Discipline, Challenge, and Grace

The following is a reflection written by Krista Peterson, one of this year's Little Village Volunteers.

Today I find myself starting anew, but starting anew with discipline. It is eight o'clock in the morning and I am sitting in a church pew with over four hundred students, all under the age of fifteen. A crowd of blue shirts and dresses, dark hair, wheat brown skin, backpacks and lunch boxes fills every pew. When they sing it is done with sleepy affection. They know the words to every song much better than I. They are Catholic in a way I never will be - the cradle kind. And in this place, a tiny church in a tiny village in one of the largest cities in the world, I have found something.

Thousands of miles away from my own childhood church and school, I have found home. I close my eyes and remember to take a breath. Remember to calm myself. Almost pinch myself to see if its real. Two months ago I was not a teacher. Two months ago attending any eight a.m. mass was absurd, let alone on a weekday. Two months ago I kept my faith well-hidden. Two months ago I stood at the doorway to something unknown, and I placed my conflicted heart into the hands of God. My whole heart. I prayed that the beauty of that single act would impress upon Him how much I needed to grow.

The discipline this year requires is the real challenge - facing myself constantly and with grace. Placing myself and my needs at the mercy of others before I have an opportunity to second-guess myself. The discipline of being a role model - to children and to my outer world. Discipline is exhausting, but it is a marathon, not a sprint.

As I walk out this morning, amidst the hundreds of reverent students, I suddenly feel the rewards. Every child knows my name because I teach them all. The sidewalk, once empty, is now filled with waves and shouts. They know my name! I hold the door open and bow my head humbly. If Jesus could call our names himself, it would sound like this.

2011-2012 Application is now Online!

Hello friends,

Our application for the 2011-2012 Program Year is now available for download! We accept applications on a rolling basis and will be conducting in-person interviews starting in December.

Early Deadline: February 1, 2011

Final Deadline: April 1, 2011 (or until the program is full)

Download the the Volunteer Application

Check out our Brochure!

Peace,

Ryan Lents

Program and Recruitment Coordinator

rlents@amatehouse.org

I'm in Chicago

The following is a reflection written by Crysta Sulaiman, one of this year's South House Volunteers.

I’m in Chicago. I’m living in Chicago.

I’ve been here for nearly two months, but sometimes I’m still in awe and disbelief that I am, in fact, living in Chicago. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t lived in a big city before. I’m from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, a big, giant sprawl of city and suburbs. But these past few weeks, I’ve come to appreciate the fact that I am, indeed, living in Chicago, and loving it.

There are plenty of things to do and see around the city: festivals, fairs, museums, parks and concerts. Whenever I’m at home during the weekends, I always feel like I shouldn’t be. I feel like I should always be out and about, taking advantage of all that Chicago has to offer, especially before winter sets in. With my housemates, I’ve gone to the German festival, the jazz fest, a few art fairs and heard music at Millennium Park. I called home asking my mom, “Do we have these things back home?! Am I oblivious to what’s going on around Dallas?!” Maybe there are a few of these events going on but as my mom pointed out, “It’s 100 degrees outside over the summer. Maybe it’ll drop down to 90 in the evening. Nobody wants to be outside.” Oooohh yeah...Texas doesn’t have short bouts of high temperatures but days (and I don’t miss it).

I’ve also enjoyed hearing the historical aspects of Chicago, especially from a few of my housemates who’ve lived around the city for a while, but I’ve also come to realize the costs of living in Chicago. It’s not the cheapest place to live and when we’re living on a stipend, the decisions to explore and enjoy the city and to live simply are conflicting.

Despite the negatives of living in a large city (like city traffic), I’m going to enjoy Chicago and all the Chicago things as much as I can while I’m here. As a house, we’ve created a South House bucket list of things we must do before our year is up and I have no doubt that we’ll accomplish it all, including the bazillion visits to Huck Finn Donuts for donut delights.*

*A donut delight consists of your choice of donut with a heaping scoop of ice cream of your choice, topped with whip cream and a cherry and are indeed, quite a delight.

An Easy Transition

The following is a reflection written by Matt Rauh, one of this year's North House Volunteers.

Moving through the transition of graduating from college, to a summer of ‘non-profit’ interning, to Amate orientation, to working in the quasi-real world, has been quite an experience, to say the least. Riding this roller-coaster of emotions, I’ve come to realize that I am in the best possible place to cope with what feels like leaving one world behind and moving into a new world. Maybe it would be better to say finishing one chapter and starting another; the quasi-real world chapter, my Amate chapter.

So far, I have had nothing but the best experience with Amate. The people I live with are amazing. Living in an intentional community has fostered quick, strong relationships that provide incredible support and honesty, and in this transitional period those relationships are vital to maintaining a positive attitude. I have been so happy to be able to lean on my house mates and to provide support for them in return, and I can already tell the relationships within the house will only improve with time. And it doesn’t hurt that everyone I work with at the school next to our house absolutely adores the Amate volunteers. Going to work in such a positive environment really helps buoy my attitude when I come home to my roommates, which only further improves my overall quality of life.

I never would have guessed before coming here, but Amate House and the people and experiences that come with it have been just what I needed during this time in my life. Whether it’s relationship woes, concerns for the future, or simply a hard or draining day at work, I always have my incredible friends to come home to, and for that I am incredibly grateful. I cannot think of a better transitional phase, and am very excited for the rest of my Amate chapter!

Lil Vil

The following is a reflection written by Maeve Raphelson, one of this year's Little Village Volunteers.

To begin my third day of work, I was instructed to meet one of my coworkers at 8:30 by the tamale cart in between Our Lady of Tepeyac Church and our office, which used to be the parish convent. When I told my roommates about this plan, they said “That is so Little Village!” and it was true. Every evening as we gather in our house, we can hear the carts – paleta (popsicle) carts, tamale carts, sno-cone carts. More ubiquitous than the carts, however, are the ice cream trucks. I think when my Amate year is over, I will have lost the ability to fall asleep without listening to “The Entertainer” converted into jingle form. After four weeks of living in Little Village (Lil Vil as some of my roommates like to call it) I have grown to like the carts and trucks. For one thing, cute children tend to gather around them. But more than that, families gather around them. Little Village, for all of its faults, is a family centered neighborhood.

Another place where family-centeredness is very evident is Douglas Park. While this park is technically across the border in North Lawndale, residents of Little Village tend to take over the southern part, the side closer to our house. While most of my time there is spent during my morning runs before work, my favorite time to go there is on the weekends. It is a completely different park on Saturday and Sunday afternoons because families take it over and have picnics or watch local soccer/football/softball/rugby league games on one of the many playing fields. Perhaps it is the typical Midwestern attitude of spending every possible moment outside while it is still warm enough to do so, but these families are always together. In fact, our neighbors throw block parties every other week, barricading the streets from traffic so their kids can ride their bikes anywhere they want and the mariachi bands can take over the street. Not many of my friends can say they have been serenaded by a mariachi band right outside their bedroom window.

While there are many things to love about living in Little Village (can we say $1 tamales at 87¢ pastries?) I think my favorite part is the palpable sense of community. It is so much easier to build up a sense of community in our house when we can see from our dining room the family-run taco stand across the street and the families that barricade streets twice a month so they can have mariachi bands come to their block parties. All our house community has to do is reflect the community we see right outside our house every day. And, we are growing to see ourselves in our neighbors. Last Monday, I had to take a few posters back to work which somehow made my two-block commute seem much longer. But then, I was met by a small school boy who was also carrying poster boards, but they looked bigger than him. We smiled at each other, eying up each other’s posters, and then the walk to work/school was suddenly much shorter because we had seen in each other a kindred spirit.

Orientation Recap

This blog post was written by Mark Piper, one of this year's South House Volunteers.

The beginning seems to be a good place to start – and so let me tell you this tale from its beginning.

Amate House 2010 – 2011 began the weekend of July 31/August 1. The weekend was filled with an ample amount of heat, humidity, and sunshine (an omen for the weather we would have for our two weeks of orientation). As the 34 of us volunteers moved into our new Amate House homes, our orientation began.

Our official schedule was this:

1 - Move In on or before Sunday August 1^st

2 - Partake in the opening BBQ and Liturgy at South House / St. Maurice Church of Blessed Sacrament Parish.

3 - Let the two weeks of orientation begin!

I myself moved into South House on Saturday the 31^st after a 3 hour drive down from Wisconsin with my parents. Of course my welcome to Chicago wouldn’t have been complete without the bumper to bumper traffic on the Kennedy. (Part 1 complete)

My family had to head out of town, but between Saturday and Sunday I had already begun to meet my new housemates; from Jen who greeted me at the door, to Kevin whom I would share the Mother Superior Suite with (never thought I’d inhabit a Mother Superior Suite). We, the 2010-2011 Amate House volunteers, began to walk down the awkward road of salutations, information gathering, and community building. The opening barbeque and liturgy helped keep the awkwardness of “newness” and the “unknown” away and we began in earnest to learn who we will be as Amate House volunteers, what our mission is, and how to build our intentional community. (Part 2 complete)

With move in and the opening ceremony complete, it was now time to orient ourselves to the tenants of Amate house (Faith, Service, Community, Social Justice, and Stewardship) and to begin living in solidarity with those whom we will serve this year.

We did many things in many places during orientation. We talked about and reflected on each tenet. We had time as a whole group (the 34 of us) we had time in our house (South House 12; Little Village 9; and North House 13) and we had time to ourselves (although they kept us pretty busy). We explored the city, and our neighborhoods with scavenger hunts aided by our curiosity. From DePaul to Roosevelt University, Millennium Park to McKinley Park, Irons Oaks to the Cardinal Meyer Center, we spent the better part of orientation learning who we will be living with, how we will live together “simply,” mindful of our modest stipend and more importantly, I think, we examined who we are now, so that by June we can assess who we have become. Oh, and of course there were a few late nights, mostly filled with conversation, card-games, or in the case of South House, watching White-Collar.

At the opening barbeque, one of the founders of Amate House shared with us the story of the program’s ‘patron saint.’ Obviously not officially recognized by the Vatican – at least not yet – her name was Sr. Mary Ellen Nolan RSM. Throughout all of orientation -the talks, writings, readings, reflections, and insights, what has had the deepest resonance with me was what I heard about Sr. Mary Ellen. Furthermore, she exemplifies the service, vision, and dedication to the common good that we hope to embody throughout our year at Amate House. This was our orientation; yet from time spent with the alumni, I know it is only the beginning of what promises to be a wonderful and challenging year.

Beyond Measurable Outcomes

The following is a reflection by Meagan Doty, one of this year's South House Volunteers.

During my year of service at Amate House, I’ve been struck by the opportunities that I’ve had to provide a loving, compassionate presence to my clients at Erie Family Health. At times, simply being present to another can be difficult, especially in a society that so focuses on doing, on action, on accomplishing tasks, on measurable outcomes.

It’s difficult to feel as though you are making a difference when you don’t have any measurable outcomes or you can’t point to some sort of quantifiable or tangible action. But I’ve discovered that standing witness and providing dignity (even when it isn’t measurable) are some of the most human of actions that can be taken. They are often not recognized as important and can often be pushed aside as inaction or passivity.

This year I have been forced to see the difficulty, but also the importance in providing a witness, in providing dignity to another person, and to just sitting. I have tested over 200 individuals for HIV so far this year. That means I have spent over 3000 minutes just sitting. Some doctors in the clinic see such power in being able to give a result on an HIV test. But I feel so helpless with the task. If it’s positive, I can’t cure them and I won’t be with them when they are facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles. If it’s negative, I can’t force them to make healthier and safer choices to protect themselves in the future. All I have are those 15 minutes. A mere blip in the lifespan of a human.

I have the opportunity with each individual I test to treat them with the dignity each person deserves. I have the opportunity to be a calming presence. I have the opportunity to provide them with the love each of us ought to be showing one another all the time. I can provide reassurance in a time filled with panic and dread.

There is Nazan, a 13 year old boy who has already been kicked out of his house by his father because he is gay. He finds warm places to sleep by trading his body for a bed. He came in 3 times before he actually let me draw blood for the test. Although he is negative now, he doesn’t see any alternatives to how he is living.

There is Jorge, a man in his 50’s who broke into tears when I told him his test was negative. He is currently watching his partner die of AIDS and wants nothing more than to die with him.

Then there is Delma, an older woman who has entered into a relationship with a gentleman who is HIV+. Her first question to me during the test was “people say I am crazy for loving him, do you think I am crazy?” When I told her how lucky she was to have found someone whom she loves and is loved by in return and that there is nothing crazy about that, she knelt in prayer, then gave me a hug and thanked me for saying out loud what she knows in her heart.

I am not changing the world, I am not making monumental strides in justice, and I may not be able to change the situations of those I encounter. But I can look them in the eye, I can tell them the truth, I can listen, I can care. This year, although far from ideal, is changing me, in 15 minute increments. Maybe 15 minutes isn’t such a small blip after all.

A Magical Evening

Amate Magic 2010 was a wonderful success! Many thanks to all you who attended, sponsored, donated auction items for, or otherwise supported us! Pictures from the evening are now online, and are accessible by following this link. The log in password is "2010NavyPier1". Enjoy!

Who's got a car to spare?

As many of you are aware, Amate House relies on the generous donations of friends and supporters to keep our program running. While we are always happy to receive financial gifts, we are also appreciative of in-kind donations as well.

With that being said, we're wondering if anyone would have a vehicle that would available for donation. Many of our volunteers rely on Amate House vehicles to get to and from their service site, and we've recently had an unfortunate spat of car troubles that has depleted our fleet significantly.

If you (or anyone you know) would like to make an in-kind, tax-deductible donation of a vehicle, please call Ryan at 773.376.2445 or email him at rlents@amatehouse.org. Thanks!

Peace Be With You

The following is a reflection by Ryan Lents, Program and Recruitment Coordinator.

Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

- John 20:19-23

What fears are present in your life? If you’re anything like me, your fears can be incredibly disabling and limiting. So much of our actions and energies can be spent on protecting ourselves from what we fear. It could be the fear of rejection; fear of failure; the fear of illness or death (ours or someone we love); fear of disappointment; fear about the brokenness of our world. Sometimes it seems the best option is to retreat into our shells – there’s just too much pain and suffering awaiting us.

When we read this past Sunday’s Gospel, this same fear is very much present in the lives of the Apostles. Their friend has been arrested, humiliated, brutally tortured, and killed by the powers that be. This man they had come to know and love, Jesus, had been their great hope and source of guidance, and now he’s dead and gone. It’s easy to understand why they are in hiding in the upper room with the doors locked. It’s easy to understand their fear.

Suddenly, the resurrected Jesus comes and stands in their midst, saying, “Peace be with you.” Can we even imagine the joy the Apostles must have felt in this moment? Perhaps we can. See, Jesus appeared to the Apostles in the upper room on that Easter Sunday, but he also meets each of us today, in the upper rooms of our fearful hearts. It’s an open invitation to enter into a relationship with God. He shows us the wounds in his hands and side. Yes, death and defeat are part of our lives. Yes, the world is broken. Lucky for us, that’s not the end of the story, and fear and death do not have the final word.

And just as the Apostles were called to receive the Holy Spirit and forgive others, so too are we commissioned to break free of our fears and live out that radical form of love that Christ has modeled for us. Reach out to the broken and hardened hearts that are present in our families and communities. Practice mercy and forgiveness, especially during the times that we feel least inclined to do so. Understand it will be a difficult, painful road…we need not look further than the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side. But we are an Easter people, and death and fear will not have the final word.

Peace be with you.