Community
comes together to build for future
By
Susai Jesu, OMI
SANDY BAY, Sask. —
Our Lady of Seven Sorrows parish in Sandy Bay, northern Saskatchewan,
has been an extra busy place for the past few months as Sunday lunches
were undertaken with the intention of raising funds to build a kitchen
in the back of Kateri Hall (church basement). Slowly the team of parishioners
has grown to gain members and community support and strength. Our community
is excited about the positive community development spirit that is brewing.
We began with the intention
of the kitchen as our No. 1 priority, seeing this as a source of revenue
as well as an opportunity for our parishioners to continue to gather
for a meal after mass. As we began the renovations for our kitchen,
we discovered a badly leaking foundation — the north wall had
caved in — and there was a leaking roof and a necessary spruce-up
of Kateri Hall itself. Our church, the basement and the rectory all
needed attention.
This project is seen as an
opportunity to develop effective ways of respecting one another and
utilizing our combined personal skills and abilities as well as inviting
our spiritual development practitioners to gain the trust that is lacking
in our community.
I continue to be immensely
grateful for the people who are coming together to take care of our
church; all of us see this as an opportunity to work together to realize
our vision. We understand that this is a major undertaking but that
by taking a collaborative and respectful approach it indeed is being
accomplished with all of the strengths that have joined to make our
goals reality. We also know that we are doing this for not only ourselves,
but for our children and grandchildren.
Our plan is to build an 18x13
kitchen in the back of Kateri Hall. We would like to acknowledge the
donation by John Merasty of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation of a new
fridge and stove; it motivated us to get started. It is our hope that
the kitchen will not only be used for church lunches, but also provide
an ideal location to cater for some of the nine marriages in Sandy Bay
this summer! This catering will be part of our fundraising to help pay
for the costs of our overall church renovations.
Kateri Hall has been painted
a pale yellow and the new white baseboards and pillar corners brighten
up our once dreary hall. Community groups are now able to host their
meetings and the hall has become home to Sunday school. This has not
happened for many years. Once the hall is completed it will no doubt
be busy offering programs for children and youth as well as a meeting
place for Sunday lunch and afternoon tea. Kateri Hall, with its warm,
welcoming atmosphere and new kitchen facilities, will be able to take
on more community and congregation building functions.
Sandy Bay’s project
management meetings thus far have been well attended and we have engaged
in good discussion on the possible solutions to the challenges we face.
We have decided to support one another through this process. We also
unanimously agreed that Sandy Bay is indeed capable of doing all that
is necessary to ensure success. Elder Angelique Ray’s message
during our circle check — “If there’s a will, there’s
a way” — became our mantra.
What is commendable and noteworthy
about this huge project is how parishioners are finding various means
to raise funds. Some of the ways our people are helping out include
catering for weddings, Sunday bake sales after mass, volunteers who
run the bingo for the recreation board are paid and that is donated
to the church, catering for the youth conference in Sandy Bay, catering
for various public meetings, fish derbies, hall rental, “come
and go” bingos every Sunday evening and silent auctions. We also
hold Thursday evening pledge shows on our local radio station, and are
collecting recyclables.
Sandy Bay continues to come
together to show their support for this worthwhile project.
Susai is the pastor of Pelican Narrows and Sandy Bay in northern Saskatchewan.
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