No roads in the jungles of Jhabua meant he followed panther paths on his Harley 125. With a scarcity of clean drinking water, he dug seventy wells. Out of respect for the earth he constructed sixty kilometers of terraces and planted 10,000 teak trees. While doing all this Rev. Jerome Ziliak, SVD, a simple farm boy from the Midwest, brought Christ to the Aboriginals of Central India.
The devoted missionary taught sustainable farming techniques, developed around the arid Indian climate and monsoon rains. On his Research Farm selective breeding developed ideal seed and bumper corn crops. Father Jerry built a natural gas plant fueled by cow manure. The resulting farm gas was piped into the village huts, used for lighting, and cooking.
In Touching the Untouchables, Mary Ellen Ziliak documents the magnificence in the mundane. Her biography of Fr. Jerry Ziliak is created from family newsletters, notes, and journals. The labor of love fulfills a deathbed promise to her beloved uncle. He served the Outcasts, the poorest of the poor, for fifty years and died thinking he had the best job on the face of the earth.

Mary Ellen Ziliak is a retired RN and international
speaker who writes creative nonfiction from her home
in Evansville, IN. Roger and Mary Ellen have been
married fifty-three years, have three children and nine
grandchildren. She owns Next Harvest Books, LLC.
Like Fr. Jerry, Mary Ellen lives life well with the belief
that, "all living things are connected . . ."