Service-Learning at Calvin College

Who we are

2012-02-09T12:48:00.004-05:00

I've been taught, though words and/or experience, that it's the pinnacle of naivete to believe that people are innately good, but for some reason, I've believe with all my heart in goodness of humanity. Sometimes I think that my belief stems from being surrounded by such wonderful people as my friends and co-workers at the S-LC. Whatever the reason, I think you, with all your idiosyncrasies and flaws, are good.

Core classes at Calvin are infamous for being a drag. I'm a junior, and I've been skipping around my religion core, but I'm finally taking Religion 121. Well, Calvin professors and classes will never cease to surprise me with their insightful tidbits of knowledge. We have been studying Genesis 1 and 2 this past week, and my professor was elaborating on the topic of the "image of God." He pointed out that all of the Bible after the fall says nothing of this image being damaged or taken away. In a way, we humans have retained our innate goodness that God proclaimed when he said, "It is very good." Now, I know Calvin is reformed and total depravity and all that jazz, but I don't mean for this post to be a theological statement in anyway. I also don't mean to disregard our need for God's grace. I only mean to say that perhaps we are meant to see in others the image of God and thus see also the goodness in my annoying sister, in your unlovable classmate or co-worker, in the poor and unwanted.

Let us not in our recognition of the brokenness of this world fail to see the goodness God created in the first place.

Peace,
Anna

2012-02-05T01:18:00.000-05:00

Lists: O how I love them. To-do lists especially. In the midst of my crazy busy life they help me stay sane and semi-organized. I was going to post a sample of one of my infamous task lists or my penciled full planner, or my desk full of sticky notes, but I will spare you all the pain of this horrid sight – especially on this, the end of only the first week of the semester. I don’t know about you, but for me these first 5 days of class flew by – right in front of my face like a cheetah or racecar or a bullet or the speed of light maybe. Yet, it somehow feels like I’ve been in class for weeks. (Does anyone else ever feel like this, or is it just me?)

Anyways, while I would normally shrug my shoulders to this feeling that I have felt so many times before, it dawned upon me this week why it is I feel this way. I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t because of the large amount of work I actually got accomplished for once, or the ridiculous amount of time I spent in class, or the new go-go-go busyness of a new semester schedule. BUT because…Ready for this? I am amount to be very profound. Hold your breath. Drum roll please……..I have discovered time flew this week because I have learned so much. Really. It was a lot. I seriously had a list (surprised?) of topics and good quotes and life lessons and bible verses that all came up during my week – all of which would have made awesome discussion topics to comment on here in this blog. The problem was that I couldn’t choose just one. They were all just too good. And in combination, they brought me some great insight as a whole:
1) Calvin is a place that fosters learning. And I love it!
2) Sometimes God has something he wants to teach us. Even if we aren’t in a place of looking or searching for answers. He puts us in the right place, at the right time, with the right people for a reason so that we might learn and grow.

So I have started making a new list, a list of what I’m learning each day, and each week, and each month because these are ‘aha moments’, facts, lessons, self-realizations that are worth remembering.

What have you learned lately? I challenge you to reflect on your week and see what God is trying to teach you.

Peace and Blessings in this endeavor,
Emily

O Come, O Come, Immanuel

2011-11-29T12:18:00.003-05:00

It's my turn to blog this week, and I'm sitting in an empty office trying to come up with a topic. Ordinarily I don't mind writing, but in the midst of this chaotic time of year (my foreign policy class is currently taking over my life, for example), it seems almost impossible to step back, take a deep breath, and look around for the signs of peace and holiness and goodness around us. I'm too busy frantically researching Clinton-era intervention in the Balkans, thank you very much.

But it strikes me as ironic that I'm behaving this way at the beginning of Advent. After all, Advent is the time of year where we pause to notice signs of hope--where we wait in eager expectation for the coming promise, our anticipation growing with each passing day on the Advent calendar and each week's newly-lighted candle in the Advent wreath. Unlike Lent, we don't fast during Advent. We carry on in our daily routines, busily finishing homework and papers, decorating for Christmas and baking cookies, watching the snow start to fall and the world gradually turn to winter. We carry on, busy and bustling, in eager anticipation of the coming gift.

Last year at this time I was in Romania. My Advent celebration was different there--the anticipation of Christmas was mixed with excitement about returning to the States and the relationships I had left there. It was a season of building anticipation mingled with deep sadness--a reluctance to leave behind new relationships, a sorrow over leaving the mountains, tastes, smells, and sounds that had grown so dear over four months. Bubbling anticipation and joy mixed with the weight of sorrow, bustling attention to the little details of daily life amidst preparation for a monumental shift in my world--this seems to always be the paradox of Advent.

I suppose I could make the obvious tie-in to our work at the Service-Learning Center here, and I might do that in a moment. But I think the first thing I need to remind myself of is Advent itself, this beautiful time of waiting and anticipation. Life doesn't stop as we wait for the coming of the Messiah. It continues on, buoyed by this hope, this welling-up of excitement, that the promise will be fulfilled! The Kingdom of God is coming, and all will be made well. Jesus will save and the world will be restored! Whoa.

Advent gives me goosebumps. It gives me this thrilled assurance and peace that amidst the chaos, there is hope. And the promise extends to everything--to our work at the Service-Learning Center, to our prayers for peace in places of war, to our hopes of reconciliation in neighborhoods and families full of brokenness. The Messiah has come, and is coming again. He will make everything new! What a wonderful promise. May He come again soon.

So may you live this Advent fully--with this anticipation and assurance amidst the busyness that Immanuel is coming, and coming soon.

~Kelly

Second Chances

2011-11-08T10:24:00.005-05:00

As a staff, we have been reading from Common Prayer: A book for Ordinary Radicals for our devotions at weekly meetings. I recently was flipping through the book when I came across part of the reading for November 17. The passage comes from Forgotten among the Lilies by Ronald Rolheiser, and it states, “If the Catholicism that I was raised in had a fault, and it did, it was precisely that it did not allow for mistakes. It demanded that you get it right the first time. There was supposed to be no need for a second chance. If you made a mistake, you lived with it and, like the rich young man, were doomed to be sad, at least for the rest of your life. A serious mistake was a permanent stigmatization, a mark that you wore like Cain. I have seen that mark on all kinds of people: divorcees, ex-priests, ex-religious, people who have had abortions, married people who have had affairs, people who have had children outside of marriage, parents who have made serious mistakes with their children, and countless others who have made serious mistakes. There is too little around to help them. We need a theology of brokenness. We need a theology which teaches us that even though we cannot unscramble an egg. God’s grace lets us live happily and with renewed innocence far beyond any egg we may have scrambled. We need a theology that teaches us that God does not just give us one chance, but that every time we close a door, he opens another one for us.”

I think that the covenant that our staff wrote this past September fits really well with this.

S-LC Staff Covenant 2011

“I beg you... to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer..."

- Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)

Love

- What does it mean to live out love, in faith, through service?

- What made it so easy for Jesus to love the wicked, outcasts, poor, and sinners? How do we adopt this feature for ourselves?

- Are we willing to love beyond reason? What does this mean?

- How do we allow ourselves to experience 2-way love in our service-learning?

- What does it mean to love our enemy? Our community? Our work? God?

- How can we precede tempered impatience with love?

Justice

- How does mercy envelop justice? How does mercy shape justice in light of the coming kingdom?

- What risks must we take to pursue justice? What will we give up?

- How do we perpetuate injustice, willingly/knowingly or not?

- What would a just world look like?

- What is our responsibility as people of privilege in pursuing justice?

Hope

- What will allow us to persevere?

- How do we persevere toward peace?

- What does it mean to have Christian hope? Why is our trust in God and not in other things?

- For what are we hoping, as we understand that the kingdom is already but not yet?

- Is it necessary to hope beyond what is realistic?

- How do we have hope for shalom in such a broken world? Especially when we will never get it right?

Humility

- Do I see Christ in them? Do they see Christ in me?

- Acknowledging our privilege, how can we live with integrity?

- Are we using people for our own purposes?

- How do we do our work humbly, remembering from where our power comes?

Presence

- Do we choose our place or does our place choose us?

- What does it mean to be fully present in a place? What does it look like?

- Is there an important difference between living intentionally and just being present in our place?

- How can we become more incarnate in the work that we do?

As an outpouring of our faith, and with the desire to better understand love, justice, hope, humility, and presence, we as the Service-Learning Center staff of 2011-2012 commit to live these questions now and continually pursue faithful responses in our work and lives.

We are stating that we don’t have it all figured out. We have lots of questions about life, and about living a life of true discipleship. We acknowledge how hard it is to get it right. So then why does it seem so hard for us to see that in other people, especially when what they do affects our lives? I have been struggling with this particular question for years. How do we recognize that the faults of others, whether it be family, friends, churches, or organizations, may mean that they don’t have it all together either, and how do we work past that? I don’t suggest letting it go by and just saying things like that happen and moving on. I don’t think that is what the passage, stated in the first paragraph, means to say either when it talks about giving second chances. Problems and faults should be addressed, but then second chances should be given. Faults should not be held against others, as we wouldn’t want that for ourselves. So what then does that look like? Is it different in different situations and for different people? When is the right time to address the fault and give a second chance? Is it different if you were personally affected by it?

I guess what I am trying to say is that I don’t have it all figured out when it comes to this topic, but I am living and learning. I am learning to live in the questions and learning to trust God that someday I may catch of glimpse of His kingdom through true forgiveness and second chances.

Allie

Blessed to Be a Blessing

2011-10-14T12:15:00.009-04:00

‘Blessed to be a blessing’ is a quote that I love. I heard it at church over the summer and continue to find it more and more true in my life. And even though StreetFest 2011 wrap-up is officially complete as of October, 1, I will not soon forget this summer and how amazingly blessed I am to have had the opportunity to be a blessing to others in just a small way. For a short time following StreetFest, it was hard to see the positive outcomes. The evaluations that
flooded in were encouraging at times, but also discouraging at others- seeing what went bad, what didn’t run smoothly, what could have gone better, and so on.

BUT, Just a few days ago, a transfer student stopped in the office and asked me how he could get involved with StreetFest next year!! A transfer student! Who liked StreetFest! Who now wants to get involved! Ahh!!! This just about made my day. Ok not even just about, it DID make my day. Some days, the awesomeness of what was StreetFest 2011 still catches me off guard.

Anyways… this run-in was just one more reminder for me of how the work we do isn’t really about us and what we get from it, but rather it’s about inspiring other people to get involved – and that THAT is the best outcome. In the big picture things won't always go perfectly, and there will always be people who don’t enjoy StreetFest, but what’s more important and trumps all of that is that some people actually DO like it, or maybe even love it! Those stories are the ones that make all the work worth it, because in the long run it’s about helping people find the ‘on-ramp’ to the highway of living as a lifelong service-learner. That's what we do here at the Service-Learning Center and I will forever be glad to do so.

Now and always I am be blessed to be a blessing.

What about you?

Emily

2011-09-26T13:56:00.006-04:00

Our covenant this year is composed of a series of questions focusing on love, justice, hope, humility, and presence. Two questions in particular have been swimming around in my mind since our written covenant was completed:

How does mercy envelop justice? How does mercy shape justice in light of the coming kingdom?

Let me start with a story:
In Matthew 20, Jesus tells the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. The owner goes out to the marketplace early in the morning to hire workers. He agrees to pay them a certain amount for their work. He hires more workers in the middle of the day for the same wage, and he hires more workers in the evening, again for the same wage. At the end of the day, as all the workers are receiving their wages, the workers hired in the morning begin to complain that the workers hired later in the day are receiving the same wage as they even though they worked for longer. The owner of the vineyard says this: "I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"

I throw around the term justice a lot, partly because I think the theoretical idea of justice is such a beautiful ideal. However, I also recognize the need to think about what true justice means for Christians, for non-Christians, for the world.

My priest talked about justice a couple Sundays ago, and I found his thoughts insightful and surprisingly poignant. In human terms justice, or fairness, he said, comes in three types: the justice of common rules we follow, the justice of inclusion, and the justice of distribution. Common rules and distribution are familiar to us. We have a judicial system that, in its own way, attempts to ensure that wrongs are righted or at least that some form of payment is made for a breach of law. We hear all the time about distribution of wealth and the failures of distributive utopias.

As kids we probably all threw at least one fit saying, "It's not fair! She won't let me play!" As adults, injustice concerning inclusion holds more serious social consequences, so again we have laws with varying degrees of efficiency prohibiting discrimination. I think it's worth thinking about the justice of inclusion as it relates to Christians, though. The Christianity I was familiar with while growing up played by the rules of inclusion/exclusion. If I was "saved" I would be permitted to enter the pearly gates. However, if I refused God's free gift of grace, I would be separated from God forever in a very, very bad place. That was it. Yes or no. One choice. Boom. I have found this concept increasingly hard to swallow as I've met people of different faiths earnestly trying to live well in the world while seeking truth.

At this point some of you are probably thinking of Love Wins, but I hope you'll hear me out. How does mercy envelop justice? Is God not a loving and merciful, as well as just, God? Is this inclusion/exclusion rule what we mean when we say justice will roll down like waters? Call me an universalist, but I have a hunch that true justice means more than that wronged "good" people receive the satisfaction of knowing that those who trespassed against them were punished thoroughly or even that we "were elected" or said a certain prayer. True justice, perhaps, can be tempered with mercy.

How does mercy shape justice in light of the coming kingdom? Well, back to what my priest said. According to him, Jesus' parable of the vineyard workers may shed some light on the topic at hand. The owner of the vineyard chose to give the workers the same pay regardless of the time they spent working, and then he said, "Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?" God sees much that we cannot. Perhaps, our place is not in telling God what he can do with his own money, if you will; but rather to live well in love with the knowledge and wisdom we have been given.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know nearly enough to speak conclusively on this topic, but I hope I can speak from my own experiences and internal tousles with these questions of justice and faith. My intent was not to step on toes but to communicate the heart of openness to questioning with which we composed our covenant.

Peace,

Anna

Lesson in Humility

2011-09-21T15:00:00.003-04:00

First of all, the start of the year has been wonderful. The new staff had 2 great weeks of training where we bonded, became experts on service-learning, and pulled off StreetFest smoothly as a team after Emily Wolffis spent the summer preparing. It was a blast.
We wrote a new covenant. Some of you may remember last year's two word phrases. This year is quite a bit different, as is typical with a tide of new people. We have picked 5 main words that we will focus on this year. They are love, justice, hope, humility, and patience. Along with each word, we have written several questions that we will seek to "answer." These questions will never be fully answered, but maybe someone else can expound on the covenant itself in another post.
I realize that the title "a lesson in humility" is difficult to gulp down in and of itself. It's not really an attractive heading and some people may have even stopped reading right then and there. Who really wants to learn how to be humble? That is certainly not our natural mode in life. We prefer pride and self absorption, don't we? It is a harsh reality. I would rather think about my day and the set of problems placed on my plate, rather than spend time trying to understand someone else's worries. And helping them? Boy, that's a stretch. I am a college student, a nursing student, in fact. I will help people the rest of my life, why must I set aside time now to invest in understanding and helping others? Right now my sole purpose in life is to grow and learn as much as I can.
Here's the thing, I grow through my experiences and interactions with other people and the attitude I take while doing that changes how much I will truly learn. If you really set back and think about how much you are learning from other people, versus how much you are putting into other people, it's often disproportionate. Disproportionate because they teach you so much more than you could ever hope to give back. This is true for many relationships in life. Professor to student is certainly like that. I would hope that some of your friendships are like that. What about parent to son or daughter?* Realizing this truth is helpful in intentionally taking on a humble mode of existence. It is helpful in being open to other worldviews (yeah, I was going to try and avoid Calvin language, but I can't help it.) It is helpful in finding a sense of peace about your own imperfections. It is helpful in so many ways, I'm sure you can think of more.
This is the Service-Learning Center mantra. Reciprocity. Learning to serve and serving to learn. It's become so engrained in the way I think, I am hoping I've said enough here to fully explain. If anything, I hope that this is just a starting point for peer conversations. Also, feel free to add feedback or correct me in the comments. :)
Thank you for reading.

*There are plenty of cases where this is not true, after all, we are broken people. I have not meant to be hurtful and I apologize if this is off mark for anyone. Perhaps your relationship with parents is not ideal. I hope that you have then found a mentoring relationship that serves a similar purpose.

-Melanie Roorda, ABSL Coordinator

Beautiful Brokenness

2011-08-03T18:54:00.002-04:00

One of the themes of our staff covenant this past year was “beautiful brokenness,” the idea that God is present in even our deepest flaws and greatest weaknesses. This spring, I studied a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins in my Victorian Lit class that sums up “beautiful brokenness” better than anything I can think of. It’s dense, but I’ll unpack it a bit, just as my professor did in class.

God’s Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

The poem begins with two images for how God’s greatness is present in brokenness: God’s grandeur is like an electric charge in shaken metal foil, and it’s also like oil, which is produced by the action of crushing. Something to ponder: what does it mean that God shines through things that are “shaken” and “crushed”?

“Why do men then now not reck his rod?” means “why do men not regard or obey God?” The following lines give a description of our broken world and our separation from society. Linger a bit over these words. Hear how their sounds echo their meaning, try to see the images they describe, feel how their rhythm gives the sense of trudging through a devastated landscape.

“And for all this, nature is never spent.” God’s presence and hope wells up from the things that are broken. The sun sets in the west, but it rises with the morning in the east. God is present in our brokenness.

One reason I love this poem is that it offers hope, but this hope doesn’t come cheap. Hopkins was intimately acquainted with both personal and communal brokenness. When he converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, he became estranged from his family. For years, he suffered from depression and doubt. It could not have been easy to see God in his brokenness.

The temptation is strong to avoid pain, to try not to see how broken our world is. As I leave this community and move into the unknown, I am facing the fact that my life will become less comfortable, that I will face challenges that will force me to confront the brokenness in society and in myself. What this poem communicates to me is that we can acknowledge brokenness for what it is and still possess a rebellious hope that God is restoring what is fallen. We will all feel “shaken” and “crushed” in life, but it is my prayer that we will be able to see, or at least trust, that God’s beauty is made manifest in our brokenness.

--Maria

Graduation and Saying Goodbye

2011-04-20T12:18:00.000-04:00

For this blog entry I’m going to write about graduation and saying goodbye. Many of you are before or after that threshold so your perspectives may be keener and wiser than my own. The future works on my brain like a highway sign works on my eyes. As it draws closer my eyes fuzz over and zone out. When the sign is directly next to my car window there is not a good chance I’ll see that the speed limit is 70 (while I’ve likely been pushing 90). Now I can imagine what it would be like for a road sign to come closer and closer and then actually hit me in eye. I don’t think I would be able to focus on the sign or any other aspect of my worldly surroundings. Likely I would have closed my eyes and tensed up my muscles the moments before initial contact. Right now graduation is coming closer and closer and it’s about to hit me square in the eyes. Both of them. And it’s going to hurt a little bit. So naturally I have my eyes closed and my muscles tensed up. In other words, bear with my impaired sense of vision on my own future happenings.

I’ve been wondering, while considering how to go about saying goodbye to my dearest friends and colleagues, notably the ones in the S-LC, whether goodbye is actually a word. By this I mean, what does the abstraction actually imply? To me it sounds like “have a good bye”. A bye must mean something significant, but on Wikipedia it’s defined as a special kind of point one can score in the game of Cricket. That doesn’t make sense (maybe it does, but to say “have a good cricket point” is a bit too flippant a phrase for what a serious graduation ceremony requires). Whenever I say goodbye to someone I think, oh that was a formality—something to fill in the silence. So maybe it’s just a value-empty human grunt meant for little more than its utility in breaking silences. But in the context of a ceremonious and poignant departing (like leaving friends after graduation), something needs to be said that has meaning, not just a grunt. And for people to have used the word “goodbye” for so many generations, the term must hold some significance sufficient for such a circumstance.

All of this internal conversation, though, is getting old. I would rather spend time telling my revision of the Biblical parable, the Good Samaritan, as it takes place at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI. The story begins on an early fall evening, sometime in September, when college bound Jane Smith walks onto Calvin’s campus for the first time. She is beginning her first semester at Calvin. All alone and with high anxiety levels, Jane Smith finds herself in a void of healthy social interaction, a ditch of sorts. As she sits in her room, a local resident walks in her room to say hi. This person is very kind and outgoing, a modern “priest” of sorts. She is clearly high on some social ladder Jane isn’t aware of. “Hello” she says, and as Jane starts to talk, the priestly girl zones out and cuts off the conversation early. Later the resident Barnabas for Jane’s floor comes up to her. The Barnabas was clearly put into the position because of some great personal qualification, which she undoubtedly possesses. She is a modern “Levite” of sorts. This Levitical resident says hi, asks if Jane would like to become involved (a very kind gesture), then leaves with Jane’s appropriate response (“yeah, sure I’d love to. Let me know when you’re doing stuff”). Lastly, another girl walks in. Her name is Liz, and she’s not from around here. In fact, her situation is quite similar to Jane’s—lonely and alienated. After a brief introduction, the new girl walks into her room, sits on an unmade bed, and quietly the two go on biding their boredom together. >> FAST FORWARD >> It is now three and three fourths (?) years later and Jane is graduating. Jane recollects her first interaction with the priestly girl. Still very appreciative of that first encounter, Jane goes up and gives the priestly girl a big hug. The priestly girl, says, “Wow, it was great to know you. I hope you have a great future! Never change! Goodbye.” Then they hug and part ways. Jane makes her way over to the Levitical girl and taps her on the shoulder. The girl says, in a very spiritually tempered manner, “Thanks for everything Jane. God will bless you in your future.” They shake hands, say goodbye, and part ways. However, Jane doesn’t see Liz anywhere that day. No worry, Liz is her best friend. Goodbye isn’t necessary at this point.

Why do I relate to this story? Because I rarely say goodbye to my best friends. I say goodbye to the people for whom the formality of our relationship requires closure. But to say goodbye to a friend isn’t fitting. And then, why do I compare a friend to the subtly alluded Samaritan in the narrative above? Because the story of the Good Samaritan ends like this: “The next day [the Samaritan] took out two denarii [money I think] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have’.” It is important to note that the Samaritan left when the main character was not fully conscious and able to respond. But the Samaritan promised a return. And further, upon his return the Samaritan promised to pay off his debts. What is the content of their relationship? It is the closest friendship, one that is bound by service. The Samaritan left with the promise of a future where he would continue to serve, continue to care, and never really be gone from the side of his friend. When I leave my friends and colleagues after this year, I will not say goodbye and mean it (if I say it that’s because our conversation got to that awkward silence—sorry). Instead I’m leaving my friends with the promise of a future with them. And in this future I’m going to be there serving them, in whatever form service will present itself. I’m looking forward to that. And like Jeff Bouman playing whirly-ball, I say, bring it on!

Hope

2011-04-08T11:36:00.003-04:00

One of my cousins is currently working in Maputo, Mozambique. I try to check her blog once in awhile, and the other day as I was skimming through the blog I ran across an interesting topic: hope.

I was particularly drawn to this because at one of our staff meetings at the S-LC this semester the idea of hope was brought to light. In that instance we were all a little shaken by the fact that there are just some things in this world that we don’t have control over and can do very little to change. As much as we want so badly to bring hope, life, and success to others sometimes there is nothing more we can do. With the more recent events involving Libya and Japan, I think this idea of lost hope hits home even more now than when our original conversation took place.

After reading this aforementioned blog from my cousin’s experience in Mozambique, I think I have a slightly better grasp on this difficult topic of hope and Christian longing for change in our suffering world. My cousin’s words are hard to summarize because she says them so well, so I’ll let you read a portion of these powerful words for yourself.

Upon reflection of the many cases of children struggling with HIV and the constant state of death surrounding this African community, my cousin wrote these words:

“But this death doesn’t mean that people stop living. In fact, it’s quite the opposite in these parts. I have found more community, more love, more beauty and more friendships here than in any other part of the country I’ve visited. One night, a few weeks ago, I was dwelling on this agape kind of love I was feeling God draping over us while sitting outside admiring the stars, conversations and food of the evening.

Yet, talking to a co-worker, Ruth, brought a different sense. Ruth gives medicine and check-ups at a local orphanage of HIV+ children. Ruth began to break down as she explained the story of one girl with stage four AIDS who still had not received treatment. When Ruth called the local government to demand distribution of the free medication to the orphanage, the officials on the other end of the line lackadaisically said they would be there by the end of the month. She knows these kids don’t have that long.

So there we sat. The joy, the tears, the heartbrokenness and the love all hovered there in the air around us, mixing together and getting hazy. But the weirdest thing was that it was totally okay. Pain held hands with beauty, and joy pulled up a chair next to sorrow. And there we all dwelled. I didn’t feel guilty for the laughter we had a few moments before her story, and the breaking of Ruth’s heart in no way diminished the love it still contained. I still knew that I was exactly where I should be, and despite all of the death around me, I didn’t want to be anywhere else. Around this same time, a dear friend from home shared with me a quote from a pastor of the church we used to attend:

‘Ultimately our gift to the world around us is hope. Not blind hope that pretends everything is fine and refuses to acknowledge how things are. But the kind of hope that comes from staring pain and suffering right in the eyes and refusing to believe that this is all there is. It is what we need—hope that comes not from going around suffering but from going through it...It is in the flow of real life, in the places we live and move with the people we're on the journey with, that we are reminded it is God’s world and we’re going to be okay.’

This is what hope means. Sure, babies still cry, funerals still occur and the water still inexplicably goes out in the middle of a dinner party. BUT the sun still rises every morning and joy is still available in the presence of utter destruction. And I think God stands in the messy middle between suffering and bliss and says ‘It’s alright. I got this.’ “

Wow. Powerful stuff, right? Every time I read this I have to sit back for a second because still don’t know exactly how to respond to such a deep thought other than to feel completely awed and amazed that we serve a God that holds this broken, struggling, damaged, hurt world in the palms of his comforting hands and offers not only hope, but love in abundance as he takes all our pain – every single ounce of it no matter how small or how insurmountably painful – and says He’s got it under control. I have realized that I must everyday dwell in this reassurance.

Peace and Blessings,

-Emily

Living in the Tension

2011-04-01T14:55:00.001-04:00

ten·sion noun \ten(t)-shən:

1. the act or action of stretching or the condition or degree of being stretched to stiffness

2. either of two balancing forces causing or tending to cause extension

3. inner striving, unrest, or imbalance often with physiological indication of emotion

What is it about human nature that craves simplicity? We categorize our world by race, class, nationality, gender, religion and countless others until our lives are so black and white that we forget what the color grey looks like. When this delicate world of dichotomy is disturbed, we riot, lynch, segregate, debate, and condemn in an effort to scratch and claw our way back to equilibrium. What about tension do we so dread that we are willing to avoid it even at the cost of community, genuine relationship, justice, and equality?

Last week, over 130 Calvin students chose to embrace tension. On Friday, March 18 the Service-Learning Center commissioned 136 students, staff members, and faculty to travel to 10 communities across the U.S. to seek out and embrace ambiguity and complexity. Students traveled to Kermit, West Virginia and learned that mountaintop removal gets complicated when they meet people whose livelihoods depend on it. Students went to Knoxville, Tennessee and learned that not all at-risk women are strung-out crack addicts; victims of their own self-destructive lifestyles. Students visited Boston, MA and discovered that the roots of urban poverty are far too complex and interconnected to be boiled down to a sweeping condemnation of personal irresponsibility. For one week, these groups lived firmly in the tension. They did not seek perfect answers or even tangible solutions. They simply experienced and participated in the lives of those that we all too often try so hard to avoid and, believe it or not, they lived to tell about it! More than simply living through it, however, these students were challenged in ways they never had been, grew in ways they never imagined, and learned more than they ever anticipated. Can it be that tension and ambiguity aren’t all that terrifying after all? Are there lessons to be learned from embracing the grey- from asking the tough questions without seeking the absolute answers?

All this point, the cynics cry, “How much good can a week of ‘living in the tension’ possibly do? There’s a distinct possibility that your week of grey only made the lives of those you came into contact with worse. A week is not enough time to do anything of consequence in a community”. My response: You’re absolutely right…sort of. Certainly, the dangers of short-term missions are in play when we send groups of college students to communities for only 7 days. A week of tension-living is undoubtedly unsatisfactory in a world so desperate for engagement and relationship. My critique of the cynic’s critique is this: Cynicism is easy; hope is hard. Cynicism gives in; hope rebels. In the face of a broken world that, at every turn, reminds us that our efforts are futile, hope perseveres. Last week, 130 plus students witnessed the stubborn hope of faithful Christians throughout the United States who are refusing to believe the cynics. Faithful Christians who have made a commitment to the grey and are resting in the hope that somehow their work is making a difference. In fact, isn’t that the call of every Christian? To be faithful, no matter how persistently the world tells them to give up, trusting that God is powerful enough to take their broken, imperfect efforts and do the rest. After all, “This is what we are about. We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise…We are prophets of a future not our own.” (Ken Untener)

-Kyle Schaap

Finding my place

2011-03-17T16:37:00.000-04:00

This past year has been hard in so many ways for me. Over news years, someone asked me what the hardest part of the past year was, and to be honest I didn’t know what to say at first.

Studying abroad was something that I had always planned on doing. In fact, Calvin’s high numbers of students who travel abroad is what finalized my decision to come here. As my Senior year approached, I knew it was now or ever. With the encouragement and support of family and I friends I applied and was accepted to the Hungary Semester! This is what I had wanted, this is the reason I came to Calvin (or so I thought). The next six months I spent learning more about Eastern Europe and dreaming about all the places I would see.

Last August, I packed up my bags, said good-bye to my family, my fiancé and my friends and boarded the plane to Budapest. What was next, I really had no clue. As the plane landed in Budapest, the excitement grew as me and other Calvin students looked excitedly out the plane windows at the city that would be our home for the next four months.

Budapest, for those of who have not been there, is lovely. We spent the first week exploring the city and all its main spots and registering for our classes and such. We balanced home-sickness with excitement of the things our new home had to offer. This was not so bad until I spoke with my family.

I will never forget sitting at my computer reading the news. Could this really be happening? Someone very close to me fell ill and I wasn’t there. I wouldn’t be there for four months. The thought of this seemed impossible. So I had a tough decision to make, do I leave this great opportunity or do I wait in see what happens?

And with that I was once again boarding a plane. Only this time, I was alone and even more unsure. Was I making the right choice? Why is this happening? This doesn’t seem fair, I always wanted to study abroad and just when I get here life is calling me back to the US. The plane ride back to Grand Rapids is long and feels even longer when your head is full of doubt, sadness, relief, frustration, anger and just plain uncertainness.

The hardest part of last year, wasn’t leaving Budapest. Or dealing with the changes in my family. Or adjusting to being at Calvin when I wasn’t supposed to be here. Yes, these things were all hard. But the hardest part was to remember to choose joy. My life felt pretty broken. Things didn’t go according to my plan. But through the hard times, I had to remember that God brought me back here for a reason and that I had to keep living my life.

And to be honest, God brought me so much Joy that semester. I fell in Love, for the first time in my four years at Calvin, with the city of Grand Rapids. I have found out that I am staying in Grand Rapids for the next four years and I could not be happier. I have realized that God brought me to Calvin not to send on a n adventure but to discover Grand Rapids and all it has to offer.

-Savannah

Continuous Beginnings

2011-03-11T13:54:00.006-05:00

It may seem like I am "cheating" the system by using an old blog post, but I have thought back to it multiple times in the past couple of weeks and am amazed at God's ability to teach and re-teach through past experiences and thoughts.

"I always want to say something profound or reach some kind of revelation when I sit down to write [a blog]. Why is that? Why do any of us have the desire to say profound things or to do profound things? To be people who change the world and "make their mark." Can we not be more happy if we simply humble ourselves and stay quiet? Won't God teach us more through this than through constant meaningless chatter? And if we ever reach that point where we are no longer intentionally trying to say profound things or be profound people, this is when God will shine through us most and speak truth into our lives. Isn't it ironic how that works? We need to be willing to give it up in order to recieve and obtain what we desire. And of course that very lesson is portrayed through the verses of Matthew 10:38-39:
" and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
It is easy to look at those words and ignore the truth in them. But once you take a deep look into yourself and what you are striving for, their relevance speaks clearly.
Over the past few days I've been thinking about this concept and wondering what my ultimate goal is. What am I striving to be? More importantly, who am I striving to be? The person God made you to be is not too far from the reality. The question is are you going forward and actively trying to be that person and make it reality? Are you trying to bring the eternal to the mortal and live out God's kingdom on earth, like Jesus did?
Are you bringing joy, peace, happiness, positive energy, patience, kindness, and wisdom to the table? Or are you bringing the opposite?
I know for sure that I am messing up and making plenty of mistakes along the way, but the important thing is that with every day I am trying. I want nothing more than to bear and bring the fruits of the spirit to those around me. And although it is messy and not always the most fun and again, mistakes are made...it gives life the value that it deserves and makes it worth the struggle.
"It is not that we are perfect now or that we will never have to struggle. Or that the old person won't come back from time to time. It's that this new life involves a constant, conscious decision to keeping dying to the old so that we can live in the new."
Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis
So you've messed up. Ask God's forgiveness, apologize and make amends with those you need to, forgive yourself, and then pick yourself up and move on. Move foreward and put the past to rest. Continue to strive to be the you that God intended you to be and bring the best he has blessed you with. God is doing a new thing now."

Our lives consist of continuous beginnings. We are constantly starting new phases and making new discoveries. We are forced to find a balance of old and new. We make mistakes and start over. We experience the vibrancy and beauty of life right alongside the death and darkness. We must die, to truly live. What a mystery.
Spring is on the horizon. Praise the Lord for another new beginning.
-Melanie Roorda

Turning Love into Action: Sowing Seeds and Reaping Justice.

2011-03-02T13:17:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of attending the Faith and International Development Conference on Calvin’s campus. The theme this year is "Turning Love into Action: Sowing Seeds and Reaping Justice" based on Christ's mandate to "love not with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:18). Keynote speakers included Carlos Hernandez (Association for a More Just Society), Nicholas Wolterstorff (former Calvin philosopher, also professor at Yale), Dirk Booy (World Vision), and Michelle Tolentino (Compassion International). Representatives came from organizations such as Mennonite Central Committee, International Justice Mission, and CRWRC, to name a few. Lectures and breakout sessions ranged from human rights to charity, from justice to holistic development. I was inspired by courageous individuals who persevere in the face of struggles against violence, corruption, and injustice.

For me, the conference reinforced ideas that first smacked me in the face last year, at exactly this time. I was in the bustling city of Tegucigalpa, listening to enticing beats of Regueton, eating baleadas* and pupusas, speaking slang with my host family, learning about a different way and pace of living life. This was the first time I took a development class; a starting block on a journey of understanding what it means to be an agent of reconciliation, a catalyst for change, and a faithful presence in a community. My ideas of what it meant to engage with another were shattered and rebuilt.

Thinking about International Development has caused me to re-examine local development at Calvin and in Grand Rapids. I think the Service-Learning Center is a place where the core of good development is addressed. Service-Learning is a powerful means of fostering civic engagement and a healthy pride in one’s neighborhood and community. There is space for service no matter where we are in the cycle for understanding Service-Learning, from naïve to charity, to reciprocal and generative (Educating for Citizenship, By Carn McTighe Musil).

In reflecting on last year and attempting to be present in this year, it seems to me that it was easier for me to engage in a culture that was far different from my own. It was easier to find the strengths and be patient with areas for improvement in Honduras. Taking a step back seemed simpler as it was not a permanent space for me. When I think about North American culture, it is easy for me to be critical of a fast pace, consumerist, efficiency-driven society. Service-Learning (among other things) gives me a moment to take a step closer to my community, and simultaneously a step back to ask deeper questions about how we got to where we are.

I learned so much going abroad and was reminded of that through the conference. But I really think most of the learning has been in returning, especially experiencing Grand Rapids in a new and deeper ways through Service-Learning. There is great importance in acknowledging where we are in a cycle of learning, always on the lookout for the next opportunity to gain head and heart wisdom.

*Fresh handmade flour tortilla with beans, eggs, and mantequilla crema (sour cream) in the middle=yummy!

Posted by Liesje

A Round of Encouragement

2011-02-22T22:31:00.003-05:00

Working toward the goal of living in a more just world can sometimes be a discouraging line of work. We fight against apathy, ignorance, computers, ourselves, and many other barriers on a daily basis. But then every once in a while, there comes that momentary ray of glimmering validating sunlight that reminds us why we do our work and that we really are accomplishing things after all. I have been very blessed to have been given two of those wonderful moments in the last few weeks that are still clearly impressed on me, and that I want to share as a means of encouragement.

The first was more than a moment, it was a whole afternoon of glimmering light. Last weekend, I attended a conference in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan entitled "A Broken Dream: Human Rights in Urban America" which was put together by the university student organization Human Rights Through Education (HRTE). The conference began on Friday with the screening of a documentary entitled "The Vanishing City" which talked about gentrification issues in New York City. The Saturday portion of the conference featured Chazz Miller (Public Art Workz) speaking on art as means of empowerment in Detroit, Mo Abdollahi (ONEMichigan) speaking on the DREAM Act and immigration issues, and Nusrat Venimiglia (Equality Michigan) speaking on her work against bullying towards the LGBT community. I found out about this conference because one of my good friends from middle school is a part of HRTE and spent the last year working to make this happen. It was like a breath of fresh air to go to another university and hear about work being done in different communities, to hear college students getting hardcore about issues of social justice, to hear them having the same kinds of conversations that we have in our staff meetings at the Service-Learning Center, to be able to get excited and talk with my friend about things that we didn't know we both cared about. It was very much a thing of beauty.

The second glimmering light came at the bi-annual Spanish service-learning agency meeting. As the coordinator for the Literature, Languages, and Arts division of the college, this is something I organize at the beginning of every semester. I create a place where agency partners can come talk about the work they are doing in the community and how students can get involved, and where students can come listen and learn and then talk to agency representatives and get connected. My very favorite part of the meeting every time is after the students have left, when the agency representatives and I stick around and chat for a bit. I love getting to know them as people and seeing them talk to each other and learn about each other's work in the nonprofit sector. This semester, two of the agency representatives turned out to be old friends that had lost contact. When they saw each other, they both got very excited and greeted each other with this huge embrace that was very heartening to see.

These two rays of light beaming into my world have been very instrumental in helping me to see my work through a wider lens. It's very easy to get bogged down on failures or just on the magnitude of the work that remains to be done for the bringing of the kingdom. For those of you feeling overwhelmed by these burdens, let me give you this encouragement: look around you and be stregthened in your resolve by the fortitude and passion of those working for justice in your world, in your country, in your state. Be encouraged by those working right alongside you in your community. Be renewed by the sense of common purpose not only with those who believe the same as you, but also with those who may believe very differently than you, yet who are still carrying on wonderful work. Stretch outside of your normal circles to look for commonality. I tell you now with all confidence, you will surely find it!

Posted by Angela Svaan

Dwelling in the Grey

2011-02-12T12:10:00.003-05:00

We were talking at our staff meeting last night about part of Dan Butin's "Service-Learning in Theory and Practice," particularly about what it means to dwell in the grey. In the chapter we read, Butin is writing about various ways to theorize service-learning, one of them being an approach he calls "antifoundationalism." This obnoxiously-long phrase means something just as vague as the word itself: it's about challenging our biases and assumptions, avoiding an end goal which is too-easily achieved, and forcing us to remain open to different ideas and continue hard discussions. In short, antifoundationalism is about seeing the world in shades of grey.

Which is hard, eh? (I don't know why my Canadian side is coming out so much right now... hmm, maybe it's an unconscious attempt to challenge your assumptions! Just for clarification since I will continue to refer to the US as "our country," etc., in this post: I'm American, but my mom is not. And sorry to any non-American readers--it's a convenient shorthand, though an ironic assumption for this post...) Anyway. We were sitting at our meeting wondering how well our office does at the job of encouraging dialogue on the 'greyness' of life and service, which is an important question to ask, when I realized how inadequate I am to help lead that discussion. I struggle with allowing grey in my own life.

Personally, I am far too prone to trying to figure things out in my head, reducing them to black and white so that I can form an opinion about them and proclaim it boldly. It's tiring to dwell in the grey! It can be exhausting to never settle, to continuously probe for the other side of the story, to sweat long and hard in the dirty dig for truth. So, sometimes I long for easy answers that simply work, no matter what. But I don't think they exist. We're often guilty of thinking they do, but the reality is that things in life are never--yes, I think that's an appropriately-strong word--black and white.

This interim I took a class on war. I had been to Vietnam and Cambodia last interim to study the Vietnam War (or, in their words, the American War... interesting switch of perspective, eh?). I also was able to spend time in Bosnia this summer studying the war there and reconciliation efforts in the wake of the violence. My worldview was literally exploded this year, expanding so fast that I'm still not even sure what's happened--sometimes, all I know is that the world is much bigger and more complicated than I once thought. It hit home again over interim: war--in fact, all of life!--is not black and white. My war class frustrated me because of its over-simplicity, because of the way we often focused exclusively on the American military, neglecting to engage really deeply with 'other' (non-mainstream-American) traditions, voices, points of view, beliefs about what is just and right. Maybe we would still end up in disagreement. But the 'other' still deserves legitimacy. To assume that the story of our own country's interests is the only proper metanarrative to use in explaining war--and the rightness and wrongness of what happens there--is a scary, scary problem.

I think there's a connection here to the work of the Service-Learning Center. Part of our work is to take Calvin students, a majority of whom still come from the same socioeconomic, racial, and educational background, and expose them to the 'other.' It doesn't stop there, of course--from that exposure we hopefully move to relationship, challenge, questions, acceptance; hopefully we move from focusing on our own ability to serve to humbly being served ourselves, and from giving charity to learning how to really love. It can be a transformative process, a really beautiful and challenging thing. But a large part of that process is the difficult and terrifying piece in which we let go of our assumptions. In studying war, that means acknowledging that the 'other' was fighting for a cause he or she believed in just as legitimately as your own country's soldier, and that the lives of 'other' soldiers and their families are just as valuable as the lives of your own people. It's a difficult (and often unpopular) thing. It challenges the way we act, if we really believe it. In service-learning, a similar thing happens, but in our context, it means asking difficult and terrifying questions that challenge our assumptions about our own motives, privilege, efficacy, pride, and wisdom--asking whether or not, at the end of the day, we actually have offered anything to to our neighbors after all. That's not always popular either, but it's the greyness we must dwell in if we're going to be engaging our community as authentically as we ought.

It's not simple. There are too many people with heart-wrenching stories and valid perspectives for life to ever be simple. War is not simple, once we start to hear the stories of refugees and Iraqi soldiers and Afghani store owners and American Marines. Loving and serving and learning with our community is not simple either, once we start to hear the stories of partner agencies, homeless alcoholics who have been abandoned by their churches, pastors who sacrifice every evening to work with refugees, parole officers, store owners involved in urban renewal, and refugees from wars... no, none of it is easy. The truth is not black and white. It's complicated and grey, and this is the reality of the world we live in. Thank God we're in a place where we can embrace it. Let's keep doing so.

Posted by Kelly

Institute on College Student Values

2011-02-08T21:25:00.004-05:00

I had the privilege of attending a small conference last weekend - the John C. Dalton Institute on College Student Values at Florida State University in Tallahassee. There were about 200 other conferees in attendance, from as far away as Alaska and Maine and California. Keynote speakers included Parker Palmer and Marcia Baxter Magolda, both of whom were excellent in their own ways. Workshops touched on topics ranging from Reflective Practices, to a better understanding of the Strengths Inventory, to an explanation of Aristotle's ideas about Eudaimonia. Two other workshops were offered by Calvin folks, in addition to mine, which was on Covenant-Making as Orienting Practice. Ashley Pace, Calvin senior and Service-Learning Center student staff member, gave what may have been the only presentation by an undergraduate student at the conference - she talked about her summer research on findings from the CIRP and NSSE national surveys - trends that relate to how students are affected by service-learning practice on college campuses. And a group of three Resident Directors - Aaron Einfeld, Kyle Heys, and Annie Mas-Smith - presented on 4 practices in Calvin's Residence Life experience that foster benevolent purpose in Calvin students. I learned a lot, met new people, and came away with a deeper appreciation for the work that is done by way of the Service-Learning Center at Calvin College. So many of the ideas that were presented were ideas that are essentially already underway, if not well established, in our office and among our students. For this we can be grateful. Do we have much to learn from others in different institutions? Absolutely. I made contacts and took notes, and have plans for sharing information and strategies with our group over the next several weeks. For now though, I am grateful for the opportunity - to attend the Institute, but more importantly, to return to work. Adelante.

Quote to ponder

2011-01-22T15:06:00.004-05:00

“The poor who walk on the roads and through the deserts and rough places of this world call me to humility – derived from the Latin word “humus,” which means earth or soil. I have to remain close to the soil, the earth. Often I look up into the clouds and daydream about a better world. But my dreams will never bear fruit unless I keep turning my eyes again and again back to the earth and to all those people walking their long, fatiguing walks and inviting me to accompany them. But what does it mean to walk with the poor? It means to recognize my own poverty: my deep inner brokenness, my fatigue, my powerlessness, my mortality. It is there that I am connected with the earth; there that I am truly humble. Yes, it is there that I enter into solidarity with all who walk the earth and discover that I, too, am loved as a very fragile, precious person.”

-Henri Nouwen

Quantifiable Justice

2011-01-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

Can we count or weigh justice? For the purposes of this discussion, let’s first agree on what justice means. How about this: Justice is correcting something that’s not right. Alternatively, justice is giving something what it deserves. Yes?

Consider justice in context. Say you’re driving to office one morning and an elderly lady is crossing the street rather wobbly. (You're actually running late because your dog ate the project proposal that you were supposed to present that morning.) Your vehicle is approaching her but she’s still struggling. Suppose that granny wasn’t using a pedestrian crossing, how would you respond? (a driver’s rights may vary in different jurisdictions, but assume you have the right of way.)

Whatever your response may be, you’d have probably consulted with your beliefs and/or values. Whatever your response may be, it is what you’d consider as a just reaction. Can that reaction, a just act given the circumstances, be quantified in any way?

Perhaps your dorm is serving at one of the local agencies, or maybe you have participated in an ABSL class or have went on a S-LC spring break trip. Can your service -- an act, or a series of acts, of justice -- be quantified? If yes, in what terms?

Or consider from a public health policy angle: Is it just to spend a few million dollars of tax money on a nation-wide vaccination program if it could only save 10 lives?

This Square Inch

2010-08-20T21:51:00.002-04:00

"[T]here is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" -Abraham Kuyper

This oft quoted phrase around Calvin College, has been ringing in my head this summer. We (Megan and I) have invested deeply in our neighborhood for the past seven years or so, because we saw a place for which Christ was crying, "Mine!" There have been days when I've seen Christ's ownership manifest, and times when I've wondered if the tenants are paying rent to a different landlord.

This summer, with bemused joy, I watched as young women and men with hearts beating strong for God's Kingdom came out of the woodwork to set up residence on these streets. This place that for several years has felt so lonely, so barren, to us is now trod by new feet who want to garden empty plots, renovate neglected homes, share lawn and kitchen equipment, speak the gospel. And I say with confidence, "This square inc, is yours, Christ. You are claiming what is rightfully yours!"

Then I see a family from church vacate their home because of the raucous nightly noise from across the street. My neighbor's hand is broken in several places after intercepting a trespasser's jaw. I witness a half dozen drug deals go down from the stoop of the church. A girl my daughter's age pushes a wagon down the middle of the street with no parent in sight. A rock intended for someone else shatters my friend's windshield. And I say with disappointment, "This square inch is yours, Christ. Why don't you claim what is rightfully yours?"

We live in this in between. Every square inch does belong to Christ. He is claiming it. He is claiming the vacant lot, the broken metacarpals, the renewed home, the newly empty one, the drug dealer and the pusher, the little girl and me.

Reflection of StreetFest Theme 2010

2010-07-21T09:34:00.001-04:00

“How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
‘Your God reigns!"

The theme for StreetFest this year is “Beautiful Feet” which is derived from the verse Isaiah 52:7. The passage describes the beauty of the feet of those who proclaim peace, bring good tidings, proclaim salvation, and praise the reign of God. The theme “Beautiful feet” was chosen for two reasons. First, we wish to urge students to develop beautiful feet, by proclaiming good news and working towards peace in their communities. And second, and more importantly, urging the students to recognize and show gratitude towards the people in the Grand Rapids community who have beautiful feet.

People with beautiful feet are those who have a willing heart and have taken action in pursuing service to their community. These people are walking in the mud of a community garden, the cement slabs of a city block or the overgrown grasses of abandoned homes. People with beautiful feet are those who work in the desolate areas, the developing and the crowded areas of the world.

People with beautiful feet see the potential of neighbors gathering in the community garden to plant fruits and vegetables, see the cement slabs of city blocks as canvases for local artist and children to draw on, and see the community pulling its resources together to revitalize overgrown grasses of abandoned homes.

We hope that StreetFest students will catch a glimpse of people with Beautiful Feet and see the harmony of Grand Rapids communities, so that they may be inspired to recognize their place in this community and develop beautiful feet of their own.

We at Calvin College’s Service-Learning Center thank all of the organizations of Grand for your commitment to service and to the beautification of the city of Grand Rapids, we thank you for seeing this world as redeemable and taking steps to bring about peace. You have beautiful feet.

Christina Crider

When the Kings Come Marching In

2010-07-09T09:16:00.003-04:00

Each summer, the S-LC staff is sent out with a collection of carefully selected texts to tuck under their arm and read in between camp sessions, in the airport on a layover, on the beach, or wherever their adventures may take them. I've been diving into the summer reader primarily on the Rapid to and from work. We hope that by reading some of these passages, the staff will be provoked to new thoughts, brilliant insights, and critical reflection.

I just finished reading several chapters by Richard Mouw. Re-reading these passages took me back to my days as a member of the S-LC student staff when the campus focused on Isaiah 60 for an interim, and our staff read and discussed "When the Kings Come Marching In."

Mouw draws the reader in to a rich and complex theology, that I think at the time was pretty groundbreaking for me. I think that this is one of those cases wherein I've been cultivated to understand theology from a certain (perhaps narrow) perspective, and when presented by an alternative I'm initially resistant. "What do you mean, Mr. Mouw, when you say that Christ's redemptive act on the Cross was for more than my individual soul (and the individual souls of all the elect)?"

I recall a degree of grappling with this idea, considering how it would impact my broader understanding of the world, of myself, of God. Eventually these words from Mouw, along with others, started to make sense. And now having accepted what at the time seemed like a radical shift in my worldview, this idea of God's love for the cosmos, for all of human culture, and for each human person comes naturally to me.

In fact, now as I read and engage with Scripture I wonder how I could have ever understood things another way. God's all encompassing love for and redemption of creation is reinforced everywhere I turn, and this is exciting! Each action and choice is now infused with meaning where before they may have been hollow or merely perfunctory.

Embracing this theology is at once overwhelming and relieving: God's intention for the New City is so vast, and so beautiful, and so far from the present experience and yet we can rest in knowing that in God's time it will be fulfilled regardless of our human efforts.

Come Lord Jesus!

Service-Learning Conference at Messiah College

2010-06-17T11:18:00.002-04:00

Last week Thursday, Friday and Saturday found seven of us (four summer student staff and three of us from the professional staff) on the road to Grantham, Pennsylvania for the bi-annual national conference the folks at Messiah College host on Faith-Based Service-Learning.

http://www.messiah.edu/external_programs/agape/national_conference/about.html

On top of being a great road trip, we were able to meet some wonderful colleagues and learn about what is happening in the world of service-learning and civic engagement all around the country, and in same cases, the world. The conference theme was "Sustaining Our Call to Service," and there were excellent discussions about the many aspects of the theme over the three days of the conference. Dr. Richard Hughes gave the opening plenary address, and he went over a rationale for service as a central Christian practice, as well as a key practice found in religious traditions ranging from Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism. He pointed out the need to see service as foundational to our faith-based practice, even if and when it becomes passe' among college students. Other plenaries included Gretchen VanderVeer, the Director of Leadership Development and Training for the Corporation for National and Community Service, and two panel discussions - one with local community partners from the Harrisburg area, and another with practitioners involved in international service-learning from the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox traditions within Christianity. Peppered in between the plenaries were a wide range of paper presentations and workshops. Meal times and breaks were full of deeper engagement with topics and practices, as well as institutional and geographic limitations, and wider discussions about the role of particular faith traditions in how service-learning looks 'on the ground' in various contexts.

I was able to visit the Harrisburg Institute on Friday afternoon, thanks to the hospitality of Dr. Susan Hasseler, the Dean of Messiah College's Dean of the School of Business, Education, the Social Sciences and Community Engagement, and Craig Dalen, the manager of the Harrisburg Institute. Situated in the heart of downtown Harrisburg, it houses 25 students committed to living and learning in the heart of urban Harrisburg, even while they take classes at the suburban campus 20 minutes away in Grantham.

We were energized by the conference. Lots of good conversation about ways to deepen partnerships, better assess learning, extend the conversation and the practice on our campuses, and collaborate one with another.

Reflections on Three years at the Service-Learning Center

2010-06-04T14:09:00.002-04:00

Reciprocity. The hyphen. Shalom. Community. Embrace your place. Discernment. Journey. Reflection.

These are all words I have heard frequently throughout my time at Calvin, and particularly in the three years I worked as a student in the Service-Learning Center.

Often, at least in ‘Calvin circles’, these words can become cliché losing their depth and significance.

There was a time during my career at Calvin that these words did lose significance for me, at least in a Christian sense. I clung strongly to the ideas of reciprocity, reflection and tolerance, but I had grown weary of the church and its institutionalism of Christ. I stopped attending church regularly and my prayer life was sparse.

Yet, every week we still gathered as a staff to share in community together, to talk about our work and at every meeting we would incorporate some Christian practices, such as reading or prayer. Although I would not choose to implement these practices into my life, the fact that I knew they meant a lot to my coworkers and supervisors ensured that I respected them and reflected upon them.

This year, my senior year at Calvin, has been a tough and yet beautiful year for me. I came into the year quite burned out from a hectic summer, yet determined to be involved in a variety of activities since the ability to multitask and do many things well was something that I used to define myself.

During this time I began attending a church that observed traditional Christian practices, and also maintained strong themes of justice, peace and gender equity – themes which I had felt were missing at other churches I had attended. I found a sense of assurance whenever I attended.

In November I fell mysteriously quite ill and with low energy and a high heart rate, I was forced to drop all the activities that I had used to define myself. I needed to learn to be okay with failure. I was propelled to admit my weaknesses and ask for help from other people.

And most of all I had to learn to place my concerns, my health, and the people I cared for in God’s hands. I had to discover that who I am is not defined by the things that I do, but by the Being who created me. These were hard lessons, but it was through embracing my community and taking time to reflect that I was able to fully embrace being in God’s loving arms.

A pinnacle of my journey this year took place on a Thursday night in the fall. I had missed about a month’s staff meetings due to my illness. The week I returned the theme of the meeting was faithfulness. I knew that in recognition of God’s faithfulness and the faithfulness of the love and care I had received from my co-workers I needed to be honest with how I was truly doing, both emotionally and physically. So, with a shaky voice, I shared with the group how I was honestly doing. To be that weak and vulnerable was incredibly difficult, but I felt compelled to be a witness of the journey God had been leading me on.

It was then that I realized what a gift it is to work in this office. The deep care that we share, the emphasis on community and the continual Christian practices have truly and deeply shaped me.

So what I have learned in my three years working in the Service-Learning Center? Well, my professional skills like event-planning and administration have definitely been honed. I have learned how to work both independently and within a team. I have also seen the importance of relationship building and been reminded of the fact that community is not limited by time or place. Yet, as I reflect I realize that all the phrases I started this post with have been worked more fully into my life. For me they are no longer cliché nor insignificant, they are instead phrases that shape the hope that I have and the way in which I live my life. Of course, I am broken and live within a broken world, so I often fall short of serving God’s purpose, but through ideas like reflection and journey I can learn and grow through my misgivings.

And in the end it comes back to hope. Hope of a God’s kingdom on earth. Hope for complete health in mind and body. Hope for a time when there is no brokenness. Hope in a God who deeply loves and cherishes all people.

How will what I have learned and experienced at the Service-Learning Center be demonstrated in my future? How will concepts like community, reciprocity and discernment be played out? Only God knows, and that gives me enough hope to continue on this journey.

Kelly DeVries
Graduate Summer Intern at the Service-Learning Center

Surprised by Hope - Book Review

2010-04-21T13:24:00.003-04:00

I was drawn to this book when I saw it on a table at a lecture a year or two back. The image of a lone tree on the side of a dirt road is captivating, but so is the title. What do I think about the resurrection, heaven and the mission of the church? These are all somewhat vague ideas to me; all somewhat distant and ethereal. And where do those ideas come from? I guess there were always some Biblical scenes that spoke into my understanding of these: Easter, the rich man and Lazarus, the great commission. Things that I've learned and experienced in my lifespan have wanted for something more tangible related to these ideas.

Since seeing the book on that table, I've heard it referred to by many folks who I respect a great deal. A sermon by a Calvin Chaplain Nathaniel Bradford just after the new year referred to the book when speaking of hope, something of which our church is in short supply. So, as a member of the worship planning team, it was decided to transform our evening service into a book discussion group with this book as the focal point.

It probably would have been a good idea to read the book in whole before suggesting it, but having finished the book now, I don't think I would have chosen against it. I did realize early on that I was in a bit over my head, with a deeply theological book that I had to summarize for the gathered congregation. It ended up being a rather enjoyable if time-consuming task.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect as it relates to Wright's theology compared with the Reformed theology I've been raised in. It turned out to be pretty spot on in my read of the book. There was a nice strong emphasis on the good old Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation rubric, though not necessarily such a focus on the heavy-handed T.U.L.I.P. framework that also courses throughout the Reformed perspective.

Fellow congregation members were concerned with Wright's lack of definition for hell, punishment, and sin; but I really resonate with his focus on the joy of God's kingdom building as the motivation for discipleship and evangelism. Some balked at his insistence at the goodness of creation and its persistence at the time of Christ's return, but I'm happy to step clear of that border-line gnosticism and embrace the idea that "God so loved the cosmos."

I loved Wright's persistent encouragement to a fuller celebration of Easter and resurrection, the central tenant of our faith. The idea of "taking something up" in the forty days after Easter leading up to ascension to counter balance the "giving something up" of Lent was a refreshing challenge. I'm not sure what exactly that will be for me, but it may be connected to the image Wright used to explain this concept: that of uprooting and weeding in Lent not with a purpose of blank soil, but a garden to be sown with seeds that will one day blossom and bear fruit.

How exciting, yea surprising, to be invited into the work of justice, beauty and evangelism as kingdom building; God's work done through the Spirit's power in our lives and communities; reclaiming our geographic space, God's gift of time, and the matter of our lives for his glory. I can see how one might declare this as slipping towards a social gospel, but if that's so, it is one that is firmly supported by a Biblical reading of the New Testament that centers on Christ resurrected, allowing for a retelling of the Old Testament in light of God's story of restoration made reality through the people of Israel.

If the dense theology scares you, I'd recommend starting with the last chapter and working your way backwards. I think that if I'd done that, knowing the climax of the book, the earlier chapters would have held more meaning. I may have to go back and read them after letting the final chapter settle in my heart for a while.

I'm re-energized by reading this book. Excited for kingdom work. Surprised by hope.

S-LC Spring Retreat

2010-03-17T15:43:00.003-04:00

Three times a year the Service-Learning Center staff embarks on an overnight retreat. Two weeks ago we had our spring retreat in Chicago. We arrived in the late afternoon on Friday and stayed at an International Team (http://www.iteams.org/) community house in the Lawndale area. Over deep dish pizza that evening we heard about International Team’s ministry in Lawndale and then spent the rest of the evening playing games and laughing. The next day we stuffed newsletters for an organization called GRIP (http://www.gripyouth.com/) and in the afternoon headed home in two mini-vans.

Sometimes it’s hard to pull ourselves away from the homework we’re supposed to be doing, the friends we want to hang out with and the sleep we’d like to be getting in order have a retreat, but after each one, I’m reminded of why we have them.

Although a little cheesy, when I was pondering the reasons for our retreats I thought of three more “re” words besides “retreat” that describe well some of the great parts of our retreats.

First, the retreats are a time of reconnecting with other staff members. Because we’re a student staff we’re only in the office a couple of hours a day between our classes and can go a long time without having a conversation. For this reason the time in the car, during meals and relaxing is great for catching up on each other’s lives and processing our work together at the Service-Learning Center. This retreat we had a good time discussing some of the speakers we’ve had in past staff meetings and thinking about our roles as Service-Learning Center employees.

Second, through the activities we engage in during our retreats we are also able to remember the reasons that we do the work we do. This retreat we got to talk with Noel and Ashley from International Teams. They live in the Lawndale neighborhood working alongside members of a local church in youth development. Their philosophy of working with and learning from the people they are serving is central to what we hope to do at the Service-Learning Center. The time we spent with them was a good reminder and challenge for the work we do. In addition, we got to spend the morning helping out at a local Chicago agency, GRIP, which works to match mentors with Chicago teens. Often we at the Service-Learning Center coordinate service-learning opportunities for other students but don’t get to service-learn ourselves. Having the opportunity to do so on this retreat reminded us of some of the “nuts and bolts” of what we do; we experienced an agency orientation, got instructions to do our work and spent the morning helping out. It is good for us to remember the types of experiences our students have on an everyday basis so we can make them as helpful and applicable as possible.

Finally, the retreat is a great time for us to rest and be restored after many weeks of work. I always seem to forget how important it is both personally and as a staff just to have fun with each other. Time laughing, playing games and eating together is so important for our own mental health :) and for the productivity of our office.

Although it’s sometimes difficult to get the gumption up to go on a staff retreat, every time we do venture out I am thankful I did.

A Christian Student at a Secular University: Who Is My Neighbo[u]r?

2010-03-07T19:02:00.000-05:00

This entry serves three purposes: 1) A break from reading some arcane 18C court judgments, 2) an opportunity to process the question on my mind since day one of my being at a major state university (note: ambiguity is necessary to avoid defamation lawsuits), and 3) an excuse to blog since I last blogged as a staff.

So what does it mean to be a Christian at a secular university? I have to get used to the idea that my worldview is the (lone) minority position. I suspect my experience might be very similar to those before me—especially those who are experiencing/have experienced the transition from Calvin to a state university. The only Christian voice, however, need not be silent. I just have to learn how to present myself in a language that the others understand. That’s not too bad. Sunday—according to my peers—isn’t a day of rest spent in worship. Sundays are used to recover from hangovers.

The Cupps mug equivalent over here is a booze mug. Granted it might be a cultural thing, yet many drinkers can’t hold their own. End result: missed lectures, and desperate visits to the doctors for screening, counseling, and scheduling medical procedures. If only condoms came with gospel tracks, or cars could detect alcohol. Not that such cases do not happen at Calvin, but it’s definitely fewer.

When I first set foot in a beautiful, prominent church one Sunday morning, I was surprised that there weren’t any more than 30 in attendance. Choose any two members of that church and their combined age would be greater than 120. Where are the younger people, I asked myself. Maybe I was at the wrong church. No, they are still in bed.

Calvin is truly a unique environment. I find myself in many conversations where I could talk about my faith, even challenge it. It’s also somewhere where I hear people ask themselves such hard questions like “what’s my purpose in life?” and “why do good people suffer?” Calvin is a place where one’s intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual dimensions dovetail to receive some real prime-time attention for some imminent center stage action.

This morning in the bathroom, the janitor came in to collect the trash. I acknowledged his presence but he only came in to do his stuff. I thanked him for his work as he made his way out; he didn’t even make a sound. He came back in a few minutes later, “It was nice of you to say ‘thank you’.” That moment—a moment where the two-dimensional reading from a senior’s capstone seminar became alive in the very world that we have being wanting to reform and serve—made me realize that my neighbors are those whom I cross paths with. It’s that missing “u” in my “neighborhood.” Everyone is my neighbour. Ah, it’s so easy to associate with and stay close to those who share my worldview. Such brief moments, like the one with the janitor, might never come again, and any one of those moments might just be my last chance to love that neighbor.

Another exercise in walking humbly

2010-02-18T14:48:00.001-05:00

This semester I have the opportunity to do a Comenius Internship at United Church Outreach Ministry (UCOM), the organization mentioned in Tu’s post about 2010 Transitions StreetFest. This is an exciting position for me personally as it increases my experience in the non-profit world, but it is also an interesting experience as a Service-Learning Center employee because the Service-Learning Center sends many students to UCOM as Homework House tutors. My short experience at UCOM so far has reminded me of the importance of acting with grace and humility towards these service-learners and towards other service-learners that we send from our office.

When we send students to UCOM I expect them to do good work. I think that they should be on time, be polite and do an excellent job tutoring the elementary students with whom they work. I want them to reflect when they return and make a long-term commitment to the program.

These goals are easy for me to make as I sit in the Service-Learning Center, a place I am very comfortable in after three years of working there. However, my perspective has changed slightly after beginning my own “service-learning” experience at UCOM. At UCOM I have to ask, even about the smallest detail—“How do you use the printer?”, “What’s the name of that volunteer again?”, “How many pounds of cheese go into the bag?” It’s frustrating sometimes not knowing what to do and feeling as though I’m not doing a very good job or being helpful to the agency. I’m tired after a day of communicating in Spanish and I don’t particularly want to reflect on my experience. And, I probably can’t make a long-term commitment to UCOM because I most likely will be leaving Grand Rapids after this semester.

How, then, do I reconcile my experiences feeling not-so helpful and not-so reflective with my goals for the service-learners sent from our office? Well, to begin with, it’s important to remember that service-learning is a process for everyone involved. Service-learners won’t be terribly helpful at the beginning of their time and may not be very reflective. Hopefully, though, after spending time at their agencies students will learn the ins and outs of the agency and start to be an asset instead of a burden. Hopefully, too, as students have more experiences they will begin to reflect naturally on how what they see and the lives they live are connected.

Also, it is important for us at the Service-Learning Center to treat the service-learners with grace and humility. We don’t know their life experiences or even their experiences at their sites, so we must be careful not to judge their involvement without a little more investigation. Our expectations for them shouldn’t necessarily lower, but our way of interacting with them must be careful.

In fact, the whole process of service-learning is a game of grace and humility. The agencies we work with must treat the Service-Learning Center staff with grace as we try to be responsible to them and to be full-time students. The students must have grace and humility with us and with the agencies as we work out organizational kinks, and we must have grace and humility with the students and with the organizations as we try to communicate and work together.

Once again, the StreetFest theme of this fall “Walk Humbly” comes back to challenge and encourage us to “Walk Humbly” with our service-learners and agencies.

Transition 10: Being reminded of how to walk humbly

2010-02-10T20:13:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, January 30th, we as staffs of the Service-Learning Center were blessed to be able to spend our days serving and learning with the new and transferred students of Transition 2010. Though this day was in many ways a much smaller scale of Streetfest Day, we were glad to see the same excitement and willingness from the students to learn and serve as those came in the fall.

The students were given a more detailed presentation of the city of Grand Rapids and its unique neighborhoods. They also had a van tour around Grand Rapids before their arrivals at the agency and thus were able to see these neighborhoods outside the classroom introduction. The students were then split off to go serve at two different agencies, YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) and UCOM(United Church Outreach Ministry). I stayed in the group of students working at UCOM and enjoyed much of the interactions and the reflective conversations we had. It was the first time for me at UCOM and thus like all the new students, I was very appreciative of the history through which UCOM has developed as an outreach ministry, a tutoring center (Homework House) and a food pantry (partnering with ACCESS) for the southwest community of Grand Rapids.

Not only did we learn about the food system UCOM tries to maintain for their clients, but also we got to be the servers by repackaging the donated food, cleaning the freezer and rearranging the grocery shelves for future clients. Though some projects were done outside in the freezing weather, I was glad that most students were eager to help out with them. The conversation afterwards was refreshing and encouraging. All of them had fun engaging with one another as they served. They also expressed appreciation for the good works being done at UCOM and their eagerness to go out and explore the city of Grand Rapids.

As we wrapped up the day, we as the staffs were glad to have met these new students and been part of their orientation to Calvin. In a way, this Transition day was a refresher and encourager for us to continue our humble walk of service to Calvin students and the greater Grand Rapids community as the whole staff and as individuals.

The other side. . .

2010-01-02T23:08:00.002-05:00

As a Calvin student, I worked at the Service-Learning Center during my sophomore and junior years (2001-2003), coordinating service-learning placements for education students in local schools. The job was fantastic--it was "real" and complex--giving me opportunities to meet the needs of both education students and classrooms around the city of Grand Rapids. I was able to visit many of the schools and agencies where Calvin students were placed, giving me a unique picture of the disparities that exist among schools and putting me into contact with many dedicated teachers and administrators. These folks were willing to put forth the extra effort to include Calvin students in their organiziations; I think they recognized the mutual benefit that is offered through service-learning.
Though my job at the SL-C ended, service-learning continued (and continues) to intersect with my life. From 2006-2008, my wife and I were mentors in the Harambee House, a Calvin College Project Neighborhood house partnered with First Christian Reformed Church. Each member of the community engaged in our Grand Rapids neighborhood through service-learning on a weekly basis. Having worked at the SL-C, I was keenly aware of how important it was to recognize the relationships that we formed with our neighbors as mutual-we had to fight our tendencies to be the givers, the helpers, the doers.
I currently teach in a special education classroom at Creston High School in the Grand Rapids Public Schools, and the partnership with the SL-C has continued in various ways. I've enjoyed hosting a Streetfest group at our school, and have had a variety of service-learners in my classroom: tutors from the Education Dept. at Calvin, nursing students presenting health information in my classroom from the Nursing Dept., and students from the local Project Neigborhood House on Travis Street have also been involved in our school and in my classroom. I am so thankful for these partnerships; I know that Calvin students learn much from being in an urban high school setting, but that isn't really my primary concern any longer. I'm simply thankful for what they bring to my classroom and how they enrich the lives of my students when they are in my classroom.

The Long Awaited CEAP Poster Session Post

2009-12-23T12:38:00.002-05:00

IT"S FINALLY HERE!

The first blog post from Scott this year.

I wanted to debrief the happenings of the CEAP poster session that occurred last Dec. 3rd.

First of all, a little introduction to CEAP: CEAP (pronounced "seap") stands for the Calvin Environmental Assessment Program. Bi-yearly students and cooperating teachers collect data from environmental studies they've done around Calvin and the surrounding community. The studies are then published on posters and displayed in the Science Building for an event called the poster session.

This years poster session was kicked off with a lecture given by Prof. Keith Grasman. His speech, entitled, "Canaries in the Coal Mine: Lessons from Fish-Eating Birds about Pollution in

the Great Lakes", described the many ways bird populations of the Great Lakes have been afflicted in the past decades. Chemical scares from DDT and PCB's have caused population depletion and reproductive problems in certain bird species. Although actions have been taken to reduce these chemicals and revive the bird populations, various other chemical pollutants still plague the Great Lakes. Prof. Grasman enumerated the problems bird populations face today and hypothesized several solutions. He also described some of the work he and his classes had personally done in this field of study. The speech was an hour long and very informative, accompanied by a detailed slideshow.

The poster session was next. A problem was suddenly presented for me though. The cookies and coffee the Catering Service had promised were not set up, and there were ten minutes remaining before people crowded into the Science Building Atrium for the poster session. I had to take drastic action. I ran up the stairs to the 2nd floor scanning up and down the hallways for any sign of the cookie and coffee cart. There was nothing in sight. So I briskly walked out the door and peered across commons lawn for any movement. Nothing. It was over. There was no cart. There would be no cookies and coffee. Just when all hope seemed lost, I walked downstairs to find two nice students with gold Calvin College Catering name-tags setting up tables and refreshemnts. I was saved. With the refreshments set up, the poster session could go on.

At the poster session, over a dozen students presented on subjects ranging from the architectural development of the business districts on Wealthy and Cherry street to the energy consumption of Calvin College campus facilities. Spectators could wander around from poster to poster, asking questions, listening to the students talk, or just reading the posters. The posters were colorful and informative and the presenters were enthusiastic about their material.

Overall the poster session was great. I hope to advertise a bit better this coming semester to attract a larger audience. But I look forward to working on it again.

Joy in the business of the season

2009-12-02T20:55:00.004-05:00

Looking at the weather forecast today, I was a little sad to know that this beautiful sunny day might be the last fall day of this year. Pretty soon, with all of the snow coming in, the view outside my window will look like the beside picture (taken winter of my freshman year).

Yet, in an unexplainable way, I was excited to see snow this Monday for the first time since last April. Perhaps, the end of fall is here for a new beginning of winter season. And perhaps, this time in between Thanksgiving and Christmas is not just the final stressful end for us, but a hopeful beginning of what we can do better next time. As often as we feel down by the darkness of a cold winter, we are often discouraged and worn out by the business of the pre-Christmas season. With all the things that need to be done before Christmas such as final exams or work projects, Christmas shopping, etc…, we are worn down and thus forget how meaningful this time of year is.

At least, we know that the meaning is there if we just take a moment to look. There will be snow and winter breeze even when we are burdened by study, work or other responsibilities, if only we would spend one moment to find joy in such beauty. In the same way, when we are troubled by life, we find others that care for us enough to bring peace into our lives again. May we learn to not be isolated by the coldness of winter and the business of our lives, but may we be lightened up by the freshness of cold air and be joyful for such loving gifts we are to one another.

We Practice: Covenant Making

2009-11-10T09:25:00.015-05:00

At the beginning of every year, the student staff of the Service-Learning Center honkers down in a room for a couple of hours with the intention of creating a covenant. It’s quite the involved process. We grapple with the task of somehow developing a collective description, a sort of mission statement, with the hopes that it might best reflect upon the work we do and the nuances involved with doing it.

After hours of producing, we then attach ourselves to this covenant. Through revisiting it, creating visual representation, reminding each other, and pushing one another to put these words to action, the goal is to produce a living covenant.

The covenant of the 2009-2010 S-LC staff reads as follows:

“Rooted in the hope of what can be, together with conviction and humility, we practice. *Clap*

Crying out

Asking for forgiveness

Engaging

Educating

Challenging

Hospitality

Building

Joy

Faithfulness

*Clap* Rooted in the hope of what can be, together with conviction and humility, we practice.”

Each person on staff has chosen one of these practices to focus on throughout the year. In order to better remind ourselves of these practices in our daily lives, we took some time during our staff retreat to create individual paintings of our practices. These will hang together in our office.

In order to work on these disciplines together, the group has decided to shape our staff weekly staff meetings around the covenant. Aside from beginning our meetings with it, we’ve been taking turns leading the meetings. Each week’s theme focuses on one of the practices, and the assigned staff member provides points of reflection, activities to bring to life some of its different aspects, and questions for discussion.

It’s been a challenging and humbling reminder of the different practices involved in a life of faith. It’s evident that some of us are more gifted in certain practices more than others, but that as we challenge one another to grow in new areas, these practices can come together to shape both us individually and as a whole community, in rather exciting ways.

Education, Service-Learning, and Christian Practices

2009-11-04T20:00:00.005-05:00

A few weekends ago, the S-LC staff enjoyed our annual fall retreat. For the discussion portion of our evening away, we discussed two essays; one, a chapter in Craig Dykstra's book, Growing in the Life of Faith - we discussed chapter five, "Education in Christian Practices." The second essay was an address by Nicholas Wolterstorff entitled, "Christian Learning in and for a Pluralist Society." Below is a window into our conversation:

Two different Latin roots provide us with the English word "education." They are, first, "educare," which means to rear or bring up, as a child – to train, shape, or to mold, and second, "educere," meaning to draw out from within, or to lead forth. Both meanings are represented in the word "education." Many of the hot debates about education today are rooted in the differences between educere and educare.

Wolterstorff answers the question, “why make what is simple (the gospel of Christ) so complicated?” What is the place of Christian learning in a pluralist society?

Dykstra discusses what Christian practices have to do with education.

Practices are loosely defined as “habitations of the Spirit,” or “forms of participation in the practice of God.” “Patterns of communal action that create openings in our lives where the grace, mercy, and presence of God may be made known to us.”

Wolterstorff says that Christian learning allows Christian faith to shape it, from measuring what is legitimate to investigate, to affecting how one treats fellow learners and investigators. He says that “Christian learning is faithful learning. Learning faithful to faith in the triune God, learning faithful to the Christian community and its tradition, learning faithful to the Christian scriptures.”

Christian learning is also the learning that forms and shapes us. He uses the concept of “Christian enculturation.” He says, “being a Christian will incorporate a certain identifiable cultural formation. And for the acquisition of that formation, education is indispensable. Not necessarily academic learning; but certainly education.”

Wolterstorff sees learning ultimately as eucharistic, or grateful, and eirenic, or peace-bringing. It also carries the potential to bring destruction, and it isn’t always grateful, but in its purest forms it is eucharistic and eirenic. He also says that “Christian learning contributes to our shalom by interpreting reality and answering our questions.”

Wolterstorff shudders to think that the American Christian impulse is to downplay “the learning that helps to keep alive and hand on that tradition which consists of the eucharistic and eirenic cultural activities of our forefathers and foremothers in the faith.” Learning allows us to remember and be inspired by those who have gone before and who can instruct and inspire us for the work of the Kingdom.

He discusses the fact of our national directional/religious pluralism. In this context, “the business of Christian learning in our pluralistic society is to give content to the Christian voice in that dialogue which ought to be taking place in the public square of American society.” That public square is full of ideas about what justice and peace look like. Wolterstorff argues that Christians ought to bring the prophets, the gospel, the Christian wisdom of the ages, humbly to bear within that public square.

He makes the claim that “if there is to be that voice on behalf of biblical justice, there must be Christian learning.” The conversation that includes the Christian voice in dialogue with other voices may never take place, but if it ever does, Christian learning will be indispensable in order for a Christian voice to participate. Christian learning, according to Wolterstorff, must be accompanied by Christian virtues.

Dykstra then, in explaining what the practices are, and how they fit into a program of education, concludes that Christian practices, while sharing much in common with other types of practices, have the fundamental difference of not being about mastery and control – but of being about receiving gifts and grace instead.

Christian practices (think Crying Out, Asking for Forgiveness, Engaging, Educating, Challenging, Hospitality, Building, Joy, and Faithfulness) are human activities that are cooperative, socially established, and coherent and complex. They contribute to human moral progress.

“Practices are those cooperative human activities through which we, as individuals and as communities, grow and develop in moral character and substance.” Importantly, Dykstra argues, they can be taught, and hence, passed down from one generation to the next.

The way to learning a practice, according to Dykstra, is through good coaching, lots of words, attention and analysis, apprenticeship, some reading, conversation and argumentation, and a lot more physicality than we think. We need models, mentors, teachers and partners in practice. We also need to be models, mentors, teachers and partners in practice.

Dykstra acknowledges that we live in a world with multiple layers of practices, not all of which are Christian. What are some of our regular practices that are embedded in other layers of our layers outside the specific orbit of our Christian faith?

Here is where Wolterstorff and Dykstra overlap. Dykstra agrees with Wolterstorff in his comments relative to the intersection between our civic and our Christian practices and commitments. “Education in Christian faith must concern itself with the mutual influences that various practices have on one another, as well as with whatever complementarity or conflict may exist between the goods internal to Christian practices and goods internal to others. Because we are all citizens, for example, we must inquire in to the nature, effects, and implications of our simultaneous engagement in practices constitutive of Christian life and those central to public life in the broader culture. We need to inquire, for example, into the continuities and discontinuities between medical practice in our society and practices of care for the ill and the dying that are now and have been in the past characteristic of the church. This applies also to a wide variety of other social practices.”

Dykstra ends with an explanation of how Christian practices are peculiar from other practices. Fundamentally, this difference lies in the area of mastery, excellence and control. Rather than mastery, the human task according to the Christian story is to use the gifts of God rightly as gifts for good. Trust and grateful receptivity replace mastery and control as the end goals. Rather than excellence, we aim for faithfulness.

It is no coincidence that faithfulness is the final practice in the S-LC covenant for this year.

Questions

How are the practices in our covenant, like baseball learn-able? Teachable? Able to be analyzed?

How do they actually get practiced?

In what ways is the learning that attaches to service-learning like educere (draw out), and in what ways is it like educare (shape, mold)?

How are the practices that the Service-Learning Center enables and encourages designed to equip Calvin students to participate in the public square dialogue that Wolterstorff talks about?

How are our practices (Crying Out, Asking for Forgiveness, Engaging, Educating, Challenging, Hospitality, Building, Joy, and Faithfulness) designed to educate us with educere, or educare?

Want to serve next Spring? How about going on Spring Break Trip?

2009-10-21T15:35:00.003-04:00

If you asked me these questions two years ago, I would say why not spend it with your friends and family instead? Don’t you do enough service-learning during your semester for your classes? But surprisingly, going on a service-learning spring break trip was one of the most eye-opening experiences I had last year, which greatly motivated me to do what I’m doing now at the Service-Learning Center.

An attempt to get away from campus and my mundane life brought me to Boston last spring break. In that one short week, I met and learned about the lives of amazing but ordinary people, formed relationship with fellow Calvin students whom I either just met or knew casually through classes. I was surprised by how I enjoyed getting physically tired by the end of the day and yet still feeling excited about working the next day. We were so grateful to be working alongside Boston Project staff members, who shared with us how the ministry came about and what it has done over the years as a part of Boston urban neighborhoods. It was also in this week that I was faced with many questions as we shared in our devotions what it means to do service in such places as Christians. The question of injustice has challenged us to look deeper into the familiar Micah passage and to understand what we were doing there and what we could take out of our service. It was certainly not easy to be dealing with these questions and engaging in honest conversations about privileges, injustices and faith, but it was surely eye-opening dialogues about how God has worked through the brokenness of our world and our own lives. In the midst of the frustration and confusion we felt as we tried to do our short-term service, we realized that there is tremendous hope in God’s word when he called us to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with him. The work of Boston Project Ministries reminded us of this promise. We left energized but also challenged to be aware and involved with our world with humility and faith.

Fortunate to have such great experience with Spring Break Trip, I was also amazed to hear from my friends as they came back from theirs. Now as I work in the Service-Learning Center, I am so pumped to be one of the first people to learn about the new Spring Break Trips. This year our office will have nine different Spring Break Trips that will take place across the nation, from the local communities of Grand Rapids to the urban ministries in Boston, Chicago, Knoxville, and other organizations that are committed in community development through creative means, intentional faith, and disaster relief.

Furthermore, the more exciting news is applications are now out for all students who are interested in being either participant or leader. Feel free to come by the Service-Learning Center to pick up applications or to chat with us more about questions that you have about the specific Spring Break Trip or just the application itself. Visit the link below, which will take you right to our website that includes the applications and more information about Spring Break Trips: http://www.calvin.edu/admin/slc/opportunities/spring-break-trips.html

Kent County-wide Food Drive is at the S-LC this coming Saturday, October 10

2009-10-05T16:43:00.001-04:00

Like usual, we are so excited to be part of the annual ACCESS Food Drive that serves over 7000 households in Kent County each month . ACCESS is a twenty-five year old network of congregations and individuals that serves the greater needs of West Michigan neighborhoods in terms of hunger and poverty. One of their great programs is Hunger Initiative in which they have variety of food drives, pantry networks and food assistance programs that serve Kent County community.

Food Drives are designed to increase the supply of high needs items that sometimes are not always available at the food pantries such as soup, canned fruits and vegetable and personal care items. The County- Wide Food Drive is held on the second Saturday of October every year. It is ACCESS goal to collect close to 90 tons of food to help restock their food pantries which have been depleted after this summer.

Along with 1,700 volunteers, our office is hoping that we will see even a greater number of food items this year. Look for bright green boxes covered with Food Drive poster around campus or come into our office to drop off your donations. All nonperishable food items are collected on Friday, October 9th to be delivered to ACCESS on Saturday.

PARK(ing) Day 2009

2009-09-25T18:40:00.010-04:00

This is the first year our SLC office joined PARK(ing) Day, along with the Off-Campus Program. Our transportation coordinator, Tina Bolt, who was one of the people in charge of making this happen, has put together a nice short blog to express what she has learned during this day. Check it out and learn more about what PARK(ing) Day is all about and what as Calvin College staffs and students did in this event.

PARK(ing) Day originated in 2005 by Rebar, a San Francisco art and design collective. Rebar wanted to raise awareness on the lack of park space in the city. By putting change in the meter of a parking space allowed Rebar to lease this real estate for a temporary amount of time. Rebar chose to lease a single parking space for the day and instead of parking a car chose to creatively transform this space into a small park. PARK(ing) Day is now an annual global event where any citizen can participate. The event has taken place in more than 50 cities including Chicago, New York, Toronto, London, Barcelona, and Grand Rapids!
This is the second year Grand Rapids participated in the PARK(ing) Day event. Calvin has participated in the event for both years. In 2008 Calvin’s Social Justice Coalition took part in the event, and this year the Service-Learning Center and Off Campus programs partnered with the Creston Neighborhood Association to participate in the festivities of PARK(ing) Day 2009. Recently the Creston Neighborhood Association received a Kaboom grant. The intent of this grant is to use playgrounds as a rallying point to initiate more community development and crime prevention. There is a hope that the neighborhood would come together to fix up a playground and this would result in more communication with one another. For further information visit http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/07/sweet_place_for_a_park_will_ge.html
“Our park” was located on Louis, just east of Monroe right on Rosa Park Circle. The theme of “our park” this year was the importance of play in our lives. People were invited into “our park” to play a game, share a favorite play memory or to just hang out. The theme of the importance of play in our lives incorporated the Creston Neighborhood Association very well.

Streetfest 09: Serving and learning about Grand Rapids in an attitude of humility

2009-09-15T11:34:00.011-04:00

From Thursday, September 3rd to Saturday, September 5th, over a thousand new students participated in Streetfest 09, serving the community of Grand Rapids. Some of them have lived in this city their whole lives, some have not even got their heads around the Calvin College circle, let alone the greater community. However, we, (the staff in the Service-Learning Center) have received immensely positive feedback and reflections from the new students, the student leaders and the participating agencies regarding their service and learning process during StreetFest.

Amazed by the things we heard, we are reminded of what it means to be humble in our service to the community. These various jobs that these students accomplished may only have a short-term effect to the different communities, but they surely showed the students the needs of the different communities within Grand Rapids, and what they can do in small ways to address these needs. One thing that surprised me was that even the students on the biking tour of the city, who didn’t provide any hands-on service with the agencies, came to appreciate the city in many ways (my colleague and I ourselves learned a lot about what has happened to Grand Rapids downtown recently driving along and getting lost at times). Though more than half of the new students on the bike tour were from the Grand Rapids area, they all learned a lot about the city by riding through many parts of the city that they had never been to and speaking with people that they normally would not have spoken with. There was one guy that approached us as we stopped near the Calvin Art studio at 106 S. Division. At first, most of us thought he was going to ask for money, but he actually just wanted to talk to us and to wish us well as we continued the tour. As Professor De Graaf , the bike tour leader, expressed in the reflection afterwards, we do not know how such a high point of our day can come from the least expected situations. Such experience also reminds us as students to be humble toward the people whom we serve, and encourages us to get involved with the greater Grand Rapids community.

As we say good-bye to StreetFest and begin our new academic school year, the challenge of “walking humbly” remains. Our hope is that the students will take away that humble attitude as they serve and explore the city of Grand Rapids.

One great thing that is happening this Friday September 18th from 8:00am to 5:00pm is Park(ing) Day. The Service-Learning Center is joining the Off-Campus Programs office in reserving two parking spots downtown to raise awareness about transportation options in the city and to encourage students to continue to get involved with the city.
Check out the links below to learn more about Park(ing) Day and don’t forget to visit us this Friday. http://www.grand-rapids.mi.us/index.pl?page_id=10304

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhvp_d4HZrE