During the workshop, we will explore how we can live out the Friends Testimonies through service, witnessing, and forming and building relationships within the group and within the larger community through service work.
My main expectation for the week is to have the participants be fully engaged in the service project and with the community where we will be serving. To be fully engaged means being respectful of the community where we work and each other and willing to be flexible throughout the week, because sometimes our greatest service can be just to listen. I hope that the group will form a community among us, so we can work together more efficiently and be more open to sharing and learning new skills throughout the service project.
Each day, we will have time for worship. On the first day, I will have a longer introduction about the workcamp tradition and the service project that we will undertake during the week. On the last day, I will leave time for a longer reflection about the week.
The rest of the time will be focused on the act of carrying out a service project within walking distance of the Bowling Green State University Campus that will be determined in Spring of 2010 and structured around the needs of the local community.
At least two weeks prior to the Gathering, I will send out to registered participants: information about the specific project, a detailed list of stuff to bring, and possible readings about the organization(s) where we will be working during the week. Participants, at least, should expect to bring clothes that can get very dirty and/or paint on them.
The focus of workshop will not be how much we can accomplish during the week at the service project but about the relationships formed during the week, learning about the community of Bowling Green, and practicing the act of witnessing that can happen during a workcamp project.
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