When: Saturday, February 25th, 1pm – 5pm.
Where: A.R.C.H., specifically the big parking lot across the street – 500 East 7th Street at Neches
What: One Village Service Project – Serving The Homeless & Celebrating Community
We are extending an invitation to each of you. This is an invitation to unite as a village in service to the whole, to celebrate being alive, to act from a place of love and to grow as Leaders for Peace. On Saturday, February 25th, we will serve the hungry and the homeless at A.R.C.H. (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless). The One Village Project has been serving this community now for 5 years…many of you have been a part of this journey. Whether this is your first or twentieth time to serve in this way, it’s always important that we continue to ask ourselves, “Why am I really doing this?”
In response to this self-inquiry, one youth shared her answer with us. She said, “I feed the homeless because I long to meet that hungry part of myself and tenderly nourish it, because I yearn for the face-to-face meeting of my own vulnerability, because I feel a completeness, a wholeness when I offer back to life what I have been so graciously offered, because standing shoulder to shoulder with my village in service to another part of the village feels strong and sweet, because I choose to celebrate this season in a way that feeds my soul.”
In our choice to feed the hungry, may we share the deepest of all gifts – LOVE. May we give RESPECT and dignity to all walks of life. May we see each other as family, and may this act of service not be about pity or obligation, but about the family sharing what it has with each other – this is the quality of being that feeds everybody. May we know the HONESTY of authentic giving. May we have the courage to initiate and to make important the investigation within. May we cultivate a posture of communion… of love, with the sense that there is no separation. May we bring COMMUNITY to those who need it most. And may this season reveal the opportunity to open our hearts to the beautiful reality that we are all ONE VILLAGE.
We will be serving a hot meal, strawberry parfaits and hot chocolate to our brothers and sisters at A.R.C.H. We will also be offering warm clothes, coats and blankets for those in need. If you happen to have any of these cold weather comforts you’d like to donate, please bring them with you to the event. Also, please feel free to bring any instruments you may have to share for a community music jam.
For more information about the event, you can contact Veronica at veronica@amalafoundation.org.
We look forward to sharing this experience with you.
