2023 Peace Intern Training Week!

Every year the Peace Intern Summer begins with Training Week. From May 18-26 our 2023 Peace Interns Grace, Kaylie, and Marci will be home based out of the Guest House at Allisonville Christian Church where they will be meeting with denominational leaders, learning about Disciples Justice Ministry partners, and getting equipped for their summer as ambassadors for peace and justice.

Training Week is as much about building skills and resources as it is about building relationships. DPF is so thankful for all of the ministry partners and justice advocates who will help prepare the Peace Interns for their summer!

We thank General Minister and President Rev. Terri Hord Owens, DHM President Rev. Chris Dorsey, Obra Hispana National Pastor Rev. Lori Tapia, NAPAD Executive Pastor Rev. Chung Seung Kim, and National Convocation Administrative Secretary Rev. Dr. Delesslyn Kinnebrew. 

We also thank Anti-Racism, Pro-Reconciliation Trainers Rev. Margie Pride and Rev. Yvonne Gilmore, Healthy Boundaries Trainer Rev. Dr. Jim Higginbotham, Spiritual Disciplines and Self-Care Trainer Rev. Randy Kuss, Workshop Development Trainer Rev. Sarah Zuniga, Peace Practices Trainer Krista Johnson Weiksel, Small Group Facilitation Trainer Prof. Michael Dirksen and Justice Bible Study Leader Rev. Stephen Yarbrough.

Additionally we thank our justice ministry presenters: Rev. Melissa Guthrie from AllianceQ, Rev. Carol Devine and Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri from Green Chalice, Rev. Dr. Todd Adams from the Pension Fund, Rev. Angelé Sanders Johnson from Disciples Women's Ministries, Rev. Gary Kidwell from the Christian Church Foundation, Rev. Cara Gilger the Director of Communications at the Office of General Minister and President, Rev. Alan Dicken from Week of Compassion,  Rev. Dr. Olivia Bryan Updegrove from Ministries Across Generations, and Rev. Dr. Laurie Pound Feille from Disciples Public Presence.

Plus, a HUGE thank you to Allisonville Christian Church who will once again open up the Guest House for the Peace Interns. Thank you to the Allisonville’s Senior Pastor Rev. Beau Underwood and Associate Pastor Rev. Josh Jackson for the prayerful support during Training Week and all of the logistical support leading up to Training Week!

Meet the 2023 DPF Peace Interns!

Disciples Peace Fellowship is overjoyed to announce our 2023 DPF Peace Interns: Grace Dearhamer, Marci Mazza-Fredley, and Kaylie Allen!

Grace, Marci, and Kaylie will spend the summer serving as Ambassadors for Peace and Justice at in-person Disciples Church Camps through the United States and Canada and by working on remote work week projects with Disciples Justice Ministries partners.

Learn more about Grace, Marci, and Kaylie on the “Meet the Interns” page of the DPF Website:

disciplespeace.org/meet-the-interns

Peace Intern Closing Retreat!

DPF Mission Director Brian Frederick-Gray with the 2022 Peace Interns (Sophia Barnett, Erin Gresham, and Isaac Ackerman) at their In-Person Closing Retreat in Granbury, Texas

The 2022 DPF Peace Interns summer experience wrapped up in August with a Closing Retreat held in Granbury, Texas.

Sophia Barnett, Erin Gresham, and Isaac Ackerman had a week together at my parent's house on the Brazos River to connect with each other, process their summer experiences, think through next steps in their faith journey, and spend intentional time in dialogue with specific conversation partners.

Oh, and I got to meet them in person for the very first time (I tested positive for COVID the day before in-person Training Week, so had to join that event remotely).

We had a wonderful time together at the Closing Retreat. It was filled with laughter (and the occasional tears), fellowship, discernment, and lots of delicious food.

So many wonderful people helped make the Closing Retreat possible. DPF would like to thank Cheryl and Glenn Frederick for providing the retreat space (the swing by the river was a particularly big hit with the Peace Interns).

Peace Interns enjoying sunset down by the Brazos River; our nightly routine during the Retreat.

We would also like to thank all of the "Daily Conversation Partners" who joined us throughout the week. That includes Disciples Immigration Legal Counsel Natalie Teague, Rev. Amy Piatt & Rev. Justin Jeter from FCC Granbury, former Peace Intern Will O'Brien of the United States Institute of Peace, the DPF Executive Committee, and former Peace Intern Jennifer Williams (who surprised everyone by joining us for dinner one night!).

DPF Executive Committee Member (and 2020 Peace Intern) Jennifer Williams stopped by for dinner one night.

A huge "Thank You!" to DPF Travel Agents extraordinaire Nelia Beth Scoville and Joel Heim for booking all of the summer travel for the Peace Interns including the flights to the Closing Retreat and everyone's flights back home.

Airport Selfie with the whole group!

You can read all about the Peace Interns' summer activities on the "Follow the Interns" Blog and you can check out their curated resources and workshops on the Peace & Justice Playlist page.

As always, DPF is thankful for all of our supporters and the myriad ways that you support the Peace Intern Program each and every summer. Thank you for your prayers, for your financial support, for your Peace Intern Pen Pal offerings, and everything that you do for the Peace Interns. Blessings!

Reflecting on CAMPDD at Craigs Springs

This past week I was in the beautiful state of Virginia at Craig Springs CAMPDD Camp, working with youth interested in art, drama, dance, music, and culinary, all of us sharing out gifts and interests to worship God and be in community with each other. During this week we broke boundaries, stereotypes, and labels that this world puts on us and connected closer with our Divine Creator. Connecting deeply and authentically to who has God made us to be and how do we fully live into our full, unique, beautiful, messy selves! We used our imagination to create a world where everyone is cared for, loved, and celebrated! We worshiped God, not just through songs, prayer, and scripture reading, but also with love and relationship building, with listening, empathy, and courageous conversations! 

Sharing just one word that could describe my past week would be, thankful. The feeling of thankfulness that you feel deep in your gut, deep in your soul. The thankfulness where you can’t stop saying to God, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” The feeling of thankfulness that sprouts from the unending love that God promised us with his child Jesus Christ. The love that is so strong, it almost hurts because it is so powerful! It is weeks like this past week I have had at camp that make me understand the poetic and celebratory scripture of Psalm 100. *text has been edited to be gender-inclusive*

“Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God. It is she who made us, and we are hers; we are her people, the sheep of her pasture.

Enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and their courts with praise; give thanks to them and praise their name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
— Psalm 100

This week had me shouting prayers of thanksgiving, quite literally, and it is weeks like I had at Craig Springs that reminds me that peace and justice work is not just about workshops and educating, but it is also about love, care, relationships, and thankfulness which keeps us powering through!

Checking in from Tawakoni

2022 DPF Peace Intern Isaac Ackerman shares a "walk and talk" reflection on his first week at a Disciples Church Camp this summer. From Disciples Center at Camp Tawakoni Isaac shares about his experiences teaching teens about peace and anti-militarism as well as working for nonviolent means of conflict resolution.

To learn more about the Korea Peace Appeal that Isaac mentions in this video you can visit:

en.endthekoreanwar.net/about

Training Week

The 2022 Peace and Justice training week can be partially articulated through the words of John Buchanan, “To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.”  The twelve days spent in worship, meditation, and communion with my fellow interns was truly a schooling like no other. God truly blessed me to be in the presence of not simply great company, but great minds! 

Erin, Isaac, and I were also able to mutually energize, stretch, and empower one another as fellow interns before beginning our individual journeys. This has strengthened my confidence for the road ahead beyond words! Coupling that with the opportunity to meet with just a few of God’s uprising leaders expanded our knowledge of the Disciples Ministry.

Each session allowed us to go deeper into the foundation of how Peace and Justice issues are promoted and exercised in the world we live in today. The topics included Refugee and Immigration matters, minority representation, climate change, social injustices, anti-racism training, and the Disciples Ministries dedicated to improving them.  Such as NAPAD, Alliance Q, Green Chalice, and National Convocation just to name a few.

Our trainers taught healthy boundaries, research development, social media communication tips, workshop creation, bible study outlines, and small group presentations. Mostly emphasized were self-care techniques to improve and maintain our positive mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being while attending so many camps over the summer.

The major lessons I will take to camp with me this summer is to remember to pace myself, recognize when I am tired, and to not be Super Woman all the time. 

I will leave you with a quote from Jean Rostand, “A few great minds are enough to endow humanity with monstrous power, but a few great hearts are not enough to make us worthy of using it!”  Peace and Justice solutions are not just a culmination of great ideas, but the continued actions that are performed through ‘loving your neighbor as yourself.’  Each Peace and Justice matter from Socio-Economic injustices, Social injustices, Racial injustices, Ecological injustices, Political injustices, to gun violence, refugee crisis, child abuse and neglect and body autonomy can be repaired from this remedy alone.

Once we learn to respect our personal inadequacies. We can then recognize the beauty in all of humanity. Which will then afford us the grace and continued mercy that follows us ALL our lives!!

Here I Am

Here I Am

Here I Am

When I first sat down to reflect on these past two weeks, thinking about where I am currently after Disciples Peace Internship’s Training Week and Resource Development Week, all I could think of was 4 words. Well, here I go.

Starting off this summer I was feeling ready to go, excited for a new journey. Training week was incredible, as I was able to learn, question, create, reflect, and discuss with my fellow peace interns, as well as other fellow Disciples and social justice workers. I wanted to go through this week taking in as much as I could, study as much as I could, and prepare as much as I could.  

Each day came and went, learning and growing, picking out resources, creating ideas, making workshops and activities for this summer. Until all of the sudden, training week is over, resource week is over, and I am sitting in my bunk bed the night before I travel to my first camp in Kentucky, papers sprawled all along the bed and floor, checking my packing list over and over, planning my drive, making sure I had all of my resources, preparing for the near journey ahead of me, and I found myself feeling frustrated. I groaned and thought to myself, “Why am I frustrated?”. I did not want to feel frustration, I wanted to only feel happiness, excitement, that little bit of nervousness that comes with the excitement. I wanted to feel courage and start this summer with my head held high, knowing I am to teach and learn about peace and justice. Then I realized, instead of feeling courage, fear made a home in my mind and heart. I finally had to take a deep breath, I welcomed the tears and said the words out loud, “I am scared”, and not only am I scared, but I am frustrated that I am scared.  

Sitting in my fear and frustration, praying to God, arguing with God, and arguing with myself, I felt a calling to open my bible. So, I did, and I read Exodus 3, specifically Exodus 3:1-7, Moses and the Burning Bush. I kind of giggled, deciding to read this story, the story I have heard over and over again since I was a young child in Sunday School. The story that has been repeatedly illustrated to me in books and movies, but I read it, and upon reading this passage, I noticed something. When Moses finds the Burning Bush, he hears God calling to him and replies. “Here I am.” Moses places himself, his full self, mind, body and spirit in front of God, acknowledging God’s calling for him. Yet, it isn’t until God shows their full selves saying, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”, that Moses then is fearful and hides. Moses did not express his fear when he saw the burning bush, or when he heard God’s voice. Instead, he felt fear when God revealed more. 

That night, sitting in my bed, I started to see more and more of God’s calling that was being put on my heart, and like Moses, I was scared. I wanted to hide my face from the fear. But what comes after the fear? What comes after the learning and teaching and doing? What comes after we tell God, “Here I am.”? Justice, equality, and peace. The good and spacious land, flowing with milk and honey, God promised to end the suffering.

I know this summer will be filled with challenges, worries, anxieties, and you guessed it, fear, but I also know and hold that this summer will be filled with peace, justice, friendship, fellowship, and love.

As I head into this journey, knowing there are others following their own callings God has placed on their hearts, knowing there are others struggling, seeking peace and justice in this world, knowing that fear is present, I say to them and to myself:

Peace be with you.

Training Week Reflections

2022 DPF Peace Interns Isaac Ackerman, Sophia Barnett, and Erin Gresham with Training Week Trainers Rev. Carol Devine (Minister for Green Chalice) and Terri Hord Owens (Disciples General Minister and President)

The Peace Intern summer always begins with Training Week -- an intentional time of preparation and education where the Peace Interns meet with leaders from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), justice advocates, and peace activists. Training Week is all about getting the Peace Interns ready for their summer serving as ambassadors for peace and justice. Here are Isaac's reflections on Training Week 2022.

Meet Sophia Barnett, 2022 DPF Peace Intern!

It is, it will be, it has been a wondrous and prosperous day. I send you much love and blessings.

Thank you for wanting to get to know a bit more about me. The cleverest way I can imagine doing so is to modestly introduce you to my inspiration: My Children!

My oldest is DeMarien aka D’Money aka Mari who is almost nineteen. He is very spiritually in tune, has a great understanding of life, and still allows himself time to just be. He has huge financial goals and still has love for the game (sports/video alike). Mari is a natural born leader, protector, and dedicated to his friends and family.

Next, is Kai. Most of you may know him as Lorrie. Kai is almost eighteen. He is extremely sweet, caring, and loving. Kai seemingly always puts others before himself. They have a plethora of business ventures and creative ideas. Kai is an introvert with a heart of gold that forgives easily.

Finally, the true boss baby of the bunch, Ailani aka Lani. Born with a natural ability to create with her hands. She has been sewing and drawing since she could hold a writing instrument! She has a genuine love for organization, art, and music. Lani is a born matriarch who sees the good in all even when frustrated.

And me: I am Minister Sophia M. Barnett, she/her pronouns, and my children represent every part of me! I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. I spent all my life growing up on both sides of the Motor City. I am currently a member of Full Gospel Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) where I became a licensed Minister in 2015 under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Gwendolyn Pettway. 

I currently own and operate several businesses: Wisdom Financial Management, Inc., Flowering Follicles LLC All-natural hair, skin, and body oil, M.A.C.C. Burgers Co., and the Making a Child Change Foundation. Through my non-profit, I have an opportunity to reach and teach teens who are interested in an entrepreneurial lifestyle so that they can gain the skills, background, and capital to start such ventures before graduation. Teens in our program also receive firsthand job experience as part-time employees at my restaurant M.A.C.C. Burgers Co. Not only do they receive high school required hours of service, but for every dollar earned we match and fund their college fund as well as the account for their future business. Our goal is that upon graduation the young adult is prepared for whatever journey they choose to take!

So why an internship now? Why Peace and Justice? In this season of my life, I am merging my passion to elevate the African American community beyond the strategic socio-economic injustices and my purpose to lead humanity to a Spiritually fulfilling life. This summer will allow me to connect with resources that will expand my reach to create change across the USA and then the World!!

Lastly, I am excited to meet other young people to listen to their concerns about peace and justice. The only way to know what the cries of the next generation are is to be there to catch their tears. You do not have to wipe them or come to the rescue to make them stop flowing. Just simply be an ear to listen. Open and receptive. I expect to learn a tremendous amount of wisdom from these youth and young adults. And I pray I may give them an example of being the change you wish to seek!

Meet Erin Gresham, 2022 DPF Peace Intern!

Hello everyone!!

My name is Erin Gresham, pronouns she/her/they/them.

I grew up in the Disciples of Christ denomination, dedicated and a member at Mackinaw Christian Church. I remember being taught in bible school about the unending amount of love God gives us and Jesus came to earth to remind us of that unending love and how we are in turn to love others.

I took that love as giving a smile, being nice and friendly, and I thought that was enough.

As I grew up, I started to realize God was calling me to love others and myself by seeking and learning about injustices, not just in our world, but the injustices happening in our own church. Soon, I found myself in environments of justice ministry, learning what social justice is and what does it have to do with the church? I believe what I found from diving into that question, opened up a door for me to work in social justice ministry.

I decided to enroll in seminary to learn more about this calling God put on my heart. I am currently at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma, seeking a Master of Arts (Social Justice) degree. Through my education, experiences, and personal ministry, I have learned I have a strong passion for environmental justice, LGBTQ+ justice, and mental health awareness. This summer I plan to focus on creating conversations and ideas about, what does it look like when we live a sustainable communal lifestyle?

In other words, how can we live in a way that takes care of ourselves, takes care of others in our own communities, while caring for the earth at the same time. How do we move towards wholeness in this fragmented world?