travel collage sunday, july 20, 2008 peter fitch

Travel Collage

Sunday, July 20, 2008 Peter Fitch

First Things

Great to be home Difficulty & beauty of this trip Connection with Walter’s talk from

last Sunday Next week: A Christian Theory of

Everything

SSU Travel Blogs

This is a response that I had to our visit to the Dachau concentration camp in Munich, Germany. I realize this was nearly three weeks ago but I think that the following poem that I wrote can be interpreted and applied in many different ways. It has to do with humanity’s equality and how it is accentuated in the most dire of circumstances (Dave McCallum)

David McCallum (July 13, 2008)

The sweetness is not concerned with me.Am I in denial when I say this?I know that I always think that others areWhen they say it or express it by their actions.It seems like apathy is at the forefront of humanity.When did it get that way?


We’ve become so disconnected with our fellow man!So unconcerned with our neighbour’s life!But somehow, at some points in history,People remember the honey on their hands.That the sweetness is concerned with them.


And at ground zero in the muck and the mire,Someone reaches out their handTo another who is hurting as much as they.Mutuality is remembered.Solidarity is recalled.And the world slowly lifts up its head in hope.

Mel Weatherhead (July 15, 2008)

Today, we pack our smelly bags full of our dirty clothes and get ready to head back to Canada in the morning. I think that I’m quite ready to be settled (in a way) again, though I know that as soon as it happens I’ll want to be off again, flying to some new destination.


Days on the road have been wonderful. I don’t think I could ask for a better group of people or leaders to be travelling with, but there comes a point when your body breaks down and you can no longer soak in another museum or cathedral. Perhaps my appreciation for the art, the genius and the incredible places we’ve been to


will slowly soak in more over the next year, as I go into my fourth year and begin to process my situation in life, my place within the community I have been blessed to be a part of, and where I will go afterwards.Before Europe, I thought I understood how valuable the SSU community was in my life. I now realize how little I knew then (and


probably how little I know now), but these people around me have taught me how to love and forgive beyond what I thought I was capable of. Perhaps it’s the forced hours on the bus, falling asleep to distant (or very close) snoring, or coping on the days when you just want to be alone. In every way this community has taught


me to forgive, to step out of my comforts and become a person I never thought I could be. Though I am still learning, I know that this experience will stay with me forever, it is changing the way I see the world and my place in it.


‘In community life we discover our own deepest wound and learn to accept it. So our rebirth can begin. It is from this very wound that we are born.’ -Jean Vanier, Community and Growth.

Zoe Fitch (July 15, 2008)

A Prayer from a Pilgrim (on the way home)

Lord, you are in the silences hereand in the creaking of the old wooden pewsand floorboards.


In the swish of a jacket as it reaches for a penand in the ticking of the clock.


Welcome us, Friend Whose closed door keeps us inForgive us, Father Who takes no offenseCleanse us, Spirit Who sees the heart inside in the skin

Canvas Walls Ashley Warren (July 13, 2008)

i wake up in the morning to stare at a canvas made shelter that surrounds me in four not so solid walls that gather and hold together at the top. despite their good intentions, i squint my eyes from the sun that they do not keep out, and roll over to search my thermarest for the areas in which they have let gushing waters of rain in. smacking my hand around


the nearest canvas wall for those two metal friends that will part, just to let me out into the world of nature that holds me so tight as i sleep. slipping a flip-flop onto each foot, knowingthey have survived the damp night, i know that i have too. for two months i have learned to live this life,


and to love this life. and somehow it doesn’t all end here. that i can continue on in a day to shower, dress, and eat. i sit on a seat in a bus beside a friend, bag on back, pen in hand, ready for the world to take me as i am. the bus takes me to a place i will remember forever, that will teach me of things i never knew and that


will leave me all the more knowledgeable than i was before. the friend that sits in the seat beside me, this friend i will remember forever, they will teach me of things i never knew and will leave me all the more knowledgeable than i was before. if we live our lives with eyes closed, what do we have to take from it,


how can we move forward and when can we ever bless others with the blessings that have been handed to us? i have seen things on this trip that have hurt me, leaving me in pieces, some which have been left behind. i have seen things that have amazed me, leaving me like a child gazing upward, eyes still fixed on the wonders of this world. and i have seen


things that have left me lying on the floor, tears welled in my eyes, holding my gut, for the pain of laughter is a pain i will love forever. we can paint a picture to reflect a thought, we can take a picture to hold onto a memory, but the truest and most beautiful ones you can only find buried in our hearts and


sitting in that seat next to us on a bus that will take us to amazing places and that will show us the wonders of this world.

Connection with Walt’s Talk

Makes sense that we would be thinking about similar things

But it is possible that God is speaking to us about something new

Power (Deuteronomy 17:14-20)

14 "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,' 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.


16 "Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' 17 "He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.


18 "Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 "It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,


20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

3 Kings Over the Whole Land

Saul David (man after God’s own heart) Solomon (named Jedidiah, ‘beloved

of the Lord’ by Nathan the prophet)

Each one is increasingly worse according to Deuteronomy 17

Jesus stands in contrast

Also to Alexander the Great, Roman emperors, English Kings like Henry VIII, French monarchs like Louis XIV, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, etc.

But also to seemingly benign empires And to the Church in its various

expressions

Christian Power

How has the Church misused power in the past?

What are its greatest temptations today?

How have you misused power? What are your greatest

temptations?

Finally (Celtic Daily Prayer)

One thing I have asked of the Lord,this is what I seek:that I may dwell in the house of the Lordall the days of my life;to behold the beauty of the Lordand to seek Him in His temple.

(from Psalm 27)

Choosing (Matthew 11:28-30)

28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

travel collage sunday, july 20, 2008 peter fitch

Documents

community life

tomel weatherhead

taughtmel weatherhead

ssu community

neighbours life

better group of people

travel collagesunday

deepest wound