The Newsletter of L`Arche Heartland

T he B l e s s i ng
f al l 2009
The Newsletter of
L’Arche Heartland
Special Friends Foundation—Builds Kitchen!
L’Arche Heartland would like to thank the Special Friends Foundation for donating the funds for
our community to build an apartment style kitchen in the basement of one of our homes. Tim and
Lance have lived in Trinity House for eight months without a kitchen sink or an oven of their own.
Although Tim and Lance could always just go upstairs to use the kitchen in St. Patrick’s house,
they both really wanted the chance to live more independently and cook on their own in their
apartment. With the Special Friends
Foundation’s generous grant, L’Arche
was able to purchase an apartment-sized
washer/dryer, range, and fridge, plus
install the sink and cabinetry. To build
community, Trinity and St. Patrick still
join together several times a week for
dinner—especially to grill out in nice
weather, but overall Tim and Lance
could not be happier having the option
and ability to cook in their home and
practice their independent living skills.
The two core members are finally living
the dream of every person in their early
twenties—let the dishes stack until the
sink is full with no mom to yell about it!
But really, the Trinity House assistants are working with Tim and Lance daily on proper food
preparation, nutrition and meal balancing, and sanitation guidelines with daily dish washing and
antibacterial counter washing. All of these lifestyle goals would have been impossible without the
Special Friends Foundation, so L’Arche Heartland again wants to thank you and acknowledge to
everyone how much of a difference you have made!
Welcome new faces to Heartland
The past months have brought a few new faces to L’Arche Heartland! First off, the L’Arche
Academy has welcomed 2 new core members, Sarah and Steven. Sarah attends our Academy 5
days a week and is a joy to work with. She is focusing on category association, journaling, and
learning French! Stephen receives support in his endeavors to get a college education at Johnson
County Community College and meets with our assistants at the Academy several times a week.
We also have 3 new assistants. Anna moved in as a live-in this past August. Check out a bit about
her journey from a volunteer to a live-in in this edition of the blessing. Andy was an assistant 3
years ago and has come back for a period of 4 months to assist us in providing respite at two of our
homes, and Aaron has joined the bunch working with Heather at the Revelation House. We would
also like to welcome Nils, a one-year volunteer from Germany. He is helping at the Academy 5
days a week and at John Paul II in the evenings. Last, but not least, we would like to welcome back
Kathy Newham as our Community Leader. Kathy served Heartland in this capacity for 11 years
between 1996 and 2007. After taking a couple of years away from the daily life of community she
stayed connected with relationships and activities and is excited to be back on the ark. You can read
her letter to the community on page 5. Welcome to all our new community members! L’Arche
Heartland is blessed to have you all journey with us!
In si d e t h i s i s su e:
Spiritual Life—a
new space to pray
2
A Farewell to Maria
2
Fitzgerald
Academy Advocate– 3
Written by Core
Members
&
4
A Letter from our
Community Leader
5
Sharing—A new
assistants journey
5
Birthdays and
Anniversaries
Ways YOU can
participate
6
6
Heartland Contact
Info
Mail:
P.O. Box 40493
Overland Park, KS
66204
Telephone:
913.341.2265
Email:
heartland@larcheks.org
Website:
www.larcheks.org
fa l l 2009
Pa g e 2
Heartland Spiritual Life—A House becomes a Home
By Heather G’Sell
Assistant June 2009-present
group. Upstairs, the home is initiating a
prayerful project.
Our community has recently turned a
house into a home. St. Patrick and Trinity households are familiar to all of you
who attended the June Community
Night. Core members invited guests to
take a tour of the top level and basement, both of which have been renovated last August. We are excited to
share with you that there are now further
opportunities to show hospitality to visitors and to provide prayerful respite to
community members.
St. Patrick House, the top level, is ready
to open a prayer room that the L’Arche
Heartland community will share. During
an international L’Arche gathering in
Calcutta, India, Thomas Marquis, community coordinator, observed that building space was reserved for the purpose
of prayer. Now, Kansas has a place for
that same purpose. The home has
enough bedrooms, bathrooms, and storage, so the members of St. Patrick
House offer a quiet, comfortable room
for groups and individuals to visit. The
potential for this space is beyond measure. The opportunity to have spiritual
renewal and companionship has been
integral to our community’s growth.
Jean Vanier, co-founder of L’Arche,
acknowledges the reality that each person has a calling: "We do not have to be
saviors of the world! We are simply
human beings, enfolded in weakness and
in hope, called together to change our
―The opportunity to have
spiritual renewal companionship
had been integral to our
community’s growth.‖
Trinity House, the bottom level, now has
an operating kitchen. Daily life has already improved – ease of meals and
chores – while the residence is more
prepared for hosting friends and family –
accommodating the needs of a larger
world one heart at a time. ― We have the
hope to open our hearts to prayer.
Altar space in a L’Arche home in
Kolkata, India, that inspired
L’Arche Heartland to transform
the extra room at St. Patrick.
Transformation—An ode to Maria Fitzgerald
By Stephanie Plummer
Assistant February 2008-present
Dear Maria,
We are missing you. Already people are talking about it when you have not been gone a day. You have brought your light into
this community and it will never leave. Though your physical presence is gone, you have left your mark on each of us. Thank
you for listening to God telling you to come to Kansas from Connecticut. You are an example of how God works in mysterious
ways, because from the moment you got here, you had an impact. You
have brought us joy and helped us through our hard times. No more will
we be wondering when Maria’s flight is coming and who can pick her up.
There will be no more phone calls around the community trying to find
you. Sharks will always remind us now of your impressions and faces to
make us laugh. Even silver cars bring memories of you to our minds!
There is not one person involved with L’Arche Heartland that you have not
touched in some way. You are dear to our hearts and we only have a little
anxiety as to how we are going to still be able to talk to you even though
you are not as near as you have been the past three years. (Of course, that
has nothing to do with your history of not knowing where your phone is,
losing it within the first couple of weeks being here and having the mailman return it, etc.) You are a treasure that God wants to share no matter
how much we dislike that idea of sharing you with someone else. We only
Victor, Maria, and Ray
know that your life is in God’s hands and you will continue to impact others around you just as strongly as you have our community. We hope this shows at least a glimpse of our hearts because words
really cannot express how much you mean to us. Thank you for your strength, joy, laughter, tears, your faith and so much
more. Thank you for being selfless. You have shown us what it means to give of ourselves like Christ did for us.
Love, L’Arche Heartland
ACADEMY
ADVOCATE
October 2009
a new sletter a uthored b y core memb ers of the L’Arche Academy
Peacocks, geese, and ducks...oh my!
By Rachel Harper
Core member February 2008-present
I’m Rachel Harper. I came to L’Arche on
February 14, 2008. I started coming to
the Academy in late Spring 2009. I have
small pets in my room, a mouse and some
fish and a guinea pig named Carson. I
like field trips and shopping. I like when
people from L’Arche come to my parents’ house to see the animals.
When I lived on our first farm, it was 40
acres, and we raised lots of animals. We
had peacocks and guinea fowl, pheasants,
quail, ducks, geese and wild geese, ponies
and horses, goats and sheep, and chickens. We had lots of indoor animals, too.
When I was young I joined 4-H. I
Activities Ray loves,
and loves to learn!
-Twinkle, Twinkle little
star on the piano
-Vacuuming the office
-Shredding paper for
longer lengths of time
-Joining morning checkins
-Searching You-Tube for
new favorite songs
learned to raise and show sheep first but it
was really hard. So then I started to raise
and show geese, ducks, chickens, turkeys,
and pigeons. Recently I had a chance to
give a presentation to L’Arche Academy
about raising and showing birds. I told
them how I learned to raise and show
birds by reading books and magazines,
asking my dad lots of questions and looking up things on the computer. I also
learned information from some judges and
friends.
While raising birds, I learned about the
food and water they need, about incubators for hatching eggs, and brooders with
heat lamps for the babies to stay in until a
certain age. When they get older
Sampling Sarah’s Journaling
they get feathers that grow through the
down they hatched with.
It takes a year for them to mature. Then
they are ready to breed and lay eggs and
to show. The judges put ribbons on the
cages of the birds that best meet the stan-
Rachel (center) with Carol and Matt
November 2009
A C A DE M Y A DVO C A T E
Silly Sentences
By Members of the Academy
How long can you make a sentence with
every word starting with just one letter
of the alphabet? One mindstrengthening exercise that Academy
members do focuses on just that. Trying
to encourage the use of imagination and
to increase vocabulary skills, these are a
few of the sentences that the L’Arche
Academy Core Members have completed collaboratively:
“Busy bumblebees buzzed Betty Boop
before bedtime, but Betty Boop bopped
both bees!”
“Donald duck dodged Daffy Duck’s
delicious dandelion dish during dinner.”
“Countless, colorful, crazy clowns
cooked corn, chowder, casseroles,
crackers, cookies, completing cherished
chowtime.”
College for Core Members
By Colin & Tim
Two Core members who go to Community College
The fall semester at Johnson County Community College is well underway, and for Tim Curtis it is taking a turn for the better.
He is currently taking his second college course in reading comprehension. For the first several weeks he and his classmates
were reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Tim said it was a difficult book because, in his opinion, it was ―difficult to
picture the story.‖ A number of his classmates agreed, and the teacher let the students each pick a book of their own choosing.
Tim chose The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson, because he is a self-described ―big superman addict.‖ He speaks
glowingly of the new book, saying, ―I love it. It makes me go back to the characters.‖
Tim enjoys the overall environment at JCCC. He likes the pace of the program, the accessibility of the tutors, and the opportunity for social interaction with peers. He’s not only learning about reading, but ―that if I find help to focus, and can stay focused...then I can get closer to finishing my goals.‖ After finishing more coursework in reading comprehension, Tim hopes to
take a course in Political Science.
Colin Olenick, another L’Arche Academy student, who spends much of the week at JCCC, is finishing up one of his papers for
his Composition II class. Colin is in his third semester of study at JCCC. He has already completed courses in Math, Study
Skills, and Composition. He is excited about his current paper—an examination of social pressure, authority, and morality—in
which he discusses the controversial Milgram experiments of the early 1960’s.
Volunteer Interview
By Lauren Schweiker
Core Member Summer 2009
Hi! My name is Lauren Schweiker. I
attend L’Arche Academy. We have a
volunteer from Germany and I had a
chance to interview him. He agreed to
share his story with the community.
Lauren
Nils
Kuechler is
from a small
city of
30,000 people. It has
many sports
clubs and
Nils is a
member of a handball club. He also
likes soccer and basketball.
Austria, Greece, and Spain. But the trip
to the US is the biggest one.
His favorite subjects in school are math
and physics. He likes to ride his motorbike and to go to parties with friends.
The cities in the US are widespread,
according to Nils. And he says that
Nils has some favorite foods. He especially likes Italian foods, such as pizza
and pasta, but not German sauerkraut.
peohere
a lot
fast
ple
eat
of
He told me a little about his family. It’s
a small family. He has one younger
brother named Kai. His father is a policeman and his mom is a dentist. And
no one smokes.
I questioned Nils about other countries
he has visited. He has been to Sweden,
Nils and Tim
T he B less ing
Pa g e 5
Community—From our Director
By Kathy Newham
Community Leader
A VISION OF THANKS
I hope this finds you enjoying the beauty of autumn. Since returning to L’Arche
Heartland the past three months (for me) have passed quickly and it is time for
Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. These are probably the favorite seasons
and holidays of Heartland. Planning for the Halloween party has started and most of the
core members have decided on a costume. The Spiritual Life Committee is working on
plans for Thanksgiving that will include a community service project that will allow us
to give back to the larger community. We will also be planning a celebration of Advent
and the Christmas season.
In October we hosted the L’Arche Central USA Regional Council and General
Assembly. We hosted a meal and introduced our region to the community and the
Academy. In November we will be hosting the L’Arche USA Zone Council and
General Assembly. Again, we will have the opportunity to introduce our community
and the Academy to the larger family of L’Arche.
Thank you for the many blessing each of you bring to our community!
Kathy
―Gratitude unlocks the
fullness of life. It turns what
we have into enough, and
more. It turns denial into
acceptance, chaos into order,
confusion into clarity...It
turns problems into gifts,
failures into success, the
unexpected into perfect
timing and mistakes into
important events. Gratitude
makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today and
creates a vision for
tomorrow.‖
-Melody Beattie
Sharing—My road to Heartland...
By Anna Wishall
Assistant August 2009-present
NYC for a year before coming back to Kansas and attending
grad school for a semester in music therapy, but after battling a
severe illness and being in an accident, I knew school wasn’t
Growing up in the small town of Pittsburg, KS as one of 7
where I would be happiest. After a LONG waiting period of 6
children, my life was already complicated from a young age. I months in which I grew in my faith and God comforting me,
constantly compared myself to my siblings and their
God finally showed me L’Arche through the words of my
accomplishments, their grades, and their social activities. I
local priest in Lawrence. Two weeks later, when I didn’t look
never felt like I had anything to offer the world as great as they up L’Arche online, my spiritual director (a fabulous Italian
did, so as a shy child, I clung to my faith and experienced God nun) told me about it, and a week later, a dear friend of mine
as a tangible, loving figure. I didn’t realize how much I would asked me about Henri Nouwen, a priest who lived in L’Arche
Daybreak. I recognized the spirit prompting my heart, so I
need it later…
agreed to volunteer here. I stepped in the door at Noah’s Ark,
In school, I got by with average grades. I did what was
and knew I was home. I knew I belonged here. Thank you for
expected of me and nothing more. Then, seemingly from
accepting me into your lives and I hope to be a blessing to
nowhere, my classmates alienated me and I was bullied day
those in our community, my new home. God Bless!
after day. I hit rock bottom, and I was just ―going through the
motions‖. But God didn’t give up on me. When I was a
sophomore in high school, my religion teacher recommended I
become part of a camp called Holy Family Camp for
community service hours that were needed for school. HFC
changed my life, for the better. Somehow the campers
welcomed me with open arms, and since then, I have gone to
the camp year after year for 9 years. From the 2nd summer at
camp, God opened up a whole new life with people with
developmental disabilities!
I have worked for the past 5 years in group homes and have
loved every minute of it. My niche is so clear working with
this population. But this road has taken several turns. I lived in
Anna on left with core member Rachel
L’Arche Heartland
P.O. Box 40493
Overland Park, KS 66204
Phone: 913.341.2265
Fax: 913.648.4143
E-mail: heartland@larcheks.org
The Blessing
The quarterly newsletter
of L’Arche Heartland
A full-color version of this
newsletter is available on our
website: www.larcheks.org
I mpor t a nt D ate s
Community Night:
6:00 pm Friday:
11/13, 12/11
Guests Welcome!
Opportunities for you to participate!
Fall Birthdays
October
Volunteer Needs:
Tiffany—10/3
Patrick—10/15
George—10/26
Core member activity assistance—one on one time with a core member / twice a month
Office assistance 2-3 hours a day / once a week
November
Academy Assistant—work with our Academy core members / Mon or Wed / weekly
Carol—11/6
Interior painting at our homes / one time
Fall Anniversaries
September
Donations:
Jeremy—9/2, 2 years
Patrick—9/6, 20 years
Hugh—9/10, 1 year
Matt S—9/17, 2 years
Landscaping at our homes—gift cards to nurseries
October
Help build the Academy Library—dictionaries, art books, newspaper subscriptions
Carol—10/1, 5 years
David—10/23, 14 years
Printing for our Newsletters—quarterly donation of $100 for postage and printing
November
Sponsor an assistant on an Exploratory L’Arche Retreat—one time $500 donation
Jeanie—11/1, 3 years
Matt B—11/17, 16 years
Michael—11/18, 15 years
7-passenger van for our Academy
Gift certificates for core member positive behavior reinforcement— music stores / restaurants / $5-10 denominations
If interested in any of the above opportunities contact kathy@larcheks.org