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July 14, 2008
WYOMING COUNTY, W.V.
– Iron Man. The Incredible Hulk. Hancock. The Dark Knight
(Batman). 'Tis the season for
superhero summer movie blockbusters. So why not add one more,
called "Ultra-Mega SuperServants" and begin filming immediately
on location in Southern W.V.? Ummm, no.
Transformed!
A boy's bedroom is made
livable after a PV dry walling, flooring and guttering
job
took care of black mold and other safety and
weatherizing issues. |
Passionist
Volunteers are not superheroes. Yet with all of the
heartfelt thanks and adulation the 2008 summer program has
received as it passes its halfway point, that would be an easy
trap for our egos to fall into. It would be easy for a PV to work hard, see
the good results of the work and
soak up all of the praise as if what he or she does or what the
program does is heroic.
But hold on to your cape and
spandex: It is not heroic! Service is instead just one of the
demanding, rewarding and necessary parts of trying to live as
Christians.
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"44 "They also will
answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in
prison, and did not help you?'
45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever
you did not do for one of the least of these, you
did not do for me.'
46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life..." (Matthew
25:44-46). |
Holy floor, Batman!
This home repair site will
turn a floorless and formerly closed off part of a
cramped home into a livable bedroom. |
It seems that Jesus didn't see
service as anything to be done by a special few people with "J"
or "PV" or some other insignia branded on their chest, but instead as a
requisite part for anyone wanting to live as God wants us to
live. Giving time and effort with no expectation of recompense may be
counter-cultural, but it is fundamental to Christian life.
All Passionist Volunteer programs
seek to wipe away the clouds and connect us again with our
heart's internal desire to give. They teach volunteers to better
listen and to serve each other out of the deep love that is brought out and
made actionable through community reflection and prayer.
This year, the Wyoming County, W.V.
summer program has had the blessing of having every
Passionist Volunteer program represented.
1st Annual
Watermelon seed spitting champ James
Munson (26 ft., 1/4").
more ... |
Three of the pioneer members of the
Bedford-Stuyvesant-based "Teenage Girls in Action" PV program
are serving in W.V. as summer-long volunteers. In addition, one
year-long volunteer who just finished her service in
Bedford-Stuyvesant working at an AIDS Hospice is spending the
summer serving. Passionist Volunteers International (PVI) not
only sent its new crop of volunteers to help kick off the
program earlier this summer, but also has two of its alums
serving throughout the summer. Two students from Northern
Illinois University are serving this summer after loving the PV
experience through their past spring break trips. Another NIU
alum has also made the PV summer program a part of her yearly
plan. Elms College (Chicopee, Mass.) has representation on the
student and faculty side because of its annual PV Christmas
Break trip. The student is a summer-long volunteer, and the
faculty member heads up the social work department at the
college. In addition to her PV summer volunteer work with her
husband, she is also sending three social work interns to work
with the local St. Vincent de Paul conference this fall.
"It feels like we're coming full
circle, yet opening new doors to have every Passionist Volunteer
program represented here in West Virginia this summer," PV
co-director Jill Wallace said. "Even though the programs all
serve different needs in different areas, we are one through the
way that we serve. It's an exciting time for the Passionist
Volunteer community."
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Sports Card:
Each camper, like the one shown here,
earned
his or her very own rookie basketball card! |
The home repair side of the summer
program is running well, filling needs of homeowners who need
help with things such as guttering, painting, flooring, walls,
insulation, roofing, wheelchair ramps, porches, underpinning,
etc. PVs also do summer tutoring, help staff the local food
pantry, St. Vincent de Paul warehouse, and run a weekly "banana
bingo" activity for a residence housing mentally challenged
adults.
The program also finished up its
second summer camp, a week-long basketball camp with two
sessions for children ages 6-15. One parent was so appreciative
of the camp, which focused on fundamentals and being good
teammates, she called the local news station. They came out and
did a piece on the camp!
Whether it's a camper learning to
encourage teammates or a homeowner and volunteer whose lives
both change for the better by becoming lifelong friends after
the home repair is finished, the non-recordable worth of PV
programs is worth far more than the always impressive numbers of
homes worked on and campers attended that are traced at the end
of each summer.
A PV Porch - Volunteers
finish up a porch for a resident. |
A young man, husband and father of
four who earned his GED, his driver's license and his EMT
license with the help of the PV year-long program in West
Virginia a few years back called the PVs recently from boot
camp. He joined the Army because he felt the GI bill was the
best option available for his family, which he misses very much.
He called though because he just wanted to know how the
volunteers were doing, give an update of how he was doing and
say he was sorry he wouldn't be able to see any of his friends
from the summer program this year.
Phone calls like this, or ones
where a family of mentally challenged adults calls to talk about
the state of affairs with their terminally ill father, or
invitations to birthday parties or local events ... our service is more
than a task or job to be carried out. These relationships happen because of the
Passionist formation occurring in community prayer, which
emphasizes the role of Mary as much as it does Martha; the human
listener as much as the human achiever.
Giving work, giving effort, and
most importantly, giving our time to listen and open ourselves
up to connect and to share, is what PV service is all about.
That's not heroic; it's simply human. It's getting out and using the greatest
superpower that God gave to each of us: love. |
