Mayra Martinez, 11, of Honduras and her grandmother Lucía Mancía, 62, shows her math and language diplomas from a CRS tutoring program. (Photo by Oscar Leiva/Silverlight for Catholic Relief Services)
Hawaii Catholic schools students experience Lent through the stories of the world’s poor
By Darlene J.M. Dela Cruz
Hawaii Catholic Herald
More than 300 students in Hawaii Catholic schools participated in the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl “App Challenge” this Lent, which aimed to connect their prayers, fasting and almsgiving in a tangible way to the poor and vulnerable around the world.
The challenge, organized by the diocesan Office for Social Ministry, was an innovative way for local seventh and eighth graders to bridge new technology with the 41-year-old CRS Rice Bowl campaign, known by most Catholics for its annual Lenten cardboard dropbox for monetary donations distributed at parishes.
For the CRS Rice Bowl App Challenge, Island Catholic school students browsed the digital resources highlighting “Stories of Hope” on www.crsricebowl.org and the CRS Rice Bowl mobile app. These stories profiled the struggles and successes of people aided by Catholic Relief Services in different countries.
Students were challenged each week of Lent to write a letter to the person in a new Story of Hope, a prayer and a personal reflection. Each of these was required to be 100-150 words. Students emailed their letters, prayers and reflections to the diocesan Office for Social Ministry.
More than a dozen volunteers and diocesan staff were assigned as “readers” to sift through hundreds of student emails and keep tallies on each participating class. Chad Chun of the diocesan religious education office created a formula to determine which local Catholic school class had the highest participation percentage.
The Office for Social Ministry created a special page on the Diocese of Honolulu website with week-by-week updates on class tallies. The page also features class photos and samples of student letters, prayers and reflections. Its address is http://catholichawaii.org/catholic-living/charity-justice/food-security,-sustainable-development-global-solidarity/rb-app/
Vaviroa, a single farmer in Madagascar, with her children, Anitah, Paty, Lucia and Tarimo. (Photo by Heidi Yanulis for Catholic Relief Services )
According to Iwie Tamashiro and Blessed Sacrament Father Robert Stark of the Office for Social Ministry, all of the classes that participated in the CRS Rice Bowl App Challenge will receive a certificate. Catholic school principals will be sent a congratulatory memo listing all of their students who contributed work.
Tamashiro and social ministry office director Father Stark said classes with the highest participation rate will possibly be awarded with a pizza party at a later date.
The App Challenge culminated during Holy Week. At the printing of this article, the last few student contributions were being counted and the challenge winner was expected to be announced soon.
Transformation of hearts
The CRS Rice Bowl App Challenge has expanded significantly since the Office for Social Ministry initiated it in 2015. Last year about 65 students participated from seven classes in four different schools. This Lent, 361 students total participated, representing 19 classes from 11 local schools.
Tamashiro said the challenge was inspired by the “good response” from past Rice Bowl events at Catholic schools with CRS guest speakers. It was a way to “inject renewed interest” in the CRS Rice Bowl digital resources by collaborating with students and faculty in local Catholic education, “who are a very valuable and often an untapped asset in our diocese.”
“I was fortunate to have read reflections, prayers and letters both years,” Tamashiro said. “In some of the reflections, students mention wanting to do more service to help those in need. What an amazing transformation or ‘clarification’ of heart for our students.”
The Office for Social Ministry has asked Catholic Relief Services to send the letters and prayers from Hawaii’s students to the people in Colombia, Laos, Rwanda, Honduras and Madagascar who were featured as Stories of Hope this year.
One of the classes that participated in the App Challenge was the seventh/eighth grade religion class of Sister of St. Paul of Chartres Jennifer Dayday at St. Anthony School in Kalihi.
Sister Jennifer said she saw the challenge as “a good learning opportunity for my students to develop their awareness and love for God’s people.” During Lent, the challenge would teach them gratitude for “the many blessings that they have received from the Lord and learn to share these with others.”
At first Sister Jennifer thought the students did the letters, prayers and reflections as just another assignment. As Lent progressed she noticed in her class “a little bit of transformation.”
With each new Story of Hope, her class began talking about sacrificing things such as snacks to do more almsgiving. They also got excited to explore different concepts in Catholic social teaching.
“One time a student said ‘I want my prayer to be done last because I want to pray my prayer’” for the person featured in the Story of Hope, Sister Jenifer noted. “This made me more believe in the capacity of our young people to make a difference in our world.”
Several students in Sister Jennifer’s class told the Hawaii Catholic Herald — via email, naturally — about how they were impacted by the activity.
Pualei Downey-Silva said the challenge “was a good way to inspire youth to get more involved with helping the community.” She said it taught her “to be more grateful and to not take advantage of what I have.”
Tyrell Bucasas called the App Challenge “fun and academically stimulating.” It was “interesting,” he said, “to see what other people around the world experience.”
Brad Sagucio said the challenge changed him “into a better person.” The Stories of Hope taught him “not to abandon the poor because they all have the potential to do things.”
Nicolas Badua enjoyed learning about Catholic social teachings and “how we are to live and work in this world.”
“The App Challenge is important to me and I would like to do it again,” Badua said.
Father Stark said other classes will definitely have a chance to participate in the CRS Rice Bowl App Challenge again. He hopes more students and teachers will make a commitment next Lent to be part of the initiative.
Father Stark hopes as well that this will be the start of global solidarity becoming a topic discussed in Catholic schools not just during Lent, but also throughout the year.
“We believe the students and schools deepened their Lenten journey of prayer, fasting and acts of mercy, especially in this Jubilee Year of Mercy,” Father Stark said. “We hope this will continue and grow.”
