Semper Reformanda

You know you've spent too much time in church when this is what's on your refrigerator on October 31:



I hope your Reformation Day celebration was the best!

6 x 8 = ?

This week, as part of my work at the Campus, I attended training sessions to learn about the Expressways to Learning education program. All day on both Monday and Tuesday were spent at The Factory in Franklin, TN, a suburb to the South of Nashville where lots of music celebrities live. I actually saw Michael W. Smith (the Christian singer, you know… “and friends are friends forever…”) eating at the same restraunt as I was on Monday.

I, along with one of the other Campus interns, will be teaching reading classes using the Expressways to Learning system, which is computer-based, and uses methods that will help those with learning disabilities. It’s all based on left brain vs. right brain ideas, and other confusing concepts.

Anyway, even though spending two days learning about computer software did help me realize how much I really like working at the Campus, I did figure out why it took me several years and tons of frustration to learn my math facts in elementary school (which is a task that I really never completed since I still have to count on my fingers a lot to this day). On Tuesday morning, I learned that being able to play music by ear is a sure sign of being a “mixed dominance” person. That means that my right brain (which controls creative things) is trying to do left brain (logic) activities, like learning what 6 times 8 is. [I just had to consult with Tara about what 6 times 8 is]. Maybe I should have used Expressways to Learning when I was young. Or, maybe $100 a week was too much for that.

It did occur to me that there seems to be a lot of right brained homeless people, which might explain why they haven’t been able to make it in a left brained world. You only have to walk through the art-lined halls of the Campus to notice the level of artistic expression that a great number of our participants are capable of. It also doesn’t take much to figure out that a good number of them have trouble following a schedule.

Oh, and by the way, the answer is 48.

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SUKKOTH AT SECOND

Have you ever heard a sermon delivered from a cardboard box? I have now. This Sunday at Second Presbyterian, we observed the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth. During this festival, which was actually a few weeks ago, Jews remember the time their people spent wandering in the wilderness as homeless people. Celebrating Sukkoth was a way for us as twenty-first century Christians to remember our own history of homelessness as we remember those in our own midst who are without permanent shelter.

Second observed Sukkoth as a way of getting everyone in the right frame of mind as Room in the Inn, the Campus’s winter emergency shelter program, begins next Wednesday night. From November 1 through March 31, hundreds of homeless people will be housed in over 150 church buildings around Nashville as meals and conversations are shared along with the offering of a bed with a mint on the pillow.

The first step in helping those who have been dealt less in life is remembering that they exisit. Walking through a village of cardboard box dwellings that the children and youth of Second Pres. had made, and hearing a sermon preached from a refrigerator box were a good way to start this season of reaching out to the least of these among us.

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Picture: Box dwelling-making at 2PC youth group meeting, after I talked with the youth group about homelessnes and the Campus a few Sunday nights ago.

The Feast

It only took three calls home over the past three weeks, but I finally got the crock pot out of our laundry room (well, laundry closet, if that even) and made some Italian beef for tonight’s dinner. Thursdays are going to be a night where the four of us are going to take some time to intentionally be together. We are not sure exactly what form that will be taking, but it will at least include making sure that we are all home for a dinner together. When our four busy schedules don’t really mesh, Thursday nights will be an axis point for our lives as a community. We will share our highs and lows of the day and talk about whatever issues arise over a meal. It was fun to make a dinner for “the family.”

On Thursdays, lunch is served at the Campus. The participants enjoy this because they don’t have to eat at the Downtown Rescue Mission, where they are treated like cattle, and they don’t have to worry about riding on a crowded bus or walking to a church that is serving. Today’s lunch was especially good, as it always is when the group from the Brentwood United Methodist Church comes to cook the food and serve it. Though there are certainly still many of the trappings of homeless life included in Campus meals – needing a ticket, lining up outdoors in the rain, waiting for your number to be called – today’s meal had a certain joy to it. The Brentwood UMC women made taco salads. The great thing about this group is the respect that they show to our participants by offering them quite generous portions, high quality foods, and hospitality. Homemade oatmeal raisin cookies were at every place. The heaping taco salad was made with quality ingredients. The best part for our participants is that they could have refills on their iced tea (something most of us take for granted as being normal) that was flavored with fresh lemon. This group always brings 200 servings, though we only give out 100 tickets so no one has to be turned away and even the staff gets to eat. It was by not being stingy (as some groups that come in regrettably are) and offering friendly service that this group of Methodists provided a great lunch and the opportunity for the homeless and the housed to together enjoy an hour of fellowship.

In the afternoon, I, along with my fellow Campus interns Jana and John, Jana’s mom, and Edith the Campus art teacher, headed over to the Middle Tennessee headquarters for America’s Second Harvest at MetroCenter. Our purpose for being there was actually to make lunches to be served at Saturday’s Campus Teen Forum event. We got our aprons on and washed our hands and got to work under the supervision of an eccentric gentleman who heads up the culinary arts center portion of the Second Harvest headquarters, which is the place that coordinates shipments for the food banks in the 50 or so counties in the Middle Tennessee region. I packaged cookies (which were still warm and smelled great, I might add), while the others worked to assemble sandwiches. After we were done working, the three Campus interns took a tour of the very impressive Second Harvest facility. The warehouse looked like Sam’s Club, and we went into a freezer the size of an airplane hanger where the temperature was -10 degrees. The Middle Tennessee Second Harvest facility has technology that allows them to repackage foods that are given to them in large quantities. They were able to ship TV dinner style meals and “boil bags” (bags full of food that you boil) to Hurricane Katrina victims last year, and are applying those methods to regular food distribution. It was great to see another group of people who are dedicated to ending hunger, and who have given us so much at the Campus, through programs like Nashville’s Table, where leftovers from hotels, restaurants, and grocery stores are collected and given to anti-hunger organizations.

The importance of sharing a meal with others is something we often take for granted. There is truly something holy in breaking bread. No wonder the stories of Jesus often center around a meal. We become equals in our common need for nourishment, and neighbors in conversation and sharing. In communing with one another over God's gift of food, we truly get a foretaste of the feast to come.

Very Bad News

FYI: I just caught myself saying "I'd appreciate it if y'all would hang out in the day room."

No, No, No! Y'all is not a word!

Thank You and a Movie Recommendation

First, I'd like to thank you for reading this blog! There have been many more people talking about reading it than I ever imagined would. Thanks also for making comments--those of you who are doing so!

I have a request -- would everyone who is reading this right now please leave a comment on the blog just saying hi so I'll know who all is reading? I'd appreciate it. I see there is now a link to this blog at pcusa.org, along with our great poem from the Ghost Ranch retreat, and a newsletter from Patrick. You can read newsletters and blogs and view photo galleries from other Young Adult Volunteers around the country by clicking here.

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And now, on to a movie recommendation. Over the weekend my roommate Tara and I went to see the movie Jesus Camp which is currently playing in Green Hills. For those of you back home in Indiana, you'll have to go to Indy to see it, or wait until it opens in Columbus in November, or wait and rent the DVD. Jesus Camp is a documentary about a Christian children's minister who is part of the very influential conservative Christian movement. Pastor Becky Fisher runs her annual "Kids on Fire" camp, which is the subject of the film.

The film is framed by a demonstration of the rapidly growing political influence of conservative Christianity in the nomination and confirmation of SCOTUS Associate Justice Samuel Alito. The children at the camp are only taught about one social issue -- abortion, and well, Harry Potter (warlocks are the enemy of God, just so you know!). This type of Christianity, where personal conversion is the only important thing, flies in the face of the teachings of Jesus. There was very little love being given by this group. Fear was the main mode of operation. National Association of Evangelicals leader Ted Haggard (who meets with President Bush every Monday, while the president has rejected meetings with leaders from the United Methodist Church, his own denomination) is one of the "stars" of the documentary. He specifically calls out Presbyterians in one part of the film, which made Tara and I laugh out loud in the theater. "We don't need a General Assembly to tell us what God is thinking--we've got the Bible!"

It was interesting to attend church at Second Presbyterian the morning after seeing this movie. (Second is one of those "dead churches" as the kids in the movie called them, where they sing three hymns and have a sermon!) Second is a pretty progressive church in one of the most liberal denominations (a local choir of mostly gay and lesbian people sang this last week). There is quite a difference between a faith based on hatred and fear as in Jesus Camp and one that embraces the radically inclusive love of Jesus, being able to see the sacred image of God in each person regardless of their worldy condition.

http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/

My EXTREME personality!

What do Dick Clark, Helen Keller, the Virgin Mary, John the Beloved Disciple, Fred Savage, E.T., Mister Rogers, Amy Tan, Jackie Kennedy, Neil Diamond, and Jeff Moles have in common?

We are all INFP's!

We got the results yesterday morning of one of the personality tests we took with our vocational discernment specialist, Janet -- the Myers-Briggs test. I am an INFP. What, you ask, is an INFP? Well, I thought the description fit me pretty darn well. I fit that category nearly perfectly. Everybody else's results were a little more wishy-washy than mine.

Here is the summary of what an INFP (Introvert-iNtuitive-Feeling-Perceptive) is like:

Full of enthusiasms and loyalties, but seldom talk of these until they know you well. Care about learning, ideas, language, and independent projects of their own. Tend to undertake too much, then somehow get it done. Friendly, but often too absorbed in what they are doing to be sociable. Little concerned with posessions or physical surroundings.

In general, they focus deeply on their values and devlote their lives to pursuing the ideal. They often draw people together around a common purpose and work to find a place for each person within the group. They are creative, and they seek ne ideas and possibilities. They quietly push for what is important to them, and they rarely give up. While they have a gentleness about them and a delightful sense of humor, they may be somewat difficult to get to know and may be overlooked by others. They are at their best making their world more in line with their internal vision of perfection.

I cheated a little bit and looked ahead at what we will be talking about in a future meeting with Janet, and this is the list of suggested career paths for INFP personality types (http://www.personalitypage.com/INFP_car.html):

-Writers
-Counselors/Social Workers
-Teachers/Professors
-Psychologists
-Psychiatrists
-Musicians
-Clergy/Religious Workers

I don't know--do you think I would ever want to do any of these?

Tourists

This past week has been a lot of fun. I have had my first visits from home -- two of those already! Brian and Sarah came for the weekend, and on Sunday night, as we were driving to the John Mayer/Sheryl Crow concert, my mom called and said that she, my dad, and my Aunt Barb and Uncle Jeff were coming on Tuesday. So, I've gotten to do some of the more touristy things around Nashvegas in the last several days. Here's a rundown of what I've been up to.

Brian and Sarah arrived on Friday night. They came over and saw our house, and I took Brian over to his accomadations. On Saturday, we went to the doughnut shop that is down the street from here (which does not even compare to either Baesler's or Square Donuts). We toured the church and the Campus for Human Development. After some lunch at McDougal's chicken, we came back and hung out at the house for a little while. We went to dinner at the Green Hills Grille, after which we spent a little time walking through the Mall at Green Hills, where none of us could afford to buy much of anything. The Green Hills Mall has several stores that don't include price tags in their routine -- Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's, etc. On Sunday, we went to church, where I was the lay assistant and played the piano for special music. After that, we went to Calypso for lunch, and walked around downtown before the concert that evening.

My parents and aunt and uncle got here Tuesday evening. I took them back to their hotel in Brentwood after going to dinner and coming back and seeing the Toolshed and meeting my roommates. On Saturday, we went to the church and Campus, and then the Upper Room Chapel, where I continue to be amazed by the robotic nature of the people who work there. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the White Trash Cafe, where trailer trash culture is celebrated. It is a meat-and-three that boasts a very unique atmosphere, including a bathtub and old tires as its exterior decor. During the afternoon, we went downtown, saw the Ryman Auditorium from the outside, and went to the Ernest Tubbs Record Shop. It continues to amaze me that there are live bands playing in bar after bar downtown no matter what time of what day you walk by. We then headed over to the tourist section of town--Opryland, where we saw the hotel, and the Opry Mills mall, which did not excite me that much.

It was great to see my family and to show them where I am living and working! Any visitors are more than welcome.

FYI: In the past week, I've gotten to see several celebrities in person:
-The cast of American Chopper on the Discovery Channel (Big Paul, Paulie, Mikey, Vinnie, Cody, and all of them)
-John Mayer (of course)
-Sheryl Crow (of course)
-EMMYLOU HARRIS (We are almost sure we saw her the other night. Her tour bus was pulled up in front of her house, as we'd seen before, and we saw a woman that definately could have been her getting in with some clothes. Even if it wasn't her, it was a half-sighting. I looked up pictures of her on the internet, and it did look just like her when she's not all made up for performances.)
-Sister Hazel (Do they count as celebrities anymore? We went to a free "unplugged" concert they gave at Borders last night.)

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We're headed over in about ten minutes to get the results from the myriad of personality tests that we took last month as the first step in our vocational discernment program. I'll let you know if I passed.

Living Wet, Part II

I just got home from another retreat! This time it was with my co-workers from the Campus for Human Development. The Campus rarely closes -- it is open even on Thanksgiving and Christmas -- but we did close yesterday afternoon and all day today so that the entire staff could get together for a time of rejeuvination, something that is needed when one works in a place that can be as draining as the Campus can be. One of my favorite things about the Campus is that all of its staff members are treated as equals from Rachel, the executive director, to Walter who works as a volunteer nearly full time, to Ron, who does the cleaning. And so, there we all were, at the Easter Seals Camp in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, spending some time together in a way that we usually don't. There was no pressure. We were under no deadlines. There was nobody yelling at us, and nobody throwing things and using drugs. Well, I was on a few drugs to help me get over the cold we've all shared here at the NEP house, but everything was legal.

The theme, which sounded familiar after the event at Ghost Ranch, was water. We focused on the blessings given and received when one "gives a cup of cold water" to someone else, as we all do each day when we are working with Nashville's homeless population.

Highlights of our retreat included a song written by my fellow Campus intern John, announcing that our executive director was adopting a child...some of the craziest spontaneous dancing I've seen in a while...sharing the times we've seen the face of God at the Campus, casting our sins away, in the form of bread upon the water in the Jewish tradition...and some dead on impersonations of some of our participants. Each team was responsible for putting together a meal, so my team--the day team--put together reubens for supper last night. The administration team made waffles for breakfast, and the facilities and residential teams grilled a feast of steaks, smoked pork chops and pork tenderloins for a closing lunch today. I have a feeling we will all go back to work a little more refreshed and energized than usual on Monday morning.

My first four weeks working at the Campus have been quite an experience. You just simply never know what will happen in any given day. I have handled people's dirty pants. I've seen crack pipes. I've seen people (men and women) who have been beaten to a pulp. I've seen homeless people get housing. I had my first instance of dealing with a suicidal person just yesterday. Most everyone I'm around has been in prison. But mostly I have become comfortable being around these people and recognizing their humanity through whatever condition they are in.

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I am looking forward to this weekend because my first visitors from home are coming -- Brian and Sarah! They are on their way right now, and will be staying at our NEP site coordinator's guest house over in Belle Meade. They are coming mainly to see John Mayer and Sheryl Crow in concert on Sunday night, but I'd guess I'm at least number 3 on their list of people to see.

Living Wet

As of yesterday, we have been in Nashville one month now. We were able to, though, be officially oriented to our experience as PCUSA Young Adult Volunteers this past week at our National YAV Orientation at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Ghost Ranch, one of the three national conference centers of the PCUSA, is situated on a vast amount of territory (33 square miles to be exact) in Northern New Mexico. Georgia O'Keefe did much of her artwork there, and it is a place where many dinosaur fossils have been found. You can see for miles from any one point, and majestic mesas surround the main camp area where simple accomidations encourage guests to relax and reconnect spiritually.

One of the best aspects of our trip was the chance to get to know the sixty Young Adult Volunteers who are serving in the United States this year. There were two young women from Cincinnatti who were just beginning their work with urban churches and non-profits. We met a lively group from Seattle where the YAVs have to work part time in "regular jobs" in addition to their mission work. There is a quite large group working in a new site this year, the Gulf Coast region, which is the first YAV site to be created in response to a particular event. They are mostly separated from one another; this was only the second time many of them had met. The Gulf Coast YAVs are helping run Presbyterian Disaster Assistance's large operation in response to Hurricane Katrina. There are two girls serving in Watsonville, California, where tensions include those between the hispanic and white populations. There are also two girls serving in separate areas of Alaska, who met one another for the first time at Ghost Ranch. They put on an entertaining skit that showed the rest of us that travelling and dealing with tourists is much easier in our locations. The YAVs serving in Miami live in two houses and serve in places similar to the ones we serve here in Nashville. Atlanta's group is one of the most similar to ours in program. The group from Tucson has clearly been profoundly impacted by their experiences so far in working on behalf of migrants from Mexico. Their experience on a Borderlinks trip is one where they found out the desparation of the people who are labelled "illegals" and despised by many in our culture.

There were several events for us designed to prepare us for the year of service that each of us had committed to. We had an "open space" meeting on racism. There was a time of reading and responding to case studies of actual situations that have confronted YAVs in the past (i.e. what do I do when I see the homeless guy on the streets downtown, etc.). We introduced ourselves and our work, we learned more about the PCUSA. I was a star of our Presbyterian Jeopardy game, though my team lost by just a few points. We performed skits for one another to share a little bit of how we live at our sites. We also sat through mundane presentations on our health insurance plan and how to be reimbursed for mileage and other expenses during the year.

For me, one of my favorite parts of the experience was worship. We were fortunate to have Chip Andrus, who is, for another month at least, an associate in the PCUSA's Office of Theology and Worship, and a well known worship leader and musician. Our worship experiences were deeply meaningful, and well planned around the theme of baptism -- "Living Wet." They were highly liturgical, which is the way I like things. Worshipping took "the work of the people." It was not a performance like so many contemporary worship services are. We followed the traditional model for morning and evening prayer found in the Book of Common Worship. We sang the traditional canticles -- "Canticle of the Turning," one of my favorite interpretations of Mary's Magnificat, the Canticle of Simeon (Lord let your servant go in peace...), "May our prayers rise like incense" as natural incense, sage, from Ghost Ranch was burned. We were sprinkled with baptismal water as we remembered our baptisms and recommitted to our baptismal vows.

On the way to New Mexico, I declared my goals to be as follows:

1. to see a cactus
2. to see a tumbleweed
3. to have a campfire

The first two were taken care of on the drive from the Albuquerque International "Sunport." I'm glad that happened because there wasn't a cactus or tumbleweed to be found the rest of the weekend. Number three finally happend on Saturday night, our last evening at Ghost Ranch. All 60 of us piled into far too few cars, vans and trucks (24 people in an 11 passenger van) and headed out into the wilderness to a fire pit where we enjoyed a few hours of singing, praying, laughing, and smore making around a roaring fire, which kept us warm during the very cold desert night. After a time of prayer and thanksgiving for the saints of our lives as a way of transitioning into the next day's celebration of Communion, we enjoyed our time together and sang songs accompanied by the amazing number of talented musicians among us. Our repertoire ranged from old folk songs from Knockin on Heaven's Door to Lord I Lift Your Name on High to Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

It was a great experience to connect to so many people and to beat them all at Presbterian trivia. More importantly, it was great to become closer to my Nashville group as we strive to live out together the promises made at our baptism. Sealed with the cross of Christ forever, we die and rise again each day to the new life we have together in loving our God and our neighbors.



(Click on pictures to enlarge)