The youth did an amazing job of sharing their reflections on the trip! There were some great insights about trying to live more sustainably (Tait), coming together as community (Courtney), understanding that people in poverty struggling for survival have no time or space to develop their potential (Kalli), how it’s one thing to “know” about poverty and another to actually feel what it would be like (Rachel), and, of course, how the bugs in Arkansas are approximately 23 x larger than any we have here in CO (Taylor).
By popular request, here’s an embedded version of the slideshow of our trip that we showed at the church service:
In case you weren’t able to make it to the service, here are the reflections that I shared:
As Jesus sent the 12 disciples out, ”He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. 4Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there.”
Imagine—one of the disciples leaves Jesus. He wanders down the road or around the countryside for a while, getting hot, tired, and hungry, and maybe wondering why the heck Jesus hadn’t let him at least bring some bread! After a bit of walking, he finally finds a cluster of houses and asks to stay with someone in that town.
Because he has no supplies of his own, he doesn’t just enter the house of those he’s staying with. He enters their lives. He fully shares in the business of living: sleeping in the same house—probably the same room, waking at the same time as everyone else—his laundry goes in the family wash pile and his food is prepared and eaten as part of the family meals.
It seems to me that this is the most powerful part of a retreat or a youth trip, and it proved to be the most powerful part of our trip to Heifer. Twenty-two of us—some who were complete strangers before the trip—shared daily life together for 7 days. We ate together, woke together, shared meaningful experiences—like the Overnight Village—and seemingly-trivial experiences—like forty-something hours of van riding. And all of those shared moments magically added up to community, as we enjoyed one another’s company, and drove each other crazy, and tried to be gracious to each other in the midst of close quarters and little sleep.
This, I think, is a perfect metaphor for the work of Heifer International. Heifer starts a project in a town or village by first getting the entire community on board. As the people of the village learn together about animal husbandry and sustainable farming, they share meaningful experiences and life events. The town becomes a community of people committed to each other in the ups—and downs—of life.
We are often very good at embracing causes or giving money, and these are good and necessary things. But as the disciples experienced so long ago, ministry often happens in relationships. It can’t just happen once a week on Sunday morning when we all look and act our best. It happens continuously, as we build relationships by serving on committees together, sharing in fellowship groups, going to the Navajo reservation to do mission work, teaching Sunday School together, offering each other prayer shawls or visits.
In the midst of our causes and our busy lives, may we remember to share life with one another and with those we work to help…let us remember what we learned as we traveled together to Arkansas. Let us remember, as Heifer does, to help build community and give of ourselves in relationships. Let us eat together, argue together, forgive one another, be gracious to one another, and, above all, love one another. Amen.
I’ve also posted the slideshow video on the Plymouth UCC website, so you can view it there. Incidentally, while you’re on the church website, check out the cool link that Hal made for this youth blog. It’s on the bottom right corner of the home page!
As a side note, I’ve just discovered that Heifer has an Official Heifer International Blog! Check it out! Pretty cool, huh?
