Curtis Kedley, a member of the high school class of 1964, was driving away from a job he'd completed laying carpet near his home in Cascade, Iowa. As they'd been for several months, his thoughts were occupied with the direction his life would take. "I was making pretty good money, but I knew I didn't want to lay carpet for the rest of my life," he recalls.

As he was driving, he narrowly escaped an accident on a bridge, which he realized could have injured him and many other drivers. Shaken, he pulled the van to the side of the road and sat for many minutes looking at a field of oats that appeared golden as it reflected the sunlight. "I looked at the river and a meadow--and realized I'd been missing everything in life."

Remembering a movie he had seen about foreign missions when he was in elementary school, it was almost as if a green light went off. "As I sat in the van, I knew that mission work was something I'd like to do. Later, when I told my aunts, they said, 'We knew you'd do something like that.' They knew me better than I knew myself!"

The young man knew instinctively that although his calling was to religious life, it was not to priesthood but to the life of service that would accompany the vows he would take as a brother. His mother's uneasiness about ministry overseas led Curtis to investigate Glenmary Home Missioners, a society devoted exclusively to mission territories in the United States. He was attracted by stories and images of missions in places like Sunfish, Ky., and Statesboro, Ga., and began to study to become a home missioner.

After obtaining a degree in social work from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Brother Curt became a "worker brother," which Glenmary describes as a brother who works and witnesses in a secular job. Brother Curt worked in Georgia's War on Poverty, traveling 16 counties in South Georgia, encouraging schools to implement breakfast programs, which were becoming part of the National School Lunch Program.

In subsequent years, Brother Curt served in North Carolina, Washington, D.C., and in the Glenmary vocations program in Cincinnati.

During his years of ministry, he has learned "to let the people tell me what my ministry will be." He says, "I would visit families and learn about community problems during the listening process." That listening process led Brother Curt to help with the establishment of a sheltered workshop and group home in Manassas, Ga.

"And then I did much the same thing in Sparta," Brother Curt says of his 1993-2003 assignment to Hancock, Putnam and Greene counties in Georgia. He smiles and says that was when he developed the maturity needed "to waste time with people."

In keeping with Glenmary's mission, Brother Curt's goal was to help establish a Catholic presence in an area with few Catholics, a high poverty rate and a large percentage of people with no church affiliation. Brother Curt's assignment was to begin social ministry to the people of the region. After accepting an invitation to an African-American church in Hancock County, he began forming relationships in the community, and he took a job in a local warehouse where he learned of the basic mistrust between the races in the county.

"I've always had an affinity for African-American people," Brother Kedley said. "When I was growing up, my grandmother had a strong devotion to St. Martin de Pores and St. Peter Claver."

He is unsure what fueled this devotion to saints of color in an Irish-Catholic woman, but he believes it prompted in him an interest in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Now, years later, he has a reputation as one who builds bridges between those of various races. In 2001 Brother Curt received the "Call to Brotherhood" Award from the Religious Brothers Conference, which recognized his "ministry of presence" in Hancock County, calling him "legendary in his community for his extremely simple lifestyle backed by disciplined exercise and prayerful meditation."

"Curtis is one of the most unassuming, dedicated people that I've met in religious life," says Father John Rausch. "Some people in ministry have to save the world, but Curtis has the humility to let the Holy Spirit unfold the plan. He'll basically ask, 'How can I help?' He knows that when you help someone, you have to do it according to their plan, not yours."

After 10 years in Sparta, Brother Kedley was assigned to head Glenmary's House of Residency for international students in Owingsville, Ky. There he lives with Father Steve Pawelk, Glenmary's vocation director, and six men from Africa who are exploring the possibility of joining Glenmary. Four of the residents are from Nigeria; two are from Kenya.

Under Brother Curt's guidance, the international students are acclimating themselves to Glenmary, the United States and rural ministry. They participate in community prayer, attend Mass at Glenmary nearby mission parish, St. Julie, and work in social ministry at a local nursing home and at elementary and middle schools in Bath County.

Brother Curt enjoys encouraging the students and conducting informal seminars about American culture, he says. Because of the growing amount of ministry that Glenmary is providing in Hispanic communities, the residents are learning Spanish, with the assistance of Father Steve, and often practice conversation on their own. Brother Curt also enjoys introducing the men in residence to Glenmary's special charism of serving the U.S. home missions.