"Now Lay Aside All Earthly Cares"

Katy got the Psalters' chant stuck in my head, but it's not a bad thing as it encourages spiritual asceticism. At least it's not top 40 or dirty twangy country.

Thursday: 3-hour drive to Harrisonburg, VA. Six other Messiah students hopped in the family van to go to an Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship conference at Eastern Mennonite University. We were the only non-Mennonite school represented. We were provided with housing in an on-campus co-ed satellite house/"intentional community" called the Martin House.

Friday was intense intellectually. The first session helped us students both broaden and narrow the vision of peace. We broadened it by acknowledging Shalom as four-fold: peace and wholeness between man and God, man and man, man and earth, and man and himself. We narrowed it by suggesting specific acts of peace and sharing our peace histories with one another.

Following the first session were three workshop sessions (for each section we selected which workshop out of 4 we desired most to attend). I attended a workshop on growing peace and gardening, one on the American dollar's influence in Israel/Palestine, and one on racial reconciliation. There were workshops covering every topic between bicycling for social justice to starting on-campus peace initiatives.

In the gardening session, we got to hear from a local Harrisonburg resident who uses grant money to employ the chronically homeless to farm the yard. They also have an adjacent house which provides hospitality to those who need it. One employee figured out a way to implement used cigarette butts to preserve moisture. Drug dealers were now given reliable income to work for something beneficial to the community. There were intense examples given of how peace could be cultivated through ruling and caring for the earth.

Prior to the conference, I had not been well-informed about the Israeli Occupation. This is probably good though, because apparently the media paints a pretty awful picture. By paying taxes, we have given billions and billions of aid to the oppressive Israelis over the years. Ten and hundreds of millions will be contributed by each county in America by 2018 as the government budget has recently increased dramatically. A wall which can only be penetrated by the boycotting of several western companies, nonviolent protests, and the Palestinian endurance to continue with their needy lives separates the rich from the poor, the oppressors from the oppressed, the east from the west. The session was very helpful to me as I was provided with many facts and resources to write a 25 page paper on the subject this semester. Definitely a first step from knowing nothing at all. Not to mention, my conviction toward tax resistance and boycotting of damaging companies has stepped up another level.

The final session contained a discussion on a news report of a teacher calling a student a nigger, or as he tried to justify, a "nigga." We talked about the history of racism and how it's impact continues through generations. We talked about Martin Luther King Jr's longing that one day former slave owners and former slaves would sit together at the table of brotherhood. I long to see a move away from cultural diversity, and a shift toward unity in our common humanity.

We had another large-group session and went into town for dinner. There I got to speak with students from Canadian and American colleges and universities. It was great to have a common bond of peace and discover how different we were from each other. What a beautiful Church. I must also mention that I won a T-shirt as a door prize, which features six nonviolent activists.

This morning we had our final group session. Us Messiah students got together and decided that after what we learned this weekend, we should present a petition to dining services asking them for the following:

1. Reduced quantity of purchased food

2. Reduced waste of leftovers

3. Composting methods to be collected by Grantham Community Garden and other local gardens

4. Closer maintenance of the gluten-free refrigerator (my personal wish)

Of course, those who sign the petition will also be expected to use less dishes to preserve water, as well as take what they eat and eat what they take. If the dining hall does not move upon receiving this petition, which is virtually a unanimous campus complaint, we will attempt a sit-down strike in which students will not leave the dining hall until terms are agreed. $1800/semester per person should be enough power to influence faculty, and we will openly encourage staff workers at Lottie Nelson Dining Hall. I will draft the petition sometime this week (I have not been this behind of schoolwork for well over a year).

Upon returning to my new residence in Harrisburg, I found a bunch of girls preparing to go to Firm Foundation, a type of halfway house. There we heard testimonies of ex-prisoners who had endured freezing temperatures in the Dauphin County Prisons, snow blowing through their bars, and addiction recovery tales from the streets of Georgia. The event reminded me of our third workshop session in Virginia. As we broke bread at the table together, Puerto Ricans, Whites, Blacks, ex-Jehovah's Witness, etc - we recognized our common humanity, our need for Christ's flesh - his life and death, his resurrection as we are born again into a life of freedom - from drugs, from prostitution, from idolizing education.

So far I have yet to experience a night with those at the SALT House where I had to make, purchase, or otherwise obtain, my own food. This is the Eucharist. We all go our separate ways into the community tomorrow morning, for Quaker, Spanish, and non-denominational services, but we share our humanity outside the institution.

Following the meal and story-sharing, Bianca and I conversed on the topic of our cross-cultural relationships, the Post-Enlightenment dichotomy of life and death, and voluntary poverty through renouncing property. I like how guys and gals just floats around the building and set aside books for relationships.

Now back to the endless onslaught of academia.