Sweet AlAbAMA HOMe

Vine & Branches
May 2008
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THE PEOPLE OF PRAISE • “CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY.”
Sweet AlabAMA HOME
The Gaudet House Gets Remade
HOLY SPIRIT SIGHTINGS
by Chris Meehan
Trish Brewer
South Bend branch soccer players Peter Gaffney, Sarah Heintzelman, Sheila
Payne, Laura Ficker, Jonathan Finke.
Soccer Healing
2
When Garth Rose (Corvallis) began coughing up blood, it took two
lengthy visits to an urgent care facility to determine that he had an abscessed lung. He was hospitalized
immediately. Then a biopsy accidentally spread bacteria all through his
chest, putting his life in danger.
He had emergency surgery, then
spent nine days in the ICU tethered
to a ventilator. “The surgeon gave me
at most a 50% chance of survival,”
Garth reports. “He said it was really
ugly in there.”
Through the grace of God and
many prayers, Garth recovered rapidly. He avoided a prolonged stint in
a rehabilitation home and was home
within a week. A few weeks after
that, he was back to work.
With this life-threatening scare
avoided, Garth faced another battle,
this time with a hospital bill of more
than $130,000, and thousands more
for the anesthesiologist, the emergency room and the radiologists.
Garth Rose
Ed Brown
Last fall a group of South Bend
branch members gathered for their
weekly soccer game at the Trinity
School field. They brought some
guests, and some of their guests
brought guests, too, including a
mother and her two boys. The boys
had a fine time on the field, but during a water break Laura Ficker noticed their mother sitting on the
sidelines. She had a plantar wart
on her foot which made every step
painful. Soccer was out of the question, she explained. A few more
people gathered around and the
whole group prayed with her for
healing. They went back to the
game, which ended before they
could learn the mother’s name.
Two months later, Dorothy
Ranaghan gave a bemused sharing at
a community meeting. Her daughter
Susan works with this same mother
of two and had heard her say that
some people at the Trinity School
field had prayed with her, and that
her foot was healed. “I don’t know
who the people who prayed are,”
Dorothy announced at the meeting,
“but you know who you are!”
The mother’s name is Jeannie.
“All those people prayed,” she says.
“A week later I noticed it was gone.
I had gone to the doctor and they
wanted to do surgery. I had an appointment for a second opinion, but
I called and cancelled my appointment. It was unnecessary.”
Debt Cancelled
“John Carey came with me to
help me make my case to the hospital
billing department,” he says. “After
applying for financial assistance, my
bill was cut in half, but it was still beyond what I could ever pay. The best
deal the hospital was willing to offer
me was a monthly payment that was
bigger than my salary!”
Francis Potts contacted some
friends in the hospital’s administration, but to no avail, and Garth’s options appeared exhausted. The bills
kept arriving, and he was in serious
financial straits.
“A few weeks later, I came home
to find yet another letter from the
hospital in my mailbox. What is
it now?, I thought. Inside, I found
a letter informing me my bill had
been cut by 90%. I am now debt-free,
praise God!”
From companionship in emergency rooms (including one six-hour
wait with Francis Johnson), to visits,
cards and food from just about everyone in the branch, to help in negotiating his expenses, Garth says he
felt the constant loving presence of
the Lord.
“I have people I know I can call
in the middle of night, people who
are praying for me daily, people who
are committed to me.
“It seems unlikely that the situation with the hospital bill would have
come out nearly as positively without
the help, support and prayers of my
brothers and sisters.”
Friends Lost and Found
Last February Alana Busekrus (Oahu)
paused to reminisce with her four
daughters. “Remember the Heusted
family that we used to spend so much
time with?”
Alana and Aleasha Heusted had
been close friends, even cofounding
a group for mothers of preschoolers.
Then Aleasha and her husband Matthew left Oahu for Kentucky, so Matthew could attend a seminary. For
eight straight years, Alana had sent
them Christmas cards, but she had
never heard anything back.
Unknown to Alana, a few months
earlier Thomas Duddy and Nick Holovaty had been in Louisville, KY,
talking to strangers as part of a short
reconnaissance trip. They met two
men sitting outside a coffee shop, students at a local Baptist seminary, who
insisted on introducing them to the
coffee shop’s owner, Matthew Heusted. Matthew invited the missionaries
to stay with them if they ever came
back to town. The missionaries had
no idea that they had just discovered
Alana’s long-lost friends.
They returned to Louisville in
February and spent the night with
the Heusteds, right about the time
Alana was wondering if she’d ever
hear from Aleasha again. During a
late-night conversation, someone told
the Heusteds that the People of Praise
had a branch in Oahu, and the connection was forged.
Later Aleasha found Alana’s husband Donald’s e-mail address on the
Internet and sent a message with a
clear subject line: “Looking for Alana
Busekrus.”
“It was like old times—her easy
laughter and quickness to verbalize
her trust in God’s timing and provi-
From 1998, Aleasha Heusted holding
Emily and Lydia Heusted and Alana
Busekrus holding Nikaela Busekrus.
sion,” Alana says of the phone conversation that followed the e-mail.
“She and Matthew have a missionary
mindset, living among people in need
in order to have more opportunities
to serve.”
Aleasha was just as happy to reconnect with Alana. She explained
that her family had moved several
times since living in Oahu, hence the
missing Christmas cards.
Alana sums up: “With God,
there are no coincidences, just sweet,
blessed occurrences.” n
3
Branch members have thrown
baptism parties, like this one, open
to neighbors and other guests.
SuperNOVA
Stellar Planning and Pentecost Seminars
Bring Branch Growth
by Sean Connolly
reporting by Susan Holovaty
I
n the spring of 2005 Craig Lent announced an ambitious
growth goal for the community, increasing our numbers to 200,000 people over the next 40 years. He told
leaders assembled in South Bend for a conference that the
target was attainable if we maintained a consistent annual
growth rate of 13 percent across the community.
Since the conference, branch members and leaders in
northern Virginia have answered the call to mobilize, experimenting with ways to turn familiar linchpins of community life—from Sunday branch meetings to midweek
meals at home—into outreach opportunities. Ultimately a
culture shift percolated throughout their branch.
“We’ve changed our fundamental posture towards
growth,” explains Walt Seale, NOVA’s point man for
growth initiatives. “Bringing guests to events is now a normal part of our life. After an event, it is very common to
hear people ask, ‘How many guests?’ This question was far
from the top of our minds three years ago.”
The culture shift is mostly due to the work of a growth
strategy team launched by branch coordinators a few
weeks after Craig’s call. The team meets two ways: in person (less often now than at the beginning of the initiative)
and in a conversation during the workweek using an email listserv. The e-mail list has become the nerve center
for branch growth, linking 70 or so subscribers to a steady
drumbeat of fresh ideas, friendly advice and evangelistic
encouragement.
Many of the team’s ruminations have turned into actions. In three years, the branch has held 15 Pentecost seminars, along with four Community Weekends and countless
open area meetings, open branch meetings, open ice cream
socials and picnics. Even baptism parties have been thrown
open to neighbors. Branch members have become bolder,
praying with strangers on the Metro train, in doctors’ offices and at the gym, and they’ve knocked on doors in their
own neighborhoods.
Right: Chris Dietz likes to pray with people on the Metro
on his way into work.
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Now, the results are in: 34 people have joined the
community since the start of 2005, representing an increase
of 22 percent for the branch (ignoring branch members
who left NOVA for other branches). More than 110 people
were baptized in the Holy Spirit at branch-sponsored Pentecost seminars.
“More people have come to see the love we have, the
service that goes on and our call to build God’s kingdom
in the here and now,” notes Lek Kadeli. “It’s not only the
Pentecost seminars, it’s the meals, the men’s and women’s
prayer nights, etc. What we’re seeing is the synergistic effect of people plugging into all these various opportunities.”
The northern Virginia growth initiative is working,
but why?
If you talk to the men and women who joined during
the last three years, a consistent theme emerges. Person after person speaks of the natural, heartfelt affection and personal attention they experienced when they attended community events. They were impressed by the people and
by the personalities they encountered, and sometimes by
generous and spontaneous acts of service in times of need.
For some, all this attention and concern stood in marked
contrast to the frantic, impersonal and work-centered encounters that usually characterize life around the Capital
Beltway.
Matt Harris is a real estate developer who joined the
branch with his wife Mary Beth and daughter, Claire, after
attending branch activities for four months. “Normally,”
Matt says, “when I meet a new person in Washington the
first question asked is, ‘What do you do for a living?’ But
Trudy Golt was looking for
advice on caring for her mother
with Alzheimer’s when she met
Georgine Redmond, a nurse.
Georgine invited Trudy to a
Community Weekend, and later
to a Pentecost seminar. “I was
very impressed with how kind
and loving people were,” Trudy
says. “For me it felt like going
home—that’s the best way of
saying it.”
Like Trudy, nearly half of
the 34 who came underway attended one of the 15 Pentecost
seminars the branch has put on.
Frank Bassett helped train more
than 80 branch members to give
talks, lead discussion groups
and serve as moderators for the
seminars. Walt Seale consulted
with Paul DeCelles to come up
with a shortened version of the
seminar that branch members
could present at the drop of a
hat. Often, though, Walt would
simply put a seminar on the
calendar a couple of months
ahead, regardless of whether
anyone had signed up or not,
Kristin Elliott and
Marie Schmitz (Servant
Branch) in Allendale.
Walt and Pam Seale
“ We are more aware of our guests and show more hospitality
toward those the Lord sends our way.”—Walt Seale
at community events people were generally very interested
in every aspect of our lives. If we met a couple once and
we told them that our parents lived in the area, they would
remember that. People were actually listening. Mary Beth
and I were taken aback by that because it’s so rare here.”
sending a flurry of reminder
e-mails and encouragements as
the date got closer. More than
140 guests have attended the
seminars.
A
spontaneous act of kindness brought Don and
Debbie Runyon closer to
the branch. Debbie first heard
about the community while in
Jim Mysliwiec and
college in the late 1980s, and
Lek Kadeli
had kept in touch with Katherine Brophy (Colorado Springs) over the years. In recent
years, she and her husband had been attending open
men’s and women’s prayer nights.
“Some men in the branch took my husband Don to
the hospital because he was having chest pains,” she says.
“They drove us there, and other branch members took
care of the kids while we were there. Fortunately there
was nothing seriously wrong with Don, but the people
were very loving and caring.” As an interdenominational
couple, the Runyons also appreciated the community’s
ecumenism.
5
Frank Bassett, Dennis Burke
and Rick Ridenour rehang a
door at an area service day.
Barbette Brophy and Carmen Mullen at Carmen’s baby shower.
Patty Whelpley and Heather Allen, both married
mothers of small children, came to love the community
in part because of help they got during their pregnancies. “Before we came underway, I was on bed rest with
my fourth pregnancy,” Heather says. “Maria DeMicoli
asked her women’s group to help me out. They came over
and helped me clean the house and take care of the kids.
That’s amazing!”
Patty says, “During one of my deliveries I had an
emergency situation, and was really thrown for a loop.
One of the sisters in the branch set up meals for a month.
That moved me to tears. We were really surprised at
their service.”
Patty and her husband, John, had been running into
community members at sporting events and homeschooling activities for some time before that. “We kept meeting
people and noticing that they had this special spark about
them,” Patty says. “When we learned that each of these
people was in the People of Praise, we started slapping
our foreheads and thinking seriously about what was different about this community, that made its members stand
out among our peers.”
Tonya Rrapi hails from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,
but a couple of years ago she needed a place to stay in
the D.C. area so she could intern with the FBI. Through a
series of connections, Bill and Deb Sjoberg agreed to welcome her, though they didn’t know her. “For the rest of
A Lord’s Day meal
my life, I will be thankful to them,” Tonya says.
After the internship ended, Bill and Deb stayed in
touch with Tonya. When she couldn’t find a job in Michigan, they invited her to move back in and look for a job
nearby. She got a job and joined the branch.
“After community functions and meetings with community people, I always felt so happy,” she says. “It’s
worth the Virginia traffic—getting lost and making wrong
turns! I’ve learned a lot from the People of Praise about
praise and worship, and I’m a lot more confident in my
love for the Lord and his love for me.”
I
n addition to newcomers, about half of the 34 members
who came underway are children of community members, high-schoolers who are part of the branch’s Action division. These younger brothers and sisters cite trips
to Allendale, a hard-working and busy division life, and a
desire to grow closer to God as reasons for their decisions.
Many also echo the same theme as their recently underway counterparts: being inspired by the love and concern
of older brothers and sisters.
Trinity School at Meadow View junior John Mysliwiec
says he was influenced by the example of Company members Jeremy Osterhouse and Ed Preuss, who spent a summer living and working in northern Virginia when he was
a freshman. Ed prayed with John to be baptized in the
Holy Spirit that summer.
Newer NOVA branch members
Mary Beth and
Matt Harris
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Kathryn Elliott
Francisco deBrey
Trudy Golt
L to R, Sophia, Colin, Patty,
Annette, John, Joseph and Bridget
Whelpley
Nadia Fraga (right) with a guest
at a women’s night.
Clockwise from left, Peter Cassell, Brad Elliott, Carole
Boland and Mae Cheung prepare a cedar chest for refinishing at an area service project.
Senior Kathryn Elliot says traveling to Allendale and
sharing a room with longtime branch member Pat Pawlosky left a lasting impression on her. “Before that I never
thought of Pat as anything other than my friend’s mother.
Sharing a room in Allendale is not like sharing a room in
a hotel, it’s sharing an intense, spiritual experience. I came
to see her as a real person, an adult who could be my sister in Christ as well.”
about our own experiences—with baptism in the Holy
Spirit, for example. There have been many more ‘no’ responses than yeses. Growing our branch has taken persistence. It’s helped us to take courage from the fact that
Jesus was despised and rejected.”
Branch members didn’t go into these encounters
unprepared. They met together to practice explaining
the community without fumbling and to rehearse threeminute stories that could serve as
snapshots of our life. Then they
discussed their evangelistic experiences on the listserv. “I think
our hearts are growing to really
have a missionary, evangelistic, outward view,” Mary
Frances Loughran concludes.
Two years into the effort, Walt sent a letter to the
brothers and sisters on the growth e-mail list. “In the past
two years a lot has changed,” he wrote. “We are more
aware of our guests and show more hospitality toward
those the Lord sends our way. We have spoken our Father’s word boldly through many Pentecost seminars.
We have entertained many more guests in the last year
than ever before. We have worked many hours to help the
branch grow.”
Three cheers to these brothers and sisters for all the
toil, an effort that lives up to our Lord’s words in John’s
Gospel: “My Father goes on laboring, and so do I.” n
More than 110 people were baptized in the Holy Spirit
at branch-sponsored Pentecost seminars.
B
ehind all these winning natural and personal encounters are hundreds and hundreds of hours of
planning events, seminars and meals. Brothers and
sisters worked to contact old friends and neighbors and to
issue bold invitations to perfect strangers. In a commute
on the Metro, Chris Dietz prayed with a middle-aged
woman in a wheelchair and a woman suffering from post
traumatic stress syndrome. Terry Cassell met a 25-yearold man with M.S. in a doctor’s office and later went to
his house to pray with him.
They also experienced fear and rejection. “It takes a
lot of nerve to invite someone to a community event,”
Walt says. “We found that we couldn’t just invite people.
We had to explain community life and tell lots of stories
John Mysliwiec
Tonya Rrapi
Nadia Fraga
Tony Fraga
Claire and Brigette Mysliwiec
Photos by Mae Cheung, Nadia Fraga, Larry Lamanna, Michael Loughran and Tracy Scriba.
7
SWEET ALABAMA HOME
by Elizabeth Grams
L
ydia Gaudet is effusive. “You
have a new home in Mobile!, ”
she says. It’s her message for
the whole People of Praise.
Early in the morning on February
1, a camera crew and a crack team of
home designers invaded Steve and
Lydia Gaudet’s front yard—its grass
well worn by six football-loving Gaudet sons. (Two more grown children,
a son and a daughter, live elsewhere.)
In a week, volunteers flattened their
tired 1,500-square-foot, one-bathroom
house and set up a spacious new one
in its place. With three bathrooms,
five bedrooms and 3,500 square
feet, the house is now hopping
with branch gatherings, men’s and
women’s group meetings and family dinners.
“The Lord built this house,” Steve
says. “He wants to use this to further
his kingdom.”
The Gaudets were winners on
ABC television network’s Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition (EMHE), a
prime-time reality show. In each episode, a home design team swoops in
8
on a family with a hurting house (and
often with a history of community
service) and ships them off on a vacation. While they’re away, the team
works at a breakneck clip, relying on
help from local contractors and volunteers to put up a new home in time
for the family’s return—all captured
by the cameras, of course.
Around Thanksgiving, one of
Lydia’s co-workers nominated the
Gaudets to appear on the show.
Though EMHE gets thousands of
nominations each week, the Gaudets
learned in December that they were
one of five families under consideration for an early February makeover.
Before the filming, the whole family
had to crate up their valuables, pack
their bags for a vacation and get time
off school and work, just in case they
won.
Just in case they lost, branch
member Phyllis Compretta was racking her brain, trying to come up with
ways to comfort her friends. She
never had the chance. On the pivotal
morning, the Gaudets were praying
and singing in their kitchen when a
sudden noise sent them flying out the
front door.
“I jumped the hedge,” Lydia recalls. “My oldest three boys flattened
the design team on the ground. They
just tackled them!”
After whirlwind press interviews
and discussions with the designers,
eight happy Gaudets traveled via
limo to the airport for a trip to the Super Bowl and several days in Disneyland. They returned to much fanfare
and a sparkling new home. Before
stepping inside for the first time, the
Gaudets paused on their lawn, bringing the whole TV production to a halt
and keeping hundreds of onlookers
in suspense, while they thanked the
Lord for what he’d done.
T
he Gaudets sorely needed a
new home. Seven to ten showers a day had taken a toll on
their old house’s solitary bathroom.
With almost every room a bedroom,
basic needs like sleep and quiet time
often suffered. The house had held
Above: The old Gaudet home:
before, during and after demolition. From left: Joseph, Patrick, Thomas, Stephen, Peter,
Chris and Lydia Gaudet.
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ROOMS AT A GLANCE
Kitchen
Peter’s bedroom
Dining room
Photos by Rebecca Saltee
Living room
10
Media room
Master bedroom
Left: Manny Ganzarain, Tony Compretta, Walter Drey and Bill Denton watch a movie. Right: Lydia Gaudet, Julia Drey,
Theresa Burgess and Phyllis Compretta gather for women’s group.
the growing family for 18 years,
surviving fire damage and, more recently, roof damage from Hurricane
Katrina.
The family’s energy was taxed by
long work hours, busy school schedules and by their many volunteer
commitments. Peter, the youngest
Gaudet, has Down Syndrome. Well
aware of the needs that mentally
handicapped children and adults
can have, the family has spent many
hours volunteering to serve that
Steve, Lydia and the kids didn’t
ask the design crew for more than
one more bathroom and extra space.
But their new house more than
doubled in size, has lots of common
space, new top-of-the-line appliances
and furniture, and three bathrooms.
“It’s an answer to prayer,” Steve
says. “I didn’t realize how much of a
burden the old house had been. Not
having to worry about any of that
has opened up a whole wealth of
possibilities.”
the family cook and an aspiring chef,
got to cook with Andrew Sutton, a
famous chef. There was the time the
Gaudets’ parish priest held a huge
impromptu Ash Wednesday service
on their front lawn for volunteers.
The Mobile branch poured itself out on the construction site. Bill
Denton hung and mudded sheetrock and spent hours collecting
trash. Manny Ganzarain spent a day
translating between the worksite
foreman and the Spanish-speaking
The Mobile branch poured itself out on the construction site.
population, a fact that greatly impressed EMHE producers.
“Branch members have done a
lot to help out the Gaudets over the
years,” says Tom Evans, the coordinator responsible for Mobile, who can
remember a number of workdays
there. “But of course we did not have
‘extreme’ resources!”
So the Lord stepped in to provide
something extravagant, sending professional builders, fast-drying concrete, huge space heaters for quicksetting sheetrock mud, a few cranes,
TV cameras and 1,500 volunteers.
His son Christopher adds, “If
we want to be together as a family,
we can do that. If we want our own
space, we can do that, too. It’s nice to
have that freedom.”
T
he Lord’s hand was everywhere during makeover week,
Steve says.
There was the weather, perfect
all week, except for one day when
it rained everywhere in the city . . .
but not in the Gaudets’ subdivision.
There was the time on vacation in
California when 16-year-old Patrick,
bricklayers. Donna Ganzarain took
a 4:00 a.m. shift cleaning windows
and clearing the lawn in preparation for sod. Phyllis Compretta arrived to help on the day after the
big unveiling, when the whole block
(which had been taken over) had
to be cleaned up and the TV crew’s
equipment packed away.
Even the EMHE crew noticed
something different. A producer told
the builders, “This project is like being on vacation, everyone is being
so cooperative!” Another producer
wrote “favorite family” on the binder
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6 types of flooring
40 paint colors
81 cubic yards of concrete
200 light bulbs
250 sheets of drywall
21,000 bricks
he used for the EMHE episode about
the Gaudets.
As icing on the cake, the makeover even helped Steve get a new job.
Just when the Gaudets’ EMHE adventure began in December, he got laid
off. His newfound availability was a
key to getting the detailed EMHE application finished in time. Then, just
after they received their new home,
he and Lydia attended a press conference at which CVS Pharmacy offered
money to help pay some of Peter’s
medical bills. The local CVS manager
mentioned to Steve that they were
hiring. Steve applied, got the job,
and started work as an assistant store
manager.
“It’s a miracle, actually,” he says.
“No one deserves this! It’s a gift from
God.”
A huge blessing has arrived for
the Mobile branch. “It’s already making a big difference,” Phyllis reports.
The Gaudets are now free to host
branch gatherings. They can even
seat 40 for a meal, and they hope
the space will be a tool for branch
growth.
“We’re all rejoicing in it,” says
Bill Denton. “This is a real sign from
God that he loves us.”
“We want you to come and see
the house,” says Lydia, smiling. n
Photos courtesy of Lydia Gaudet
You can watch a video tour of the house at
http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index?pn=index
8
5
Jo Geissler
Steadfast
by Tom Noe
O
ur sister Jo Geissler was a woman of rock-hard
faith, radiant with warmth and concern for others.
She was born Josephine Hirsch March 15, 1922, in
Warsaw, MO. She met Gene Geissler in 1941 at a National
Catholic Rural Life Conference. That was October 6. By
October 8, Gene knew he wanted to ask Jo to marry him.
Because of Pearl Harbor, the marriage was moved up to
May 2, 1942, just before Gene was drafted. After the war,
he started teaching at Notre Dame and they moved to
South Bend.
Beginning in the early 1940s, some graduate students
and faculty at Notre Dame had been talking about starting a Christian community of families in the neighboring
countryside, knit together by a common rural life, faith
and liturgical celebrations. In 1946, the Geisslers went in
with several other families to purchase a farm with 80
acres. They helped one another build houses. They drilled
wells. They bought a cow or two. Gene says, “Those times
were very good. Jo was both a city girl and a farm girl, so
all her skills and knowledge were constantly being called
upon. We were young and happy . . . and ambitious. Later
we found out how big a challenge it was.”
The Geisslers lived in the basement level of their
unfinished house for the first few years of construction,
which took a total of 10 years. Gene needed to adjust the
design regularly as the family grew, eventually to 16 children, 15 of whom survived. He lives in the same house
today, but the community has dispersed over the years.
When Gene attended an early charismatic prayer
meeting, Jo was definitely not interested, but gradually
she changed her mind. They came underway in September, 1976, and made the covenant September 30, 1979.
Jo’s women’s group liked to meet at the LaSalle Restaurant for lunch, and Jo would often bring along some
of Gene’s homemade wine. Sipping discreetly from coffee cups, they would share life stories and laugh, laugh,
laugh. Jo treasured these friendships as one of her greatest
blessings from the Lord.
Jo possessed the gift of motherhood in abundance, in
Jo and Gene Geissler
addition to toughness, perseverance, generosity and a fervent Irish Catholic faith. She canned mountains of garden
produce, made butter and yogurt and ice cream, patched
clothing and recycled old woolen coats into braided rugs.
She started reading early and never stopped. Jo was
intelligent, a walking Cliff’s Notes for the kids’ papers.
She could converse with many types of people, on many
topics, on many levels. Her home was a welcoming place
where people gathered often: for meals (always huge),
picnics, singalongs, bonfires, hayrides and conversations.
Jo’s uncanny ability to listen with her whole heart and
soul was striking, even to people who met her only once.
Immensely strong of character, she passed that strength
along to those who told her their stories.
Her grandson Jesse Barrett (South Bend) recalls,
“Growing up I spent a lot of time at their house. She entered into your life whenever she talked to you.” Not only
did she make you feel special; she told you so.
Jo had strong, well thought-out positions on most
moral and political issues. Money, authority and position
didn’t impress her. Simplicity and directness did. Molly
Barrett says that her parents’ life reflected Dorothy Day’s
Catholic Worker ideals of simplicity and solidarity with
the poor. “My mom was very moved by the oppression
that people experienced because of discrimination, war
and poverty. She understood suffering through the eyes of
faith. I think she could enter deeply into the plight of others because of her strong foundation in God.”
Since home was the site of her mightiest efforts, Jo
didn’t get out much. She volunteered in the parish clothing center and was a member of the Blessed Martin De
Porres Society. Believing fervently in the sanctity of human life, she volunteered at Birthright for several years,
Years ago in the branch, when Jo’s friend Nancy
Zwerneman died, Jo said in tribute: “Her feet were so
firmly planted, and her spirit soared.” Those words easily describe Jo herself. She died at home on December 9,
surrounded by Gene, whom she always called her “friend
husband,” and by their many children. n
13
O
Mary Martha
Solomon
Big-hearted
14
by Susan Weilbacher
n January 30, I was studying
Mary Martha Solomon’s soft
radiant face and sparkling blue
eyes, the way portrait artists must do,
as she spoke about God’s providence
during her two-year battle with rare
adrenal cancer. My dear friend was
tired, yet she had never looked so
beautiful. Yes, I thought, her family
would enjoy a portrait to honor her.
She was a petite powerhouse of love
for the Lord, with a giant, zealous,
caring heart.
Just days later, on February 16,
surrounded by her husband Michael
and her family, with community brothers and sisters in the Tampa branch
slipping in to pray or bring a meal,
Mary Martha gently entered God’s
eternal kingdom. Tributes rang out at
the wake and the funeral, in a church
completely filled with those who knew
her, including the Roman Catholic bishop and 27 other clergy.
Jackie Brophy shared, “We were
in the same women’s group for years,
but I didn’t realize how far-reaching
Mary Martha’s touch was. She never
let on that she cared for and helped
so many!” During their 24 years in the
People of Praise, the Solomons had
made fast friendships across branches.
Many community members came
from out of state to support the family.
Two of Mary Martha’s unique
gifts surfaced repeatedly in the sharings: her uncanny ability to link one
person’s need with another’s abundance, and her pleasant way of convincing anyone to serve or take on a
ministry (whether the person desired
to or not!) She would look at her targets with full confidence, and a “yes”
would pop out before they knew what
hit them. She was lovingly relentless
in getting needs met, especially for the
poor, infirm and elderly. Many people
told Michael, “Your wife jump-started
my ministry.”
She was born in Kansas City, MO,
June 10, 1940, and grew up in a loving
Catholic family. Michael met her when
she was a college senior; his heart
was quickly won. “I saw her beautiful
smile, her vigor for life, her dedication
to her faith. She traveled as a flight
attendant for TWA, and she’d never
miss Sunday mass. Pretty exceptional
in that kind of job!” They were married May 25, 1963.
When Patrick, Susan, Missy and
Katie came along, Mary Martha turned
her efforts to full-time parenting. She
was a fun mom, with high expectations
and consistency, weaving Christian values seamlessly into homemaking. She
also used her talents for sewing, decorating and designing.
In 1977 the Solomons were baptized in the Spirit at a Catholic charismatic prayer meeting. Michael remembers, “I saw big changes. She had been
playing tennis and sailing, but her priorities shifted toward serving the poor and
sick with great enthusiasm.”
When Michael, Don Kieffer and my
husband Kevin returned from a Steubenville Christian businessmen’s conference, they decided that our families
would meet weekly for a meal. Mary
Martha eagerly facilitated those meals,
not letting us miss one! Five years later,
the Tampa branch was born in the Solomons’ living room.
She thrived on the People of Praise
life-style, and her prayer flourished.
Their home became known for hospitality, as she invited in visiting community members, the Grenada missionaries and even a group of international
charismatic leaders, among many others. Linda Scrofani loved Mary Martha’s
habit of squeezing in extra table guests:
“She seemed able to multiply the food. I
witnessed this often! She made you feel
so welcome.”
After volunteering for 20 years,
Mary Martha was employed as her
church’s director of volunteers for nine
years. She and Michael, a deacon, also
established Faith Travels, leading tours
to the Holy Land and other holy sites.
A passionate traveler, she also wanted
the trips to nourish their clients’ faith.
Jackie described how her women’s
group rallied around Mary Martha:
“We were very flexible, meeting when
Mary Martha wanted us to, sitting with
her one at a time while she had chemo,
bringing a meal, cleaning house, whatever we could do. She was always
hopeful, confident in the Lord.” “Never complaining,” Michael and all the
family said.
We may never know how huge her
heart was. At the funeral, the pastor
overwhelmed us by announcing that
the new parish center would be named,
in her honor, the Mary Martha House
Parish Center. She would have been
glad! And I will paint a portrait, so that
all can see her there. n
Lifenotes
The “LifeNotes” page in V&B is
the place to spread the word about
key events and milestones, new babies, adoptions, college graduations,
awards (academic or work-related),
major promotions, accomplishments
(sports, professional, hobby), retirement or job changes. Send items to
Tom Noe at [email protected].
When in doubt, send it in!
n Congratulations to Paul Stutzman and Margaret Nauth (Servant
Branch), who were married November 17 at St. Elizabeth Catholic
Church. The new couple are living in
Eagan, MN.
n Tracy Scriba (Falls Church, VA)
has received the Federal Highway
Administration’s first annual Leadership in Operations Award for her role
in leading a three-year national initiative to help states improve traffic management for road construction. Tracy was nominated for the
award by her peers and colleagues in
the agency. Congratulations!
n Pat and Becca Kottkamp (South
Bend) are spreading the good news of
a recent blessing, the birth of Abigail
Elizabeth on March 7.
n Jerome and Heather Allen (Fairfax, VA) opened their hearts to God’s
gift of their fifth child, Samuel James
Edward, on April 25.
Servant Branch:
Julie Willenbring was released from
the covenant of the People of Praise
on April 7, 2008.
n Jon and Jennifer Balsbaugh (St.
Paul, MN) are praising God for the
gift of Charis Rhiannon on March 5.
The following transfers and changes
in assignment went into effect April
9, 2008:
n Alan and Anne Nicklaus (Burnsville, MN) are rejoicing over the
happy arrival of Joseph Daniel on
January 19.
Lisa Brickweg, from campus division
to an area in Servant Branch.
n Joe and Martha Adamson (Falls
Church, VA) happily welcomed Nathanael Joseph, born April 28.
From the Executive Office
Biloxi:
Bobby and Liz Palermo were released
from the covenant of the People of
Praise on March 20, 2008.
Colorado Springs:
Harry Huebner was released from the
covenant of the People of Praise on
March 13, 2008.
Corvallis:
Steve and Dorothy Lindvall were released from the covenant of the People of Praise on March 20, 2008.
People of Praise Vine & Branches is published monthly by the People of
Praise community for its members. Reprint permission must be obtained
before use. Please contact Sean Connolly, 107 S. Greenlawn, South Bend,
IN 46617; e-mail [email protected] or phone 574-234-5088 or fax
574-236-6633.
For subscription information or to purchase additional copies, please
contact Patricia Brewer at [email protected].
All contents © 2008 People of Praise.
Editor: Sean Connolly
Copy Editor: Tom Noe
Business Manager: Patricia Brewer
Design & Layout: Jennifer Kenning, Gretchen Rolland
Lead Reporter: Chris Meehan
Reporting Staff: Catherine Bulger, Bill Crimmins, Claire Holovaty, Susan
Holovaty, Debbie Mixell, Gene Stowe
Front cover photo: Rebecca Saltee
Back cover photo: Brian Couch, Jr.
Chi-Kin (Charles) Chow, from South
Bend Mission division to Indianapolis new start.
Ruth Christor, from South Bend Action division to Allendale.
Jon Gapp, from South Bend Mission
division to Servant Branch campus
division.
Barbara (Shelley) Gilliam, from South
Bend Mission division to Indianapolis new start.
Mary Grams, from Colorado Springs
branch to Servant Branch campus
division.
J-T Kelly, from South Bend Action
division to Mission division.
DeAnna Leftwich, from South Bend
Mission division to Indianapolis new
start.
Ricky Nichols, from South Bend Mission division to Indianapolis new start.
T.J. Ryan, from campus division to an
area in Servant Branch.
Kedrick Stacey, from South Bend Action division to Allendale.
Ruth Ann Sullivan, from South Bend
Mission division to Indianapolis new
start.
Correction:
The address for Trinity School at
River Ridge is 601 River Ridge Parkway, Suite 200. The address for the
Servant Branch offices at River Ridge
is 601 River Ridge Parkway, Suite 100.
Both are in Eagan, MN 55121.
15
“ The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found
it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought
that field” (Mt. 13:44).
The People of Praise, Inc.
107 South Greenlawn
South Bend, IN 46617