Written by: Sister Bernadine Karge, OP
June 15, 2013
Let All My People flourish was my impression of our first
stop of the Nuns on the Bus. Throngs of people—parents, students, board
members, sisters, friends and neighbors gathered on the parking lot to welcome
the Nuns on the Bus. Sister Simone was presented with a bouquet of yellow
tulips by children and their mothers who are students in the LAMP—family based
education program. S. Simone was delighted to be welcomed home to LA. The group
processed through the gate to the courtyard of the school complex for speeches,
refreshments, music and mingling.
Leticia Larios, an immigrant mom who joined the program 16
years ago with her children, spoke in clear, correct English of her gratitude for
the chance to study English, get her GED and go on to study Early Childhood
Education. She now serves on the staff at LAMP. Her daughter Jackie just completed
the early childhood course and will enter kindergarten. Her older son completed
high school and will go on to college, and her second son will enter high
school.
After S. Simone had a chance to visit the early childhood
class and the adult English class, she reflected on the spirit of community and
the reality of community that keep us whole. Community is the goal of comprehensive
immigration reform—to keep families together, to empower women and to honor and
encourage the gifts of all of us to make our larger communities flourish—We the
people! Not I, my individual self!
SC-LAMP is an intercommunity endeavor of eight women’s
religious communities in response to identified community needs after the civil
unrest in LA in 1992.
