Staff Writer

CHAMBLEE--"I give them what I have," Sister Christine says of the Vietnamese who come to Good Shepherd Services, an outreach ministry in a renovated bungalow off Buford Highway.

They give in return. Older women fuss over her. "When I'm sick they boil some Chinese medicine for me. They talk to me like a grandmother."

Their tender, loving care includes other benefits. "They come in and cook, they know I like Vietnamese food," the petite and lively nun admits with a smile.

Sister Christine Truong My Hanh, RGS, needs all the TLC she can get. Her dedication to bringing her countrymen and women both the comfort of their faith, and help in adapting to a strange culture, is boundless.

Children, teenagers and young adults who need to learn English, parents willing to help teach their Catholic faith to their youngsters, men and women of senior years who miss the traditions and customs of Vietnam, all are her family.

The need to educate the Vietnamese children compels Sister Christine to work with the neighborhood public schools. There is a heavy enrollment of Vietnamese at nearby Sequoyah Junior High School where Dorothy Foster is ESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) director.

Mrs. Foster says Sister Christine first came in to help with the Vietnamese children while she was in charge of the ESOL lab at Cross Keys High School. "She would talk to them of American ways and how to avoid gangs."

After Sister Christine received a crime prevention grant, which also seeks to combat gang-related problems, she hired an ESOL teacher, Lynn Crews, and assigned Tai Nguyen, a full-time staffer at Good Shepherd center, to go into the junior high school four days a week.

They work with the students in the ESOL lab and those who have been mainstreamed at the junior high school. In the lab, Mrs. Foster says, "They tutor and work with kids having trouble. They just started a support group with all the Vietnamese students, and they're working with the staff member in charge of discipline." They also work with suspended students through a program held at Good Shepherd center.

"We really appreciate the support of the (Vietnamese) community," Mrs. Foster says. "What we need is support from other language groups." The school's international population includes children from Somalia, Eritrea, Iraq and Latin American countries.

Sister Christine says her staffers are also helping at Dresden Elementary School and expect to add another elementary school to the program. "If we don't help," she says, "I'm afraid (Vietnamese students) will drop out."

Some children also attend the after-school program at Good Shepherd center for help with homework and tutoring in tough subjects. "When they come here, they come with a purpose and we try to help," she says.

Many newcomers from Vietnam arrived this past summer, she says. "Some of (the children) are illiterate in our own language." Teachers have a tendency to put such newcomers "in a corner or in the back of the room. If we don't help them they will lose interest in studying. There are so many other things to get involved in."

She saw this shortly after she arrived in Atlanta in 1991. "The kids were just roaming around. Dealers used them for carrying drugs."

She figured a summer program might help and began class in her small apartment in a Chamblee area where many Vietnamese lived. When neighbors complained of the noise, she moved the class outdoors to the shade of a large old tree.

"There was a drainage ditch close by. The children thought it was a river," she recalls.

The alfresco class was good for the children. Occasionally drivers, intrigued by the scene, stopped. Some had questions. "What do you need?"

They returned with fruit, crayons, books. Others helped as volunteers. Today, Sister Christine says, there are about 15 people who tutor. Some come in the afternoons, others for the Monday evening adult class. The need for volunteers is constant.

Now, thanks to her supportive religious congregation, Sister Christine carries out her ministry in a bungalow set on a lot large enough to allow for a roomy vegetable garden. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd purchased the property on Shallowford Terrace early this year. Two Vietnamese men did most of the repairing and remodeling and the center opened in March, 1995.

Another member of the order, Sister Marilyn Kahl, RGS, recently came to the center from Philadelphia to be coordinator of volunteers.

Tai Nguyen, full-time outreach worker on the staff, also teaches English. He introduces his adult students to basic rudiments of English such as the "simple present tense." A teacher in Vietnam, he survived years in a post-war prison camp as did others among the Vietnamese drawn to the center.

His classroom is the detached garage where religious education is taught children on Saturday morning and where the sound of sacred song is heard as the young adult choir rehearses Saturday afternoon for Mass each Sunday at Holy Cross Church.

Thong Dinh directs a new course in gentle exercises for the elders. Thirty-two are registered for the Tuesday morning program held on the back lawn. Sister Christine follows the physical training with a very brief English lesson.

Enculturation takes varied paths. Sister Christine plans to invite speakers to talk to the seniors and "to take them places" in the roomy van recently donated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

Sister Kahl drives the elders to and from the center and reports how the new program is lighting their lives. At first, they didn't speak, but now the van is friendly with their talk.

Sister Christine hopes eventually to invite a few elderly neighbors to join the class, the ones who complain of the antics of the Vietnamese teens.

When they criticize the teens, she reminds them that these young newcomers are "the ones who will be with your grandchildren."

"We have to enculturate," she insists. In fact, that was the topic of a workshop she recently gave in St. Louis for her congregation. She focuses on the similarities people share, not their differences.

Father Thanh Nguyen, a LaSalette missionary at St. Ann Parish in Marietta, is a strong partner in this ministry of befriending and instructing their Vietnamese brothers and sisters.

He celebrates the Sunday Mass at Holy Cross. The capacity congregation that celebrates with him is a great leap from the small groups who gathered for the Masses he celebrated in the early '90s.

"At that point we had 40 people in Chamblee and 20 in Clarkston," he recalls. They would gather in small apartments, grateful for, and comforted by, the liturgy and the Eucharist.

He began celebrating Mass once a month at Holy Cross in June, 1992. Attendance grew so much that the weekly Mass began in September, 1994.

"Now we have 700 every Sunday," he says. And the number was considerably higher when Archbishop John F.Donoghue celebrated Mass for the Vietnamese on Sept. 24.

The Vietnamese were a fully participating congregation for their archbishop, attentive, respectful, the well-behaved children making parents and teachers proud.

The young adult choir--the women in the ao dai, a graceful fitted tunic over soft trousers--sang the melodic Vietnamese hymns with distinction.

In the gathering area after the liturgy, a smiling Archbishop Donoghue spread out his arms to families eager to be photographed with him.

Father Thanh spends hours each Thursday, his day off from duties at St. Ann's, counseling people who come to Good Shepherd with their needs and problems, visiting newcomers and the lonely elderly in their apartments in Chamblee and Clarkston.

Both Father Thanh and Sister Christine attend the Thursday staff meetings at Holy Cross. The relationship with the parish is a warm one. Priests and people are touched by the faith commitment of people from a country where Catholics make up only seven percent of the population.

"Our mission is to help bridge the gap for the newcomers," the LaSalette priest says.

"We celebrate together. They cherish the sacraments and they don't have any other place where 700 Vietnamese can be together."

In October the congregation honored Our Lady with a procession and crowning. There were 1,000 people present, according to Sister Christine, and when the statue of Mary was carried into the church everyone applauded.

"We try to honor Mary twice a year," she explains.

Father Thanh says the Vietnamese like to talk about their lives in Atlanta when they meet at Holy Cross. They talk about their children, their jobs, their cars.

Enculturation in such a different world helps the Vietnamese "have harmony in their families," Father Thanh explains. "The children pick up language and adapt very well. For adults, it is harder."

There are people eager to help the nun and the priest in their ministry.

Father Thanh appreciates the generosity of the people at St. Ann. A Lenten drive there brought in diapers and baby clothes, garments of all kinds, books and other necessities.

Sister Christine described her ministry at eight Sunday Masses at St. Ann's with fine results. The parish women's guild is joining Sister Christine in her broad-based program by helping the women in everyday activities such as filling out forms for employment, banking, licenses, and shopping the supermarket. A garage sale held by the Serrans at Holy Family Church in Marietta brought the center $1,000.

Such benefactors are important to Good Shepherd with the outlook uncertain for federal and state grants and aid programs that help to resettle newcomers. Unexpected gifts are a pleasant diversion.

A call from a teacher at St. Jude Catholic School in Sandy Springs brings the news that her class would like to do something with the Vietnamese children.

Sister Christine is pleased. The Vietnamese children who come to the center enjoy learning American songs. Perhaps the Sandy Springs youngsters can teach them some. They love such happy tunes as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," she mentions.

The mail might bring a "thank you" note and check from an area college where young Vietnamese dancers recently performed wearing the ao dai.

Yet the best gifts that Sister Christine receives are the 25 people enrolled in the Order of Christian Initation of Adults, the baptisms and weddings that Father Thanh performs. The flock at Good Shepherd grows.

Good Shepherd Services, 2426 Shallowford Terrace, Chamblee, 30341, may be reached at (770) 455-9379.