Two Sweet Potato Workers Challenge Us to Share What We Have
A Thanksgiving message from Father Bob Dalton

FOOD FOR OUR TABLES: Augustin Soulis offers the fruits of his labors, a basket of sweet potatoes, at a Sunday liturgy in Glenmary’s Houston, Miss., mission.

Maybe it’s because I now serve in Vardaman, Miss., where so many work in fields that yield sweet potatoes, a traditional Thanksgiving dish. Or maybe it’s because I feel so blessed to have walked away unharmed from a recent fire that destroyed my home. But, for whatever reasons, I am feeling especially grateful this year and welcomed Father Dominic’s invitation to write this Thanksgiving letter.

First I want to share something that happened recently that sums up the meaning of Thanksgiving for me. It has to do with sweet potatoes and the people I minister to in Vardaman, a town of about 2,000, that has christened itself the “Sweet Potato Capital of the World.” About half the population works in the sweet potato fields. And work in the sweet potato fields is hard and dirty work. Men and women, mostly Hispanics, work from sun-up to sun-down for barely adequate wages, rarely able to spend time with their families. I can only image the conditions back in Mexico that make this life seem significantly better!

We had a severe drought in our part of Mississippi this summer. Many days passed with little employment for agricultural workers. And no work means no pay. For the first time that anyone could remember, sweet potato workers came to us for help keeping food on their tables. (Glenmary does not have a church in Vardaman, but we do have a storefront where pastoral associate Sister Pat Sullivan provides a Catholic presence and offers religious education.) But the workers in Vardaman found it difficult to ask for help. They’d appear at our storefront, dropping in to say hello. But Sister Pat soon learned of their need and offered food from the pantry she keeps.

In the midst of this dry summer, volunteers from our sister parish in Savage, Minn., arrived to conduct a one-week Vacation Bible School at our nearby mission in Houston. Ironically, it was a week when work was available in the sweet potato fields for the first time in days. Yet two of these sweet potato workers, Maria and Augustin Soulis, took a day off—sacrificing a day’s pay!—to prepare a Mexican feast for our volunteers.

But that Mexican feast in July was just one example of Maria and Augustin’s generosity of spirit. Despite long working hours, these parents of two young sons regularly volunteer to help prepare other parents for the baptism of their children. Sister Pat tells me they are always looking for ways to share faith and life with others!

You see, it’s common for folks in Vardaman to share what little they have. And that generosity of spirit is what is on my mind as Thanksgiving approaches. It’s the reason I am so grateful for people like Maria and Augustin.

And now to my second reason for gratitude: In August, my mission church in Aberdeen lost its parish hall to fire. The building was attached to the rectory, so I lost my home as well. I escaped safely with my wallet, keys and medication, and then watched helplessly as seven firefighters were overcome by heat exhaustion from the fierce blaze and the 101-degree temperature. Fortunately, all the firefighters later recovered and I was able to salvage some additional personal possessions.

Community support has been overwhelming, and it makes me realize what friends we Catholics have made in this Bible Belt town. Our mission members are all bearing up well as we wait for a final insurance settlement and make plans to rebuild. But I’ve learned how devastating a burn-out can be, both physically and emotionally.

And so, as I count my blessings this Thanksgiving, I will add all the good people of Aberdeen who watched out for me so tenderly following the fire. I will also add my parent’s framed wedding photograph that I later found in the ruins where it had fallen, protected, behind my metal desk, and my favorite Bible that was spared because I had left it inadvertently in the back seat of my car.

I will also be counting as blessings friends like you who support Glenmary through your prayers and financial gifts. Your generosity assures that Glenmary will be there to care for the material and spiritual needs of communities like those I now serve—Vardaman, Houston and Aberdeen, Miss.,—and all the communities Glenmary serves throughout our mission areas.

As you consider your blessings this Thanksgiving, I hope you’ll also remember the folks in our missions who provide food for your table year-round: digging sweet potatoes in Vardaman; picking tomatoes in Arkansas; harvesting Vidalia onions in South Georgia; and processing poultry in so many areas from Stillmore, Ga., to Heavener, Okla. Please pray they are treated with dignity and justice—and consider reinforcing your prayer with a gift to support Glenmary and our home mission ministry.

I wish you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving—and a delicious sweet potato casserole to top it off!

Your brother in mission,

Father Bob Dalton