Outreach Program puts love into action for others

By Fr. Dick Klingeisen

	An Advent series on Catholic Social Teaching

Perhaps you have heard the statement: "Love is a verb, not a noun." Love is about doing good things for others.

Each summer the Diocese of Green Bay provides an opportunity for adults and youth, 16 and older, to do good things for the poor of Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky.

Loving others is real for those who participate in the Outreach Program. Participants touch the lives of others by their commitment and by completing housing projects.

In the summer of 2006 a storm-damaged roof and deck needed repair. The elderly woman who lived in the house was so pleased with the work that she expressed her gratitude with hugs for everyone.

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Another woman was speechless and tearful when she saw the new ramp leading to her house. It meant that the woman, who had broken both of her knees in an automobile accident would no longer need to crawl up and down a flight of stairs to enter or leave her house. She was a most gracious person and provided towels to wipe off sweaty faces and plenty of bottled water to quench our thirst and keep us from becoming dehydrated as we worked in 90 degree weather.

At another house the roof leaked in three places and the entire roof needed to be reshingled. The husband had been in a bad automobile accident and was now living on disability. Before the accident he had built over 100 houses in Eastern Kentucky. He and his wife provided refrigerated water and cold wet towels to put around our necks as we worked in the heat of the day.

A final opportunity that came up during our two weeks of service was in a house burned out about two months earlier. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the fire. But there was a lot of work that needed to be done to get the house back to where the family could move in again.

That included washing ceilings and coating them with a paint sealer to remove the smell of smoke, putting up insulation board for the exterior where the house needed an additional room, wetsanding the drywall plaster, and putting up more drywall in other places.

It was a busy day with another volunteer group joining in to do the best we could in the time we had. It reminded me of the show Extreme Makeover. Again the lady of the house was almost speechless as she witnessed and shared in the work that was being done. As one of the women spoke with the teen volunteers she said: "Wouldn't it be great if all teenagers were like you."

What the above activities describe are truly what the church has in mind when it speaks about the issues of Catholic social teaching and the common good of all, especially the poor and the vulnerable.

In many ways this type of outreach is about the total well-being of others. Together people do help people live a better and healthier life, for Christian life is profoundly social and communal for the sake of all.

(Fr. Klingeisen is the coordinator of Health Affairs for Catholic Charities of the Green Bay Diocese.)