Local Talent

By popular demand, I would like to share with you a little bit about Liberia’s resident Floridian, Rachel Gillman. Rachel was kind enough to give me an interview so that I could put this post together and she could share a bit of her story with everyone (she even had fresh peanut butter cookies made when I showed up, but I told her that she couldn’t bribe me so easily…turns out she could). Her family moved to Florida when she was a child and they have attended St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Lutz ever since.

Rachel attended college at Furman University in South Carolina, and double majored in Biology and Sociology. She always heart for mission work and social justice, however, and since her biology major required her to complete an internship, she decided to satisfy both by spending the summer between her junior and senior years in Ghana. There she helped with HIV and AIDS treatment and awareness.

Coming back to the States proved to be more challenging than expected, though. After some time, the rhythm of life and school caught back up to her, and the feeling of desolate and desiring to do more sank in. The prospect of further mission work was still on her heart, but Rachel needed some answers first. Being in Africa it was easy to choose the more “socially just” options such as spending less money on superfluities, helping the less fortunate, even taking colder (some could say more energy efficient) showers. But this was because there was no a choice. This is the way of life in these parts of the world.

So in order to make the choice to live socially just, to figure out how to truly live out the Gospel message she turned her eyes closer to home. After some research, she decided to volunteer for a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Brooklyn, New York once she finished college. During this year she learned firsthand the four pillars of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps: Social Justice, Community, Spirituality, and Living Simply. In Brooklyn, Rachel worked in a neighborhood of Latino immigrants as a tenant advisor. This job offered her the opportunity to unofficially represent the tenants who were being illegally evicted and be a voice for those who had none.

After this experience Rachel knew what it really meant to be a missionary. So often missionaries focus of the development aspect of their work that they neglect and miss the value of the spiritual side. All too often they focus on building schools or hospitals (which are good and necessary), but the idea of building up the people themselves is lost. A common phrase I hear jokingly from the Americans around here is, “It’s not my country.” And while this is said in jest, there is truth to this statement. It is not our job to supply support until the local people become dependent on us. We must build up the people so that they will be able to support themselves. And building them up spiritually might be the most important of all. Without faith, without purpose and direction in life then desolation and hopelessness set in, and then all is lost. So we must not look at our success or worth through the eyes of man, but look through heaven’s eyes.

So with this newfound understanding and zeal, Rachel decided it was time for another trip to Africa. The organization that she decided on was the Society for African Missionaries (SMA), and she would participate in a two year missionary program. After 4 months of training, Rachel set off for Liberia with Sister Raphael and Jackie Madden in January 2010.

While in Bomi County, Liberia, Rachel works primarily at St. Dominic’s Catholic School as a biology and chemistry teacher. Being the only female teacher at the school, she also serves as the girl’s advisor and disciplinarian when necessary. She works a lot with the girls throughout the school year and has even started a “soap project” where the girls make their own soap to sell locally in order to pay for their school fees.

On top of teaching at the school, Rachel also teaches catechesis to the children at Sunday Masses and may even start working at the local hospital a bit if she can find the time. But I can vouch for the fact that when Rachel is not working on any “official” jobs, there is a constant stream of her students that visits for advice or just a friendly smile. She has also taken it upon herself to start learning sign language from some of the local deaf children, and is in the process of putting together a biology textbook that is all encompassing for their curriculum and uses local African examples that might be easier for her students to understand.

Overall, Liberia is lucky to have such a dedicated and hardworking Floridian at their disposal. Rachel had come to learn that God truly works in the unexpected, and that we are called to empty ourselves so that the Holy Spirit can fill us and complete the good work that has already begun in us.

And as for the future, well their assignment officially ends at the end of January 2012, but Rachel is going to stay on until June in order to finish off the school year. After that, God only knows…

-Dan
written 08/10/11