Bread Doves for a Good Purpose!
Last week I, Reto Biedermann, helped lead a Christian church camp in Zermatt, Switzerland. We were 4 leaders, 2 cooks and 30 amazing children in the age of 13. The topic of the week was the traditional celebrations of the Christian year. So in 4 days, we celebrated all Christian festivities from our Christian culture and learnt about their deeper meaning.
We started with 3 kings day, carnival, lent, Palm Sunday, Eucharist, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsun and Christmas. We learnt that these celebrations are in fact a fusion of Christianity and the old Celtic culture and are also connected to the other religions.
Of course we all loved to experience the celebrations and feel them in our own bodies.
We sang around the fire, ate holy bread, painted eggs for Easter, decorated a Christmas tree, prayed and meditated. During the lent period we wanted to collect money for a good purpose.
I feel deeply connected to Children of the Earth, so I wanted to raise money for one of the COE Projects. I told the children about Christian’s and Mark’s M.A.D. project. They listened with a lot of fire in their hearts.
In the kitchen we baked bread in form of doves and went to Zermatt, Switzerland, to sell the doves and help this project.
The children were very enthusiastic and started to speak with the people on the streets about their mission and how well they did! 30 Children collected 487. - Swiss Francs in 1 hour and 30 minutes!! This was a record and we doubled last year’s results!!! We are very proud of them!
During the final talking stick round at the camp, several children told us, that collecting money for COE by selling bread doves was the highlight of the week for them. They loved to get in contact with the people on the streets and taking responsibility for the world, by really doing something for others. This was spirituality into action.
For me this week was very heart blessed. It was amazing to feel what a field of love was built by celebrating life together.
By Reto Biedermann