Youth E-News: Sowing Seeds of Peace
"And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" - James
A Publication of Lutheran Peace Fellowship
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Welcome
Happy Middle of January! Yes, that’s right, Happy Middle of January! Every year around January 1st, people everywhere make resolutions, resolving to live better lives and make this year the best yet. This time of year is, for many, a time for contemplating the previous year, revisiting old resolutions and creating new ones, and looking toward a better, brighter year. However, by the middle of January, those resolutions are often already forgotten as many simply go back to life as normal, making little-to-no real changes in their lives.
Instead of forgetting about the resolutions we made a few weeks ago, what if we actually continued those resolutions throughout the year? There is still time to remember those resolutions and feel a sense of renewal, reflecting on our lives and the world, and resolving to make a change. This year, this sense of renewal and change is not only happening for individuals but for the American government as well with the early sessions of the newly elected Congress already bringing important issues to the table.
While the House of Representatives is already beginning the push for higher wages, energy independence, and more educational opportunities, issues such as world hunger, AIDS, and the conflict in Darfur have not yet received much attention. Also, with the President’s planned new surge of troops to
Many groups across the country – Christian and secular alike – are crying out against the expansion of the war, as are many members of Congress. Groups such as Christian Peace Witness for
As we consider our resolutions for the New Year and look toward a better year for ourselves, let us hold in our hearts and our actions the millions going hungry worldwide and the hundreds of thousands displaced, malnourished, and hungry from the
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we recently celebrated, let us remember his prophetic call as he criticized the war in
“One day we must come to see that the whole
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” - MLK
–Allyson Fredericksen, LPF Youth Trainer and Program Coordinator
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for future issues, e-mail me at lpfyouth@gmail.com. Also, if you are on myspace, join our myspace group at www.groups.myspace.com/lutheranpeace
For information on what the new congress has been doing, visit www.speaker.gov/legislation
Join in others to support nonviolent alternatives to the War in
Issue Highlights:
- Workshops Available – Bring Peace and Justice to your community!
- News Articles on Peace and Justice – Get the latest on issues of peace and justice around the globe, including the latest on
- Advocacy Alerts - Find out how you can get involved in putting an end to the
- Community News –
- Spiritual Reflection – Confront the Violence of Poverty!
Workshops Available!
Are you interested in hosting an LPF workshop? This year, we are offering workshops on the following:
- From Violence to Wholeness
- Christian Peacemaking
- Hunger and Conflict
- Cycles of Violence and Nonviolence
- How to Be a Bridge in a World Full of Walls
- Breaking the Silence: A Christian Response to Domestic Abuse
- Leadership Training for Peacemakers
Each workshop is highly participatory and activity-based, helping participants gain insight by doing, not only by hearing or reading. We can also help your group plan and lead successful activities or workshop on these and other topics. If you or someone you know are interested, email me at lpfyouth@gmail.com or call the LPF office at 206-720-0313.
News Articles on Peace and Justice
U.N. Warns
African Hunger: “New
Somali Prime Minister Expects African Peacekeepers Soon: “The first African peacekeepers to help the government assert its authority in
500 Chechan Militants Surrender: “More than 500 militants in
Lutheran Volunteer Corps
The Lutheran Volunteer Corps is a one-year, full-time domestic volunteer program that offers people a challenging year of spiritual and personal exploration while working for social justice, living in intentional community and simplifying their lifestyles. Volunteers are placed in full-time positions in non-profit organizations in Baltimore, MD; Wilmington, DE; Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; Milwaukee, WI; Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN; Seattle and Tacoma, WA; and Oakland, CA. Volunteers receive a stipend to cover basic living and personal expenses, health insurance, and time off for retreats and vacation. Also included is student loan deferment and potential qualification for the $4,700 AmeriCorps Education Grant.
Volunteers provide direct service to people in need, organize their communities for social and political change, and advocate for better policies on a wide variety of issues. Issues include AIDS/HIV, addiction and recovery, anti-racism, children and youth, community development, education, employment, the environment, food and hunger, GLBT rights, health care, housing and homelessness, immigration and refugees, international solidarity, legal assistance, peace and non-violence, people with disabilities, seniors and women. Most positions are entry level and require little or no previous experience except a passion for social justice, flexibility, and a sense of humor!
LVC is on a Journey to an Inclusive Community, forming and strengthening alliances among people of many cultures and communities, and intentionally dismantling racism within LVC, the church and society. As a Reconciling in Christ organization, LVC welcomes and encourages the participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in all aspects of LVC. LVC volunteers come from a wide variety of faith backgrounds, and do not need to be Lutheran. Married and committed partners are welcome to apply. While there is no upper age limit, volunteers should be at least 21 to participate. The program begins in late August of each year. Application deadlines are February 1, March 15, and May 1. Contact Kelly Shinn, Recruitment Coordinator, at 202-387-3222 or lvcrecruitment@lutheranvolunteercorps.org for more information.
Advocacy Alerts
Demand Action in
Justice in the
ONE Campaign: Once you have heard about the one campaign, visited the website, and bought the bracelet, don’t forget about it! Too many in the world continue to suffer from poverty, hunger, and disease, and too few are doing anything to stop it. Join the ONE campaign today and urge the
Christian Peace Witness for
For more ideas, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org and www.sojourners.com
LPF Resources
Budget Priorities Computer Activity: As the war continues in
The resource guide is available via our website at www.LutheranPeace.org; the computer activity is also available on a CD with supplementary resources for $10 ($4-$8 for LPF members). To order your copy, email lpf@ecunet.org or call (206) 720-0313.
Community News
Washington, D.C.
- Worship at the National Cathedral
- Candlelight procession to the White House
- Prayer vigil and witness for peace in Iraq
- Pre-witness workshops and training
- Post-witness organizing and strategizing
Laying Local Foundations
- Pray for the end of the war in Iraq
- Learn about and practice nonviolence
- Study the Bible's implications for our foreign policy
- Fast regularly until the war ends
- Join with others for prayer, study, and action
- Create a weekly peace witness in your community
- Plan a local worship and witness for March 16.
For more information on Christian Peace Witness and this event, visit www.ChristianPeaceWitness.org
Chelan, WA –Youth Weekends at
Spiritual Reflection
When thinking about the year ahead of us, it is easy to focus on ourselves: our own needs, our own failings from the year before, our own hopes for what we can do better in the coming months. Instead of only focusing inward, instead let us look to how we can help bring forth a vision of shalom, where everyone is welcome and where wholeness, community, peace, love, and compassion are the building blocks of life. Let us remember the hungry around the world and remember how such hunger and poverty lead to violence, and resolve ourselves to do what we can to make our communities and the world a more shalom-filled place.
The following devotion, “Confront the Violence of Poverty” comes from A Call to Peace: 52 Meditations on the Family Pledge of Nonviolence.
“He judged the cause of the poor and needy…Is not this to know me? Says the Lord (Jeremiah
“Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40)
It wasn’t easy for eleven-year-old Trevor Farrell to convince his family to take him to the city streets of
In 1984, Jenny Bush-Boyce had a similar encounter after her ninth-grade youth group watched a slide presentation about working with infants in
These two youths had the courage to confront the violence of poverty and the good fortune to discover the spiritual wealth of their economically poor friends. The experience of many missionaries confirms the truth that people of faith who go to impoverished areas to evangelize the poor are themselves evangelized by the poor. Divisions of wealth and divisions of spirit go hand in hand.
These same divisions exist in our own country. Many are fearful, for example, to cross those urban boundaries that separate the “haves” from the “have-nots.” Many worry about what might happen if they lend their lives to the struggle for economic justice. Where will God lead them? They – we – will be led to the very heart of God. As Jeremiah prophesied, God so identifies with the economically poor and marginalized peoples of our world that we cannot begin to know God until we identify with God’s own passion for the poor. Jesus was even more direct: whatever we do to the least, we do to him.
Prayer: Jesus, help us to realize that second-class schools, lack of quality healthcare, inadequate diets, inferior housing, unemployment, and every other aspect of poverty violate the dignity of your people and can kill just as guns do, only in slow motion. Help us break down the barriers that k eep us apart. Help us discover our deepest reality – that with you as our brother and God as our Parent, we are all truly sisters and brothers.
Reflections: How can you become more involved in the struggle against the violence of poverty? How can you make this involvement something you can do as a whole family or community?
