Hello, Goodbye
Perhaps the most interesting work has been in helping Sanders and other members of the “Peace Action Team,” which is really an entity independent of Koinonia and includes such members of the broader community as Matt, the local Mennonite pastor, and John, the director of Prison and Jail Project. The main effort of PAT has been focused on getting the local high school to comply with federal regulations concerning personal student information and military recruiter access. The “No Child Left Behind” Act stipulates that schools must turn over contact information for students upon request – that includes everything from home phone numbers to class schedules. However, another government act stipulates that schools must inform parents of this access and provide the opportunity to opt out should they or their children want their information to remain private. Most parents are probably not aware of the level of access and most schools are probably not aware that they are required to present the choice to parents. The Americus-Sumter Country High School certainly wasn't aware. Sanders met with the principal, a 16-year military veteran, who immediately decided to put “opt out” forms in the student handbook and who has been very willing to make clear to parents and students their right to privacy. We are thankful that the principal has not responded with grumbling or resistance. We were also invited to have a presence at the school's open house and hand out information about recruiters in schools and privacy rights. Long after I leave Koinonia, meanwhile, the Peace Action Team will expand its work through offering a peace scholarship to students, holding military recruiters accountable in their work (like any sales pitch, recruitment materials don't tell the whole story), and encouraging students to explore alternative options to military service if they (quite rightly) are hesitant about being trained to kill.
But of course all work and no play makes Chris a very dull boy. Movie viewings remain the number one leisure activity of choice, and several of us have become addicted to a BBC miniseries adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel “Bleak House.” The final set of episodes from Netflix is supposed to arrive in the next couple of days so that we can complete our Victorian adventure before Beth and I depart. But we have also celebrated life together in more exuberant ways, like Jo's birthday party last week in which we dressed up, hobnobbed in very classy style...and then danced to reggae music!
Emotionally and spiritually, the parallel processes of saying hello and goodbye have become increasingly significant. After a summer apart Kelly and I worked through the joyous difficulty of reconnecting when she visited me at Koinonia last week. This coming Friday I will have the privilege of officiating the wedding of one of my college friends, Jared. For a few short days the LC gang will run through the complete cycle from hello to goodbye – or at least to “see you later” until the next wedding brings us together. But before I can get to Atlanta this weekend I must say goodbye to the life I have known this summer – the trees, the heat, the work, the people. I can already feel myself moving away – I guess something in me helps me to make gradual shifts so that I'm not caught off guard when it all comes to an end. But I don't quite know just yet what Koinonia will mean to me as I leave this place and after I'm looking back through time and distance. But I know that it has been good to be here, and surely God has readied the steps where my foot will tread next.
Labels: Koinonia
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