Print Issue: August 1, 2002

At HEART Camp, Teens Put Faith Into Action

By Lisa Wheeler, Special To The Bulletin

FAIRBURN - Painting, building, sweating and serving are not words usually associated with teens on summer break. But for the nearly 300 teens from five states that descended on Our Lady of Mercy High School in June, those are exactly the words that described the week-along with loving, learning, sharing and praising.

Teens plant a tree during a HEART work camp in Atlanta. The Catholic program brings youth groups to a city to do corporal works of mercy such as home repairs, yard work, stripping and repainting, and other projects for the elderly and poor.

The teens worked in downtown and south Atlanta in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods as part of the Catholic HEART work camp program. Started in Florida in 1993 and now located in 21 cities in the United States and in the Caribbean, HEART stands for Helping Everyone Attain Repairs Today. The goal of the weeklong mission-style trip is to fulfill the corporal works of mercy through a variety of community outreach projects that target low-income, elderly and children's needs. The teens come from Catholic parishes all over the country for a week of service, worship and fellowship.

This was the first time the camp has been held in Atlanta. Heather Garger, youth minister at Corpus Christi Church in Stone Mountain, has been participating in HEART with her youth group since its inception. Serving as a camp manager in her hometown was incredible, she said.

"The thing I like is to see the teens transform from Sunday to Friday - some who were forced to come and who have had a change of heart - seeing them become humble and showing concern for others."

The theme of service permeates the program. Banners adorn the auditorium which say "to love is to serve." The teens are reminded that their faith requires action. St. James' words are echoed on a screen: "Faith without action is dead."

Teens that came credit their HEART experience with renewing their faith, which many of them describe as "nearly dead."

Joie Crawford, from St. Bede Church in Montgomery, Ala., said the week "brought me closer to God, seeing what it means to serve. I worship him, but I realize serving him means doing for other people, not just saying prayers."

Helen Luby, the sole attendee from Georgia, said the experience helped "me to trust God more." Luby, who attends Corpus Christi, said the fellowship with other parishes was very powerful for her. "I came here wanting to meet people, but I was alone. The other groups were very friendly and made sure I was never by myself."

Each day the teens were split into 38 groups and sent to work on projects that ranged from cleaning up trash in a community park to scraping off paint and repainting to rebuilding a porch onto the home of an elderly resident. Brian Lillie from Holy Family Church in Nashville, Tenn., worked in a public housing community in Union City. The residents were elderly and low income. He was amazed by what people do not have right here in the United States. "I have seen God in the faces of these people. Even though they have so little, they have immense love. A week of my summer was for the good, I just can't put a price on it."

Four archdiocesan parishes, St. Andrew Church, Roswell, St. Benedict Church, Duluth, Corpus Christi and Transfiguration Church, Marietta, are participating in other HEART work camp locations this summer.

Brian McKay from St. Andrew's was part of the group that just returned from Bluffton, S.C. He describes the week as the most important and powerful week of his life. "It deepened my faith in God and I grew in what other people were doing, helping the poor and working in the community. It was the ultimate mission trip."

Cassi Williams, youth minister at St. Benedict's, said her expectation for her group's upcoming experience in Nashville is that her teens "will come out of self and connect with the people who don't have the comforts that they have here in Duluth."

"My hope is that they will experience a transformation of heart."

For the 300 teens in Atlanta, this transformation was poured out in a tremendous show of love and compassion for a busload of their fellow HEART campers from St. Aloysius Church in Hickory, N.C., who, on the final day of the week, a free day, were involved in a bus accident that fatally injured their driver.

Luby, who was on the bus, said, "When we got into the accident, we all started praying together and saying the rosary, praying that he (the bus driver) was alive. I have never seen a miracle happen until that day."

When the group arrived back at Mercy, they were welcomed into an auditorium of people clapping and yells of love from their HEART community.

Father Michael Kingery, parochial vicar at St. Benedict's, has seen this transformation take place on other HEART work camps.

"It is a change that happens from their initial arrival at the work camp that only comes through sacrificial giving, through suffering. It is an experience of the cross and it is an experience of commitment to their faith."

For more information visit www.heartworkcamp.com.