Going Green

Tuesday of this week was Earth Day and on Sunday Fourth Church will observe Earth Sunday. At Senior Highs I will be leading a special worship service with an environmental theme.

As part of my own observance of Earth Day, and as part of a broader move on my part to be more environmentally friendly and financially frugal, I've been riding the CTA a lot more lately. I used to have something of a mental block on public transportation, because Hyde Park is not the most accessible neighborhood in the city. It takes 20-30 minutes for me to drive to work and 45-60 to take a combination of bus and train.

But, I've found that I enjoy time to read while I'm riding. It provides an opportunity to walk a little more than I would otherwise. And I think I'm less irritable and rushed when I don't have to drive, even though I have a pretty easy commute. The extra time it takes to do public transportation forces me to slow down my pace a little bit, which is definitely a good thing.

But my feeble attempt to make a difference, as earnest as it may be, is nothing compared to Colin Beavan. Maybe you've heard of this guy; he's been on the news a lot lately. He got tired of thinking about the environment but not doing anything about it. So he and his family have been undergoing a year long experiment to live as best they can without making an impact on the environment. You can read about this adventurous endeavor at his blog, No Impact Man.

Here is a short description of his experiment, taken from a page on the blog:

For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…

Wow, you've got to admit that this is pretty cool...and maybe a little crazy too. I really respect Beavan and his family for making such a big commitment.

What if we all did this? What kind of difference could this make?

I wonder if I would be able to do it? What about you?

Story About Cuba

One of the youth that went with us on our Youth Choir trip to Cuba, Abby Canfield, was interviewed about the trip by her local newspaper, The Doings in Western Springs. Abby did a great job describing the significance of this important trip. Follow this link, or check out the full story right here. Nice job, Abby!

Take a trip to Cuba through the eyes of a 14-year-old girl

April 21, 2008

By Viki Gonia | TOWN COLUMNIST

People in Western Springs do some of the most amazing things. I received an e-mail from resident Anne Canfield telling me about her 14-year-old daughter Abigail traveling to Cuba with her church choir. That's right. Cuba. When I was 14, traveling to Cuba certainly wasn't something we considered. Why would anyone want to visit a place from which people escaped over the ocean in boats made from upturned refrigerators or late model Chevys lashed to empty barrels?

Anne was fortunate enough to accompany her daughter and the 11 other members of her youth choir on their trip. Their church, Fourth Presbyterian in Chicago, has traveled to Cuba to visit their sister church, First Presbyterian of Havana, for the last several years on religious and humanitarian missions. As Anne told me, "The kids adapted and took everything in stride. It was the adults who had the most trouble adapting. We were the only Americans we saw. The people were warm, interested-Americans were a novelty."

I asked Abigail what it was like to visit a country that few Americans, especially those her age, have seen.

"It was really neat knowing that we were in a place that most Americans aren't allowed to go. It meant that we would be the ones to represent American culture to the Cubans, and tell other Americans about Cuban culture."

How were you received by the Cuban people you met?

"The Cuban people we met were some of the kindest and most welcoming people. After each service, almost everyone in the congregation would come up to us and give us hugs and kiss us on the cheek!"

What was it like to meet Cuban young people? What is their life like? How is it different from your life here in the states?

"Meeting the young children made us realize how much we have in common. They liked singing, and had a youth choir that we got to see in church. We really liked one of the songs that they sang, so, now that we're home, our choir director is teaching it to us. Singing that song is a great way to remember the kids we met.

"The Cuban children also love baseball. We brought them baseballs because there is such short supply of them. They often have to play with small rubber balls or practice with bottle caps. The kids were thrilled, but were so generous and gave some of these new baseballs to the opposing team to keep! Before the game started, they said a chant in Spanish that means something along the lines of: 'Who Lives -- Christ! ... His Name -- Glorified! ... His house -- Victorious!' Then they asked the boys of our group to sit in the dugout with them ... and later invited them to join in the game with them! Everyone had a lot of fun, and it was really cool to see two groups of kids from two countries whose governments don't agree getting along so well and playing together in what my youth pastor John Vest calls 'the universal language of baseball.' It also helped all of us see that although our cultures and our governments are different, there are a lot of things we have in common."

(This is where you pause in your reading and think about what a 14-year-old girl just taught you about the world.)

"However, their lives are very different than ours. They don't have nearly as many material things as we have and their food is rationed. Because of this we brought vitamins and other things like toothbrushes and even some small toys. We got a chance to visit some of the Sunday school classes and talk to the kids. The younger kids thought it was hilarious that we spoke English instead of Spanish. They would ask us to count to 20, then they would smile and giggle and ask us to do it again."

Honestly, I don't have much to add to all of that, aside from noting how easy it is for us as adults to forget to see the world through more innocent eyes.

doingsnews@pioneerlocal.com * (630) 320-5443

Simple Presence

On my way to work on Monday, I read a story in the Redeye about the Pope visiting Ground Zero on his American tour. "Pope's visit restores faith at Ground Zero", it was called.

I was fascinated by the account of a man whose firefighter son died on 9/11. "Our faith was destroyed that day," said Deputy Fire Chief James Riches. "We said, 'Where was God?' on 9/11, but he's come back here today and they've restored our faith."

Wow, that's pretty powerful. I totally understand where Riches is coming from. 9/11 was a significant theological challenge for me, and I didn't personally know anyone who died on that day, and certainly not a close family member.

What strikes me the most is that the Pope's visit alone seems to be so restorative of this man's faith. Granted, I'm a Protestant, so I look at the Pope differently than Riches does. But this is still pretty incredible to me.

What I find fascinating is that the simple presence of a representative of God did so much to heal this man's wounds. And what I find sad, is that in the 6 1/2 years since the terrorist attacks, this kind of presence has evidently been lacking.

Again, I know I'm getting all Protestant here, but we all ought to be able to provide the kind of presence that makes possible the breaking in of God's love and healing. It shouldn't take the Pope to do this.

In Protestant lingo, we call this the priesthood of all believers. In biblical terms, we are all created in the image of God and are in a sense God's ambassadors or representatives here on earth. We were created to be in community with each other, and I think God's presence is most fully felt when in community. "God is love," says a passage of scripture that I use every time I perform a wedding. God's presence is felt in the love we share with each other, the love that binds us all together as one.

I hope that we can be this for each other. I hope that God can use each of us to heal wounds and stop pain. If we can open ourselves up to this, our world will get a little closer to the world as God created it, the world God wants it to be.

Elevation WorkCamp Deadline

Hey, if you are reading this and you participate in Elevation, or you are a random 6th or 7th grader looking for something meaningful to do this summer, the deadline for registering for our Elevation WorkCamp to the Illinois State Special Olympics is this Sunday, April 20.

The dates for this trip, which is guaranteed to change your life, are June 12-15.

If you sign up after Sunday, there will be a late fee, so get you registration in now! If you need a registration packet, download one here.

Trust me, you won't want to miss this!

The Best Pancakes in the Neighborhood

Our "second annual" Pancake Breakfast was a huge success! We probably had twice as many youth helping out as we had last year. I think we served at least 100 more people. We had a highly organized plan, set in motion by the "Queen of Pancakes" Janet Reed. And our regular adult leaders, along with some new faces, pitched in for a nearly perfect morning.

The Pancake Breakfast is a fundraising idea we cooked up last year (pun mostly intended) to help support our Senior High WorkCamps. Last year was a great success, and this year was even better!

The money we raised—around $4000—will go directly to support our two Senior High WorkCamps this summer: one to New Orleans and one to Presbyterian Camps in Saugatuck. Not only will this money help us with travel and other expenses, much of it will go directly to the building and repair projects we will be working on. All the hard work making and serving pancakes, and all the generous support we received from the congregation, will directly contribute to this important mission work.

Equally important as the money we raised, I think, is the sense of community that these Pancake Breakfasts are able to generate. Not only do we come together as youth (among other things, this is a great time for our 8th graders from Fourth Church Rising to continue to integrate into Senior Highs), but the congregation is given an opportunity to come together and enjoy the fellowship of a shared meal, something that is not always easy to do at a big church like Fourth (though we do a pretty good job of it throughout the year). Numerous members of the congregation, especially some of our older members, remember events like this from the past and are so grateful that we've revived this type of church tradition.

A big thanks to all the youth and adults that made this happen! And a big thanks to the congregation for supporting us!

Since I was busy making special-order omelets (I've seen enough eggs to last me for a while), I couldn't take pictures myself, but several of our youth and adults stepped in and made some good shots. Check them out here:

• Pancake Breakfast 1
• Pancake Breakfast 2
• Pancake Breakfast 3

A Thousand Words

Today I asked our kitchen manager how we did cleaning up from the Pancake Breakfast on Sunday. She said we did pretty well, with the exception of a few drizzles of pancake batter that were left on the side and between the ovens and stoves. It's a good thing she didn't see this:

That pretty much sums things up!

Youth Choir in Cuba

If last week hadn't been so crazy with the Pancake Breakfast (more on this soon) and a quick trip to Florida for a friend's wedding, I would have blogged about our trip to Cuba sooner. But, better late than never.

What an amazing trip this was! Twelve members of our Youth Choir and fourteen adults (including many parents, our incredible Children and Youth Choir Director Beverly Escuder, our Associate Organist—now known as "keyboard guy"—Thom Gouwens, Children's Minister Donna Gray, and myself) travelled to Havana to sing and preach at four worship services in the Havana Presbytery. We were graciously hosted by Hector Mendez, the pastor of our sister church in Cuba, the First Presbyterian Church of Havana.

The youth sang their hearts out at four very different worship services. Our first stop was at the Presbyterian church in Guines. This is a church that I had visited when I first went to Cuba in 2001, but I didn't remember much about it. The pastor there did a great job of gathering a large congregation for worship, including several members of the Catholic church down street. The youth were amazing in their first performance, Jaime played his guitar beautifully, and Donna delivered a thoughtful sermon. This stop was also special because Guines is the hometown and home church of our beloved translator, Frank.

The next night brought us to the Presbyterian church in San Antonio. I know this congregation very well because my last church, Community Presbyterian in Clarendon Hills, has a sister church relationship with them. Through this relationship I've gotten to know their pastor, Daniel Izquierdo, very well also. It was a personal joy for me to return to San Antonio, especially since I came with so many new friends from Fourth Church. This stop was almost canceled, though, because Daniel's mother-in-law died quite suddenly the previous day. But Daniel and the church leadership were committed to honoring our relationship and our trip to Cuba and graciously went ahead with their plans to host us for dinner and worship. Probably because of these unexpected events, the congregation was a little smaller and more intimate than had been hoped, but our group learned what I already knew so well: the people of San Antonio are exceptionally warm and loving. In addition to the Youth Choir and Jaime's guitar solo, Beverly also sang and I preached. It was another great night.

The next day, Sunday, was a busy one. We began with a chance to sit in and observe various Sunday School classes at First Church in Havana. Most of us didn't understand the Spanish lessons, but the messages were clear nonetheless. We were then treated to a very special and spirited worship service. As Donna remarked, Hector outdid himself. To celebrate along with our Youth Choir, First Church shared music from their incredible salsa band, their adult choir, several smaller ensembles, and their amazing youth choir. It was such a joy to add our voices to theirs in worship. Donna preached again and we were warmly welcomed and gifted by our Cuban friends in this congregation.

After lunch, we traveled to a Methodist church near the University of Havana for the regular worship service of the International Christian Community in Havana. This is an interdenominational all-English service, apparently the only one of its kind in Cuba. This service was quite a bit different from the Presbyterian services we had been participating in up to this point, incorporating more contemporary praise music and a somewhat more evangelical style of worship. After our choir sang one last time, I preached, and we shared Communion with this congregation. It was a different and unique worship experience for us, something I know I won't soon forget.

In all, this was a very remarkable trip, and this report pretty much just covers the itinerary. There is much more I could say about it...much more that I expect I will say about it in the days and weeks to come.

For now, though, check out these galleries of my pictures from the trip:

• Youth Choir Trip to Cuba 1
• Youth Choir Trip to Cuba 2
• Youth Choir Trip to Cuba 3
• Youth Choir Trip to Cuba 4
• Youth Choir Trip to Cuba 5