Little Sisters of St. Francis gather at their orphanage in Kenya with visitors from St. Teresa Calcutta, North Lake. (Submitted photo)
It all started with a $500 check.
In 2013, Fr. Bill Stanfield, then the pastor of St. Teresa of Calcutta, North Lake, asked his parish’s Christian Missions Committee if they could find some funds to support the work of the Little Sisters of St. Francis.
Based in Uganda, the sisters serve the poorest of the poor throughout East Africa, operating schools, orphanages and hospitals, providing direct services to those who need them the most. They have also established missions in Germany and the United States.
When longtime committee member Jacyntha Shaw heard that there were members of the order living in Milwaukee, she was keen to deliver the check in person. After all, the philosophy of the Christian Missions Committee is as much about creating relationships as it is about raising funds.
“At St. Teresa,” she said, “when we make connections, we keep them.”
Shaw met Sr. Lucy Marindany, President of the Little Sister Angel Fund of the sister’s order, and it was the start, as they say, of a beautiful friendship — not just between the two women but between their two communities, despite being separated by thousands of miles and inconceivable differences of culture and circumstance.
“I came back to my committee and I said, ‘We need to help these ladies more,’” Shaw said.
St. Teresa collects monthly “yellow envelopes” from their parishioners, an offering designated specifically to support one of the parish’s many charitable partners. The Christian Mission Committee assigned the March and April yellow envelopes to benefit the sisters, and over the years, Sr. Lucy became a familiar face at St. Teresa, visiting often to update the parish on her order’s missions and current needs.
In 2018, the sisters were in dire need of financial support to rebuild their Amukura Orphanage in Kenya, opened in 1956 by the order’s foundress Mother Mary Kevin Kearney. Sr. Lucy was tasked with spearheading fundraising efforts in the United States.
“Our superior general talked to me and said, ‘Lucy, what can we do?’” she recalled. “She told me, ‘You studied in the U.S., you have friends, you have connections.’”
Sr. Lucy knew just where to turn first — her friends in North Lake. She started Little Sisters of St. Francis-Midwest to coordinate the funding, and Shaw stepped in to join the board of directors, along with two other St. Teresa parishioners.
Within a year, $100,000 had been raised by supporters at St. Teresa and others local to the North Lake area who had come to know Sr. Lucy through her connection with the parish. Ultimately, more than half of the cost of the new building was funded by donors from St. Teresa and the Lake Country, including parishes like St. Gabriel in Hubertus and St. Charles in Hartland.
The new St. Josephine Bakhita Children’s Home was completed in 2020 and opened for residents in 2022. The building boasts indoor plumbing and a modern kitchen along with dedicated space for health, education and activities.
“We have everything there. We have cows, we have pigs, we have a kitchen garden. We have chickens. We have little goats for milk,” said Sr. Lucy.
Because of the pandemic, it was 2024 before representatives of St. Teresa were able to visit — but when they did, it was an “emotional” pilgrimage, said Director of High School and Young Adult Ministry Stephanie Haizel, who participated in the trip.
“The sisters and the hospitality in Kenya is like none other. They’re so thankful — greeting us with song and dance wherever we went,” she said.
Photographs of St. Teresa parishioners and others who supported the construction hung on the wall in the children’s home and the tabernacle gifted by the parish graced the chapel.
“It felt like, somehow, this is home, even though it’s halfway across the world. It was really just such a beautiful thing,” said Haizel. “Those sisters are working night and day, taking care of the kids, whether it’s at the boys’ home or running the schools or at the orphanage. They are the true missionaries on the ground day in and day out, and just so joyful.”
The sisters, Haizel added, truly feel a connection to the community that has lent them its support and prayers.
“It’s a clear relationship and they don’t take that lightly. It’s a community of praying for each other and upholding each other,” she said.
As Lent begins, St. Teresa’s parishioners will once again fill their yellow envelopes with help for the sisters and those they serve. According to Sr. Lucy, this year’s needs include salaries for workers at the children’s home, medical and nutritional needs and a 200-bird poultry project.
Whatever the project that needs supporting, the sisters know they can count on their friends in North Lake.
“St. Teresa Parish has a heart connection with the ministries of the Little Sisters of St. Francis and Kenya that will last through this lifetime,” Shaw said.
