Help Provide Emergency Assistance for Families in Need
February 20, 2009
Lilly Mae has been living in the dark. Temperatures dropped below freezing last month and the water pipes burst in her rundown shack deep in the woods. Daily, she walks up a hill to the neighbor’s outdoor spigot for one bucket of water at a time. She gathers sticks from the woods for her old iron stove. Living in such poverty, she couldn’t pay her original light bill of $54. Now she owes nearly $500 to the electric company in fees and penalties.
When our outreach worker called on Lilly Mae, she found her bundled in old sweaters sitting by her stove. It was clear she hadn’t eaten that day. Our outreach workers respond quickly to emergencies like this as often as they can, especially in the bitter cold when elders and children are most vulnerable. Lilly Mae is just one of the many heartbreaking stories of the poor we serve.
Edna Samuels says the only way she survives is to “Give it to God and keep going.” Edna has worked hard all her life but she has not been able to overcome the hurdles of poverty that her family has repeatedly faced. Recently, her husband Carl lost both kidneys and he is now on dialysis treatments three times a week. He is gravely ill and needs constant care.
Edna tries to support her family of five by working hard at a low-paying job in a small thrift shop. Her daughter was laid off recently and jobs are hard to come by in Wilcox County, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. The lumber mill shut down earlier this month, leaving 300 employees out of work and distressed in an already troubled rural economy.
Like Lilly Mae, Edna says her faith keeps her going. Her granddaughters collect aluminum cans and rake yards for spare change, while Edna and her daughter take in laundry. Edna keeps the heat low, her grandchildren sleep on blankets on the floor and the family eats mainly noodles and soup to stretch their dollars.
When our Missions Founder, Father Frank Casey, S.S.E., arrived in Selma in 1937, this same kind of poverty shocked and deeply moved him to action. It wasn’t long before he was filling soup pails, packaging sandwiches, bagging used clothes and providing medicine and firewood to the poor in desperate need. One of the hardest things he faced was turning down hungry families when he didn’t have any funds left.
I know exactly how he felt.
Helping with electricity bills, providing groceries and fixing broken down homes for elderly shut-ins carries a steep price. And Wilcox is just one of the counties we serve. I must also buy food for our Bosco Kitchen in Selma and support our outreach programs and educational ministries.
I can’t bring myself to say no to struggling, hungry people, but I worry endlessly about how to pay the bills that are piled up on my desk. I ask myself, what would Father Casey do? I know he would tell me to ask you for help because, “Christ has no hands but our hands.”
I am urgently asking for you to assist me in providing food for the hungry poor. Your gift of $20 will help me buy much needed food. A gift of $26 will help me buy the meat, rice and canned vegetables necessary to fill food bags. I need your help to provide emergency assistance -- money I do not have -- to reach out to help destitute families.
Just like Father Casey, I can’t do anything without your help. In his early letters, he wrote, “We found plenty of dismal poverty among the people ... I sought friends all over the country to help us take care of dire emergencies ... If there is any credit to be taken for the work accomplished in your Southern Missions, it is due entirely to people like yourselves ...”
I have been an Edmundite priest for 38 years and I’ve never seen poverty like this. Good friends like you are the reason the Missions have served those in need for 72 years. As Father Casey so beautifully stated, Do the best you can with what little you have, to help those most in need. His words inspire me as I pray to our Lord every day, asking Him to watch over and bless you always. Your loving deeds speak louder than words.
In Christ's Service,
Rev. Richard Myhalyk, S.S.E.
