New BVSers at Quaker Cottage

Samantha Carwile wrote last weekend after her arrival at Quaker Cottage:

Greetings from Belfast, N. Ireland! Thanks to St. Christopher (the saint of good travels) and all of your thoughts and prayers, I have traveled safely to Bonn, Germany for my BVS European orientation, which coincided with the BVS retreat. Also, last night I flew into Belfast from Germany. So THANK YOU for all of your thoughts and prayers! I am finally here!

Right now I am sitting in my new cottage house in Belfast! I arrived late last night. And I flew with fellow BVS'ers that live in/near Belfast, plus Courtney...who is also starting BVS with me at Quaker Cottage. It was fun to travel with friends this time instead of trying to figure everything on my own like when I flew to Germany. I have met my other room mates, they are German and were nice enough to pick us up from the bus station last night and made sure we were warmly welcomed into the house. I won't meet the other staff at Quakers until Monday when work will begin.

As mentioned before, I have been in Germany for BVS European orientation,which is basically talking about the N. Irish conflict as well as some logistics of BVS in Europe like health care, travel, technology differences, etc. My orientation also coincided with the BVS European retreat which happens each summer...so I had the opportunity to meet all of the BVS'ers in Europe.

My week in Germany was amazing! It was great making new friends...fellow BVS'ers in Europe. I hope to visit some of them during vacation/holidays if I can gather up the funds. The village where our retreat was held was very small, but it was near the city of Bonn, which was about the same size as Anderson. Bonn is also the birthplace of Beethoven, so they have a neat city-center with his birth house and monument. We had a free day on Wednesday where a few of us went to Cologne, which is a beautiful city, and much larger than Bonn. We toured a beautiful cathedral that barely survived WWII. We did a bit of shopping, got ice cream, and found some amazing Roman ruins. We actually stumbled upon an ancient Jewish bath house (mikveh), which existed before the times of Jesus! There was also an Emperor's palace where a wedding was taking place. It is just incredible to see such amazing history all around you. We wrapped up our time in Cologne by getting an authentic micro-beer in a German bar. Kolsh is the well-known German beer that we tried.

Back at the retreat near Bonn, we spent our nights sharing stories and building relationships. We would have a beer or share a bottle of wine amongst the group every night just talking and connecting with one another.And our meals were delicious and bountiful! Overall, I feel very grateful for having the chance to have my BVS European "orientation" during the Germany retreat. I feel fortunate mostly for the relationships I built with fellow BVS'ers. I have been welcomed and feel that I have an incredible support network of volunteer colleagues.

In about an hour I will be exploring the city of Belfast for the first time. Our room mates will be taking us grocery shopping. Then Courtney (the other newbie BVS'er with me) and I plan to be dropped off at the city center for adventures. So, I am off for my first exploration of Belfast and hopefully, the firstI rish Guinness of my life! Cheers!

- Sam Carwile

Retreat in Bonn

Here's the current crowd of BVS volunteers in Europe, retreating near Bonn, Germany, last week. (Missing was Joe from L'Arche Kilkenny.)

Kirchentag in Dresden

Where your treasure is... "there will your heart be also" - the banner of two hands forming a heart welcomed the 120,000 registered participants of the biennial German Protestant church convention to Dresden for 5 days in early June. There were some 2300 events to choose from in a 630 page program book. These included worship services, bible studies, speeches, workshops, panels, exhibits, "marketplaces", films, musical concerts of every kind, and much more. Kirchentag is also a favorite event of German politicians and people in government who appear on panels, give speeches, dialogue and debate on current topics, both theological and political. Popular issues at this event ranged from the nuclear energy debate, German involvement in Afghanistan, Muslim integration in Germany, to more spiritual and theological topics.

Highlights for me during the event included the first evening's "sea of lights" - the huge crowd holding candles on bridges and banks of the Elbe River and singing with a choir, the bible studies with Bärbel von Wartenberg-Potter and Margot Kässmann, panels discussions with the mufti of Sarajevo, panels on peace and security issues ("R2P"), one on "brother bull - sister chicken", the concert with Giora Feidman, and random encounters with other Kirchentag participants.



At the
"marketplace" I was able to visit with many of our BVS project partners in Germany. I also enjoyed spending time with the two current BVS volunteers in Germany,



Susan Pracht at Church and Peace (Laufdorf) and Kendra Johnson at Peace Brigades International (Hamburg).

One of the most amusing parts for me was randomly meeting other Kirchentag participants or passersby. I met so many strangers with whom I had surprising connections. One of the nicest encounters while waiting for a late tram was with a woman who turned out to be from a congregation in the regional church district of Westphalia. She wasn't as impressed by my mention that her church had apologized to the Brethren three years ago during our 300th anniversary (for persecutions way back then), but more by the fact that I'm married to Andreas. OH well. One of the funniest encounters was in the S-Bahn train back to my housing when three very inebriated German guys asked if I was at that "God thing." A nice conversation ensued.

Afterwards, I heard a German radio conmentary summarizing the Kirchentag and concluding that "it would be wishful thinking that the Dresdeners would get baptized in the Elbe River..." (Because only 20% of the locals belong to a church.) Later I read that the Lutheran bishop of Saxony said that "many citizens experienced the church in a very different way during these days than they expected. The Dresden Kirchentag strengthened us Christians, and to others it hopefully gave an insight into what a life with God means."

New Project in France

Here's a new placement in France:

Esteville, France.
The Abbé Pierre Emmaüs Center seeks a Volunteer to play an active role primarily for the Abbé Pierre Emmaüs Museum (about solidarity, hunger and homelessness) which will open in July 2011, and secondly for the Accommodation Center for homeless people ("La Halte Emmaüs d'Esteville") which houses 30 persons. Duties include helping to improve our museum services such as visitors' reception, bookshop, etc. (these will comprise two-thirds of the volunteer's working time), as well as relating with the persons in difficulty we receive (workshops and other activities, perhaps teaching English), and assisting with domestic tasks (gardening, cooking, cleaning, or other tasks, according to his/her skills and interests). Requirements: communicative, basic-to-good level of French and willingness to learn more, independence, ability to work in a team, ability to see what needs to be done, willingness to take on responsibilities if needed. www.centre-abbe-pierre-museum.org

(If you'd like to see more information, please contact me at brethrenservice@worldcom.ch.)

Stan's LAST publication for IFOR

With great pleasure we introduce IFOR in ACTION #57, the Europe edition. This issue focuses on articles and reports from our membership in Europe...

We start off with a great campaign against the use of drones by FoR England. Amy Hailwood writes on a recent workshop to combat a “A culture of convenient killing!” Next Irmgard Ehrenberger interviews Marion Hiptmair, a FOR Austria participant now working with the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia, and you’ll certainly want to read IFOR’S WPP Consultation held 13-16 September 2010, Nicosia, Cyprus. Plus, find a report from FOR Italy and, not to leave out our BGAs from other regions, STAR on the floods in Pakistan.

IFOR in Action™ is now online! Simply visit the IFOR website to access all issues of this and many other IFOR publications.

OKC Abrasevic video clip

This is a video that was produced in a youth video workshop in Abrasevic in May 2008, with the American NGO My Hero.

2010 Retreat

Here's a sunny photo from our August European BVS retreat in Berlin - the tenth time we stayed at Haus Kreisau in Kladow.