Blessings

 This trip to Sakartvelo was not what I had expected it to be.  It was not what I had hoped for, and yet, there are blessings.

I am blessed to have reconnected, face to face, with my dear F/friend Misha.  I am blessed to have connected with Act for Transformation's Inga Shumagia, Executive Director of the organization's Caucuses office.  She is smart and focused and she is able to envision a clear path forward.  Alena Kemm works with many groups that partner with Act for Transformation doing trainings primarily with the Fairtogether program.  This program is an adaptation of the Alternatives to Violence Project used primarily with younger people to great success.

On this trip, I was able to make a connection for Act for Transformation with a US Embassy officer who came to the Act for Transformation offices, met the staff, heard the stories, and was visibly impressed.  He encouraged Inga and Alena to invite others from the embassy and to request much needed funds.

I had been asked if I would give a lecture on a topic of my choosing on the Monday of my second week in Tbilisi.  I chose to speak on Peacemaking in Today's World.  I'm not sure just where that topic came from but it gave me good opportunity to reflect on the state of the world and the role that we each can play as peacemakers.   It was a small group of like minded peacemakers that attended and so I decided to abbreviate my remarks and to ask those present for their thoughts and concerns.  It became a deep and wonderful conversation. A true blessing!

 I am blessed to have been in contact with both Ukrainian refugees and Russian Conscientious Objectors.  Learning a bit about their struggles, hearing their stories brings a searing reality to their plight.  I think for me, in my leading as a peacemaker, this is a blessing and a challenge.  As I step into the work of peacemaking my heart is cracked open again and again as I find myself confronted with more than I feel I can possibly hold.  There is often a point at which my heart feels as if it will burst with both a love for these people and from the pain that I now carry within as their plight becomes real to me.  It means acknowledging over and over again that the work that I am given, the work that I attempt to do, comes from Spirit.  When it is clearly Spirit that calls me into work, I must trust that I will be given whatever gifts I need to carry the work.  This is a truth that I find myself needing to learn over and over again.

One final story - As Misha and I prepared to leave a meeting with Ukrainian refugees and older gentleman asked (through a translator) what my heritage is.  I was slightly taken aback but shared that my mother was of mixed European descent and that my father's family were Ashkenazi Jews from Odessa.  He grinned broadly and said that he'd known it.  I've only known my father's heritage for a couple of years.  There was something in that acknowledgement that brought me to tears.  It felt almost like coming home.

The work that I had planned to do during this trip eluded me.  There were moments of frustration and self doubt.  But as I reflect back I see the blessings that I have brought home and the blessings that Spirit has allowed me to leave in Sakartvelo and  I am grateful.