Parish Talk

To help spread the word and raise money for my work in Bolivia with Maryknoll, I spoke at my hometown parish, St. Patrick's and our sister parish, St. Stephen's this Memorial Day Weekend. Below is a copy of the homily that I gave. Thank you to everyone who listened and supported me!!!

“that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.” I think this verse from Deuteronomy sums up the call we all have in this life as people of Christ, men and women for others, disciples of God. Throughout our lives we are presented with humbling situations—maybe you’re a student confronted with a math exam that your not be prepared for, maybe you’re a parent who realizes that you can’t always be there to keep your kids safe, or maybe you’re a teacher who cannot guarantee that what is taught to her class will really be put to good use. All of these scenarios can be quite humbling. And of course, as Christians we are humbled time and time again by our God that asks us to keep reaching out to others, keep giving back to our community, keep finding ways to share our talents, our passions, our lives with the world around us.

Before I continue, let me formally introduce myself:

My name is Megan Bensley and I’m here today to talk with you about a mission that I will take this summer with the Maryknoll Missioners of South America. Before I begin, here’s a little background information on myself:

- I grew up in Whitney Point, NY attending St. Patricks parish until I graduated high school

- then went off to a school that sparked this desire to serve or volunteer—Boston College (In addition to the volunteering ambition I acquired there, I should also mention that I DID receive a degree in English and Education)

- I spent the next 3 years after college working as a volunteer teacher on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, SD, teaching 3^rd grade students at Red Cloud Indian
School, a small, Jesuit elementary school nestled in between the Badlands and Black
Hills of South Dakota.

- and I am now a graduate student at Columbia University’s Teachers College in NYC, where I am coming from this weekend.

Yes, you heard correctly, that order is: grow up and go to school here in Whitney Point, off to college, volunteer, then more school...now here I am volunteering again...I promise Mom and Dad that I will one day have a really good job and all that money from raising me and schooling me will be put to really good use!

I want to take this opportunity to share with you how I will spend the next 3 months in Cochabamba, Bolivia with the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers because sharing the experience is central to Maryknoll’s mission work. I hope in the next few minutes I will succeed in the following three things:

1) raising awareness for the Maryknoll organization and the good work they are
doing to heal the brokenness that exists in our world today,

2) highlighting a volunteer experience that maybe you would like to consider
participating in someday—maybe as a an individual, a family, a couple, a team,
or a retired person you will take the opportunity to volunteer your time, your
talents, or your money with a faith-based organization like Maryknoll, and

3) causing you to consider donating to the Maryknoll Fathers and
Brothers Cochabamba Mission Work under the catchy slogan: some give by going, others
go by giving

4) Oh, and #4....I hope I can somehow tie all of this back into the readings for
today since that seems to be what is supposed to happen during this part of
mass and is also the purpose of this person up here (usually someone much
more experienced than I)….I hope I don’t screw this part up too badly…bare
with me

I heard about this group called Maryknoll one day this past fall from a Jesuit friend of mine who is studying with me at Columbia. It was after a long day of classes, followed by a chance encounter with the parent of a daughter I tutored in reading. I was unable to really communicate with the girl’s mother as she had just moved to the country from South America and only spoke Spanish and I…well, knew too little Spanish at that point to really be able to convey to the mother how she could work with her daughter at home on her reading. After minutes and minutes of trying to understand one another, the mother simply said to me—in English, “thank you, thank you for help.” I shared this story with my friend Daniel along with my frustrations over the fact that I hadn’t done anything! The family was new to the country, new to the English language, new to the culture of the United States and as much as I wanted to help, I really was helpless. This is where my friend stepped in, sharing with me how maybe I needed to step back and be taught for a change, rather than always feeling like I was the teacher. South America might be just what I need to humble myself, stretch me, test me and teach me—a place where my love of service-learning could allow me to work on my Spanish, and share my teaching talents with people who really need it. It was then that I began looking into the Maryknoll Missionaries.

The Maryknoll Missionary organization was established in 1911 by the U.S. Catholic Bishops for the purpose of accompaniment. Maryknoll priests, brothers and lay ministers accompany impoverished people by living with them, offering personal gifts and struggling alongside the impoverished in their own search for a better path forward. Maryknoll has been living out the Gospel in Bolivia for over 60 years now. The hope is that volunteers who come to Bolivia as individuals or families, young or old, will share their talents in the rural mining town of Cochabamba, and come to realize that while materially impoverished, the people there do thrive and have a lot to teach— in simplicity; in the valuing of family, in community, and in relationships, not to mention in the sharing of their culture and language. The challenge then for me is to bring these gifts back to NY, back to you and back to my teaching. I hope to be a better teacher (especially for my Spanish-speaking students and their families) and I hope to use what the Bolivian people teach me (along with what the Lakota from South Dakota have already taught me) to be a better friend, neighbor, family member and Christian.

The peaceful city of Cochabamba lies in central Bolivia at the foot of Mt. Tunari. More than 25 years ago, large numbers of unemployed miners moved to Cochabamba to seek employment. When they were unable to find jobs over a long period of time, they fell into desperate poverty. They live in slums on the edge of the city where high rates of alcoholism and domestic abuse are common. Reading this information about Cochabamba reminded me of my days on the Reservation where similar staggering statistics haunted the Lakota people. Such utter poverty in Cochabamba has meant that hundreds of abandoned children live on the streets. Girls often work as prostitutes, while boys perform whatever menial jobs will bring them something to eat. So desperate is their situation, that many of these youngsters sniff shoe glue (clefa) to escape the harsh realities of their lives. As awful and desperate as this example of extreme poverty sounds, when I read this on Maryknoll’s website, it resonated with me because kids on the Pine Ridge Reservation used to do the same thing with markers. It would not be uncommon to have students sneaking home markers so that they could huff them when they went home at night…the “high” offering a quick and easy escape from the harshness that extreme poverty brings. The more information I dug up on Maryknoll, the more “inline” it seemed to be with my experience teaching on the Pine Ridge Reservation and my current work tutoring kids in New York City’s Spanish Harlem. The pieces were falling together and the more right it was seeming that I spend my summer in Bolivia, sharing my time, my faith, and my resources with the kids and families there.

When considering the needs of Maryknoll Missionaries, the main cost is supporting ourselves so that we can accompany the poor. To travel, to put a roof over our heads, eat, and get around town. Volunteers like myself are very privileged in that we have the time to “give by going,” so to speak. While not everyone is called to go abroad and mission in the same way volunteers are, others can "go by giving." Sharing with others and having others share with us is central to the Maryknoll mission. If you feel called to support my work in Cochabamba with Maryknoll Missionaries, I urge you to give a dollar or two in the second collection, or see the donation information at the bottom of your Maryknoll information sheets which are in your pews.

Ok, the teacher in me needs to review the points that I said I would cover in the beginning:

1) I hope that I have succeeded in explaining who the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers are and what they do to help the poor and marginalized in our world. (There is more information on the fliers in your pews, and I encourage you to checkout www.maryknoll.org for additional information.

2) Maybe someone out there—a student like myself, a family, maybe a retired couple, who knows is thinking or has been thinking about volunteering and volunteering with Maryknoll could just be the right place. If so, I urge you to explore the option and check out the opportunities that Maryknoll offers. Again, more information can be found on their website.

3) Maybe you don’t feel called to journey overseas—most of us probably cannot see how this would fit into our lives right now. For you, I would ask you to consider supporting the call-to-serve through a small 1,2,5,10 dollar donation to Maryknoll to support its volunteers. Any money raised during the 2^nd collection will go to support my work with the Maryknoll Missionaries and Amanecer orphanage in Cochabamba, Bolivia this summer….

And…

4) Does any of this have to do with today’s readings? I hope somehow the answer
to this question is YES—And I offer you this: as we eat and drink God’s love
every week through the bread and wine, we are given the strength, energy and
love that we need to answer God’s call to help others. We will continue to be
humbled and tested by our God as children, spouses, families, employees, the list
goes on and on…I encourage you to take more risks…take risks in prayer, take
risks in giving of yourself to others and take risks in daring to serve the less
fortunate…God has promised to keep putting challenges in front of us, there is a
reason He does so and someday we will find out those reasons. Until then, may
we all continue to be humbled by our experiences in this world.

Thank you. I will be praying for you all this summer and I ask that you do the same for me.