An Update From the Director of Glenmary's Volunteer Office

September 2007

During a van ride up to Cincinnati last week with Glenmary Farm Manager Wendy Nisiewicz, she asked me “Where would your life be without your faith in Jesus or without any faith at all?” What a profound question. Faith is one of the major components of the Glenmary Farm experience. For it is faith that started the Glenmary Farm and faith keeps it open today.

First, it is was because of the faith of Glenmary Home Missioners—priests and brothers—that the program began in the 1970s and it’s that same faith that keeps the program alive and well today. Without the Glenmarians’ deep faith and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and their profound mission to spread this Gospel to the lost and forgotten corners of the United States, there would not be a Glenmary Farm to start with. Glenmarians believe that the Glenamry Farm experience would not only further the mission work of Glenmary, but by gathering together different people from multiple places of the United States, the story mission life would spread as these folks take it back to their respective homes. And Glenmary has a deep faith in the three Glenmary Farm Managers and myself and they are our biggest and greatest supporters.

During the course of a year, the Glenmary Farm plays hosts to over 500 volunteers from throughout the United States. These folks have various skills and skill levels and are primarily high school and college students. These volunteers help build houses for those in need of housing, distribute food to the hungry, work in a thrift store, visit those in a nursing home and work with the mentally disabled.
So the many different service organizations we serve with like People’s Self Help Housing and Lending a Helping Hand Food Pantry show great faith in the volunteers who come and serve with us in Lewis County. They trust us to further the good work they are doing in the community and know that we will do an excellent job in cooperating with them to serve Lewis County. It takes a lot of faith to put responsibility in people who you have never met!.

Also the community of Lewis County has shown great faith in us “crazy Catholics” from the Catholic Camp located on Lower Kinney Road. From accepting us at the many different churches that we share an ecumenical relationship with to the support of our small Catholic community, we have been welcomed enthusiastically. The hospitality that we receive from the many churches, night sites, and Wild Woman show a deep faith in the gospel value of hospitality.

For most of our volunteers it is their faith in Jesus Christ and faith in the Gospel that brings them to serve in Lewis County. Without faith, the Glenmary Farm does not make much sense. Why would someone work for free if not because of their faith in God or in their fellow man? Why would someone spend a week in Lewis County at the Glenmary Farm with its one shower a week policy, no cell phones, no watches, and no TV without faith in some kind of greater good?
As I tell my relatives and friends it was my Catholic faith that brought me to Kentucky and it is my Catholic faith that keeps me here.

The volunteers show even more faith in both the Glenmary Farm Managers and me. We are strangers to them and they allow us to not only guide their week but become an integral part of their lives for one week. They have to have faith in the Glenmary Farm Managers and myself when we take them to sites and tell them about and show them Lewis County. They have to have faith in the other volunteers they serve with, trusting that these fellow volunteers will put them first, be there to hold ladders, to reflect with, cook with and pray with.

So it is faith that makes the whole experience of the Glenmary Farm happen. How often do you or I even think about it?

Remember, if you change your email address, please let us know so that we can keep you up-to-date on all the Farm news!

Peace,

Joe Grosek
Glenmary Volunteer Director
jgrosek@glenmary.org

And if you missed previous Vanceburg Views, check them out.

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