It has been a powerful weekend for me. After a concert Friday night, which I really enjoyed, I had the privilege of spending Saturday with some wonderful youth from the Sarasota area who worked hard sorting food on the back lot of All Faiths Food Bank, finally preparing over 14,000 pounds of food. I started the day with a 45-minute keynote/workshop where we talked about how large-scale change happens, built the Rosa Parks bus out of folding chairs and talked through some of the details of that situation and the feelings that may have been involved, wondered together about what buses we may be riding now... then they jumped in and got to work, wanting to make a difference. I wrapped up that time with a song and a few more thoughts, then two of the youth groups came back to Pine Shores Presbyterian Church to meet with two representatives from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who talked to us about their struggle for fair treatment of tomato pickers, especially with Publix, which has refused to even meet with them. Fresh Market, incidentally, became the thirteenth major corporation to sign on to the extra penny per pound of tomatoes that they are asking for. I have been familiar with this campaign, but still learned a great deal, and this provided the opportunity to talk about aid work and justice work, the differences between them and the importance of each. It was rich, challenging, and encouraging conversation. Then dinner all together — the final circle, where the youth and their leaders expressed what stood out for them from the day, was incredible. I was reminded, through these conversations with these young people, of how often it seems to me that the part of a person that you speak to is the part of them that will answer you. These kids really rose to the occasion. And then I was done. And the last 24 hours began, where Ive been revisiting my childhood... but that will have to wait for another post. It will take some seasoning before I can put it into words. On the whole, though, the word for the weekend is: moved.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 22:48:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015