Transition

This past weekend we travelled 11 hours through the beautiful landscapes of Arizona and New Mexico to Ghost Ranch for a transition retreat closing our last year of service in Belfast.  Karl and I are not the only second year YAVs in Tucson, so we were accompanied by Ellison, who served in Belfast with us, Austin, who served in Guatemala, and Brandon, our site coordinator, during our journey.  We spent the long drive beginning to re-remember and reflect on our experiences of the previous year.  Brandon prompted us with questions like, “Who are some people who impacted your time in an unforgettable way,” and “When did you feel you had completely arrived in your place of service?”  We took turns sharing and listening to stories of people and occasions which touched and changed our lives last year. 

I realized during our moments of sharing in the car that I had not spent a lot of time intentionally recalling moments of our past year.  Since returning from Belfast, Karl and I have had a generally smooth transition.  We have had a few bumps in the road, but are slowly learning how to move on from last year while still remembering and incorporating the lessons we learned and relationships we gained through our time with the people of Belfast, the congregations of Whitehouse and Woodvale and the 174 Trust.  It was nice to have the car trip to warm-up my mind and soul for the events that were to come during the transition retreat.  When the rest of the volunteers arrived at Ghost Ranch we jumped straight into worship and group processing activities.  The facilitators of the event helped us to understand the stages of transition (remembering the journey, letting be and moving on) by sharing their own personal stories and facilitating small group discussions.  Talking through how this transition is going with other YAVs, YAV Alumni and YAV staff was very helpful, and I am thankful for the thought and consideration the YAV program puts into helping us transition into our next stage of life. 

The most powerful part of the weekend was when we came together with our entire group from Northern Ireland and had a hand washing/healing service.  We took the time to share with one another what we are in need of healing for or from as a result of our experiences this past year.  The potential for this type of exercise was enormous, and our group took advantage of the opportunity which presented itself.  Rather than hide our feelings and thoughts from one another, we opened up and became so very vulnerable in our group.  We shared about parts of us we had to hide during the year, feelings of guilt and shame, brokenness amongst our families and friends as a result of changes in ourselves, and shortcomings of the community we shared as a group of volunteers in Belfast.  We spent over an hour sharing, crying, laughing, praying and washing ourselves clean from our sufferings and pains.  At the end of the service, we felt whole and felt a great sense of closure for our Northern Ireland group.

As we were leaving Ghost Ranch to head back to Tucson, back to our next step in life, I felt a little burdened.  I felt the physical and emotional exhaustion of the processing and reflection from the retreat, I felt the sadness of saying goodbye to so many YAVs who served with me and who I don’t know when I will see again, and I felt my past year in Northern Ireland crashing into my new year in Tucson.  The beauty of it though is that my past experiences are colliding with my new experiences.  I might not know how exactly the people, places and things I learned and am learning are going to come together in the future, but I do know that God has placed Karl and I in these places for a reason.  He is allowing us to try new things, to succeed and fail at these new things, to go new places, to meet new people, to experience His call and to live our life to the fullest in this world He created. 

Norn' Iron Group

Beautiful Scenery of Ghost Ranch

Chimney Rock

 

Building Hope

In the past 24 hours I have interacted with two individuals who inspired me and helped me to fall further in love with the work that I am doing with Habitat Tucson.  The first interaction took place at a Sunnyside Neighborhood Association meeting, in which I got to meet some of the community members of Habitat’s Neighborhood Revitalization focus neighborhood.  The president of the association is a kindhearted woman with a gentle but fiery spirit.  She has a passion for building her community and for making the environment around her pleasant and welcoming to all who enter. 

During her address to the meeting she told us that she had some sad news to share.  She said that there was a divorce in the neighborhood.  When I heard this, I immediately thought that she was sadly sharing about a divorce of one of the neighborhood families.  She elaborated though and shared that the neighborhood adjacent to Sunnyside split over a zoning issue.  What used to be a harmonized community next door was now a divided group of individuals.  When sharing this news, the president was near tears, I could tell she was truly hurt from the situation.  She used the circumstance, though, to inspire peacemaking in the residents of Sunnyside, urging the community members at the meeting to learn from the situation of their neighbors and to never go down that same road. 

She shared some wisdom on peace from a legendary Native American leader named Hiawatha, a follower of The Great Peacemaker who proposed the unification of the Iroquois peoples.  In the words of Hiawatha:

Never disagree seriously among yourselves.

Your skin must be thick to stand for what is right in your heart.

Exercise great patience and goodwill toward each other in your deliberations.

Never disgrace yourself by becoming angry.

Let the good tidings of peace and righteousness be your guide in all your decisions.

Cultivate good feelings of friendship, love, and honor for each other always.

The second interaction took place today over the phone.  During these past two days of work, I have been furiously making phone calls to Sunnyside neighborhood residents who might qualify and wish to take part in Habitat’s A Brush with Kindness (ABWK).  We are holding an event next weekend, September 29, in which we are conducting exterior home repairs on two homes in the neighborhood.  As September 29 is approaching quickly, it is quite urgent that we find the two families we are going to work with!

After listening to many unanswered rings and being hung up on a couple of times, I had a moment of success when I reached through to man who is legally blind and interested in taking part in ABWK.  We talked on the phone for a while about what kind of help he would like with his home and about the pride he takes in keeping his home functional.  I ended the conversation and hung up the phone quite pleased by the fact that I found a homeowner to take part in our program. 

After speaking with our construction site supervisor for the event, I called the man back about arranging a time we could come to his home to evaluate the work to be done on September 29.  Before I could tell him why I was calling back, he interrupted me and told me that he had rethought his participation in the program.  My heart dropped immediately, but he continued speaking and told me that he knows two of his neighbors who are in much more need of ABWK than he is.  He gave me the names and phone numbers of his two neighbors and said that he would be willing to help me contact them if I could not get a hold of them.  I was astonished!  Here is a person who is need of some financial and physical help to make repairs to his home, but is advocating for helping his neighbors first. 

Through these moments I learned something great about the service I am involved in this year.  While I may be volunteering for an organization that reaches out to families and communities to build hope, I am experiencing people in communities building a sense of hope in me.

Building Freedom Day

Last Tuesday, September 11, I started my day at 3:15 A.M. as I left the house headed toward Corazon
del Pueblo where I was joining the rest of the Habitat staff team in setting up for the biggest donation
and volunteer day of the year. Every year on September 11, Habitat Tucson holds a ‘Building Freedom Day’ in which they solicit donations and volunteer work to raise the walls on multiple homes in memory of the tragic event which happened in 2001. This year’s event was very successful with over 300 volunteers and four homes in which walls were raised.

As I arrived at the job site at 3:30 I could feel a good energy building in the people already hard at work setting up for the big day. We had people setting up volunteer registration stations complete with hard hats, sunscreen and safety glasses for all. Others were setting up the presentation and meal tent, others the catering station, and others the parking arrangements for all of the volunteers coming that day.  While this was happening there were still more Habitat staff and volunteers getting the construction sites ready – ensuring the proper lumber, tools and fasteners were in place.

 

Hard hats, sunscreen and safety glasses station

At about 5:30 A.M. the first shift of volunteers started to arrive, being welcomed by a very enthusiastic group of Habitat homeowner’s. The homeowner’s lined the sidewalk leading up to the registration table, and as each bus load of volunteers showed up they gave a hoot and a holler for their efforts that day. Their cheerful reception of the volunteers set the tone for the hard day’s work ahead. The volunteers were offered breakfast while a few Habitat directors and local ministers gave opening remarks for the day.

After the pep talks finished, the first shift of volunteers went off to work. They moved from the tented area to a neighborhood block which contained four empty slabs ready to be built on. As the volunteer teams got to work, the neighborhood was instantly filled with the sound of hammers and the site of people sharing God’s love by building homes for those in need.

Bare slabs at the beginning of the day

The first shift of work ended at 9:00 A.M. and a second shift of volunteers came on site. They continued the miraculous work up to the lunch hour. When 12:00 came around, the four empty slabs which started the day were no longer empty. Each of the slabs had framed exterior walls and sheathing. Two of the homes even made it as far as putting some roof trusses up. The work that was completed between 6:00 A.M. and noon was spectacular!

Raising the first wall!

Making progress...

...still more progress!

We ended the construction day there (it gets too hot in Arizona to work in the heat of the afternoon)
and moved to the tent area for lunch and a closing program in which five Habitat families burned the
mortgages of their Habitat homes. It was heartwarming to sit and watch the multi-generational families come to celebrate the achievement of owning their very own home and a great way to end such a wonderful day with Habitat Tucson.

This tremendous event took place on my fourth day of work – what an awesome way to get acquainted with Habitat Tucson and the wonderful people who do so much hard work to make the organization one that has a great presence in the community! I got to spend the day hopping back and forth from working on the construction sites, to talking with homeowners and construction crew leaders, to meeting many people who are behind the work of Habitat Tucson. It was a great orientation to the work, the people and the community that I will be spending my time with this year.

The Neighborhood Revitalization Jedi

Orientation has come to end, and I have started to transition into my work at Habitat for Humanity.  My first day at work was Wednesday, and I spent the day with my supervisor, Danny, getting to know the ins and outs of Habitat Tucson.   Danny showed me around the office and introduced me to all of the Habitat staff, who by the way are so nice and very welcoming!  We then spent some time talking about statistics and the people and community that Habitat Tucson serves.  After absorbing as much information as possible in one sitting, Danny took me out to the neighborhoods that Habitat is currently building in and the neighborhoods which are a focus for Neighborhood Revitalization.

I will be spending the majority of my time (about 28 hours a week) this year working on Neighborhood Revitalization in the development department and the rest of my time helping out the construction and design department.  I am really excited about the opportunities that are in front of Danny and myself through the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) this year.  NRI is a new focus of Habitat Tucson, and I will be working alongside Danny to initiate projects that go beyond building homes for Habitat clients and community members.  As Habitat for Humanity has historically been focused on building homes for families, they are currently revisioning their mission to think about "Families Served" instead of "Homes Built."

The reality of our economic climate is affecting the amount of homeowners Habitat is able to secure, so we will be using our efforts through NRI to help families raise their quality of life by assisting them with home and neighborhood projects.  Since NRI is so new to Habitat Tucson, I have come into a situation which is pretty much wide open in terms of my work scope.  This is a little scary, but also exciting!  Danny and I will be trying a lot of new things to reach out to the families living in Habitat neighborhoods in order to help the residents to create a sustainable and pleasant living environment.

To start out we are directing our attention to a specific Habitat neighborhood, Sunnyside, and will be focusing on graffiti clean-up efforts, starting a tool lending library and conducting a program called "Brush with Kindness."  Sunnyside neighborhood is a low-income area which is hit pretty hard with graffiti vandalising.  We are working with police and community members to report the vandalism, clean it up and possibly brainstorm some ideas on how to help those doing the tagging get a positive, outward expression of their feelings instead of using graffiti tagging.  We are in very early stages of starting a tool lending library, but the main principle behind starting one is to enable community members, who do not own tools, to personally care for their property and instill a sense of pride in their neighborhood.  Lastly, Brush with Kindness, is a program that pinpoints a few properties in the neighborhood that are in critical need of work (home repairs, painting, weatherization, gardening, etc.).  We are securing volunteers to spend Saturdays going to those homes to help the homeowners with the work on their property.

We are in the initial stages of our NRI efforts, and I would love to hear from you if you have ideas for revitalizing neighborhoods.  Like I said before, the scope of our work is wide open right now.  As an organization we are seeking to put God's love into action by bringing people together and building homes, community and hope.

On a last note, I have titled this post Neighborhood Revitalization Jedi because that is my 'unofficial' title at work.  Danny and I were trying to come up with a title so that I can get business cards, and we were throwing ideas around.  We really liked Neighborhood Revitalization Jedi, but didn't think it would be appropriate. So to the public I am a Neighborhood Revitalization Specialist, but in the walls of my office I am the Neighborhood Revitalization Jedi.

Sweaty!!

Perspiring, clammy, sticky, hot – these words describe how I have felt for 98% of the time since arriving in Tucson.  The weather here right now is hot and humid (normally it is not humid in Arizona, but it is monsoon season), and for someone who is coming from an environment that didn’t get much hotter than 60 degrees in a year, it is quite an adjustment. 

We bike everywhere we go, which means entering into the heat with helmets and sunscreen, pedaling to our destination and arriving with our bodies attempting to cool down by sweating!  Our house is cooled by a swamp cooler which operates by blowing humid air into the house which evaporates and thus cools the air around us.  Essentially our bodies are doing the same thing when we get hot.  We sweat and the water evaporates off of our bodies, cooling us down.  So I have come to the realization that being sweaty is just something I need to get used to during the hot months of the year. 

Even though I am starting to grow accustomed to the norm of being hot and sticky, I am still well aware of how uncomfortable it is!  No matter how uncomfortable it is though, it is my body’s method to cool down. 

This first week of living in community has been filled with uncomfortable moments too.  We have been working hard this week to set up our living space and learn about each others’ living habits.  As we are a group of 10 individuals who are just meeting, it is only natural to come across some tough conversations such as food ethics, cleaning, quiet hours, social habits, energy consumption, theological stances and so on.  As we have been discussing what our expectations of living in an intentional Christian community are, we have definitely had moments in which some, if not all, of us have felt uncomfortable. 

Similar to the case of being uncomfortably sweaty, our uncomfortable moments in conversation have been necessary to the foundation of our life this year in intentional community.  We are all coming from different backgrounds, but we have made a commitment to make this community our home for the year.  What God has planned and designed for us is not always comfortable, nor is it always comfortable to live out our beliefs and make decisions that Christ would on this Earth.  But we can find comfort in knowing that God uses uncomfortable moments and situations to help us grow in spirit and in love.  So next time you are sticky from sweat, remember that it is a necessary means to cooling down. 

We are in Tucson!

I wrote this blog post a few days ago, but we do not have internet in the house yet, so I haven't posted it.  Here it is...

2^nd YAV year, here we are!  Karl and I have been in Tucson for 5 days now, and we are starting to settle into the community that will be so much a part of our experience this year.  We are living in an awesome house with 8 other young adults (6 YAVs and 2 YAV Alum).  Our house was built in the 1890’s for railroad workers.  The layout of the house is pretty neat.  Walking in the front door, you are directed straight down the hallway of the house which connects every single room.  There are 5 bedrooms, a living room, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen branching off of the common hallway.  We live in an historic neighborhood, so our house has been restored to reflect its conditions when it was built – this results in some great character in the house.  There is beautiful crown molding in every room, original windows on rope tracks, real wooden doors with original iron door handles, and fantastic wood floors. 

As great as the layout and character of our house is, what makes it even better is the great energy that is flowing throughout of the house as a result of all of the people we are living with.  There are 6 other volunteers living in the house with us, all with varying spirits and personalities.  One thing has brought us all together though, and that is the call of God.   We all feel called to be in this place this year, maybe not for the same reasons, but none the less we have been brought together to live in an intentional Christian community and walk (or bike) each day alongside the people of Tucson.  Some of us are particularly passionate about border issues, others about living simply, others about helping to provide all people with basic needs such as food and housing.  The thing that binds all of our passion, though, is a desire to live in a manner which spreads Jesus’ love for each and every person on this earth. 

We have been spending our time this week getting orientated to Tucson, equipping ourselves with bikes and the proper skills to commute this year with a bike instead of a car and getting to know each other.  Brandon, our site coordinator, has planned a great orientation schedule which has given us a great balance of conversations, in order to learn about each other and to learn how to best create a healthy community to live in, and practical activities such as riding routes to our work placements and stores, in order to help us get comfortable with biking in Tucson and to learn about our surroundings. 

Energy levels are dipping a little bit, as it has been a busy week in the heat of the desert, but it is easy to get re-energized here.  We have only been in Tucson for a limited amount of time, and I have already visited some great organizations and met various people who have great energy and desire to advocate for right and just living for humanity.  Living amongst our community of YAVs and the community of Tucson provides for so many opportunities to get involved with efforts to live out God’s word and to be a living example of His love.  I have a feeling that this year will be filled with countless opportunities to learn, grow and act on my faith.

Enjoying a view of Tucson from Brandon's roof.