2011 Catholic Schools Week Supplement

Our Lady of the Greenwood students help children in Haiti

Father Rodolphe Balthazar, the pastor of St. Nicholas Parish in Mole, Haiti, tells Our Lady of the Greenwood students and parishioners about life in the impoverished island nation during his homily on Oct. 22 at Our Lady of the Greenwood Church in Greenwood. He said Haitians walk several miles looking for food and water each day. “When you put your hands together for Haiti, you give hope,” Father Rodolphe said. “You pray for us. You work for us. Thank you for that.” (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

GREENWOOD—Wearing “Hearts for Haiti” T-shirts, Our Lady of the Greenwood School students, faculty and staff as well as parishioners eagerly looked forward to the Mass and celebration on Oct. 22 for two priests from their sister parish in Haiti.

As a surprise for the Haitian priests, the students memorized several songs and prayers in Creole to sing or recite during the liturgy.

The students also traced their hands on red, blue and white construction paper then cut the drawings to create a collage of the Haitian flag, which was displayed in a school hallway.

And they studied the Haitian culture with help from photographs taken at St. Georges Parish in Bassin-Bleu in the southeast region of this impoverished island nation, which is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Our Lady of the Greenwood parishioners and students began their friendship with Haitians from St. Georges Parish in 2005 when Father Rick Nagel, a former associate pastor, arranged the mission effort with help from Father Rodolphe Balthazar, now the pastor of St. Nicholas Parish in Mole, Haiti, and Father Jean Gregory Jeudy, St. Georges’ pastor, who also ministers to Catholics at five remote parishes in the mountains near Port-au-Paix.

The parish partnership is based on sharing God’s love, Father Nagel said, and has evolved into a strong faith connection during the past five years.

Church, school and community support as well as other generous benefactors enable Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish to provide meals for Haitian students, pay teachers’ salaries and build classrooms at St. Georges High School.

Last July, Father Nagel and several representatives from the parish traveled to Bassin-Bleu on their second mission trip to Haiti to check on the progress of construction work at the school and deliver sandals for the children.

In October, the Greenwood parish and school welcomed the Haitian priests.

Eighth-grade student Halle Harris of Greenwood was an altar server for the multicultural liturgy on Oct. 22 at Our Lady of the Greenwood Church.

“The Creole songs sound pretty,” Halle said after the Mass. “… It really makes me happy that they could come and celebrate Mass with us.”

Spanish teacher and choir director Kristi Marino traveled to Haiti on the Greenwood parish’s first mission trip two years ago, and was excited to see Father Rodolphe and Father Gregory again.

“We’ve been working so hard to help St. Georges,” Marino said, “and now the students have a personal connection with the [Haitian] priests and parish like some of the teachers who went there. Witness is the best word to use. The priests give witness to God, and they see God in the faces of the children just as much as we see the face of Christ in their faces.”

Kindergarten teacher Lynda Fratzke said the faculty, staff and students prepared for the priests’ visit for three years and did special projects in October.

“The children worked all week learning about Haitian families, their lifestyle and culture,” Fratzke said. “This has been a wonderful experience for my class. It was so exciting to see the children praying and singing songs in Creole at Mass.”

Principal Kent Clady said the students were excited about welcoming the priests and wanted to make their visit special.

“Haiti has been our school Lenten focus for the last two years and will be again this year,” he said. “We’ve had staff members go on missionary trips so we’re able to share firsthand experiences with the kids.”

Thanks to this parish partnership, the principal said, “They have been able to add a grade each year [at the high school]. They were not able to do that before. We also help pay for the teachers’ salaries. We have a commitment of $2,500 a month, which pays for the teachers’ salaries at the elementary school and high school.

“Father Gregory also serves the people at five mountain parishes and schools,” Clady explained. “We send shipments of nonperishable, packaged food for the students. … He is able to take the food on donkeys up to the mountain schools. For many of the students, that is the only meal that they get each day.”

St. Georges Parish buildings sustained minor damage from the devastating

7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, Clady said, and the school now has 80 more students due to displacement of families from Port-au-Prince.

“They felt the earthquake enough that many of the people are still frightened,” he said. “It was a scary experience for them.”

To educate the students about life in Haiti before the priests’ visit, Clady said, teachers did not use electricity or technology for a day, taught classes outdoors on benches with only a few books and pencils on a warm day, and encouraged the children to walk without shoes or wear ill-fitting shoes another day.

“These real world experiences helped our students connect with the children in Haiti,” he explained. “St. Georges Parish motto is ‘Always forward, never back.’ God’s love and grace are able to make this beautiful relationship happen. It’s hard to think about how drastically different their world is from ours, but I tell the kids that we see the same sun and the same stars. We have our faith in common, and that’s one of the greatest things. It doesn’t matter what language we are speaking.”

In his homily during the school Mass, Father Rodolphe said, “My friends, it’s so wonderful for me and for Father Gregory to come and visit you. I was thinking how wonderful is our God, … and how God can do great things. … He knows how to make connections between people. You give hope to the kids in Haiti.” †

(Related story: Student organizes relief effort to help Haitians after earthquake)