Hi there! This last week the YAGM Senegal crew had the amazing opportunity to participate in the Triduum Project, a live stream created by some of our friends in the ELCA. The live stream aimed at bringing non-stop, worshipful videos during Holy Week to help everyone stuck at home prepare for Easter.
My team was lucky enough to be one of the presenters. We cooked a Senegalese meal (Chicken Yassa!), taught some Wolof, sang in Serer, and shared some of our experiences living in the land of teranga.
Since Easter has now come and gone (He is risen!), I thought I would share my section of our presentation on this blog to close out my Lenten blog series (even this is a little late, sorry!). Follow along here if you would like to participate in a little art project connecting our experiences to the themes of the Easter story!
More information on how to get the full video presentation given by the YAGM Senegal team at the bottom of this page:)
The Project: Art and Reflection
We will be using art as a way to process the story of Easter/Holy Week in our own lives. In YAGM we often used art as a way to process and reflect on our experiences, so I hope that this will be helpful for you too.
I was thinking of an activity that would be kinda fun and relaxing trying to relate my life to the Easter story, and this is what I came up with. A super simple 2 minute craft, for kids and adults! Here is what you will need on hand as we go through this story telling together.
1 Box of crayons or markers - We will be connecting our feelings to colors as we walk through the Easter story so it is good to have a variety of colors on hand.
1 piece of blank paper with a boxy cross drawn in the center
Now to begin with, I will be sharing specifically how I connect my YAGM experience to Holy Weeks 3 main themes. However, as I share my story reflect on your life and choose one experience that speaks to you to follow along the art activity with.
When I think about Easter and Holy Week I see it in three different chunks
The old life of living and existing with God, almost status quo, much like the disciples slipping into routine living and learning from Jesus. However, there is also a sense of anticipation for the future in this first area. For example, the disciples knew things were going to be different in their walk with Jesus (after sitting through the last supper) but not quite sure what that looked like yet.
A moment of momentous change with the death of Jesus Christ and then the waiting, grief, and unsureness of what was going to happen next.
The resurrection of Jesus and the joy of “rebirth” on Easter.
In many ways, YAGM connects to this story and trajectory. It is a time period of intense transformation amongst volunteers like myself. However, in each of our own lives, we may also experience this feeling of anticipation, waiting/grief, then “revival”.
In this next section, as we walk through our stories and their connection to each "chunk", choose a color that you feel connects to how you feel/felt in that moment and color in your cross.
First in my story, much like I imagine the disciples, I felt stuck in the status quo of my faith, going to church, but not feeling like I was totally connected. This sent me to apply to the YAGM program: wanting to engage in the world in a deeper way, called by god to be serve and anticipating what that was going to look like in the global context. In this moment, I felt yellow (color the bottom half of your cross with your color).
Then somewhere in the year there is a time of shock, then reflection, knowing that I was going through an intense transformation and waiting to see how I would emerge from that confusion as someone changed. There were many small moments of transformation throughout my year of service: confronting poverty and privilege, living in the ambiguity of language and slowly understanding more, among other things. But this waiting represented not knowing how these moments were going to impact or change me until I came out of my year in Senegal. Here, I felt gray/purple (color middle of your cross now with your new colors).
The last section of this Easter story represents the joy of the resurrection and moments of rebirth. There is promise of a brighter day after the period of grief and waiting mentioned above. Right now, due to our evacuation from Senegal and this sense of "unfinished business" I carry, it seems like I am stuck in this period of grief in my life and YAGM story. However, one of the most powerful reminders that comes from the Easter story is that of promise for new life. There is so much beauty in the promise of the resurrection of Jesus, so although there are still parts of me working through transformation, I look forward to seeing that change that comes from this ambiguity. In these last few moments of my YAGM experience, I have already learned so much and felt new, changed, and joyous. I am stepping into a new life and new role, being able to live confidently and apply my faith better in the world. Coming out on the other side of this year with new experiences, new language, new skills, a thirst to learn more about social justice and serve communities in need, I feel revived. I feel green in this moment (color the top section of the cross with your last color).
Through all of these experiences we can see now our colorful crosses which represent how our personal experiences connect to the Easter season. I hope that you look at your own cross activity and continue reflect on your experiences. Thank you for your interest in YAGM Senegal and walking through the Lenten season with me, including all of its twists and turns!
Interested in watching the full YAGM Senegal presentation for the Triduum Project?
Check out the YAGM Senegal Blog here . More information about the Triduum Project is also included. Thank you for your interest!
Be kind to yourself and be kind to others:)