Greetings from L'Arche on September 5th

  Well today I feel that the real L'Arche starts to come into play.  Finished with the orientation week, today we begin to feel the routine.  This morning Camilla and I met with Carmen our house leader for our first team meeting.  It was an hour of fixing the routine of the house, of cleaning, medications, relationships with one another, explaining the calendar for the week with work, activities etc. I found out that we have another male assitant coming and possibly from Germany.  That will be good to help provide some stability in the house with all the support staff.

  This afternoon after some free time I picked up Mike and headed to "The Club" where I will be on Tuesday and Friday afternoon. It consists of Hsi Fu, Mike and Francis.  They do various outings during this time and I will be there with them at this time to help Mike.  Francis who is there is the eldest of the community.  he will be 84 shortly and is a riot!  He is also a painter and teaches painting class.  I would love to  learn as most of what I draw would scare a small child to tears, just ask Father Phil about my attempting to draw a cow.  Francis uses wild colours and brush techniques that make sense to him.  I feel I am in the presence of the resident Picasso.  He has sold some of his works around Daybreak and to some outsiders.

  After the Club, we had a community gathering of all the houses in the form of a BBQ to welcome the new assistants.  It is always touching to see the people gather and the love and community that is shared. They asked the new assistants to stand up and of course two core members stood also...quite funny since one of them, Linda Martin has been around for a while.  When i stood up, I introduced myself and said i was a friend of Father Phil Mulligan whom many of you know.  There were oohs and aahs from the crowd with many remembering Phil.  He was truly loved here and people still ask about him.  When I told them he was coming for a visit, they were really excited. I got a head rub/noogie from Gordie Henry as he called me meatball. I got a fake choke around the neck from Dave Harmon and then a "When are we going to get together for coffee".  I got a fist in the air from John Smeltzer as he keeps trying to convince me to buy a Mazda.  I hollered "What's s'matter with you?" and he hollered it back at me.  Ask Phil to do this and it is quite funny the way John does it.  We sang songs and the welcome was truly amazing. 

  You have to understand the core members (developmentally disabled) if possible.  This is their home and while we may think we are entering in as care givers and we are, it is much more.  It is about relationships and opening ourselves to an experience and new ways of being, not doing.  Phil always said that to me and it is sinking in what he means.  L'Arche is not about doing as much as it is being, being in relationship with core members and other assitants and members of the greater community who are a part of this experience.  But also in this experience, the core members get attached and love the assistants and open themselves up also.  When assistants leave, the core members grieve like we do when friends leave and move away.  They cry, they try to adapt and welcome in hospitality.  That is why I say this is their home and I am priviledged to be allowed to learn from them.  I have always believed that church is lived out in community, in relationships.  Parishioners get attached to church buildings and sulk often when asked to move around and worship together or have supper.  If you experienced how people enter freely into one another's homes, how we eat at one another's tables, how we share in one another's life, you would understand that Church is not the building, but the family that gathers.

  I am tired tonight, but it is a fatique that is loaded down with blessings from the day and the experiences thus far.  Thank you for the emails that I have been receiving.  I hope to be able to send a few lines now and then, but with so many (and keep them coming) I try my best.  I hope the blog will help capture the richness of this experience. Until my next blog!

Jeff