Print Issue: November 7, 2002

ACJ Sisters Establish 'Oasis Católico' In Athens Trailer Park

By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

ATHENS - Walking in faith, three sisters have moved into a trailer park in Athens to serve Mexican families who live there, and also give young women volunteers a chance to experience their ministry.

In Pinewood Estates North on U.S. Route 29, a doublewide trailer is now the convent of Sister Angela Cordero, Sister Marietta Jansen and Sister Margarita Martin, who reside among 220 other trailers in a community that is 98 percent Mexican. Their ACJ order, the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was founded in Spain. Their home is Oasis Católico Santa Rafaela.

Assisted by Sister Margarita Martin, ACJ, right, Archbishop John F. Donoghue blesses the sisters' home in Athens Oct. 12. Three Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are living in a trailer park community where about 98 percent of the residents are from Mexico.

"In our tiny little chapel in the trailer we have our tabernacle in the shape of a boat," Sister Martin said. Echoing the pope's call to evangelize courageously in the new millennium, she said, "We go in faith to set out into the deep."

Young Hispanic women, who are considering joining the order, planted the seed for the new vision, Sister Martin said. And providence provided the means for them to realize it.

"Some women in discernment, Mexicans, came to our convent in Atlanta. I showed them a little video about our congregation. They asked me if we had volunteers, as we had seen on the video. I said we did not," she said.

Those in discernment liked the idea of volunteering and having a place to stay with the sisters.

Young people carry a statue of Our Lady of the Americas as part of a rosary procession through Pinewood Estates North in Athens. Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are living there to establish a Catholic presence and provide ministry to families.

"We need a place where we can gather and feel that we belong and are loved. Why don't you gather us and send us forth into ministry while we are discerning our vocations?" they asked.

Sister Martin, who works in vocation outreach for the Handmaids, is also a pastoral associate at St. Joseph's Church, Athens. At the time she was living with her sisters in community in Atlanta, but received approval from her provincial to begin looking for a new place that could house volunteers and sisters. They wanted a place to serve the Mexican community.

"I started scouting around (in Athens), to find out where most of the Mexicans are located," she said. Once she found this park, she discovered that to live there the sisters would have to buy, not rent a trailer. They had no funds.

She looked at other alternatives, but kept coming back to the trailer park. It was "the best thing . . . I came here again in desperation," Sister Martin said.

A trailer was available for sale and she liked its layout. The trailer had to be cleaned and prepared for sale, so that bought her some more time.

"By the end of May, they called me saying the trailer was ready. I could buy it by the first week of June. I didn't have a penny," she said.

While commuting back and forth to Atlanta, "I kept on fighting with the Lord on Route 316 . . . If you really want us there, you better perform a little miracle. I know if you want us there, you will provide the money at the last minute."

Indeed, an anonymous donor visited the trailer park and saw what they had in mind. A few days later, a check with enough to buy the trailer and some money to fix it up arrived, on a Thursday. Two of the Handmaids were able to go to the trailer park and buy it the next day, which was a Friday and the feast of their patron, the Sacred Heart.

"To me it is a very significant that it was purchased because of a little miracle-a big miracle!-on the feast of the Sacred Heart," Sister Martin said.

Since moving in, "many other angels" have been helping with painting, cleaning and enhancing the trailer.

"A group of parishioners came to help to put together a storage shed. A group of Mexicans built up a little screen porch," Sister Martin said. "It is a community, very much within our (order's) charism-building bridges of love and reconciliation and making reparation of any hurts. Everybody, English-speaking and Spanish-speaking, is working to put this together."

On Saturday, Oct. 12 a rosary procession wended its way through the trailer park. Residents carried a statue of Our Lady of the Americas and 22 flags of South, Central and North America, as they recited the rosary. Archbishop John F. Donoghue, driven in an open car up and down the streets of the park, blessed the people living there and the sisters' new home.

Two volunteers live there now, with the three sisters. A total of five volunteers have spent time there already.

"The women that come, stay for a period of time with us and minister with us. They have an experience of community," Sister Martin said.

In Athens, Sister Martin has a half-time position at the parish, directing and organizing outreach to the Hispanic community and making sure the parish is equipped to serve them. The parish clergy are Father Larry Niese, the pastor, Father Randy Mattox and Rev. Mr. Dayro Rico, a Spanish-speaking deacon who will be ordained to the priesthood in January.

Because the ACJs always live in community with at least three sisters, the other two sisters who came with Sister Martin to Athens are seeking new ministries.

Sister Cordero has visited the 220 trailers, and is gathering the children for faith programs and helping pregnant women. Residents come to the sisters' trailer constantly for help with English translations and cultural questions. One volunteer has been teaching English there. Some in the trailer park are newly arrived immigrants and others have been there for several years.

"We have a picture of the flight to Egypt (in the trailer chapel) because Jesus at one point was an immigrant and a refugee," Sister Martin said.

"There are two great needs here. One is for people to have missionary experiences here, in Athens, Georgia, while discerning their vocations. The other is for the people here to feel that the church has not abandoned them, that it is there for them, reaching out, and going to nurture them and encourage them in the diaspora."

Most of the Mexican immigrants are Catholic and the sisters want to show that the church is close to them. There are an estimated 14,000 Mexicans in the Athens area.

"We are trying to round up the 14,000," Sister Martin said, laughingly. "At least we will start with these 220 trailers here."