Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend
Lay missioner offers face of Christ to Bolivian street kids
Lee Sendelbach, of Columbia City, poses with the street boys of Bolivia, who he has devoted four years of his life to, in an effort to share his faith and a better way of life. His work is sponsored through the support of the Salesian Lay Missioners program. (Photo provided by Lee Sendelbach)
By Kay Cozad
COLUMBIA CITY — Lee Sendelbach will be the first to tell you that life is an adventure. This from a young man who has worked in the corporate world and the Third World.
Sendelbach spent most of his youth in Columbia City where he was one of eight children of a blended family. He attended Catholic elementary schools, and following graduation from Indiana University, he began work in the accounting field first in a bank and then at Verizon.
During his over 10 years of corporate employment, Sendelbach began to feel a calling to something more in life. He says, “In my job I felt dead. .... What was I actually contributing to better the world around me? It kept nagging me.”
His thoughts turned to volunteering, a reflection of the efforts, he says, of his parents as they sacrificed to raise eight children. He was also inspired by his stepsister Anne, who volunteered at St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen in Fort Wayne.
So when Verizon offered a management buyout package, he jumped at the chance and began at once to investigate different lay missionary organizations. During his search he realized he wanted to help the less fortunate through a church-based mission.
That’s when he found the Salesian Lay Missioners, whose Web site describes the mission as a “Catholic faith-based volunteer program for men and women seeking to answer God’s missionary call in their own lives by dedicating themselves to works of education, evangelization and human development among poor youth.” They sponsor domestic and international placements and require a one- to two-year commitment.
After applying to the mission, Sendelbach went through a week-long training program, including psychological testing, which prepared the young man for his vocation.
“People, lay and religious came ... and talked to us about culture shock and the different emotions you would have. It helped me a lot during my time as missionary,” Sendelbach says.
He also reports that it was a time of prayer and reflection as to whether God was really calling him to this work. He chose to commit to one year of volunteer work with the mission. Four years later, Sendelbach has just completed his work in Bolivia, not by choice but by necessity.
His initial assignment took him in February of 2004 to Bolivia, the world’s second poorest country, located in South America, to a city situated in a valley surrounded by mountains called Cochabamba. He moved into a house for street boys called Mama Margarita, staffed by paid personnel and volunteers from Europe and the U.S.
The boys served by this project range from 10-18 years of age and were living in the streets due to poverty, alcohol abuse, broken homes and any number of other tragic circumstances. Some, Sendelbach says, are orphans, while others left home to escape mental and physical abuse. Mama Margarita House gives the boys a safe and caring place to go at night.
When asked what he did to serve the boys, the lay missioner says, “Some of these kids are pretty rough, streetwise kids ... I try to show them that they matter, that someone cares about them, no matter what kinds of things they have done in the streets.”
And that is done by awakening at 6:30 each morning to fix breakfast for the boys. After making their beds, the boys brush their teeth, comb their hair, and then gather in the dining room for a prayer “thanking God for another day and to protect us in our work,” he says.
Following breakfast the boys complete chores at the house before going out for work, which may consist of washing windshields on the streets, selling candy or shining shoes. “If they are lucky,” says Sendelbach, “they have stable work like carpentry.”
The boys return around 5 p.m. with earned wages that are recorded and locked in a box. Then each boy showers and attends a four-hour night school.
Dinner is at 8 p.m., and social activities “ranging from sports to catechism” are enjoyed together before bedtime at 10:30 p.m. The evening prayer, consisting of three Hail Marys and gratitude for another day, is recited in chorus before lights out.
If a boy shows an increased desire to study and better himself, he is promoted to living in another Salesian house called Youth of Don Bosco, where the boys attend school, which is not mandatory in Bolivia, and school-related activities rather than work. “This house is also meant to provide hope,” says Sendelbach.
A weekly event that is anticipated by all is Sunday Mass. Sendelbach reports that in keeping with the “very colorful country, rich in ritual and tradition,” the services include electric guitars, drums and much clapping and singing. “Even dogs enter the church to pray,” he says.
The struggles with the boys, Sendelbach says, have made his faith stronger. “I am challenged more than I ever thought possible. I see the world in a different light. And not one time have I asked myself that nagging question ... ‘Is there more to life than this?’”
He adds, “I came to show these boys the face of Christ... But after time, it also was because I cared about them. They became my family. My motivation is that someday ... some of them will have changed their lives. They will have accepted responsibility and will have known that someone cared for them. They will be leading healthy fulfilling lives.”
Sendelbach would encourage anyone interested in becoming a lay missioner or donating to the mission to contact Adam Rudin at adamr@salesainmissions.org or write him at 2 Lefevre Lane, New Rochelle, N.Y. 10801.
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