Seeing Faith

JVC is founded on four main pillars that are suppose to help shape your experience during your JV year. The pillars are Community, Social Justice, Simplicity, and Spirituality. Living in Community is pretty self explanatory in that everything in shared and the group must discuss decisions together, but it is an experience you cannot really understand unless you have lived in Community.  Social Justice is the work we are doing at our placements. Simplicity is a life style that we as a community have chosen to live: to become more aware of our impact on the earth and conscious of what value we place on material things. Spirituality is a harder pillar to define because it takes form in many different personal ways. But basically it is creating a safe place for the community to come together to pray, meditate, discuss religion, or just be solidarity together. Two weeks ago was another retreat that JVC sent us on. This retreat was based around spirituality and that meant it was a silent retreat. It was a 5 days long and just outside of Atlanta GA on a beautiful Jesuit retreat site in the woods. The silence lasted about 3 days and was probably the most relaxing time to myself i have had in a long time. We had individual rooms and bathrooms which allowed for plenty of separate space. We also had free rain of the entire property which was covered with wonderful trails and benches. The quiet gave me the time to relax that i needed. And time to think about my year so far. Also i loved being out in nature! Green trees, grass, a river, some streems, it smelled wonderful and was unimaginbly refreshing.

I do not nessesarly have to leave the city to see faith, however. My guests remind me every day that God is watching out for us. Their faith is some of the strongest i have ever witnessed. Michael for example reads the Bible (out loud) every day and always has something to say about God. One day Don got a call from Father Tom at the church next door about one of our guests who was up on the alter preaching. Don walked over to the church and found Michael passionately speaking the word, reading from the Bible, and walking up and down the alter. It was luckily not during a service so there was not harm done but he wasn't really allowed to be up there. Don got Michael to come back to the center and showed him a different place he could preach. Michael now stands on the small porch outside Dons office, at the back of the center, and preaches to who ever wants to listen. Mostly its the parking lot and big hospital buildings who listen but Michael is not worried about his audience, he just loves to talk about God. You can hear him for the inside of the office for about 2 hours everyday. He also has lots of jokes, loves word searches, calls eyelashes 'lid-hairs' (because the word 'lash' is a negative term in the Bible), plastic bags are 'carry-sacks,' he wears polo shirts buttoned all the way up, and thinks he is the funniest person alive: he is constantly cracking himself up.

Sandra is another amazing example of Gods work. It has taken Anne, Emily, and I a long time to earn her trust. Clearly a lot has happened to her which has contributed to her mental illness. She is always talking or yelling to herself, or to God, dancing around (she has a very high, high kick), gesturing with her arms, and generally expressing herself with no mind to the people around her. But she is a very sweet woman once you take the time to listen to her and get to know her. Sometimes she will pause look up to the sky, point to someone, nod, and then start talking again. That is the way she talks to God, its her prayers. Her favorite color is purple. And when i say her favorite that is an understatement. She owns nothing but purple cloths: head to toe, socks, undies, t-shirts, everything. Anne, Emily, and I knew we had gained her trust when one day she brought us each a purple shirt to keep. She gets a shy but happy smile on her face every time she sees us wearing our purple shirts. I asked her one day why she loves purple so much and she said it is Gods color, that children of God should wear purple, always.

I have talked about Morris before but he is another guest who is constantly reminding me to have faith. He gives great high fives but not just one at a time, he does three in a row. He explained that you have to give three high fives every time for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In New Orleans when someone wants to give you a big thanks they say 'God Bless.' I have heard that before but in New Orleans it just seems to mean more. They also say, 'Im'a gon'a dance at yur weddin!' which I also like. Anne and I are going to have a lot of dancing happening at our weddings :)

God Bless!

Gifts from the Heart

When given the opportunity some people love to show their affection or thankfulness in lots of different ways.  Anne and I are given weekly Sprites and Snickers from Glenn who likes to show his gratitude by bringing us things he can buy with his food stamps. Sometimes we will be sneakily handed a 5 dollar bill or some change which we try to not accept but if that is how someone wants to say thank you than we do not want to insult them. The tips normally go into the "After Work Margarita!" jar :) Sandra (the lady who loves the color purple) went out and bought Anne, Emily and I our very own purple shirts. The shirts are a bit small but we wear them under our work shirts some times so when she comes we can show her we have them on. For Valentines Day, Lane gave us Christmas cards with the 'Christmas' crossed out and replaced with 'Valentines Day.' Billy gives out necklaces to everyone (except Don) who works at the Harry Tompson center. These necklaces are very special to him and have come from the, "depths of the bayou, while i was out alligator hunting (says Billy)." Herbert and Taushiem made me flowers out of toilet paper. We are given books in all shapes sizes and conditions. Beads beads and more beads, all year round. And today Roxanne came up to me right before lunch started and handed me a large plastic bag with a painting in it. I was not sure what it was at first but thanked her and told her how it was not necessarily but she insisted that i deserve it. She wanted to do something special for me after everything i have done for her. I pulled the painting out of the bag later and discovered this gem of a painting! Its a rather large replica of a Jesus painting that you can find in just about every GoodWill, Salvation Army, thrift store, back yard, garage, grandmothers basement, convent (Sister Mags said they have one in her house), and now the JV's house in New Orleans. 

If not the best gift from this year, at least the most memorable!