The newest member of the parish staff is an author, a musician, an educator, an organizer, a wife and mother, and even a student of theology. Karla Bellinger, well known to many of us through her longstanding leadership with the parish Education Commission and as the founder of HeroesCamp, is our new pastoral associate.

"It is an honor to be able to serve the excellent people of our parish," Karla said following Father Joe’s Oct. 12 announcement of her appointment. "As I work with all ages in evangelization, youth ministry and adult education in our parish, I see powerful opportunities for us to grow together to love and serve the Lord more fervently. Together, we can be a light of goodness and faith to our world."

Karla and her husband Dan, who together converted to Catholicias in 1976, hav been married for 28 years. They are parents of five — Christy, Tom, Jim, John and Maria, ages 12 to 26. Karla has completed the course work for her master’s degree in Systematic Theology from the University of Notre Dame, where she will take her final comprehensive exams next April. She also is studying for certification in pastoral ministry from the Center for Pastoral Leadership, where she expects to complete her studies in 2005.

Father Joe announced Oct. 12 that Karla had been hired, after consultation with Pastoral Council and Parish Finance Council. He noted that her credentials are impressive.

From 1996 to 2003, Karla was director, author, and founder of HeroesCamp, a non-profit summer Bible program that began at Sacred Heart with 500 volunteers the first year and has spread to 1,600 people in five parishes.

She worked as a parish volunteer in Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and Parish School of Religion classes for 16 years, chiefly teaching middle school and high school students. She has been a member of the Pastoral Council for three years, and headed the Education Commission for three years, and has been a member of the School Support Council for two years, as well as an adult education instructor.

She has coached middle school and high school CYO volleyball for five seasons, and was a Wadsworth Area Soccer Association boys’ soccer coach for three seasons.

Back in 1976, Karla was a missionary with the Pecos Benedictine congregation working in Queretaro and Santa Maria, Mexico. She is the author of six books, 27 shotr plays, and has been a leader of numerous retreats, diocesan workshops and adult education classes. She also plays the mandolin, harmonica, violin, piano and guitar, and is a singer and band conductor.

Earlier in hear career, after obtaining certification as a Natural Family Planning practitioner from Creighton University School of Allied Health in Omaha, Nebraska, she founded two non-profit organizations to promote NFP.

Karla vividly remembers the summer when she was age 18 and first experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in her life.

"A friend had given me a book on the Holy Spirit and the presence of God," she recalled. The book said, "Reach out to the Lord and He will come near to you. You only have to ask." She took that idea to heart one day, while she was doing some garden work. "So, now, outdoors in the garden, I asked for a fuller dose of the Holy Spirit," she related in a spiritual biography she wrote for her university studies.

"From over the lake in the setting sun, a gentle wind of peace began to brush my cheek. The breath within me grew warm and intense, starting to burn. As I sat, I felt loved. I knew I mattered to Someone and that Somene cared."

Karla has been on a spiritual journey ever since that time. She has learned, she said, that "The Spirit isn’t given just for ourselves, but also to build up the community of believers."