Family goes to end of the earth (almost) to teach

People thought they were nuts.

In 2002, the Shaut family -- Valerie, her husband Richard, and their son Christian -- left their Schenectady apartment, sold their furnishings, stuffed what was left into a 6x12 trailer, and drove 6,000 miles to become teachers at a Catholic school in Anchorage, Alaska.

Even a wreck along the way didn't dispirit them.

Get up and go

"Everything was going fine," Mrs. Shaut said of their lives before their move. "We both had professional jobs making very nice money, and Christian was in Catholic school. Our lives were quite stable and quite ordinary, and people didn't understand. They'd say, 'You're moving 6,000 miles away for what?' But when you get a call from the Holy Spirit, you have to answer that. I felt very compelled, and I knew I had to answer the call."

When Mr. and Mrs. Shaut married 15 years ago, he was a new convert to Catholicism and had just joined St. John the Evangelist parish in Schenectady.

They talked about doing missionary work early on in their marriage but decided it would have to wait until "we weren't as busy," said Mrs. Shaut. And when Christian, now 12, was born, "I thought I'd wait until he was grown."

Time to go

But God had other plans for them. In 1999, Mrs. Shaut was sitting in her mother's church in Schroon Lake, listening to a visiting Maryknoll missioner speak about his experiences. She felt a call: It was clear; it was real. She knew it was time to go.

"Of course, you feel humbled -- my goodness!" she said. "And frightened out of your mind! And confused about where to start. I wasn't given any directions. We struggled. It took a couple of years in order to find out what we were meant to do."

Said her husband: "I was a little surprised. I wasn't opposed to it. It was something we always didn't have time for. And then -- well, we found some things we did have time for. We listened to what God had to say, and He made us an offer we couldn't refuse."

Which way?

The Shauts researched programs in Vietnam and Papua New Guinea. They explored the Maryknoll program and talked to other organizations for lay missioners.

Nothing seemed right until Rev. John Provost, then pastor at their parish, suggested they try Alaska, which has had a long connection to the Albany Diocese. He noted that there was "a lot of need" there.

After calling the Archdiocese of Anchorage, the Shauts found their perfect fit in Holy Rosary Academy, a small, independent K-12 school of 130 students that was desperate for teachers. After a visit to the school, they knew Holy Rosary was "where we needed to be," according to Mrs. Shaut.

In the ditch

Their journey to Anchorage in August 2002 took three weeks, and they made sure to drive through Nebraskan cornfields, Yellowstone Park, Mount Rushmore and other national landmarks on their way.

Just 250 miles from Anchorage, a car veered from its lane and struck the Shauts' vehicle; their truck swerved off the road and rolled over, with the frightened family trapped inside. Their truck was totaled.

"Angels were with us," said Mr. Shaut. "We all walked away with minor scratches. It was the scariest time of our lives."

On the job

Mrs. Shaut said that Alaskan Catholics believe "that faith will carry you through," a philosophy which her family is learning.

"It was difficult to leave our friends and family, and secure jobs," she noted, "but we knew that we were doing the absolutely right thing, and we were comforted by that. We're just simple folk coming up to do some work for God. It doesn't take a rocket scientist. It takes the love of God -- and the knowledge that He will provide.

"People think that they can't do it for whatever reason: 'I don't have the time...I'm too busy...I don't want to uproot the family.' But, really, it's okay to do. It's what God wants us to do. It's okay if we say no to the new house and the new car and keeping up with the Joneses, and go serve God."

The Shauts are exploring the possibility of serving in a missionary capacity in Magadan, Russia, a Siberian community of 200 Catholics. If they decide to go, they will first learn Russian and then move there within the next three to four years. After all, Valerie Shaut noted, "It's just across the way."

(Parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Church in Schenectady have donated textbooks, reference books and encyclopedias to the Shauts' classrooms. Valerie Shaut teaches kindergarten; her husband Richard, fifth grade.)