Birthdays and Beginnings

Hello all,

It's only been a month that I've been living in the BVS house and I already feel like there are so many fun memories and stories that I could share. This month has been a very busy one for all in the house. There has been lots of traveling, lots of dinner-ing, lots of game playing, and lots of exercising together, among many other things. It obviously has been a time of transition for all of us, but we have been enjoying getting to know one another as well as the wonderful Brethren community in Elgin. One special thing about our first month together was that we celebrated two birthdays! Kristen's birthday was on September 5th. The big storm that came through Elgin hit on her birthday, leaving the offices and the house without electricity. So, dinner was a bit of an adventure, but we then all went to a play together and enjoyed some gluten-free cake afterwards. Hannah's birthday was on the 11th. We celebrated with a waffle and game night at Cat, Don, and Russ's (also known as CDR in our house). Here are some pictures:

Kristen and her cake :)

Chelsea and Cat with Hannah and her waffle cakes!

After recently going home because of my step-sister Samantha's unexpected passing, it has been a blessing to be able to come back to a home-away-from-home where I feel loved and comforted. I'm looking forward to the next eleven months in Elgin with new friends.

With love, 

Theresa

The Miles Accumulate

I've been back in BVS now for about eight months. In those 240-ish days I have done a lot of traveling. Yes, I was well aware that this was a large part of what I'd be doing in my position with recruitment and public relations. Still, to think that I've covered more than 30,000 miles between plane, train, car, and bus since then is pretty impressive, and that doesn't include the commute to the office, airport runs, and grocery trips!

Sometimes the travel can be very rewarding. Driving to the eastern shore of Maryland to work with an orientation unit may be a long haul, but being part of the beginning of a dozen different BVS stories makes it worth the miles. There have been three separate occasions where I've met up with a young adult to discuss ways to better connect with the youth they're involved with only to find out that the young adult is considering joining as a volunteer! The amount of scenery I've seen that tugs on your heartstrings for one reason or another is innumerable at this point.

Other times the distance, destinations, and discussions are disheartening at best. The intelligent college grad decides to pursue graduate studies rather than volunteering for a year. Individuals connected to the greater church make a dig at me because I'm connected to the national offices. A representative of a college or other organization stops e-mailing me just before a trip where I planned to see them without ever giving a reason. Ugh.

While I'm entirely aware that much of my work is planting the seeds of an idea that may come to fruition years from now, it's still frustrating to see the number of volunteers in our program declining this year. True, last year may have been a more plentiful time as far as our participant numbers are concerned, but we weren't bursting at the seams or anything like that. Considering how much of my time is devoted to connecting specifically to congregations and individuals within our denomination, it's hard to see a summer unit with less than 10% of the unit coming from within the church. Yeah, it's good outreach and I wouldn't dream of switching out any of the non-Brethren participants to increase our percentages. Still, numbers like that aren't easy to see and continue to believe that my work is fruitful and that the future of the organization is promising.

Maybe this is on my mind because of where I was most recently: California. Prior to my move out here I was living outside of a small mountain town in the southern mountains of The Golden State. This last trip was partly personal vacation days to attend my former-suitemate-turned-boss's wedding on the beach. I know I was getting burned out a bit from my work there, but there are a lot of good things, good people that I left behind when I chose to reenlist in BVS. How do you know that you made the correct decision to leave a paying job that suites you in a geographic region you love and amongst people that fulfill you to come to travel more non-commute miles in a year than many will travel in their lifetime with a home base that has yet to grab ahold of your heart?

You don't. There's no clear answer. And it sucks.

Instead of giving up and backpedaling my way outta town, it's time to dig in and try for a bit longer. Maybe I'm just starting to hit my stride and things will improve at work. Perhaps there will be a bumper crop of stellar volunteers coming in during 2015. There's a chance that Elgin will still find a way to grow on me more than it has at this point. And maybe nothing will change and I'll finish out my time here because I feel obligated to complete what I said I would do.

I'm a big fan of having this house blog because I believe it allows for a glimpse into our lives - professionally and personally as housemates. That said, it feels a bit odd to be getting ready to click "Publish" on something that isn't cheery or upbeat and may not even qualify as contemplatively pensive. However, it's good to outwardly state that there are going to be days where the work you do doesn't feel important or that there may not be much to be hopeful about as you look forward. At the end of the day, though, it's all part of what it takes to be a BVSer. The road that shapes you may not rise with you, but rather in spite of the load you carry. The wind will knock over your trees, the sun with burn your skin, and the rain will flood the streets.

And you'll continue on, adding up the miles, because that's what a BVSer does.

Out With The Old and In With The New!

      A week ago I returned to Elgin after being on the road all summer long. Being "on the road" is something that many of the housemates here do, whether it's leading Workcamps all summer, leading conferences or orientations, or recruiting for BVS - we all have our share of "oh the road" time. But, I say this in a more literal way lol. I just returned back from a cross country bike trip, starting May 1st at the coast of Virginia, and in a round about way, ending in Cannon Beach, Oregon. If you want to read more, check out bvscoast2coast.brethren.org! I left Elgin, in April, with a full home of housemates, only to return with almost a completely new set of housemates. A little weird to say the least, but I've been loving getting to know each of them, and it's been fun seeing the difference in house dynamics.

     Without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you our new housemates! Kristen Hoffman, Hannah Shultz, and Theresa Food! Kristen is working on Junior High Conference and Christian Citizenship Seminar (CCS), and Hannah and Theresa are planning and leading Workcamps! They'll each have times to blog, so I'm sure you'll meet them more later! Welcome to the  BVS House !! :)

As you can imagine, with a house that has had many different people living in it over the years, you collect a lot of random things. Since each person only is living here for a short amount of time it's hard to feel ownership over all the random things to sort through them and throw out the random junk. But! Today we did just that! With the help of many gracious people, we went through the garage, basement, linen closet, flower beds, and chainsawed the tree that had fallen in our yard yesterday, from a huge storm that passed through. (side note: we didn't attempt the scary attic) There's still lots to do, but it's a start.  

Glad to be cleaning up the house, getting rid of the old and welcoming the new!! 

Chelsea

When you have zucchini, you eat zucchini.

Hey friends!

It has been an exhausting, exhilarating, extraordinary couple of weeks in Colorado for National Youth Conference. Sarah, Tim, Renee, Jenna, and I were all in Colorado for NYC and 4/5 of us are home! Jenna is still out on her workcamp adventures, but she has started her final workcamp and will come home Sunday. Ben is on the east coast—living the BVS orientation life as a BVS orientation assistant.

With all of our little family out and about for a couple weeks, we came home to an unruly garden! It was a joy to see our little baby plants full grown and producing peppers, okra, yellow beans, purple peas, corn, and ZUCCHINI. Oh my goodness-HUGE zucchinis!

When we came home we picked three HUGE zucchini’s from the garden and then found two more HUGE zukes in the fridge! I decided that we HAD to use up this zucchini in a meal this week. I decided to try making stuffed zucchini and instead of meat, we had some meatless protein donated from Renee’s family! That took 2 zukes. I also added in some zucchini yeast rolls-that are really just yummy yeast rolls…with little green specks of zucchini. They were delicious and took about one medium zuke to make.

The best part was that Tim decided to whip up his signature zucchini brownies! (Which took another half a HUGE zuke!) We have been blessed abundantly by our zucchini plants!

When I was looking for zucchini recipes, I was browsing Simply in Season. A cookbook created by the Mennonite Central Committee. They add little snippets from the contributors of the cookbook and beneath one of the zucchini recipes was a little story from a woman who had spent time in Guatemala. She was reflecting that her Guatemalan friends remarked that “When you have bananas, you eat bananas. When you have corn, you eat corn.” Their life was so dependent on their crops—if their gardens suffered their family directly suffered by not having enough to eat. So, having too much of one thing wasn’t something to roll their eyes about, instead they gave thanks for the abundance in their lives. The woman was reflecting on her abundance of zukes and having so many zukes left her feeling grumpy about having so many zukes she didn’t know what to do with them! Finally, she said she has learned to appreciate her abundances when they come and “when we have zucchini…we eat zucchini!” 

Not wanting to let our zucchini’s go to waste means we had a meal bursting with zucchini! I loved that! It’s a blessing to be away for two weeks and come home with a garden that is full to bursting with harvest to reap. It’s been a spiritual practice to spend time in the garden the past three months…planting, weeding, watering, transplanting. It’s a sacred thing to work in the garden and watch little plant babies pop up out of the ground. And now they’re producing fruit! I am one proud Garden Mama.

I don’t rely on our little BVS garden to survive from day to day for physical nourishment, like some communities around the world might. But it has helped to maintain my sanity and it’s so special to eat something that my little plant babies have grown. In small ways, our garden has kept me healthier and made me feel more alive these past three months.

So, when we have boocoos of zukes—you better believe we’re not letting one go to waste.

Peace & an abundance of zucchini to all, 

Katie

Do you have a garden? Do you have an abundance of anything? What’s your favorite zucchini recipe?

The Kitchen

I wrote and shared this poem at a Forum for Theological Exploration retreat that Sarah, Jenna, and I attended in at the end of April. The retreat was in Auburn, WA--outside of Seattle! It was a gorgeous place to be! Many of the attendees were also members of intentional communities made up of volunteers! It was a refreshing, unique space to be in! I shared this poem during the "coffeehouse" that they had on our last night! It's been quite a while since that happened and I wanted to share it with all of you! Also, a gratuitous picture of our family right before Easter!

Tim, Sarah, Chelsea, Ben, Jenna, & Katie

The Kitchen

In my house

When I want to be with

Someone

I come

To the kitchen

And I sit

At the kitchen table.

Organically people may

Emerge—

Stretching on the floor after a run,

Shuffling pots and pans for dinner,

Reading a book in the glorious sun.

It is the heartbeat of our home,

Thumping to daily rhythms.

In the midst of cooking,

The kitchen becomes—

A stage

Our impromptu dance parties

Filling the spaces between

Linguine and cheddar cheese

With a warm cup of tea

And a listening ear—

I’ve stepped into

A therapy session

The linoleum floor bouncing back

The sacred words of our hearts.

With a hefty bag of thrifted finds—

The fluorescent lights reflect

The dazzling uniqueness of

A fashion show that only cost

Ten dollars.

In the heart of our home—

The kitchen

Our dancing stage

Can easily deteriorate to

An arena.

With a warrior on either side

Poised

For a death match.

The vibrations of the floor

Reverberating

Angry words and weighty sighs—

Slammed doors and broken conversations.

The fluorescents illuminate

The cracking pieces—

Shining lights into the deepest,

Darkest,

Most selfish parts of

Ourselves.

And yet,

Those four walls

With open cabinets and an

Alphabetized spice rack—

Hold us—all.

As we come

To the kitchen table—

Angry with housemates.

Disappointed with work.

Fists clenched.

Jaw tightened.

Something—happens.

Our hands open,

Reaching across the table

To hold another.

Fingers unfurl—

White knuckles regain their color.

Jaws relax,

Exhaling prayers

And

Inhaling the love inside

Homecooked food.

Eating brown rice or white,

Coconut curries and

One-pot-wonders

We slowly find our way

Back

To each other

To self.

The kitchen holds us—

Maybe better than we hold

Each other

Because

The heartbeat of our home

The kitchen

Is that place that

Grace lives.

--

Love,
Katie

Texts From Your Average Work Week

Well, it certainly has been a while, but here I am again.  Since my last post I've traveled at least 6,000 miles - some by car, some by train, some by plane, and even a few on foot (carbon footprint, anyone?).  Rather than try to catch you up on all of the places I've been, I'll try to give you an idea of what the past week has been like.  To do that, I'm going to look through some of my texts from the past week and share them with you.

"Did your flight leave ok? There was a fire on a back runway when I drove back to work." - boss person

Actually, no, my flight didn't leave okay.  This was a week ago on Tuesday.  The entire plane boarded, taxied out on the tarmac, then proceeded to sit for more than two hours while we waited to see if we'd make it into the air.  When we started heading back to the gate to deplane, a few of the passengers found out the flight had been cancelled before the flight attendants.  Pleasant.

"The situation made the national news!" - director of camp (Mardela!) where I was heading

My flight wasn't the only one cancelled that day.  There were about 1,000 flights cancelled at O'Hare and another 125 at Midway (shared control tower).  You can imagine how much fun it was stepping back into the airport (with zero instructions for what to do next).  It looked like a cross between a refugee camp and an angry ants' nest.  I buddied up with a couple other people from the flight and we compared notes as we tried to find phone numbers for rebooking and where the next outgoing flight to Baltimore (or DCA) might be.

"No, I'll plan to stay here if the flight doesn't go. Still waiting..." - me

American Airlines automatically re-booked me for a flight the following morning at 9:20AM (thanks?).  Being that I was flying back Thursday morning, this would've cut my time at the camp pretty short so I tried my luck with stand-by - no luck on the 4:50PM flight.  Next up: 9:15PM.  They rolled over the stand-by list so I was #4 in line.  If I didn't make it on there, it would be late enough that I wasn't interested in getting picked up, driven home, sleeping a few hours, then waking up and having someone drive me back to the airport in rush hour traffic for the morning flight.  After all,

"I'm a BVSer, remember? ;-)" - me

This year of serving isn't going to be the cushiest experience of my life and I'm entirely fine with that.  It's good to be reminded of the luxuries we have in our lives such as constantly available food (albeit, over-priced at the airport), cell phones for instant communication gratification, and 21,794 back-up plans available.  It wasn't that long ago that this situation would've involved a call from a payphone saying, "Hey, the flight's been cancelled.  I'm on stand-by for the next flight but might not fly out until the morning.  I'll call you when I get to Baltimore."  Done.

"Just passed the Naval Academy exit. :-)" - me

One of my co-workers from back at the outdoor school in California where I used to work had texted me a couple of weeks ago to say she was heading past Nokesville (my hometown) and waved for me.  She used to work at a farm near Annapolis and had a few very good friends at the Naval Academy so she'd spent some time there.  It's always nice to have a reason to let someone know that you're thinking of them.

"It's snowing here. Ugh." - me

That one went to Mom.  Yes, it snowed on Friday.  We're not talking three or four flurries.  These were the big ol' fatty flakes that you can see from the other side of the warehouse.  Luckily, the temperatures stayed above freezing so nothing stuck, but it snowed for a good solid three or four hours before it tapered off.  Weather can be weird.

"Happy Birthday, Doc-a-saurus!" - me

This was to a couple of friends that I worked with back at the outdoor school who had gathered for a birthday celebration.  Doc got his name from having the initials PHD.  The dinosaur reference is because he's a Jurassic Park fan.  It's good to hear about friends' crazy weekends.

"We are going to do our best to make it in time to see y'all before you leave." - husband of one of my super cool Cincinnati housemates

This week we head out to Young Adult Conference in a big white van, collecting BVSers (including our cycling housemate) and a recent seminary grad along the way.  At about the time we leave, one of my housemates from Cincinnati will be arriving for a friend's wedding and staying in our house that night.  It'll be a tight squeeze, but we're hoping they get here before we need to leave so we can at least do a hug-n-run.

"Hey, a Ben Bear!!!!! Okay!!!" - my newest best friend I haven't met yet

She attends the Oak Grove Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, VA.  I'll be traveling in that neck of the woods after Young Adult Conference for about a week and she's been itching to meet me.  Admittedly, she makes me feel like a bit of a rock star.  I'm trying not to let it go to my head.

"Ha, you need more time to accomplish everything? And who doesn't dream of a longer work day. That just sounds fantastic, lol." - my friend who got to hear about my schedule

Yup, some of us have been going back to the offices after the evening slows down and on weekends so we can get a bit more work done.  We all love what we do here, but so often if seems that there are simply not enough hours in the day.  We've come to find that we're not the only ones who have this dilemma; it's not uncommon to find there are other staff here at midnight on a Monday.  Keeping that in mind, this blog is done - back to work!

Ben

Kendra Johnson becomes Kendra Harbeck

The BVS house took a road trip to Cedar Falls, Iowa to support our previous housemate, Kendra Johnson in her wedding to Josh Harbeck! We look so fancy!

From left to right: Katie Cummings, Tim Heishman, Jenna Stacy, Ben Bear, and Sarah Neher

Enjoy! - Jenna Stacy