Teens from "The Way" at the Helen Wright Center

Cary, NC – It’s hard for us to resist these stories.  There are amazing things going on in Cary by some real good people.  Nick Verna contacted me.  He works with Cary (and Apex) teens in a program called ”The Way”.

“The program has over 200 teen members that get together for projects weekly.  We try to move teens closer to God through a combination of teaching, service and example”, Nick told me.

The group regularly provides meals for the homeless, collects food for Urban Ministries and various other service projects throughout the year.  For many of the teens this project marks the first time they ever leave their “comfort zone” – as Verna described it.  Nick has been working with teens through various churches for over 25 years.  He claims he has ”never experienced anything as rewarding as 200 teens learning stewardship first hand.”

Delivering Food

High School Classroom In Ugandan Village That "Share The Blessings" Helps Support

Story and photos by Donna Fitzgerald

CARY, N.C. – Arriving in Entebbe, Uganda for the 8^th time was as exciting as the first.

In 2001, my husband John and I responded to a notice in the Sunday “bulletin” at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church for a pilgrimage to Uganda with Father Emmanuel Katongole, who was at the time assisting with masses here in Cary.  He wanted to share the culture, land and people of his homeland.  We traveled with a group of 10 parishioners from Raleigh to Entebbe in July 2002.

During that trip we experienced a culture very different from our own.  We were immersed in a life in Africa very strange and wonderful to us.   We also met his eminence Emmanuel Cardinal Wamalaon that trip.  It was an honor to meet him and we have visited with him every year.  He has even come to North Carolina since.  On our first trip, we visited villages and schools as well as a game park for animal tracking, the source of the Nile River, and other local sights and landmarks.

A Very Different Life

Many of the things we did for the first time that trip, Ugandans did on a daily basis.  When we visited Father Emmanuel’s home village of Malube, we walked with the villagers to get water.  The only source was a muddy pond about a mile from the village.  Since  collecting water is the responsibility of the children and women, we walked with them, some of the villagers were seeing Muzungus (Caucasians) for the first time.

While the jerrycans looked easy to carry, once full of water they are quite heavy.  The men in our group struggled while the local young children seemed to stride uphill effortlessly.  The water was so dirty that someone commented that we wouldn’t even want to water our lawns with it.  And yet, they were using this water to bathe, drink, and wash as well as water their animals. It was something I will never forget.

Water and Education Needs and Sharing the Blessings

We also visited several schools, one of which Father Emmanuel and his siblings had attended as children.  It was in disrepair, nearly falling down and without a roof  – and yet classes were still being held.  They had scant school supplies and no books for the library.

Upon nightly reflections we decided we needed to help those who are lacking two basic needs – water and education.  We decided to start a non-profit organization and call it Share the Blessings.  Our main objectives would be to provide clean water to villages through the digging of wells and to help with the education of children.  To date Share the Blessings has funded 14 wells in villages and supports 57 children with the help of Father Joseph Kakooza.

Clean Water and Better Schools

John and I have been fortunate to have been able to make annual trips to Uganda.  In 2008 we visited all of the villages in which we had provided wells.  It is so joyful to see them pumping clean water where otherwise there would have been none.

In one village, as a show of  their gratitude, they presented us with a live chicken, eggs, sugar cane and corn.  Knowing what a sacrifice this was for them made us even more humbled.

We have also visited the schools in which Share the Blessings (STB) has supported children.  Some have graduated and have gone on to higher education, yet most are still struggling to stay in school.  It becomes difficult to attend classes when families depend on the children to help out at  home.  They must do their chores before attending class.  Chores include getting water, cleaning, gardening and helping with any animals.  Sometimes these children are very tired and hungry when they get to school.  They must then do their school work and return home to more chores.  School fees are sometimes impossible for parents to come up with and Share the Blessings has helped with keeping some of these children in school.

As part of Share the Blessings, my husband John has refurbished donated/used laptop computers and we have taken them to schools that otherwise would not have computers at all.

Our Last Trip

This past January we spent 2 weeks in Entebbe visiting friends. We stayed at Bethany House which is a retreat compound developed by Father Emmanuel Katongole.

Father Emmanuel descibes his retreat as “part guest house for travelers, and part conference and retreat center for religious leaders and practitioners, Bethany House in Entebbe Uganda is a place fully dedicated to sustaining pilgrimage as a vital practice of outreach and transformation.

Those who have heard the call to come and see Africa will I hope find Bethany House to be a space of intersection where catholic and protestant, black and white, north and south, west and east, meet to hear and learn the exciting story of God as they receive the invitation to be part of God’s new creation.”

We also visited Father Joseph Kakooza at the Cathedral in Luweero where he is assigned.  He is the overseer of the children sponsored by STB.  He is facing many challenges in his new assignment.

He is trying to get funding for a roof for the rectory as well as a new generator as the power is very unstable.  He is a tireless man and never ceases to amaze me with his energy.   Since the students were on their holiday we were unable to visit with many of them this trip but it is always a highlight.  They sing and dance and entertain us with their stories.  They are a never ending source of joy for us.

We are planning our next journey to Uganda in July.  It is has become as much a home to us as Cary.

Matt Young also contributed to this article

To serve is a true gift for the receiver and giver.

Cary, N. C. – Tired of hearing bad news? Rotten kids? Crime? Selfishness? Economic disaster?

There is a lot that goes on in this community that is, well, “good”.  Random and anonymous acts of kindness,  selfless donations of time and money, kids building character by helping others.

St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church sponsors programs that foster these charitable acts.  No big foundations, no adult chairpersons running the show – just caring people quietly guiding each other and sharing their own blessings.

As part of  the two year ”confirmation”  process, St. Michael’s provides guidance to 300 14-18 year-olds to share their gifts.  When I asked Dr. Nina Rizzo, Associate Director High School Youth Ministry, what was going on with the Youth Programs I was blown away.

First I should explain “Confirmation”.  Dr. Rizzo defines Confirmation (along with Baptism and Eucharist) as a ”Catholic sacrament of initiation”.  She told me that “Confirmation, like Baptism, imprints a spiritual mark or indelible character on our soul; for this reason you can receive this sacrament only once”.

Nina leads these youths to understand his/her commitment to the life and mission of the Church.  The goal is to have formed teens that are ready “to lead a life of prayer, worship, and service“.  “Youth are expected to fulfill at least two group service projects per year.”  Dr. Rizzo told me that in other similar positions her office phone would ring and parents would ask, “do you have any service work my teen can do?”  So Nina adopted the philosophy to stress that these projects should not be once-in-a-lifetime “chores” to fulfill “a requirement”,  but rather to have service to the community evolve into a “way of life”.

“I wanted to create service opportunities where teens learn, participate, and experience service with the community.  Hopefully this experience would lead to an understanding that service is not a ‘requirement’ but a way of seeing, acting, and being in the world.”

Some Examples

The Brown Bag Ministry and Helen Wright Women’s Shelter are about preparing meals for the hungry and homeless.  Most importantly, these projects provide opportunities for the teens to meet the people they are serving.  For the Brown Bag Ministry 1,000 lunches are boxed, they then drive to Moore Square and distribute the lunches.  At the Helen Wright Shelter, after cooking the food they serve about 40 women at the Shelter and sit with them afterwards.  Teens get an up-close and personal encounter with the poor and needy.   There are an amazing number of hungry people in our own community.  We often think of poverty as some distant problem that only takes place in third world countries.  It’s right here on our own doorstep.  As for the teens, they begin to recognize how richly blessed they are.  Now when they complain that “there’s no food in this house!” teens realize the abundance of food that their parents provide.

Nina tells this story.  Lizzie Mayhew, a participant, started out Saturday morning with her classmates to the Brown Bag Ministry.  She was tired and wished she could have slept in.  Together they bagged lunches – plain and simple – two slices of white bread, one slice of bologna and cheese, a granola bar, and apple.  They drove to Moore Square and immediately a line of men approached the table seeking a ticket stub to receive a lunch.  Many, many lunches were given out.  A man approached the table asking for a lunch but didn’t have a ticket.  He was told that if lunches left over, he could come back and get one.  Lizzie kept an eye out for him.  Extra lunches were set out on the table and people came running to grab them.  Lizzie knew that if she didn’t take one then, the man would never get a lunch.  Quickly she grabbed a lunch, ran over to the man, and tapped him on the shoulder.  He swung around to see her arm extended holding out a boxed lunch.  Lizzie later told us that his eyes beamed with joy and gratitude.  This man made her feel wonderful inside.  But at the same time, she couldn’t believe how a plain sandwich could bring such happiness.  At that moment, she knew how lucky she was. Lizzie has been back several times on an early Saturday morning to fix brown bag lunches.

At Christmas time, the “divide” between the needy and those that have plenty become magnified.  The children make and distribute Thanksgiving baskets,  collect and give out toys through the ”Jesse Tree” (a tree is put in the church lobby with names of children hung on it like ornaments to pick, thereby sponsoring that child), and collecting used bicycles for needy families in the community as part of St. Mike’s Bikes.

Many of the teens are open about the joy it gives them. One of the teens, Steven Santoro, told Dr. Rizzo,  “I learned that not everyone is doing as well as I am.  I feel different now – I feel that I made people happy which made me happy.”  Another student, Robert Gallo, was “inspired to see the amount of people who came out on a cold, rainy day to clean and repair bikes.”

The Miracle League is a service project in which the St. Michael Latino Confirmation class and the H.S. Confirmandees serve together.  Teens “buddy up” with a child with mental and physical challenges to help them to play baseball.  The most revealing lesson teens walk away from this experience is that joy doesn’t come from owning things.  There are people with serious challenges who can experience extreme joy in the simple game of baseball.

I bet not too many of you knew about all this.  It humbled and inspired me.

Please write to us and let us know about other similar activities that you know of that are going on in Cary – “faith-based” or not.  Or make comments below.  Let’s share that joy here in the CaryCitizen.

Cary, N.C – St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church on High House Road held a concert to celebrate the end of the Christmas season on Saturday, Jan. 9.  Church Music Director Wayne Cusher led the many different music groups that are part of this diverse parish.

The children’s choir sang carols in multiple languages to kick off the concert.  The vocals coming from the front of the church were what angels must sound like.

The parish bell choir played some well-known seasonal carols along with some lesser-known but equally beautiful music.

The Spanish choir sang and played Los Peces en el Rio and Rin Rin while the audience clapped and sang along.

The “parish community” that uses the Green Hope High School for services sang some more contemporary selections like an arrangement of Birthday of a King by David Gurecki and Love has Come with a great beat .

Also featured was the Korean group singing traditional Korean Christmas music.

The Teen Choir performed modern/pop songs.  There were some awe-inspiring solos as well as formal chamber-style instrumentals.

You get the idea.

The music was flawlessly performed and the acoustics in the church are amazing.

This concert was not only a celebration of the “Epiphany”, but truly the celebration of a diverse, but united community of Cary.