UPS & DOWNS, September 1999

WAYFARERS' HOUSE NEWS

Welcome to Yvette; Donna, Crystal, Donavan, Ashley and Nashon.Farewell and good wishes to Kathy, Janine, Sharon, Mary and Autumn; Boe, Sebastian and Trinity; April and Daulton. Happy September Birthdays to night monitor Kathy and also to new resident Donna!

BOAT TRIP
Residents of Wayfarers' recently enjoyed a boat trip on the Chesapeake. Our U & D reporter for that event was engaged in these past two weeks in having a baby and in moving into a new apartment, so we had to go to press without her article. "Stay tuned;" we plan to print it in our October issue.

Meeting Ground Volunteers recently had a supper session at Mazza's home with Renie Newman providing a program on co-dependency in human relationships, an "unhelpful trap" into which many people in helping roles fall. Our thanks to Renie.

Correction: Our apologies for misspelling May Yokoyama's name in our August issue.

Welcome to our youngest resident, Trinity, born on September 12, 1999, and weighing 5 pounds, 6 ounces. She is the sister of Sebastian and daughter of Bertha (Boe).

Many thanks to Natalie and Boe for agreeing to work on UPS AND DOWNS. "Gracias" to all those women who worked on cleaning Wayfarers' this month. We are also delighted with the new curtains in the downstairs. 107 Delaware Avenue received lots of compliments for its good looks from those coming through the front door. We also noticed a helpful someone doing house laundry, too.

Heaps of thanks, to May for our new lawn mower, to Renie for our new storm door and to Erik for installing it.

WILLING TO LOVE
by Natalie Davis
I heard a story told the other day of an Australian shepherd checking his flock. As he drove his jeep towards a hill he saw a hawk diving repeatedly. He knew what was happening and quickly drove over the hill to see a ewe lying on the ground. He could not understand why she hadn't run away and hidden as the other sheep had. He could see she still held her head up trying to keep the hawk away. Just as he stopped his jeep next to her, she lay down her head and died. The hawk flew away. As the shepherd picked her bloody body up to put her in the trunk, he again wondered, "Why hadn't she run for safety?" Then he saw why -- a little lamb was lying on the ground. The mother of the lamb knew it could not have kept up with her as the hawk attacked them. She willingly gave her life to save her defenseless baby lamb.

I believe there are many mothers today throughout the world who would gladly lay down their lives to protect their child from the "hawk" of alcohol abuse, drug abuse and gambling. A mother's love is very willing and deep indeed.

PARENTING AND COMMUNICATING
Would you like to join us for the Wednesday evening Parenting and Communicating Group in the office at Wayfarers' House, 6:30-7:30? The principles we are all trying to master in that group apply not only to child rearing, but to all human communication, all our relationships. And it takes lots and lots of practice to improve the ways we interact with each other, so the more of us practicing better communicating during the week, the better. That way we are helping each other. And children we are with benefit so much by learning these ways early in their lives. We hope you will join us Wednesday.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION
On October 1 and 2 we will be hosting a retreat for all Meeting Ground workers and the DELTA staff in Wildwood. We will use this time to address needs on both our parts -- DELTA to explore our means of fostering "community" (at MG) and for us to learn about the specific kind of "program" they have developed for educational pursuits. (Taken from an article in Loaves and Fishes, Sept./Oct. '99) by Marsha Mazza.

DELTA is a housing community in Harrisburg, PA, that focuses on the educational needs of residents who are in need of upgrading their skills in order to function in the community in work at a level that will sustain them and their families. Housing is provided to these residents while they are part of the program.

Meeting Ground has had as its primary objective to provide housing for the homeless, but both DELTA and MG are finding that both housing and education are needed. The two organizations are in conversation in order to explore how these two functions might best be met by their groups. This is another "stay tuned" message.

GROUPS

Mon., 2-4 p.m. Dr. Aaron sees patients at the House  6 p.m. Bible Study
Tue., 10 a.m. Art Group  9 p.m. House Meeting
Wed., 6:30 p.m. Parenting/Communicating
Sun., 4 p.m. Chapel at the Farm (transportation at 3:15)   5 p.m. Dinner

A GUESS WHO
Did you guess our mystery resident from last month's issue? Natalie was the nurse who was a patient at Chester Medical Center in Pennsylvania at one time, graduated from Wilmington General Hospital (Wilmington, DE), also nursed in Elkton, MD, who loves children and enjoys nature.

This month's mystery person: What resident used to drive Cal Ripken (a big name in baseball, in case that isn't your sport) to baseball practice?