Witness Talk for the Welcoming & Social Committee by Andrea Zajac
March 9, 2008
Good Morning everyone. My name is Andrea Zajac and I was asked share a little about my faith journey and my involvement in the Welcoming & Social Committee. First I’d like to start out with something that my past Priest taught us. It takes a little audience participation so when I say “God is good”, you say “all the time”. Then, I will say “All the Time”, and you say “God is good!” Let’s go:
God is Good
All the Time
All the Time
God is Good!
Thanks! I feel much better now. ☺
Speaking today is a huge deal for me as I grew up in the Baptist faith and we had someone share their “testimony” at every gathering. I gained so much seeing the true thoughts and struggles of apparent “perfect” Christians that it gave me such freedom to not be so afraid of my imperfections. I realized that being a Christian meant that we acknowledged our imperfections and created friendships in the church to help us grow through those sins. So, thank you, for allowing me this great opportunity to share my faith walk.
My family and I have been at St. Catherine’s for almost 2 years. We are a military family which means that we move around quite a bit. I mentioned that I grew up a different denomination. I had believed that I could just worship Christ anywhere so why bother with a church. Besides, it was just too full of rules and doctrine that could drive one crazy, right? Well, I met my husband, loved his commitment to his faith, and decided to investigate this “Catholic” faith on my own. What I found as truth inspired me to become a member of the Catholic faith.
I hear a lot of Catholics talk about what the church is not providing them and why they are more interested in other non-denominational churches. I know how they feel. I felt the same way when I first started attending the Catholic church. I grew up wanting to attend Church on Sunday with Bible Study following and then returning again for Wednesday night Church and we were excited to go. Our friends were there and it was fun! This is not always the case with our Catholic family. Yet, I found that when I stepped out of my own comfort zone and asked what I could do to help the church be better, my church became a place I could not wait to attend.
I also found that with each move, and each new Parish, becoming involved with this simple committee has been one of the best ways to start to feel like I am apart of a thriving and growing family. We would love for you to join us!
Being involved with the Welcoming & Social Committee has been a lot of fun! It’s not a ministry that requires weekly or monthly meetings. In fact, some people in the committee do not attend our meetings at all. We have the Welcoming Committee which includes those who are just “prayer angels” for all new parishioners. We have other members who “sponsor” a new family or person who has made a decision to join our parish. These people help them to feel more accepted into our community and help them meet more of the members. This is really a powerful step to building a thriving and loving community!
Then we have the Social Committee. By the sound of it, you can probably guess that we’re the ones who like to have a good time! We created the Oktoberfest Party in October, we helped with the Ash Wednesday Soup Dinner, are designing the International Night on March 29th and the end-of-year Picnic in June. We would love to welcome any and all who want to help create good parties! I believe that these are so important to keep families connected to their Catholic faith and heritage as well as excite and attract new people to our faith.
We can use all of your help! From those who just want to set-up or help clean-up after the events (these are usually the most needed), to those who really like to coordinate and plan events, to those who are just better with the analysis as we find the best vendors to help us with each event. Whatever your desire or talent, we could really use your help!
I have found that those not truly involved with their Catholic ministries are the ones who don’t know how much our Catholic faith has to offer, how it is alive and energetic with God’s word and how we see God’s miraculous hand at work each day when we share how he is working in our lives. I am thankful of our St Catherine’s parish for being so welcoming to my family upon our arrival and I look forward to meeting more of you at our events or, perhaps, involved in our Welcoming & Social Committee. You can sign up today at the doors and/or purchase your tickets for the International Night. See you there!