Final Reflection

    1.     A stance the Catholic Church takes on a social justice issue that I think is powerful is summed up in the second CST: Call to Family, Community, and Participation. On our website we described this as meaning that “We are called to organize and interact in a communal sense, with the family at the center of this interaction. We have a duty to participate in these communities for the common good of all.” I find this as a powerful thing because Family is so important, but sometimes it gets taken for granted, especially for me. I’m blessed with an amazing family (some of which are pictured to the left)who all love and support me, and I still find it hard to return the feelings. Even now that I am moving on to college, and they won’t be with me every day it is still difficult for me to come together like we are called to do. I've learned that this is not just limited to blood related family; the church itself is also a family and community. One such example of where the church is a family is the church I attend: First Presbyterian Church San Mateo. Even though it is not a catholic church, this teaching is widely evident throughout. Our church is seen as a “church for the community” and everyone there is just filled with love for each other. I have grown up at this church and the people there are a family for me. A large part of the church supports mission work, like our Youth Group’s summer mission trip. Through this trip we go and see the injustice in the world. For example, two years ago we went to Vancouver, Canada and I witnessed real signs of injustice, alleyways were covered in needles, and there were also prostitutes and drug dealers. We weren't able to do anything for those people, but we did pray for them later. I find this stance of coming together as a community powerful, not only because of the support it generates, but because it is evident in other denominations other than Catholicism and can be seen throughout Christianity.

2.      We are lucky. We have an amazing school; live in an amazing area, with even more amazing people that surround us. There is no other way to describe it other than that we are fortunate. We could have been born into a third world country, or even a more troubled area of the United States, but we weren't  Thanks to this, we as a society have the responsibility to take care of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Not just with simple service; we have to care. It is not enough to just throw our money into an issue, we have to put our heart into it as well, that is what will help the less fortunate. For me personally, I feel that I have been called into Camp Ministry.  I first thought about ministry the first time I went to camp.

Ever since the second grade I have been going to Christian camps through Mount Hermon. (Pictured on the right) I really looked up to the counselors and realized I wanted to be one too. I loved the idea of helping out middle and high school students through an important time in their lives. Seeing how much they affected me, made me want to have the same impact on other kids. Some of these kids come from homes where they might not know love, or know where their next meal is coming from. These are the kids I want to reach out to the most, to show them that they are cared for, no matter the circumstance.  

3.      I’ll be honest; at first glance I thought it was going to be difficult for me to answer this prompt. I had gone into this project already knowing a good amount about my topic, and how bad things were. I thought I would not be “rocked” like some people had been through Fright Week. What I quickly learned however was that everything I thought I had known was only superficial. I had the opportunity to watch two of Invisible Children’s movies; both had really powerful stories of children who had been affected by the LRA. This issue became real to me, more than just a Facebook like or viral video, I was able to connect to the kids and see their suffering. It made me realize what I had mentioned in the last paragraph. Through this process I learned that you need to put your heart into something for it to truly be meaningful. I learned this through the work of Jason Russell and the other founders of Invisible Children. They set out to find a story, and what they found was a cause, a cause they have been fighting for ever since. Sure it’s a great thing to have so many donations to a program or some cause. It’ll help the community, but it is not good enough. It made me think of our own H2O Project, and how as a community we were able to raise enough money to have a well built. It made me think about how we act after, and how we tend to forget about it until the next year. Through this project I have learned that it would be better to do the act of building a well, because when you put your heart into something, it becomes that much more meaningful and memorable.