New BVSers now at Kilcranny House, East Belfast Mission, Holywell Trust, and Versöhnungsbund

Megan and Tiff (East Belfast Mission and Kilcranny House, Northern Ireland) at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva.

Tania (Versöhnungsbund, Germany) at the UN in Geneva.

Gloria (Holywell Trust, Northern Ireland) at the Reformation Wall.

Christmas at Quakers

The holiday season has been a busy time filled with many festivities. Quaker Cottage celebrates Christmas in a number of ways. We took our afterschool groups to the Belfast Christmas Market, an international market with food, drinks, crafts, and more from around the world. The kids really enjoyed going, especially the hot chocolate and the surprise merry-go-round ride in which we treated them! We also had Christmas parties for our afterschool groups. I, out of all people, was recruited to play “Silly Santa,” an easily noticeable impostor Santa character. The afterschool'ers pointed out all of my flaws, that I was too thin (I had forgotten the pillows to stuff), that I couldn't see (Santa wears glasses?), that I had a nose piercing, and that I was wearing sneakers (didn't change into boots). The whole ride home was full of the kids telling me how they just KNEW I was the one in that suit and not Santa!

A big part of Christmas giving on the behalf of Quakers is our hampers we provide for our families. Not only do we gather food, toys, and toiletries for the 24 families that come to Quakers currently, but we also make hampers for nearly all families that have been through Quakers in the last 3 years! Our afterschool room was transformed into a TESCO grocery store, and our mom's relaxation room was turned into a Toy's R Us! Almost all of the supplies for the hampers were donated to us, the majority of donations came from the Friends (Quaker) school in Belfast. We worked hard building all the hampers and distributing them to all of the families.

Our last three days at Quakers before holiday break was hosting our Christmas dinners for our mothers and babies. Sarah, my supervisor, prepared three big Christmas dinners nearly on her own; she was amazing! Ham, turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, brussel sprouts, peas & carrots, truffle, and a lovely Pavlova cake was served each day. After the dinners we had a time for singing and a visit from Santa Claus, whom I luckily did not play! Some of the families got some nice family shots with Santa, whereas some children were too scared of Santa to get a decent picture. Ah well.

In my recreational time, I performed two Christmas concerts with the community choir I joined, Grosvenor. The first was a traditional Christmas Lessons with Carols, pieced together like an Anglican worship service. The second was a live broadcast on the BBC Ulster radio station! As time drew nearer to Christmas, my roommates and I had a small Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts. Christmas eve was spent at a friend's flat enjoying cuisine from India and Poland. Christmas day I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to L'ARCHE Belfast for community time. L'ARCHE is a community living organization for persons with learning disabilities. L'ARCHE is another BVS placement in Belfast, and I was able to connect with the two BVSers I knew there. We had a lovely day together, starting with an afternoon walk in Belvoir Park, tea and biscuits at Scott and Megan's (former BVS'er), and a delicious and wholesome dinner back at the L'ARCHE house. I am gracious for the opportunity I had to spend Christmas in community, getting to know the L'ARCHE team.

So, I've been busy! I think it's fair to say I've exhausted the ways to celebrate Christmas this year, yet thankfully I haven't exhausted myself! I deeply look forward to the new year, and to see what Quaker Cottage has up its sleeve for 2012!

Peace Meditation

In a few weeks we will be back to the unlit bare bones of trees gracing our landscape on whatever walk we can convince ourselves to endure in below freezing weather. The cloak of the festive holiday season will be stripped away, and we will be left to face January on our own. For these short weeks of Advent and the Christmas season, we are awash in the best qualities of humanity and God: peace, joy, love, hope, family, comfort, gratitude, beauty, grace, selflessness. A few years ago I worshiped at a midnight Mass in a very formal Anglican church. With the incense, the bells, and choir, it was easy to believe that it was magic, that the coming of the Saviour really had changed everything, ourselves, all the being of the world. In the cold bleakness of January, it's just harder to maintain that belief.

Does our attachment to the beautiful sentiment of 'righteousness and peace will kiss each other' (Psalm 85;10) mean anything after January 1, 2012? In my ministry with Brethren Volunteer Service, I have had the great privilege of meeting people and communities that have dedicated decades of their lives to the peace movement. What does it take to sustain such a commitment? Based on what I have seen, these people have given themselves as a 'living sacrifice'. As a member of Church and Peace's Administrative Committee put it, peace is not a church project, it is the way of Christ.

So how do we bring the way of Christ into our everyday lives? As The Message translation of Psalm 85: 10-13 phrases it:

Love and Truth meet in the street. Love and Truth meet on the bus. Love and Truth meet in the grocery store. Any time you recognize the Inner Light, the image of God, within another being and treat them as such.

Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss! Or, in the words of W.H. Bellinger, Jr., a professor in the United States: 'God's unchanging love and trustworthiness come together to bring the community into right relationship with God and each other' [1]. When we accept that gift of redeemed relationship and strive to live our lives accordingly, with grace, mercy, and compassion from God, God gives us peace and acceptance with ourselves, and out of that, we can give that to others. But it's not easy. There are many voices in our heads and in our hearts. Do something every day that helps you separate yourself from the autopilot in your mind, whether it is centering prayer, meditation, cooking, talking a walk....

Truth spouts green from the ground, Right Living pours down from the skies! When in doubt, step outside. Breathe deeply. Look. Listen.

Oh yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty; our land responds with Bounty and Blessing. Right Living strides out before him, and clears a path for his passage.

Susan Chase Pracht

Advent 2011

[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=8/7/2011

One Year at the L’Arche Belfast Community

New BVSers now at the Arche Community in Tecklenburg and at Brot und Rosen Community in Hamburg

New BVSers Katarina and Marie at the UN in Geneva, in preparation for community life...

One does what one can

It was a cold, cloudy day as the knight saw the little sparrow, lying on its back in the middle of the path. Remaining in the saddle, he looked at the fragile creature and asked: "What are you doing, lying there on your back?"
"I heard that today the sky is going to fall."
The knight laughed: "And your twig-thin legs are going to hold it up?"
"One does what one can," answered the little sparrow.

One of the current European BVSers shares this story on various occasions...

Last week was rough.
Some of the volunteers here are leaving earlier than planned. Although I'm the volunteer's advocate, I felt like I'm on a tightrope sometimes between BVSer and project.
I'll be interviewing 5-6 new people in the just-started orientation seminar in the USA and am getting geared up for that.
One big congregation in the USA requested CoB program staff to explain what we're doing about differing opinions on human sexuality, the peace position, and women's leadership, before they decide on continuing donations to the denomination's ministries.
The UK Borders Agency suddenly and yet again shifted website information and links and all of that UK visa stuff.
And our BVS director's mother died.

One does what one can.

Each 5 weeks at Quaker Cottage one of my responsibilities is cooking lunch for the families for a full week. So, I had my first cooking week the week after last. I had to prepare enough food for 10 adults and about 8-9 children. I also chose 2 menus for the week, with a slight variation for the children. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I served hamburgers, soup, and coleslaw, which was very easy to prepare. I slapped patties on the George Forman grill, heated up soup on the stove, and had help making the coleslaw. Thursday and Friday I chose to serve champ (which is similar to mashed potatoes with green onions), beans, and sausages. Thursday morning, I was getting help from 2 of my coworkers, and I felt like I heard hundreds of suggestions and advice. I was asked to serve something simple on Friday so that I could work with the children and be in the kitchen as little as possible, so I decided I would just double my recipe and save enough for Friday's families. I thought things were going well with the champ. The mothers even came in and helped mash the potatoes up, making a hell of a stir about it too! However, once the families left for the day, my boss Grant had to tell me that the champ wasn't good and that the mothers wouldn't eat it. He explained that the champ was too lumpy, and I couldn't serve it to the mothers for Friday. As mentioned above, I thought the meal was going well, so I was taken by surprise with the bad news. I realized the champ had lumps, but I personally don't mind lumpy mashed potatoes because it reminds me of homemade-with-love potatoes vs. perfectly smooth instant mashed potatoes from a box. So I sulked lamenting my failed meal. Friday Grant took charge of remaking champ and sausages, and I prepared the children's lunch and snack that day.

Trying to shake off my culinary flops and insecurity in the kitchen, I arranged to go to the Giant's Causeway with a few friends. The Giant's Causeway is up on the north coast, and it's 40,000 hexagonal flat step-like stones miraculously arranged on the coast. These stones have a wonderful legend of two rival giants. The protagonist in the legend is the Irish giant, Finn McCool, and he was shouting and fighting with the Scottish giant, Fingal who was across the Irish Sea. Finn picked up clumps of the earth and threw them across the sea, which formed stepping stones to Scotland. By the time Finn had finished, though, he was exhausted and too tired to go to Fingal. Fearing Fingal would cross the sea to confront the Irish giant, Finn's wife dressed Finn up like a baby to fool Fingal. The hoax worked! Fingal took one look at the “giant baby,” and thought if the child was that large, how much larger would the father be? In a fright, the Scottish giant bounced quickly back to Scotland tearing it up as he went, and creating the step-like stones that we have today. The Causeway was beautiful, and we hiked a bit to see “the organ,” which were the famous stones in the shape of a pipe organ. The sun even appeared for about 20 minutes on our hike, creating even more beautiful photo ops.

Last week Quakers had its September residential at Corrymeela peace retreat center in Ballycastle. Residential is another term for holiday or vacation time that is a special part of the Quaker Cottage program. The staff and 9 families go to a retreat center for 4 days. The idea is to give the families a break from their lives in Belfast, and also provide a fun family holiday. Quakers has a good relationship with Corrymeela retreat center, which is an amazing peacebuilding organization that specializes not only in hosting peace retreats, but other great programs that work for peace and reconciliation. Our residentail at Corrymeela was from Tuesday to Friday.

After arrival and lunch on Tuesday, I was with the afterschool group ages 5-12 and we had a treasure hunt on the beach! I was excited to play pirate and see the children light up when they discovered new clues. There is just nothing like enthusiasm you experience from children! After our treasure hunt, we went to Dunluce Castle about 30 minutes away. Dunluce Castle has an interesting story. One week there was a festival with lots of food being prepared. One night, the kitchen suddenly crumbled into the sea, taking several kitchen staff with it! Today the castle is in ruins, even without a roof. I enjoyed going and imagining what the place looked like in its prime. The children also enjoyed the castle. Wednesday, and Thursday I was with the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, and we went to a farm, went on walks, played on the playground and baby room, had snacks, and the like. The days at residential were long; we were responsible for the children from 9am-5pm while the mothers were on their own adult outings. We also helped put the babies to bed and then supervised the afterschoolers at night. So our work shifts were around 8am-11pm each day. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end, and I definitely took last weekend to recharge my batteries!

On Sunday, I went to my first Quaker meeting. As many of you may know Quakers worship in silence, and if the spirit so moves, someone shares words of wisdom, or scripture, or a poem with the group. In most UK Quaker meetings, there is no sermon, no singing, and no liturgy. While I found sitting in silence to be a bit challenging, I truly appreciated the time to simply think and reflect about all that I've been experiencing. I prayed. I meditated. I thought about things I hadn't given myself enough time to think about. The silent worship was good for my soul, and I even got to chat with some of the congregation after worship, which was icing on the cake.

And now I look forward to getting back on schedule after residential. In a week or two we will get 8-9 new families, all with their own joys and concerns, struggles, fears, and dreams. I pray that they feel compelled to commit to Quakers, and allow the relationship to grow.