December 2006 - Sister Noreen McLaughlin and Sister Amy Kistner

In December, the spirit of St. Nicholas is ever-present - and embodied in two hardworking Franciscan Sisters at Church of the Good Shepard in Campton, Kentucky.

In early December, Sister Noreen McLaughlin and Sister Amy Kistner will round up collections of donated toys and gifts, assign a point value to them, and arrange them into an impromptu "store" in the church hall at Church of the Good Shepard. There, needy families will be able to "shop" for one or two gifts for their children, to help make the Christmas season a little brighter in this area of working poor at the easterly end of the Bert Combs Mountain Parkway in the foothills of Appalachia.

The sisters know all about poverty. The struggles of the poor who work hard to put bread on their table are every day - and they are heartbreaking. Median income in this region is at the Census Bureau's watermark for a family of four. The child poverty rate is 55%.

Snow days - those treasured days off enjoyed by American schoolchildren everywhere - are a cause for alarm here, Sister Noreen says. "For many, school breakfasts and lunches provide the best chance that their children will get a good meal," she says. "The winter that school was closed for 29 days was especially rough on these families."

When one young couple with a 9-month-old baby asked for gas money to get a job (which he got -- as a driver on a paper route) -- his boss agreed to make sure the Sisters now routinely get a copy of the Lexington-Herald Leader delivered to them.

Sister Noreen and Sister Amy put up jars of beans and sauerkraut and keep more in their pantry for the hungry. The crops are grown by the sisters in their own garden -- and they even make available seeds and fertilizer to area residents. Their mission is served by a Franciscan priest (Father Reynolds) who drives out for Mass two times a week from Holy Cross in Jackson. When the priest is not around, the sisters lead a Communion Service, with Sister Noreen playing the organ and Sister Amy reading the prayers.

The Catholic Church of the Good Shepard also hosts a monthly luncheon for cancer survivors. It's a very upbeat gathering, and the sisters offer hope for those in the midst of the battle of their lives. Everyone, Catholics and non-Cahtolics alike, are welcomed and feel at home.

The Christmas outreach program assists more than 140 families per year, offering not only toys and food and warm coats, but much-needed toiletries not covered by foods stamps, including shampoo and toothpaste.

Sister Noreen and Sister Amy themselves get by on a small monthly stipend from Catholic Extension. This little mission in the foothills of Appalachia is a place of community and sharing, well used by these "Hidden Heroes" who have made it a center of many of the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.

To help provide for hard-working "Hidden Hero" missionaries like Sister Noreen and Sister Amy, please donate now securely. Thank you.