Creation Vacation 2010: Family Friends needed!

Hello good people!

You are invited to volunteer this summer for Creation Vacation, a three day camp experience for low-income families in Western Washington County. WWC CV dates are July 8th through the 10th at Camp Magruder, near Rockaway Beach on the coast.

A cooperative effort between Camp and Retreat Ministries, local UMCs and non-profit housing organizations, CV allows families that wouldn't ordinarily have the time or resources for a vacation to spend some time in a beautiful, restful place together, and provides an opportunity for United Methodists to build relationships with great families from their own communities. Last year's WWC participants were the families of promotores (community liaisons) at Bienstar, an organization that provides housing and great comprehensive services for low-income Latino families. Thankfully, we'll be working again this year with this excellent agency!

While at camp, each family is assigned a Family Friend, a volunteer that spends time with that family and is as present with them during their time at camp as the family would like. This means that you, the Family Friend, might accompany them at meals, in the craft cabin, or on walks on the beach. You might help a kid with archery or walk alongside a donkey carrying a little one. You might visit with a mom or dad over coffee or sing songs around the campfire. You'd stay in a cabin with other volunteers, not with kids.

Family Friends are invited to consider a contribution toward room and board costs to help subsidize the participation of families, but no contribution is required for your participation! All levels of camping experience and Spanish language ability are welcome--from zero to 100% fluency! :)

Creation Vacation has become one of my favorite times of the year! I guarantee that you will be changed by the families and and that they will be changed by you! Please let me know as soon as possible if you want to reserve your place as a Family Friend. If you'd like to participate but aren't sure yet about your availability, let me know that, too. Please pass this invitation on to others in your congregation and community that would make great Family Friends.

For more about Creation Vacation, check out the OR-ID Conference camping website: gocamping.org/creationvacation. Here is a great article and video made about a lovely family at WWC CV 2009. If you listen carefully, you might recognize the voice of the person interpreting for Alejandra :)

What else do you need to know to make your decision??  Let me know! We'd love to have you!

Peace to you,
Mira

Bilingual theater class a success!

Around 100 people came to see the two performances of Frutas, Verduras y Mas!, the bilingual, intergenerational theater piece at CUMC in cooperation with LESTA, Learn English and Spanish Through the Arts. With lots of sing-along songs and audience participation, they were fun gatherings for all involved.  And we hope that the story will remind all of us to eat from all the food groups and get the exercise we need!

The grains team:

The Sugar Twins:

El Rascapetate--the Scarf Dance (based on this dance, with the same music):

The food group conga line:

The Couch Potatoes with Jimmy Junk Food and Frankie Fast Food:

The show flyer:

One year of Community Table!

This February marked the one year anniversary of the Community Table Food Pantry in Cornelius. A few numbers for you:

February 2009-January 30, 2010
Boxes served: 775
Number of different families served: 326
Total number of people served: 3272
This does not include the Christmas and Thanksgiving Baskets (an additional 85 boxes)

Official volunteers: 42 volunteers
Unofficial volunteers: many more!
Official volunteer hours: 743.5
Unofficial volunteer hours: countless!

These numbers represent real people receiving food for themselves and their families, real people giving of their time and resources, real people being transformed through relationships! For these people and for all the ways that God shows up in them, I give thanks!

Superarse

I like the word.  Superarse.  In Spanish it means to exceed expectations, to better oneself, to overcome.  In my conversations with the day laborers I visited this morning, the word was uttered several times.

One spoke of growing up in Mexico as one of the youngest of 10 children in his family, of feeling like a tiny plant in the yard whose caretakers walked by each day and provided what was necessary for survival, but who didn't pay close attention or nurture the plant.  His parents encouraged him to leave school at a young age and work like his older siblings.  At 18, he had the opportunity to marry his girlfriend, but he wasn't ready to settle down and resign himself to continuing the cycle of poverty in that place.  A few years later, he moved north. To superarse.  He was into some destructive behaviors for a while, but when he saw how it was affecting his relationship with his nieces and nephews, he decided to give that up.  How else could he encourage his younger relative to not do drugs as teenagers?  He talked about continuing his education, studying English with a tutor, which he is doing now, all so he can superarse.  He wants to do more than what was ever expected of him.

Another man spoke of his family in Mexico, of the 4 girls who have grown up from a distance during the 8 years he has been away working.  Though they speak on the phone daily, when he visits, the girls shy away from his hugs because they do not know him.   He wants to go back next year and stay so that he can know his children and they can know their father.  He says, "You think money will be enough, but it isn't.  It can't take the place of that relationship."  He came north so that his girls could superarse, but now he feels that going home is the best way to help them do that.  His love for his children was so clear as he talked about them.

A third man shared about his parents in Guatemala who wanted him to do well in school, but who were illiterate.  How could they have helped him with his studies?  Now he studies English so his children will have a good model and, though they are in another country, he encourages them regularly to work hard in school and stick with their studies so that they can superarse.  And most importantly, he says, he has established a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ for them.  Because of their faith, he says, they can make good choices and know they are loved and know their own value.  And though they live in a poor place, they will superarse.              

What a gift to hear these stories of pain and of walking through the pain to the other side.  I am reminded of a quote from Helen Keller:  Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.

I pray that these men will continue to find ways to move forward and superarse and that their example will inspire me to do the same.
                                                 

Frutas, Verduras y Mas! Fruits, Veggies and More!

Only one rehearsal remains until the big show!  Frutas, Verduras y Mas!  Lead by LESTA  (Learning English and Spanish Through the Arts), CUMC has hosted an intergenerational bilingual musical theater class during the past 7 weeks and around 25 people have participated.  It has been great fun to sing, dance in conga lines, and learn our lines (a mix of English and Spanish) with people of all ages (from 7 to 70 yrs old!), personalities, developmental and physical abilities, and languages!  Our two shows will be Sunday, February 28th at 2:00 p.m. and Monday, March 1st at 7:00 p.m.  Come find out if the Couch Potatoes will give in to the Gemelas de Azucar (Sugar Twins) and indulge in cotton candy or if their trip to the health fair will lead them to eat a more balanced diet and turn off their video games. 

Creating space

We don't invent structure for structure's sake.  Structure in a classroom creates space for children and adults to express ideas, explore, and learn freely.  In a worship service, structure can create a space in which people are invited and freed to connect with the Spirit that is in an around them.  At the Community Table Food Pantry, we've discovered that structure can provide room to connect, to create, to rest, and to be.

At the December distribution day at the Community Table, more families showed up than ever before, and most appeared before our doors opened at 10:00!  The whole operation had just moved into a new, larger room in the church and we had some new folks at the registration table.  On top of all that, 10:00 came and went and we were not ready!!  Eventually, we got going and mucked through it, and served more families than in months past, but things were chaotic and volunteers scrambled all morning to stay on top of things.  As a result, most of the families waited a long time and most did not receive much intentional personal connection with other folks.  Two of my favorite people, a recently married couple, were around for around an hour and I remember running past them several times, hurrying on to take care of something and offering some kind of quick greeting, but I never even stopped to really ask them how they were.

In early January, some volunteers gathered to ask the questions, "How can we make things run more smoothly?", "How can we offer a more hospitable space?" and "How can we make this a really great experience for people?"  With lots of careful planning and preparation, the January distribution day was a completely different experience.  I spent most of my morning talking and laughing with people, hearing about their work or kids, offering coffee and cookies, leading little ones to the play area and bigger folks to the craft table where they could make cool beaded key chains, or to the clothing where they could look for something that fit.  I complimented a man on a handsome jacket he tried on, I helped kids with their beads, I chatted with people there alone or visiting for the first time.  It was a wonderful morning!  We fed just about the same number of people as the month before, but this time, we had prepared for them.  We had fixed up the room just right with them in mind.  We did not need to rush them through the process because they were honored guests and invited to stay as long as they liked.  And many did stick around!  The structure we have designed and redesigned and reshaped and adjusted has created a space for us to welcome one another and to be with one another.  Just to be with one another--that is a gift.

New

Several months ago, a young man came to the Community Table Food Pantry with his small child.  They had just arrived in town the day before and had no food or gas, he did not have work, and they were staying with the only person here they knew.  I welcomed them to our little town and enjoyed our conversation as I prepared their food box and drove them to their home.  This little family was coming out of a very tough situation and was looking to start anew. 

Today I ran into this same young man in his place of work (the same job he had been hoping for when I met him).  We recognized one another and he and came to say hello and shake my hand and Eric's, telling my husband that he had met me at "the church."  He has work, his child is well, and they just moved into their own home.  Things are great, he said.  He smiled, said he needed to get back to work, wished us well and walked off.

As I turned, my eyes welled with tears of gratitude for having had the opportunity to meet this lovely person during a difficult time, then be able to see the goodness that showed up in his life later.  I give thanks that he was indeed able to start a new life in this community.  Though many come to the church once and don't return, I am reminded that faith communities that seek to extend God's love and welcome have an impact on people that is not soon forgotten.  And even if it is forgotten, we have still played a small part in their lives and in the work God is doing in them, as they have also played a part in the work God is doing in us!  What a gift. 

May each day in this new year be a new start for all of us.