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Reflections of a Spiritual Woman and World Citizen
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Thanks to Rev. Raymond Muñoz of the United Interfaith Ministries, Inc. I was exposed to the program and encouraged to participate as a part of my Interfaith Seminary Studies. The opportunity to bring to life what I had studied in books for years, more intensively during the past year and a half was thrilling. More thrilling was the chance to work alongside peace and justice activists from all over the world in service to our host country – India.
With the financial and emotional support of my family, friends, and mentor I embarked on a journey that was life changing, perspective shifting, heartwarming, and rejuvenating. Global PeaceWorks created a sense of family among strangers of different national, cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds in just ten days. Our “familia” expands across continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.
The connectedness we developed in such a short period of time was attributed mostly to the inclusive program design and coordination led by Eric Wenzel and Khorrum Omer. Of course the people who participated with their open minds, hearts, and souls made everything we experienced invaluable.
Our mission while in Delhi, India as people of diverse faiths and spiritual traditions was to live together, perform charitable service and explore spirituality as an international, interfaith family, while focusing on interfaith dialogue and visiting sacred sites. Mission Accomplished!
Every day we engaged in dialogue around faith, tradition, lifestyle, communication, eating habits, and personal experiences as they related to the “faith of the day.” We were lucky enough to have a resident Yoga teacher among us who patiently shared her gift of yoga with our multi-level (mostly beginner) group. At times of exhaustion the exercises lifted our spirits and energy level.
After beginning our days with either Yoga, meditation, and sharing of our personal experiences as Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Kabbalist/Jew, Christians, and Spiritual people, we would visit, worship, pray, and meditate at a mosque, gurdwara, temple, and the Bahai house of worship. This was usually after having spent hours at Amar Jyoti providing volunteer service.
Amar Jyoti is a rehabilitative center in Delhi that takes a holistic approach to providing education, medical care, vocational training and employment opportunities to people with disabilities. Our work with Amar Jyoti ranged from decorating the site for the New Year’s banquet, to moving a library and furniture to a new building, playing with the children, to moving thousands of bricks up four floors.
The highlight of our service work for me, besides coloring, playing games, and making smiley faces and jewelry out of clay with the children, was the brick work. It was also the most physically and emotionally demanding work we did. Interestingly, we started the task each carrying a hand full of bricks up the four floors of the hospital to the point of exhaustion.
Exhausted, some of us naturally passed on bags of bricks to others who had the energy to carry on. This is when the notion of making the brick work a cooperative effort surfaced. When we developed a system of sharing the weight and energy it took to move the bricks, bonds were formed, peoples strengths surfaced, and we were most productive. As a group we managed to move more than many anticipated, including the local hired workers – who offered those of us at the top smiles and words of encouragement throughout.
The brick work in my opinion was the part of our project which highlighted the significance of cooperative efforts in affecting change. By shifting from the individualistic approach of accomplishing the task to a cooperative approach we accomplished more than the goal of getting the bricks up to the fourth floor in record time, we established trusting and meaningful relationships – we served as a model for the possibilities that exist in this world if our governments, states, communities, families, and people would work together despite socially constructed differences.
The Global PeaceWorks experience for me was more than international volunteer work – it was a gift, a blessing, a joy. Learning about the religions of the world in India was one thing, learning about the people we lived and worked alongside was another. We – Eric, Khorrum, Ammu, Shymaine, Sheena, Gayatri, Pinaki, Ajay, Daman, Durga, Dushleen, Ravi, Christa, David, Sohana, Robai, Esther, Brooke, Robert, Midori, Won Chang, and I (Melissa) shared souls and will continue to do so despite the physical distance that currently separates us.
Melissa Janette Alvarez
Penn State University