Jewel Beran

I grew up with six brothers and sisters in a Mennonite community in Delaware.  We lived on a farm, did not have TV or radio and were surrounded by an extended family of dozens of uncles, aunts and cousins.  We came from families of strong faith with many uncles who were ministers and evangelists.  Our life centered around church and my strongest memories of my grandfather are him reading his bible.  

Years after leaving for college I met Denny who had been raised Catholic.  I went through the first RCIA process in a Catholic church in Pittsburgh several years before we married.  I had never been exposed much to Catholicism but found the RCIA process an awesome program and it was what mainly  convinced me to become a Catholic.  When we moved to Plano in 1991 with our two young daughters, we found St Elizabeth Ann Seton and fell in love with it.  We had left our families and our new family and support became the friends we met through St. Elizabeth.

We got involved in church activities which included the Renew small group ministry.  Initially, my volunteer work involved our daughters’ activities which included teaching CCD and leading their Girl Scout troops. We raised our daughters with a heavy emphasis on faith and church.  We felt blessed when they both found the Catholic University ministry at the University of Texas at Austin and got involved during college.  After the girls left home I got involved in Stephen Ministry, ACTS, Bible studies and various other ministries.  When we retired we decided to stay in Plano.  A large part of this was because St. Elizabeth Ann Seton has been such a blessing for us and has enabled us to continue to grow in our faith journey.