Sister Joseph Margaret Kimura During your life, you will meet many people. Some of them are mere acquaintances and others make a lasting impression on you. I have been lucky to have met many people in my life but there are some who really did make an impression on me and changed my life.for the better. I first met the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales when my family moved to Cecil County, Maryland and my parents needed to find a school for my younger brothers and sisters. It was a quick meeting because I was already planning to leave for school in Baltimore late in August.

During the winter, my mother asked me if I would be interested in helping the Sisters with their summer camp. Of course, I was not in a great rush to go and spend my summer helping out at a camp, but after about the third call I finally gave in and agreed to help out at Camp Aviat, as it was called.

Camp Aviat ran for 6 weeks at that time. I worked with the Sisters and other counselors with the children. Of course most of the time I was thinking of the million other things that I could be doing with my summer, but I stayed and left at the end of July thinking that that was the last time I would help at a summer camp, no matter who asked!

Of course, again during the winter my mother called to ask if I would help the Sisters, and again after several phone calls, I agreed to help out, but this summer was different.

During this summer I began to see the Sisters in a different light. I was impressed with the gentle manner with which they cared for the children and the kindness they showed to us "girls", as we were called. No matter what we did they were always patient and they always took the time to answer all of our questions, and believe me we had lots of questions to ask! I saw that they were a very hard working group of people who didn't just expect you to work for them but they worked with you. They had a very deep prayer life and were not afraid to tell us that they were going to pray and that they prayed for us. They invited us to come to Mass in their Chapel in the morning and for some unknown reason (must have been the Holy Spirit because this meant that I had to get up earlier than the rest of the counselors and I am not one to get up any earlier than I absolutely have to. ) I did go several times with another one of the counselors. During these Masses I felt very peaceful and close to God.

Of course, entering the convent was not something that I had ever thought of, nor was I thinking of it at the time.

During the month of August the Sisters asked if I wanted to come and help paint the hallways of the school. So for several days I went with my brother Matthew and painted (sounds like something everyone should do on hot summer days).

On August 14 th we were painting in the evening, as during the day it was very hot, and Sr. John Marie and Sr. Mary Vincent came to me at different times and in different places to tell me that "we" needed to talk. Of course, by this time I knew that one doesn't say 'no' to a Sister I agreed to meet with them the next day at 10:00 A.M.

The next day accompanied by my brother, who came under the pretense of cleaning the pool since I had to have a good reason for borrowing the car, I came to 'talk' to the Sisters. At this meeting, they told me that they thought that I had a vocation and invited me to enter. Of course I had never thought about it, but I believed that at least 'they' knew what they were talking about and had enough faith to believe in me.

A little over a month later. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized exactly what I had done but I took it one day at a time (and still do) learning and striving to become like these Sisters who impressed me so much by their dedication and prayerful life.