April 12th, Wednesday morning, at 3:45 am my alarm went off telling me it was time to start gathering my things and moving towards the airport. My housemates and I shuffled around in the dark, placing our bags in the van, double-checking that we had everything we would need for a week in southern Michigan at Camp Friedenswald (shorts, t-shirts and sandals as well as our winter coats).
Our travel day went smoothly and after meeting up with the Alamosa VS unit at O’Hare airport, we were picked up by Mennonite Mission Network staff member, Travis, who drove a van full of 6 volunteers to camp. We arrived at camp around 9:30 pm that same night to “new” faces from San Francisco and Chicago (people we’d only interacted with on Zoom in October) and dinner (vegan ziti). And our weekend of connection, reflection, and relaxation began.
Since Camp is so close to Goshen, I was able to spend some time with Gretta and my family, including church on Sunday at Silverwood and El Camino for lunch (Sunday traditions that my housemates got to experience, as well). While there were some moments of worlds colliding, I’m grateful for the time I had with my family and that I could share my hometown with my housemates.
Retreat at Camp was a space for lots of storytelling, in both formal and informal ways. Coming into this weekend I was nervous that we wouldn’t gel as a larger group of volunteers because we hadn’t spent much time together, but by the time we were trickling out of the hotel in Chicago, we shared a wonderful collection of jokes, games, experiences, and desire to stay in contact for the rest of our terms and beyond. It helps that even though our experiences are unique, we have many shared experiences. Volunteering for a year is uncommon in our culture and how we share that layered experience with others is important. People will be able to connect with different aspects of our experience based on their experience with service.
We ended our time together in Chicago, enjoying deep dish pizza, the Bean, and other Windy City sights.
In one of our reflection sessions we thought about what we’ll take from this year and what we want to leave behind. It was much easier for me to think about what I wanted to take from this year than leave behind. I want to take a strong sense of hospitality and practice it in new ways. I want to take comfort with biking and using public transit and apply that to Ann Arbor next year. I want to take menu planning and be conscious about where my food and water come from. The things I want to leave behind feel more like things that I’m pressured by society to leave behind or that I am growing away from. Specifically, if I’m going to live in the world I need an income, so I’ll be leaving behind full-time volunteering and reliance on the church to provide what I need.
This weekend I also got to reconnect with friends at Goshen College, attending the Earthtones concert on Saturday evening and then worshiping with Parables at Silverwood Mennonite Church on Sunday morning. I miss being up there with you all but you sound great and it was so wonderful to experience your musical gifts! Who knows, in a couple years, maybe I’ll be reading some of your blogs and coming to visit your VS unit.
Finally, perhaps the most important update: the Van Gogh puzzle was finished last week before we left Tucson! This has been a long time coming and was a very satisfying accomplishment.
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