to join them in discussing the YAFE project and figuring out what else they could do to help the people of Yerya.

“We contacted Catholic Relief Services – and we should be very proud of that organization. They connected us with the correct people and there was a water project through the Diocese of Ft. Portal (Health through Water and Sanitation or HEWASA). They told us that to put in 20 wells would cost $36,500, so we went to work. We aimed for $40,000 to account for cost growth.

“We raised $46,200 in 10 weeks. For such a small parish, they have such big hearts.”

On Sept. 18, Bishop Robert Muhiirwa from the Diocese of Fort Portal came to dinner at Deb’s house to meet the people of Old St. Pat’s who’d been so instrumental in bringing clean water to his people. As the committee watched and exclaimed softly, the bishop showed a videotape of a few of the 20 wells that had been dug with money donated by the parish. As the pictures of clean water gushing from spigots flashed across the screen, the voices of Ugandans repeated, “Thank you to Old St. Patrick Parish.” In Deb’s living room, tears of joy flowed freely.

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For more information on clean water and other international charity needs, contact Catholic Relief Services at www.catholicrelief.org.