Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #4

Hello! Here is yet another update from the Young Neighbors adventure that Orin finds himself on this week. It sounds like they're doing very well and having some great experiences in our nation's Capitol. Here are some of the highlights from Thursday:

This picture was taken on the drive to one of the work sites. This location is called the International House of Prayer. Anyone want to guess what it used to be called?



Apparently some body art and t-shirt making broke out at Peace Camp:




One of the work groups helped to clear brush at a house being looked after by Mary House, one of the work sites for the week:



At the Community for Creative Non-Violence or CCNV, participants watch a video on the history of the organization. Apparently, CCNV's headquarters used to house naval offices before the Pentagon was built:


As we've mentioned before, Orin is serving as the Prayer and Music Coordinator this week. This picture shows teens working to plan one of the prayer services:


One of the nights of Young Neighbors is typically focused on learning about a different culture or two. On Thursday night, the participants ate an El Salvadorian meal and took part in a Brazilian-African drumming and dancing demonstration:

Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #3

Hello Everybody!

The last few days have been busy ones for Orin and the Young Neighbors crew in DC. If you aren't sure what we're talking about, please check out the last few blog posts.

If you've been with us all week...here we go!

Here is one of the groups pulling weeds at the Community for Creative Non-Violence:



Another group took part in a "Peace Hike" at Peace Camp:



Zak, one of the participants, had a birthday on Tuesday. Here is Zak holding the birthday cake that he (other folks at his work site) was encouraged to toss back and forth at increasing distances:


I believe this is the throwing of the cake:


A sign at Mary House, one of the work sites:


At Mary House, the work team was kept busy by making vases out of recyclables:


These pictures are of the Community Food Game, one of the processes Young Neighbors uses to show the difficulty of some members of society to obtain a healthy meal. The activity, originally developed by the Atlanta Community Food Bank, helps young people see the real impact that lack of income, transportation, and exploitation have on the problem of hunger:






These pictures show YNIA participants and staff from UCAP (United Communities Against Poverty) preparing for a nature hike:





On the nature hike, Orin spotted a moth with a cross on its back:



Participants at the CCNV clean out a large food pantry in preparation for an inspection:


At Peace Camp, participants process the morning over lunch with M.J., the Camp Director:



On Wednesday evening, the whole Young Neighbors group attended Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, ate a quick dinner, and headed down to the National Mall. After touring many of our national monuments, the group settled at the Lincoln Memorial for the evening prayer service. The Lincoln Memorial picture shown below is not of the prayer service itself :

Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #2

Monday at Young Neighbors in Action was pretty busy for Orin. During each week of YNIA, Monday is typically the day when the parish groups make their way to their work sites for the first time. Usually the three staff members, the Site Coordinator, the Program Director, and The Prayer and Music Coordinator, drive around to the various work sites to learn about the service being done and offer support for the parish groups. Here are some highlights from Monday:

This picture was taken at St. Anthony's, the host site for their Young Neighbors week. Orin's note to me was that this was 'indeed a long fence'. Good thing they labeled it:

This is artwork being done at United Communities Against Poverty, Inc. or UCAP, one of the work sites for the week:

This is the Orin we know:

A pledge posted at UCAP:

The next two pictures are of work being done at one of the service locations that supports poor immigrant families:




The Community for Creative Non-Violence, another work site:


This is something called the "Peace Machine" being done at something called 'Peace Camp' (stop me if you're tired of all the detail.):



Since there are no shower facilities at St. Anthony's, the whole group has to travel to St. Anselm High School each day for a shower. This is an interesting corpus Orin found one one of the walls there:

Each night of Young Neighbors, the participants learn various aspects of their faith and Church teaching where it pertains to justice and service. On Monday night, they learned the different principles of Catholic Social Teaching. Here are some of the posters created during that process:

Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #1

Hey Everyone! Orin arrived safely in Washington DC on Saturday to begin a week as the Prayer and Music Coordinator for Young Neighbors in Action (YNIA). As he mentioned in a previous post, all the parish groups and staff are staying at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.

This church has a great location as it it just two blocks from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception:

Young Neighbors draws high school students from all over the United States. The teens travel in and stay with their parish groups all week long. This pictures was taken as the teens were arriving and getting settled on Sunday afternoon:

In Orin's role as the Prayer and Music Coordinator, he'll be responsible for directing the prayer, involving the teens in prayer, and setting the prayer environment. The picture below shows the prayer table being prepared for the the theme of the week, "Salt and Light":

Please keep Orin, as well as all the teens and staff, in your prayers as they spend the week serving God's people and growing in faith.

Orin, YNIA DC

Hi all,

This is Orin, writing from Washington DC on my phone... Young Neighbors in Action (youngneighbors.org) is about to begin later today, and I'll again be the prayer and music person.

I won't be able to post as many pictures as last year - I didn't bring my laptop, and there's no wi-fi near here anway. We're at St. Anthony's, very near the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. I'll try maybe to email some pics to Shannon along the way.

Please keep us all in prayer this week!

This here is funny

Joe Cocker at Woodstock (1969), closed-captioned...

Thanks to Orin's wife and our friend Corinne for the lead...

Ask, and ye shall receive

Since Shannon asked...

Anyone else care to try?

A few more YSP prayer pics

Hi all, Orin here. I survived! Whee. It was a great week all around. Here are a few more pics of prayer, swiped from participant Jarrod's facebook profile.  I know they may not mean so much out of context, but trust me, all these moments were prayerful and pretty darn cool.

The cross, toward the end of Taize Monday night prayer, Kings House Chapel.

What had been a series of dots/stepping stones transformed Saturday morning into a music staff and the melody to "The Servant Song" (Kings House again)

The large mobius strip awaiting signing (Shrine, Christ the King Chapel)

The mobius strip, mostly signed

Go Cards!

For those of you who care about baseball, you might have noticed that the St. Louis Cardinals, the bestest team in the whole wide world, is currently locked in a tight pennant race with the Chicago Cubs.  I realize it's still early in the season, but there really isn't a bad time to rally support for the hometown boys.

If the Cubs fail to win the World Series this fall, it will officially be 100 years since the last time they won.  That's pretty amazing.  I wonder if Edna Parker remembers that?

To help the cause, please enjoy a re-presentation of The Cubs Song (with non-related Old Irish Blessing):