Hope Stories
Dr. Barbara Connor
Dr. Connor spent more than a week in Southern Sudan, providing health care at the Duk Lost Boys Clinic which was built last May by the Skaneateles-based American Care for Sudan Foundation. Connor was accompanied by Dr. Dave Reed, an emergency room physician at SUNY Upstate Medical University; and Beckie Bollin, a fourth year medical student, who is doing an elective in emergency room medicine at SUNY.
The inspiration for the clinic came from John Dau, the Sudanese “Lost Boy” who is featured in the award-winning documentary “God Grew Tired of Us.” John was one of four young men who was resettled seven years ago by the First Presbyterian Church in Skaneateles. John told some members of the congregation that he wanted to help his people. Rev. Craig Lindsey, the church’s pastor, visited Sudan in 2005, and promised the elders he would build them a clinic.
Two years after Lindsey’s visit, a team of volunteers from Syracuse built a 4,000-square-foot medical center in an area east of the White Nile that today serves 700 patients a month.
Father Vasile Colopelnic
That feeling of hope is embodied in the resurrection story of Jesus Christ. Colopelnic noted how the Apostles lost their hope following Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion but were brought to hope again by the risen Jesus.
What is also giving him hope these days is the banding together of the world in support of Ukraine — locally and globally.
“It is a good sign that the world is united around Ukraine,” he said, noting his people are fighting for rights that transcend their borders, such as free speech, worship, and respect for all.
Colopelnic, who has been pastor of the Auburn church since 2012, said he is deeply humbled, grateful and impressed by the generosity of his neighbors and the American population at large. He said people are writing him notes of encouragement, saying they are praying for the Ukrainian people. They are offering monetary and direct aid donations as well, and he said Auburn’s mayor has been in touch about preparing the city for the possible arrival of refugees. (Ss. Peter and Paul was actually founded in 1901 and has been a center for different waves of Ukrainians who first came to Auburn in the late 1800s and then again after World War II and in 1991 after the fall of Communism, Colopelnic said).
Colopelnic was born in a Romanian village a quarter-mile from the border of Ukraine. Because of shifting post-World War II borders, this village made up of about 3,500 ethnic Ukrainians lies within Romania. He began studying for the priesthood in 1990 in Lviv, a city in the western part of Ukraine that has become a main destination for the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the central and eastern parts of the country, where the fighting has been fierce.
Although Colopelnic continued his studies in Rome for seven years, then emigrated to the United States to begin serving in Northeast and upstate New York churches, he would return home yearly with his wife and two children (now both Syracuse University students) before Covid-19. And, he has many connections with brother priests still in Ukraine. Because of those ties, Colopelnic has been able to send donations his church is receiving to places in Ukraine where they are most needed. He said many churches are essentially acting as field hospitals and aid centers, feeding and clothing people and tending to their wounds.
“I try mostly to help with these very urgent needs that are right there,” he said.
In terms of needs here, Colopelnic is focused on letting people know the church is here, open and a place for solace. Ss. Peter and Paul has been hosting prayer services at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for peace in Ukraine, and the services have been well-attended — not only by parishioners, Colopelnic said, but by others from different faiths and communities, including two men from Geneva.
“It is comforting to see (people) coming and praying for peace,” he said. “You see how our common humanity brings us together in times of need.”
For Colopelnic, the most difficult thing to accept so far is the brutality wrought by departing Russian troops.
“We saw what happened in all those towns and cities when the Russians left,” he said. “You see what kind of tragedies happened there.”
But Jesus’ instruction to “love your enemy” rises up as guiding tenet.
“We have to love because we believe goodness is greater than evil,” said Colopelnic, who sees goodness in all the people from Cayuga County and beyond who “are suffering with us together.”
“It’s so important to live with hope,” he added. “It’s so important we are together.”
“Christianity is all about hope and love…
We believe that good will prevail.”
From Victim to Survivor
This story of hope is about a nine-year-old child. She was helping her stepmother wash the dinner dishes one night – it was a night much like all the others in this child’s life. Her stepmother, an elected official, was an alcoholic. She was drunk every night and during her drunken stupors, she was prone to outrageous behaviors, including domestic violence against her stepchildren and her husband. Something snapped with the stepmother that evening. As the child was washing dishes, her stepmother grabbed her by the throat and began choking her. The child’s father, who very often wasn’t at home during the early evening hours, happened to be reading his newspaper and heard yelling and things falling /breaking on the floor. He ran into the kitchen to see what was going on to find his daughter having the life choked out of her. He saved his daughter thankfully.
Fast forward to a day in court where the child had to testify as to what happened that horrible night. The child was asked by her stepmother’s attorney if “she was hurt”. The child lied. Lying can be a coping mechanism for trauma for both adults and children, because trauma sufferers sometimes don't feel safe enough to tell the truth. This child didn’t feel safe. Absent information about what was going to happen next, the child feared she needed to “buy some time”. It was self-preservation and a protection mechanism, however temporary, from the stepmother’s anger and what the child believed to be anticipated consequences. That 9-year old child had no hope, only fear of the unknown. After that incident, she was made a ward of the court and lived with foster families over the course of the next four years.
Each family fostered a culture of hopefulness, connection, and taught her to have hope about her future. She went from victim to survivor and was able to move forward in the face of many obstacles/adversities because of countless interventions by people who valued hope and who invested time in providing her with a different lens to look through—one where there was hope for a better future. These people were part of the community. This Hope Movement Conference is all about how the willingness to help change just one life can impact an entire family, community, and generation. The time, energy, care, and compassion to accomplish the task of helping to change just one life is immeasurable.
Knowing, understanding, and appreciating the effort required to help today’s youth is the first step in recognizing individuals and businesses who give of themselves to the youth of our community.
Finding Hope and Sharing the Message - Adam Birtwell
After this I ran myself from prisons, to homeless shelters, to hospital beds. My story is filled with addictions, and while maybe that isn’t true for many of you, I hope you’re able to relate to the struggle finding myself has been. One of the most difficult things everyone has to face in life is finding the courage to realize we already have what we need, that it’s been within us the whole time. Drugs allowed me to distract myself from finding that truth.
Despite all of this darkness, my family was always there for me. My mother and grandmother followed me through every adversity, constantly reminding me of the person they know I am. Not the person who hides themselves from the world in a mask of darkness and pain, but one with dreams and hope for the future. I even have a new hero: Des, the woman I will marry. I’m sure that all of us have people that help keep us anchored when things get rough. I’d like to take a moment of silence for the heroes that helped us get to where we are today. Because of the love and support I received from them, and from many others in the community, I finally made it to a point where I wanted this to end. I needed to reconstruct my life, letting go of the preconceived notions I had of myself and of the world. Doing so has continued to be the most difficult thing I have done in my life.
When I got out of rehab I maintained outpatient treatment, and I got a job at Burger King. I started to see how much I love life, helping others, and I remembered hope. I was tricked into thinking hope was a feeling. It’s an action, a decision that seems so unattainable when one is feeling hopeless, but it's there, if you are willing to grasp it.
I decided that I wanted more for myself. I returned to Cayuga in 2022, and I rediscovered all that I loved so much before. Maintaining my recovery while in school hasn’t been perfect but not once have I given up on myself. I’ve strived to make a positive difference in the lives of those around me, proclaiming the message of hope that I cling to so strongly.
Today I am concluding the Cayuga chapter of my life. Today I am going to move forward, always making sure to leave some room in my heart to help those who are struggling. Today I am here to tell you that no matter the obstacles you face in your life, or the evils that surround you, there is hope. Each and every one of you has gifts to share, I implore you not to hide them. Today, I want to ask you to join me and share your gifts with the world, proclaiming the truth and making this world a more hopeful place.
I’d like to share my past with a disclosure: my story started out hopeful, then took a turn for the worse. On the other end, I found more hope than I ever thought possible, and that is what I truly want to share with you all, so I’m going to have to take you through a bit of darkness to get to the light.
I grew up with my mom and grandparents. When I started highschool, life seemed like it was a straight shot to success. Like many of you here, I’d planned to graduate high school, go to a 4 year college, and everything would work out. Like any adolescent, I felt like I had all the time in the world.
By the time I reached my sophomore year, that clear path before me started to look a bit muddled. My adolescent curiosity led me into drugs. I first experimented with marijuana. Harmless, right? Little did I know I had an addictive personality. By senior year I had progressed to a point where I was stealing. Despite getting arrested, I still graduated in 2016. That year, there were about 60,000 overdose deaths, in 2021 more than 100,000. I want to tell you that since 2016 I’ve lost more lives to addiction than I can count. The fact that I’m standing here today alone is a miracle.
My plan to start college right out of high school fell apart when I found out how difficult recovery is. I was going around in circles making no progress at all. I had my first glimmer of hope when I finally decided to go to Cayuga in 2018. I’d learned I loved acting, and being around people with similar interests. Unfortunately I stopped taking care of myself, and I relapsed. I felt like a failure.
A Small, Hopeful Moment….
I had stepped out on a limb and invited a well-known athlete and author to come to my school. The author, Lynne Cox, was an open-water swimmer who was the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union. Many students read her books, Swimming to Antarctica. The whole school would be able to hear her speak, and parents would be invited to an evening session. Students were excited to learn that we had planned a “Midnight Swim”, an evening at the local YMCA where they could swim with Lynne and even be coached by her! My problem was that I couldn’t seem to schedule her flight from California to New York to allow her to arrive at our town in time for the swim. She had a fund raiser the previous evening in California that she couldn’t miss. I finally decided that this was so important that I wouldn’t leave my computer until I had a solution. Finally, I sheepishly asked Lynne if she would be willing to catch a 4:00 A.M. flight in California to arrive in time for our celebration. To my surprise, she agreed to do this. I get goose bumps even thinking about how much that act of generosity meant to me and to our students.
Dr. Kassam’s Hope Story
Dr. Karim Aly-Kassam, one of the speakers at the Hope Movement Conference, has a moving story about “leaning into hope.” He had a beautiful sister who loved art, choir, sports, who was fluent in several languages and had a passion for life.
She had traveled from her home in Calgary, Canada, to Afghanistan to teach English, helping to “bring about mutual understanding through communication. Sadly, she was killed by one of nine gunmen as she gathered with friends in the serena Hotel in Kabul to celebrate the Persian New Year.
Dr. Kassam grieved for several years. He had the resources to take revenge. He knew the language; he had the means; he had the contacts. But Dr. Kassam knew about loss, and he knew about hope.
Dr. Kassam’s words to “the men who hide in shadows who compel young men to choose violence” were “You have wounded us, but you have not intimidated us.” He added, “We hold no malice towards the people of Afghanistan. Instead, we stand with you in solidarity. We even grieve with the families of the boys who brutally murdered nine innocent and unarmed people, which included children as well as my sister. We grieve with these families…because we know what it is like to lose a family member.”
As he considered what his actions should be, even though he was so angry at the brutal murder of someone he loved, he decided against revenge. He knew that creating a way forward for people in the area where his sister had worked would be something that would lead to a better future. So he eventually established scholarships at the American University of Central Asia to honor his sister.
Read more about this story here
See Dr. Kassam's 2023 commencement address to the American University of Central Asia