After 18 years of bringing people together for prayer, service and encounters across cultures, Sister Luke Boiarski, SCN, is preparing to close a significant chapter in her ministry.
Sister Luke will retire at the end of August as director of the SCN Lay Mission Volunteer Program, a ministry she has led since 2008. On Friday, Aug. 14, she gathered with Sisters at the Motherhouse at Nazareth to look back on the people, places and experiences that have shaped those 18 years.
Her message to the Sisters was simple: Thank you.
“This ministry has never been something I did alone,” Sister Luke said. “There’s always been something we did together.”
She thanked the Sisters for praying for volunteers, welcoming them to Nazareth, participating in commissioning and blessing ceremonies, joining volunteer trips, supporting projects financially and opening their communities to those who came to serve.
That connection to the Sisters has been an essential part of the volunteer experience, Sister Luke said. Before leaving for disaster response trips, for example, volunteers have traditionally received a blessing from Sisters and Associates at Nazareth.
“It means so much to them to be blessed because they are an extension of us,” she said.
An Invitation to Encounter
When Sister Luke became director in 2008, she brought with her a gift for gathering people and connecting them with places where their skills could meet real needs.
Over the next 18 years, volunteers traveled throughout Kentucky and to communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Montana, West Virginia and other states. International immersion experiences brought volunteers to Belize, Botswana, India and Nepal.
They painted homes, repaired porches, built wheelchair ramps, installed floors, responded after tornadoes and hurricanes, worked in schools, served alongside Sisters and built homes for families.
In Belize City alone, volunteers have built 51 houses, Sister Luke told the Sisters.
But Sister Luke has long insisted that the work itself is only part of the experience.
The purpose of the ministry, she explained, has been to invite people to serve those who are poor and marginalized, live simply, appreciate other people and cultures, work toward systemic change and allow themselves to be changed in the process.
“You give, but you get so much back,” she said.
Relationships often continued long after volunteers returned home. In some cases, people who first encountered the Sisters through the volunteer program eventually became SCN Associates.
For Sister Luke, those connections are among the ministry’s greatest gifts.
Responding When Plans Change
Some of the program’s most important developments began unexpectedly.
Sister Luke’s involvement in disaster response grew from her experience following Hurricane Katrina. Volunteers ultimately made 22 trips to New Orleans.
Then, in 2011, another volunteer team was preparing to travel to Montana when flooding prevented the trip. Sister Luke redirected the group to Joplin, Missouri, which had been devastated by a tornado.
The experience helped lead to the establishment of the SCN Disaster Relief Ministry in 2013. Sisters supported the effort, helping provide a disaster relief truck, tools and supplies.
Since then, volunteers have responded to tornadoes, hurricanes and other disasters in communities across the country.
Today, Sister Luke said, the disaster relief ministry includes about 80 active trained volunteers.
Another dream became reality in 2016 with the establishment of St. Joseph the Carpenter Volunteer House at Nazareth. The house gave volunteers a place to stay, pray, and build relationships with one another and with the Sisters.
The name captures an idea Sister Luke has emphasized throughout her ministry: “Building homes and relationships.”
Across Cultures and Communities
Some experiences took volunteers thousands of miles from home.
Sister Luke recalled six volunteer trips to Botswana, six to India and three to Nepal. Volunteers traveled repeatedly to Montana, including 10 summers on the Crow Reservation, where relationships grew over time.
In Belize, volunteers worked in Belize City and Las Flores, building homes while sharing daily life with local families, Sisters and community partners.
These experiences offered something that could not be measured simply by counting houses, ramps or hours worked. Volunteers encountered people from cultures different from their own, prayed together and learned from one another.
Sister Luke said those experiences left her with a question that has stayed with her.
After working alongside people in many countries and cultures, she said she struggles to understand why people cannot get along.
“I love people,” she said. “When you work with so many different countries … why we cannot get along? I don’t get it.”
Her experiences taught her something else: Service begins with listening and relationships.
Everyone Has a Place
As Sister Luke looked back, she repeatedly returned to the people who made the ministry possible.
Volunteers gave vacation time, paid their own travel expenses and sometimes saved for months to participate. Sisters traveled with teams, prayed for them and welcomed them home. Donors provided money for building materials, disaster supplies and other needs. Partners in local communities helped identify where assistance was needed.
Some people could travel. Others could pray. Others could give.
All were part of the ministry.
“Some are called to go on mission. Some are called and pray for missionaries. Some are called to donate,” Sister Luke said. “All of us is needed.”
That shared participation is why Sister Luke wanted her final presentation to the Sisters to begin and end with gratitude.
Leaving a ministry that has occupied nearly two decades of her life is difficult, she acknowledged.
“But I also know it’s time,” she said.
Sister Luke’s retirement does not mark the end of the SCN Lay Mission Volunteer Program. The ministry continues, within the Office of Mission Advancement, to build upon the foundation developed over many years.
For Sister Luke, retirement will also mean another beginning. She spoke of her hope to continue finding ways to accompany people and respond where she feels called.
The thousands of encounters of the past 18 years will remain with her: children watching volunteers paint, families entering new homes, communities rebuilding after disasters, Sisters blessing teams before departure, strangers becoming friends and volunteers returning home with a deeper understanding of the world and their place within it.
“I’ve had a great, great adventure,” Sister Luke said.
And she made clear that it was an adventure made possible by many people.
Celebrate With Us
The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth will celebrate the SCN Lay Mission Volunteer Program and Sister Luke’s years of leadership as part of our annual event, Celebrate the Journey, on Thursday, Sept. 24, at Nazareth.
Volunteers, Sisters, Associates, friends and supporters of the program are invited to gather, reconnect and celebrate the relationships and experiences that have grown through the ministry.
Those interested in becoming involved with the SCN Lay Mission Volunteer Program are also invited to learn about upcoming volunteer opportunities and ways to participate.