Father Ken Vavrina Signing ‘Crossing Bridges’ on Saturday, May 21 at The Bookworm
Father Ken Vavrina Signing ‘Crossing Bridges’ on Saturday, May 21 at The Bookworm
Father Ken Vavrina will sign copies of the book I did with him, Crossing Bridges: A Priest’s Uplifing Life Among the Downtrodden, on Saturday, May 21 from 1 to 4 pm at The Bookworm, 2501 South 90th Street. Father Ken will be among several authors signing their work at this Concierge Marketing Open House event.
“The very first bridge I crossed was choosing to study for the priesthood, a decision that took me and everyone who knew me by surprise. Then came a series of bridges that once crossed brought me into contact with diverse peoples and their incredibly different yet similar needs.”
Father Vavrina has served as a priest for many years, and has served several missions trips to help the needy. Father Ken worked with lepers in Yemen, and was ultimately arrested and thrown in jail under false suspicions of spying. After being forcibly removed from Yemen, he began his tenure with Catholic Relief Services. First in the extreme poverty and over-population of Calcutta in India. Then with warlords in Liberia to deliver food and supplies to refugees in need. Father Ken also spent several years working with Mother Teresa to heal the sick and comfort the dying.
Crossing Bridges: A Priest’s Uplifting Life Among the Downtrodden is the story of Father Ken Vavrina’s life and travels – simple acts that moved him, people that inspired him, and places that astonished him. Father Ken has spent his life selflessly serving the Lord and the neediest around him, while always striving to remain a simple, humble man of God.
“I pray this account of my life is not a personal spectacle but a recounting of a most wonderful journey serving God. May its discoveries and experiences inspire your own life story of service.”
About the Author
Father Ken Vavrina:
Father Kenneth Vavrina is a Roman Catholic priest, currently living and serving in Omaha, Nebraska. Vavrina was born in Bruno and raised in Clarkson, Nebraska. He was ordained in 1962. In the United States, he ministered to Native Americans, African-Americans, and Hispanics during the height of the civil rights movement.
Through his work with Catholic Relief Services and Mother Teresa, he has served people in five countries on four continents. He served nineteen years of missionary work overseas. He comforted lepers in the Arab nation of Yemen, oversaw relief efforts for victims of an earthquake in southern Italy, and supervised aid to and regenerated the agricultural sector for the poorest of the poor in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. He also secured food and medicine for war refugees in the African nation of Liberia.
At 80 years of age, he officiates mass daily for the residents of his retirement center.
Book written with assistance from Leo Adam Biga:
Leo Adam Biga is an Omaha author and journalist. His previous books include Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film and Memories of the Jewish Midwest: Mom and Pop Grocery Stores. His award-winning cultural journalism appears in many publications. Assignments take him across America and overseas. He has traveled to California to cover Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne. He covered the 2009 Barack Obama presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. He made a baseball tour of the Midwest. He recently went to Uganda and Rwanda, Africa as the Andy Award winner for international journalism from his alma mater, the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
He has a new nonfiction history book in the works. His Nebraska Film Heritage Project is in development.
AMAZON CUSTOMER RATINGS
Five Stars, May 19, 2016I come from the same town as Father Ken and …, February 4, 2016 great book, September 1, 2015
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