The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America October-December 2014 - (Page 10)

summer ConFerenCe The Gift of Imagination: A Peace Camp Sermon by Becca Donley A hidden fire burns perpetually upon the hearth of the world.... In autumn this great conflagration becomes especially manifest. Then the flame that is slowly and mysteriously consuming every green thing bursts into vivid radiance. Every blade of grass and every leaf in the woodlands is cast into the great oven of Nature; and the bright colors of their fading are literally the flames of their consuming. The golden harvest-fields are glowing in the heart of the furnace.... By this autumn fire, God every year purges the floor of nature. All effete substances that have served their purpose in the old form are burnt up. Everywhere God makes is sweet and cleans the earth with fire. -Hugh Macmillan W hen I first heard the Summer Conference theme for this year, "One Creation," I immediately thought: "What? Why?" It didn't make sense to me. But this past week I've learned what it meant. At first I was thinking, "Oh, well, God; duh. He is the Creator." But then I was confused again, because it didn't say One Creator on the pamphlet; it said One Creation. The idea of "One Creation" was hard for me. So I began to listen to the services-which, if you know the Peace Fellowship youth, you know that's not normal. But I listened. I heard people saying that God created the soil, and the moon, and the flowers, but never did I hear them say he only created one thing. At that time I still had not wrapped my head around the concept. Then I got it. God created all of these wonderful things, but they all come together as one. On Sunday, the day before we came to Peace Camp, I got back from one month spent in Cuernavaca, Morelos, MX, where I was studying Spanish. Every morning I would wake up, and my host Mom would call up to us to come down for breakfast. "Chicas?" During that month, I didn't go to church. And music, which is a very important thing in my life, was taken away from me. I did not see one piano I could touch. I did not hear live harmonies embedded with scripture. I was lost without my church. I ached to be singing hymns on a Sunday morning. I missed the music, and I missed the way I feel when I sit down in the pew at my church and examine the bulletin before ripping it to shreds to make a paper crane. I missed it. So to be here with you, and to be singing and feeling close to God, is a true blessing. While we were in Mexico, we went to three orphanages. The little kids would come up to me and hug me around the waist and look up with their dark chocolate eyes and ask my name. Then they would take me over to a place where we would play. They would touch my sunburnt cheeks and play with my sweat-soaked 10 Baptist Peacemaker OCT-DEC 2014 hair. I played with a girl named Ellie once and she had so much fun, taking my glasses off my face and putting them back on, and taking them off and putting them on. It's surprising how long a child can be entertained with one activity. After I left an orphanage with 400 children and rode home through the mountains, I realized how big the world was, compared to me. I am just one person in a world of billions. And that's not a sad thing. I wasn't sad and I didn't feel small. I may be only one person, but God was only one being and God made us and made this one creation. If God could make a change so can I, right? "When I first heard the Summer Conference theme for this year, 'One Creation,' I immediately thought: 'What? Why?'" I chose the opening quote by Hugh Macmillan because I believe it proves the point that fire isn't always meant as fire. It can be metaphorical. It is a quote about fall and how the colors engulf the world and change things. If you squint at a maple tree during fall, it looks like a fire. And sometimes I sit and watch as the wind moves through the tree, creating an even more realistic flame. Imagination flourishes within us and likes to have the upper hand as to when it comes to life. Sometimes we lose our imagination as we grow up, and that's okay, because we never lose that flame that is illuminated inside of us. The world was created with imagination, and each of us was given a piece of it. Honor the gifts God has given the world. Let your imagination shine through. Let the air we breathe be holy and let this creation live on. -Becca Donley, 15 years old, is a sophomore at Irondale High School in Mounds View, MN. She has been attending Peace Camp since she was an infant and enjoys singing, acting, swimming and speaking Spanish. She's a member of University Baptist Church in Minneapolis (a BPFNA Partner Congregation).

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America October-December 2014

From Dialogical Pacifism to Conversational Peacemaking: De pacifistas dialógico/ as a pacificadoras/ es conversacionales
Summer Conference Report
Invitation to Communion: Peace Camp 2014
The Gift of Imagination
Making a Better World
SOA Watch Vigil Overcomes Opposition from Columbus Police
Training Chiefs for Peace in Zimbabwe
Africa Not Yet Uhuru
Abbotabad Pastor Forced to Flee Pakistan
30 Years of Friendship Tours
Questions for U.S. Congressional Candidates
April Baker Receives Baptist Heritage Award
Active Hope: A Book for Discouraged Environmentalists
Jim Crow to Barak Obama: A Documentary Review
Georgian Baptist Bishop Travels to Lebanon on Peace Mission
Friendship Tour Planned for Jaurez & El Paso
Resources & Opportunities
A Peace that Can Be Worn: A Hymn Dedicated to the BPFNA

The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America October-December 2014