Volunteer Magazine Online :: Missions Department

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Volunteer Magazine Online

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Volunteer Magazine Online

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VC roo slsui nng Ftreo netri esr s

Salesians

of Don Bosco

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VC roo slsui nng Ftreo netri esr s

Issue # 1

Table of contents

Pg. 3 Gospel Roads III - An Experience that Changed my life!

Pg. 6 I want to become a Volunteer

Pg. 8 Service a way to promote vocations

Pg. 10 Volunteer at Richmond

Pg. 12 Letter from India

Pg. 13 The Missionary Reﬂection-Prayer

Cover

Katrina Frank and Catarina Florio, participants of our winter Mission

trip 2011 Gospel Roads II in Tijuana Mexico, with two children from

“La Lupita” Oratory; they had ﬁnished painting and were having a little

bit of fun with the camera!

Salesian Missionary Animation

Publisher

Fr. Leo Beysinger

Ms. Pat Rico

Editors

Salesian Volunteers - making the difference!

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Dear Salesian Family,

This is our ﬁrst attempt to create

our Salesian Volunteer Magazine

“Crossing Frontiers”; God will-

ing we will publish this magazine

two times each year. The main

goal is to promote the volunteer

program among our communities

and to empower young people to

say, “Yes”, to join Don Bosco’s

mission “Da Mihi Animas, Cetera

Tolle”. "Give me souls take away

everything else!"

This year the Salesian congrega-

tion has dedicated all the mission-

ary efforts to promote the volun-

teer programs at the world wide

level. This is a blessing for us,

because our province has chosen

the same goal of promoting the

volunteer program.

In this edition you will ﬁnd really in-

teresting articles written by our own

young people. Please use the articles

as resources and share this magazine

with all the youth who are part of

your oratory. We hope that this sto-

ries will move those who read them

to get closer to God, and to give

themselves to serve him.

I hope you enjoy this magazine!

In Don Bosco

Juan Carlos Montenegro

Salesian Mission Delegate

Presently we have six young peo-

ple who are working in our prov-

ince as a volunteers. Keep them in

your prayers so they persevere in

their apostolic work, and let’s also

pray that God may bless us with

more volunteers for our province.

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Gospel Roads III

Gospel Roads Missionaries

enjoining a ﬁeld trip

By Marc Meehan

Today is the day after returning

from Tijuana. I am ﬁghting off a

cold, still very tired, but happy to

be back with my community. Each

of the past ten days are ones I will

never forget. They have been for

me an experience of incredible

learning and closeness with God.

In this trip I have grown in my own

spirituality and views of the world

in incredible ways. Ways like the

inspiration I found in the Austrian

missionaries, ﬁnding God in places

I would not have looked before and

having my eyes opened to issues

of social justice. This has been my

ﬁrst missionary experience and this

is what I take back home with me.

My missionary experience started

out right as I arrived to the Salesian

residence in Tijuana, late Sunday

night around midnight. As we ar-

rived we were met by the Austrian

missionaries who have volun-

teered a year of their life to the

mission in Tijuana. While getting

to know these missionaries, Dan,

Dominic, Fanny, and Cristoph,

I discovered that as they turned

eighteen they were given a year

to decide whether they would join

the Austrian Armed Services for

six months or join a missionary

service for one year. Going against

the popular choice of joining the

military, they instead are giving a

full year of their lives’ in the ser-

vice of others. Later I found out

that if they had joined the military,

they would have been paid a great

deal. Instead by joining a mission

service they only have their bare

essentials paid for. From their ex-

ample alone, of trusting God with

their lives’ and work for a year, I

was inspired.

Even though I had researched the

place I was going, I had many

fears. As we explored Tijuana, I

came to see that any danger was no

different than the danger I would

have encountered on the streets

of my own city of Los Angeles.

This fact particularly hit me as we

served 700 meals to the homeless

on the third day of the trip. I was

going around a line of hundreds of

people, saying, "Hola” and “Como

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An experience that changed my life!

estas?" to them and some other ing to get back to the United States

words in my broken Spanish,

where his wife and two children

and I had stopped to

were waiting for him. Af-

talk to one person.

ter we said, "adios"

As we talked, an-

at the front door, I

other man, short,

could not describe

stocky, shaven

myself as feeling

bald, covered

anything more

in tattoos with

overpowering

a dodger blue

than shocked. I

Florencia 13

felt such a love

shirt came up to

for life in being

me from the line

able to ﬁnd and meet

and said quite con-

God in this other hu-

frontationally, "Hey

man being who back in

white boy, what are

you doing here?" For

Talia Firpo serving a

homeless person

the States I would have

gone out of my way to

those of you who do

avoid. It was an experi-

not know the gangs of Los Ange- ence I will never forget.

les, Florencia Trece is among the

most notorious. I told him that I What a great way to help young peo-

was a missionary with the Sale- ple grow in their relationship with

sians at the shelter. He then said God! What a great way to fulﬁll our

something along the lines of why call to serve the poor! It amazes me

am I not somewhere else working when I hear that the Salesians are the

and me being a typical smart-alec largest missionary presence in the

said "Well, it's kind of far and I am world. I can now clearly see why it

feeling a bit lazy to walk all that was beautiful for me to see how the

way." At that, this man with such other young people who attended the

a tough looking attitude began to trip grew through their work and re-

laugh. After a long while of us talk- ﬂections, and in their relationships

ing more and him explaining some with God. This trip has helped me in

of his tattoos to me he shared his my own vocation. It has reafﬁrmed

experience, one similar to most of me in my faith, and strengthened my

the people in that line – an expe- call to service as a Salesian. Most

rience of being deported and try- importantly through this experience

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I met a new example of

Don Bosco in a Salesian

priest who I can truly re-

late too, and I now can see

that this life for me is pos-

sible. It would take work

but it would be worth it. I

am taking back home with

me a new conﬁdence and

hope; the conﬁdence to

Caterina Florio and Mark Meehan sharing time with continue being who I am

children from Tijuana

trying to be, and the hope

to continue believing it is

possible. This has been my ﬁrst missionary experience. I feel that it will

not be my last. I thank God for this experience and this incredible blessing

in my life!

I want to become a Volunteer

By Reymundo Gomez

Hello, my name is Reymundo Go-

mez. I am 18 years old and I am a

member of Saint Dominic Savio’s

parish. I have been coming to the

youth group, more or less, for a

year. I recently attended SLYC,

“Salesian Youth Leadership Con-

ference”, and learned a lot of en-

riching leadership qualities along

with spiritual empowerment. I am

currently a youth leader at my par-

ish along with eight other leaders.

We plan and give talks to the youth

of all ages in our Youth Ministry.

The reason why I decided to Ti-

juana is because I felt that I can do

something to help our brothers and

sisters in across the border.

We left for Tijuana December 26,

2010. As we arrived I had some

clue of what to expect from my

past experience three weeks prior

to this trip. I was really excited to

be back among the volunteers and

the priests. I felt like I was at home,

they are so welcoming and they

make you feel a part of their com-

munity. This experience was some-

thing that I will remember for the

rest of my life.

Something that I really liked was

our lunchtime. We were invited to

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eat with the families of the neigh-

borhood. They opened their homes

and that really touched me, because

they didn’t have much, but the lit-

tle that they have they shared with

us. Having the chance to eat with

the families and talk to them about

their life was really cool, and to be

able to see how much faith they

have was really heart warming.

They had to be the nicest people

I’ve ever met.

We worked at different oratories.

Our work consisted of manual la-

bor as well as working with the

kids and their families. I really got

a sense of a strong "Salesian Sprit"

among the communities of the ora-

tories.

This experience has really changed

my view of the world. Even though

we have everything here in the U.S

we still complain, because we don’t

have the nicest car, or latest game

system. We get so consumed by

this materialistic point of view that

we truly forget how blessed we are.

This trip has made me realize how

blessed I am in my life just to have a

roof over my head, and I appreciate

everything more than I did before

my experience. During this trip I

conﬁrmed that serving people, as a

missionary is my calling from God.

I have already started my formation

to be a volunteer. I am open to go

wherever God needs me.

Missionaries sharing the table

Group picture at

San Jose Oratory

Tacos “El Tio”- A parishioner

cooking for the missionaries

View from St. Dominic Savio

Oratory Chapel

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Service a way to promote vocations

By Juan Carlos Montenegro

To put together a pastoral activity

in any of our communities is not

that difﬁcult. This article presents

several steps that we should take

into consideration upon putting to-

gether an apostolate activity.

Before the activity takes place it is

important to contact the program

and the people or organization that

we will be working with. While

reading this article, you will have

the opportunity to see how actual

volunteering is put into practice.

For example: Let’s say that we

want to do something for Decem-

ber 24th. The ﬁrst thing that we do

is ﬁnd an organization that will be

willing to welcome us on that day.

In this case, we called “His Nesting

Place” a Pro-life Christian shelter

who gives single mothers the op-

portunity to keep their babies in-

stead of having an abortion.

If the organization is willing to wel-

come the group, it is important to

set a meeting so the following top-

ics can be discussed:

• What are the organization’s ex-

pectations?

• Share our expectations… and

see if they meet with the orga-

nization’s expectations

Carolina Cormack served on Christmas

at His Nesting place

• What time is the program going

to take place?

• What do we need to bring?

• How many people are involved?

Once these questions are answered,

it is time to create an internal plan.

We call the young people who will

be sharing the leadership responsi-

bilities of the project. We explain

the organization’s expectations,

and we proceed to set a goal that

can be achievable. When we have a

clear goal we move to the next step

which is "brainstorming" to see

how we can meet our goal.

When we have enough ideas we

choose one or two that will help us

to achieve the goal. Based on these

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Continue...

ideas we create action steps.

When everybody knew what they

Example, in His Nesting Place proj- were doing, it was easy to have ev-

ect we called some young adults erything prepared before December

who could be involved with the 24th, the scheduled day to visit His

project, some of the ideas that came Nesting Place.

out of the brainstorming were:

Up to this point, this technique is

• Create an oratory evening at the the same that any organization uses

shelter

to create an "activity". Now how

• Bring Pan-dulce for the little can we make it Salesian?

kids

• Bring Piñatas

On December 24th we met the

• Have trivia contest with the young people who would be par-

mothers and children

ticipating in this Pastoral Event.

• Buy pizza for everybody

We studied the word of God, we

• Bring arts and crafts for the prayed and we shared our feelings

mothers

before going to the event. We made

• Bring gifts for the children

sure that young people understood

that what they were doing was our

Once we have all these ideas we Christian responsibility. We were

strategies them and created action going to visit Jesus in the most

steps which were assigned among needy.

our young person so they

were responsible to make

them happened. Next we

set an activities chronogram

stating times and due dates

to have everything com-

pleted and prepared. Once

this was cleared, we set an-

other meeting to check how

things were going and see if

the youth, needed helping

planning or completing the

Mothers holding their Nativity craft

activities.

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While in the activity, we

the youth ministers, try

to be present to them. We

accompany them while

they are sharing time with

the children and mothers.

Once the activity is ended,

we gather again and we ask

the them to express their

feelings. We ask them to

share with us where they

Free to clown with Salesian friends

saw Christ. This last re-

ﬂection is the most impor-

tant, because here we give

them the opportunity to think, reﬂect, and learn from what they just did. If

we don’t have these reﬂections, it becomes a nice activity that made them

feel good, but has no connections with God and who they are.

These short missionary experiences will help our young people to culti-

vate a missionary heart that will make the difference in our community

and eventually in our society. This is how St. John Bosco worked, he

engaged young people in his dreams, and he empowered them to become

agents of change…

What's a party without a "Piñata"?

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Volunteer at Richmond!

By Roberto Rios

pensation. So, a person does not

look for any payment or reward but

At the time when I ﬁnally decided does it for the love of God and love

to do some type of volunteering, I or their neighbor.

had a wonderful job, some pretty

good friends, and a very support- Currently, I am working at the

ive family. Everything was going Salesian High School in Rich-

good with my life, and I felt that mond, California and living with

God had given me many incredible the Salesian Religious Community

gifts of which I had become very that oversees the operation of their

grateful for. So, I started thinking High School, and the Boys and

of some way in which I could try to Girls Club. I have felt very com-

pay God back for all the talents and fortable and welcomed by the Sale-

abilities he has bestowed upon me sians here. I share in the Commu-

(although I know that I could never nity prayer life as well as the social

repay all the caring and deep love life and the meals. The Salesians

God has given to me).

who live in the community are very

good examples of how happy one

By doing some volunteering I got could be in sharing in the minis-

some good experience which has try of working with youth, and of

made me more conscious regarding those young people who are very

the love of God, which is inﬁnite as much in need of help and guidance.

well as always free. God is always By sharing in this youth ministry

giving you his love no

matter what you do and

no matter where you are.

It is always totally free;

It does not cost you any-

thing. You just receive

his love and that is all you

have to do. Therefore, I

really believe that people

should do something for

somebody without any

expectations, without

getting any kind of com-

Bro. Ricardo Ramos and Roberto Rios tutoring

children after school

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every day I have come to realize

that working with youth can be a

blessing because you are given the

chance to give them both physical,

mental as well as moral support.

You can show by your good exam-

ple, your advice and your cheerful-

ness how much you care for them

and support them. By talking to the

Salesian here I have found out that

serving others is not difﬁcult at all,

as people might think. It becomes a

pleasure in so many ways.

The volunteer program has also

given me the time and the space

to think about my own life. It has

given me the time to meditate about

my own future, and the aspects in

my own life that might need chang-

ing, or the decisions I need to make

in order to improve myself and be-

come a better person, and a more

dedicated Christian.

My duties as a Salesian volunteer

at the Salesian High School calls

me to collaborate with the Campus

Ministry to plan activities for the

students. This also includes stu-

dent retreats. I also act as a student

service liaison with the

Boys and Girls Club, pro-

moting and facilitating

the students tutoring and

coaching services at the

Boys and Girls Club.

Having fun after doing

homework!

Fr. Chris Woerz tutoring a children in math

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Letter from India...

By Minh Mai

Things are harder now than when I

had last written to you. Things are

harder because I am currently not at

the school, and not with my children

right now. The school is on winter

holiday so all the kids went home,

and Kristina (my site partner) and

I are traveling through India. The

traveling has been great. We have

been to Calcutta and saw Mother

Teresa’s tomb, Chennai, where we

saw the tomb of St. Thomas the

Apostle, Kerala the land of coconut

trees and Bangalore a very west-

ernized city. Not being with my

children makes being in India and

being so far from my family and

friends a lot harder to bear. Also,

just being far from family during

the holidays is hard….Not going

to midnight mass with my fam-

ily on Christmas, not being able to

be there when everyone open their

presents on Christmas morning,

and not counting down the New

Year with my family are all hard.

And there are moments when I feel

like, "why am I here in India and

not with my family right now?" But

then, those are also the moments

when I can feel God there with me,

comforting me, and reminding me

that the kids are the reason why I

am here, the reason why He called

me to be here. And, if He wanted

me to be here, then this is where I

need to be…..There are moments

of doubt—self-doubt— moments

of weakness, but God has always

been there to be the strength that I

need to get past those moments of

doubt and reafﬁrm His calling in

my heart.

Every day, even though I get more

sleep, I miss the children, and I feel

like not using sign language for the

past couple of weeks, I’m getting

rusty! I hope the children can still

understand me when I get back….I

miss the way some of the kids will

just jump on my back and slowly

slide down to my lap until they’re

sitting or lying comfortably on my

lap, or the way some of the kids will

fall asleep on my lap while watch-

ing T.V. after a long day of study-

ing and playing, or the way they

run to hold my hands after school

because they haven’t seen me in a

couple of hours.

Children from Ferrando Speech &

Hearing Centre in India

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At the beginning of September

I felt like this was going to be a

long year of hard work, and now

after completing 4 months I can’t

believe how fast time has passed.

Now, I can’t imagine having to say

goodbye to my children and get on

that plane home. I can only hope

and pray that everyone is doing

well there.

I leave you with these words of Don

Bosco, “It is not enough to love the

young, they must know that they

are loved.” That is what I’m trying

to do here, and I hope you will do

the same wherever you are!

The Missionary Reﬂection-

Prayer

By Fr. Steve Ryan, SDB

“One day at a time” is such a trite

phrase that we can hear as a spiritu-

al “practice” or motto in a sermon

or good night. The fact of the mat-

ter is: we really have trouble living

only one day at a time in the pres-

ent moment. That’s because we

are too full of our own ideas, plans,

schemes, and too preoccupied with

our own agenda.

But, our Lord is there to help us

to really take JUST one day at the

time and to make it a day to love

and serve. It’s really the only day

we’ve got, because tomorrow is a

gift that is not guaranteed and yes-

terday does not exist anymore. To-

day we woke up so let’s do it!

How does this relate to our present

life situation?. We are somewhat

spinning out of control with work

and problems, and even our own

fears of the future and self-doubts.

What can we do?

• Live in the present moment

• Be calm-go with the ﬂow

• Do the next loving thing (St.

Francis de Sales)

• Focus on the person in front of

you. Don’t get too far ahead of

yourself.

• And pray! Pray like mad!

Feeling insecure about the future

and somewhat helpless and desper-

ate about where God is leading us

is completely normal. It is the hu-

man experience.

My Lord, we ask you to help us to

understand what we celebrate at

Christmas-to make God’s love in-

carnate. We ask you to help us to

be humble, to live a life of service

knowing that in the uncertainty and

insecurity you are always there for

us, to make our life a witness that

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you are the #1 thing!

So now, what the heck are we get-

ting worked up about the future.

We’ve chosen only you as our fu-

ture. Nothing else but you. Why

are we worried all of a sudden about

things we can’t control?

leave everything in God’s hands!

Stop worrying. All will be well!

Jesus, only you, only you, only

you, only you. You are our secu-

rity our strength and our future.

Help us to let the rest go! Give

us the streght to give ourselves to

you!

So, please, let’s do our best and Amen.

Summer Volunteer Opportunities

arround the province...

We are looking for camp counselors in the following locations, for more

information, please contact us.

Salesian Boys & Girls Club -- San Francisco, CA

http://www.salesianclub.org/

Corpus Christi Summer Camp -- San Francisco, CA

http://www.cccsdbsf.org

Camp St. Francis - Aptos, CA -- Overnight Camp

www.salesianym.org/campstfrancis.

Salesian Youth Center Camp -- Los Angeles, CA

http://www.salesianclubs-la.org/

Camp Savio -- Bellﬂower, CA

http://www.saintdominicsavio.org/campsavio/

San Luis Rey Camp -- Laredo, TX

mgergen50@yahoo.com

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For more information please visit our web site at