Photo by Michael Alexander

CHAMBLEE—Sister Christine Truong My Hanh is getting ready for her DUI class.

She is teaching the class of Asian drivers about why drinking and driving don’t mix. She follows a state-approved curriculum, adding her know-how of Asian culture so the offenders get the point.

Like this: In some Asian cultures, a man drinking is a sign of the good life, like writing poetry and playing checkers. Add to that how men are expected to drink to excess at family gatherings or risk being called “a woman,” she said.

She also knows what teaching tools to use. Many sitting around the table in this bare room will be illiterate. “I can never use a PowerPoint. I draw things on the table,” she said.

Counseling drunk drivers is one of many roles Sister Christine takes on as she leads Good Shepherd Services community center. With sheer pluck, she began serving the Vietnamese and other Asian communities here on Buford Highway 20 years ago.

“Here they get the love and the care. I want to be the bridge between the gap between the immigrant and the mainstream,” she said.

Kevin Nguyen, 9, practices reading a sentence in Vietnamese during the May 4 cultural enrichment class, as Gia-An Maynard, 8, looks on. Photo By Michael Alexander

A drawing of women in conical Asian hats and traditional dress from her native city of Hue, Vietnam, hangs on the wall in her office. A table is decorated with a shrine of flowers, plaster sheep, a scented candle surrounding a picture of St. Mary Euphrasia, who founded her religious congregation, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

Refugee resettlement programs identified DeKalb County as a good place to help distressed Vietnamese families put roots down. Sister Christine saw in the early 1990s a need for help among them, isolated by an unfamiliar language and culture. She began her outreach in the apartment complexes filled with the refugees. Its beginnings were modest, her small apartment. The children, who were left alone by working parents, moved her heart.

“Just like the villages in Vietnam, they roamed around,” she said.

Her apartment became a refuge from drug dealers and a place for education. Children were divided by age and sent to the living room, dining room or kitchen for homework help. Adults then turned to this diminutive woman, who wears a habit and her congregation’s special cross around her neck, to navigate their new home.

“I did not sit and plan. I am a missionary, I respond to the needs without thinking about what is going next. The agency has been so many things. Somebody comes and asks, Sister, we need somebody to translate a letter. OK. I help.” And a service is born.

(L-r) Good Shepherd Services office manager Xuan Nguyen and volunteer teen cultural enrichment instructor Nghia Nguyen discuss some ideas with teens Lillian Long, Kelly Nguyen, Dawson Truong, and Lucille Long. Photo By Michael Alexander

Sister Christine was inspired to pursue life as a nun at 17. She recited her vows to her community in 1971. She is 61. Her mother was a Buddhist. Her father was French-speaking, a Catholic and a politician imprisoned for his views. Today, her surviving family lives in Houston, Texas.

The Good Shepherd Sisters were founded in 19th-century France to work with the marginalized, who were women and children at the time. Sister Christine’s ministry has taken her to work with prostitutes in France and skinheads in England, to refugees and offenders of domestic violence.

She likes the expression she heard Pope Francis tell priests during Holy Week’s Chrism Mass when he encouraged the leaders of the church to work so closely with people that they take on their “smell.”

“Our foundress said we belong to the whole world to save souls,” she said.

Today, the center works out of two converted bungalows with garages turned into classrooms. The center is located on a leafy street, not far from Buford Highway’s Vietnam Town Shopping Center. There is also a center in Lake City, about 14 miles south of Atlanta. A facility in Norcross closed due to lack of funding.

The 2011 American Community Survey estimated there are some 41,233 Vietnamese living in the metro Atlanta area. More than half don’t speak English “very well.” According to the survey, more than 10 percent of Vietnamese families with children younger than 18 live in poverty.

Good Shepherd Services continues to serve children and their families with cultural enrichment programs and after school tutoring.

And from the original classes, those students have taken their place in the community, some with professional jobs.

Under “Good Shepherd Services” on the sign, the words in Vietnamese translate to Youth and Family Services. The two blue houses in the background are two of the fours buildings on the property used for various classes, events and programs. Photo By Michael Alexander

Puy “Dewey” Luong, 28, was introduced to the strange American culture playing Uno and Monopoly. He attended the program for three years starting in 1997.

“We learned to be American,” he said.

He knows people in his class who have become electrical engineers, insurance agents or computer programmers.

“It guided me to be a better person,” said Luong, newly married, with a master’s degree in accounting and a job in the financial services industry.

He is Buddhist, but everyone at the center was simply trying to learn the culture, no matter their faith tradition, he said.

Now, it is the senior citizens who need looking after. According to the government survey, nearly 22 percent of Vietnamese people 65 years and older live in poverty.

“The needs of our community now are not after school programs. The problem now is immigration,” Sister Christine said.

Medicare and food stamp programs, which are needed by elderly Vietnamese, require citizenship. Folks crowd the language and civics classes to prepare for citizenship exams. Staff will translate government forms, help fill them out, serve as interpreters and direct people to resources. Social activities and field trips get senior citizens out of an isolated home and give them an opportunity to enjoy each other’s company.

The staff of seven has taken to heart the values of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Asking people only to pay what they can afford. Going the extra step to be of service.

“We have God asking each of us to do a little extra, a little more love, a little more caring, concern for the people. That’s how things work out,” said Sister Christine.

Xuan Nguyen, 39, has worked at the center since 1995. She’s the longest serving employee.

Sister of the Good Shepherd Christine Truong My Hanh sits at the desk in her Chamblee office, across from the couch where she counsels and listens to clients. Among the items at the base of her desk is a photo of her order’s foundress, Sister Mary Euphrasia. Photo By Michael Alexander

“I love it. I do a little bit of everything,” she said. “If I were them and didn’t speak the language, I know how hard it is,” she said.

“God gave me the strength, the courage, the knowledge to do this work. I can do something for these people,” Nguyen said. “I cannot sleep if my work isn’t done.”

Nguyen met Sister Christine when her family received some assistance from the sister. Nguyen settled in this country because her brother is an Amerasian, born in Vietnam to a U.S. military father and a Vietnamese mother.

“I see Sister Christine is very dedicated. She helps people regardless of their religion. She just helps them. She’s my role model.”

A new responsibility for the center is outreach to the Asians who are victims of domestic abuse.  The community is reluctant to turn to anyone for help. Saving face is key in Asian cultures and admitting to abuse would be shameful.

Nguyen cares for the victims. Sister Christine is a state-licensed counselor who works with the offenders. It requires earning people’s trust. People will come in with an excuse asking for help on one issue, before they mention the abuse.

“I reach out to people and when there is some problem in the family, they call me. We create a safe place for people to come here and share their pain,” Sister Christine said. “One person is so precious. For me, it is a treat that they trust me enough.”

The agency is looking to the future.

English and citizenship prep instructor, Thuy Le, foreground left, practices posing a series of citizenship questions to Bac Pham, foreground right, as the rest of the class observes. Photo By Michael Alexander

It is working on establishing a local board of directors to develop its future, in addition to setting itself up as a nonprofit. Sister Christine hopes that’ll make it easier to go after foundations and grants to boost income. Most of its annual $400,000 budget comes from donations and clients paying what they can afford based on a sliding scale. The center also relies on St. Ann Church, Marietta, St. Brigid Church, Johns Creek, and Mary Our Queen Church, Norcross, for financial support.

At the same time, her religious community may need her at the provincial headquarters in St. Louis. There are fewer sisters to staff programs like this.

“We are not here forever,” said Sister Christine. “If I leave here, I have to really make sure that people in Atlanta are being served, especially the poor.”

After 20 years, she’s not bored or ready to go.

“No. Never. Every day is wonderful,” she said.

A favorite religious print of Sister Christine hangs in the front office. It’s Jesus, staff in hand, hanging precariously over a cliff’s edge to rescue a stranded sheep. There’s no concern but his focus on the animal. “He doesn’t care about his life,” points out Sister Christine.