Thanks, Arnie!

Details: 15 April 2011

Countless individuals and families come to us with broken lives. We are here to help them pick up the pieces.

Many need help starting over. Often this means finding an apartment. Despite finding one, some need help with security deposits and items to make an apartment or house a home, such as furniture, appliances, kitchen items, lamps, bedding, towels and countless other things. Some are in need of a vehicle in order to drive to work. If not for the generosity of our benefactors who donate material items, we would not be able to help individuals and families described above. Just weeks ago, we helped a family, formerly homeless, by supplying them with many of the items listed above.

Recently I received a call from a St. Teresa parishioner named Arnie Hausner. "Father, when can you come over? I’ve sold my home and want to donate the furniture and household items to Catholic Social Services!"

Helen, Arnie’s wife of 55 years, passed away in March of 2010 and he has now decided to move into his daughter and son-in-law’s home in Omaha. Not only is he excited about the move, he is relieved after finding a buyer for his home. His next decision was what to do with the furniture and other items in his house. Instead of having an estate sale or auction, he decided to donate the items to us so they could go to individuals and families in need.

"I’ll be over next Thursday afternoon" I said. After arriving at his home, I was greeted at the door, "Come right on in Father!" After entering, he asked me if I wanted anything to drink. "Would you like a beer?" He asked. "Oh, a glass of water would be fine," I replied. "Are you sure?" he said. I replied, "Are you having one?" "No, I gave it up for Lent!" A few minutes later Arnie and I were visiting in his living room, he was drinking an orange juice and I was drinking a cool glass of beer. Didn’t St. Paul say a little wine was OK as recorded in 1Tim. 5:23?

After a while he said, "Want to walk around while I show you what you are getting? You can take your beer with you!" As it turns out, we will be getting most everything.

After the tour, I learned of his great love and devotion to our Blessed Mother and the Holy Rosary. When he falls asleep saying it, he keeps going when he wakes up. I know that it is this same living faith that has led to his decision to donate the material items in his home to the poor. "You are making a deposit to your 401(k) in heaven!" I said.

I then asked if I could take a picture of him and write about him in the Southern Nebraska Register. He was a little reluctant at first but changed his mind when I said, "When other people read this, they will say to themselves, ‘If Arnie did this, so can I!’"

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Arnie and everyone else who donates material items of things not needed to us for we could not do the things we do without your donations. Please know that we at Catholic Social Services will keep all of you in our daily prayers!!