EPYC: nonviolence for the next generation…

Here is a link to the latest “EPYC grassroots news” the newsletter for “Empowering Peacemakers in Your Community”. EPYC creates spaces were young people can explore for themselves the inseparable links between the message of Jesus and; ecology, nonviolence, beauty, transformative justice and spirituality.

“During Harmony week I ran workshops with nearly 700 students at four schools (Canning Vale Community Collage, North Albany High, Albany High and Mt. Barker High, oh… and a youth group) over 3 days (I nearly lost my voice). After workshops there are always students that want to talk and find out more but at one school I was mobbed by a group, some with tears in their eyes, that all wanted hugs! Thanks to the mighty ‘high five’ I was about to make appropriate connection with the kids but never before has there been such strong emotional responses. And wonderful that they felt safe enough to ask for that. Here is one email that EPYC received after a workshop (keep in mind the student would have had to do a lot of research on the net to find an email for EPYC):

“Today you presented a seminar at my school. Thank you. I have felt rather terribly lately, I had no idea what was wrong, I felt that my life hadn’t a meaning, study go to uni get a job, what would I achieve? You allowed me to catch a glimpse of a whole new world that I hadn’t even thought existed. I now have food for thought and am really thinking about what I want from life.Thank you for the opportunity.”

And another;

“A man came to my school and changed my life. He talked about things in a way that I found so enlightening that I had to know more. He said things that I was afraid to say and he saw life… so amazingly different to anyone around me. He told us at the end of a very short seminar that this stuff he was talking about could ruin our plans, turn our lives upside down. I never thought it would, but it has, and all I can say is thankyou.”

And not just from students!

I had some wonderful responses from teachers too. A big burly Social Studies teacher nearly shook my arm off after queuing up with students to talk after a workshop. Another teacher at North Albany High came up in tears saying that she’d found the workshop so inspiring and wanted to use some of the things I’d been talking about in her class. I asked what she taught, “Maths!”, she replied!! I laughed and said that’s fantastic.

She then asked for all the statistics about poverty, military expenditure, the destruction of creation, the amount of advertising youth are exposed to, Australia’s ecological footprint, what Nike pay their workers in Indonesia and other statistics I quote in my workshops. She’s going to use them to teach maths that has a purpose and can be a tool for changing the world! I’ll be honest, it’s not an area that I thought of redeeming but how fantastic that this teacher had been moved to. (I think I would have done better at Maths if I had a teacher like her.) Some of her students are now calculating their own ecological footprints.”

For the update in full with prayer points and details about John Dear’s visit and Erin Adson click here