Rev. Eugenia Gamble, pastor of Nipomo Community Presbyterrian Church, Nipomo, CA, adapted this prayer from an old monastic blessing. She closes the organizational meetings for a newly forming local interfaith coalition on immigration with it.

May God bless you with discomfort with easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you will live deeply and from the heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and the exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those that mourn, so that you will reach out your hand to them and turn their mourning into joy.

And may God bless you with just enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do those things that others say cannot be done. 

Amen.

Recipe:  Bean & Tomato Stew—Square Edge

 Shared by: Paula Schaffner – California Central Coast Chapter

For eight months in 1986, the David Schaffner family experienced life in Palmerston North, New Zealand, through a sabbatical exchange. One treat was having lunch at the vegetarian restaurant in the Square Edge Building—so named because it sits on the edge of the city center square.

Living in New Zealand gave us a taste for crossing borders, and bringing home some Kiwi recipes has helped keep alive memories of our life there. Now I make this bean stew occasionally for our at-home dinners or as an easy make-ahead dish for potlucks.

*****

Bean & Tomato Stew – Square Edge

Contributed by Paula Schaffner

(Adapted from a recipe we enjoyed at the Square Edge Cafe, a great vegetarian café in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
The Square Edge Café shared its favorite recipes in a booklet.)

 Put the ingredients into a crockpot (or large casserole dish) in the following order:

            ¼ Cup      Oil

            ½ Cup      Onions, sliced

                    2      Carrots, chopped in large chunks      

                    3      Celery stalks, sliced

             1 Cup      Mushrooms

              2 tsp.      Salt

              2 tsp.      Garlic powder

              1 tsp.      Thyme (or dried basil)

              2 tsp.      Paprika

    1 16 oz. can      Garbanzo beans

    1 16 oz. can      Great White Northern beans

    1 16 oz. can      Pinto beans

             1 Cup      Tomato puree (or 1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes, blended)

            ½ Cup      Sugar

            ¼ Cup      Red wine

                    2      Bay leaves

Cover and simmer in crockpot (or low oven) for 4 hours.

*****

Your turn: Please send your favorite potluck recipe, particularly one that promotes global awareness, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Did you first eat this dish in a cross-cultural setting? Have you served it to foreign visitors? Tell us about it!

Carlos Apcho – Affiliate, Lima, Peru 

For the sixth consecutive year, we carried out the March of Nonviolence on October 2. Marchers included the Lima, Peru, Chapter of Maryknoll Affiliates, lay people of the parish, area residents and college students, Father Jose Fedora, MM, Maryknoll Sisters Rosemary McCormack and Analyn Manauis, and the Ambassador from India in Peru.

This march celebrates the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of India’s Independence, and renews our commitment to follow in his footsteps. Historically, Gandhi’s actions demonstrated that pacifism was a valid instrument for achieving political objectives. Gandhi maintained his struggle through peaceful resistance and seeking concord, and gained India’s  independence without bloodshed, in a century convulsed by two world wars and a number of tragic events.

During the March of Nonviolence, we are sensitized against using violence toward children, men, women, animals, or Mother Earth, and we are reminded that peace should lead us to love each other, no matter what religious creed each person practices. We pray to God that with the passage of time the March will take us to take us further along the path of nonviolence where we create an atmosphere of respect and harmony between the population to the south of Lima and Mother Earth.

*Translated from “Marcha por la No Violencia en Perú,” in No Tan Lejos del Horizonte #35, Nov-Dec 2018.

Bob Short - New England Chapter, Executive Coordinator

On Friday noon, after four and a half days of restoring a house with the Houston Chapter Mission project, two of the facilitators, Bob & Ruth Kleeman, took the Affiliate mission members on a trip to give us a taste of rural Texas.  We hopped into three cars and headed out on a two-hour ride across the vast, flat landscape of southeastern Texas to a little town called Nada. 

For those with even a cursory knowledge of Spanish, “Nada” initially seemed like a perfectly fitting name. The town-folk we spoke with estimated that there were a little over 300 people in town. However, the last available census in 2000 counted only 165. The discrepancy is probably attributable to genuine local pride.  Reportedly, Nada boasts a grocery store and US Post Office.  All any of us could see that day along Highway 71, which cuts through the center of town, were an auto garage and Leo’s Place, a bar and restaurant.  Checking on Facebook for “Things to do in Nada, TX” brings up a photo of an open crop field with a John Deere combine and a truck in the distance. No other photos or text appear on the page.