Youth Peace Travel Team 2016 – Camp Brethren Heights

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Hello dear friends! We just finished up our 8th week of the summer at Camp Brethren Heights with Beaver Camp! What a different change of pace to work with 9-11 year olds in such a fun atmosphere. This week the team practiced what it preached by stepping out of our comfort zones in differing ways. “Beaver one, beaver all, let’s all hear our beaver call!”

Michigan was full of fun, nature, and a sense of family (both literally and figuratively), which we were welcomed into immediately. I admired so dearly the leadership present at camp; from the Dean to the CIT’s, from the counselors to the worship and Bible study leaders, everyone there was amazing in their ability to demonstrate the family of God.

A unique thing about Brethren Heights was that it was our first experience where Bible time was sort of built off of, or continued from, our content. The message of peace was strongly desired and emphasized at Brethren Heights, a camp who hadn’t experienced the Peace Team in a long time. I was humbled to hear the conviction and passion of the leaders as they led in a continued learning experience of peace, communication, and justice. I learned so much about teaching and using my resources from the way these leaders used theirs.

Our team was somewhat nervous going into a week of elementary campers, as they were younger than our typical crowd. But we were able to see just how much these kids retained, even in the act of playing foursquare and observing how the language of that activity changed throughout the week. We were not disappointed in the slightest, and we were able to bond and connect with these campers and this staff so wonderfully.

Michigan was great, and I can’t wait to head back for our final week!

See ya’ soon,
Phoebe

Our past week was spent singing and dancing at the endless hills of Brethren heights! This was the team’s first state that was new to all of us; it didn’t disappoint. This week was full of love and laughter for all involved. And also many naps. As the end of our summer draws near, I felt fatigued and a little sick. I deeply appreciated the gracious staff that let me rest.

Sometimes, even when you feel like you aren’t at your best is when the Holy Spirit decides you are needed the most. I struggle with feeling confident in my ability to lead younger kids. I know when I was that age most things went in one ear and out the other. My mind at that point in my development was probably focused on what the clouds looked like outside or what my favorite Jonas brother was doing at the time. I also had forgotten just how it sounded to hear children communicate with others their age – far from peaceful or patient! However, it was an amazing experience to see the campers grow through the week in the smallest lessons they took from our sessions. Foursquare games got a lot friendlier when we brought up speaking to each other in love! So simple, yet a teaching most of us forget day-to-day. It is always so moving to see kids develop in ways you never expected them too. I am thankful for the patience and peace they ended up teaching me.

Another favorite part of this camp for me was to see the family values held by leadership. Being on the road and so far from home does instill a sense of homesickness. Instead of saying “homesickness,” we referenced the word “potato.” Yet just to see a mom, who was also the camp’s dean, hug her son every morning at breakfast warmed my heart. This was a week I felt the fruits of the Spirit in abundance. Thank you, Brethren Heights.

Peace,
Kiana

We have been blessed each week of this summer to be welcomed into new families and communities with open arms, and this week was no different. Listening to stories of Brethren Heights from generations past, particularly how this camp and the Church of the Brethren shaped the lives of the many volunteers who now return to work with current campers, was inspiring.

If there were two ideas we hoped to leave with the campers this week, it would have been that words are powerful and stepping out of your comfort zone is necessary. We noticed early in the week that in times of excitement, such as a foursquare match or the cabin cleaning competition, emotions often ran high and words spoken unintentionally often hurt. It was awesome to watch throughout the week as with the prompting of counselors and staff many campers began to pay attention to the way they were expressing themselves. Campers were also encouraged to get out of their comfort zones and try new things. Many tried praying in public or leading a song. Many campers realized that trying new things makes camp an even better time and that what is comfortable for one person isn’t always what is “just.”

In the words of a song adapted by Dan West:
“Beyond the hills of Michigan our unseen camper friends, now walk beside us all the way in life that never ends.”

We will remember our camper friends at Brethren Heights as well all daily seek to learn how to speak to each other in love and do justice beyond our comfort zone.

— Peace, Sara

Working with these young people was exhausting, and yet inspiring.

One moving moment was at the beginning of the week when we played “One fish, two fish.” The campers had to work together to take a water bottle from between the caller’s legs and get it back to the starting line without the caller seeing it. It took some strategizing, cooperation, communication, and teamwork, but the campers successfully completed the task after a few trials and errors.

Another awesome thing was when campers were able to share back with us important lessons that we had been teaching. Also, this camp was really big on memory verses and it was neat to see the campers retain Matthew 5:9 the best.
I’m always amazed by random conversations that are just happen, whether they happen in a car with a respected elder or around a fire with campers and counselors. This summer has been full of deep and meaningful conversations.

I’m so excited to return to Brethren Heights with their adventure senior high camp at the end of our summer!

Peace, Love, and Beavers,
Jenna

Hey! It isn’t Christmas yet

The most counter cultural thing a Christian can do today is to refuse the drive to Christmas. If you watched the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving, Santa came riding in at the end of the parade with the bold symbolic statement that Christmas has come. The commercialization of Christmas is obvious. “Santa has come, the Christmas season is here, so come shop with us.”
The last thing our culture wants to do in this season is wait. We don’t want to hear about voices crying out in the wilderness, of a young woman wrestling with what the child she carries means for her and the world, or even about some long off time when Christ will come again. With all the decorations and advertisements we are collectively saying “Get on it with it.” Just like a child unable to control the excitement, who treasure hunts around the house for gifts, we want the celebration now. None of this waiting business.
Yet, in truth, this is Advent. It is not Christmas. We are waiting. We are preparing.
To observe Advent is to push back on our culture of consumption and immediacy. To observe Advent is THE Christian practice for our time. For in Advent we acknowledge the delay. We recall the Hebrew people waiting for the Promised One. And we proclaim the fact that we are liminal people. We live in the now-and-not-yet-ness of our faith. Jesus has come, and we wait for him to come again.
We wait.
Waiting is so uncomfortable because we have to acknowledge both our longing and our lacking. When we confront our longing, we realize that there is something we lack. That is very definition of desire. We want what we don’t have. And when we see our longing played out each Sunday of Advent we are confronted with the very reality that we are not yet in the fullness of God’s embrace. In a culture that celebrates immediacy, consumption, and satisfaction, such a realization is nearly anathema.
In Advent we embody both our longing and come to terms with the very distance between us and God. Christians today have bought into our culture of immediacy, preaching a Gospel of God’s full presence. To even hold the season and practice of Advent counters the way we have tried to share the Good News. Advent, then, chastens us as followers of Jesus by reminding us that God is both with us and yet before us. It forces us to accept the distance between us and Christ. Christ is not “in us” but coming. Christ is not here, but is calling us into the fullness of faith.
At the close of his beautiful memoir, The Seven Story Mountain, Thomas Merton put words to this paradox.
“I no longer desire to see anything that implies a distance between You and me: and if I stand back and consider myself and You as if something had passed between us, from me to You, I will inevitably see the gap between us and remember the distance between us.
My God, it is that gap and that distance which will kill me.”
To the world around us, living in want and wait does seem like death. Why wait for anything when everything is right here? Why wallow in longing when satisfaction is so easy? And for the dominant theology of our time, preparing for the coming of Christ contradicts the very immanence we preach. Why prepare for Christ when we have Christ now, in our hearts, and will go to heaven when we die? Why all this business of rough places smoothed, valleys lifted up, mountains made low, the overthrow of the powerful, and the proud humbled?
It is Advent sisters and brothers, and there is no greater resistance than to hold this season of waiting. Advent is counter cultural.

Are you sleeping?

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Isaiah 64:1-12

Question for reflection:
When have you been awakened to the refining work of God?

Prayer for the day:
Lord, in our profession of faith we proclaim that you reign over all creation. Yet, we look about us and can only wonder how this can be the case. For we are a people who cry out “Peace, Peace” and there is no peace. As we wait, remember, and hope in this season, awaken us to the movements of your Spirit among us. Refine us with your love and transform our world by your grace. In the name of the one for whom we wait, Jesus the Christ, Amen.

~ Josh Brockway, Director for Spiritual Life & Discipleship

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Advent Devotional written by Sandy Bosserman, a former district executive and an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren. (Available from Brethren Press in print and E-Book formats). Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Sandy’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.

Supporting Leaders: Professionalism

  1. Have a solid job description and set of realistic expectations for your pastor. Review them regularly and hold the church accountable for helping to ensure that the pastoral load is reasonable
  2. Same as above, but for other leadership roles in the church
  3. Allow and/or help leaders say “no”
  4. Provide an adequate salary and benefits package, following denominational guidelines
  5. Limit the number of early morning or evening meetings each week

The May issue of Basin & Towel magazine is all about the idea of calling, which includes caring for and sustaining those who have answered their call. How do you support your pastor and other church leaders? What would you add to this list, specifically considering “professionalism”? Future posts in this series will cover supporting leaders in the areas of health, Sabbath rest, and emotional support. Join the conversation, share ideas, and learn from others!

 

Living our way into a new way of thinking

By Bryan Hanger

I’d like to talk a bit about what pushed me to join BVS, and how my journey before and during BVS has affected my understanding of God and what it means to be the Church in the world today. I had grown up at Oak Grove Church of the Brethren in Roanoke with a loving family and church community. But something changed when I left for college at James Madison University. I became detached from the daily life of living with family at home and was removed from my community at Oak Grove. Much of the immediate stability that had defined my life was in an instant vanished.

My first two years of college became a time where what I started to study and believe were in open rebellion to my previous 18 years of existence. As I began to find meaning in new places and even question what I had believed about God and the church, my head felt divided. What I was learning, wasn’t adding up with how I’d thought and lived before college.

This was a confusing time for me because in one breath I’d be having conversations with folks where I’d be condemning the shortcomings of religion and the impossibility of many of the biblical stories, and in the next I’d catch myself yearning to understand the Lord’s precepts like the Psalmist in Psalm 119.

I started taking classes in religion where I filled my head with knowledge of how the Bible was formed, how Christian beliefs developed over the years, and how Christianity compared to the other religions of the world. I was fascinated by it all, but my actual life hadn’t changed a bit, let alone been transformed.

It wasn’t until my Senior year, that things radically came into focus for me. And it didn’t happen in one of my super academic classes or even at a church, but rather it occurred on a spring break trip where I headed to the mountains of Tennessee leading a group of 10 college students on a service trip through our university’s Alternative Break Program.

JMU work team

Our group from JMU with our hosts Ed and Arleen and their dog Blue

Throughout the week we worked and lived in the Cherokee community in the Smokey Mountains on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. We built steps, cleaned up creeks, looked after children, cared for seniors, and got to immerse ourselves in the Cherokee way of living.

Our trip, however, would not continue as planned because life got in the way, as it often does. For the second half of the week we had to totally shift gears due to tornadoes that had wreaked havoc through parts of southeastern Tennessee.

We traveled far back into the Smokey Mountains near Tellico Plains, Tennessee, to get to the affected area. Our group was chosen to go even farther back into the hollow of the mountain to help a man named Daniel who had been one of the worst hit.

It took quite a while to make it up the winding road’s switchbacks and when we reached Daniel’s steep declining driveway, we had to hold on for dear life as we bounced and bumped down the hill towards his property. We were all laughing and smiling as the ride down the driveway felt like a ride on a roller coaster, but once we reached the bottom of the drive, the van fell silent.

tornado devastation

What remained of Daniel’s home

The devastation was unspeakable. The land looked like a trash dump where local residents came to leave their garbage, but no, the truth was, that less than 24 hours ago Daniel and his family had been living happily in their home that now lay strewn across the earth.

We were all unsure of how to properly speak or help, as we felt inadequate in the face of such terrible tragedy. Daniel was an intimidating looking man. He was tall and had broad shoulders and had a long dark beard that reached to his waist. He walked with a cane and I later noticed this was because he had a rudimentary prosthetic foot. None of us moved or spoke for a minute, but our immobilization did not last as Daniel and some of his close friends approached and greeted us with handshakes and hugs.

Hidden underneath Daniel’s big beard was a bright big smile that quite frankly surprised us. Daniel couldn’t believe that a bunch of strangers from hours away cared enough to show up to his rural mountain home to help him pick up the pieces of his life. He wanted to know where we were all from, how we came to find ourselves in Tennessee, and he kept up this small talk throughout the day.

He told us about his children and about how he loved to ride his Harley Davidson motorcycle through the mountain curves we had just driven through. And we actually uncovered one of his old Harley engines in the wreckage.

Cleaning up tornado destruction

Me (green shirt) working and talking with Daniel (black shirt).

I told him about growing up in Roanoke, my family back home and then about my college and what I was studying. It was as if we were making chit-chat before church or while we waited in line to buy a coffee. We even were lucky enough to share a meal with him and his friends out of the little food that we all had. You would’ve thought we were eating at a 5 star restaurant in downtown DC the way everybody gobbled it up and abundantly thanked us.

His upbeat attitude perplexed me. Calamities such as the events that Daniel and his family experienced were the exact sort of thing that had disturbed me when trying to reconcile my faith in a loving God with the chaotic world around me, but something was understood by Daniel and the others in Tennessee that had eluded me in my education.

I had spent so much time in the classroom and trapped in my own head trying to force myself to think a certain way or feel certain emotions in certain situations that I actually had missed the entire point of the Gospel. Many times when I was full of these questions and full of these doubts, I had thought how great it would be for me to have an opportunity to ask Jesus all of these questions that perplexed and confused me.

But now when I reflect on scripture, I think that Jesus would’ve gently rebuked me for being so blind to the purpose of his kingdom. When you read through Matthew 5, Jesus isn’t telling us how we’re supposed to change our mind or what we’re supposed to convince ourselves of. Instead, everything is all about how we are supposed to act as a people. As the body of Christ.

He isn’t condemning anybody for having the wrong political belief or incorrect opinion; instead he’s speaking to us on a much deeper level and not just as individuals, but as a community. When you read through Matthew 5 and hear things like, ‘give to everyone who begs from you’ or ‘pray for those who persecute you’, at an individual level we feel helpless to live up to this high standard. But that’s okay. We aren’t meant to follow Christ on our own.

As the Body of Christ, we are each intimately connected to each other, and with each doing its part we not only can do more than we could on our own, but we create a community that lives out and embodies Christ’s new transformative reality.

The great theologian Henri Nouwen once reflected that,

“You don’t think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking”.

And the way we live our way into this new kind of thinking is by being obedient to God’s instructions for our life and living out his word, TOGETHER.

Eugene Peterson in his Message translation of our text from Matthew puts Jesus’ words this way:

“Grow Up! You’re Kingdom subjects. Now live like it! Live out your God created identity. Live generously and graciously towards others, the way God lives toward you.”-Matthew 5:48 (Message)

This notion of ‘living my way into a new kind of thinking’ was exactly what I was doing, unbeknownst to myself, in the hills of Tennessee. What had at first looked to me as a space where God was obviously absent, because if he had been there he surely would’ve sheltered Daniel and his family from such devastation, turned into the very space where God most forcefully brought strangers together in love and service to one another.

As I have built upon this experience by joining and serving through Brethren Volunteer Service, this mantra of living into a new way of thinking has proved to be consistently true. My views on many things have shifted since moving to Washington and working for the church, but I am always surprised when I finally realize that my thinking has changed, many times without me noticing it right away.

You can’t will the reality of God into your life. You can’t force yourself to think and believe differently. You have to go out and live. You have to go out and serve and share with your brothers and sisters that you don’t yet know.  You just have to notice that God is already there, working in the spaces where it feels like he is most absent.  You just have to acknowledge that perhaps God is already doing a new thing and that he wants you. No, he wants us, regardless of how we all got to this place. He wants all of us to participate in and help bring about the glory of his peaceful Kingdom.

To start off the BVS blog, we are focusing on how volunteers have been called to BVS. Read more posts about call or find out more about BVS.

Lifelong learning

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Luke 2:41-52


Prayer for the day:

Our lives are full of new opportunities and change, O God. We give you thanks, the source of all abiding knowledge. Through Word and Spirit, you enlighten our minds and transform our hearts. Bless us with a faith that trusts your promises. Amen.

Question for reflection:
What have you learned in adulthood that has enriched your personal or vocational growth? What learnings have deepened your faith that you have shared with others in an encouraging way?

 

~ Stan Dueck – Director, Transforming Practices

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Lenten Devotional written by Duane Grady, pastor of Cedar Lake Church of the Brethren (Available from Brethren Press in print and E-Book formats). Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Duane’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.

 

Constant love

Lent 2013 Cover  1 Peter 4:1-8

Question for reflection:
How do I show those around me that I love them? Who could I love better? What is preventing me from being more loving?

Prayer for the day:
I want to be loving, God, spilling over with the kind of love that transforms the world, your love. Break down the barriers that get in the way of my loving. Love me through the waiting between Friday’s crucifixion and Sunday’s resurrection, so that I, too, can love. Amen.

~ Jonathan Shively, executive director, Congregational Life Ministries

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Lenten devotional, The Practice of Paying Attention, written by Dana Cassell, Minister of Youth Formation at the Manassas Church of the Brethren. (Available from Brethren Press in print and E-Book formats) Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Dana’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.

Stealth and subversion

Lent 2013 Cover   Luke 13:18-21

Question for reflection:
What seeds have you sown recently to further the kingdom of God? Is the yeast of your life still fully alive, ready to leaven the measures of flour you have been given?

Prayer for the day:
You call us to plant the seeds of your transforming love, O God, and to make the yeast and flour in the lives of others rise toward your love. Thank you for this holy calling, for your grace and trust.

~ Donna Kline, Director of Denominational Deacon Ministry

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Lenten devotional, The Practice of Paying Attention, written by Dana Cassell, Minister of Youth Formation at the Manassas Church of the Brethren. (Available from Brethren Press in print and E-Book formats) Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Walt’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.

Jesus the child: A precocious one

Luke 2:41-52

Question for Reflection:
Who is the most “spirited” child you regularly encounter? Albeit occasionally annoying, how might God be revealed in this child’s words and actions?

Prayer for the day:
Gracious, transforming God, give us vision. When we look at young ones still growing, help us to see the potential lying just beyond the next birthday or two. Fill us will patience. Teach us how to walk with people through tricky transitions.

~ Becky Ullom Naugle, Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministry

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Advent Devotional written by Walt Wiltschek, campus pastor of Manchester University. (Available from Brethren Press in print and E-Book formats) Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Walt’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.

The baby Jesus: At the center

Matthew 1:25

 

Question for Reflection:
How are you entering sacred space today?

Prayer for the day:
God of mangers and stables, of shining stars and heavenly choruses, alert us to the arrival of your son.  Enter into our space and time in a form that we recognize as human and yet know as divine. Transform this world through the holiness of this night. Break into our lives through the cries of a baby, through Jesus the Christ. Amen.

~ Jonathan Shively, executive director, Congregational Life Ministries

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Advent Devotional written by Walt Wiltschek, campus pastor of Manchester University. (Available from Brethren Press in print and E-Book formats) Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Walt’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.