Brot und Rosen

Oh, let all who thirst

Let them come to the water.

And let all who have nothing

Let them come to the Lord.

Without money, without price; 

Why should you spend your life

Except for the Lord?”

Isaiah 55, paraphrased in John Foley’s song, Come to the Water

Describing Brot und Rosen is hard, and I am not sure that I quite understand everything that is going on here.  And that is OK!

 When I first got here I was asked my expectations.   I said, truthfully, that I didn’t have many expectations.   I had been looking for a service components for my sabbatical, I had asked my friend Cornelia from the Westphalian church, and she had immediately suggested this.    I like Cornelia and trust both her and God working in her, so I wrote to them and applied. 

I knew they provided housing to refugees, and I knew I they were related to Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker movement, but my concern was giving back during part of my sabbatical. 

But this is much more, and much different from a typical service opportunity.  This is a community that differs from the community in the world as we know it.   It is a community like we find in Acts 3; “ The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything.”(The Message)

Four people who live here all the time: Birke, Birgit, Sarah, and Dietrich (I think:   I am really struggling to connect names here) some of whom work elsewhere, most part time, put all of their salaries into the common purse.  Each person, including the ones who live here for a season or for a time, takes what they need: food, clothing when it is available, some pocket money, etc.   Each person contributes to the running of the house.  Because many of the people here are unemployed and in transition, they are the recipients of a certain amount of charity; food pantries, groceries with dated goods, etc. and the community strives to use these things as well as they  can.   For example a food truck came Monday with a whole load of red bell peppers in excellent condition, and last night we had delicious roasted red pepper soup!

So part of the work is helping to keep up the house, cooking, etc.  yesterday one of the permanent residents came in with a bag of plums and suggested I make a plum cake.   With the help of others (finding ingredients, prepping the plums) I did, and it was pronounced “lecker” (delicious).   Monday I made coleslaw for the barbecue and went to buy the charcoal.  Every day I have done some dishes and Friday I will fashion a meal for everyone out of what we have.   I am considering veggie chili if there are enough tomatoes.

It is less work and more community here, and while simple, this community seems to be on a solid footing.   I have much to learn from them.

One note: one thing I don’t have is readily available internet: I am heavily using my cellular internet, which is limited.   So I may not blog as often these three weeks.