Peace

A Big Thanks to Mac McKinney for sending this in to me.

Happy New Year everybody!

A True Tale of How Angels Came to Congo This Christmas Season

By: Georgianne Nienaber

And so it came to pass that the Angel, Hope, received three children to light, to guard, to love and guide for almost eighty years. You see, there are many more people on Earth than there are angels to watch over them, so sometimes the angels are asked to protect more than one. Hope's duties would require her to keep watch over children in Nebraska, Chicago and the deepest regions of Congo--and from the way Hope saw things, time did not stretch from Point A to Point B. Everything happened all at once, and the actions of people, both good and bad, kept repeating. Only the angels know this, and they often discuss among themselves that if people only knew that time did not march on, but forever marched in place, that then they would truly understand what love was all about and how absolutely necessary it is.

Hope's job in Congo was not more difficult than it was in Nebraska or Chicago, even though on the surface it would seem that Congo presented the greater challenge. On the grand scale, the physical suffering of hundreds of millions of people under brutal rulers-- exploitation that is truly hell on earth--is certainly greater than the relatively occasional murders and injustices in the Heartland of the United States. But Hope's job was to watch over the souls and minds of her three assignments. If she could guard them with great care, their spirits would forever march in harmony with Time. Hope was no more responsible for the terrible things that people did to one another than God was, but people always seemed to blame God and bad angels for their own doing. Helen from Nebraska, Annie from Chicago, and Domitile from Congo would be under the protection of Hope's great wings from the time they struggled into the world, and only Hope understood how their lives were in tune with each other and with Time.

Helen was born in Nebraska and lived with two brothers and two sisters in a big white frame house. Life in the rural Heartland revolved around the seasons, a close-knit family, and a special love Helen had for God. Faith and religion were the centerpieces of her idyllic existence, and this resulted in what Helen felt was a "calling" to the Catholic sisterhood. Helen watched the sisters who taught her and felt that their lives held a special interest and mystery. The sisters always appeared to be joyful and happy. God seemed close and near, but what Helen could not know was that her life and her soul would soon be in great danger. Not too long after Helen decided to join the convent, she became a stranger to herself and it was only through the warmth of Hope's wings warming her freezing heart that Helen was able to overcome suicidal thoughts. Helen experienced the dark days of the soul that poets and saints know so well. She had given her life to God, and God had seemingly abandoned her, but Helen had Hope and she rededicated herself to service in God's grace.

And so one day Helen found herself teaching at a large high school for girls in Chicago, and Annie was one of her young journalism students. Annie's life was tough from the beginning. Abandoned spiritually by a mother with special mental challenges, Annie had no comprehension of the love strong family ties could offer. But Annie, also, had Hope. In fact, her Granny had given her a locket with a picture of an angel with great wings that stood guard over a young girl who was crossing a dangerous bridge. The brass casing still has tooth marks on it, and no one knew that Annie kept the locket hidden in the breast pocket of her school uniform. It felt good to have that part of Granny with her and the image of the angel was Hope, of course, and Hope had led Annie to Sister Helen's literature and journalism classes. Helen taught Annie all about the basics of journalism, recognized that Annie had a raw talent for writing, and so made Annie Editor of Page Two of the student newspaper. Helen taught Annie the intricacies of photography and often featured Annie's work. Annie found a place and family and encouragement that she never dreamed possible and began to think of Sister Helen's classes as Home. Helen taught Annie that the pen was mightier than the sword and helped her student to develop the beginnings of a strong sword arm that has served her well through the years.

Image: Inside Annie's Locket

What Annie never knew until many years later was that Helen would sit in her room at the convent she shared with forty other sisters and weep as she struggled to get lessons prepared and papers corrected by the ten p.m. curfew. Her jobs as moderator of the school yearbook and newspaper, senior homeroom, journalism and religion classes were simply too much. In later years, Helen would tell Annie that the years of depression, self doubt and thoughts of suicide provided insights that helped her understand hurting and suffering people in her ministry; a ministry, and Hope of course, which eventually led Helen to live and work with the poor of Appalachia who had migrated to Chicago in the sixties and seventies.

There was a very good reason that Helen and Annie shared Hope. Both would live out their youth and middle age plagued with self-doubt, and Annie would be betrayed late in life by someone she loved and trusted, just as Helen once felt betrayed by God. The incident would lead to the same suicidal thoughts Helen once experienced, but the soul is given only the burdens it can bear. Luckily, Annie had Helen as well as Hope, and when Annie called Helen in desperation after returning from Congo one day--feeling broken, bitter and betrayed-- she told Helen that where she once saw light, she could only see black, and this frightened her deeply. Helen told her that she would learn a depth of compassion from these events that she never dreamed possible. And so it came to pass that Helen's life lessons saved Annie, and the skills she taught Annie enabled Annie to write with passion and conviction about the people in Congo who had lost everything.

And then it happened that Hope led Annie to know four gentle songwriters who became her friends. One day, they were driving together on a country road in the Heartland discussing what they could do to bring Hope to the women of Congo who were being brutalized by war. Hope put the idea into their heads that they could offer the women of Congo music and words that proved there were women on the far side of the world who shared compassion for their suffering. Annie and her songwriter friends realized they had an almost impossible job, but Hope encouraged them to press on. Soon, other singers from around the world offered to help them, but they were really angels in disguise. They had no awareness that they were angels, but sometimes that is just the way it works. The singer-angels would soon form a heavenly choir, but no one knew this would happen, since only Time could reveal their power.

The angels Neko, Eliza, Susan, Irma, Sonia, Karen, Theresa, Sarah, Caroline, Karen, Claire, Kim, Mary, Dede, Janet and Leilani offered their songs and poems. Their Hope was that Annie and her friends would bring their words to the women of Congo. Annie, Sonia, Caroline, Susan, and Mary thought they were very clever to name the women "Congo's Angels," but it was really Hope, of course, who was behind it all.

While all of this planning was going on, Domitile was living in the city of Goma in Congo. Her special calling was that of a midwife, and on most days it was only Hope that encouraged her to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Domitile witnessed levels of violence and cruelty to women that most people cannot imagine. Hope used her wings to support Domitile when she carried the raped and wounded women she found suffering in the forests to safety and help. These were the same wings that protected Helen and Annie. Sometimes the women that Domitile bore on her back died, and Hope would escort the souls of the abandoned and brutalized to heaven. Of course, Domitile had no idea that Hope's great wings were protecting her, but as her horrible burdens would pass into the spiritual realm, she would feel a great weight lifted from her shoulders. Domitile also had Hope, and Hope was a powerful ally.

Then something truly amazing and wonderful happened in Congo. Domitile was feeling especially frustrated and abandoned and she wrote the words on paper because her thoughts were so overwhelming. The sexual violence and brutality made her feel alone and all around her she could see only black. One especially dark day, Domitile was in the city of Goma and heard music coming from the tiny station, Radio Television Communautaire Tayna, RTCT. The sound of the music saved her from the blackness and provided a huge relief. It was the songs of the Congo's Angels, and it made her realize that there were other women who understood what was happening--women who would stand in solidarity with her against the rape and killing as she carried her lovely burdens along the lava roads in Kivu. Domitile wrote that she knew then and there that that through song and words, millions of people would learn about the atrocities taking place in Congo and condemn them.

And so it came to pass during Christmas 2009 that the music of Congo's Angels filled the heavens above eastern Congo. And there were midwives living out in the fields and refugee camps nearby, keeping watch over the babies at night. And Congo's Angels sang to them, and the glory of Hope sounded around them. And the angels sang to them, "Do not be afraid. We are with you and we love you."

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Special thanks to midwife Domitile Posho Mbili, Sister Helen Gourlay, BVM (Whatever Happened to the Good Sisters? ), Sonia Tetlow, Caroline Herring, Susan Cowsill, Congo's Angels, and Hope--for watching over us all.

The Jerusalem International YMCA-the Child Shall be Father to the Man

By Mac McKinney


We have just celebrated the Birthday of the Prince of Peace, so it would be appropriate to take a look at what an organization strongly dedicated to Christian values is doing in Jerusalem, the Holy City of Judaism during Christ's birth, as well as becoming a Holy City to Christians and Moslems later. Just as a small child came to teach humanity back then of a better way, some very small children can teach us a better way now.

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On September 21, 2007, a global event took place that many of us were not aware of: the sixth annual United Nations International Day of Peace, voted upon and approved in the Fall of 2001 and first celebrated internationally in 2002. In its 2001 resolution, the United Nations declared “that the International Day of Peace shall henceforth be observed as a day of global cease-fire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and peoples to honour a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day…”

Prior to this global and permanent Peace Day being designated, the UN did have a prior incarnation of a peace day dating to 1981, but this was a “floating holiday” of sorts that coincided with the opening of the UN General Assembly in late September, and which had no formal cease-fire declaration. An English actor named Jeremy Gilley, aware of the weakness of this earlier day of peace, launched himself on an amazing odyssey in 1999, one lasting well over a year, that took him around the world to meet with thousands of dignitaries and ordinary people, both in and out of war zones, in an effort to build support for a new Peace Day resolution, which was finally achieved in 2001. Since the September 21st event was inaugurated, millions of people have gotten involved in its celebration.

I was part of a local Virginia celebration of Peace Day this year, and we ended up registering with several international organizations that help to promote this day globally, 1) Jeremy Gilley’s Peace One Day; 2) the International Day of Peace (IDP), in particular its “Vigil” section, which creates webspace for groups to register and promote themselves, as well as communicate with each other; and in like vein, 3) an organization called WiserEarth, which not only registers groups for Peace Day activities, but for peace and justice activities in general. So, now linked to the body politic of the September 21st peace activities, we would eventually begin receiving emails of other organizations’ activities.

When I got home that evening and checked my email, I was already starting to get postings through the IDP Vigil network from around the world, everywhere from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Fiji Islands, to Malaysia and even from climbers who unfurled a huge peace banner on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The Jerusalem International YMCA

I also received an email from Jerusalem, this divided city that has served as a historical center of worship for three great faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In this torn and troubled city, and region, a remarkable social experiment is taking place. The adult leaders on this planet seem to have run out of viable ideas on how to build lasting peace in the Holy Land (how ironic an image), preferring to remain entrenched in enmity, posturing and intrigues. Even the recent Annapolis Peace Conference seemed tainted with the scent of Machiavellianism. So we are now at the point where, it seems, the child must be father to the man.

I have been a member of one YMCA or another off and on through the years. When I was a kid I was a member of the Central YMCA in San Francisco, and, although I was from a card-carrying WASP family with all of their classic prejudices and airs, I found myself, at the Y, being thrown into the sea of humanity, because my fellow kids were of every which persuasion, our counselors and instructors were often Filipino and Hawaiian, and any sort of nationality, child or adult, might walk through the door. I remember, in particular, this old Russian weight-lifter, who although he was so stiff from old age that he could only shuffle around the weight room, could still bench press 500 pounds in between his intriguing tales of life in Russia.

So the YMCA, with its many branches throughout the world, can be a great gathering point for humanity, a great leveler of prejudices and stereotypes, indeed a great unifier when its members work out and team up or compete with each other. Perhaps we should inundate Palestine, Lebanon and Israel with YMCAs instead of the artifacts of war.

The Jerusalem International YMCA Peace Preschool, which consists of 135 Arab, Jewish and Christian children from the ages of 1 to 5 years old sent an email with a Peace Day poster with both photos of the kids and peace salutations and blessings in English, Hebrew and Arabic. This is the social experiment, or, social future, I am talking about, because this is not at all a laboratory test, but rather a realization of our shared humanity.

The social goal of the preschool, as Adena Levine, the director puts it, is to “facilitate coexistence between Arabs and Jews on a daily, ongoing basis, as a normal part of life for children and their families” and to “expose the children to the Other and to the Other’s culture, language and religion, enabling the development of tolerance and understanding, while preserving the distinct characteristics of each child and its cultural identity. This is not modeled after a melting pot, but rather after coexistence of diversities.”



















Christian, Jewish and Moslem Preschoolers at the Jerusalem YMCA. (Note that this and all of the following photos were taken by Adena and her staff.)

The Preschool was founded in 1981 with the central goal of developing “children intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically, in the tradition of the YMCA ideals of balanced spirit, mind, and body.” This translates into learning together, playing together, exercising together, and sharing each other's cultural treasures. For example:



















Two swim buddies



















Group photo at the pool.



















In the pool

To quote Adena further: “In each class- there are two teachers, one Jew, and one Arab, each speaking their own mother tongue. Stories are told alternately in Arabic and Hebrew, songs are sung in both languages, puppet shows are performed with ‘bilingual’ puppets etc. As a result, the children are exposed to both the Hebrew and Arabic language."













Celebrating Peace Day at the Y













More Peace Day Activities


















On a field trip harvesting olives

“All religious festivals and holidays of the three faiths are celebrated together with the children from the mixed classes. The emphasis is placed on strengthening each child’s religious identity while at the same time understanding the significance of the other holidays. In December we had (and will have this year too!) a ‘Three Holiday Party’ for all kids and parents (Hanukkah, Christmas and Id El Adha)"















the school's Hanukkah/Id el Adha parties















At the Hanukkah/Id el Adha parties-now the adults are playing too















Adults and kids in the YMCA breaking through cultural boundaries.



















Celebrating Christmas



















Families are also involved with the Christmas Party

So this is the bottom line at the YMCA Preschool, to develop mutual understanding, acceptance and respect for each other, including each other’s culture, music and art. Once you are experiencing each other’s music, in particular, you are truly beginning to dissolve the boundaries between you as you share each other’s melodies, rhythms and vibrations.

You can see, looking at the photos, that things are flowing along smoothly, as well they should be in a naturally tolerant and loving environment, and even, as you can also see, the adults are getting into the act. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 18:1-5: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven... ".

This Preschool is what the Path of Peace and Love looks like up close, quite a contrast to the Path of Fear, Violence and Coercion, which benighted national leaders have deluded themselves into thinking can solve the divisions and hatreds of humanity. What is the other adage one hears as one reaches adulthood? Ahh, yes: “It’s time to grow up now and sell out”, sell out your integrity that is. But oh, what a twisted web that weaves, when now we practice to deceive, to paraphrase another timeless adage.

Yet the Buddha taught us the simple truth, millennia ago, that hatred cannot vanquish hatred; only love can vanquish hatred. Jesus taught as much when he implored us to love our enemies and forgive and forgive "Not seven times, but seventy times seven times!

"When are we going to take these teachings to heart in a serious way? So until we adults wise up, the child must be the father to the man.



















With love, The Kids, Staff, Adena and Pazit the dog from the Jerusalem YMCA

If you want to contact Adena, by the way, here is her contact info:

Adena Levine
Peace Preschool Director
Jerusalem International YMCA
26 King David Street
Jerusalem, Israel
Tel: +(972)2-5692681
E-mail: adena@ymca.org.il

Since we all laugh in the same language…