Peace and Healing

Greetings Friends!!

I miss you all and hope each of you are doing well. I have the wonderful blessing to be in Raleigh for a few days and I'm very excited about that. (Janelle -perhaps we can have real coffee!!)

I only have a little under 2 weeks left in my internship. It feels very strange, almost like I've been leading double lives and now one of them is going to go away. I won't say that summer has flown, because it hasn't. It has a been a real struggle for me sometimes, but the blessings have been numerous. I have met some incredible people and made some wonderful friends at the Divinity School. It will be nice to know some friendly faces once classes start at the end of August.

Each week I have gotten in the habit of studying the lectionary text in preparation for writing a sermon. I don't actually write one all the time, but it is a great practice to be in and I learn a lot from that study. A few weeks ago the Psalm text was from Psalm 52. Verse 8 says "But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever." I thought a lot about olive trees that week. Olive oil was used as a healing balm in those times and the olive branch is still considered a symbol of peace even today. So, we are like trees in the house of God. Trees of healing and of peace. It's kind of a nice thought.

As a dear friend said to me the other day, I hope the sunsets are beautiful where you all are!!

Peace,
Jodi

Bon Voyage Lisa and Amy!

Setting off from the IDR Summer picnic, Lisa, Amy (and Tresor soon too,) are all heading out to new ports of call...

I miss you guys!!

Raleigh IDR, I miss you guys SOOOO much.

I found half of this quote a while back on Al and Ruths refrigerator, but then it appeared again recently in full.. and I wanted to share it.

-If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save and savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. - E.B. White

Just thought I would spread some inspirational quotations around to you all!!

In about two weeks I find out my permanent site placement.. for the past two months I have been in training. Keep me in your prayers.. and if you want to add a little prayer for God to send me to the beautiful mountains, I will not object!

Oh yeah, and if you do read my blog from July 10th.. just proceed with caution!

Peace,
Tiffany in Peru!

Blog readin...

Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the recent blogs on some of our IDR travelers' individual blog sites this month! I'm loving Tiffany's hillarious story from July 10th, Bruce's "illusion" blog about colonialism and democracy in Congo, and Jodi's adventures in preaching! (See blog links below right). It's great to know that though some of us are so far away we can still have these kinds of coffee house discussions going on. Does anyone need cream or sugar while I'm up? - Janelle


From Bruce's blog -- quote from the Poisonwood Bible: "We constructed our lives around a misunderstanding, and if ever I tried to pull it out and fix it now I would fall down flat . . . Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet."

guess i'm sendin a postcard

“…perhaps there are
small animals
under the house
mouse, raccoon, rat,
though none of us
can find
a trace.
and late a lone plane
makes a straining sound
low over the trees
though only I am awake…
behind the blind
light still burns
at the edge of the bay.
someone drives
over the bridge.
home is
in every direction.”

home
by susan griffin

just wanted to post a poem and a pic tonight.
my fam was out in different places so I took a walk over the whale harbor bridge. this picture was taken earlier this summer but it almost captures how beautiful the sunset was tonight.
these little islands and their thick heat have so many memories in them, and i have had enough time to both remember them, and to be in the moment with my family.
i am very grateful for this.
the Keys are great; july has been a chilled out month for my fam, everyone will be home in august and so the pace will be pickin up.
hope everyone in Raleigh ~~ and out around the world ~~ is doin good
post about your lives when you can!!
i know i'll love to read em.

be blessed; and happy Sunday to yas ;)

kp

another blog source for thought/conversation stimulation

I just wanted to let everyone know about another blog source that I've been following off and on over the summer. It gets a lot of traffic, and I've just been a lurker thus far, but it's interesting lurking. All sorts of topics are covered, from all sorts of views . . . but with an "anabaptist" bend.

http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/

Amy

Party Time...

Triumph

of

the

Spoon

Queen!

Finding my own community

Never has community been so clear to me as it is in Peru. When I was home, I had multiple communities - those of my family, my friends, my college, and of course, Raleigh Mennonite. When I got to Peru, however.. all of those communities were still there, backing me up, but I had to strategically find my own community here in order to survive. Here, communities are not quite as easy. People look at us suspiciously... they have seen the NGOs come in, take over, and leave incomplete projects behind. They have been victims of a corrupt government. They experience poverty and marginalization on a daily basis. Do they even have time for a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed gringa?

Well, I am making a lot of assumptions about the Peruvian people, but in general people here are defined by their communities. Are they European Peruvians, from Lima, from the sierra, or campesinos? Do they live in a tiny village, in invasion communities, or in the departmental capital? In my community, I live in a small neighborhood outside of Chosica, about an hour from Lima. I walk up the long hill home and children run out to greet me and ask me how to say Hello in English. Mothers smile at me, young boys whistle. The gringos that live here are novelties.. what are we going to do next? How will we act at parties? We live in a community - but are we part of the community?

Integration is so key in the Peace Corps. You are here for two years and three months - if you act independently and do not integrate, your projects will not be sustainable and ultimately fail. If your community loves you, and more importantly respects you, then you can get a lot of things done. Maybe that is the problem with international development organizations - they focus too much on the numbers, the outcome, or the projects. For our first three months in site, Volunteers do not do anything.. we just sit around and integrate. Sounds pretty lazy, especially since we are supported by American tax dollars, but actually it is fantastic. We are integrating and gaining the respect of the communites.. we are saying, We are not here to take over, we are here to assist you in your own development process.

So, in a few weeks I will leave training and go to my permanent site. I pray that God sends me to a community that will welcome me with open arms.. and open hearts. Peru feels like such a new, fresh experience. Every child I meet I feel like I have this huge potential to impact their life and make a difference... and they have the potential to impact mine. Community is not just a house on a street within a village.. it is the people, their respect, and a sense of support and love. I am slowly learning how to integrate myself into a community that is completely different than the ones I left.. but I am comforted by the fact that once you are in a community, your heart is there forever.

- Tiffany, PCV in Peru

Thomas Merton's Prayer

Just wanted to share this prayer with each of you. I have appreciated in greatly and prayed ii earnestly over the past few years and continue to use it now.

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.


I miss you all very much and ask that you pray for me this Sunday while I deliver the message at the 11:00 service at Hickory Grove UMC.

Peace,
Jodi

Sweet memories!

Visiting Tiffany in Washington, DC during summer 2006

pictured: Ethan, Tiffany, Tresor

not pictured: Jodi (I was taking the picture!)