William Strait began missionary work in Belize 14 years ago after a reversion to the Catholic faith that he describes as an old winter coat.
Strait, 67, who is a central Ohio native, was inspired by his pastor, the late Father Justin Reis, at his former parish, Columbus St. Peter Church, to visit the Diocese of Columbus’ Missions Office.
“(Father) Justin Reis, I can’t say enough about his involvement directing me here, being my pastor when I returned to the Church,” he said. “Returning to the Church to me, it was like putting on an old familiar coat on a winter’s day.”
Strait, who was a cradle Catholic, left the Church and returned Thanksgiving 2008. Upon his return, he began feeling a nudge, he said, from the Holy Spirit toward missionary work. The following April, he visited the diocesan Missions Office.
“I was praying for six months about a feeling, a nudge, a calling,” he said. “Father Reis said, ‘You need to go down to the Missions (Office).’ That was shortly after I had returned (to the Church).”
At the diocesan Missions Office, he was given a book of various missions around the globe and the phone number for Thomasita Ascevedo, who he described as the “rosary woman.” Ascevedo had a rosary ministry in Belize, Strait said.
“I called her and she said, ‘Why don’t you come down for the month of May?’ like in a week or two, and I went,” Strait said. “Her goal was to give rosaries, a pamphlet how to pray the rosary and a picture of the Divine Mercy to every child in the entire country.
“It just so happened that she was in the south in a district called the Toledo District – the poorest of the poor. The government, everybody, it’s just like the end of the earth poor, and traveling with her, I fell in love with the children immediately.”
From that point forward, Strait has been committed to missionary work.
In August, he made his sixth trip to the Central American country in the past two years.
Strait has been a member of Newark St. Francis DeSales Church for four years. Recently, he received the support of his pastor, Father David Sizemore, and his parish to create a foundation supporting his missionary work in Belize.
The foundation was named the Mary Elizabeth Foundation after Strait’s mother, who died in 2013. He had taken a hiatus from his travels to care for his mother during the final two years of her life after she became ill.
He created the foundation to increase financial and spiritual support for the poor in Belize.
“My mother was born in 1925,” he said. “In 1927, she went to an orphanage. I ended up coming back from Belize for years to take care of her until death did us part.
“Something about her and these kids – taking care of her in the last days, I saw all the insecurities she had because there wasn’t a mother and father there to nurture her.”
Strait recognizes how insecurities affect the poorest people he serves in Belize. However, he said, “all of the insecurities of being poor and not knowing where your food’s coming from, in spite of that, they have joy.”
Strait described his missionary work in Belize as “life changing.” Many of the villages do not have electricity or cell phone service. However, he said, people in the villages live with a simplicity and joy that brings him back to his childhood.
“It’s beautiful, reminds me of the (United) States in the ‘50s and ‘60s during our time of innocence, when kids played a game called ‘kick the can,’” he said. “You could find an empty can and play the game. That’s how these people are – they live a simple life, but they have a lot of joy.”
Strait enjoys assisting people in need and being someone to provide help. He recalled struggles from his childhood, when he felt he had to depend on himself.
“My father was a disabled vet and died at age 45,” he said. “We had a very humble beginning on this planet. Mother had to go to work. I learned a lot about everything the hard way. It took years before I was able to get the spiritual help and the edifying relationships I needed.”
Strait formed a relationship with the Pallottine Missionary Sisters of Belize, who are part of an international Catholic religious order founded by St. Vincent Pallotti.
The Pallottine Missionary Sisters of Belize serve the community and assist the poor and marginalized through projects and community outreach programs across the country. The sisters help Strait to identify many of the individual and family needs in the area.
Strait is currently helping the Pallottine Missionary Sisters of Belize revive a 90-acre property known as Nazareth. It is located in Punta Gorda in the Toledo District of Belize. There are five buildings on the property. The sisters reside in two of the buildings. Another building serves as a retreat center.
He is repainting four buildings on the property and revitalizing the land. Once the center has been renovated, Strait said, he foresees Nazareth being used year-round by visitors from around the world.
He envisions Vacation Bible School, or a similar program, being offered for children at Nazareth. He would like the retreat center to be a place for children in Belize to spend time with the Pallottine Missionary Sisters, he said, and provide them with food and snacks.
Strait’s missionary work also supports churches and schools in Belize’s Toledo District.
“I need to do an assessment of 32 schools, and not all of them have kitchens, but every one needs athletic gear, volleyballs and nets, soccer balls, and believe it or not, as short in stature of people they are, they like their basketball, too,” he said. “Balls for a school is like ice cream every day.”
Strait also acquires materials and items for school buildings and classrooms. He purchases construction materials in Belize, he said, and often pays a local resident to build desks for the schools.
“They need desks; they need a whiteboard. … The teachers are not given any money for supplies,” he said. “So, anything and everything I can put in a suitcase for teachers – they actually need anything you can think of.
“I was coming out of a store, I saw some scissors, and I grabbed a couple, and when I gave them those scissors you would think I gave them a gold bar. They don’t have whiteboards – electronic whiteboards – like our schools have. They’re converting from chalk to whiteboards.
“To give a child a desk and a ball, the desk to sit in in a classroom and a ball to either play with on the playground or take home with them – big stuff, big stuff.”
Strait purchased whiteboards from Belize City in the north, he said, and rented a truck to transport them to the Toledo District. He has also supported churches in the district by paying for new pews to be constructed and paint and tools to repaint two Catholic churches.
Strait said there can be difficulties communicating with the people he serves. English is the official language of Belize, but Belizeans speak several languages, including Garifuna, Spanish, Creole and three Mayan languages.
Serving in a foreign country has required adaptability and flexibility. Oftentimes, his schedule for a missionary trip is disrupted.
“It’s all about counting on the (Holy) Spirit,” he said. “It just flows when I’m there – the Spirit in my direction. ‘I thought I was going that way’ – no, I’m going this way. ‘I thought this was going to happen today’ – no, it’s not going to happen for five days. We Americans don’t deal with uncertainty well or going with the flow.”
Strait’s missionary work has also included working to meet the medical needs of the Belizeans he serves, such as helping children get surgeries. He raised $12,000, he said, for the World Pediatric Project, which sends surgical and diagnostic medical teams to provide treatment in countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“I was able to get these two little girls and an adult surgery about 12 years ago,” he said. “Two girls were born with cleft (palates). One had an extra flap of skin between her lip and her teeth. The doctors was able to heal her.
“The other girl, her septum (the bone and cartilage dividing the space between the two nostrils) was deviated so bad, they thought that was what was causing these horrible noises sleeping at night. They got her under a general anesthesia, and she had tonsillitis, so she was healed.”
Strait said he cares for the Belizean children as if they were his own. His presence has made an impact for the families he serves.
“Anything you do down there, it’s generational,” he said. “You’re not just helping (one person), it’s helping the entire family. It just pulls everybody up.”
Going forward, Strait will have the support of his parish to assist children and families in need. With the Mary Elizabeth Foundation, “now it’s not me, it’s we,” he said.
He looks forward to growing his missionary work as a team.
“To do the things that I’ve been able to do down there, I only liken it second to being there when my children were born,” he said. “It’s that significant in these lives, which has become very significant in my life.
“And now to have Father Sizemore allow my parish to adopt this vision for the Mary Elizabeth Foundation in Belize, this is an amazing opportunity for anyone and everyone who wants to get involved.”
To learn more about the Mary Elizabeth Foundation, visit www.MaryElizabethFoundation.org.
