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)