MOVING ON

Dear Friends.

It seems the summer is soon coming to an end and we will have the beautiful fall weather upon us. Autumn leaves will change colour and give up their life and fall to the ground to give the soil new life. Yes, autumn is my favorite season, because the air seems to be so much more fresh and crisp.  Like the leaves from the trees in autum that let go, so I too must let go. My season is changing.

I regret to tell you, I will no longer be living and working here at Point of Hope. It is with very mixed feelings that I leave. One is of sadness to leave good friendships and to leave what I thought was unfinished work. The unfinished work is that we had just started to reopen Point of Hope with a renewed image of being there for people who were serious about wanting to make healthy changes in their life and for their family. I am also sad to leave very good and wonderful people, yet I am very grateful that they touched my life and our paths crossed. Every person who I met here has changed my life and made me a better person because God was in that person blessing me.  As in all things, we cannot lay claim to anything, even friends.  God provides them as we need them, and so I thank God for friends He has given me.  With most of them, they became my kindred spirits. You might be wondering, so why leave?  Well in mid July, I got a phone call that my brother had a stroke and it was severe with paralysis on the left side. He is now unable to walk and to care for himself.  I asked for permission to go and help with his transition into the nursing home and was granted that leave, which means leaving Kentucky. Please pray for him.

 The other feeling I have is one of hope, new life, and excitement for what God holds in store for me as I return to the place of my childhood.  Being an Ojibway, a Native North American, I grew up on a reserve and so this will give me an opportunity to reconnect with my roots and my culture.  I have not lived there for about forty years except to visit. Yet it is not without some apprehension because I do not know what the future holds.  So I shall trust it to God, leaving my heart and my mind in His heart and His mind for my guidance and direction. 

Helping my brother transition will not be a full time job so I will be working there at an addiction treatment facility. This will be my new mission because addiction is also a common problem among our young people there as it is here.  Another problem troubling our youth is suicide which is very tragic, and there isn’t a family that has not been affected. Thus there is mission work everywhere.

     I will end on a very happy note and that is to WELCOME DONALD whom you have already met on this blog.  I am totally confident that he is going to do great and wonderful things at Father Beiting Appalachian Mission and more for Point of Hope.  I had the privilege of meeting him on Tuesday this past week and found him to be very friendly, kind and easy to talk to.  Since I have met him and have seen all the wonderful things they have already begun during my absence, my optimism for Point of Hope has soared, and it has relieved me of all guilt I was feeling for having to leave.  Thus my only real sadness then is leaving treasured friends, volunteers and all with whom I worked to bring God’s love those who needed it.  So we shall have to stay friends in our hearts and minds, united in the love of God.  May all good be with you throughout your life.  Blessings and prayers be with all of you.  This is Sr Kateri now signing off.