HOLY NOLY BATMAN! or where do we go from here?

Meditations on a Lectio Divina: Philippians 4: 4-9
“Rejoice in the Lord always; Again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let you requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever Is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”

“Rejoice in the Lord always; Again I will say, Rejoice”
Each week I get to rejoice in the Lord’s creation and I get to share that joy with volunteers who have come to help rebuild the city. On Wednesday nights I take them out to Bayou Sauvage and show them why what they do at home with their water matters here. ( to see more check back here for my post on the NOLA YAV site). I love my job, I get to do good work, and I rejoice in that.
“Let your gentleness be known to everyone”
Riiiggghhhttt, well since I recently had a longtime friend describe me as a teddy bear. Covered in Anthrax. Wrapped in razor wire. Comfort with emotional vulnerability might be something that I’m called to work on right now. I now refer to emotional stuff as ‘emotional goo’ as opposed to the more…creative…phrases I’ve used in the past (baby steps right?)But seriously you might find me choosing to be more emotionally vulnerable in this blog then I would be face to face- hey, I said baby steps!
“The Lord is near”
Yeah, dude better be. They warned us in orientation that emotionally gooey stuff we thought we had dealt with may come back- which is possibly a whole post. Also this month the Lord was near when they finally figured out what was wrong with the cuz and the Lord was certainly near my home church First Presbyterian Rockford.
“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let you requests be made known to God”
Parker- enough said. My best friend’s child was born this month. It was a difficult delivery for both mother and child, all are doing well now, but I spent that night- the next day- the next week in prayer. Every breath supplication, trying not to worry about what was not within my ability to FIX, to control. Wanting to be there- not here, and feeling terrified and impotent- and so I prayed and let my requests be known to God and eventually – joyfully- my prayers of supplication turned to prayers of thanksgiving.
“And the peace of God , which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heats and your minds in Christ Jesus”
As terrified as I was, there was peace in faith. Faith in the doctors, in the prayers of our family and friends, our churches and communities. Peace in the knowledge of God’s grace and healing. It still stunk.
“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things”
True, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, laudable and yet when I think on these what comes to mind is Psalm 139:14. A scripture that has haunted me, it has come up 3 times in the past month and twice on the day Parker was born. “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Magnificent are thy works. This I know well” -just something to think on.
“Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Right- got it- do the thing. Creation Care, peace and justice- Because you never could ask for a lot could you God?  Just me, just my life – just your peace

Update

I have a new post, just going through the editing process. It will be up next week, I promise  Sorry for the wait and thanks everyone.

HOLY NOLA BATMAN! or Can You Hear Me Now?!

So I am back in NOLA (finally!) and we actually have internet (woot!) and power (double woot!). The storm damage doesn't look too bad, lots of branches, one tree that was felled, a few downed power lines. It could have been worse but thank God it wasn't. The hardest part for us was not being able to really DO anything, and not in the ‘massive storm bearing down on us and we can't stop it’ kind of way, but in the ‘there are the three of us, we have to rely on other people for transportation, in a small town, at a conference center dedicated to living simply’ kind of way. We had no power or say in what was happening with our flights and we were stuck. And being stuck sucks, it is not fun, it leaves me restless and moody and not very happy. I hate being stuck. The staff, facilitators and speakers kept talking about ministries of being.
I did get to see one of my cousins. I went into New York City for a day and hung out with him. We wandered around New York, without any particular place in mind, which was a great introduction to the city. I got to see some very cool things like the Campbell apartment in Grand Central Station (we wondered about the cost per square foot) and we went to the main branch of the New York City Library. As we were walking up the stairs to explore the reading room (and eventually find the Gutenberg Bible) we had this discussion about sacred spaces. Museums, Libraries, Churches, the desert at dawn, quiet, hidden creeks and streams, sun dappled lanes; these are sacred spaces where time is thick and slow, the light liquid honey; places that demand intentionality. As we walked up those stairs to the reading rooms we agreed ‘demands intentionality’ was an apt description. Places where we must pay attention to being and to knowing-the places where, if we are still and quiet, we can hear the voice of God.
Each time our trip back was delayed, I became restless. It was difficult to be left behind, literally, and was even more difficult the longer we stayed at Stony Point.
One cannot logically ascribe intentionality to a weather system- although given the significance of the date it is tempting. I tried to spend this time of heavy, restless waiting in preparation for what we may deal with. The physical damage doesn’t seem severe, but the psychological toll on the city cannot be ignored. The memories alone are enough to make this a difficult year for the city.
This year is all about intentionality, waiting, being. I must learn to live with this restlessness, I am living in an intentional community, we have intentionally chosen to ‘give up’ a year of our lives – to move away, to change, articulate, rearrange or reinforce our boundaries. The YAVs as individuals made these choices deliberately and as a community, I hope, will deliberately choose to make space that demands intentionality in ourselves, our environment and our relationships with each other. I hope that we will be able to carve out this sacred space between us – a place where we are not restless, a place where we can sit, and be still, and know.

ALERT!

Very quick update, yes I am in New Orleans, I arrived yesterday. The place is amazing and my flatmates seem to be awesome, although we shall see how we all feel in four months. We have a 4th, Nate, along with Chad, Val and myself. I'm still processing everything and won't even see my placement site until the 31st and won't start work until the 4th of September. In between we have orientations here in NOLA and at Stony Point in New York.  I have posted my mailing address, so if you want to send letters, care packages, howlers ect... please send them to the Zimpler Street address, if you are donating to my fund please continue to send them to the Filmore address c/o Layne Brubaker. Hopefully I will have really awesome pics taken and uploaded for you guys soon. I also plan on using a journal to record my impressions of people and places when I am away from the computer so I can accurately share these experiences with you. Until then I will continue to stew, do paperwork and get to know my flatmates. Thank you everyone for all of your thoughts, prayers and support, you have no idea how much it means to me.

Pax,

Elizabeth

HOLY NOLA BATMAN! or how could you be so thoughtless?

Shortly before the shootings in Colorado, my friend David preached a sermon titled 'Dirty, Desperate Love' (it's really good, you should check it out) and I mentioned that I preferred the term disruptive love. But then the shootings in Aurora happened, and now I'm thinking I prefer the term thoughtless love.

 We all know about those who were killed, but two stories kind of made me cry a little. 

The first was the story two best friends, one of whom was one of the first people shot. Allie was shot in the neck and her best friend, Stephanie, dragged her out of the isle, applied pressure and refused to leave Allie. Allie told Stephanie to run, to get out, but Stephanie refused. She then helped carry Allie through two parking lots and up a hill to the nearest ambulance. These two young women were willing to give up their lives so that the other could live. That love makes sense to me, there isn't a whole lot I wouldn't do for my best friend, B.

Then there is the story of Jarell Brooks, the son of a pastor, an 18 year old who stopped thinking about him self when the shooting started. He was going to get out when he ran into a young mother and her two children, and he made a choice. He decided that he couldn't live with himself if he got out without helping them and they got hurt. So he shielded them and got shot in the process. These decisions became acts of  thoughtless love, none of these people were thinking about their own survival, they were thinking about others. 

Thankfully we are not routinely placed in situations like this, but these stories made me wonder how can we practice thoughtless love everyday? 

Currently I am reading a phenomenal book 'Zeitoun' that my site coordinator sent me (I just got it tonight, but I am half way through it) . It's a story about a Syrian immigrant, a building trades contractor who stayed in New Orleans during and after Katrina. He helped rescue people and fed his neighbor's dogs. Then he was detained, this is as far as I have gotten, but I do know this, he went back to rebuild the city he loves. See I know this because I have a really bad habit of reading the end of the book, and so I know he came back. This is an amazing kind of thoughtless love, this man could have left. His wife begged him to leave, and still he stayed because he could be useful, because he could help people. With every thing that goes horribly, horribly wrong in this world, these examples of thoughtless acts of love seem to prove that the best of who we are, the best of what we will be is not found in service to ourselves, but in service to others. And perhaps this is the answer, consistently and deliberately being kind, until kindness is our default rather than anger or fear. Perhaps then we will all thoughtlessly love one another. 

Pax, 

Elizabeth

HOLY NOLA BATMAN! or how did I get here?

Hi Guys! It's Elizabeth and I am a Young Adult Volunteer heading to...you guessed it! New Orleans! SO, a bit about me, I love good food, blues and jazz, and am a Sci-Fi geek. I hate snow, I mean REALLY hate snow, hence, in part, New Orleans.

A little background, I have been arguing with God about this program for about the past 5 years, obviously I lost that argument. Honestly, I have been asking God what exactly I am supposed to do when I grow up (FYI, I'm 28) and how exactly I am supposed to do this. After my first interview with Kathy I knew I was going to New Orleans, so that is both the long and the short story of how I got here. I did apply to other international sites and did consider domestic sites, but none of them were what I like to call 'prom dress'.

You see, when my parents took me shopping for my prom dress I saw the dress I wanted, it was the first dress I tried on and I knew it was the one for prom. My parents made me try on other dresses and guess what? It was that first dress. When I was getting ready to graduate high school and considering what colleges to apply to, I went to visit U of O, I knew right then, didn't bother apply to any other school and loved every second of it. Prom Dress, but I got lucky with the YAV program. See if you are interested in an international site you have to go to discernment, I almost didn't go, because Prom Dress, right? But I wanted to make sure, because I did argue with God about this program for 5 years, so I went to the discernment event. Where I met amazing and awesome people, like TJ and Tricia and David who are all going to Northern Ireland and Lacy who is going to Denver, so you should keep up with them too, I know they would appreciate the thoughts, prayers and comments, they will be doing hard work. As for what I'm doing? Well, outreach education, explaining why wetlands and the conservation and reclamation of the wetlands are important, legislative tracking and working with the wonderful Bayou Blue project (I'll post links, I promise), so I'm not really sure that I will be doing hard work, more like getting paid to have fun. I'm sure there will be days that I am frustrated and I know that is when I will need prayers and support the most, but for now I am focusing on fundraising, packing up my life, and figuring out what I need in NOLA. For now, my focus is laundry so Pax my friends. 

HOLY NOLA BATMAN! or it seemed like a good idea at the time?

My mom HATES that phrase.Why did you color the dog blue with chalk? It seemed like a good idea at the time? Why did you did you dig a trench and play World War 1 in the backyard? It seemed like a good idea at the time? Why did you bring home shark eggs in formaldehyde and put them in the bathroom right before a dinner party? It seemed like a good idea at the time? And yes these are all conversations my mom has had with my brother and me. But 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' is not exactly a good response when people ask you about why you decided to apply to the YAV program. In fact it is a very bad response. I'm not talking about the congregation or good friends or people that just get it, I'm talking about those people who don't understand. They hear 'mission' and think suits, preaching on street corners or knocking on doors and asking homeowners if they have been saved. Bible thumping. So how do you explain to people why you are going into the mission field and what exactly that means, in 30 seconds or less, thank you. How do you explain the YAV program to people who are unchurched or not Presbyterian? It's difficult, the perception of mission is rooted in history, shades of rice bowl Christianity, tempered by the specter of 'the great white burden' and imperialism. Impressions that are not easy to erase in 30 minutes, much less 30 seconds. I have the problem but no real solution except to keep listening and responding. I figure this will come up again with the communities I work with, but if anyone has any ideas I'm listening.

Pax my Friends,

Elizabeth