Hi everyone,

As I continue my time at L'Arche, I marvel at the other assistants who have come into this community to spend a year + here at Daybreak.  The picture above shows two new assistants Camilla from Brazil and Anna from Halifax along with two of our core members Kara and Mary Anne from our home here. It was taken at the welcome celebration for new assistants.

So why would they leave their country, their continent, their culture?  Who are these young people who have embarked on a journey to be here?  We have Sara, Sven, Felix and Stephanie from Germany.  We have Camilla, Tiago and Regianne from Brazil.  We have Alexandre from France and we have Anna, Sharon and myself from Canada.  In most cases, they have left families, boyfriends/girlfriends to come to this country, this little community in Richmond Hill.  They have entered into a different culture, into snow for the first time, into seasonal celebrations of Halloween, Thanksgiving.  They have been exposed to Christian prayer maybe for the first time.  Some left to not have to do military experience in their country.  Some left because of major decisions they needed to make.

But we are here, all of us with our story, faced with (in some cases) a shock in never having lived with people with disabilities.  From what I hear, the experience has been positive.  We are continuing to find a sense of something special, unique, life changing.  We are face with our own presumptions, limitations.  We are forced to change our ideas, pre-conceived notions to find gift in what we live.

I have sen blossom in many of them, a gentle love and kindness and compassion in their eyes and gestures.  It is another way of living and one that is such a tremendous gift.  We come with little or no experience and all of sudden through training and encouragement, we begin to live routines with our houses and core members.  It is a time of building trust, of love, of community.  It is also a time among the assistants of building community and support in what we do.  We call each other, we have coffee, a glass of wine, a conversation.  We look to our days away and just walk with one another and share of our lives.  It is quite something.

We celebrate little moments that others would laugh at.  Yesterday one announced that he had passed his driving test for their house van.  I hollered and said "Let's throw a party".  Driving core members from appointments, to work, to social events is an important event in our community.

But most of all, we forge a common love for people who longed to be loved.  We also long to be loved.  This community of L'arche is about love.  It is about moving beyond what we fnd unloveable in ourselves to total acceptance.  It is a taste of our divine God's love.  So until next time.

Jeff