Meet Parishioner and Teacher Deb Houdek: “I Fell in Love with the Catholic Church”

Deb Houdek and her future husband, Gary Houdek, had been dating about a week when he asked if she would consider attending Mass with him. She asked simply, “What’s Mass?”

“Right from that first experience of the Mass, I fell in love with the Catholic Church,” Mrs. Houdek says. “It was Gary who brought me to the Church and to Blessed Sacrament, and now we’re celebrating 35 years of marriage together.”

It truly has been a “love story” not only for the Houdeks but also for Mrs. Houdek and the Catholic Church and Catholic education.

“I have seen my children on both sides, meaning in public schools and in Catholic schools,” she says. “Catholic education and providing faith-filled education is so important. Catholic schools take time to help really build that relationship with God.”

A year after Mrs. Houdek was confirmed in the Catholic Church, she was asked to be a leader of a Godparent youth group, and after years of being part of that group, Mrs. Houdek went to the Archdiocese of Omaha to receive a certificate for youth ministry. Then she was asked to sub for a few classes at Grand Island Central Catholic.

“I told them that I don’t know anything about teaching but that I would try!” Mrs. Houdek says. “But it was the best week or two of my life. Right then, I decided I needed to be a teacher. It was my calling.”

At 35 years old, Mrs. Houdek started college at Central Community College and then attended Hastings College. The same year she graduated from Hastings College she received an endorsement from Creighton University in Religious Education after driving a semester to Omaha for classes. Then a job opened at Grand Island Central Catholic — and “the rest is history.”

“I absolutely love my job, my students, and these families,” she says. “I teach study skills and religion courses for sophomores and juniors. Currently, I am teaching the sacraments and morality for the juniors and salvation history for the sophomores.”

Each week, Mrs. Houdek has “chapel Tuesdays” and holds her classes in the chapel. Sometimes the students say the Rosary together or the Stations of the Cross. The students also attend Mass every Thursday and have adoration once a week.

As the Lenten season approaches, Mrs. Houdek will be helping her students create intentional Lenten journeys as they participate in different Stations of the Cross each week.

“There are stations from Mary’s perspective that we do and also a virtual Stations of the Cross with a slide show, and that might be my favorite,” she says. “Before Stations, we always spend 10 minutes just with God.”

Statistics have shown, Mrs. Houdek shares, that children who graduate from a Catholic school are driven to stay with or return to the Church. She’s honored to be part of building these relationships with Christ and the Church through Catholic education.

“You’ve got to have a relationship with God in your heart, and I know in my heart that I am serving God,” she says. “Within my school family, the parents and students are wonderful and so are my coworkers. I can’t imagine doing this with a better team of people. They’re so devoted to Catholic education.”

The Houdek family

Blessed Sacrament’s Deb and Gary Houdek