Reach peace

Peace cannot be reached

A parable from the Shalom Center in Chile

“There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.” Ghandi

A young learner asked her teacher how to arrive at the destiny that all humans dream of reaching: to live in peace.  The teacher answered, “you must walk.”

The first path the learner chose was a main road with much traffic, noise and pollution.  People ran crazily hither and thither, some blabbing on cellphones, others staring straight ahead, and none paying attention to anyone else.  In the midst of the tumult, between the honking and the bodies in constant movement, two small girls where jumping and twirling gaily around their young mother.  They greeted each passerby and smiled to those who responded as well as to those who didn’t.  When they reached the young learner, they shouted “hello!” with giggle of pure happiness and went on to play tag around a light post.  The road continued as busy as before with its noisy congestion and smoky haze.

The second path taken by the young learner was an alley between high walls.  No one else walked the narrow street.  People in this part of town kept their fears at bay inside their fortified homes. A solitary cat meowed and jumped from a rooftop to the tapered crest of a wall.  The young learner and the cat walked on together:  the girl along the alley whispering her thoughts out loud and the cat bounding from ridge to ridge with perfect balance and occasional purrs. They enjoyed each other’s company until the end of the narrow way.  The cat said good-bye with one last meow. 

The third path lead the learner into green fields decorated here and there with flowers and stands of bushy trees.  She was alone, but she didn’t feel lonely.  The sun warmed her, the wind unsettled her hair and the birds sang and swooped.  She wandered along, stopping to breathe deep, look and listen.

When she finally returned from her walking, her teacher asked, “Which is the path that leads to the destiny called peace?” And the young learner, now the wiser for her walking, answered, “one cannot get to peace; one can only choose to carry peace on which ever path one walks.”

Elena Huegel

June 2009

Centro Shalom in May

My weekends

     Like most people who work with churches, my weekends are usually very full and this past one, was no exception.  It really started on Thursday when I went to the Shalom Center to begin preparing for the very first group to use the "still-in-development-stage" initiative games, low- elements challenge course.  Since January and February when there were groups helping to set up the course, the berry bushes and wild roses had time to send tendrils out and around the posts and paths.  I spent all of Thursday hacking away at the encroaching plants, which by the way, are non-native pests brought in by the loggers who worked this land before the church owned it.  It was a beautiful day with a cool breeze, and I enjoyed the hard work even with the scratches and cuts from the thorns.
      As the sun set, I went to visit our nearest neighbor.  He is a former Catholic seminarian, three times divorced, left-leaning, grass roots,  political activist who had many escapades during the years of the dictatorship.  I spent about three hours drinking coffee and listening to another series of stories of those years: Arrests, miraculous escapes, hiding illegal literature under the bathtub and praying that it wouldn't be found.
   Friday I spent the day at the new challenge course site setting up one of the new elements.  First I had to clear a large patch of berry bushes and then dig several holes with the post hole digger.  A word about the post hole digger.  They do not exist in Chile.  I would even dare to say that the Shalom Center post hole digger is the only one in the country.  It was brought, at my special request, by one of the Conpaz delegations from the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC in a modified golf bag.  I image it caused some bewilderment as it was loaded on the plane and passed through customs.  The master builder in Chile, a big burly man, refuses to give up his spade for digging holes, claiming that the post hole digger is a tool for girls.  Well, since I am a girl, I am free to use it with no need to consider my pride.  And I dig deeper holes that are just the right size in the same amount of time it takes for him to dig his.
    But on Friday, the master builder was not with me, so I could dig with no need to compete!  Once the posts were in, then I set up the rest of the ropes and other pieces I designed for this element of the course.  It involves blindfolds and a rope and requires the team to communicate exclusively with mooing sounds! I also spent the last two hours before sunset, clearing the leaves of the labyrinth which we also will use with the challenge course.
   Friday evening, I built a fire in the woodburning stove to warm up the Welcome House, heated water, and set the table for the group which finally arrived at about 11 pm, excited and full of questions about this new Shalom Center activity which we have called the Challenge Forest.  We went to bed ready to get up early and try it all out.
    At about 5:30 in the morning on Saturday, I woke up to the sound of a downpour.  I turned off my alarm. No use in thinking about going to the Challenge Forest in the rain.  We all slept until about 9am, had a leisurely breakfast, chatting and laughing as it continued to rain.  I spent two days battling against the berry bushes to then have to cancel due to rain but it didn't damped my spirits!  It was a gift of tea, rain, and time to chat with each of the members of the Shalom Center staff who had separated this weekend to learn about the Challenge Forest.
    On Saturday afternoon, we arrived back in Talca in time for a meeting, and right at the end of the meeting, at about 8pm, we received the news that the grandmother of a young man who used to be on staff at the Shalom Center had died.  I drove a group an hour in the continuing rain to the wake, spent two hours with this young man and his family, and then drove another hour home just past midnight.
     Sunday morning I was up early for church, and then immediately afterwards drove two and a half hours to Rancagua, picking up two young women on the way, to an orientation meeting for those who will be traveling to the US in June and July.  Carol and Juan Carlos will be spending about ten days with the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ while Marta will be spending a month with the Disciples in Missouri.  I dropped the young women off on my home and got back just past midnight again.
    I share a couple of pictures from the Shalom Center, taken while I was working on the Challenge Forest.

Rainbow

I´d write for you a rainbow

I´D WRITE FOR YOU A RAINBOW

by Ann Weems

If I could, I´d write for you a

rainbow

And splash it with all the

colors of God

And hang it in the window of

your being

So that each new God´s

morning

Your eyes would open first

To Hope and Promise.

If I could, I´d wipe away

your tears

And hold you close forever in

shalom.

But God never promised I

could suffer for you,

Only promised I could love you.

That I do.

The Brooklyn Bridge

Inspirational Stories

Determination
By Author Unknown

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.

"We told them so."
"Crazy men and their crazy dreams."
"It`s foolish to chase wild visions."
Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.
He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.

It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.

He touched his wife's arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Video on activities in Paraguay and Resistencia

Here is a short video of photographs taken during the activities of April at the Jack Norment Camp in Paraguay and with the Christian Church DOC in Argentina.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYTwbLw7aGo&list=HL1367612705&feature=mh_lolz

Community Center in Remansito, Paraguay

I hope you all enjoy this video I just finished. The photographs are from Remansito, a barrio on the outskirts of Asunción.  My friend, Carolina Fernández, coordinates the project.  Patricia Gómez, from the Shalom Center, and I facilitated a workshop on Learning for Transformation - relationships that change lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUhmVYJH8m4&feature=em-upload_owner