The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
19 October 2003
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Peace
in our hands
Jubilee
week for Pope
Special
guests at Mother Teresa’s beatification
School
insurance hike
Honoured
by university
It’s
truly feminine and truly beautiful
Spiritually
renewed by Lourdes
$1.75m
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Catholic
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Board
short bonanza for Vinnies
Advice
to lectors, acolytes
Much
deeper reality
Editorial:
Time for tribute
Letters:
Barrel of a gun
Conversation:
Terry Hanley, lay missionary who has spent nearly 15 years in the field - Happy
to ‘spend rest of my life in Africa’
What
is peace like?
Religion
test upsurge
Malouf
on campus
Ministry
of Jesus to the sick and dying
‘Father,
this is your life’
‘Priest
in residence’ honoured
Bushland
setting for Thurgoona church
Full-on
disciple of Jesus
Active
practice of faith
Requiem
Mass for ‘Bacon Priest’
Full-on disciple of Jesus
By Damir Govorcin
“I’m a full-on disciple of Jesus Christ and I’m passionate about him and his Church,” says Brisbane evangelist Jan Heath (pictured).
“Knowing Christ has given me purpose in life, security and an intimacy with God.
“I want to share that with other people and reconnect them with Christ.”
Since 1990, Jan has been working in full-time evangelisation, spreading the word of God in Australia, New Zealand and Africa.
Jan, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Way Church in the Brisbane suburb of Petrie, is passionate about bringing more than four million inactive Catholics in Australia back to the Church.
Since early last year, she has spearheaded the Catholics Returning Home program - a parish-based ministry of compassion and reconciliation - in Brisbane and hopes it can spread throughout the country.
Jan says she has already run two programs in her parish - after Christmas and Easter - endeavouring to tap into the hordes of Catholics who attend Mass just twice a year.
“People feel helpless in the wake of September 11 and the Bali bombings and feel the only person they can turn to is God,” said Jan. “People want to reconnect with God and the Church and this program allows them to do so.
“We give people the opportunity to unload and express their feelings they may have about the Church.
“Some people come fearful, so the first two sessions we have aren’t held in a church, but are a round-table discussion to make people feel comfortable.
“A lot of people are drowning in their personal sins, but we tell them that God is all about love and forgiveness, not punishment.”
Jan, who has been married for 33 years and has four grown-up children, says she reconnected with God after having a chance meeting more than 20 years ago with three devout believers - Anglican, Lutheran and Pentecostal.
At the time, Jan was renovating her house; these people came into her life and “opened up her heart to God”.
“I met these three people within the space of six weeks, and their passion for their faith inspired me to re-establish my relationship with God,” said Jan.
“The painter, who was an Anglican, asked if he could share his faith with me, which got me thinking about my own faith.
“Two weeks later, the interior decorator, who was a Lutheran, asked how I got on with God.
“Then one of our new neighbours, who was Pentecostal, asked if I was saved.
“There’s a power in sharing faith, and I hope I can do for other people what these three did for me.”
Jan was so inspired by them that she mustered up the courage to seek Reconciliation for the first time in 14 years.
“My life turned around when a priest put his hands on my head and said: “Welcome home”, Jan recalled.
“Despite having a good Catholic upbringing, I hadn’t been to confession for 14 years and had completely wandered away from the Church.
“Once you fail to go to Mass one Sunday, it becomes a pattern and eventually my spirituality had just shrivelled away.
“When I went to Reconciliation I told the priest I had put God in the back seat in my life; now I wanted him in the driving seat.”
Jan says people who volunteer to run the Catholics Returning Home program must show a non-judgmental attitude and compassion for others.
“We need our volunteers to stick to the extreme middle and not shove religion down anyone’s throat,” she said.
“It is not necessary that team members are theologically trained, but rather have a gentle, listening spirit that is welcoming and affirming of others.”
Jan recently returned from a hectic two-week visit to New Zealand, where she visited eight cities and 100 parishes promoting the Catholics Returning Home program.
“It was an exhausting trip, but rewarding in the sense of the amount of people I spoke to who like the idea of the program,” she said.
Next on her schedule will be her 17th visit to Africa, where she will continue with her evangelisation work.
“I don’t make a cent and it costs me plenty to travel the world spreading God’s word,” she said.
“But the satisfaction I get from my work is something money can’t buy, and I believe I have so much more to give.”