First Letter from Jonah House to my home church, Shalom United Church of Christ
Friday, September 10, 2004
Dear Friends --
I will not be returning to the Tri-Cities this year and will be away for a least another year. My new home place will be Jonah House which is located in Baltimore at the following address.
1301 Moreland Ave
Baltimore , MD 21216
410.233.6238 (house)
509.430.3450 (mobile)
Many apologies if this is information that you have already heard. I have been in transit with much on my mind and I have forgotten who I have told. I have also changed computers and have lost many saved “send” messages in the transfer process.
My year at the Church of the Savior in Washington DC ended in mid-August and I arrived in Baltimore last week. The interim time was spent vacationing and visiting my mom and siblings in Southern Maryland . The vacation was a brief visit to the Atlantic Ocean but the family visit was extended and allowed for much good connecting time that was difficult from Washington State .
My plans are to live a Jonah House about a year. I liked my time in DC and considered the offer to continue to work full time in affordable housing arena at Jubilee Housing. However, my journey into "peace and justice" work was stronger and Jonah House, who have been engaged in these issues since the 1970's (noted as a home base for Philip Berrigan and many others over the years), was very welcoming to me. I was especially attracted not only by their honesty and courage in active peacemaking but also by their deep grounding in a faith that honors and gives life to all people and the earth.
Some my experiences of the Discipleship Year Program at the Church of the Savior that move me along the “peace and justice” path follow the threefold purpose of the DY program which were:
-to learn by deepening faith
-to serve by seeking justice
-to live in community
My greatest faith learning was to spend time with the men of who were graduates of the 12- Step Alcoholic Anonymous Program. I met them in and around the Church of the Savior; and they taught me with great gentleness the importance of being honest with your life, of having the courage to change the parts that don't work, and of being humble enough to ask others for help. I do not have life threatening addictions such as drug/alcohol but I do have smaller ones that are very persistent and just as difficult move away from.
Working at Jubilee Housing was very good place for me to explore the practice of justice. Jubilee Housing is a ministry founded in 1973 to provide affordable housing for people with very the low-incomes in the Adams Morgan area. Jubilee, which takes its name from the Biblical “Year of Jubilee” (Leviticus 25), is a corrective to the concentration of wealth. Jubilee Housing like it namesake attempts to share its resources by inviting the people on the margins to a place to live to stabilize, grow, and more on to a fuller life. People on the margins have much to teach about what is important in life. I was impressed on how personal relationships was so critical and treasured by the residents. This seem especially true when many other parts of their lives were not going well. I was reminded how parts of all of us on the margins and we all need support that can only come from knowing another person well.
To live in community was the most surprising gift of this year. I did not come to DC to seek community. I have parented five children and I was looking for my personal space in this part of life. However, I found that community can be a rich experience. I especially found that community was important when you live and work with the marginalized. I found that community served for me as a container that supported me when I was overwhelmed with the hard lives of many people whom I served. The sharing of the vulnerable parts of ourselves allows for trust to build so that the best parts of ourselves can emerge and create a space that is greater then any of us could have creative by ourselves. I will long remember the great sharing and conversations that we had during the year.
I will write more about Jonah House as my life unfolds here. You have the same open invitation to visit me here as you did in DC.
Shalom,
-- Mike