"Not that others should have relief
while you are burdened, but as a matter of equality,
your abundance at the present time should supply there needs
so their abundance may also supply your needs. "
- 2 Cor 8:13-14
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| The JusticeWorx Team with Bill and Addie Likens |
Last week was the last "official" school-related event for the school year. Yes, I know classes have been over since the first week in June, but still, there were conferences and service trips to be run. This past service trip was to Dunlow, West Virginia, where Bill and Addie run the town. As a part of JusticeWorx Camp, an event run by the Center for Faith Justice in new Jersey, we drove ten mini vans down to the bottom of West Virginia. It took us nine hours and three stops to get there. After our long drive up, down and around the mountain range, we pulled into the stone parking lot of the Dunlow Community Center where we unpacked and set up shop. My girls spread out cots and sleeping bags in every which direction upstairs and I took shelter in a little side room with two other chaperones. There were 20 girls and 28 boys from a brother school in New Jersey (don't worry they stayed somewhere else!). What an adventure it already seemed to be. I could hardly wait for the week.
We spent the week in prayer and service in love of the Lord. Ten service groups broke up to go different places including refurbishing a shed into a home for a woman who had been beaten almost to the point of death over a quad and was now living in her parents' backyard because no assisted living was available in the area, putting in brand new windows for a man with MS who had been a huge part of the community for years, shopping, organizing and running the monthly food pantry and clothing donation give away during which we fed 141 families from all over the area (up to 2.5 hours away) and redoing a floor in Miss Mary's bedroom and hallway because her original floor was giving in. We also helped paint and clean up the community center toward the end of the week. My students were faced with my challenges all of which they accepted and accomplished. I watched my students learn how to respectfully speak with people who spoke a different type of English, organize fruits, veggies and foods in so many different ways, utilize teamwork, use power tools and of course, serve the dear neighbor living in rural poverty.
My students also were given opportunities to explore various types of justice according to the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching. We explored environmental justice, economic justice and so much more. We talked about poverty in urban and rural settings, our carbon footprint, what we could do to change it. We also experienced many different ways to pray. It was a beautiful experience for so many of them and I know we will be coming back, for sure, next year.
Often, I see things through the eyes of justice. Fairness and Justice are two different things and so may say, "well that's not fair," but for me, I see things by saying, "that's unjust." Poverty is awful and I think often of all the places I've been so privileged to go because I was financially able. I was able to go to a place, serve and then go home, back to the comfort of my own financial status. One thing I heard so often through the week was, "I'm out of my comfort zone." While that's so good for people, I often wonder how much it sticks when we go back to the comfort zone. I've never felt hunger because I didn't know where my next meal was coming from. I'm willing to bet neither have most of my students. Yet, we were working with people who may not know that. Considering that the nearest store was 45 minutes away, people might not be able to afford getting to the store, either. I saw a lot of injustice in the world last week and I felt so blessed to have experienced that.
I teach Catholic Social Teaching at my school and I love it. I love Theology but my favorite thing to teach is ethics. It makes people think about the rights and the wrongs of society. One of the first things my students were told when we arrived in WV was that each day they would be allowed 4 minute showers each. That's it. When they started grumbling, I spoke up and said, "I take about a five minute shower every other day before school. I can still function as a human being. You can do it, too." I believe in practicing what I preach. Like I've said, I have never felt the pinch. But that doesn't mean I can't live in solidarity with the people I serve. So, as much as I teach I try to practice. It's not always easy, but it's certainly possible. I challenge my kids to do the same.
What they all saw this week was everything I teach in reality. Everything I tell them about, yes, it really exists. But the most important part the realized was the importance of my first lesson every time I start a new class - the importance of names and stories. People. We are so far away from the poverty and the injustice of society because we fail to recognize that it's OTHER people involved. My students even commented on this many times. I challenged them to get to know as many names and stories as possible. And they certainly rose to the occasion. They sat with so many people at the food pantry, they sat with the owners of the houses on which we worked and they sat with one another. It was beautiful to see God's work at hand.
I was sitting in my pew on Sunday, the day after we drove nine hours home in perpetual pouring rain and storms, and thinking about the past week. I heard the above Scripture quotation and took it as a little nod from God - you done good, kid. But not me, my students. They gave from what they had and allowed the poor to become friends with them. I saw so many beautiful things and it was mind-blowing. I told my kids every day how proud I was of them. When I heard that verse, I thought, and this is why I do the things I do. It's in Scripture, number one, but it's God calling me onto holiness through solidarity with my brothers and sisters. Blessed are the poor in spirit...blessed are the West Virginians.
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