Moving up in the world!

Check out our new paved driveway! We are fitting into the Green Hills neighborhood more and more everyday with these household improvements.

The Veterans

This was supposed to be my Veterans Day posting, but I didn’t get to it yesterday. I went, along with Tara, to Philoxenia (hospitality) 2006 at Vanderbilt Divinity School yesterday. It was the first seminary/divinity school visit for both of us. Patrick and Chasie are on their way back today from a week in Mississippi doing some recovery work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance along with three other members from Second Pres. I’m getting ready now to head over to church for the stewardship breakfast, and thought I’d post now since I know my supervisor at the Campus, Mary Wilder, lives for my blog posts.

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This Wednesday at the Campus, I taught my first current events class. Of course, it being Wednesday, my first topic was the election results. Only two guys showed up, two guys who I knew fairly well but never really had a serious conversation with. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had my printouts from CNN.com about the election results. The two guys and I started going through the article. I interruped to give some of the news that I had heard while I was on my lunch break—that the Senate race was down to just Virginia, and that Donald Rumsfeld had resigned—“WHAT? RUMSFELD RESIGNED?!?” That’s all it took to get a really good discussion going for the entire rest of the hour. We never really discussed the election results specifically, but I suppose that if this election is viewed as a referrendum on the administration’s policy in Iraq then we discussed what was at the core of last Tuesday’s victory for the Democrats.

It was interesting to see how the three of us viewed the war. The two men who came to class were veterans of the U.S. military, one having served in the Navy during the early 80s, while the other was in the Marines in the 1980s. They each had stories about their travels around the world and the situations they had been a part of. One of them was fully behind the Iraq war, and the other was completely opposed, although their positions didn’t fall neatly into Democrat-Republican molds. I found that I agreed with some of what each one said. It shouldn’t have been suprising to me that they knew as much as they did about the state of the world and international security, though sometimes after working with people who can’t function in everyday life and for whom taking a shower is a big accomplishment makes me pigeonhole everyone we serve in that way. We had a great conversation about war and what the US’s role in the world should be, and how the UN should interact. I told the two as we were leaving that I would call CNN to see if I could get a debate show booked for them.

Talking with these two gentlemen who had served their country reminded me just what a large percentage of our participants at the Campus are veterans. A third of homeless men in the U.S. are veterans. People come back from the horror of war, and are confronted with a world that does not understand what they have been to. Participation in war often leads to mental illness, alcoholism and drug use, which in turn lead to homelessness. This might even be furthered when the lifestyle back home is not altered in any meaningful way even though we are a country at war.

I know I have met homeless veterans who served in Korea, Vietnam and the first war with Iraq. This article from the Christian Science Monitor is about those veterans pushed out onto the streets after their service in Iraq. Let us remember the veterans among us, and whether or not we support the reasons they were sent to fight, that they are in need of the care of the society that they represent on the battlefield.

A PRAYER FOR VETERANS DAY from the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program

God of the ages, we thank you for all who have served in the armed forces of this country. Comfort those who grieve for those who gave the last full measure of devotion. Strengthen those who bear physical, emotional and spiritual wounds. Stand with those who provide care to them. Move us to reach out to sisters and brothers. Guide us to work for the day when no one needs to serve in the military. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

of the people, by the people, for the people

This is your election day reminder, from your favorite political science major, to vote today.

Click here to see the great document "Christian Principles in an Election Year" published by the National Council of Churches.

"and they shall beat their knives into paintbrushes..."

Upstairs at the Campus for Human Development, there is an oasis of sorts from the chaos, fear and ugliness of homelessness. The art room is a place where tension can be relieved, feelings can be expressed, and problems can be temporarily forgotten. Art classes, taught by volunteers and an art therapist are offered several days a week. It is amazing to see the level of artistic expression that comes out of the participants at the Campus.

Thursday evening was an art show and reception featuring works of art made in the Campus’ art room. During the one-night showing at Crystalwood Gallery (a month-long exhibition at Belmont University is coming up soon), the art was sold. All proceeds from the art show go to buy more supplies for the art room, which really is pretty well stocked.

Not all the art in the show was made by homeless people. Yes, that’s right, I am now an exhibited artist. In fact, “Geometric #3” by Jeff M., along with having a flashy name, was a pretty pricey item, with a $50 minimum bid and a $125 “buy it now” price. Too bad nobody bid on it.

It was fun to see what people had made and what people wanted to buy. It was also nice to bring my roommates along to meet the people I work with and to see some of what we do at the Campus.

Link to article in The Tennessean about the art show: 'Home' resonates through works by homeless artists.

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I know I've been posting a lot of newspaper articles lately, but here's another. I've been thinking that it is funny how some of the politician's homes in the area where we live here in Nashville look strangely like a prominent politician's home in Washington, D.C. Both Al Gore and Senator Bill Frist (the retiring Senate majority leader) live in pretty close proximity to The Toolshed, and they both live in big white colonial houses. The Frists live over on Bowling Avenue, about a mile from our place. The New York Times did an article on their house today.

NYT Link: Looking Presidential at Home in Nashville, Whether He Runs or Not

Group of four lives together, aids others

The Tennessean featured the Nashville Epiphany Project in today's paper. They focused on Tara, the "former cheerleader," as we like to call her, since they had not given Conexion Americas too much coverage in the past. They got my age wrong, but at least they made me younger. And--yes, we do like to tell religious jokes. I guess that makes us pretty cool, right?

Tara wants you to know that Conexion Americas doesn't seek to assimilate immigrants into American culture, but rather to integrate. She also doesn't want anyone to think that she carries the attitude that she is serving in an us-and-them kind of way. That type of mission work, which has been what most mission work has looked like in the past, is not what we are about in the Young Adult Volunteer program and in most Presbyterian missions. Rather, it is in doing mission with and not to or for others that we are best able to serve while being respectful of the image of God in those with whom we work.

Here's the link for online reading:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061104/NEWS06/611040309/1023

Saints That Weren't

Take some time to read this article from today's New York Times. It is an editorial that features the newest Roman Catholic saint, Mother Theodore Guerin, who founded St. Mary-of-the-Woods College near Terre Haute. Free registration may be required.

"Saints That Weren't" by James Martin
New York Times, November 1, 2006

For which saints (all of us are saints, remember) are you most thankful? Discuss in the comments section.

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!