CHARLOTTE — What if you had to walk to a bus stop, ride at least a mile to a grocery store to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, and then carry them back home?
That journey might be too difficult, and you’d turn to nearby convenience stores and fast food restaurants instead. In this scenario, there’s a strong possibility you and your neighbors live in a “food desert” – a location nearly barren of fresh food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Reeder Memorial Baptist Church on Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte is located in one of these food deserts.
The church already runs a food pantry, but Senior Pastor Thomas Farrow Jr. believes a fresh vegetable garden would encourage residents to make healthier food choices. “We would not just be giving them food, but giving them something that will make a difference in a long-lasting, meaningful way,” he said.
On Sept. 16, church and community volunteers, Mercy Associates and Sisters of Mercy gathered for “Unity in the Community Day” to build and prepare organic garden beds and plant carrots, radishes, collard greens and Brussels sprouts on church property.
“We want to pretty much have things in place when spring rolls around,” said Ty Barnes, director of Mercy Association and a member of Reeder Memorial. “This is an effort to build interfaith community because we are one church and it’s important for us to work collaboratively on some things and break down barriers.”
Some 50 Mercy Associates from across the U.S., who were attending a meeting in Belmont over the weekend, volunteered for the gardening service project. Pictured with Barnes are Alex Roman and Tanya Pitts.
“I would hope the garden would be something that would catch on and expand,” said Farrow. “I would love to meet new people in and around our church. There are a lot of apartments around us and people don’t have room to garden.” Among the church’s next steps are plans to offer cooking classes on fresh food preparation.
In addition to the garden, other events at Unity in the Community Day included a blood drive, health screenings, softball and basketball, bouncy houses for children, music and a cookout.
— Photo provided by Beth Thompson
Members of St. John the Baptist Church in Tryon and Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury, among other parishes, participated in the 2017 Rosary Crusade Oct. 14 by praying the rosary for the conversion of the United States.
In Tryon, Father Roger Arnsparger, pastor, led parishioners in praying the rosary in the church parking lot.
Members of Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury gathered in downtown Salisbury where Father Lucas Rossi, parochial vicar, led the recitation of the rosary and other prayers for the conversion of the United States.
In Waynesville, parishioners of St. John the Evangelist Church gathered to pray the rosary in front of the county courthouse – remaining persistent in their prayers despite a noisy festival taking place across the street.
Each year, America Needs Fatima holds a Public Square Rosary Crusade, with thousands of rosary rallies in cities encouraged across the country.
These Public Square Rosary Rallies take place on the Saturday closest to Oct. 13, the feast of the last apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 and the “Miracle of the Sun.” This year marks the centennial anniversary of Mary’s appearances in Fatima.
— Photos by Giuliana Polinari Riley, Bill Washington and Christine McQueen Ryan
HOUSTON — Leaders from Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte took time out while attending the annual gathering of Catholic Charities USA in Houston Sept. 28-30 to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey in the region.
They were part of a team of more than 50 Catholic Charities colleagues from around the United States who helped at a Houston warehouse sorting, boxing and loading donations of food, cleaning supplies and hygiene products to distribute to people affected by the hurricane in the Houston and Beaumont, Texas, areas.
They also joined CCUSA’s Mobile Disaster Response Unit at a north Houston neighborhood that was hit particularly hard by Hurricane Harvey, which cut a swath through Texas and Louisiana in late August. The Category 4 storm dumped more than 40 inches of rain in four days, which caused unprecedented flooding that damaged hundreds of thousands of homes, killed more than 80 people and displaced more than 30,000 people. The neighborhood where Catholic Charities staff spent time had been flooded, and residents’ drinking water was contaminated. Volunteers canvassed the area distributing food, water, diapers, cleaning supplies and personal care items.
“I am humbled and blessed to be a part of the body of Catholic Charities USA as we’re all going to work for Houston. It’s a very humbling experience to be here to support and to reach out to our brothers and sisters, and to do just what we can, to help to ease a bit of the challenges that they’re facing. We want the folks of Houston to know that we support you, we stand with you, and we’re just happy to be here,” said Sharon Davis, social work/program assurance director for Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, while out in the north Houston neighborhood.
Dr. Gerard Carter, executive director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, said after their return from Houston: “Two images still stand out in my mind as I surveyed the destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. One was seeing children’s toys spread out on the ground beside a trailer just waiting to be carried off to the dump. The other was seeing people’s clothing simply littering the roadway, being run over by cars as part of the debris that was everywhere. I know that many people lost even more, but in that yard and on that street the human component of this hurricane was just so clear and so sad. At the same time, I was very proud to be part of the national Catholic Charities response because our agency staff were, in a very small way, able to offer comfort and hope to those in need.”
—Photos provided by Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte
HUNTERSVILLE — For nine months, eight St. Mark families met the first Sunday of each month to pray the novena in honor of the Divine Child Jesus. Their prayer effort culminated Sept. 3, when 63 parishioners went on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, in Hanceville, Ala., where a shrine to the Divine Child Jesus is located.
In 1914, Salesian Father Juan del Rizzo started the devotion to the Divine Child Jesus in Colombia. While kneeling in prayer one day, Father del Rizzo decided to entrust his efforts to the Infant Jesus. He developed a simple image of the Christ Child depicted with open arms, as if ready to hug everybody, wearing a pink dress and bare footed.
Father del Rizzo then built a shrine in honor of the Divine Child Jesus in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. This devotion and the work that was started continues today, helping children and disadvantaged families buy groceries with donations from pilgrims. At Christmas, many gifts among poor families in the region are also distributed with these donations.
Devotion to the Divine Child Jesus came to Hanceville after Poor Clare Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, better known as Mother Angelica and the founder of EWTN, visited the shrine in Bogota. While she faced the image, Mother Angelica later recalled, the Child Jesus came to life and told her: “Build me a temple and I will help those who help you.” Upon her return home, Mother Angelica continued in prayer along with the nuns of her community, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. Their prayers were answered with a very generous financial contribution from five families who anonymously helped to build the monastery and shrine in honor of the Divine Child Jesus.
In September 2014, St. Mark Parish’s first pilgrimage was organized with 12 people at the invitation of the Martinez-Gaona family, who had been visiting the shrine for five consecutive years for the celebration of the Feast of the Divine Child Jesus, also known as Divino Niño de Bogotá or Divino Niño.
That same year, 14 parishioners attended a couples’ retreat, wishing to live and grow closer to this beautiful place. They decided to continue with the devotion, praying the Divine Child Jesus novena every first Sunday of the month, with the desire to invite more people to join the pilgrimage. In September of that year, 24 people went on the pilgrimage to Hanceville, and the number of people attending the annual pilgrimage each September continues to grow.
Learn more about the devotion to the Divine Child Jesus and the shrine in Hanceville online at www.olamshrine.com.
Lina Maria Hernandez, Special to the Catholic News Herad. Lina Maria Hernandez helps to organize St. Mark Church’s pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Ala.
MINT HILL — A chance encounter on a cruise ship steered a Mint Hill couple to a lifetime of serving people in one of the poorest areas of Appalachia.
Debby Lawrence and her husband Jim first learned of the extreme poverty in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky through their son Chris, who went on a mission trip organized through the Christian Appalachian Project. The trip was supposed to last three weeks.
“Well, he just did not come on back for the whole summer,” Debby Lawrence recalls. When their son did finally return, he was excited to talk about the Christian Appalachian Project and share all that he had experienced in eastern Kentucky.
Three years later, the Lawrences were on a cruise and while attending Mass they heard the priest celebrant talk about the people in eastern Kentucky and how they needed help. Debby Lawrence realized that the priest was none other than Monsignor Ralph Beiting, the founder of the Christian Appalachian Project and the person responsible for her son’s summer adventure. The Kentucky-born priest, who died in 2012, began helping Appalachian residents fight poverty in 1946, when, as a seminarian, he accompanied several priests on preaching trips to the mountains of eastern Kentucky. The oldest of 11 children who grew up during the Great Depression, Monsignor Beiting was no stranger to need, but the incredible poverty he saw in Appalachia planted the seeds of what eventually became the Christian Appalachian Project.
The Lawrences asked Monsignor Beiting how they could help, and he suggested that they go on a short-term mission trip. They were so touched by that experience that they ended up becoming long-term missionaries with the organization and even moved to eastern Kentucky for two years to serve the elderly residents there.
The Lawrences continue to lead mission trips to eastern Kentucky, and since 2011 parishioners from St. Luke Church have gone on summer mission trips with them through the Christian Appalachian Project.
On the parish’s most recent mission trip, the Lawrences, Bobby Francis, Bob Hayes, Sandy Coughlin, John Luther and David Esposito completed two construction projects in four days. They built ramps and porches, replaced windows and revamped kitchens for elderly residents in need that had been identified through the Christian Appalachian Project.
“We would have breakfast at seven, pack a lunch and go to our designated project site. We worked on projects and interacted with families until about 4:30. We would get back to the Follie Community Center and have a well-needed dinner. After, we had a group share and devotional. We finally had enough time to clean up the hall and get a decent night’s sleep. The next day we would do it all over again,” Lawrence describes.
Appalachia’s poverty and socioeconomic ills have been well documented, and the six counties in Kentucky served by the Christian Appalachian Project are no different: 13 percent of the population is disabled, 12 percent are unemployed, nearly half are obese, and residents’ lifespan is six years less than the average American.
“When driving through the mountains everything looks to be quite normal but within the ‘hollers,’ people have just about nothing,” Lawrence says. “Many are elderly and do not have cars, proper plumbing, or even access to their homes. The trailers most citizens live in are outdated and falling apart. They have found a way to make do generation to generation, but they need help. A lot people are ill, disabled and are completely dependent upon each other.”
“Hollers” are the flat lands within the mountain valleys of Appalachia. Each “holler” has a name and a family that has been tied to it for at least a century. At one time, these families were successful coal miners. But as the demand for coal has declined, so has the prosperity of these families. Ironically, some are unable to buy the same coal that once provided them with a living, to heat their homes.
For the Lawrences, this dim reality just means that more help is needed.
“I am not trying to solve problems or determine answers,” Lawrence says. “I go to serve individual people that have a need. There are so many, so many that need us.
“These are the most resourceful people I have ever seen. They are great Christians. They love God. Every time we help them they tell us, ‘Thank you for coming. I love you.’ They really say that, and they really mean it. They are not envious of anyone or anything. These are some of the most amazing people I ever met. I love these people. They are my people. They have stolen my heart.”
The Lawrences said they would love to have more parishes embrace the summer mission trips that the Christian Appalachian Project offers. For more information, email Debby Lawrence at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
— Lisa Geraci, correspondent