Sacred Heart Parish Staff
Reverend Nicholas Junker, Parish Administrator
Rachel Gilliam, Secretary
Tom Keller, Maintenance Supervisor
Gina Cushman, Coordinator of Religious Education
Lisa Mohr, Youth Minister
John Childs - Trustee
Kathy Scaglione - Trustee
Reverend Nicholas Junker - Parish Administrator
Fr. Nick is a lifelong Belleville resident. He grew up in St. Peter Cathedral Parish and went to Althoff Catholic High School. After graduation, he spent about the next 10 years in Chicago, both as an undergraduate at DePaul University and as a seminarian at St. Mary of the Lake University, Mundelein Seminary.
After his first year in the Seminary, Fr. Nick was assigned to St. Bruno Parish in Pinckneyville for the summer with Fr. Brian Barker, He enjoyed the summer in Pinckneyville very much. He also spent time at St. Dominic Parish in Breese, IL during a pastoral internship midway through seminary training. Fr. Nick was ordained a priest on May 10, 2008 and was assigned to St. Teresa Parish in Belleville, where he had been Parochial Vicar before being appointed Administrator of Sacred Heart Catholic Parish in July of 2010.
Rachel Gilliam – Church Secretary
I have been a member of Sacred Heart since 1984. I have two children Cayle and Kayli Diggins. I have worked at Sacred Heart since May of 2009 and became a fulltime employee October, 2010 upon the retirement of Linda Sherman. I enjoy working with and talking to the parishioners.
Gina Cushman - Coordinator of Religious Education
Gina has been a member of Sacred Heart Parish since 1999, when she and her family moved to Du Quoin. She is married to Joe Cushman and together they have four children; three boys and one girl, along with six grandchildren. Their youngest son Josh attended Sacred Heart for three years.
In 2008, Gina joined her husband in retirement. She worked for 29 years with the Department of Corrections in Human Resources and Joe worked for Union Pacific RR for nearly 33 years. After retiring, Gina has stayed busy with Josh while he was in high school to include playing on the football team and now college baseball. Her grandchildren are also in sports and dance which keeps her quite busy.
Gina has taught PSR classes at Sacred Heart for close to seven years, primarily the First Communion and Confirmation classes. As she so enjoyed spending time with the students, she accepted the responsibilities of the CRE (Coordinator of Religious Education) duties this past year and seems very happy with her decision. The format is basically being followed as in previous years with just a few minor changes. Her duties include ensuring that the best religious education material is provided to students in grades 1-8 at Sacred Heart PSR. She admits to having a great group of PSR teachers who certainly make her job much easier. She also organize the classes, youth masses, family events, field trips, community service projects with the parish and community, and prepares activities and snacks.
Along with all she does for Sacred Heart, she also enjoys reading, gardening, and spending time with her family and friends. Since, she came back to Du Quoin, she has also enjoyed meeting and spending time with many relatives she hadn't had the chance to meet. "My grandparents were originally from Du Quoin and my dad was a student at Sacred Heart. In some ways I feel that I have come home."
Lisa Mohr - Youth Ministry
Lisa was born and raised in Du Quoin. She attended Sacred Heart School, Du Quoin High School, and then obtained and associate degree in accounting at John A. Logan. Her parents are the late Elmer and Joann Mohr. She has two older brothers, Karl and Randy. They have blessed her by making her an aunt to two nieces, two nephews, and now a great niece and three great nephews. They all call her Aunt Cesa - which she endearingly loves!
Lisa says there's nothing better than spending time with her family, especially the kids. One of her favorite things that her three year old niece does - well first you must know that the three year old's birthday is the day before Lisa's birthday and so when she's asked "what is the day after your birthday" she'll look right at her Aunt Cesa and say "nothing important" - everyone gets the biggest laugh.
Some of Lisa's hobbies include collecting. She collects snowmen and she collects teapots that are shaped like other things - for instance she has a church teapot and a ladybug teapot. She enjoys baseball - a big fan of the Cardinals, and Nascar racing. When she needs to relax, a stop at a winery with a close friend is fun, listening to different genres of music to include some old outlaw music or when she needs some quiet time, counted cross stitch fills the bill.
What lead her to become Sacred Heart's Youth Minister? She had Youth Ministersf, that influenced her. This encouraged her to step up and become one herself. She finds it very inspiring to look up things to discuss and teach the young of Sacred Heart. She is delighted about spending time with them - they make her laugh, which she enjoys. Lisa is excited about working with the youth as they grow in their faith! In her words: "To see the excitement in their eyes and the joy on their faces is just an amazing sight!!"
She said it is her mission to educate our youth in their Catholic faith so that they may learn to love and grow in their faith. With this knowledge, she hopes that they will go out and evangelize the glory of God to the world!! This is also the mission statement of the Youth Ministry. She said they have 3 ways to accomplish this:
FAITH: everyone must continue to learn and to reach out to others
COMMUNITY: helping those in need, whether they are Sacred Heart Family or Du Quoin Family.
SOCIALIZATION: by having fun doing all the things we do for God!
Youth Ministry is open to children 13 - 18 years of age.
They meet the first Saturday of each month at 12:30, following the PSR classes.
If you have any questions, you can contact Lisa Mohr at 542- 4635.