Brother John of Taize: A good visit to South Dakota

Brother John, preaching at Calvary Cathedral October 24th.

Brother John of the Taizé ecumenical monastic community in France flew home October 25th after making a first-ever visit to the Diocese of South Dakota, which included a meeting with Lakota elders in Rapid City, a visit to a remote church on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and services at Calvary Cathedral in Sioux Falls.  His five-day, 800-mile tour covered one end of the state to the other, and also included public meetings and prayer services at Lutheran, UCC, and Roman Catholic churches.

“Brother John’s visit worked as a catalyst to get different church groups, ages, and cultures together in an unusual and wonderful way, completely in tune with the Taizé mission of reconciliation among Christians,” says the Rev. Rita Powell, Coordinator for Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of South Dakota.

Powell made the invitation for the visit last year, when she led a group of college students to Taizé. The group included Tyson and Tyrone White of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota, who are active in their local congregation and at the diocesan level. The Taizé focus on reconciliation and justice resonated with the young Lakota men, and discussions with the group led to the invitation to visit South Dakota. “When you look at the Acts of the Apostles, the early Christians were always visiting each other,” says Brother John, who is the group’s representative to the United States and Italy. “It is a way to spread the Good News of the Gospel.”

Powell knows the power of Taizé in reaching young people. Each year, up to 100,000 people under the age of 30 visit the ecumenical community to spend time in Bible study, prayer, and communal work with the brothers. “The Taizé experience is profound, especially for young people at a crossroads in their spiritual lives,” says Powell, who is also vicar of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Vermillion, SD.  “For many, it makes the difference whether or not they choose an active Christian life.”

The Taizé community, which was established in 1940, has become known for its signature style of worship—meditative prayer, simple music sung in repetition, and a period of silence to contemplate the presence of God. Brother John says it evolved as a way to involve speakers of different languages in a common worship experience. He says that young people began visiting Taizé on their own, and emphasizes that the community is not a “movement.” “We are simply a community living as a witness to Christ as best we can,” he says.

Undergrounder Miranda asks Brother John a question at the meeting in Vermillion.

The community was founded during World War II in the tiny French village of Taizé by Brother Roger Schütz, a Swiss-born son of a Protestant minister. One of its first acts was to hide Jews and other war refugees.  It now includes over 100 brothers from 30 countries living according to a Benedictine style of daily life. The community is uniquely ecumenical, with brothers of Roman Catholic and Protestant backgrounds.

Born in 1950, Brother John is a native of Philadelphia, PA, who joined the community in 1974. He travels in the United States and Italy for meetings and retreats with young adults, and is the author of eight books on Biblical topics. When in Taizé, he helps young people learn to read to the Bible to find meaning for their lives. He visited New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland before finishing his travels in South Dakota. 

Prayer service at United Church of Christ in Vermillion

“This is a place where interactions mean something,” Brother John observed of his time in South Dakota. Powell, a native of Massachusetts, agrees. “Something very unusual and exciting is going on in the Diocese of South Dakota.  There is a rich diversity of people who come together in the Episcopal Church in a way that is unique in the state, and I believe, the whole church. I wanted Brother John to see that, and the Taizé community to know about it. We are blessed by his visit.”

Photos by Dan Mueller Photo http://muellerphoto.exposuremanager.com/g/br_john_and_taize_

Area youth groups urged to attend Taizé event Oct. 20 in Vermillion

Brother John from the Taizé ecumenical community in France will make a historic first visit to South Dakota, October 20-24, 2010. Brother John is the community’s representative to the United States, and will visit at the invitation of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota and a Vermillion United Church of Christ pastor, the Rev. Steve Miller, who has led weekly Taizé-style worship at the University of South Dakota for over ten years.   He will share the misssion of the community–reconciliation among God’s children and helping young people find their spiritual paths. Each year, approximately 100,000 young people from around the world travel to the Taizé community to spend a week with the brothers in prayer, Bible study, and work.

100,000 young people visit Taize annually to examine their spiritual lives.

Two public events will be held in conjunction with Brother John’s visit. The first will be Wednesday, October 20 in Vermillion at the United Church of Christ, 226 East Main Street. The second event will be held Friday, October 22 in Rapid City at Trinity Lutheran Church, 402 Kansas City Street.

Each event will begin at 6:00 p.m. with a meal, offered without charge or need for reservation.  The meal will be followed at 7 p.m. by a discussion led by Brother John, and will end at 8 p.m. with worship in the style of the Taizé community, which is characterized by meditative prayer, simple music sung in repetition, and a period of silence to contemplate the presence of God.

While in South Dakota, Brother John will also visit the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, teach a world religion class at the University of South Dakota, participate in a Taizé-style service at St. Thomas More High School in Rapid City, and preach at Calvary Episcopal Cathedral in Sioux Falls (Sunday, Oct. 24th, 10 a.m. and Noon).

Brothers from the community usually visit metropolitan areas on the East and West coasts. His visit was instigated by the Rev. Rita Powell, Coordinator for Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota and vicar of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Vermillion. The Rev. Powell has made several pilgrimages to Taizé, and spent several months in 2007 living in the community.

The community was founded in 1940 in the French village of Taizé by Brother Roger Schütz, a Swiss-born son of a Protestant minister. It now includes over 100 brothers from 30 countries living according to a Benedictine style of daily life. The community is uniquely ecumenical, with brothers of Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox backgrounds. Their mission is one of reconciliation, and the community has become a place of pilgrimage for young people from around the world.

Brother John of Taizé will visit South Dakota Oct. 20-24.

Brother John is a native of Philadelphia, PA, who joined the community in 1974. He travels in the United States and Italy for meetings and retreats with young adults, and is the author of eight books on Biblical topics. When in Taizé, he helps young people learn to read to the Bible to find meaning for their lives. He will visit New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland before finishing his travels in South Dakota.

The Dean’s Blog

The Dean here.  Greetings from “The Mother Ship” (as my wife Barb has referred to the National Cathedral).  I thought I would share a few observations as our sixth day comes to a close.  Let me open by saying how wonderful it has been to watch our youth as they have each taken several steps on their spiritual journeys.  Every time I have the opportunity to spend time with them I am encouraged about the future of humanity.  They have a wonderful combination of joy for today and hope for tomorrow.  Now on to my observations.

1. Traveling on the morning after the seniors’ overnight graduation party makes for a very long day.
2. Never assume that passengers on two different flights landing at the same airport on the same day will be able to meet without both of them leaving the security area first.
3. Reagan National Airport has some very interesting photos and displays hidden away in the hallway between Terminal A and Terminal B.
4. You can always find good delivery pizza in any major city.  (Especially if you are hungry.)
5. Occasionally, volunteering to hold everyone’s bags while everyone else goes on a secured tour will lead to an unplanned adventure. (Just ask John).
6. The Senate keeps its own schedule that has very little to do with the schedules of visitors to the Capital.
7. Spiritual depth can be found in the most unexpected places; and in the most ordinary.
8. Walking backwards through a labyrinth is a much different experience then walking forward.
9. Watching someone else walking backwards through a labyrinth has a pleasure all its own.
10. Our youth have amazing theological minds.
11. The sentence, “words cannot describe the experience of going through the Holocaust museum” is not hyperbole.
12. The most ordinary objects, like a bunch of combs or a pile of old shoes, rise to nearly sacred status when they connect us to the immense human tragedy that was the Holocaust.
13. When the temperature is near 90, the walk from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial is very long.  Thankfully the floor of the Lincoln memorial is very cool.
14. We are each one bad decision away from being homeless.
15. Only approximately one out of four homeless people has a drug or alcohol addiction.  (And fully 1/3 of these didn’t have the addiction until after they were homeless.)
16. Only 16% of homeless people have a mental illness.
17. The number one cause of homelessness in the United States is a lack of affordable housing.
18. Between 13% and 17% of homeless people work full-time jobs.
19. The National Coalition for the Homeless provides very high caliber speakers.  (Ask our youth about “Better Believe” Steve and the taste of vinegar.)
20. Our youth can manage a very nice dinner (even when they planned to manage a very nice lunch and our schedule forced a change at the last minute).
21. There is a great depth of spirituality to be found in quiet and rest.
22. There is a great spiritual richness to be found in the art and architecture of the National Cathedral.
23. Beautiful liturgy, undertaken for the glory of God, is a profound act of worship; even if your primary means of participation is silence.[1]
24. Portia Hurney, a native of Pierre, is a wonderful person doing a wonderful ministry here in DC through the Episcopal Service Corp as she prepares to go off to seminary.  (She is enrolled at Yale Divinity School for this fall and hopes to return to the Diocese of South Dakota following graduation.)
25. Never question the ability of this youth group to clean, sweep, rake, bag, and otherwise care for a house inside and out in a very short time.
26. Never question the ability of an 89 year old woman to boogie down (especially after someone paints her nails).  And expect our youth to quickly join her when she does.
27. As a group there is one thing that we are apparently not very good at.  We are not very good at saving the city from a terrorist attack.  (At least, not according to the results of our “Spy on the City” efforts at the International Spy Museum.  Of our nine pairs, only one successfully completed the mission.)
28. There are many more homeless in DC then we ever realized.
29. No matter how many breakfasts you hand out to homeless people, the moment you have to tell one of them that you are sorry, but you have run out, you somehow feel like you have failed.
30. The National Zoo has pandas!  (OK, so I knew that one before, but from the pictures of pandas plastered on everything from walls to drink cups, the Zoo obviously wanted to make certain I knew it.)
31. With the exception of the pandas, the National Zoo has very little on the Great Plains Zoo.
32. Whenever you take a trip like this, it is important to plan extra space in your luggage to accommodate visits to the gift shops at the Capital, the Zoo, the Cathedral, the . . .
33. DC has a good public transportation system.  It only takes six days to learn how to get around on it.

 

I have learned all this and we still have nearly two days to go!  If any of this doesn’t make sense to you, ask one of our pilgrims.  They were the ones who taught me.

Peace,

Ward+

The Very Rev. Ward Simpson, Dean

Calvary Cathedral

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[1]    RiAnna, Blog Mistress, has asked me to comment on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s Evensongs at the National Cathedral.  The National Cathedral still holds daily full Choral Evensong in the tradition of the great English Cathedrals with attached residential music schools.  At these two services our participation was limited to singing one hymn, saying the Apostles’ Creed, and standing or sitting in silence while the Choir sang everything else.  But such singing!  Tuesday evening’s worship was led by the boys from the the Washington National Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys.  This group of approximately 20 boys ages 8-14, who sing 9–15 hours each week in rehearsals and services while attending St. Alban’s School on the Cathedral grounds, sang glorious music that floated in the arches of this, the sixth largest Cathedral in the world.  On Thursday we got another treat when we joined in the final Evensong of the school year to be led by the Washington National Cathedral Choir of Men and Girls.  The Girls choir is made up of girls in grades 7 – 12 attending St. Alban’s School and undergoing as rigorous a schedule of rehearsals and services as the boys’ choir.  If the boys’ choir was glorious, the girls’ choir can only be described as angelic.  The service ended on a note of unexpected humor when the crucifier, a senior at the school, came out for the recession proudly wearing, in addition to the usual vestments, a large smile and an even larger white cowboy hat.  The other senior girls quickly produced hats of their own that they had kept hidden away in their vestments.  Confusion on the part of many quickly gave way to the realization that, because these seniors had just sung their last note as  members of the Cathedral Choir, there was nothing the Choir Master could do to them.  We had witnessed a minor rebellion.  (Though from the smile on his face, I suspect the Choir Master appreciated the humor in it as much as the rest of us.)

Day 7: Good bye to Darth & DC

The Pilgrims were too weary to post tonight, so the trip liaison is stepping in until the legitimate bloggers are able to give you a first-hand account. The second half of the group went on Grate Patrol from 5:30 to about 9:00 a.m. today, and, like yesterday’s group, found it immensely rewarding and eye-opening. Then, a group dashed up the hill to National Cathedral for the folk Eucharist at 10 a.m., and another group went for the Eucharist in the Great Nave at 11:15.  John Wagner, for one, went to both, and reports he’s glad he did. Drew spotted Garrison Keillor at the 11:15 service; Mr. Keillor had done a show the previous night in Vienna, VA, and being an Episcopalian, availed himself of the opportunity for awesome worship at our National Cathedral. Drew introduced himself to Mr. Keillor, and reported that his mother is a big fan. Mr. Keillor was no doubt overcome with appreciation. After some time in the gift shop, during which several pilgrims were parted from their money, they had a photo opp at the high altar. The afternoon brought shopping time in Georgetown, at which time more pilgrims were parted from their money. The trip to Arlington Cemetery was scrapped, as the Rolling Thunder veterans’ motorcycle group was there today for their annual rally–reportedly several thousand of them, and the group thought the area might be a bit congested.  After packing up the leftover food and bringing it to the homeless shelter located in the same building as Shalom Place, the group of 19 headed for Pappa Razzi’s, an Italian restaurant in Georgetown, which was reportedly awesome. The group then went back to the homeless shelter to visit with the men who are staying there. They were immensely grateful for the donation of food, one man becoming tearful. They admonished our pilgrims to listen to their parents, make good decisions in life, and go to college. (Parents love this sort of thing.) Then, back to their quarters for clean-up and pack-up, and off to bed, as the shuttle to the airport is scheduled to arrive at 4:30 a.m. The flight gets into Omaha at about 12:3o, and Annie, Steve, Deb, and Father Ward will drive the group home. Thanks to all who have followed the blog and supported this amazing experience for our Cathedral Underground members. The real bloggers will no doubt write their own account of the day, with many colorful anecdotes that will make you wish you had been there.  They’re like that–a great bunch of young men and women.

DAY 6 What an early Day!

Day 6 May 29, 2010

Time: 6:32

Sioux Falls Time: 5:32

            Well folks, the days are coming to an end of this wonderful pilgrimage. There’s just one more day for us to explore DC and find out what it has to offer. However, today we did something that was one of the greatest feelings I have felt in a long time. Today a few of us were daring enough to wake up at 4:45. The few included Cole, Mike, Abby, Jenifer, Martha and Drew for youth and for leader it was Father Ward and John Wagner. We woke up early so we could help out on the Grate Patrol with St. Paul’s Episcopal. This is put on by four volunteers that offer their weekends to help the homeless. By helping the homeless they mean handing out sack breakfasts to as many people as they can in two routes, a long route and short route. Each route takes 90 sack breakfasts, as well as coffee, and went off on the route! I took the long route with Abby, Mike, John and our wonderful driver Cisca. First we turned around the corner and saw the first people sleeping on the side of a building really hit me hard. In Sioux Falls you don’t really see homeless people sleeping in your neighborhood so this was really a first. What made it all better was parking, getting out and grabbing a sack and a cup of coffee and heading out. I walked around the corner with my two sacks and cups of coffee. The very first guy was awake and just staring out into the street. I go up and Say, “Good Moring Sir! I have breakfast here for you.” He looked up at me and said relieved with a smile God Bless Son, Thank you!”  That first guy really woke me up and I had this feeling that this could just get better. We continue to drive to different parts on our route. We stopped by the highway near a bridge. I ran under the bridge with my one sack to give him but I didn’t have coffee so I gave him my sack. He asked where the coffee was and I said I’m just going to get you a hot cup. At the car I remembered I had my three McDonalds 5 dollar card. So I make a hot cup of coffee for the nice gentleman and headed back over. On my way over I reached into my pocket and grab out one of the McDonalds cards. I greet him again and he said Thank you kind man!  I said back to him Yes and I have a little something from me to you it’s this 5 dollar McDonalds card that I’d like you to have. His eyes got so big and he immediately stuck out his hand for a hand shake there he asked me what my name was and I told him Cole. His name was Tim and he asked where I came from. I told him from South Dakota. He seemed so surprised that a 10^th grader from South Dakota would be here in DC to help the homeless. I think that gave him hope that people out there really do care about homelessness. Tim was a nice guy, that two minute conversation with him really changed my views on homeless people. They’re just normal people, just like you and me, but they don’t have a roof over their head. This really changed my life in every way possible. There are many more experiences like mine that happened today. However, if I told you all of them well I would still be here when the plane to come home took off. Today was really the best day for me. I would spend every weekend doing this in Sioux Falls if we had a program like it. This was a great way to start off the day even though I am a little tired. What made it even better was we went to the national zoo!

After the grate patrol people came back we all headed out for a day of fun at the zoo! I’m the kind of child that my parents deprived me of going to zoos as a little kid. Something about how they went through it with two other kids so I’m just left out with not many zoo visits in my childhood. So every chance I get I go to a zoo somewhere! I was really looking forward to this because this was the zoos of all zoos, it was the national zoo! I walk through the gates of this free zoo amazed by all the people; it was a very busy day. First things first, we have to see what they have to offer so we (Abby, John, and I) found a map. Here the maps are two dollars which was sort of a letdown, but hey the zoo is free, so it was worth it. We scout out what we want to see. We decided to see the giant panda of course, the elephants, the great apes, and last but not least the great cats. We first see the panda, which was the first time I had ever seen a panda in person and they really are just as cute as the pictures show!! The elephant house was under construction which was a little let down but we did get to see the elephants so it wasn’t too bad. Next we go to the great apes or what I like to call them, the Sherwins.  That was quite cool. There were towers that were about 100 feet in the air and the apes would climb across them to a bunch of towers which was neat. That would have to be my favorite part of the trip. Lastly we go see the big cats. There were lions and tigers (but no bears…) which were also very interesting. In my opinion The National Zoo was not what I expected besides the pandas it was pretty much just like our zoo back home. The Omaha Zoo is a lot bigger and I would say better than it. They just didn’t have a lot of animals or things to do. Overall the zoo was a good time but most of us could not spend a whole day there so some decided to leave early. I was one of them; my group Abby, John, and David head to McDonalds down by the metro station for a bite to eat. It was a lot cheaper than what they had at the zoo. There John and I both got 2 triple cheeseburgers which were just like anyone would expect 2 triple cheeseburgers from McDonalds. After the amazing meal we headed to the Cathedral to spend a little more time there and get a tour and gift shop. Unfortunately, tours were done due to a wedding going on but we still got to go up the tower and gift shop! While on the 7^th floor we all gathered in a room saying it’s time to go but when we counted off we noticed we were missing one person. That one person was David Trefz who we left in the store by accident. At this time the store was closed. Even worse David has misplaced his phone somewhere so we had no way of contact with him. Let me tell you getting lost in The National Cathedral is the worse than getting lost in the city. So the race was on who could find David first. Luckily, David was looking for us too and we did find him in a short time.

We took the bus home and met with the other half of our group. There many of us took a nap or played games. I was one who took a nap before someone woke me up to tell me I had to write the blog. Which I am so glad I got to do the whole thing today! So here I leave you so I can go back to sleep. This is Cole Mayer signing off a changed and happy man on this 6^th day here in our nation’s capital!

Where did day FIVE come from!?

Day 5:  May 28, 2010

Local Time:  9:45 pm
Sioux Falls Time:  8:45

Well readers this is RiAnna, Cole and Miranda here to bring you the nightly blog! This pilgrimage has been one busy trip! I (RiAnna) feel like our days have been packed to the brim full of activity. I am just going to say a little bit about the rest of our day yesterday and then pass my laptop on to the youth.

Yesterday after the talk with the Homeless Coalition, the student were to do a stone soup exercise. But, our discussion with the NHC took so long, we got terribly behind schedule and had to push to stone soup lunch to a stone soup dinner. (If you aren’t familiar with this activity, fear not! I shall explain. A stone soup exercise is when the youth plan, prepare and serve a meal on a budget.) The chaperones let the students discuss what they wanted to make and then under Mary’s supervision, a few students went to Giant Foods, and bought enough to feed all 19 of us. Mary said they did so well under their budget! They made us two kinds of baked chicken, breaded and unbreaded, rice and green beans. They also had platters of cheese, Ritz crackers and sliced meats for appetizers and for dessert, chocolate mousse with crumbled Oreos! All of the adults were proud and impressed with their team effort. A few of the older pilgrims even led a mass cleaning of the kitchen, to Mary Soukup’s delight.

I apologize for this jumpiness, but I forgot to mention why this meal was pushed back. It was because we were to make another trip to the Cathedral for a time of centering prayer and Evensong. Our guides were two ladies who volunteer at the Cathedral. I have forgotten their names, but they were very sweet ladies who have a wealth of knowledge of the Cathedral. The centering prayer is a form of meditation. It is very relaxing and by far the quietest 20 minutes on the trip yet. Our guides told us to use a focus word, they suggested grace, and attach every thought to it and simply “let your mind go.” I am not any sort of expert on meditation but the majority of the students liked if for its peaceful nature. I have been told that if you fall asleep, you’re doing it right. This makes me proud to say that a number of students (and adults) fell asleep! Now, Miranda is going to take off with her own thoughts on today’s journey.

As the days progress in this, the 2010 Calvary Cathedral Pilgrimage:  DC Adventure, the group has grown in indescribable ways.  We’ve gotten to know each other better, and have discovered we have more in common than we thought.  All three of us blogging, and the entire group no doubt, have found this to be a refreshing relief, and we’re excited for our future adventures.

Today we helped the elderly.  Another exciting subway ride—above the ground even!—took us to the Episcopal Service Corp.  We met a familiar South Dakota face:  Portia Hurney from Pierre.  She took us in a 15 passenger van (in which we squeezed 20 plus cleaning tools) to the house of Miss Taylor, one of the many elderly folks in DC the Service Corp serves. The Corp serves nearly 400 elderly in Sioux Falls and works to take care of these people’s houses so that they can stay healthy.  They also run homes for the elderly to keep them in good health.

Miss Taylor is a wonderful lady.  Despite her recent stroke, she is a kind, charming, sweet hostess.  We cleaned up her yard, dusted inside, and cleaned her bathroom within an inch of its life.  Believe me,  I (Miranda) was on my hands and knees cleaning every surface I could find, and then some.  We spent the morning there, taking care of Miss Taylor.  She was eternally grateful for what she had done, as was her family.  As we entered, her husband told Drew:  “I never thought I’d live to see the day when white people would work on me”.  At some level, all of us were moved by what he said.  It’s astounding to think that less than 100 years ago, the work we did today would’ve been unheard of.  Regardless, at the end of the morning we were all grateful that we could improve the life of a charming woman and her family.

We returned to the elderly home—in the same overly crowded van—for lunch.  Afterwards, Portia introduced us to her dear friends.  Mr. Guy, the first friend we met, is an 89-year-old man from Belgium.  He loves to sing, especially “Amazing Grace” and “Hava Negila”, which he performed for us (so charming!).  Kelsey was introduced to another resident, Miss Ellie and painted her fingernails. Miss Ellie was very excited to get her nails painted. She later did a dance for us.  Dancing is one of her passions, and we all got jiggy with her on the front porch of the home.  Mr. Sammy, an artist, was a tad shy and not as talkative as Mister Guy or Miss Ellie.  These folks were truly a delight, and we all are going to miss them.

Portia’s story is pretty impressive.  She grew up in Pierre, but when she was a teenager her parents stopped going to church.  Because of their absence, her continued attendance and participation garnered new meaning for her:  it became a special time that helped her find her calling.  After graduating high school, she planned on majoring in youth ministry.  She very quickly got scared and gave up that pursuit.  Thanks to the prodding of her minister, John Tarrant, who told her she was going into priesthood, she majored in theology.  An internship helped her realize her true call to the priesthood and she plans on attending Yale Seminary in the fall. Next, Cole is going to write about the Spy Museum.

After the wonderful time helping and hanging out with the elderly it was time for us to have a little fun. In the afternoon we went to the International Spy Museum. This is what I was looking forward to whole trip! We get off the metro and head for the building. There we still are waiting for Portia to return from dropping off the van. Father Simpson gave us the choice of either waiting for Portia to return or to enter The Spy Store. I was the first one through that door. I knew right away this place was going to be a haven of sorts and I’m sure everyone was thinking the same. Everyone had fun browsing the store and nearly everyone walked out with something. The Spy Store has a lot of books and I never would have guessed that there are than many books on how to be a spy! To give you idea on how amazing this store was I’ll give you a little taste of what everyone bought. Most of the pilgrims bought Walkie Takies, Book safes, a water powered clock, code safes, spy posters, James Bond books and a variety of other spy gear. After the great fun of shopping, Portia finally did show up so it was time to save the great city of DC from terrorists! We started by getting sweet GPS’s which had a program that told us what to do! We picked partners and my partner was Red Cobra AKA Abby Johnson. I bet your wondering what my Code name was, it is Orange Leopard. Red Cobra and I had a plan right away to be the ones to finish the fastest. We met this goal right away by being the first ones to figure out how to use the GPS. After that there was no catching up to us. With my great navigation skills and Red Cobras sharp eyes we were Top Spies! Even though we were the first to finish we did not save the town because we answered the final question to disarm the bomb wrong.  This question stumped all of except for the group of Alex and Josh and it was; what is the biggest blue diamond in DC? Is it Charity, Temperance, Faith or Hope? The right answer is The Hope Diamond. So even though I lost much of my childhood spy master touch, it did bring me back to the fun days I spent being a spy and to have some of that today was a great experience.

This is RiAnna closing the blog again. In ending, I want to look forward to the morning. In about five hours, after I post this blog, about half of the youth are going on the Grate Patrol. The students are going to hand out coffee and a bagged breakfast to those who are spending tonight on the street. The second half of students are doing this Sunday morning too. Thankfully I am doing this Sunday morning. At the suggestion of Drew, a few pilgrims made a special trip to a McDonalds to buy $200 worth of gift cards. Because of Mary’s fabulous skills at shopping and food budgeting, we are well under our limit and have started putting the money to good use. We are going to hand these gift certificates, each worth $5, to the people we meet on Saturday and Sunday morning. I am amazed to see each student get behind this idea. To the parents reading the blog, I hope you too are proud of your kids! Please pray for them to carry this outstanding attitude with them as we are all coming to the realization that soon it will be time to head home!

Day Four: Discussions with the Homeless

Day 4:  May 27, 2010

Local Time:  12:44 pm
Sioux Falls Time:  11:44 am

With the insisting of RiAnna, we have decided to post this blog before we collapse from exhaustion of a busy day.

This morning we met with Donna, David, and Steve from the National Coalition for the Homeless.  We began by discussing our own impressions of homelessness in America, and learning some of the statistics behind homelessness.  Donna, David, and Steve told us that 3.5 million people are homeless, and 1.3 million are kids. We discussed that only about a quarter of homeless people have mental illnesses and that another quarter have a drug or alcohol addiction. They also said that the number one cause of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing. Next, David and Steve shared their stories with us.  David and Steve both have spent part of their lives homeless.

David suffers from schizophrenia, which inevitably lead to his time on the streets.  He had been living in Phoenix, and made his way to New York City, where he learned the ropes of being homeless.  While he was homeless, he was attacked about five times, which added to his paranoid schizophrenia.  He ended up in DC by train. Here, he has finally received the help he needed.  Since then, David lives in “The Hood”, and continues to tell his story to anyone who will listen so that we will be able to help the homeless and give everyone a place to live.

Steve’s story was equally powerful, and was a lifelong struggle.  He’d always been an angry kid, and before entering high school he’d been exposed to more drugs and substances than most of us could imagine.  After graduating he maintained several high-potential jobs, but his drug use prevented him from rising to the top.  Steven even had the chance to work in the White House. All he needed to do was pass an interview with the FBI and in the 6 weeks before the interview, Steve did all he could to clean his system of drugs to include (on the advice of a “friend”) drinking vinegar every day for those six weeks. Yet, the FBI took a hair sample, which shows any drug usage from the last 5-7 years. Steve moved on to driving truck around the nation. During this time his addiction overpowered him:  at every stop, in every city he had a connection to drugs.  He returned to DC, and came to the painful realization that he was homeless.  He spent the next 14 months of living on a city bench, and contemplated suicide.  Steve asked God to “just cover me with dirt here.” God heard his cry but instead of burying Steve, God planted Steve. That night, a young man pointed Steve to an addiction center. Steve didn’t say why the young man was on the street or exactly what place he was sent to but today, two years and five months later, Steve has remained completely clean. He now speaks for the Homeless Coalition and has started his own homeless network.

For more information, please check out these websites!

Steve’s web site is www.betterbelievesteve.com . (He has a Facebook account too and we are excited to add him as our friends!)

The web site for the homeless coalition is www.nationalhomeless.org .

This is RiAnna again! Many of the youth have asked how we can help homelessness in Sioux Falls. Donna told us there is a man in Sioux Falls who works for the NHC and we plan to contact him when we return. We asked Steve and David if they have any advice for us as we do Grate Patrol on Saturday morning (I am so excited for this that I don’t even care it’s at 5:30am). They told us to smile and to give people sleeping on street fair warning as we approach them with coffee and a bagged breakfast. They also reminded us to come down to their level as four or five people looming above you as you are lying on a park bench, is not the greatest way to wake up.

Day Three-Memorials and The Holocaust Museum

Day 3: May 26, 2010

 Local Time: 10:23 Sioux Falls Time: 9:23

The third installment of our DC Adventure proved to be the most emotionally draining thus far. It began with the Holocaust Memorial Museum. We had an early lunch, a bathroom break, and entered the museum.

The Holocaust Museum cannot be fully described with words. You enter the museum through an elevator. As you rise to the top of the building, a sense of doom begins to dwell in your mind. The setup of the museum takes you first to the point when Concentration Camps were liberated, and allied soldiers first came upon starving people. As you progress through the museum, you see the story of Hitler’s rise to power, the early stages of Nazi Anti-Semitism, the Final Solution, and the stories of those who survived. Personal belongings belonging to real prisoners stare at you, leaving a haunted sense lingering in your mind.

As the museum continues, you are brought to the Concentration Camps through a railcars used to herd innocent people to their deaths. Barracks from Auschwitz help to recreate life in a camp, and an artist’s model of Crematorium II show what happened to the overwhelming majority of Jews taken to the camps. Footage of medical experiments Nazi doctors performed leaves you with nightmares, and the stories of so many victims tug at your soul.

This evening, as we discussed our day, we all felt the same sense of shock at what we had seen. When you’re bombarded with so much hate and destruction, you can’t help but wonder how this was allowed to happen. Personally, it leaves me (Miranda) ashamed at how selfish and cruel we as humans can be. To let one man almost eliminate an entire race of people in barely 5 years is impossible to comprehend. The thought of this systematic murder leaves you feeling hollow, depressed, and almost ashamed to be human.

Thankfully, there are glimmers of hope. Despite facing such adversity and discrimination, many Jews were able to maintain some of their dignity. The memorial tells of countless acts of heroism, rebellion, and revolution against the Nazi machine. The survivors, as Mary pointed out, knew to keep record of all that happened, knowing that there would be those who wouldn’t believe the Holocaust was real. In and of itself, the memorial serves as a way to remind us to keep hope and faith alive, regardless of the actions of others. It also tells us that we cannot remain silent as hate fills the world. We must take action and stop the spread of genocide and destruction no matter how little support we have.

And now that you’re all (plausibly) good and depressed, here’s RiAnna and Cole to brighten your day with our journey through the memorials throughout the nation’s capital!

This is now RiAnna, writing about the memorials. What a great sense of pride our country has for the men and women who have served this country! After the Holocaust Museum, the group headed to the Washington, WWII, Lincoln, Vietnam, Koran and Roosevelt Memorials. We saw the Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin Lake. As we were walking from the Washington Memorial to the WWII and Lincoln Memorials, we managed to spot the White House! To be honest, I have never felt more like a tourist than in that moment of seeing the house of my President, but I got over it when I realized the youth were just as excited as I was.

Overall, the comments from the students have been about how overwhelming it is to see the number of names and the size of the memorials. Each space as its own eeriness about it, and I’m willing to bet that the youth are picking up on the fact that each memorial represents something bigger than themselves. Our discussion after dinner tonight was focused on what had the most impact on our day. Many youth agreed that the Holocaust Museum was the most impacting to them. We discussed the history of the wars and how the memorials represent presidents who founded our nation, and kept it together in times of hardship.

Next, I’m going to pass my computer on to Cole who is going to share about the paddleboats as neither Miranda nor I took part in that escapade. Miranda wrote in her journal and I took a cat nap while Dean Simpson, his wife and Mary kept watch over the bags. After walking from the Lincoln memorial to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial we went to Tidal Basin. We had to walk around nearly the entire basin, which has a nice path, but some low branches from nearby trees. RiAnna managed to walk into said trees. She has a small mark on her forehead, but is well otherwise. Once around the basin, a few of us decided to paddleboat. Thirteen brave souls took on the heavy water in the 4 person passenger paddleboats. Only the few were able to come back not wet; as one boat decided to be the pirates of the lake! (AKA Cole, Sherwin and David.) We the rebels were floating along when suddenly an object came into view. It was a tennis ball. Lead by Sherwin, we paddled over and picked it up. We then preceded full steam ahead towards Mike and Brooks. They saw us coming and we, being misleading, said, “We come in peace,” but really we opened fire. Splash! The tennis ball, landed right between them. They paddled away knowing we were too strong for them, yet passed along the information about the secret weapon. We the Pirates turned to the boat of Captains Chris, Kelsey, Abby, and Drew. Because Mike and Brooks tattled about our tennis ball, they tried to pull away, but my cannon-like arm was no match for their quick paddling. I lobbed the tennis ball into their boat. By that time, we had to abandon our ships and head back to the Shalom Center.

This is RiAnna again to do the signing off. Firstly, I hope to get this blogs done more efficiently by the time the trip ends! And Secondly, I know we have been promising pictures but there hasn’t been the time to put them into the blog as we have been writing these posts and then going to bed. We appreciate your patience, prayers and support! Thanks for reading!

Day Two: A look at Politics and Faith

Day Two: May 25, 2010

Local Time: 10:05 pm
Sioux Falls Time: 9:05 pm

RiAnna and Miranda are here again to relay the details of this exciting trip!
The second day of the 2010 Calvary Cathedral Pilgrimage: DC Adventure began with our first attempt at public transportation.  Our mission: make it to the capital & Episcopalian Policy place using the bus and the subway.  Our problem:  slightly misleading directions.  Once we realized “I street” was not “1^st street,” we high-tailed off the bus and walked to the subway station.  After a quick trip on the gorgeous DC subway, we arrived at Capitol Hill.  Photo-Op!

Before conquring Capitol Hill, we made a stop at The Episcopal Public Policy Network, which is actually in the Methodist Buidling. (We have a guest blogger who will be appearing tomorrow night: Cole Mayer, WHS Student and Youth Group Member; The elevator was quite small so we had to split into groups. The first group which i was apart of  rode to the third floor with two people of the Islamic Socity of North America. They were very inviting and friendly to us Episcopalians. The short man with the gray beard gave Father Simpson a book and a business card. They invited Father Simpson and myself, into their tiny office and asked me to read a poster off the wall. The poster was like the Declaration of  Independence but with a Islamic twist. I stopped half way through. Then we took a picture with the poster and said our goodbyes. By then, the rest of our group had reached the third floor.)   Talking with the EPPN was a real eye-opener to the Church’s stand on the issues facing our country and the world.  We talked with a Grassroots and Online Communications Manager about the ways the church interacts with our government. It was a very good lesson on how the Episcopal church is viewed on National level, and how we work with poiliticans and other denominations. Next, we skedaddled across the street to the Capital building, where we discovered the limitations on what can be brought into the capital building, which  are pretty severe.  John Wagner courageously volunteered to miss the tour to watch our bags and water bottles—but he had his own Capitol Hill adventure.  John toured the area, toting three bags of water bottles, while we saw many statues and the rotunda. We were fortunate enough to see the House in session, but due to scheduling conflicts we were unable to see the Senate.  By that time, however, we were all pretty tired.  Martha, unfortunately, started feeling unwell, and spent the evening sleeping.  Thankfully, after somes rest and liquids, all is well.

After a late lunch/early dinner, we walked to the National Cathedral.  The Cathedral is, by far, the most epic cathedral in the history of forever, says Miranda. RiAnna was very impressed, but would not give it such a title because she has seen cathedrals in Italy. Miranda can’t help but feel that RiAnna is being a tad rude to her own country’s National Cathedral, and really should appreciate it for its own levels of awesome, given that the Cathedral can’t help the fact that it’s not 5000 years old like the fancy schmancy ones in Europe.  RiAnna thinks Miranda is being a little over dramatic.  Miranda concedes this point, but really just wants to get the last word in because she is a debater.  But we digress.  So, back to discussing our first visit to the Cathedral, those of us with cameras went camera crazy!  We were blessed to take part in an Evensong service, lead by the Cathedral Boys choir.  For a bunch of 9-year-olds, those kids can really sing!  Afterward, we explored the building;  following one of the three labyrinths, nosing around the chapels underneath, or capturing the beauty of the stained glass windows.  We got in touch with our Eastern side by experiencing Tai Chi, which apparently is a form of prayer.  After a long, stressful day, it was a nice opportunity to relax.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Holocaust museum & check out the various memorials.  Photos will accompany the adventures soon! We just need more time to load them on to the computers.

Day One

The Ponderings of R&R, M&M, Inc. (That is RiAnna Rothenberger, USF Student and Female Youth Leader and Miranda Marks, LHS Student and Youth Group Member)

Day One:  May 24, 2010,

Local Time:  10:24 pm
Sioux Falls Time:  9:24 pm

Holy crud!  Today was intense!

Our adventure began with an early start.  4:45 am.  Pilgrims were grumpy.  Drivers were drowsy.  Parents were too tired to bid their darling children a blessed farewell and instead sent older siblings in their place.  After getting over the initial sleepies accompanying an early departure, we were off to Omaha to make it to Washington, DC.  2010 pilgrimage go!

By 8:00 we were at the airport, and by 9:00 we were through security and ready to board.  Careful determination determined that Miranda Marks unanimously won the award for awesomest luggage, and the lightest traveler.  The same determiners have determined that John Wagner’s suitcase is ridiculously huge for a guy—the biggest suitcase by far.  Many a pilgrim spent the first flight passed out in their seats.  Thankfully, despite a medical emergency from another passenger—an older lady hyperventilating—we arrived safe and sound in Detroit.  After a quick-ish layover we were bound for the Nation’s capital.  Annoyingly enough, the airport is located next to a river. This made even the bravest of us have images of the Hudson River crash dashing through our minds as the flight path followed the Potomac River.  Yet, the runway magically appeared and we landed high and dry.

Luckily, we, our luggage, and Brooks Robison, who was on a separate flight, made it to DC.  An exciting shuttle ride brought us to the Shalom Center.  As it turns out, DC is just like Sioux Falls:  muggy, bug-infested, and full of “creative” drivers.  With time to unpack, a chance to bathe, and a late pizza dinner, we brought the first day of the 2010 Calvary Cathedral Pilgrimage:  DC Adventure to a close.  We discussed the week’s agenda, and got used to our quarters.  The showers are kind of gross, the television is essentially non-existent, and one of the doors is now accidentally locked.  But you can’t have everything.  There is no internet—oh, how tragic!—and we will soon post with pictures. 

We are all looking forward to an exciting week!