Meet Our Richmond Trip Leaders!

Greetings Eco-Stewards Community,

We are still accepting applications from young adults (age 20-30) for Eco-Stewards Richmond: Water is Life– Journeying Toward Justice on the James River. Please continue to spread the word! Our second application deadline is April 15, and we are looking for more young adults to enjoy this time of community building, vocational discernment, place-based learning, eco-faith discovery, spiritual reflection and outdoor recreation! We’ve lined up an excellent team to lead this exciting adventure from June 5-10, 2017. Read their bios below.

Meet the Eco-Stewards Richmond Program Leaders

Rev. Rob Mark serves as a Presbyterian pastor at Church of the Covenant in downtown Boston, and has coordinated the Eco-Stewards Program since its inception in 2006, leading programs in California, New Jersey, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Oregon, Florida and Washington. In November 2016, he responded to a call from indigenous leaders to join 500 clergy from around the country in a historic witness of solidarity at Standing Rock. Rob is passionate about grassroots programs like the Eco-Stewards Program that affect lasting change. He also likes coffee, ultimate Frisbee, stringed instruments and the joy of stewarding his 3-year-old son Rowen who is named after a Scottish tree.

Kathleen Murphy is from the great city of Richmond, Virginia where she works for the Center for Healthy Communities at Virginia Poverty Law Center. She currently attends Second Presbyterian Church and has become active with their young adult group. When she’s not working she loves to cook, garden, spend time outside, and go to various festivals and events around Richmond. She is an alum of the Eco-Stewards Seattle Program and the Boston Food Justice YAV Program.

Alex Haney is a graduate of James Madison University and has taught all kinds of nature-related things at camps in Virginia, Massachusetts, Arkansas, and Tennessee.  He loves being able to call the Appalachian region his home for its rich culture and history. He currently works as a solar panel installer with a construction company in Central Virginia and describes himself a rookie guitar player who gets excited about wild edible and medicinal plants. He is an alum of the Eco-Stewards Seattle Program and the Boston Food Justice YAV Program.

Colleen Earp is serves the Presbytery of  The James as the Director of Youth, Environment, and Service Ministries at Camp Hanover, and is an M.Div. student at Union Presbyterian Seminary. She is a geographer with interests in natural resource conservation and education.  Colleen lives in Richmond, VA with her spouse and two cats, but will always love her home state, New Jersey, more than anyone else in the world possibly could. She is an alum of Eco-Stewards Gainesville and of the YAV Program in New Orleans.

Vickie Machado is a third generation South Floridian. While pursuing her masters, she lived and worked at the Gainesville Catholic Worker house and later helped to host the EcoStewards Gainesville trip. Upon graduation, she worked as a an environmental organizer, pushing for a ban on fracking. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Florida, studying Religion & Nature. Vickie is still passionate about water issues and loves being in the ocean. She is an alum of the Eco-Stewards Montana, Boston/Vermont and Portland programs and served as a program leader for Eco-Steward Seattle.

Becky W. Evans is a New England Presbyterian with a passion for storytelling. She’s worked as an environmental reporter for The Standard-Times of New Bedford, Mass., a communications writing professor at Boston University, and an ESL instructor for adult immigrants at the Community Learning Center in Cambridge. Currently, she serves as a food justice educator for the Boston Food Justice Young Adult Volunteer Program. She loves her role as storytelling mentor and communications coordinator for The Eco-Stewards Program.

Seattle Deadline Extended-April 13

Dear Eco-Stewards Community,

We’re happy to share that we’ve received some wonderful applicants for our upcoming Seattle Eco-Stewards Program in June!

We can admit a few more candidates, so please keep spreading the word to young adult leaders in your midst! We’ve extended our application deadline to April 13.

Our focus this year will be on Creativity and Power: Theological Reflection and Action on Climate Change. Please be in touch with Rev. Rob Mark (revrobmark@gmail.com) with any questions.Here is a link to the 2016 application.

Yours,

The Eco-Stewards Leadership Team

Eco-Stewards Seattle: Apply Now!

The April 1st deadline for Eco-Stewards Seattle is quickly approaching and we need your help recruiting some young adult leaders (ages 20-30) to participate in this amazing program that will focus on creativity, climate change and theological reflection on Pope Francis’ encyclical on caring for the environment. Applications are due April 1 and some financial aid is available to help with travel expenses. Better yet, help us by sponsoring a young adult to attend the program! Download the the 2016 application. Email revrobmark@gmail.com with any questions.

Poco a Poco: In Cuba with Pope Francis

By Vickie Machado, Eco-Steward Leadership Team

Last weekend Vickie Machado took part in the Archdiocese of Miami’s Young Adult Papal Visit to Cuba. Below are some of her reflections on Cuba and her pilgrimage to see Pope Francis.

We arrived Saturday late morning into La Habana, eager to take part in Pope Francis’ momentous journey. None of the young adults in my group had been to Cuba. For me, this was not only my first time to this island, but it was also my first real experience outside the United States. Though less than an hour’s plane ride from Miami, Cuba seemed new and untainted. All eyes were on this small country, a place devoid of advertisements, saturated with infrastructure from the 1950s, and crawling with news cameras expectantly awaiting the Pope’s arrival. Like the other pilgrims, I was greatly looking forward to seeing Pope Francis and hearing the message he carried with him.

After checking into our “vintage” hotel, we hit the streets of Vieja Habana, exploring plazas, snapping photos, grabbing lunch at a nearby paladar and purchasing our allotment of Cuban cigars. The shock set in when we drove to Calle 30 y 31 in Miramar to wait for the Pope’s motorcade. The media was everywhere. Everyone wanted to take part in this historic moment. NBC National followed our group, taking photos, filming video and conducting interviews as we waited for a glimpse of the Holy Father. As Pope Francis rode by— a bit faster than expected—the hype increased. The crowd was flooded with energy and the media was quick to start their questioning. Michael Williams of NBC News asked me if this was a life changing experience. With hardly a minute to reflect, I responded that it was definitely life enhancing. It was a less than ideal answer and didn’t make the news. I thought about this question more at dinner and into the night. Do I consider the few seconds it took for the Pope’s caravan to drive by, a life changing moment?

I continued to ask this question as I listened to his Mass on Sunday morning in the Plaza de la Revolución packed with thousands of Cubans and other pilgrims. A beautiful Cuban choir led up to his Mass. Gaining bits and pieces, the leader of my group, Rosemarie, translated his sermon about the importance of service. Still, I wondered if this was a life-changing experience.

Vickie Machado, an Eco-Steward alum and leadership team member, awaiting Pope Francis. Machado traveled to Cuba with a young adult program sponsored by the Archdiocese of Miami.

It was the young adult gathering Sunday evening where the magnitude and importance of Pope Francis’ presence and my own journey set in. After distributing rosaries, bracelets and t-shirts, my group found a shady spot under a tree to await the Pope’s arrival. We had plenty of time— arriving at 2:30 pm, four hours before Pope Francis was scheduled to address the crowd. During this time, I started talking with a couple young people, a 26-year-old former bartender and a 20-year-old student studying information technology. They practiced their English, which was quite good, while I worked on my Spanish. I learned a great deal about life in Cuba: jobs, wages, rations, past times, music, and general understandings. Although Cubans make roughly a dollar a day, goods such as cars, clothing, cell phones and travel are still incredibly expensive: $30-92 for shoes; $25,000-250,000 for a car; $200 for a passport. More than once I was told the math used in the States does not apply to Cuba, since one US dollar converts to one CUC or 25 CUPs  (used for purchasing rationed food).

Furthermore, it blew my mind to hear the Internet was only recently introduced (my new friend said in January 2015!). Still people must go to WiFi (pronounced “weefee”) spots and pay $2 per hour to gain web access. While change may seem slow to me, it is rapidly increasing and it seems to be commonly felt among many young Cubans. Pope Francis’ visit further extended this feeling as he has repeatedly voiced his stance concerning the U.S-Cuban embargo.

Talking with these young adults added tremendous depth to my pilgrimage. My journey meant so much more to see the passion in their eyes and understand the hope in their hearts. There was so much joy, love, and kindness in their stories, reflecting the message presented by Pope Francis.

At 6:40 pm, the Pope spoke about hope to the young adult crowd of 5,000. Hope is hard work, but it is worth working for. It is the path of life and deeply within our faith. Meeting my new friends enlivened the Pope’s message. Though this was simply a moment—drawing from Pope Francis—it is memory and discernment, which makes the path of hope that we must follow.

When practicing my Spanish, my new friends told me poco a poco, little by little. Often times we forget that change is a process. We don’t realize a life changing moment when we are in it. Sometimes it takes some reflection and understanding to connect the dots.

Poco a poco my journey began to make sense and hold a deeper meaning. Yes, seeing the Holy Father was an incredible sight, but it was the context—the young Cubans I met, gaining an understanding of their livelihoods, and connecting it to the Pope’s message and that of my own Christian faith—that carried the most meaning for me.

Like my pilgrimage, life is a journey. It is what we take from these moments that offer the impact. It is exciting to think how people will take this experience and enact it in their own lives, community, and world. The Pope is reiterating the Gospel—Love God and love others. Love is an action. Now, more than ever, faith in action is needed. It’s coming poco a poco.