ARTICLES

Radford graduate is missionary in Colombia

By Jean Denton
of The Catholic Virginian

Emily Ward, a 2006 graduate of Radford University, is in her third year serving as a missionary in the barrios of Cochabamba, Bolivia.

She credits her experience in RU’s Catholic campus ministry with her call to mission work.

At the beginning of last spring semester, Ms. Ward wrote a letter to the Radford CCM students describing the significant impact campus ministry had on her spiritual growth and encouraging them in their efforts as a faith community.

She sang in the choir, served on the leadership council and led occasional prayer activities.

Participating in service projects, she said, was what “opened my eyes and my heart to the Gospel challenge to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

That drew her to deeper study of Catholic Social Teaching and God’s calling her to minister to the poorest of the poor in international mission. In that desire, she received “overwhelming support” from then Catholic Campus Minister Rick Robers and the entire CCM community, she said.

Ms. Ward serves in Bolivia with the Franciscan Mission Service. She teaches computer classes in a poor neighborhood of mostly one-room adobe houses with no running water. She said she hopes the basic skills she provides her students will give them a “leg up” for future employment or further education in a country where computer fluency is lacking.

“But my main goal,” she wrote, “is to be a positive, compassionate, encouraging influence in dark and depressing circumstances. There is a high incidence of alcoholism and domestic abuse in the neighborhood and witnessing that type of violence is sometimes more than I can handle.

“The ability of these women and children to smile through their bruises is humbling and inspiring.”

Ms. Ward completes her contract with the mission service at the end of this year when she will return to the U.S. To current CCM students she emphasized, “I ask you to always be welcoming to newcomers and open to God working through your life.”

In an email exchange with The Catholic Virginian, subsequent to her letter, Emily Ward shared more about her mission experience and how it has affected her relationship with the human family and Christ. Here are excerpts from that correspondence:

CV: What is a typical week for you?

EW: Four days a week I teach classes all day out in the barrio. Saturday I am also in the lab supervising free time when students can come to practice or play computer games. Wednesday I wash my clothes (by hand, like all Bolivians), run errands, catch up on email and cook. Sundays I video chat with my parents before Mass and then have about four hours to myself. Sunday evening is our reflection night as a community. We get together for a meal and share about our week or whatever is on our minds.

CV: Can you share a memorable example of hardship in the lives of people you serve?

EW: One example would be infant/child mortality. That is not something new or unheard of, but the realities are often jarring. Bolivian mothers, specifically the poor, don’t name their babies until they are about three or four months old. I suppose the sentiment is if you name the baby and he/she dies then it is that much more painful.

Even though the government has a program providing free prenatal and postnatal care to mothers and their children, women often don’t take advantage of it. Even though the health care is free, there is a lack of transportation to the hospital.

The funeral homes around Cochabamba commonly display, along with their adult-sized coffins, coffins that are no more than two feet in length — sobering evidence of the abundance of infant mortality.

CV: You mentioned the high incidence of domestic abuse. How do you deal with accompanying its victims in the community there?

EW: Since I have no personal experience with domestic violence I feel there is not much that I can offer in terms of advice. So I listen to them, and I look for professional resources for them. I have found free counseling/therapy for some and accompanied others to the police to make reports.

Unfortunately, while the law is on their side, the culture is not. Most of the women endure the abuse of their husbands because they think they deserve it or because the idea of single motherhood is overwhelming.

I try to make it clear to any woman who comes to me that she is loved, that she deserves to be loved and abuse in any form is not love.

CV: How has your faith been challenged or strengthened during your mission experience?

EW: I believe that the challenges of my faith ultimately have strengthened it. Seeing the violence of poverty every day makes me question how a loving God could allow this to happen. I still don’t have a good philosophical answer to that.

All I know is that I see the love between mother and child, I see the companionship between friends, I hear the sound of children laughing, and I know that God is here and that God is good.

The suffering of people around the world is our responsibility. Jesus charged us to love one another, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick. . .the fact that poverty still runs rampant is more a reflection on us than on God.

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