What's the Point?

       When I first started telling people I was doing a year of volunteer service with BVS as a workcamp coordinator for the Church of the Brethren I got the following questions:


“What’s BVS?”

“What’s the Church of the Brethren?”

“What are workcamps?”

“Where will you live? Why would you want to live in Illinois?”

“Do you get paid? How much? So you’ll be poor?”

“What are you going to do afterwards?”

“What’s the point?”

       Now multiply those questions by about 20 and by the time I was getting ready to leave home I was a master at answering most of those questions. But the first time someone asked, “What’s the point?” really stuck with me. But I’m getting ahead of myself, first I should explain the context: the person I was talking to was hardcore into academia and was getting ready to start grad school at a prestigious school and in 3-5 years will be making oodles of cash that they probably won’t know what to do with. We had just finished talking about their future when we got onto mine, which is definitely not a 10 year plan. It’s more of a 1 year plan since I still have no clue what I’ll be doing once I’m done in August/September 2012. But when I explained I was moving out to Illinois to do a year of volunteer service they asked: “oh, is it to help with grad school applications?” I replied ‘no’. “So it’s to put on your resume at least?” I again replied, ‘no’; and they quickly added, “What’s the point?”

       I panicked a little because I wasn’t expecting someone to ask me that. Then I became a little furious and questions starting streaming through my head as I sat staring at their face: ‘What’s the point?’ What’s the point of dedicating a year of my life to helping those in need? What’s the point of helping youth find a way to serve others in communities across the country and abroad? What’s the point in trying to make a difference in a world run by media and political craziness?

       To say I was frustrated is an understatement. I did a little smile and so badly wanted to say, “Well what’s the point of having your doctorate in a field that won’t help anyone or anything except your bank account?” but I held back. I quickly changed the subject, not wanting to offend the person, but at the same time to preserve my memory of them as the friendly classmate who helped me with Statistics.

       Since then I’ve been asking myself, “What’s the point?” I’ve decided that there’s no one right answer: I’m doing this because I can. I have been fortunate and blessed in life and grew up in a comfortable town, have a good family, have good friends, went to a good college, and have had many opportunities to pursue a variety of different passions. Now it’s time to give back. Being a Sociology major I learned a lot about other countries compared to our own and the statistics of HIV/AIDS, poverty, discrimination, wealth gaps, and many other staggering numbers that they don’t tell you about in the news. In fact, my last semester of college I took a class in which it was all statistics about different countries and cultural reasons that contribute to their fortunes or misfortunes: Poverty, fertility, mortality, aging populations, etc. After every class I would leave either saddened or sickened by the numbers my professor would tell us. Sometimes I would even doubt them and go straight to a computer lab to look myself. And sure enough it was all true.

       So what’s the point? The point is that there are those of us who believe that showing your faith is about doing: doing a year of volunteer service, doing a 5k run to raise money for a charity, or doing a food drive to help a local food bank. Taking the risks and having the courage to step out of our comfort zones and face the real world problems of today to see how others live.

“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” –Sarah Ban Breathnach


--Cat

New BVSer

Hello, I am the new housemate. I am Denise from Germany, near Frankfurt, I am 19 years old and I like sports, crafts and music.  

On September 24, 2011 I came to America for orientation in New Windsor, MD. I really enjoyed orientation, but it was hard to find a good project. Since October 15, 2011 I have been living in the community house and working at the Church of the Brethren with Becky, Rachel, Cat and Carol. My position is “Administrative Assistant for Youth/Young Adult Ministries and Congregational Life Teams.” My job is to do mailings, help Cat, Rachel and Carol with their work, do some finance things (accounting), make reservations for the workcamps, and I am responsible for the applications for the workcamps. Hopefully I will go to three workcamps next year.

In my first week at the office I got a lot of information about what I should do. So I learned a lot about my work, the office, the community house and other important things. I really like my community house and how it is organized.

In my first weeks in the community house, we relaxed in the evening and watched DVDs. For the past 3 weeks, we have done a lot of things after work, so we were very busy. But we did nice things, for example we went out for dinner, we went to common meal, we made tiles, David Doudt lead devotions, we watched a football game, we played Wii, we did a lot for Halloween. Also, I had to do some important things, for example find out where I can get my driver’s license again (I got mine in Germany, but I have to do it again), if there is a cheaper contract for my cell phone, etc.

But now I will tell you, what happened this week:

This past weekend, Don, Cat and I went to Geneva, where we went into a spice house and bought really good spices, looked for Christmas Antiques and we ate Sushi. It was my first time eating sushi and I really liked it. Also we went by a store couple of times and it smelled very good, so we decided to go in and see what they had--they had popcorn with different toppings. Of course we bought one pack with caramel. It was a nice day, but sadly Rachel stayed at home, because she didn’t feel very well. On Tuesday, we (Cat, Rachel and I) helped Don with moving into his new apartment. It is sad, that he will not live in the community house any more, but the positive side is, that he lives about 5 blocks away but we all can still do something together.

On Friday, we went to the theater. It was my first time in an American movie theater.

Indiana Jones and the Halloween of Doom

Happy belated Halloween everyone!

I hope you all had a splendidly scare-tacular Halloween weekend! We had two parties to attend. One where we were guests, and one that we hosted ourselves.


For our first Halloween party we all decided to go as different people. Our costumes weren’t coordinated, but we looked good! :-D Good times were had by all in Goodwill and Spirit Halloween as we searched high and low for our costume pieces!


Carol as Wanda (from “Where’s Waldo)…
Cat as a hippy…
Denise in a Hawaiin theme…
Jeremy as Elwood Blues…
and Rachel (me) as a 50’s housewife (everyone thought I was June Cleaver, haha)…

 Our costumes for our own Halloween party and the theme, “Indiana Jones and the Party of Doom,” was recently decided upon our watching “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” as a house on VHS. While we were enjoying our time, watching Dr. Jones, Willie, and Short Round, we started jokingly saying we were certain characters in the movie. Voila, our costumes were born. Let me take you through the line-up.


Carol as Marion Ravenwood (she’s the female lead from “Raiders” but we let it slide because Willie from “Temple” is very—blonde)…

Cat as Short Round…

Denise as the Maharaja…

Don as Indiana Jones…

Jeremy as Mola Ram…

and Rachel (me) as a combination between a Thuggee Guard and a Thuggee Acolyte…

Then most of us dressed up for work on Monday (on the actual day of Halloween!)

Tell us what you did/who you were for Halloween! :-D

It's the Great Pumpkin...

Greetings Friends!

I know that each of you have been on the edge of your seat waiting for another great blog from the Elgin BVS House. Well here is my confession, I have been really busy and totally forgot that last week was my turn to blog, and well we don't believe in okay blogs, so I have been trying to come up with something extra special for our wonderful fans, I hope that you enjoy. Love, Carol.

So in the wonderful theme of pumpkins I am no going to tell you a story.
Once upon a time there were 6 BVSers that lived in the Elgin BVS community house. Three of them decided to go out on adventure. They went to a huge garden where pumpkins were growing. The one young man, instantly got to work finding just the right pumpkin. While the other three took their time examining each and every pumpkin. In the time that it took the young man to find three pumpkins the oldest girl still hadn't found a single one that was up to her standards. She then decided to sit amongst the pumpkins until one spoke to her, and asked her to take it home. But still she had no pumpkin to take home. It was quickly getting late and she knew that it would be getting dark and she would no longer be able to see the pumpkins. But what should she do? She knew that soon the Great Pumpkin would arrive...



As a tribute to my favorite Halloween story, here are some of the best quotes from The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

Linus - "What did you get from that house Charlie Brown?"
Charlie Brown - "a rock"


Linus - "What is that?"
Charlie Brown - "I had a little trouble with the scissors..."
Linus - "Well, that's nothing compared to the fury of a woman who has been cheated out of trick-or-treats."


Lucy - "'Alright alright! Let's bob for apples! This is the way you do it.'"
Schroeder -"'Yeah Lucy! You should be good at this! You got the perfect mouth for it!'"


Linus - "I've learned there are three things you don't discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin."

Our house these last couple of weeks have been filled with people coming in and out so things have been a little crazy. We have had some friends from Cat and Rachel's orientation come through as well as a friend from my orientation. When we have visitors in the house we usually try and do at least one fun thing with them, just our way to welcome them. So when Mike was here Jeremy and I decided that we needed to welcome fall with pumpkins. So that is exactly what we did, we went to the pumpkin patch (which was really just a vegetable stand at the side of the road). We also wanted to help Denise experience her first Halloween in the United States, so we also made her come along to the pumpkin patch. The four of us had a great time walking around and picking the perfect pumpkin (which takes some of us a little longer than others, right Jeremy?).

In closing here is a reminder from Linus. "Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker."

Cowabunga!

Hello all! Well it’s been a while since I’ve written (this is Cat by the way). It has been a week since we returned from New Windsor, MD after 3 weeks of BVS orientation. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that those 3 weeks are over and that yes, I am sitting at my desk in the office writing this blog post about the 28 wonderful people I met and who are a part of the gemeinschaft (community) of Unit 295. We had a lot of laughs as we learned and weaved through each other’s lives to understand all the differences and similarities among us that made our group unique and beautiful. And of course there were the moments where we would all get down in the dirt and work together to prepare for our year, or years for some, of service.

On one particularly fine sunny day we were leaving the Arlington Church of the Brethren to spend a day on Clagett Farm. Clagett Farm is responsible for growing produce for DC inner city projects such as the Capital Area Food Bank. When we arrived at the farm we all did some stretching as we awaited instruction on what we’d be doing. We then walked to arrive at a field and learned that we would in fact be harvesting sweet potatoes.

A word about harvesting sweet potatoes: it ain’t easy. First you find the vine that could be sometimes 5 ft in length; trace it back to the plant; use a pitchfork to loosen the dirt without spearing the potatoes; and then yank those potatoes right out of the ground. We all broke into teams of about 2 or 3: one person to ‘hunt’ for potatoes, one person to pitchfork it, and one person to carry the very heavy containers filled with the finds. As we worked it was obvious some were better at jobs than others. For example, I found myself on my hands and knees in the dirt trying to distinguish between the vines and weeds without much luck. And then there was Rachel who was like the potato whisperer and found potato clusters every few minutes. I eventually became pitchfork girl: when someone needed some dirt dug they called me over and I dug till I hit potato.

While we worked, one of the German volunteers kept saying, “Awesome!” every time we found potatoes. He asked us what other expressions he could say in addition to ‘awesome’ and being a fan of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, I taught him to say ‘cowabunga’. So for the rest of our digging time together if we found potatoes, he would yell, “Cowabunga!” with a German accent that made it sound so much cooler.

We finished off the day and as we walked back to the vans covered in dirt and some rotten potato parts, I couldn’t help but feel that our community had grown even closer. Because, really there’s no way to bond better than by sweating together and learning a valuable lesson for our time in BVS: just as there are good potatoes and rotten potatoes, there will be the good days and the bad days. But as long as we remember that we have each other to help ‘dig’, we will have a more than bountiful harvest.

“Cowabunga!”

-Cat

When the cat is away... the mice will play.

Jeremy, Don, Cat and Rachel are all at Orientation which leaves Virginia (an honorary house member) and I to hold down the fort. I know that they are all having a great time in Maryland as they work and grow.

So things back in Elgin are a little slower paced. I am still having a hard time being in the same place, and not living out of a suitcase is just weird to me. I have been working the same amount, but this week it just seemed like longer, harder days but that was for a variety of reasons.

With all my free time I have been doing a variety of things; including watching movies, hanging out with friends, baking, and going out to help colleagues. Friends and colleagues have been great about inviting me over for various activities, which has also been really great. This past weekend I was also able to go home and help my younger sister purchase a dress for the upcoming homecoming dance.

Recipes

Apple Muffins
Saute your apples with some liquid, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Then once the apples are soft, mix into your favorite muffin mixture. 

Raspberry-Pear Tart
Find your favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe and make as instructed.
Rather than making individual cookies, make one big cookie on a round cookie sheet, bake for about 20 minutes.

While this is baking, in a skillet saute sliced pears and whole raspberries with vanilla, apple juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

When the cookie has baked for 20 minutes, then add the berry mixture onto the top. Put it back in the oven and let it bake another 5 or 10 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream :)  

Books

• No Impact Man - Carbon Book for CCS
• Farewell my Subaru - Carbon Book for CCS
• Counseling Troubled Youth - book for the future :) 
• Harry Potter (1) - I have not read it yet, don't judge
• Take This Bread - reading this with the Sunday School Class

MOVIES

(I am not making a recommendation by any means, this is just what I have been watching.)

• No Impact Man - I actually watched this for work. Our CCS theme is about how we can help with the carbon problem. 
• New in Town
• Becoming Jane
• 500 Days of Summer
• The Curse of the Pink Panther 
• Remember the Titans
• A Very Potter Musical 

Reflections

Orientations

I write this sitting at my desk at the General Offices. In five days, BVS Unit 295 will commence with a meal shared among 33 individuals from everywhere in the US and even Europe. If there's one skill I've gained in this routine, it's the ability to ignore the natural tendency to panic the heck out while waiting for the coming storm. Orientation is a beautiful whirlwind, a cacophony of faiths, deeply personal beliefs forced to reconcile, lay down their arms and pick up frying pans, abandon the typical urge to prove oneself right by convincing others of your views and learn to accept the role of a pillar: We are all vital to the life of our community, but not because of who we think we are. We are vital because of who we are when we don't want to be around each other anymore. I think you truly discover who you are when you don't want to be here anymore. For me, that means when I become weary of the crowd, when I want to be alone.

Orientation is a transcendental experience for someone who has never relied on anyone else since their mother cared for their every need. A group of independent souls can be a sad-looking thing. Everyone has their own wants, their own perceived needs, and their own cultural norms. It would be easy enough to hold a conference or a seminar series for orientation. We could have a cook prepare all of the meals, and everyone would have more free time to relax, contemplate their service, and get to know each other.

But what exactly does it mean to get to know someone? Does it come from talking about music? Movies? Celebrities? Can you know someone by sharing funny youtube videos? What else do we do with our friends? These are all fine ways to relax during some free time. Left to our own devices, I believe we would follow the path of least resistance - find the people we are most comfortable with and shoot the breeze or play a game. Orientation is hard because it doesn't let you glide by doing the same things you've always done. The strangest contrast is preparing food alongside two people you just met and eating with a handful of complete strangers. Sometimes you answer deeply personal questions in front of these people - whether the question is "What is God to you?" or "How hard is it to sit still and contemplate the divine for five minutes in silence when the lights are buzzing loudly and you really have to fart?"

The strange miracle of orientation, though, is that these complete strangers become family. I've made friends in those three weeks that I could not have made in the 'real world.' Flying to your project, you feel like you've known these people for years. I used to think it was just because of how many sessions we put in the schedule - being around people twelve hours a day is uncommon. Those sessions are a shared experience, but I've shared years with classmates without feeling compelled to call them brothers and sisters. The miracle happens in the dirty work - not in discussing pop stars, but in doing dishes together. It's what happens when you have to be around people in your normally private moments - your morning prayers, your afternoon naps, your emotional trials and your frustrations. There is something of God present when you share these minutes with someone else.

You could spend your whole life serving the homeless in the shelter downtown. You could serve them lunch every day for years, sort clothing to give them, and hand them bags with every toiletry they need, and still not see them the way you see someone you eat lunch with. I dare you to buy two sandwiches in Chicago, hand one to the first homeless man you see, and eat with him, standing up, on a street corner. Do you see the thousands of people walking past you? Or do you see the man? The only words I have are: Jesus Christ, people! We spend so much time talking about what people need, how we can "fix" things - I know I do. If I've learned one thing from orientation, it is the value - the blessed ordinance of being.

Community Life

When I first joined BVS three years ago, I survived people because I lived in a trailer down the street from the weekly volunteers I worked with. As long as I could retreat to my private space, I had the solace I needed to face people, whether they were cheerful or disgruntled. Peace was only a locked door away.

Today, I live in a house with four other people, with whom I share two and a half meals each day. I work with them, share weekly devotions and a meeting with them, and unwind in the evenings with them. We often have group outings to Chicago, Wisconsin, or, sometimes, Target. For not having television, we watch a respectable number of shows together. We have also been known to play tennis. These are probably not exciting news bits for any of our friends. It's true that we spend more time together than would have been comfortable years ago. But I have to say that the most interesting parts of life in the BVS house have been the commutes to work and house meetings.

In the morning, I am not awake. When my body rises at 7:15 am, I am closer to zombie than human. I want nothing of the world but to return under my sweet blanket, and anyone else can shove off, thank you. But I get up, because I have a job to do, and God help me if I don't do it. Any of my housemates from the last two years will gladly tell the story of that one time when I actually was perky - when I offered Clara a glass of orange juice, or when I was the first one awake and in the kitchen this Monday. Normally, though, I'm disgruntled. I hate the world because it exists and it's bright. This is something I'd rather keep private, because I know that soon enough I'll wake up and be capable of polite interaction with others. Driving to work, though, feels like being shaken awake, thrown into a hamster cage with four others and having a child carry it around a room excitedly pretending to be an astronaut or something. What I mean to say is that we don't have a choice, this is life for us. It takes a week, at most, to realize that you can't survive by falling back asleep on the drive because the roads suck! So, here you are, uncomfortable, and unable to return to the comfortable life you knew before. You can a) quit or b) get over yourself. Mornings still aren't 'fun' by any means, but we know how to get by: how to prepare lunch together speaking only in grunts, when to change the radio station, when you've been asked to drive ,without words, but simply by the fact that the keys are still on the table. These mornings aren't particularly memorable, but living them out together is just one more strange thing about living in the Elgin house that doesn't translate well to the outside world.

House meetings are fun because we all sit down and gripe at each other about everything that bothers us - whether that's the drippy faucet that we want fixed, or how years of long-haired volunteers have clogged the shower drains like a McDonald's addict's arteries, or how someone drove to Target without conferring with the group first. Some people say don't sweat the small stuff, some people say focus on the big picture. But the truth is, when you spend so much time together, the small stuff becomes big stuff.

These things become huge when they happen consistently, and I think their weight is magnified by the nature of the community. Your patience is slowly worn away like a rock in a stream, smoothed bit by bit. It will survive a rainy season, but eons of a current will polish it until there is nothing left. With no power to deal with our frustrations, we lash out and hurt each other, distancing the people that are closest to us.

We can't escape each other, so we can't bottle up our discontent for another time. The only "another time" we have is the end of our year together, and that's a long time away! That's why we felt so refreshed after Christmas break last year- because we had some time apart to let out the frustration and realize that, aside from the fact that we hated each other sometimes, we actually liked each other. Just like being forced to get to know each other at orientation, living through the crises of community life can form bonds that are not easily broken.

Crisis creates change, it opens the door for us to consider how we ought to act - and if we actually do, we can change our character. When things get stressful at home, I can shut off, hole myself up, and drown everything out in music and books. At orientation, you have to actually solve the crisis. It isn't fun, no one wants to do it, and you might hate each other while you work it out. But afterwards, when you are only left with the memory of how unpleasant it was, the shared experience creates a bond that is stronger than any immature disaffection. This is where true friendship is made - by sweating through the struggle and suffering together.

In community life, you can't solve all of the small problems - you will never "fix" your housemates so that everyone becomes best friends. We aren't friends, we are family; you don't get to choose your family, but you can choose how to treat them. Instead of retreating to my room to let the storm pass over, I want to say I can weather it. I have to be able to ignore my ego and the feeling of wrong that bubbles up whenever my stupid pride is hurt, I have to forgive my family as much as they forgive my shortcomings.

I've seen the Henry Nouwen video enough to know: "Being is more important than doing, the heart is more important than the mind, and being together is more important than being alone."