Who is really hungry?

Editor's note: This is a guest post from Alan Graham, president of SJN Partner Ministry Mobile Loaves & Fishes


This year Mobile Loaves & Fishes will serve over 500,000 thousand meals and will probably exceed having served over 2,000,000 (yes! Two million!) since our inception in 1998.  This is incredible, but what is astonishing is how many people it took to deliver those meals to the streets directly where people are.  Today we have nearly 13,000 volunteers in six cities throughout the United States, dedicated to serving these meals with love.  Every night these 17 catering trucks loaded with food, clothing and volunteers head out on to their respective streets to serve these meals.  With such a large army it begs the question of who is really hungry.




Although Mobile Loaves & Fishes is known as a feeding ministry, what we really do is to empower people into a lifestyle of service to our brothers and sisters who live on the streets.  This is really important on a number of levels.  To have thousands of people working every month donating their time in service to others is really something.  I read once where each volunteer hour has an economic value of about $17!  WOW!  When you empower so many people in service the way we do, paradigms and stereotypes change.  When paradigms and stereotypes change, you suddenly find yourself with an army of advocates.  This is one of the powerful resource engines for Mobile Loaves & Fishes.

Now we can advocate for homes.  Go to www.mlfnow.org/HOW to take a look at what we are doing to make people “homeful.”  To make people “homeful,” we really need to understand what home is.  In the recently published groundbreaking book, "Beyond Homelessness," the authors identify eight characteristics of home:

1. Home is a place of permanence.
2. Home is a dwelling place.
3. Home is a storied place.
4. Home is a safe resting place.
5. Home is a place of hospitality.
6. Home is a place of embodied inhabitation.
7. Home is a place of orientation.
8. Home is a place of affiliation and belonging.



Who is really hungry?  We all are!  Food is merely the conduit to connect human to human, heart to heart.  Some will be nourished physically, while others will be nourished spiritually.  If you want to become a part of our army, go check out www.mlfnow.org or e-mail us at info@mlfnow.org.

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Alan Graham is the president and founding member of Mobile Loaves & Fishes. He is married (since 1984) to Tricia, and they have four children; Decker, Taylor, Marlee and Keaton as well as a niece, Samantha, whom they have raised. Alan formerly was in the real estate development, investment, management and brokerage business in Austin, Texas, having founded Trilogy Development, Inc. and co-founded The Lynxs Group, developers of on-airport air cargo facilities. It has been through the love for Jesus Christ that Alan is called to serve in this ministry, enabling others to serve their brothers and sisters in need.

The busy Catholic's volunteer regime

Your goal Volunteer for a short time a week and still have time for your life outside church.

Your plan Pick any ministry opportunity weekly to be a good steward of your time and talent.

Your payoff You'll do your part to build the Kingdom of God here on Earth, however crammed or crazy your schedule is!

No time?  No problem!  Whether you've been involved in ministry life before or you're set to get involved today, you can volunteer anywhere with this easy plan.  I've included opportunities for volunteering from home for weeks when you're too time-crunched to make it out somewhere.  Get involved, easy!

Christian Life
Coffee and Donut Social Hosts (While you're already at church for Mass)
Host the coffee and donut social after 9 a.m. Mass on Sundays.  Go to Randalls or HEB before the first of the month to get orange juice and order donuts.  Pick up donuts and set up in Morris Hall on the Sunday you volunteer.  Serve water, orange juice, coffee and donuts to parishioners, and clean up afterward.

Faith Formation

Children's Special Event Volunteers
Plan or lead activities for the parish's special events for children, including Vacation Religion School, the Christmas Pageant, Stations of the Cross, Our Lady of Guadalupe Festival and others.  Short-term projects!

Liturgy and Sacred Music
Altar Ministry (Serve from home)
Care for alter linens by laundering and pressing the linens used during the liturgy.  Pick up linens at the church then return them after Mass on weekdays or after the Sunday 5:30 p.m. Mass.  With the current amount of volunteers, you would only do this once every two months.

Altar Servers (While you're already at church for Mass)
Children in the fourth to 12th grades assist the presider during the celebration of the liturgy on Sunday and holy days.

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (While you're already at church for Mass)
Those who've been confirmed in the Catholic Church assist with distribution of Holy Communion during the celebration of the liturgy on Sunday.

Readers (While you're already at church for Mass)
Those who've been confirmed in the Catholic Church proclaim the Word of God during the liturgy.

Ushers (While you're already at church for Mass)
Assist the assembly during the liturgy with greeting, seating, collection and answering questions.

Social Outreach

Christian Medical Missions
Accompany medical teams to Central America to minister to indigenous people on one-week trips offered throughout the year.

Habitat for Humanity
Assist in building one to two homes per year for people in the Diocese of Austin by providing labor and / or food for the laborers.  Short-term project!

Mary and Martha Guild (Serve from home)
Provide hospitality and food for parishioners for special occasions and events.  Assist families with meals in their home when needed due to illness.  Cut, embroider and sew baptismal garments and prayer shawls.

Mobile Loaves & Fishes
Several opportunities for the busy person to volunteer with MLF exist.  Pick up Great Harvest Bread and Starbucks treats various times during the week.  Breads must be sorted and stored.  Purchase eggs once per month (more if you like), boil them at home and bring them back to the commissary.  Help with various aspects of the Annual MLF Wine Tasting and Auction (late April or early May), including soliciting donations, handling auction paperwork, and staffing auction tables and check-out at the event.  Every four to six weeks,  go to the Capital Area Food Bank to pick up a food order of free or low cost food.  Care for various commissary landscaping areas.  The list goes on!

Stewardship

Special Events Volunteers
Assist in planning and organizing special parish events throughout the year.  Short-term projects!

Ministry Appreciation Mass, Party a success!

Just a quick note to thank everyone who helped put on last weekend's Ministry Appreciation Mass and Reception!

Appreciation Committee
Nancy Biehler
Millie Brady
Pat Flathouse
Patty Floyd
Cari Henry
Carrie Hooper
Sue Rampick

Event volunteers
Mary Lou Ancira
David Baker
Darlene Burke
Rachel Cooper and her friend Jessica
Donia Crouch
Anastasia Curtis
Virgil Flathouse
Mike Floyd
Clarence Griggs
Bob Karasch
Mary and Kevin Killebrew
Gregg Kronenberger
Chuck Malburg
Mary Martin
Dee McKenzie
Doug Murrell
Sharon and Ed Neusel
Wanda Neuvar
Catherine Ochoa
Ethel and David Richard
Scott Schaefer
Brian and Joanne Senn
Lincoln Valdez
and others!

The event was a success, even with the rain!  A good time was had by all.  Look for pictures to post soon!  Thanks to everyone who came out and helped us recognize and appreciate the many contributions to our parish and community by so many ministry members and volunteers.

Family is your most important ministry

The Giammona Family

Many folks think the Church wants them to volunteer in as many ministries as possible, spending all their free time up in their parishes, giving generously of themselves in every way.  As a matter of fact, that's the opposite of what we want you to do!  While we want you to be good stewards of your time and talents and give of yourselves to your parish community, we also recognize that your most important ministry is at home -- with your family.

"One of the most important things we will ever do is tend to our family. Our families are far more important than our occupation, service and personal ambition. As a husband, a wife and a parent, God does not want us to be ignorant of His instructions on how to fulfill His will in these important roles as His disciples."
~ Pastor Craig Castor, Founder of Family Discipleship Ministries


If you spend countless hours volunteering or getting programs started at your parish and start to sacrifice quality time spent with your loved ones, you will eventually begin to feel the effects of being away from your family.  Some of your family members might even begin to resent your being away so much and, in turn, start to see the Church negatively instead of appreciating how it is that you try to give all that you have back to the Lord.

So what's the solution?  Find a balance.

Greg Leith, part of a national speaking team for Family Life Ministries, offered the following tips to balance family and ministry in a 2006 article of the journal, "Enrichment."

• Plan time for your family each week in advance, and stick to those plans.
• Learn to say, "no," to some ministry opportunities when needed.  Discern what you believe God is calling you to, not what others are calling you to do for them.
• If your ministry requires constant, excessive hours, consider other ways to accomplish the task.  Ask the Lord to send others to help and then watch Him go to work.  Pray for extraordinary results from the time you put into your ministry, then go home and minister to the other ministry God gave you -- your family.

Read more of Leith's tips here.

If you have suggestions to add to this list, please share them in the comments section below!

Top 10 Web sites volunteers should bookmark

As someone involved in ministry, you are often looked to for providing information to various folks about all things Catholic-, St. John Neumann- or ministry-related.  Whether it's a client, student or fellow parishioner to whom you're ministering, you want to be in-the-know so you can point people looking for answers in the right direction.  To be prepared (and for your own enjoyment), regularly visit these Web sites:

1. St. John Neumann Catholic Church
2. Diocese of Austin
3. Facebook fan page for "A Willing Witness"
4. Catholic Charities of Central Texas
5. The Vatican
6. Catholic Network of Volunteer Service
7. Catholic Relief Services
8. Relevant Radio Austin
9. Catholic Answers
10. Zenit [News]: The World Seen From Rome

Let us know with what other Catholic Web sites you keep up!

SVDP Society serves poorest of the poor

Editor's note: This is a guest post from Julie Benkoski, St. John Neumann parishioner and member of the SJN chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; for He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor.”  (Lk 4: 20)

During this sacred season of Easter, we are reminded of the Lord’s gift of Himself on the cross made present in the Eucharist and which is the foundation for every act of charity.  Listening yet again to the words of the Passion, we are reminded of the intense suffering that our Lord Jesus Christ endured for all of mankind.  After having called the 12 to follow Him, Jesus kept them at His side and lived with them, imparting His teaching of salvation to them through word and deed, and, finally, He sent them out to do His will.  But before they were sent out to do His work, He made it quite clear that, “you will always have the poor with you” and that any act of charity in His name would bring His healing presence there in the midst of them.

Emulating the Lord’s humanitarian acts of charity, St. Vincent, the patron saint of the Society of St. Vincent De Paul, made it his life work to bring the kingdom of Heaven to all those in need here on earth, the essential plan of God.  Our SVDP ministry brings spiritual and corporal healing to the working poor and poorest of the poor right here in our own community.  Providing basic living necessities such a rent, utilities, food, clothing, prescription medications, we serve over 50 families each month.  And because of the generous support of the parishioners here at SJN, we have been enabled to reach out to more of those we are called to serve:  the abandoned, neglected and forgotten.

And so God continues to challenge us all to take up His cross and do His work.  Scripture tells us that it is in giving that we receive but never more so than when bringing the healing of our Lord to those who are so vulnerable…those close to losing their homes, those without electricity, parents unable to feed their children, those who are ill and without prescription medications…  As a member of SVDP and following our Lord as a true disciple, you will be blessed and enriched beyond all imagining.  The joy and happiness you will feel when you know your actions have made a real difference in the lives of those who suffer will surpass all other temporary, materialistic producing forms of happiness.  The intense, spirit-nourishing goodness that will flow into your soul is just as passionate as the pain that we felt when listening to the words of the Passion.  The Lord told His disciples to “come, follow me and I will bring you light.”  The lightness of God’s work will fill your entire being when acting on behalf of the ministry of SVDP.

Finally, as we come to the end of our annual SVDP Lenten Food drive, we ask everyone to remember those who hunger and struggle each day to feed their children.  Truly, hunger pains are painful to the 18,000+ children in our community who suffer from ‘food insecurity.’  The San Francisco Javier Catholic Church food pantry will receive our donations.  Serving a large, low income populated area; this tiny pantry struggles each day to provide the needed food.  Please, remember the poor as we celebrate the goodness and promises of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, and return your nutritious, nonperishable food to the hallway past the church offices in the pastoral center by April 11.  If you don’t have time to shop, financial donations are gladly accepted; just indicate that the funds are for the Food Drive.

We are all challenged to bring the love and hope of our risen Lord Jesus Christ to the poor; please prayerfully consider becoming a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  It is only in giving to others that we can find that special, spiritual happiness that is rooted in and through our union with our sweet Lord Jesus Christ!

Thank you for helping us help others!

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Julie Benkoski is the immediate past president of the SJN conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and has been a Vincentian for over 10 years.  She is a board member of the Austin diocesan SVDP Council and vice president of the SVDP South Austin District Council.  Julie has been an SJN parishioner for the past 23 years and has served on the Parish Council and on countless parish committees and organizations, including the Lay Missionaries of Charity.  She is married to Harold, who is a past grand knight of the SJN Knights of Columbus council.  Julie has her own law practice, which focuses in the areas of estate planning, probate and mediation.  Besides her church work and career, she loves riding and jumping her horse, Raphael, and enjoys her Catholic dog, Dixi, and three kitties.