Phlox, Mattoon help Katrina victims

By Dcn. Tom Hartman

	Stewardship Stewardship: A Way of Life is the diocesan thrust. It invites Catholics to acknowledge that all of life is a gift of God and to respond through prayer, service and sharing. This series will look at ways to do that.

PHLOX -- At St. Joseph Parish, Phlox, and Holy Family Parish, Mattoon, we were talking about Valentine's Day and the heart symbol. We started to explore the possibility of a stewardship project that would help increase awareness about stewardship and the elements of sharing, prayer and service using that symbol.

Pastor responds Here is the text of the letters Fr. Louis Lohan, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Long Beach, Miss., sent to members of St. Joseph Parish, Phlox, and Holy Family Parish, Mattoon, after they sent gift cards to help hurricane-stricken parishioners: "Thank you very much for the gift cards collected as part of the Valentine stewardship program. What a great idea. It amazes and uplifts us to hear how clever people have been in their ways to collect money and gift cards for our families. "These gift cards come at a great time. A few of our families have repaired their damaged homes and are moving back in - though all of their possessions were ruined by the storm waters. Gift cards help them replace small household appliances, linens, dishes, etc. We will give them to members of our parish who are in need of help because their insurance settlement was not adequate. Many insurance companies are denying claims based on the flooding aspects of the storm. "We will remember you in our prayers of thanksgiving; please continue to pray for us." "Thank you very much for the Easter greetings. We really appreciate your love and support. "Please express our thanks to the high school religious education students who raised money from a bake sale to purchase Wal-Mart gift cards for our families. We will give these as Easter gifts to the teachers in our religious education department who lost their homes or who had severe damage to their homes as a result of Hurricane Katrina. "We will remember you in our prayers of thanksgiving; please keep praying for us."

We developed a theme for the project: "Put Your Heart Into Stewardship." The visual symbol was a tree branch in each parish with a red paper heart that had one of the three elements printed on the outside. The paper heart could be opened and on the inside was a suggested activity in the area of service, prayer or sharing. Parishioners were invited to take a heart from the tree and follow through with the suggested activity.

While we were preparing these hearts, I contacted some close friends living in Long Beach, Miss., or rather, who had lived in Long Beach, but moved to Arizona after Hurricane Katrina. They were fortunate that there was minimal damage to their property.

We talked about the devastation in Mississippi and I mentioned our stewardship project. Our committee members were interested in trying to do some of our stewardship sharing through a personal connection with people in that area.

I spoke to my friends about the committee's interest in possibly making a connection with a Catholic parish in the area. My friends are not Catholic but knew the priest at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish near where they lived.

They told me that the church and parish school were either damaged or destroyed. They put me in touch with the pastor, Fr. Louis Lohan. What a wonderful man. He told us that the most helpful thing would be gift cards to Wal-Mart, Lowe's or Home Depot.

The committee decided that many of the "sharing" hearts should invite people to purchase a gift card. The gift cards were gathered a few weeks before Easter and mailed to Fr. Lohan. Shortly after that, our high school religious education students decided to have a bake sale and use the proceeds to send more gift cards. About a week before Easter, I sent the second group of gift cards.

We received two letters (see sidebar) from Fr. Lohan, which were shared with our parishioners. Fr. Lohan also sent a DVD the parish made to thank all those who have helped and used it to tell the story of their parish experience. The before and after images on the DVD speak more than words could to describe the devastation.

The members of our parishes really became involved in this stewardship project, not only with the gift cards but with the whole concept of sharing, service and prayer.