The whole group!Top row: Sarah, Molly, Father Carsten, Kelly, Shannon & Billy
Bottom row: Stephanie, Lee & Rory
Check out some of our student reflections:
Over winter break I had the opportunity to take a trip to
To be completely honest, I wasn’t too excited about the trip in the weeks leading up to the actual week we were to go to the Farm… and that’s probably even an understatement. I’ve always taken part in a lot of community service and volunteer work since I was young, but for the most part I did so in my own community or right here on campus. Also, I won’t deny that I am the definition of a homebody, so the idea of leaving home a week before break was over was a little nerve wracking for me. I like to be in my comfort zone and going to a place eight hours away, a place where there is no internet or cell phone service, a place where you take bucket showers outside and sleep in bunks was pretty far outside my comfort zone.
But I went anyways. For some reason I can’t explain, I got in the van that morning and went to
Well, it turned out to not just be a good experience… but a great one. If I were to tell you that it was anything less than life changing, I wouldn’t be doing it justice.
When I was told about Naz Farm prior to going, and even for the first day or two I was actually at the farm, I thought it was simple: I thought we were their to fix houses and help some neighbors of Nazareth Farm. I thought that was it. I thought I was there to help these people. And yes, I’m sure that the insulation we installed under houses and the porches we built or repaired were very much appreciated by the home owners we met. But in the end, I think that my overall experience at the farm helped me so much more. I went to
I think that sometimes, life can be difficult. Things can happen that we can’t quite understand. It’s hard to remain optimistic in a world where violence seems prevalent and peace seems absent. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the bad and forget to recognize the good that is still all around.
For me it was my uncle. My Uncle Mike passed away from cancer and a lot of the time it feels like it happened just yesterday but it’s really been six years. Why anyone would have to suffer or have to leave his family and kids… I just didn’t understand it. And that inability to accept what had happened changed me. Things like that just stick with you.
I really think that’s a lot of the reason God brought me to Nazareth Farm. I thought I was going to help others, I’m convinced God put me there because he knew I needed it. I have never felt so strongly that I was in the right place at the exact right time as I did when I was at the Farm.
The week we were at the Farm, we were there with 3 other groups of college students… kids from Iona, Colgate and the University of Illinois were there also. One night during the week we were having a discussion about where we had witnessed or experienced God in our week. It didn’t take me long to know where I had seen God, I had seen him in every person I had had the opportunity to meet during my time in West Virginia, mostly through the community members I had met and the fellow volunteers I was blessed to work with.
Nazareth Farm has this awesome atmosphere about the place that allows individuals to open up and to share. Some of the volunteers, who I had just met, told me about things they had gone through in their own lives; people they had lost, things they had struggled with. And even through the difficult times, these young adults were able to take their experiences, as difficult as they had been, but still turn around and have the courage and the faith to go out into the world, remain positive, and help others in the name of God.
Then there were the community members I met. After work on Tuesday we went around and picked up some of Naz Farm’s neighbors and brought them back to the Farm for this big community dinner. It gave us a chance to really meet the people we were helping. This one elderly man who had come to the dinner spent the whole night having pretty much the same conversation with every one of us: he was telling us about how blessed he was and how grateful he was to God for his life and for everything he has.
Here was a man, Grover, who probably by many people’s standards has nothing: he lives in a small home, by himself, without many possessions, and yet he praises God every day for everything that he does have. He possessed this deep and undying faith in God, even in the face of difficulty.
And it wasn’t just Grover, it was every community member I met. I was struck by them… to me they had very little and were faced with economic struggles but they still had such a strong faith in God and relied on that faith to continue on. I learned something from that. To me, I really feel that God brought me to that Farm that week so that I could meet every single one of those community members and every single one of the other college students who were volunteering there because He was in each and every one of them.
All theses people showed me that even after hardships and difficulties… life can go on. But the key to continuing on is a belief in God and dedication to faith. Everyone I met taught me that things happen, things you might not be able to accept for some time or ever completely understand but we need to recognize the good in the bad: be thankful for the things we did have or do have like the time we were able to have with a loved one who might now be gone or our good health or the great family and friends we have that see us through every day.
I learned all this at the farm, which is why I am so grateful that I went. It took me 20 years to really “get it” but I guess better late than never.
I think that in a lot of ways, what I experienced at the Farm was similar to what Paul experienced in our first reading. Paul was struck down by God and God showed himself to Paul, forcing him to question his life and his actions. God allowed Paul to regain his sight when he saw God and God encouraged him to then go forth as his witness spreading news of what he had seen and heard.
Like Paul, I also experienced God. I experienced Him through all the people I met at Nazareth Farm. He allowed me to regain my sight in that he blessed me with a new outlook on life. After my trip to the farm, I feel enlightened. I was shown by God that he has filled my life with blessings and that I need to take the time to appreciate every one of them. Because of the people I met, and because I know I was brought to Nazareth Farm for a specific reason, I have come back ready to share my experiences with you and others; sharing, like Paul, what I have seen and heard in an attempt to change someone else’s outlook as the people in West Virginia have changed mine.
Like I said, I was one of seven students from our community that took the trip to Nazareth Farm and I’m sure we all had different experiences so the best I could do is share with you my story. But even though we all may have experienced God in different ways at the Farm, I know that we were all changed by it for the better. So I encourage all of you to ask any of us about our time at the Farm, because we’d love to share, but also to consider spending a week at the Farm next time we organize a trip down because I can promise it would be worth it.
-Shannon Archer is a Junior Integrated Marketing Communications Major at Ithaca College
There are a ton of photos from this awesome trip!
Lee's pics
Stef's pics
Billy's pics
