Quaker Service Opportunities in the Western USA

For more info, contact the coordinator at 562-699-5670 or at friendsbul@aol.com. For other AFSC projects in Arizona, Colorado, S. Dakota and Mexico, contact Mike Gray at 520-212-4696 or email him at afsc-imym-jsp@worldnet.att.net.

See also

What Makes Quaker Service Unique?

By Anthony Manousos

[The following is an abridgement of a talk given at Arizona Half-Yearly Meeting on March 16, 1998.]

I am convinced that service, and not simply worship, is at the heart of our Quaker life together. You may have heard the old Quaker story about the newcomer who comes to Meeting and sits for what seems like an eternity in the silence. Finally, she turns to an elder and whispers, "Excuse me, when does the service strart?" The Friend replies, "When the worship is over."

Service was not invented by Quakers, of course: it is is deeply rooted in Judeao-Christian ethics. Judaism and Christianity both teach that if we want to honor and serve God, we must honor and serve our fellow human beings.

This view of religion is evident in the letter of Jesus’ brother, the apostle James. James’ epistle was so popular among early Quakers that it became known as the Quaker epistle, and it is not hard to see why. Let me quote a well known passage that sums up the Quaker spirit:

"My dear friends, you should be quick to listen, and slow to speak….

"Obey God’s message. Don’t fool yourselves by just listening. If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare into a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget.

"If you think you are being religious but can’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself and everything you do is useless. The religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress, and to keep yourself unpolluted by the world."

As you can see, James was fond of plain speech, and direct action. Paul claimed that we are saved by our faith, not by our works—a view that is shared by many Protestants of the Lutheran and Calvinist tradition—but James insisted that "faith without works is dead." George Fox was fond of quoting James’ phrase: "Be doers, and not sayers, of the Word."

This is the core of our Quaker way of life. That’s why we Friends do not have a creed, but a book of advices and queries. We call this book our Faith and Practice, rather than our faith and witness or our faith and theology, because Friends feel that it was more important to live one’s faith than to preach it. "Let your life speak" has become a Quaker cliché. Some of you may know the story about the Quaker relief workers in Europe after WWII. After receiving help from Friends, a refugee asked what Quakers believe. When the relief workers explained about the Quaker faith, the woman suddenly smiled and said, "You Quakers ought to preach what you practice."

I’m sorry to say that over the years many of us have fallen out of the practice of Quaker service. Most meetings I know do not provide a lot of service opportunities for adults and teens. If such opportunities were widely available at the local meeting level, there would not have been such an urgent need to establish Intermountain Yearly Meeting’s Joint Service Project, or Southern California’s Youth Service Project. But as Gilbert White points out in his article in Friends Journal, the times are changing and we are in the midst of a revival of interest in Quaker service. That’s a very good thing.

During the Burlington Conference on Quaker Volunteer Service and Witness that I attended along with Mike Gray, the Jamisons, and Gilbert White, the question arose: "What is unique about Quaker service?" I’d like to talk about some unique characteristics of Quaker service and then end with some comments about Gilbert White’s article and the situation of Western Friends.

Identification with Unpopular Causes and People

Let’s begin by looking at some of the prime examples of Quaker service in the 20th century. After World War I, Quakers went into Russia to help the Russian people during their Civil War. During WWII, many Quakers went out of their way to help the Jews and the Japanese in the face of governmental indifference or hostility. After WWII, Friends helped the Germans along with other victims of war in Europe. In recent times, Friends have offered help to the North Vietnamese, the Cubans, the North Koreans, and most recently the Iraqis. Quakers have been leaders in prison ministry, particularly during times when the general public has had a very negative attitude towards law-breakers. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to detect a pattern. One of unique characteristics of Quaker service is that it is often directed towards those that are unpopular, those who are seen by many as the enemy.

Who are the pariahs, the untouchables, the rejects of society, those who have been demonized? These are the ones that Friends tend to identify with, and support. I say, "identify with" rather than "sympathize with," because Quakers started out as a persecuted minority and we carry with us a kind of ancestral memory of what it’s like to be an outsider.

Nowadays most Friends tend to be comfortably middle class, but a large proportion of us unprogrammed Friends have had formative experiences of being outsiders. Some were CO’s, some were involved in the anti-war movement, others got involved in the women’s movement or environmental causes before they were popular. I heard the story this very week of a bunch of peace activists who went to Lawrence Livermore Lab carrying a UN flag and asking for "free and unfettered access to the labs to see if weapons of mass destruction were being developed there." You guessed it. The peace activists were Quakers, and the leader of the group was none other than Eric Moon, the clerk of Pacific Yearly Meeting. I think it’s safe to say that we Friends have tended to be out of step with mainstream opinion.

By identifying with the Outsider and the Enemy, Quakers have turned their service into a kind of witness. We are saying, in effect: "God requires us to love our enemy, and love means service—service from the heart, and not simply of the lip."

The results of this heart-felt and Spirit-led service may not be immediately apparent, but can have long-standing effects. When I went to the Soviet Union in the 1980’s, there were Russians who still remembered with gratitude the relief work that Quakers did 70 years ago. The Germans are equally appreciative, as you can tell if you’ve had the opportunity to watch the recent award-winning German documentary, "Love Amidst the Ruins." This powerful documentary commemorates the relief work that Quakers did in Germany after WW II when many people were suspicious of the Germans. Over the years I’ve encountered Jews, Japanese, Native Americans, and African Americans who appreciate the fact that Friends cared when others didn’t.

One of the unique characteristics of Quaker service is that Friends help people when it is not popular to do so, and expect nothing in return.

Teaching Self-Reliance and Self-Worth

The second characteristic of Quaker service is that it’s about helping others to become self-reliant. Nothing makes a Quaker happier than for a group not to need his or her services any more. One of the best examples I can think of is Self-Help Enterprises. This project was started in the early 1960’s in the Central Valley of California. Friends and the AFSC went to farm workers and asked them what they wanted. The answer they got was, "Homes." Many farm workers were living in shacks, or just sleeping in the fields. So Friends raised money to start a pilot project. They provided interest-free loans to farm workers to purchase land and materials to build homes. Technical expertise was also provided. The farm workers built the homes themselves.

This project was so successful that it eventually became an independent, non-profit corporation called Self-Help Enterprises. In 1995, Mike Gray led a project with Self-Help Enterprises in Visalia. I participated along with some Arizona Friends, Gerry Theismann and his two teenagers, Mindi and Ben. Together with a dozen Mexican-American families, we helped build not just houses, but a community. It was a fantastic experience.

Helping others to become self-sufficient is based on the idea that each person has a spark of the divine within. Even when we give homeless people bags of food, as we did recently in San Diego, we don’t expect people to agree with our religious viewpoint, or pray with us, or "grovel for food," as one homeless person put it. As Friends, we want to uphold the dignity and worth of each individual. In helping others, we help ourselves.

Inward Transformation through Outward Action

The final and perhaps most important characteristic of Quaker service is its inward focus. During all of the Quaker work projects I have been involved with, we have had a time of worship sharing and reflection. We encourage participants to look within and to be honest about their feelings and insights. Such sharing is not always easy: truth-telling never is. But for this reason, Quaker service tends to be a memorable and life-changing experience.

One of memorable projects we have done was a week long work project in Maclovio Rojas, a poor community just outside of Tijuana. Going to this community was a painful reminder of the "savage inequality" that exists between rich and poor in Third World countries, and all too often here in the United States. The community that we helped consists of 1200 families—most of whom are forced to work in factories for $3 per day. They have no running water, no electricity, and no paved roads. Most of the homes are made of scrap, the favorite building material being used garage doors.

Even though we were less than an hour’s drive from San Diego, one of our teens said that going to this community was like going to an alien planet.

Over the course of the week, we worked side-by-side with the people of Maclovio Rojas. We put up sheet rock in a day care center. We dug holes and mixed cement to put up playground equipment. We purchased books and helped to set up their library. We painted murals. As we worked and sweated alongside the Mexicans, they came to seem less than aliens, and more like amigos.

One of our most enthusiastic teen participants was a boy from Whittier Friends Church named Trevor.

"I thought I was poor until I spent time in Mexico," Trevor told me, "but now I realize that compared to these people, I’m rich."

Most importantly, he realized that he has something to give. No one worked harder than Trevor digging post holes and mixing cement in the blazing Mexican sun. The more he worked, the more also he came to appreciate the people of the community, and especially the kids.

After he left Mexico, he got sick with a nasty intestinal virus that laid him up in bed for several days with a temperature of a hundred and two. When I visited him, Trevor was undaunted. "I don’t care if I got sick," he told me with great enthusiasm. "If I had it to do over again, I would. It was the best week of my life!"

This is the kind of young person that Thomas Kelley may have had in mind when he wrote these moving words about Quaker service:

"Each of us has the Seed of Christ within….The Christ that is formed in us is small indeed, but…great with eternity. That’s why the Quaker work camps are important. Take a young man or young woman in whom Christ is only dimly formed. Put him into a distressed area, into a refugee camp, into a poverty region. Let him go into the world’s suffering, bearing the Seed with him, and in suffering it will grow, and Christ will be more and more fully formed in him".—Thomas Kelly, The Eternal Promise (42-43)

This Seed is not given the same name by all people, or even by all Friends. But for me, what really matters is not the name, but the process of nurturing the Seed and helping it to grow and bear fruit. Service is to the spiritual life was water and fertilizer is to the life of a plant. That’s why we owe it to our youth, and to ourselves, to foster the spirit of Quaker service.

The Unique Situation of Western Friends

If I can prevail on your patience for a couple of more minutes, I’d like to conclude with some comments about Gilbert White’s article. Gilbert writes from a long and deep experience working with Friends and the Service Committee dating back to the early days. He notes that while Friends are eager to revitalize the spirit of volunteer spirit, the AFSC seems to be heading in a different direction.

Gilbert is correct is noting that volunteer service will not be a major focus of the Service Committee in the near future. But youth work is and will be.

Why has youth work become so important to the AFSC? Several years ago, AFSC had all but abandoned its youth work, much to the chagrin of many Friends, but now the AFSC has made youth one of its main focus areas. The main reason that the AFSC finally started paying attention to youth is that many of us kept raising this concern over and over again, and as the saying goes, the squeaky wheel finally got some oil. It is my hope that we Quakers can continue to nudge the AFSC in a Friendly direction, as the Spirit leads. That’s why I stick around.

I also stick around the AFSC because the situation of Friends out here in the West is quite different from that in the East. In the East there are large concentrations of Friends in big cities such Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Washington. The AFSC and the Religious Society of Friends are such large entities that they can get along pretty much independently.

It’s not quite the same story here in the West. There are only 4,000-6,000 unprogrammed Quakers west of the Mississippi spread out over an enormous geographical range, and the AFSC is equally scattered. There are probably more Friends in the 50 mile radius around Philly than there are in the entire West. Because we are spread so thin, we Westerners need each other, and we can help each other, in ways that may not be the case back East.

Joint service projects like the one started by IMYM and Southern California Meeting serve a special need that we have here in the West. But what we are doing to revitalize Quaker service and the AFSC out here in the West may also be what George Fox would call a "pattern," a model for how Friends and the AFSC can work together, and for how Quaker service can still be re-visioned for the current age.

Helping to nurture the spirit of Quaker service in myself and others has been a vitally important part of my spiritual development. I will always cherish the lessons I learned from my experiences working with adults and teens in a variety of settings. But above all, I will value the friendships I have made, and the encounters I have had with people.

For me, Quaker service is not something that begins when worship ends, it is a form of worship. When I am working with Friends to help others to help themselves, I feel as if I am truly in God’s presence. When Jesus said, "I am always with you," I don’t think he was speaking metaphorically. Working in harmony with the Spirit is a very, very special feeling that is impossible to put into words. I hope and pray that each of us has had, or will have, such an experience of God’s loving presence.

The Corazón Experience

I had heard about Corazón's one-day house builds for serveral years, but you need to experience one to appreciate how well they do their job. Our group of six Quakers piggybacked on a project with fifty or more youth and adults from St. Augustine's, a Catholic church near San Francisco.

On Saturday morning, at 6:00 AM, while it was still quite dark, we converged at a restaurant called Love's in Chula Vista, about ten miles from the border. The parkinglot was filled with enthusiastic teenagers just waking up ("I am so not awake" was a comment I heard from one of the girls.)

After an orientation, we caravaned to our site, which was a village called Combres not far from the ocean on the suburbs of Tijuana.

There we met the couple whose home we would be building, and were told about the community where Corazón has built dozens of homes over the years. The couple were newly weds living in borrowed quarters who are anticipating their first baby (a girl). Their whole family showed up during the course of the day to help and to watch the project as it moved forward. The husband Alejandro was a skilled worker who helped with every phase of the project, while his wife looked on like a mother bird watching her nest being built.

We began by digging holes for the foundation, which consisted of telephone poles to which the frame for the floor is bolted. While the buff volunteers dug the foundations with shovels and pick axes, others built the frames and painted the walls. Everything was organized so efficiently that all fifty volunteers worked almost continuously throughout the day on one project or another. The foundations and floor were completed by lunchtime.

In the afternoon, the walls were carried down and connected to the main frame. The outer walls were braced together by a loft that was built for the kids and also to provide structural support when the roof was added. Everything was designed beautifully and simply, with the needs of inhabitants in mind.

The house was completed by four thirty in the afternoon. It had electricity, an outhouse, a propane stove, a loft (with a rug), and a tiled food preparation area. It also had two windows and a door with a lock (a luxury in this community). The couple seemed very pleased, and so were we.

Over the course of the day, we had become acquainted with the family and with a wonderful group of volunteers. It is good to know that Quakers are hardly unique in their desire to do service. Along with the Catholics I met a couple of young lawyers from San Diego who were scoping out this project for their law firm. Evidently the entire firm (consisting of 120 lawyers) wants to sponsors houses for the poor and do community service in Mexico. This of course confirms our Quaker belief that there is "that of God in everyone," including lawyers!

The closing ceremony consisted in presenting the couple with keys, and with a plaque listing all the volunteers. The priest said a closing prayer, and then we all drove back to the United States and had dinner today in a Mexican restaurant called Indio's.

There I met and spoke with John Torrance, the director of the organization. He explained that Corazón is a faith-based organization that is open to people of all faiths, including non-Christians. John made it clear that "Corazón doesn't proselytize, and it doesn't make religious affiliation a criterion for receiving help." This was music to a liberal Quaker's ears. He also said that Corazón was flexible and could organize various kinds of projects (including week-long ones) to meet the needs of different groups.

The philosophy and attitude of Corazón is beautifully summed up in a handout I received along with my Corazón t-shirt:

"Most of you came to Corazón 'to build a house in a day.' The experience of joining your friends and family and altering the lives of a family in Mexico for the better cannot be adequately described. It is a feeling of gratification and accomplishment that stays with you long after the paint has worn off your hands and the blisters on your feet have faded away. It is the feeling of really making a difference. It is an opportunity to be proud of yourself and your friends who made it all possible.

"It is this same sense of pride that Corazón is instilling in the Mexican members of the Corazón family. Our familia Corazón program is based on the old adage of 'give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day; teach him to fish, and he will feed himself for life.' And just as importantly, he will feed himself with pride and with dignity. Corazón is teaching the families in Mexico how to live better and more productive lives through education. We are teaching them skills they can use to help themselves, their family, and their community. We have classes in computers, English, sewing, gardening, welding, and construction. We have neighborhood libraries, senior citizen centers, community centers, and day care facilities. We are trying to help the whole person, the whole family, and the whole community.

"What we really need is your help. As the program becomes more complex, the need for volunteers grows. The potential for change can only be achieved with more help from more volunteers. Is the program really working? Is it really worth more of an investment from you than your day in Mexico? Last year the Mexican members of Corazón worked over thirty thousand volunteer hours helping their neighbors. The people we are serving in Mexico understand how different life can be with just a little help and a lot of hard work. But this progress can only be maintained if you decide it is worthwhile and invest some of your time in the Corazón family. You don't need any special talents; you just need a desire to help some people intent on helping themselves.

"A lot of people complain about the problems in the world. The Corazón family is doing something about solving some of these ills. Corazón is giving hope and inspiration to people in desperate need. Corazón is teaching these people that there is the chance for a better life for themselves, their family and their community. Corazón is offering these people a hand up, not a handout. Most importantly, Corazón is helping people maintain their pride and dignity by leaving the ultimate decision of success or failure up to them. Corazón offers a better tomorrow for those willing to reach for it. Please, be a part of that tomorrow by helping Corazón today. To learn more about how you can make a difference, visit our website, www.corazon.org; phone us at 949-830-7494, or write to us at P.O. Box 2669, Laguna Hills, CA 92653."

All of the Quaker youth and adults who participated in this site visit agreed that Corazón is organization that we would very much like to work with again. We will definitely recommend this program to the YSP committee for its consideration.--Reported by Anthony Manousos, project coordinator.

Helping the Homeless: A Friendly Approach

During the holidays, lots of groups go out of their way to provide meals for the homeless, but once the New Year sets in, this seasonal charitable spirit tends to dry up. That’s why we go out to feed the homeless on the streets during the coldest and loneliest time of the year. Last year we distributed almost four hundred bags of food to homeless people on the streets of San Diego. Why don’t you join us?

When? Sat., Jan. 20—Sun., Jan. 21

Transportation: A van will take a group from Whittier at 8:15 AM on Saturday. We will meet at the home of Anthony Manousos (see address below). Other cars are expected to leave from Pasadena, Riverside and Santa Monica. Contact Anthony if you need a ride or can carpool.

Cost: $25. Please consider giving more if you can. Also, please don’t hesitate to ask for financial aid if you need it. You can also help by bringing some of the following items for our bags:

Logistics: We will arrive at La Jolla Meeting by 11:00 AM, make sandwiches, have lunch, and be oriented. In the afternoon we will hand out bags of food. There will be time for food, fun, and fellowship in the evening. We will stay overnight at the Meetinghouse and spend time with La Jolla Friends on Sunday morning. Weather permitting, we will make a brief visit to the beach and return to the L.A. area by late afternoon.

Future Projects: During this weekend we will also discuss our future plans, which include week-long summer projects on Catalina Island, and possibly Hawaii and/or Mexico. We will also discuss our project at Visalia and Corazón.

[Image]

[On January 3,  1998, a gray and drizzly Saturday afternoon, seventeen teens and ten adults walked the streets of downtown San Diego to give bags of food and other amenities to homeless people. This project was sponsored by the AFSC/SCQM Youth Service Program and Whittier First Friends Church. Over $300 was donated by La Jolla Friends for supplies. Jim Summers helped to coordinate and organize this event.

During a discussion afterwards, participants felt that handing out food was a worthwhile activity, but more needed to be done to deal with the systemic causes of homelessness and poverty in America. Hope was expressed that adult Friends would take this concern to heart. Here is the article that Jim Summers originally wrote for Street Light, a newspaper by, for and about homeless people in San Diego, November 1997.]

Are you feeling the urge to help? You have probably noticed that homelessness and hunger are increasing in our city right now. Neither the government nor the large charitable agencies are meeting the need. Thousands of unsheltered people, in every part of the city. are experiencing the misery of cold nights, wet weather, and hunger. Volunteers and activists are struggling to motivate the government to help, and to supply the needs of the needy. You can act directly.

Struck by an increasing number of homeless people in one part of town, and unable to ignore them any longer, I started preparing a few lunches a week, packing them in brown bags, and distributing them when I was in the area on other business. The few lunches I could prepare disappeared quickly into hungry bellies. “God bless you, brother,” was a common response. I was touched by the real hunger and the real gratitude shown.

Doing this opened my eyes wider to the extent of the problem. I discovered in myself an old habit of looking away from things and people I did not like to see. When I had lunches to deliver, I started looking toward people I used to look away from and a kind of blindness dissolved. I started looking for other ways to help solve the problems that put people on the streets and keep them there, and am still looking. Meanwhile, I keep on making lunches and invite you to join me.

Here are a few tips:

Put the lunch together as if it were for someone you know and love.

Avoid fats and empty calories. Fast food is big on the streets, and not good for you. People get vitamin-and-protein deprived, so if you can, include juices, fruits, apple sauce, veggies, greens and protein-rich foods as well.

Include a small but wonderful treat. I like real chocolate chip cookies, the good kind, and a handful of peanut-butter cups.

Make generous sandwiches, with good bread, thick fillings, and plenty of greens and vegetables. I add small necessities like combs, travel-size soap or folding toothbrushes with a small tube of toothpaste (about $1.00 at Target.)

People love to get socks. I include a clean pair of socks (12 pair for about $10 at Costco). Band-Aids and moist toilettes or alcohol swaps for cleaning blisters and cuts. Getting fed at food lines and finding a bed in a shelter can mean a whole day afoot, and foot problems can seriously affect one’s ability to find food and shelter.

Be discreet. Some local residents, business people or the police may appreciate your efforts, others may not. “Why do you come to MY neighborhood to pass out food and attact the homeless?’ I was asked. “Start with your own neighborhood.”

I don’t give money. Like the rest of the population, some (but by no means all or even most) homeless people have substance abuse problems. As a recovering alcoholic with many years of sobriety, I do not wish to contribute to another’s habit, so I give food. Every day of life gives another chance for transformation. Be respectful of people’s dignity and privacy. Someone may not want your lunch, may be suspicious of your agenda, or may not want to be spoken to. Many have had to listen to sermons to get shelter or food. Don’t make anyone grovel for groceries.

Here’s a sample lunch: 

A good sandwich
An apple or orange
2 large chocolate chip cookies
4-6 small peanut butter cups
Apple sauce and plastic spoon
Small can of V-8 juice
Fruit juice, not drink
A pair of socks
4-6 Band-Aids
2 alcohol swabs and 2 towelettes
Folding toothbrush with small toothpaste
Travel pack of facial tissue
Heavy duty plastic bag for damp weather.

Finally, take these lunches to wherever you see people that might need them. Take a friend, and use good sense about where you go and when. Some parts of town are not as safe as others, a fact that homeless people must always consider also. If you don’t know if someone is hungry—and might need a lunch—ask rather than assume. Above all, offer these lunches with love and respect for the common humanity of us all.

Friends Service and Peacemaking

by Anthony Manousos

Non-violence, or peace, is one of the four social testimonies of Quakerism, as they were defined by the Quaker educator and peace activist, Howard Brinton.

"Friends Service is a demonstration of all four of the primary social doctrines [of Quakerism]. It demonstrates community because it endeavors to unite the whole human race into one interdependent community; it demonstrates equality because of its impartiality; it demonstrates simplicity because of the standard of living required of its workers; and it demonstrates harmony by its main mission—the promotion of peace."— Friends for 300 Years, p. 174.

One of the foremost Quaker scholars of the 20th century, Howard Brinton became a peace activist during World War I. In 1918, he quit his job as Acting President of Guilford College in order to serve as publicist for the American Friends Service Committee, which was founded by his teacher, Rufus Jones, in 1917. Brinton later become involved in administering a relief program in Upper Silesia, Germany, where he met Anna Shipley Cox, the grand-daughter of Joel and Hannah Bean. Anna and Howard were married after the War, and became (in the words of Quaker historian Thomas Hamm) "the most interesting Quaker couple since Margaret Fell married George Fox." Howard and Anna were both active in the Service Committee for the rest of their lives. They also helped to found Pacific Yearly Meeting.

In Brinton’s view, Friends Service is an essential component of Quakerism. He preferred to call it "Friends Service" instead of "Quaker Service" because he felt very strongly that service should always be undertaken in the spirit of equality—one friend helping another—and not in the spirit of Lady Bountiful’s bestowing favors on those "less fortunate." Friends do not try to convert others or provide assistance with strings attached, whether religious or political. Friends seek to help others with no other motive than love. Hence, the name given to them by the Germans: Stille helfers. "Quiet Helpers."

As Brinton points out, the main mission of Friends Service is to promote peace. The American Friends Service Committee was born during a time of global conflict, WWI, when Friends who objected to war wanted to demonstrate in a tangle way their commitment to peace. As Friends wrote in "A Message from the Society of Friends" published in March, 1917: "The alternative to war is not inactivity and cowardice. It is the irresistible and constructive power of goodwill."

The American Friends Service Committee was founded for those wanted to do "a service of love in war time." Many of these ardent pacifists went to Europe to do relief work and to help re-build Germany and Russia after the War.

The AFSC/SCQM Youth Service Project was also started in a time of conflict—during the period of the Gulf War and the Los Angeles uprising. At that time, the Service Committee wanted to reach out to disadvantaged communities, and to involve youth in the quest for social justice.

In this talk I would like to look at how our service projects promote each of Quakerism’s four social testimonies, and particularly that of peace.

Community

I will begin with community, since that is where peacemaking (as well as conflict) begins. If you ask most teenagers why they come to service projects, they are likely to say, "Because I like the people" or "I want to be with my friends or make new friends."

Friendship is an essential part of the service experience. "Making new friends" may not seem like a big deal, but it can be a deeply spiritual experience. The Buddha was once asked by one of his students, "Is friendship an important part of the spiritual life?" "No," the Buddha responded, "Friendship is not a part of the spiritual life, it is everything in the spiritual life."

The friendships formed during service projects are often significantly different from those formed in school because they are based on a desire to "make a difference," to help those in need.

This inner need to help others was called "the Seed" or "the Seed of Christ" by early Friends. Quaker educator and mystic Thomas Kelley wrote these moving words about how work camps nurture the Seed of Christ, or what one might call the "Seed of Compassion":

"Each of us has the Seed of Christ within….The Christ that is formed in us is small indeed, but…great with eternity. That’s why the Quaker work camps are important. Take a young man or young woman in whom Christ is only dimly formed. Put him into a distressed area, into a refugee camp, into a poverty region. Let him go into the world’s suffering, bearing the Seed with him, and in suffering it will grow, and Christ will be more and more fully formed in him."—The Eternal Promise (42-43)

Over the past nine years, I have watched this Seed grow in the hearts of many young people as well adults who have become involved in our service projects. Teens and adults may read about injustice and oppression in books, and they may intellectualize about the root causes of poverty, but what truly transforms us is the experience of "being there" and seeing for ourselves what poverty and injustice look and feel like.

Take, for example, Matt Graville, a young Friend from Lopez, an island of serenity in Puget Sound far removed from the struggles and conflicts of the developing world. After going to Maclovio Rojas, a Mexican community near Tijuana where there was no running water or electricity, and where most residents live in homes made out of garage doors, Matt wrote these insightful words:

I have read and heard stories about how people must live in places that experience the effects of oppression every day, but walking through the streets of Maclovio I saw these effects manifested in run-down shacks and frayed extension cords. And then last night at the community center, Hortensia and Artemio [two of the community’s leaders] put words to what I saw, describing that which could not be immediately seen in the streets of Maclovio but which is the story of the people who live there..... While people here must struggle to make $3.50 a day, so many opportunities have been opened for me that sometimes I want to step away from them just to feel as if I am making a choice... It’s hard to see, looking through the soft fog of my comfortable life, who is really paying for….my padded lifestyle.…

Service projects can help us to see beyond our "padded lifestyle" and the "soft fog" of privilege. As a result of these experiences, many teens and adults feel a growing concern for justice and peace. Anna Morgan, our youth clerk and one of the most active participants, wrote:

"The growth I experienced and the friendships I made [during our Mexico projects] are well worth any difficulties I encountered. I learned more this week than any other in my life."

Another teenager, Holly Summers, wrote:

"This experience has changed my perspective utterly and given new fire to old convictions. That these projects speak to the heart of Quakerism is beyond all doubt."

Morgan Van Vorhis, a youth from Seattle, WA, described her feelings as "beyond words"—a "journey of self-discovery" that helped her to connect both with the people of Maclovio and her Quaker community:

There are no words to describe exactly what I feel about the community of Maclovio Rojas. I feel awed, admiring, inspired and horrified all at once as I walk down the street and see how these people live and hear what they face. This is my second year coming to Maclovio and I feel blessed to have even come in the first place, let alone a second time. For me, this has been a journey of self-discovery. When I walked away last year I viewed life in a whole different perspective. Coming here sparked my interest in Mexican people’s lives and their struggle for freedom and a better life. Because of this I based my year-long research project on Mexican people creating a better life, with a main portion on the people of Maclovio. From being here and from my studies, I feel more connected to the people living here and all the more grateful for everything in my life. Not only have the people of the community impacted my life, but also the people on the this trip with me. I was becoming less satisfied with being a Quaker and going to meeting before last year’s trip. Seeing all these people my age who were so involved inspired me to dig deeper into myself and be satisfied with who and what I am. Being a Quaker is a part of who I am, and now I have thoroughly accepted that and don’t question it in the slightest. More to the point, this trip has been a wonderful experience and I hope I am able to come next year.

I should add that the service project experience is not free from conflict. In fact, I have never been a service project in which there wasn’t some conflict and stress—what we euphemistically call "challenges" or "opportunities." This should not be surprising, Take a group of people out of their comfort zone and place them in difficult and unfamiliar situation, and conflicts inevitably arise. Adults sometimes become excruciatingly judgmental when the youth or the program or the program coordinator fail to meet their high (and often unrealistic) expectations. Teens sometimes act out their anxieties and insecurities in ways that seem bizarre. Interpersonal conflicts can easily escalate when we lack the comforting distractions of our privileged lives.

During work camps, we have had to learn how to resolve conflicts in practical ways based on Quaker spiritual principles. We learn how important it is to have daily meetings for reflection in which adults and teens meet, process their feelings, and share their insights. (I have personally learned that I cannot do these projects without a lot of prayer.) In order to insure that all voices and concerns are heard and respected, we involve youth and adults in leadership and planning. When difficulties and interpersonal conflicts arise, we use Quaker processes, such as clearness sessions, to resolve them. To relieve tensions, we sometimes employ methods borrowed from AVP. I will give some examples of how we use these techniques later in my discussion of the peace testimony.

In spite or perhaps because of the challenges, organizing and participating in service projects has been an enormous blessing as well as a learning experience for those involved. I am reminded of what John Woolman said about the education of children:

To watch the spirit of children, to nurture them in Gospel Love, and to labor to help them against that which would mar the beauty of their minds, is a debt we owe them; and the faithful performance of our duty not only tends to their lasting benefit and our own peace, but also to render their company agreeable to us…

Woolman is right: we owe it to youth to nurture in them the spirit of compassion and to foster "the beauty of their minds" (what a quaint and lovely 18th century phrase!). When we do so, we not only experience inward satisfaction or peace, we also learn to be more appreciative of young people. My life has been deeply enriched by the teenagers who have been involved in our programs. I have watched them evolve into remarkable young adults. Many are now in college and are active in social justice and peace-making work.

I urge you to read the newsletter of Quaker Volunteer Service and Witness Network (QVSWN). It contains inspiring stories of college students who are involved in peacemaking and community service work.

I am the AFSC representative on this committee, which is now under the care of Earlham College. QVSWN was started because members of Illinois Yearly Meeting as well as other Yearly Meetings were disappointed that the AFSC was not doing enough to provide young people with service opportunities. I joined in part because one of the missions of our AFSC/SCQM Youth Service Project is to improve relations between Friends and the Service Committee. There is no question that IMYM’s joint service program and our youth service project have helped to transform relations between the Service Committee and Friends from one of tension to one of mutual cooperation in our region. This has been just one of many ways that we have promoted peacemaking and reconciliation through our work.

Equality

Service projects foster a sense not only of community, but also of equality. As Pacific Yearly Meeting’s recent Faith and Practice observes, "Friends testimony on equality is rooted in the holy expectation that there is that of God in everyone, including adversaries and those from widely different stations, life experiences, and religious persuasions." For this reason, Friends often do service projects among groups or people viewed with suspicion by the majority of Americans.

After World War I, Quakers went into Russia to help the Russian people during their Civil War. During WWII, many Quakers went out of their way to help the Jews and the Japanese in the face of governmental indifference or hostility. After WWII, Friends helped the Germans along with other victims of war in Europe. In recent times, Friends have offered help to the North Vietnamese, the Cubans, the North Koreans, and most recently the Iraqis. Quakers have been leaders in prison ministry, particularly during times when the general public has had a very negative attitude towards law-breakers. One of unique characteristics of Quaker service is that it is often directed towards those who are unpopular, those who are seen by many as the enemy.

The results of this heart-felt and Spirit-led service may not be immediately apparent, but can have long-lasting effects. When I went to the Soviet Union in the 1980s, there were Russians who still remembered with gratitude the relief work that Quakers did 70 years ago. The Germans are equally appreciative, as you can tell if you’ve had the opportunity to watch the recent award-winning German documentary, "Love Amidst the Ruins." This powerful documentary commemorates the relief work that Quakers did in Germany after WW II when many people were suspicious of the Germans. Over the years I’ve encountered Jews, Japanese, Native Americans, and African Americans who appreciate the fact that Friends cared when others didn’t.

One of the reasons that we have been led to do service projects along the US/Mexico border is that many Americans harbor hostile or racist feelings towards Mexicans. Our policies towards Mexicans have led to the exploitation, and untimely deaths, of countless Mexican people.

Crossing the border from the United States to Mexico, one becomes painfully aware of what Jonathan Kozol called the "savage inequality" that exists between rich and poor, here in the USA and throughout the world.

The community where we work consists of 1200 families—most of whom are forced to work in factories for $3 per day. They have no running water, no electricity, and no paved roads. Most of the homes are made of scrap, the favorite building material being used garage doors.

Even though we were less than an hour’s drive from San Diego, one of our teens said that going to this community was like going to an alien planet.

Over the course of a week, we work side-by-side with the Mexican people—putting up sheet rock, digging holes, mixing cement, painting homes and murals, and even planting crosses around a cemetery to commemorate those who have died trying to cross the border. As we work and sweat alongside the Mexicans, they come to seem less like aliens, and more like amigos.

Iris Graville, a parent from Washington state, wrote about how her feelings of admiration for and identification with this Mexican community grew over the years:

As I near the end of my fourth visit to Maclovio Rojas, I feel great admiration for the strength of the people of this community. They have grown and developed a great deal since our first trip, becoming even more united in their commitment to maintain a vital community. I never dreamed when I first came to this struggling village that in just four years people would have found ways to have electricity, running water, and dozens of small businesses.... I’ve gotten an even greater sense of what daily life is like for residents of Maclovio Roajs and countless other similar communities throughout Mexico... Once again we’ve formed a community within our group as we’ve worked, cooked, slept, played, and worshipped together. There’s always more to learn about myself and others, regardless of how similar or different we are... Visiting the bakery was highlight. Having worked as a baker myself in the past, it was a treat to see the brothers at this bakery weighing an mixing ingredients, rolling the dough, and putting pan dolce on the baking sheets just as I have done... I have trusted people who know this community well who have told us our presence and our work help them. In the face of such poverty and oppression, I have a hard time believing that I can make any kind of difference. But I am clear that I have been led to this service project which brought me to this place and that is all that matters. I have been blessed by this experience.

By standing in solidarity with our Mexican compañeros, and by letting others know of their struggles, we can make a difference. Our presence sends a message to the Mexican government that Americanos are watching and care about what is going on in this community. Persuading our government to adopt immigration policies based on mutual respect, not upon racism and xenophobia, would definitely help to reduce the violence along the border.

Simplicity

Just as inequality can lead to repression and violence, excessive affluence (sometimes called "affluenza") can lead to economic injustice and conflict. For that reason, John Woolman urges Friends to practice plain living in this famous passage from his Journal:

O we who declare against wars, and acknowledge our trust to be in God only, may we walk in the light, and therein examine our foundation and motives in holding great estates! May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions.—Journal (New Century edn: 1900), p. 279.

Service projects often leads to profound self-examination and questioning. As we have seen, Matt Graville talked about becoming aware of his "padded lifestyle." Stephanie Van Dyke, an adult from Seattle WA, wrote about how painful it was to be deprived of her usual comforts and to witness the environmental pollution caused by poverty. She writes: "Daily I am faced with difficulty of life—lack of water, the heat and dust. I found myself deeply troubled by the need to dispose of waste by burning or dumping it. It is painful to think of the effect on earth and air of so many people doing this—yet it is a necessity in so many places. My surprise and profound discomfort are signs of my life of privilege..."

Sarah House, a student at Whittier College who has been involved in our program since it began, expressed the hope that her experience at Maclovio would lead her to adopt a simpler lifestyle: "After staying here for week, it has started to feel natural and normal for us to live this way. Hopefully, these experiences will help us to live our lives more simply when we go home…."

Peace

As I mentioned earlier, the living conditions in our Mexico project present challenges for some of our participants, including the coordinator. I’d like to conclude this talk with some examples of how we struggle to conduct business and resolve conflict non-violently, in the manner of Friends.

This past summer many of teenage participants did not respond as most had done in the best. Our core group of experienced teens had graduated and gone on to college, and most of those who came this summer were first-timers. Many of these teens were confused and disoriented by the heat and poverty, and some reverted to junior high school modes of behavior. Some were reluctant to work, used profane language, and spent enormous amounts of time and money on junk food from the local store.

We adults struggled not to be angry and judgmental, but it was pretty hard at times. The boys’ bathroom was an especially sore point. In Mexico, you are not supposed to put toilet paper into the toilet because it makes the toilet clog up. You are supposed to put the paper into a waste basket. I know it sounds disgusting, but that’s the way it is. We told the group repeatedly what they were supposed to do, but some of the boys ignored the rule, and so the toilets got clogged. The first two times I took a plunger and cleaned the toilets myself. But after that, I told the boys that I wasn’t going to do it any more.

By the end of the week, the toilets were pretty foul, and I was in a quandary. How could I make the boys clean the toilets? None of them would volunteer to do it. So we sat down together and had a meeting. I was in a real bind. If I tried to be a drill sergeant and order the boys to clean the toilet, they would revolt. Besides, forcing kids to do the right thing violates one of the basic tenets of Quakerism—respect for the individual. On the other hand, we couldn’t leave the toilets in a mess. So I just said to the boys, "What are we going to do? We can’t get up until we have a solution."

Five, ten minutes passed in fruitless discussion. The boys realized that I was serious. We were not going to get up without a solution. It also became clear that none of the boys was willing to volunteer to do this dirty job. To volunteer and clean up the excrement left by someone else would be to lose face in front of one’s peers. Finally, one boy said half-jokingly: "Let’s all of us clean it together."

"Yes," I said, "That sounds perfect to me. We can take turns with the plunger. In fact, we can make it a meeting for worship on the occasion of cleaning toilets."

The boys laughed since Quakers often use the phrase "meeting for worship on the occasion of business." However, I was serious. I do regard cleaning toilets as a spiritual discipline.

All the boys and I went to the bathroom and took turns with the plunger. The boys groaned at first, but finally we all laughed and got the job done together. It was a bonding experience we will never forget.

While we were working, I told them about how cleaning toilets was a spiritual practice in Gandhi’s ashram. In India, educated people or Brahmans are not supposed to clean toilets. That’s a job for the Untouchables, as they used to be called. So Gandhi made it a requirement for everyone in his ashram, even his own wife and family, to clean the toilets. For Gandhi, this was a spiritual practice, just like prayer.

Besides, I said to the boys, "You wouldn’t want the Mexicans to be our untouchables, do you?"

I don’t know if the boys got the message, but I know that I felt clear and the toilets got cleaned and remained clean for the rest of our week.

Let me give you one more example of how the boys and I worked together to resolve a conflict. Early in the week, some of the youth wandered off to a store in town without asking permission, and this upset the adults a lot. We had a meeting and made it clear that such behavior jeopardizes the safety of the group and could not be tolerated; anyone who left the group without permission would be sent home.

The next day, while we were listening to a speaker, I saw a group of boys wandering off into the brush. I went down to tell them to come back and they didn’t respond in a way that I felt was appropriate. One of them told me to shut up. The others were apologetic but defensive. I was very annoyed, especially with the disrespectful, disobedient boy; and I told the boys that they were all on the verge of being sent home, and ordered them back to the dorm. It was a very tense situation.

I then consulted with some of the wise adults to get clearness on what to do, and decided the best thing would be to invite another adult, the clerk of my committee, to join the boys and me for what Quakers call a clearness meeting.

Clearness sessions are a Quaker practice that requires deep listening for "that of God" in one another. I explained to the boys the guidelines for a clearness meeting. I said that each of us would have a chance to speak, that each of us would listen until the other person had finished speaking, and that no one would interrupt so that everyone would be heard. The clerk, a sensitive and sensible woman named Pat, would help to facilitate. The boys agreed to this procedure and we met in a private place. I began and explained why I was concerned and upset. I told them that there were rattlesnakes in the brush, and we had warned them not to wander around in the brush without an adult present. They also appeared to be leaving the area without permission, and that was a very serious offense.

When the boys’ turn came to speak, they explained that they were not leaving the area, they had gone in search of a Rubix cube that one of the boys had thrown into the brush. The owner of the Rubix cube was very upset, and the boy who threw it was trying to make amends by finding it. When I heard the whole story, I realized that boys were not trying to make trouble, they were trying to do the right thing. The boy who told me to shut up was a very confused, highly emotional boy with a real terror of rattle snakes. Nonetheless, he had made the decision to go into the brush and find the Rubix cube that he himself had thrown. He was trying to rectify a mistake he had made. It was an act of bravery, if not of good sense, on his part.

After fifteen minutes or so of dialogue, we had not resolved all the issues, but we had a lot more clearness through listening to each other. The boy who told me to shut up was still angry with me, but at least I understood why he behaved and felt the way he did. The other boys had apologized and had not really done anything seriously wrong. So I accepted their apologies and said that we had gotten as clear as we could, and that only one matter remained. Finding the Rubix cube.

I was as surprised as the boys were at how things had turned out in our clearness session. Something greater than ourselves was clearly at work. They had expected some sort of punishment, but I was offering to help them. I told them that if they had come to me first, I would have gone with them to find the Rubix cube. So now I would go with them and we would find it together.

We spent nearly half an hour looking for that cube. We nearly missed dinner. We searched all the brush and it seemed hopeless. But finally, one of the boys with sharp eyes found the missing cube.

We all rejoiced. It was glorious moment. The boy who had thrown and lost the cube was especially happy. We returned to share this good news with the group. What was truly important of course was not that we had found a rubix cube, but that we had found a way to resolve our conflicts by affirming that of God in each other.

Continuing Revelation

As you can see from these examples, there is never a dull moment with service learning projects. Each project offers unique opportunities to practice and deepen our understanding of the Peace Testimony as well as all the other testimonies of Friends. Right now we are in the process of exploring ways to reach out those who have been affected by the events of Sept. 11th. During our planning meeting in September, our youth indicated that they would like to reach out in friendship to Muslim youth and involve them in our work. As a result, whole new possibilities for service learning and peacemaking are opening up.

This fall I have been going to local mosques and trying to get better acquainted with the Muslim community. We organized a gathering at Whittier First Friends Church in which Sonia Tuma spoke about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and over $200 and thirty blankets were donated to the "No More Victims Campaign." Carrin Bouchard, a member of First Friends Church as well as of our committee, took a group of Quaker and local Muslim youth to an Interfaith Service Project sponsored by LA Works. Several hundred Muslim, Christian, and Jewish youth and adults gathered to paint murals at a junior high school near Santa Monica and a wonderful time was had by all.

We hope to organize a more intimate gathering in which youth from diverse religious backgrounds can do a service project and reflect on the meaning of service from their respective religious traditions. We plan to do a homeless project in San Diego during Martin Luther King Day weekend and plan to invite Muslim youth.

I don’t know where all of this is leading, but I trust in God and in the peacemaking practices of Friends.

I would like to conclude with some passages from the Holy Quran that speak to my condition, and seem relevant:

"The Worshipers of the Most Gracious are those who tread the earth lightly, and when the ignorant speak, they only utter, PEACE" (25:65).

"Those of you who are blessed with resources and wealth shall be charitable towards your relatives, the poor, and those who have immigrated for the sake of God. Treat them with kindness and tolerance; do you not love to attain God’s forgiveness? God is Forgiver, Most Merciful" (24:22).

May we all seek and find the guidance and mercy of God!

!-- Start of NedStat Basic code -->