Sister Laurette Sprosty spent 29 years in ministry in Zimbabwe, decades when the country experienced economic decline, public health crises and human rights abuses. During that time she worked to help people in any way she could: teaching them English, securing donations for school uniforms (required to attend school), helping acquire and distribute food and supplies to families in need, offering teacher education and spending five years in formation of the young men aspiring to become Franciscan brothers and priests. But in September of 2012, she felt called home to the Upper Midwest and the FSPA motherhouse in La Crosse, Wis. After several months of rest and reintegration, she has found her latest ministry: teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to adult Karen immigrants, many who fled ethnic cleansing in Burma (now Myanmar) for St. Paul, Minn.

"Some come knowing hardly one word of English. In addition, some have had no schooling in their home country and language."  Sister Laurette says. "I just admire them so much for their tenacity. They are such gentle people." She teaches at the Multicultural School for Empowerment in St. Paul.

Teaching ESL isn't easy, and learning it may be even harder, but Sister Laurette is hopeful. She knows that Minnesota has a reputation for helping refugees integrate. "What prompts me to hang in there is that they are going to be accepted into the community, if they can show in some way that they are giving to the community, by having a job or volunteering. It builds a positive feeling in the community."

The transitions Sister Laurette has navigated from Zimbabwe to St. Paul have not been easy, but perhaps not in the way one might assume. "I think what I miss most, even now, is just the general pace is so much slower and people stop and talk, and are people-oriented," she says of Zimbabwe.

But more than that, Sister Laurette says the violence at home is difficult for her to see. "It just seems that it's almost a culture," she explains, noting that while there was violence in Zimbabwe, it was different. "If you don't get involved in politics and you vote right, and if you can get enough to eat, you're fine. Here you come home, and it seems we are so surrounded by violence, focused on acquisition of things and sometimes more concerned with surrounding ourselves with technology than with interpersonal relationships."