Building the World House

Our main theme for our second day at IFYI was "building," as this is part of our week theme of "building the world house."

On Monday, we had a special guest, Pete Shungu (aka Afro D), do a creative workshop with us. Afro D grew up in Philadelphia, but his family originates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After visiting his country of origin, he was inspired to pursue his dreams of being an MC, a poet, and a music artist. During his time with us, he shared 3 poems, each one about a personal part of his life: what Africa means to him, the struggle to confidently express emotions, fair treatment of women/misuse of hurtful language. He made his poems interactive so we could have a part in them. He put a twist on Gandhi's quote: Be the change you wish to see in the world by saying You need to see the world before you can be the change. Afro D displayed pictures to correspond with his poems, and after each poem, we all discussed what was interesting to us and the things that sparked our attention.

Later that day, we divided into groups where we experimented with religious practices which included: yoga/meditation, creative writing, storytelling, or food as a religious practice.

To close the day, our evening circle tonight was run by the college group. We ran an activity to encourage others to share the challenges they have faced, anonymously on a piece of paper. Then we read some of the papers aloud to the group, and talked about this idea: It is the challenges that we face in life that help us become the person we are, and challenges are important for "building yourself." When we overcome challenges, we are growing and becoming stronger. Each one of us faces difficulties, but we are never left alone because we can all turn to our faith for guidance and empowerment.