Local nun tapped by Habitat

Last year, Sister Betsy Van Deusen, CSJ, told The Evangelist: "Habitat for Humanity is something people want to be involved with and want to make happen."

A year later, those words ring truer than ever for her: She has just become the first Catholic nun ever to hold the position of Director of Church Relations for Habitat for Humanity International.

It's a change she calls "spirit-led." The Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet was not even looking for a job when the position was offered to her. As a local Habitat board member and coordinator of last year's "Blitz Build," during which a house was built in Albany in five days, she had met then-director Rick Beech.

The pair chatted about "Habitat-Church stuff," said Sister Betsy. "We have been very successful here in the Capital District; we have four houses on View Avenue [in Albany] under construction. I guess he decided I'm pretty good at what I do."

Change in roles

Sister Betsy's full-time work was at St. John's Center at St. John's/St. Ann's parish in Albany, where she served as administrative director. The center offers food, counseling, furniture and other aid to the needy. Its soup kitchen (profiled in the Nov. 6 issue of The Evangelist) serves about 340 meals each week.

"We invite all kinds of people and age groups in ministry to expose people to `the poor,' and give them opportunities to serve," she told The Evangelist.

However, Habitat for Humanity has been a part of Sister Betsy's life throughout her nine years as a woman religious. When Mr. Beech encouraged her to apply to be his successor, she said, "I had a million questions. He said to me, `You're thinking about this, aren't you?' And I said, `I can't not. The questions just keep coming.'"

Calling

Trying to make a decision, Sister Betsy spoke to her pastor, Rev. John Kirwin, about the opportunity. "I don't know where this is going to go, but I know I'm called to it," she said.

Her superior at the Sisters of St. Joseph advised: "It's certainly in keeping with our mission and focus on the homeless. It would be a wonderful witness to have you be working with Habitat at the national level."

Soon, Sister Betsy realized that "I truly feel called to this ministry. It's a very exciting position, and there are lots of possibilities." On Nov. 23, her 35th birthday, she was offered the job and accepted it.

Georgia-bound

Her new position, based at Habitat's international headquarters in Americus, Georgia, will involve working with the leaders of various religious denominations from 54 countries -- "the folks who can say to the church body, `We will commit to build six houses, and where will we build them?'" she explained.

Leaving the Albany Diocese is a bittersweet experience for Sister Betsy for many reasons.

"I have mixed emotions," she said. "As religious here, [the Sisters of St. Joseph] are respected, liked. Americus has a population of 18,000, and there's one Catholic church and 163 religious in the entire state of Georgia."

She paused and added, "On two floors of [St. Joseph's] Provincial House [in Latham], we have more religious than in the entire state of Georgia."

Sister Betsy is also leaving behind her family -- her parents live in Cobleskill. "I'm leaving a whole bunch of things," she said. "If it were not of God, I could not decide to do this."

Final touches

In addition, St. John's Center is losing its director. "There's probably never a good time to leave an outreach program," Sister Betsy commented; on her next-to-last day at St. John's, she was still unloading truckloads of food and packing it into Thanksgiving baskets for the needy.

"I didn't have the heart to leave them high and dry," she explained.

Still, she is excited about her new work: about communicating by phone and e-mail with Habitat staff across the U.S., about working with 200 affiliates on the "Building in Faith" project to encourage volunteers to help Habitat, about the 20 homes in the town of Americus that will be completed on Easter morning.

The new director already has much to say about the integrity of Habitat for Humanity. "Housing is just such an incredible need in our world!" she declared. "When people have the opportunity to own something, it changes people's lives."

Building ahead

Sister Betsy sees her new position as something that "I'd like to think is going to be for a while." While she hopes to learn more about her position from Mr. Beech before she takes over, she is prepared to begin her work.

"I need to bring who I am, and the `who I am' is ready to do this," she stated. "God will give me the strength to do what I need to do."

In the meantime, she had a final word for potential Habitat volunteers in the Albany Diocese: "It's a wonderful organization, and they ought to think about how they will be involved next fall. We're going to do the Building on Faith project [in the Diocese] -- and we probably could send you a good speaker!"

(Habitat for Humanity can be reached at 462-2993.)

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