Joliet woman inspires students to serve the poor

JOLIET – The services Melissa Racine, 21, of Lockport, performed at a poor day care in Bolivia were simple, but they will forever impact her.

Things like pushing a little girl on a swing for two hours, because no one usually had time to push her and she did not want to get off. Or offering spoonfuls of home-cooked rice and beef to a dozen children at one time.

“I’d feed one child, then move over and feed another,” Racine said.

Helping to make those missionary opportunities available to young adults is Natalie Bayci, 79, of Joliet, who has organized and participated in 18 mission trips for the Diocese of Joliet in the last 20 years.

During that time, Bayci has mentored more than 600 students and helped them raise the $2,300 to participate. In 2011, Bayci still found time to accompany an adult medical team to Kenya, although Bayci is not a health care worker.

“They needed someone to offer prayer,” Bayci said.

Still, Bayci shrugs off her accomplishments and lauds the students. Bayci doesn’t feel she’s done anything extraordinary, except to follow the call to serve.

“I believe it is what God called me to do,” Bayci said.

Raised by parents dedicated to serving their church and neighbors, Bayci’s first mission trip was in 1952. Bayci, then a student at the former St. Francis Academy in Joliet (now Joliet Catholic Academy) and two friends rode a bus from Joliet to Grailville (www.grailville.org) in Ohio.

There, they packaged and delivered produce to families on the organization’s list. A nun at the academy had suggested the girls check out Grailville, Bayci said, because a group of lay women ran the program.

“My parents did not say, ‘no,’” Bayci said, “so off we went.’

Fast forward to the 1980s, where Bayci served as youth minister for the Cathedral of St. Raymond for 11 years. Under Bayci’s direction, students visited their sponsored child in Guatemala and made mission trips to Russia and to Nazareth Farm (nazarethfarm.org) in West Virginia.

“I felt it was very important for our young people to see how other people lived in different cultures,” Bayci said, “and yet, all tied under the same God.”

As former Bishop Joseph Imesch’s assistant for 30 years, Bayci recalled that 20 years ago, the Diocese of Joliet started sending missionaries to Bolivia. When the person coordinating similar trips for University of St. Francis students took another position, Bayci filled the gap. She then opened up the opportunity to students from Lewis University in Romeoville and Benedictine University in Lisle.

Each year in Bolivia, Bayci and the students volunteer at day care centers for poor children and hospitals for the neurologically challenged. In 2006, Bayci went to Bolivia twice. The first visit was in April for the dedication of a 32-bed hospital that has since seen 4,500 surgeries through Diocese of Joliet medical missionaries. The second was that June, with the students.

Bayci also began an exchange program so Bolivian students could attend one semester of school at the University of St. Francis. Three years ago, Kevin A. O’Donnell, director of the office of young adult and youth ministry for the Diocese of Joliet, began coordinating the Bolivia trips, Bayci said. She is seeking her replacement coordinator for the Philippines.

“You have to find the right person,” Bayci said. “It has to be someone that has affinity with the poor and wants to help them.”

O’Donnell said he was honored that Bayci entrusted him with “her baby” and called her a “phenomenal person of faith. He has, so far, organized four mission trips to Bolivia.

“I will never achieve what Natalie has achieved,” O’Donnell said.

Ten years ago, when the Diocese of Joliet began sending mission teams to the Philippines, Bayci went along with the intention of starting a youth construction team the following year. It’s since attracted up to 30 students at a time – in addition to Bayci – who sift sand through an old screen door.

“I also carry blocks off the truck,” Bayci said. “I can carry one 20-pound cement block at a time.”

Paying close attention to Bayci's example was Lewis University graduate student Sophia Barakat. In the last 18 months, Barakat, who previously only volunteered close to home, has participated in two trips to Bolivia and one to the Philippines.

Barakat mixed cement, dug holes, made bricks, cared for children and learned the value of a hug, holding someone’s hand or an accepting a peanut from an 8-year-old who had nothing else to share, she said. All the while, Barakat said, Bayci encouraged and engaged the students, while keeping her eye on the mission at hand.

“It’s a style of leadership I’ve never seen,” Barakat said. “It was never about what ‘she’ did; it was about what ‘we’ did. She doesn’t want a reward, plaque or building named in her honor. I have the utmost respect for her.”