Calvary to El Salvador Blog
From October 10-17, Calvary members will head to El Salvador to partner with our sister church, Shalom Baptist Church in work and also to learn about the culture, people and political climate of the country. Follow along here at the Calvary to El Salvador blog before they go and while they are gone to keep up to date!
Mission Trip Fundraiser at Chick-fil-a!
Monday, September 14
Join us for Chick-fil-A Spirit Night to raise money for our 
mission trip to El Salvador in October. Pick up a coupon in Woodward Hall following worship, then Monday, September 14, dine at the Chick-fil-A in downtown Silver Spring, MD (Metro-accessible!).
ECHODC pictures…
ECHO DC
Each year, members from a dozen or more churches—for a week at a time—come to DC, stay at our church, and serve in our city’s homeless shelters and minister to the disadvantaged. For these persons, the trip to DC constitutes a “mission trip.” But in my discussions with them throughout each week, we always seem to find a way to ask the question: What exactly do we mean by “mission” anyway? More often than not, the discussion hovers somewhere around “taking God’s love to the neglected, the cynic, and the unlovable.” And, of course, there’s always that one sage in the group who speaks up and says, “You don’t have to go on a trip to do that.”
EXACTLY!
Going to a far off land for a mission trip is an essential part of forming our understanding of God and the world, but sometimes we mistakenly fail to separate “mission” from “trip.”
This February, you will have a chance to participate in mission right here in our own city in an effort we’re calling Echo DC. Throughout the week of February 1 thru 6, you will have opportunities to serve, to get to know, and to take God’s love to our neighbors who are less fortunate. Some of these opportunities may mean that you take half of one of your workdays and spend the morning at Food and Friends, or skip your nightly workout in order to deliver food. Each day will have different projects in which to take part, and I invite you to consider how God is calling you to participate.
In accordance with our Epiphany, theme Answer the Call, please reflect on the call in your own life with respect to our community. Remember God’s call is for everyone—it is always deeply personal for each individual, and it always includes others. As you hear God’s call in your life, we invite you to echo back that call with your service to God and others—and participate in Echo DC.
Sign up sheets will be located in the main office. For more information, check Calvary’s website or email me (Eric Bebber) at ebebber@thefellowship.info.
A Post from Calvary Member, Julia Nelson who is working in Colombia in a peace community:
A Communal Survival: The Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, Colombia
Julia Nelson, November 2008
Throughout the past six months that I have now been living in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, I have come to understand the meaning of community in a new way. While community to many means the physical neighbors surrounding one’s home, or perhaps signifies the group of close loved ones involved in one’s celebrations and hardships, to the peasant farmers (campesinos) living in San Jose de Apartado, the word community expresses all of this, and so much more. From sharing life to experiencing death and everything else in between, these individuals have done it all, and have made it through it all, together. As the newest members have just been born in the community, at the same time other members have recently been displaced from their homes in the community. While the beautiful young lives are being brought into a Peace Community of such strength and dignity, the older members are continuously being threatened by the surrounding forces of violence and injustice.
Yet, there is no place in the world that can compare to living amidst these campesinos of the Peace Community in the middle of a conflict zone. And of all my different experiences being a part of a variety of communities, my time with this Peace Community has served to transform my own expectations, values and understanding of the depths of hope, perseverance and strength of a community.
As my thoughts are constantly filled with the situation of the Colombian conflict, the physical security of these campesinos and the political work of FOR, I look around and realize that while these community members themselves are likewise contemplating these same concerns, the Peace Community does not subsist solely focusing on their means for survival. Of course each individual carries the burden of supporting the family and of upholding the community’s principles, yet the value of the lives of the campesinos does not rest merely in the fact that they have been able to overcome and to persist despite all odds and regardless of all those who may threaten their existence. Their true value and the deeper meaning of this Peace Community lies in the fact that these campesinos not only continue to struggle for peaceful neutrality within a war zone that does not allow for a lack of allegiance to one group, but also that they demand to live with both respect and joy.
There are constant concerns within the community about new threats and injustices against its members attempting to destroy their lives; however, the reality is that this anxiety alone has the power to deteriorate life if one is not aware of and prepared for its presence. And thus it is in this conscientiousness that the community finds it greatest strength: unifying against all imminent threats from the surrounding forces that try to tear it apart. But here also lies the most vulnerable weakness, in that the community must rely on each individual to take an outward stance against the inevitable injustices by making such a strong commitment to the cultivation of peace. Because each member of the Peace Community must contribute to its endurance in order to maintain each one’s own survival, the significance of each member is heightened. By intertwining various factors of loyalty and subsistence, ones life becomes just as dependent on the community as the community is dependent on the individuals. Therefore, the support must be mutual. If the community is not willing to reach out to the weaker members, then someone or something else will. And if this happens, then the results can be grave for everyone in the group.
This is precisely why the community will gather together in the face of their enemies at times in order to resist the outside forces that desire to penetrate into the community. A few months ago, the humanitarian aid extension of the state decided to come to LU to host a meeting in the village’s school. This organization called Accion Social (AS) has begun working in the zone in order to demonstrate their support for this war torn region. However, the Peace Community is neither ignorant of the state’s actual intentions to establish its presence within the community, nor is it willing to collaborate with the state which has been behind so many atrocities committed against the community. Therefore on this day of the proposed AS meeting, the community leaders called together their members for a sit-in at the school in order to prevent any official meeting of the state to take place. The community was infuriated that the state believed that it did not need permission to enter into the community when in reality the Inter-American Court as well as the Colombian Constitutional Court have both recognized that the rules and parameters of the Peace Community, including the right to deny access to the community by all actors in the conflict, must be respected by all entities, even the state itself. For about an hour, the community members were in a test of wills with the men from AS to see who would concede first. One community leader repeatedly told AS how the Peace Community, how these campesinos had been living and working in this area for eleven years and were by no means going to relinquish their space now or leave in the face of the state. Eventually, AS decided to pack up and leave the community, after which the community promptly put a lock on the door of the school building to prevent any further attempts of intruding. Whether it was the insistence of the community leader or the strength in numbers of the community members, the Peace Community was yet again able to peacefully hold its ground.
Despite these moments of seemingly minimal achievements, each community member is nevertheless at all times vulnerable to the temptations of those who would want to harm the community; therefore the community must look after their own. And these risks only become heightened when there is an absence of support. A sick man physically cannot work to feed his family of five kids and a pregnant wife, so therefore must look to other options to find that provision. Not only does everyone within the community know what is going on all the time amongst their neighbors, but also the hidden onlookers scattered throughout the hillsides are constantly aware of the status of the community, watching and waiting for possible openings for intrusion. A hopelessly poor campesino embodies the ideal target for a bribe in exchange for sending provisions to the rebels or for providing false testimony against the community to the state. These armed actors patiently await such golden opportunities when a community member may fall along the fringes, becoming inevitably susceptible to desperate measures.
Yet the Peace Community is altogether very familiar with these dynamics and is all too dependent on the value of the members to neglect to support fellow campesinos. It is this consistent physical and emotional outreach to each member that reinforces both the strength and the lifespan of the community.
And this is where I find the greatest significance of the community: in the worth of each individual member that causes these emotional relationships and their physical existence to mean life itself.
For more stories and reflections, visit www.anddeepincolombia.blogspot.com.
Help the Homeless Walk, Coming Up- Saturday, November 22
This year’s walk for the homeless will be held on November 22. Contrary to your Calvary Caller’s article, registration is FREE. Meet at the church at 8am, and we will walk down to the National Mall together for the 5k walk. Contact Eric for details.
Julia Nelson in Colombia
Follow along with Julia and she recounts her experiences in the Colombia countryside as she works for peace: http://www.anddeepincolombia.blogspot.com/
Sojourners “Vote Out Poverty” Event
Salima writes to the Calvary family from Malawi where she is currently serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer:
Dear Calvary Family,
I write to you on my first day as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. After two months of training (and one blessedly brief ceremony), I have started my service at the Katchale Health Center about 40 kilometers south of the capital. My village is beautiful and my house has a banana tree! All in all it seems like a good place to spend two years. Now comes the hard part-figuring out what to do. Still throughout this process, I’ve felt 
God take the lead and perhaps more than another time in my life, allowed myself just to follow. Thus far, it’s worked out pretty well. Please keep me in your prayers as you are all in mine.
Pax et amor,
Salima
Shalom Scholarship Dinner a Success!
Last Sunday Calvary held its 10th annual Shalom Scholarship Dinner to raise funds for a scholarship that 
supports Baptist students in El Salvador. The idea started as a Girl Scout project headed by Laura Blythe Goodman (left).
We had a large crowd that enjoyed delicious food prepared (for the 10th year in a row!) by Roberto Reyes, Calvary member and a chef at Proof! Together we raised over $3000 for the scholarship fund and kicked off planning for our congregational trip to El Salvador the first week in February.
Continue your support of the Shalom Scholarship fund by picking up some Fair Trade coffee (our own Shalom Scholarship Blend) during coffee hour or by calling the church office. You can donate to the find online, too.
Look for ways to get involved in mission trip planning starting this Sunday, with a Bake Sale during coffee hour run by the youth!
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