"Community is not opposed to conflict. On the contrary, community is precisely that place where an arena for creative conflict is protected by the compassionate fabric of human caring itself.
If you ask what holds community together, what makes this capacity for relatedness possible, the only honest answer I can give brings me to that dangerous realm called the spiritual. The only answer I can give is that what makes community possible is love."
from Community, Conflict, and Ways of Knowing by Parker Palmer |
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WHO WILL THEY BE?
The Johnson Intern Program is accepting applications for the 2010-2011 program year!
Our second application round ended March 29 and interviews are being scheduled.
The final application deadline is April 26.
Applications can be found at Episcopal Service Corps.
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Family Violence Prevention of Orange County
I work at the Family Violence Prevention Centerin Chapel Hill, the domestic violence agency serving the people of Orange County in both English and Spanish. We have a 24-hr. hotline and serve walk-in clients, so survivors can reach us at any time if they need help, information, or just someone to listen. We also assist victims who wish to obtain a DVPO (domestic violence protective order) and we accompany them to court in Hillsborough. We hold support groups for survivors, and for children who have witnessed abuse- as well as provide childcare during these support groups. Some clients are currently in abusive relationships, some have left their abusive relationship. We run volunteer trainings for men and women college-aged to grandparents who want to volunteer as trained hotline advocates or community educators.
My job is a little bit of everything, but a lot of what I do involves preparing for and visiting high school students to talk to them about the prevalence of relationship violence, and ways to prevent it. I believe in achieving prevention through education. I believe one more teenager who knows about the realities of relationship violence gets us one step closer to the end of domestic violence.
Ellie Stonecash | |
In the News
Amey Adkins, 2005-2006 alumna, has been accepted into the Duke University PhD Christian Theology program with a fellowship. Amey is the first African American female to be accepted into the program.
Our second-year intern, Will Owen, has accepted the Presidential Scholarship to attend Union Theological Seminary. He'll be leaving us at the end of July to move to New York.
Jesse Osmun, 2007-2008 alumni, is serving a two year tour of service in the Peace Corps. He is working in Kwuzulu Natal in Greytown, South Africa. His site is Umlovi Aides Center where he focuses on programming and empowerment. Jesse is sharing his journey on his blog.
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LEADERSHIP AND STAFF
Watson A. Bowes, Jr.
Jim Crow
Jill Edens
Ernest Kraybill
Lawrence (Larry) Logan
Katie Thompson
Leona Paschal Whichard
Marian S. "Chick" White
Andrew Dobelstein
Mary Chase
Pat McCarthy
Vincent Kopp
Marty Rogers
Amey Victoria Adkins
Susan Gladin, Exec. Director
Ebeth Scott-Sinclair, Assoc. Director
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The Johnson Intern Program blends social ministry, intellectual inquiry, and intentional community into a year that enables young adults to explore their spiritual life within the context of servant-leadership.
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Your Support is Appreciated!
Donate Today
919-929-2193 www.johnsoninternship.org
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK!
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Image by Karen Porter, 07- 08 JIP Alumna
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Spirit, Interns, Community by Rev. Susannah Smith, JIP Chaplain
It has been my personal pleasure for the past two years to serve as the Chaplain to the Johnson Interns. This extraordinary gift has given me the opportunity to be part of the Interns' lives as they seek to form intentional community. I share with you some of my thoughts and observations about this process of community-building as I have seen it at work among our Interns.
In August on Day One of the JIP each new Intern meets seven strangers with whom he or she will live over the next eleven months in an environment of close living arrangements, diverse values and backgrounds, differing needs for affection, and one common goal - to build a community grounded in respect for their individual differences and in a level of trust that allows a special communion to develop among them. Actually, they all come from intentional communities - their families - but, since it is rare to think of our families as the most intentional community in which we live, some Interns may come with a yearning to participate in an ideal community that may be more cohesive than what they experience in their families.
On Day One the Interns are excited about this new adventure and about getting to know each other. They are probably wondering how they will mesh as a group. Their first encounter with the realities of living together comes very soon as they have to make decisions about how to set up their household. They begin to ask each other questions like: What food will we eat on our budget ($800 a month)? What chores need to be done and who will do them? When will we have community time together for devotions and meals? How will we be accountable to each other when expectations aren't met? These decisions, and many more, become the early conversations of the Interns which will continue over the next months and which, one conversation at a time, will help move them from being acquaintances to being friends linked in a common endeavor of living as servant leaders to each other as well as to others.
So how does this household evolve into true community? From my observation the answer to that question depends on the willingness of the Interns to venture beyond their concerns about not stepping on anyone's toes into a place where they open themselves to each other as people with personal quirks, differing attitudes, anxiety-producing concerns, and things that make them occasionally cranky ("Would you please turn down the music!"). It's like peeling off the thick leaves of an artichoke until its soft inner heart, so protected by the prickly leaves, is revealed. This peeling process for the Interns happens one conversation at a time, one day at a time, with each conversation making possible the opening up of one's true heart to another or to the whole group.
From this adventure into the deeper realms of relationship can come the mysterious formation of true community in which the Interns share not only the household tasks but also their common humanity in very authentic ways. Since in the long run the coming together of true community is the combined effort of the Spirit and the Interns, patience and watchfulness are good virtues for the Interns to cultivate. Like most miracles, there will be an "Aha" moment, a moment when the group recognizes that, because of the love and care they share for each other, they have become the community for which they yearned on Day One of the program.
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Dear Christy An Advice Column with Spirit
Q. As someone who's been there, what do you think are the keys to creating an enriching community experience and what do you see as the mistakes that prevent creating an enriching community?"
A. Living in community doesn't necessarily make our lives easier - in fact, it often showed me how difficult it is. Before I moved to North Carolina to begin JIP, I loved the idea of community - Living with and for others, sharing our lives and resources in ways that were loving, interdependent, and countercultural. I guess what I didn't factor in to my expectations was that I would be living in community with other human beings.
We are bound to disappoint, hurt, or annoy each other at times, often without knowing it. Community isn't a solution to our loneliness or failures. We are broken people before we join a community and we will leave as broken people. It didn't take me long to realize that no one lives in community with others because it's pragmatic, or because it's going to be easier and more fun than living alone. I pursue community because I want to be faithful to God's calling. And I need to be rooted and grounded in this faithfulness when the "honeymoon" is over, when I'm past idealism and deep into a reality that is a lot more hard work than I first thought. Yes, living in community is about doing life together - pray together, eat together, play outside together, build a home together - and doing all of these things in the faithful pursuit of the community that God calls us to.
Remember that the mark of authentic community is not the absence of conflict or difficulties but the presence of a reconciling Spirit. Community is about getting real and getting honest with one another- and resisting the tendency to pull away when that vulnerability starts to make you nervous. In all of our messy humanness, no one has their act all together. Be okay with that - both in yourself and in others. Community grows in the simplest acts: preparing meals and eating them together, telling your own story and listening to the stories of others, laughing together, grieving together, and just sitting in the awkward silence when there are no words to be said. When I really got down to the messy, weird work of daily life in community, I realized how radical it really is - in a world that glorifies the individual, I was trying to live with and for others. In a world that is terrified to be uncool, I was trying to let all the parts of myself be seen by other people. I can't say that I came out of my experience of living in community as a "better" person. But I did come out of it as a transformed person.
As a follower of Jesus, I see my faith as being all about relationships - healing, life-giving, and heart-transforming relationships. No matter what your community looks like, I encourage you to seek opportunities to go deep in your relationships with others, to suffer and celebrate in solidarity with your brothers and sisters.
Dear Christy is Christy Strickland, a JIP 08-09 alumna and College Chaplain Intern at Pres House in Madison, WI. |
 Bloom Where You are Planted
"BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED," the placard in my high school Spanish classroom read, and it is a phrase my teacher (now mentor and friend) still shares with me today. It has been a very challenging and useful phrase for me, especially this year here in North Carolina. How do we bloom where we're planted? How do we let our past experiences continue to change us, while simultaneously tackle the present moment, allow our hearts to expand to embrace a new place, new people, and new work?
During my time on the border last year, I became very close with a family who were survivors of domestic violence. I wanted to carry a piece of them with me, and to learn more about this epidemic that had impacted so deeply and permanently the family I love. Working at the Family Violence Prevention Centerhas allowed me to do just that. Not only have I learned so much about the alarming prevalence of domestic violence in our country and in our world, I have been educated by an unfathomable strength that exists among the many clients we serve, a strength which many deem to be unattainable.
I have been welcomed, challenged, and supported by an unbelievably selfless, life-giving staff that is highly and diversely educated, exceptionally motivated, and most genuine in their thoughts, actions, and words. Working alongside them has thus far been a true blessing, and provided a great learning environment in which I can aspire to blooming where I'm planted! Happy Spring! | |
 Life in the JIP
(Abigail originally wrote the following article about her day to day life as an intern for the 2008 End of Year program)
Eight random kids/adults (we don't know what yet to call ourselves) from all walks of life. MTV's The Real World but a little more "holy." That's what we call it. Three bedrooms upstairs, five bedrooms downstairs. The loud, monster-sounding plumbing coming from the water pipes every time someone flushes the toilet or takes a shower. The bent lamp in the corner that we decided to give a second chance. The music coming from the TV speakers. The awesome memories we have already made and will continue to make. A sense of anxiety yet a sense of a quiet peace simultaneously. The small one-on-ones and the big group discussions about faith, religion, spirituality, and the ups and downs of life. The congregating in someone's room just to watch a funny YouTube video and laugh hysterically at someone else's stories from the past. All here to do the same thing - all here to serve and find that connection, the human connection. All here to discern and learn. All here to find that sense of home and knowing where you want to be and who you want to be.
When asked after the first month of the Johnson Intern Program what the program was all about, the words above comprise my response. These words continue to echo; however, in reality, the Johnson Intern Program is more than this journal entry can begin to describe. Ultimately, the heart of the program comes down to one essential aspect: community. The only to describe this sense of community is to vicariously live in the shoes of a "JIPster" for one single day. So here it goes...
Jesse is usually the first to wake up since he has to catch the bus to go to the Seymour Center at the crack of dawn. I get up to see Karen in the kitchen boiling her hard-boiled eggs and all I can hear is the calming music coming from her bedroom and Katie's shower running. It's too early to really talk to each other...just a cordial "good morning," "Have a good day," and "See you tonight" and then off to work!
Our work placements are rather scattered throughout Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Morrisville; rarely a day passes that we don't contact each other in some form or another. Emails are constantly sent concerning house meetings, grocery lists, upcoming events, and most importantly the dinner plan for the given night. Who is cooking and what are they cooking? Will it be cheese enchiladas, turkey and dressing, sweet potato casserole, or a Kenyan peanut soup? It always tends to be a surprise!
As I walk through the door after a long day at work and a workout session, I immediately am greeted with smiles and maybe a hug, which is totally dependent on how sweaty I am after the gym. I am asked about my day and in turn hear all the stories from everyone's work place. These stories may be funny or sad and told with either laughter or tears, but we all listen regardless. Then comes my favorite part of the day - we hang out downstairs and just "be" with one another, talking, laughing, sharing, and awaiting the dinner bell. The bell (or yell) sounds and we all fly upstairs. The food is scarfed down, the dishes are washed, and everyone prepares for the evening activity. This can be anything from worship to playing Nintendo, to watching a movie, to working on Praxis, or to going out for 25 cent beers at the infamous "Deep End." Whatever is in store for us for the evening, we are mostly together when it happens. Everyone is included and if someone cannot make it, we know why. There is accountability, there is community, and there is support.
Saying goodnight in the JIP house is literally like the end of a Walton's episode. We are a family in every sense of the word. We get tired of each other, we argue about food, we have small fights, but we do love each other. I am not just saying this because I should for the sake of this article. It is the truth and if anything, the Johnson Intern Program, in its entirety, has only further instilled in us this love of one another and the rest of humanity.
Abigail Lee is a 07-08 alumna and currently in nursing school at Duke University. |
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