Doorway to the Universe

Doorway to the Universe:

When my wife and I move to Fredericksburg Va. In 2009, we immediately began attending an Episcopal Church that had a terrific outreach program. In due time, we became Episcopalians. In the same time, we began working with the small food pantry in the church. By 2011, my wife and the deacon at the church began studying ways to increase this food pantry to be more serving to the population that was in need. In 2012, St. George’s opened what became known at The Table. This was an open market style food pantry based on what Sara Miles was doing in San Francisco. This past year, the budget for the table was $60,000, mostly paid for by donations and grants, serving the people over 250,000 pounds of fresh produce that year. My wife was just celebrated by our local newspaper, along with the other two women who have spearheaded this.

I quickly realized that this food market was “not my bag.” I first faced this base reality after a near-fatal auto accident in 1985. When I recovered, I returned to college, then began teaching in high school; by the time we moved into Fredericksburg, I was teaching literature and writing in a local community college. Both in high school and in college, the leaders recognized something in me that I did not see at the times. Many of my students were physically and mentally disabled, and when teaching in college, were war veterans with psychological problems. I spent hours working with these students outside of class time. Many are still friends, even though I have now retired. One of my high school students carved a cane in the shape of a Watchung Indian totem. I have used this cane since 1995. It is a reminder to me that the least of these are in fact the most cherished.

I now devote my time as a personal prayer minister and a Stephen Minister, bringing God’s light into the lives of my fellow beings who incorporate the body of Christ. The secrets shared by others in our prayer corner, heard only by the two or three of us and God, are the most wonderful experiences of feeling god within us, growing to the point of healing our minds and relinquishing our fears.

Every time I enter the prayer corner, or sit with a care receiver, my personal issues are reduced to insignificance, and the power of God within both of us bring us a sense of calm, a sense of the future of our lives as living representatives of the body of Christ. The brothers and sister who share these experiences bring us both to understanding that we are in fact God’s creations, just as much as Jesus is God’s creation. We are connect to Jesus Christ because we also are God’s children, worthy of al that God’s Grace gives.