Trusting in the Slow Work of Sourdough, Our Communities, and God

Hello everyone! Helen here. I'm going to share some pictures that I took at Powell House last weekend throughout this post to break up the words.

This past weekend, Anna and I attended a retreat at Powell House led by Christopher Sammond titled "Trusting in the slow work of God." One of the perks of being a Young Friends in Residence is that we are able to attend Powell House retreats for free. I'm really grateful for this, as I would not otherwise be able to afford to go. I've been to two already, and I hope to be able to do more. Anyway, I was struck this weekend with how open the group was to sharing personal stories and revelations with such a large group (more than forty, some had to stay in the ACC). One of my favorite activities was creating a life map of spiritual, vocational, emotional, and otherwise important life events. It was interesting to see the variety of ways in which people chose to map their lives, and incredibly powerful to hear about people's revelations and observations about the process. It came to me that "trusting in the slow work of God" means not just believing that God will be at work in my life, but realizing that God always has been at work.

The topic of "Trusting in Slow Work" has brought to mind something that was said two weekends ago when YFIR presented at Farmington-Scipio winter gathering: that Young Friends in Residence has been an exercise in trust. The pilot program started a year and a half ago based on a dream of what it could be, and without the funding to complete a full two years. Since then the program has grown in unforeseen ways, thanks largely to the trust that individuals and groups have put in the interns and the committees that support us. Thanks to Farmington-Scipio, we now have the funds to continue until the end of August 2011.

Another aspect of trust has been on my mind recently. At our last retreat, we had three new attenders. As one mother was dropping off her daughter, an eleven year old who was not Quaker, and did not know any of the youth at the retreat, it struck me: this woman is putting so much trust in me right now, to care for her daughter for a whole weekend. And I know that, when I was eleven, you couldn't have paid me to spend a weekend without anyone I knew in a strange place with new people all talking about a religion I had barely any knowledge of. But here they were. And by the time her mother came to pick her up at the end of the weekend, the girl was telling her that she wished the retreat were a whole week long.

One last trust topic: sourdough. This fall I became interested in sourdough, a process by which (ideally), you can bake using only the yeast that occurs naturally in the air. I'd neglected my sourdough starter for a while, so yesterday I took it out and tried to make bread. When baking, you trust that all of the elements will come together to make what you're trying to make, or at least something edible. I don't fully understand sourdough, but I have to trust that the bread will rise even if I don't understand why. Unfortunately, yesterday, I was cooking on the stove top while the bread was in the oven, and somehow accidentally turned the oven off part way through. The result was a dense, doughy, but still delicious bread that we ate with grape lavender jam from our CSA. I guess I'll try again today. If you want to learn more about sourdough, check out this site.

The only thing to do is to come together and ask “how is God working among us right now?”

Hello all you wonderful beings,

(Friends having a little fellowship time before we started class)

Over the last year and a half I have been blessed to teach two adult religious education classes attended by Friends from Perry City and Ithaca Meetings.

The first class which started in November 2009 was called “The Theological framework for Quaker Traditions and Prophetic Witness,” (nicknamed Quakerism 101 and 202 by those Friends who took it.) This class ran almost every week starting at 9:30 am-10:30 am on Sundays before Meeting at Perry City Meetinghouse, until June 2010.

I then taught “Quakerism and Mystical Traditions: A history of radical theology,” (Quakerism and Mysticism for short) from September 2010 - December 2010. This class was also well attended by Friends from Perry City and Ithaca and met at the same time and place as the class before it.

Both classes where a wonderful experiences for me and I felt blessed to spend time with the Friends who attended.

For 2011 I have felt lead to do something different though. Under the prayerful guidance and support of Perry City Ministry and Counsel I will be offering a series of workshops on spiritual nurture issues.

These workshops will meet at Perry City Meetinghouse at 9:30 am-10:30 am. Some workshops will be single Sunday morning session some might be several consecutive sessions long depending on the need.

A planning session will be held on February 6th at 9:00 am Sunday at Perry City Meetinghouse to solidify the schedule. Workshops should start soon after.

The topics of the workshops will be:

• Meeting For Worship: Deepening the Space
• Fellowship Among Friends: How do We Pray Alone, How Do We Pray Together?
• Fellowship Among Friends: A Community More then One Hour A Week
• Meeting For Worship With A Concern For Business: Deepening the Space
• Greeting The Stranger: Newcomers and Hospitality
• The Many Parts of the Church: Naming of Gifts and the Work of Friends
• How High Is Our Hedge? : Our Quaker Community and Our Secular Communities
• That Still Quiet Voice: Nurturing Vocal Ministry

• Some Quakers Have Pastors: Understanding and Nurturing Community Between Monthly Meetings and Wider Quaker Community

Each workshop will include a brief reading but there will be no required text and no fees. These workshops are designed to be less academic and more prayerful planning sessions where we work together to come up with ways to deepen and nurture our communities around these issues.

For more information about the specifics of each workshops visit my Quaker blog Raised in the Light. If you have any questions feel free to email me at anna.e.obermayer AT gmail.com

Peace and Joy,

A.

Lets Talk About Food!

Hi all you beautiful beings,

As some of you may know out of the four YFIR interns I do the cooking for the youth retreats. For every retreat I plan out a menu, do the food shopping, cook the meals and manage the meal crews. It has been for me on of the best parts of the program. I also cook a lot at Beloved Community House because I love to cook and we eat communal meals together every day.

For the youth program we YFIRs have made the commitment to buy as much local foods as we can, to eat seasonally whenever possible and to buy fair-trade when we can. Every retreat is vegetarian with always a non-dairy or vegan option. We are lucky to live in the Ithaca area where we can get local fruits, veggies, dairy, bread, honey, maple syrup, flour, and soy products. We can get sugar, coffee, tea, and chocolate fair-trade. It only costs a little more money to be much more ethical with our food choices.

At Beloved Community House we also have a commitment to eating and buying local and fair-trade the CSA shares that Friends have donated the money for has allowed this to be possible on our lower income. At Beloved Community House we also eat vegetarian and often vegan.

Some Friends have voiced interest in seeing recipes for some of the delicious food we eat at the YFIR youth retreats and around the Beloved Community House. So on my personal blog I have begun writing down recipes to some of the food that I make. If you want to check it out I hope you enjoy it.

Peace and Joy,

Anna.

December in the Beloved Community House

Hello all! Helen here. It's been a snow-filled December here in Newfield. We recently hosted a Christmas Party for nearby members of our community, and enjoyed listening to Christmas Carols, making paper snowflakes, drinking hot cider and eating tasty treats.
We've been battling the cold with delicious food made from fruits and veggies from our Community Supported Agriculture Share. We recently experimented with crepes (which are harder to make than my mom made them look) topped with peaches and blueberries from our winter fruit share, which provides us with frozen fruit, apples, and cider every other week. Special thanks to Purchase Meeting for funding our winter vegetable CSA share. We are well supplied with root vegetables, squash, and even broccoli!
Our next retreat is this weekend, an AVP workshop led by Jens Braun. It will be a great experience for our attenders, as well as us - I've never done AVP, and so I'll be learning along with our youth.
Three new exciting additions have been made to our household this month. We have a beautiful tree, decorated with homemade ornaments. Thanks to a kind donation to our house, we were able to buy a new vacuum cleaner (it's light-weight, specially made for households with pets, has a five year warranty, and it's purple!), as well as a large white board. On the white board, we have an outline of things happening in the upcoming week, as well as individual to-do lists. It feels good to cross things off of the list that I've accomplished, and having it there for everyone in the house to see makes sure that I am held accountable for the responsibilities I've taken on.We wish you all a Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Thank you all for your support in 2010.

Winter and Spring Retreats!

Warm Heart, Warm Hands January 7-9, ages 11-14
There are as many was to heal as there are to be hurt. In all cultures around the world there are healers who are known for their abilities to cure and mend. This weekend we’ll explore our own healing powers through many different techniques, such as massage, healing touch, meditation, and energy work.

The Friendly Firebrand: Social Action February 25-27, ages 11-14
Rebellion is a hallmark of adolescence. Challenging authority is also one of things that Quakers are best known for. This weekend we’ll look at examples of people, some of them Friends, who faced great adversity for causes they believed in. We’ll explore different ways to take a stand, in our personal lives and in the larger world, and try to find constructive and positive ways to stand up for ourselves and what we believe in.

Green Eggs and Hamlet March 11-13, ages 14-18
What do Shakespeare and Dr. Seuss have in common? They are both known for inventing words, creative use of language, and storytelling abilities. This weekend we’ll try our hand at all of these things. We’ll look at different forms of poetry and practice poetic writing. We’ll explore different storytelling styles and techniques, and when we can’t find the right words, we’ll make new ones!

Finding the Inner Me March 25-27, ages 11-14
A large part of connecting with others comes from our ability to connect with ourselves. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with messages about who we should want to be, what we should want to look like, and what things we should want to own. These external voices can be so loud that it can be hard to hear the internal voices of our souls. This weekend we’ll talk about ways to turn down the volume of the outward noise and search for avenues into our inner selves...

Thank You for Being a Friend April 15-17, ages 11-14
What makes a good friend? Why is friendship important? How do friendships change as you transition from childhood to adolescence? How do you deepen the friendships you have, and how do you form new ones? How do you say “no” to a friend and how do you know when to let go. We will tackle these questions and more this weekend, as we examine the complicated world of friendship.

He, She, Ze... Me? May 13-15, ages 14-18
Society is constantly telling us what it means to be a man or a woman, and what forms of sexuality are healthy or unacceptable. This pressure is often felt most keenly at adolescence, when we are going through the physical transformation from child to adult, and are beginning to explore our sexuality. This weekend we’ll examine some of the assumptions and stereotypes about gender and sexuality and discuss some of the safe and healthy ways we can explore our identities.

Creating Your Way June 10-12, ages 11-14
There are endless forms of creative expression, and many ways to express yourself within each form. Some like to sing in choirs, some in karaoke bars, and others in the shower. Haiku, limericks and sonnets are all very different, and are all poetry. This weekend, we’ll explore as many ways to express our creativity as we can. We hope that you’ll come prepared to share your favorite ways, but also to try new ones. So bring your instruments, your journals, your scrapbooks, your dancing shoes, and anything else you might need, because we are going to have some fun!

To Register email us (at yfirinterns@gmail.com) and we'll send you a printable registration form OR pick up a copy of our new beautiful blue brochure and check inside for a hard copy of the form.
Mail in your registrations to:
The Beloved Community House
599 Trumbulls Corners Rd.
Newfield, NY
14867

Recent Travels of the Young Friends in Residence

Hello all!

Anna facilitated her first retreat a few weeks ago, "What Makes You Come Alive?" I (Helen) wasn't there for it, but from what I hear they had some great discussions about shared spiritual practices, and they each got to make a super cute t-shirt with depictions of what makes them come alive.

Franklin and I were not at that retreat because we were in the Hoosier State for a Young Adult Friends Consultation on creating a cross-branch inter-visitation program. Surprisingly enough, no one made an acronym for that. What would it be? YAFCOCACIP? That has a certain ring to it, I guess. Anyway, we drove all the way to FUM headquarters in Richmond Indiana, and had a great weekend talking with other Young Adult Friends about what intervisitation means to us, what our experiences have been, and what we might like to see in a more structured intervisitation program. There were Young Adults from all over the country, and all different kinds of Quakerism. It seemed like people had a lot of ideas, and I'm hopeful for where it may go in the future. Special thanks to Emily Stewart and Wess Daniels for planning and facilitating the consultation, and to the Quaker Hill Retreat Center for hosting us. Also, to the residents of Miller Farm, Thornburg House, and the Darby ladies of Brick City for giving Franklin and me a place to stay!

A few days after we got back from Indiana, we all found our way to Flushing, Queens for NYYM Fall Sessions. Natalie worked with the children's program in the morning on Saturday and Franklin hung out with the teen group all weekend. We all had the opportunity in the afternoon session on Saturday to present to the body. The weekend was challenging in many ways for us and for others involved in our program, but we were very grateful for the vocal support from many of those present, and to have the opportunity to share about our experiences with the group. So many people took the time to share, both with the group and with us personally, how much they appreciated the work that we are doing. It means a lot to us to know that we have your support.

We are all looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with our respective families, but will be back soon to prepare for our December retreat. We're really excited for this one! It's an Alternatives to Violence Program weekend for ages 11-18, led by Jens Braun on December 17th-19th. Hurry and register your child, this one is filling up!

Fall Updates!

Hi, everyone!We have been having a wonderful fall here at Beloved Community House. Our house now full with four interns, we have been working hard to strengthen our community. A favorite way of doing this is through sharing food. We have dinners together almost every night, and sometimes spontaneous pancake breakfasts. Recently, we've been coming up with creative ways to eat the massive amounts of butternut squash we receive from our local CSA. So far we've had curried red lentil and butternut soup, squash pie, squash bread, and squash pancakes.

Last week we attacked the task of preparing our garden for the winter. Natalie, our garden-guru, spearheaded this effort, and helped us think about what we want our garden to look like next year.Franklin works on clearing and turning over beds.

Natalie and Anna put up a branch that we can grow vines on next year.

This Halloween, the Young Friends, plus f/Friend Aaron Lindop, got dressed up together and went out on the town. There was a lot of hubbub as we all ran around getting ready - Franklin carefully trimming his beard, Anna borrowing pants and a neck tie, and Natalie and Helen spending more time on (and putting more product in) their hair than they care to admit.Franklin and Aaron

Helen, Natalie, and Anna