June 10, 2011
Mother Teresa Service Award recipients announced at dinner
Editor’s note: Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Evansville honored parish-nominated recipients of Mother Teresa Service Awards May 19. The Message continues a series of articles, with biographical material provided by Catholic Charities.
Jerry and Louise Branch
St. Philip Neri Church, Bicknell
Jerry and Louise Branch have been the face of Christ in the Bicknell community.
Jerry uses his handyman skills in helping the elderly with house repairs, lawnmower repairs, yard work and is a “garden fairy” silently bringing vegetables to the doorsteps of neighbors and the elderly.
Louise has been very active in Tri Kappa, a philanthropic sorority, as well as P.E.O. which promotes education for women here and abroad. They support North Knox Social Ministries, focusing on children.
Abraham Brown
Nativity Church, Evansville
Abraham devotes himself to serving the poorest of the poor, the undocumented aliens from North, Central and South America.
He coordinates the Sunday Spanish Mass. He enables Fa-ther Henry Kuykendall to be able to celebrate Mass, weddings, funerals, presentations, quinceañeras and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spa-nish.
He runs a weekly group for junior and senior high youth.
He coordinates the services and staff of the Juan Diego La-tino Center which, in cooperation with HOLA, provides health fairs, clinics and English and Spanish classes.
He visits the sick and imprisoned; works with St. Vincent de Paul to provide housing, food and jobs; does immigration, marriage and family counseling; and provides other needed La-tino services.
Abraham is looked upon as “pastor,” “advocate” and “friend” to hundreds of Latinos in our community.
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one,” is an appropriate statement attributed to Mother Teresa.