On Mondays and Fridays I hop on a bus, then a train, and take a short walk to get to Peachey Place Living Skills Centre, a branch of Lutheran Community Care located in Davoren Park, South Australia. Lutheran Community Care is similar to Lutheran Services in America, (Lutheran Services in Iowa, Lutheran Social Services, etc.). Peachey Place has many different programs and services offered to the community throughout the week including financial counseling, literacy assistance, cooking classes, gardening, and a tool library. One truly special aspect of Peachey Place is the whole backyard of the lot is a huge garden and the food that is grown and maintained by the community is used in the cooking classes and community meals. My role is to just build relationships with the people that come through the front door, specifically during the community meals. It has been so easy because even though I have only spent two days at Peachey Place, I already feel so welcomed into the community.
Each Monday one of the community members holds an Indian cooking class which I was SO excited for because Indian food is one of my newfound loves. This Monday morning I walked in ready to get to cooking and I asked the instructor how I could help. She pointed me to the cabinet with the aprons but told me before I got started I had to sit down and have a cuppa, (Australian term for having a hot drink, usually associated with socializing, taking a break, etc.). Later on in the day, I was taught how to make Puri, which is a simple (delicious!) fried bread. While frying the bread, I was asked about five times if I needed a break. I was doing fine so I continued on the bread until eventually someone took the spatula out of my hand and told me that I didn’t have to work the whole time, that I needed to sit down, have a cuppa, and relax. Although this probably sounds like a pointless rambling, it was really meaningful for me. I am so used to endless work and constantly needing to be doing something in order to feel productive or valuable in a work environment. But the hospitality that was shown to me made me realize a few things:
- Contrary to what I have been conditioned to think, it’s okay to take a break.
- The people that I was cooking with didn’t view me as there to do a job, they saw me as another member of their community.
They didn’t measure my value by the work I was doing, how good the bread was, or how fast I could complete the task, they just appreciated my presence and wanted me to feel included in the process. A process that included taking time to just sit and be present in the moment.
This idea is a perfect example of the concept of accompaniment that we talk about so often in YAGM. Accompaniment is the process of walking alongside a community and is the frame in which all of the ministries of ELCA Global Mission operate within. I have really struggled to call myself a missionary because of the connotations it brings. So much hurt has come from mission work in the past and even now. I didn’t want to be associated with colonization and conversion. I mean, I still don’t, but just ignoring it doesn’t help. But the ELCA, and many other churches, take a different approach to mission work that aligns more closely with the mission of Jesus. It works to eliminate the power imbalance that comes with the imperialist model of mission work and starts to heal the wounds it has created.
Accompaniment calls for authenticity, meeting people where they are, sharing, and living within both the differences and similarities in culture, religion, and norms. It means that I am useless to the community unless I am a true member of the community (and even then, I’m still pretty useless most of the time). It’s taking a break, having a cuppa, and laughing with my new community in the kitchen of Peachey Place. Accompaniment is radical hospitality and one of the most beautiful displays of God’s love that I have ever witnessed.
Peace,
Katie.
Katie's YAGM Journey 