The Next Adventure? Quite Possibly

There’s a song we sometimes sing at the closing of Mass -- most often we sing it at the end of our monthly youth Mass: “Go make a difference, we can make a difference, go make a difference in the world . . .” I’ve been humming that quite a bit today.

The reason for that is the telephone conversation I had that was the culmination of several weeks of direct investigation but probably years of preparation, often unbeknownst to me. The conversation was with Fr. Ken Gavin, S.J., Director of Jesuit Refugee Services/USA. I made the initial contact several weeks ago by email to their general mailbox from their web page (www.jrsusa.org/). Fr. Gavin emailed me back the next day and, although he was in Rome, headquarters of JRS International, asked that we talk in person when he returned to the U.S. That was my conversation today.

In the meantime, I had emailed with the communications director for JRS/USA about possible projects I might help with. I’ll be helping them post some news stories to their blog for the time being. But beyond that, this may eventually lead me overseas at some point to work on behalf of JRS International in their communications work.

This has been a long and very windy road, beginning, I suppose in 1995 when I went to work for Catholic Charities of Oregon. CC has a program that helps settle refugees in communities throughout Oregon. As the Communications and Public Relations Manager for Catholic Charities, I helped promote the programs of the agency and first became familiar with the plight of refugees.

That was followed by 10 years working for U.S. Senator Gordon Smith where my responsibilities included immigration and refugee/asylee work. Some of the immigration work was rewarding -- reuniting families, but some was very frustrating. I found myself more and more drawn to help refugees, but truthfully there was little our office could do besides harangue the federal and international agencies to keep cases moving forward. Asylees required the assistance of immigration attorneys so again there was little we could do to help. But clearly the unbelievably harsh lives of so many people uprooted by violence, wars, as well as natural disasters, was compelling.

One of the priests of the Oregon Province who had ministered in Portland for a number of years and was well known in our parish joined JRS in 2000. This was my first knowledge that such an agency existed. And something has continued to nudge me in this direction, but I always managed to push it back out of the way.

Since I have returned from my pilgrimage journey, my travels with Charlie, I have been seeking what to do with my life. Even after buying a home and working to fix it up, my life has felt empty. Some mornings I lie in bed trying to figure out why I should bother to get up. In the end, it’s to take care of Charlie. Life is such a cruel joke sometimes: when I had people to care for, to be with, I was also working and never had enough time. Now I have time and no one to care for and be with. So I have been struggling to find a purpose, something to give my life to. Several weeks ago I was gifted -- out of the blue (if you believe in coincidences) -- with a ticket to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak here in Portland. I came away with a renewed sense that there must be something I can do, even as one individual, even as a late-50s widow with limited practical skills. There is so much chaos and pain in the world, there must be a way that I could make a difference.

So I’ll be starting small, just working from home on communications projects, helping let people know about the issues faced by refugees and displaced people in the world. Maybe this will lead to going abroad at some point. I hope it does. But I don’t know how I could leave Charlie. Or what I would do with my house (never mind that motor home I can’t seem to sell!!). But somehow I know if I just take the first step or two, God will be with me and help me find the right paths to travel where I need to go. If this is meant to happen, if, let’s say, I am meant to travel to Africa or some other point on the globe, it will happen in God’s time and with God’s help and orchestration. And this is where I find myself today, on the edge of another adventure and with the sense that perhaps I can make a small difference in the world, working with others who also want to make a difference.

TravelinLady