TEAM
TRIPS
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During Spring Break 2008, four Duke freshmen and their trusty Divinity student leader learned more about Durham than they had ever expected to! The title of the project was Racial Reconciliation in Durham: Past and Present. The itinerary looked roughly like this:
Friday, March 7
Documentary and Discussion: Durham: A Self-PortraitSaturday, March 8
Volunteer at Asbury Temple UMC food pantry
Volunteer at East Durham Jubilee Project/Isaiah House
Meet with David Arthur and Rebecca Byrd to learn about current work on racial reconciliation in East Durham, through the Jubilee Project
Watch Duke/UNC basketball game at the Wesley HouseSunday, March 9
Worship at Mt. Level Missionary Baptist Church
Conversation and dinner with Ms. Ann AtwaterMonday, March 10
Tour Hayti Heritage Center: learn about Hayti community, past, present, future
Volunteer at Walltown Ministries/St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church
Meet with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove of Rutba House (intentional Christian community in Walltown)Tuesday, March 11
Tour International Civil Rights Center and Museum, Greensboro
Tour SEEDS community garden
Tutor at SEEDlings after-school programWednesday, March 12
Volunteer at and tour Durham Urban Ministries CenterClick here to read student accounts of their experiences during this time.
Spring Break in New Orleans: Building upon a successful and productive winter break trip, The Wesley Fellowship will sponsor another mission trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, to assist in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Wesley will be working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) who coordinated our efforts in December and January through its Metairie (suburb bordering New Orleans on the west side) depot. Relief efforts will include demolition and light construction work .Spring Break in Louisville: The Louisville break team will focus on the issues of urban education and urban poverty, and how the two issues are related. This study will include both the situation of poorer public schools, and also the issue of adult literacy. We will be visiting two Wesley alums from 2005, Steve Rawson and Casey Held, during this trip. Though the dates can be somewhat flexible, the trip will probably span from Friday, March 10, until Wednesday, March 15, making this an ideal trip for anyone who wants to go on a break team but needs a few days afterward .Spring Break at L'arche: The Wesley Fellowship will send four students to the l’arche community in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. L’arche is a movement founded by Jean Vanier that creates and sustains communities where people with developmental disabilities live with the people who take care of them in community. Together they share houses, meals, laughs, struggles, and joy. L’arche challenges the way we think about time, personhood, friendship, worship, and much more. This is a place that takes time out of this busy world to care for the least of these in a way that builds up the Body of Christ. It is a glimpse into the Kingdom of God to see this place; it is a community of people with very different gifts who share the same mind. “Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:2-5 .Fall Break at Mepkin Abby: Mepkin Abby is a monastery part of the worldwide Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, commonly known as Trappist, which began in 1098 in France by monks desiring a stricter observation of the Benedictine Rule. Mepkin Abby was founded in 1949 and is located in South Carolina. Their prayer life is shaped around the Liturgy of the Hours. The monastery is a community that supports itself and lives to the poor by working on their chicken farm. A group of six students from Wesley will travel to South Carolina and live in the monastery over Fall Break. We are hoping to experience how their life is shaped by Christ in the way they worship, pray, praise God, read scripture, work, eat, and live in community and to be challenged and encouraged by their spiritual discipline .Read about the 2003 trip to Honduras from the individual site.
