Of skate parks and peacemaking
By Beverly Wilson
PHOENIX, Ariz. – It’s a Friday night and 26-year-old Phicksaway Vongsaly is helping set up the weekly skate park at Sunnyslope Mennonite Church. Later he’ll walk around talking to skaters, getting to know them and even praying for them in Lao, his native tongue.
Phicksaway came to Arizona through the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP). IVEP is a Mennonite Central Committee vocational and cultural exchange program that focuses on peace-building. Each August, about 50 to 60 young adults come from many different countries to Canada and the United States to serve for one year.
Participants are placed in service assignments, but they are also encouraged to become involved with their local host families and host churches and to live out their faith both on and off the job.
From August 2006 to July 2007, Phicksaway served as assistant manager at Goldensun Thrift, a thrift shop that supports Goldensun Peace Ministries, a residential housing and day program network for persons with mental disabilities in the Phoenix area.
Friday nights, he helped with the church’s weekly skate park, an endeavor the church started after skateboarders and roller bladers began coming to the steps and courtyard area of the church.
When youth inadvertently scraped paint and caused other damage to church property, Sunnyslope responded – not by asking them to leave but by building a place for them to skate. “God spoke to our church family, we listened and the decision was made to embrace our young ‘guests’ and to encourage their visits by providing a special place and time for the neighborhood youth to skate,” the church’s Web site reports.
Church volunteers built ramps and rails, and a weekly skate club was born. Phicksaway became an active part of that club.
The 26-year-old also led worship with his guitar for the men’s ministry and helped out with Sunday school and church conferences.
Probably one of the most notable things though, according to Sunnyslope pastor Steve Good, was how he engaged the congregation through his vibrant spiritual life.
“His praying out loud was always fresh,” and always began with thanks to God for his mercy, forgiveness and love, said Good. Good remembers how Phicksaway’s example made him stop and say, “Man, so many of us have been ‘doing church’ too long; we've forgotten the core."
This was the first time Sunnyslope Mennonite Church has hosted an IVEP participant, and pastor Good said Phicksaway touched people’s hearts and expanded their worlds.
Reflecting on his time with the congregation, Phicksaway says, “I am so grateful and honor them as my family because their love and open hearts overwhelmed my life.”
He said his year in IVEP “has opened wide my world to understand other people more and also myself. … It was a year of peace and friendship, a year of love, unity, and sharing, a year of knowledge, a year of growing, and a year of reaching out.”
During Phicksaway’s last Sunday morning at Sunnyslope, 11 members shared their memories of thankfulness and love. “I am so grateful that [God] directed your path to Phoenix, Ariz.,” member Lugene Zehr told him. “When I hear the country Laos, now it has a connection to you.”
Since he left in July, several families at Sunnyslope have approached pastor Good with offers to host future IVEP participants. As he shares this, pastor Good adds, “[we] are just so appreciative of [Phicksaway]… He allowed a lot of us to see God freshly.”
END
Photo available: Sunnyslope Mennonite Church pastor Steve Good, right, stands with Phicksaway Vongsaly, a participant in MCC’s International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP) who was active in Sunnyslope during his time in the U.S. (Photo provided by Phicksaway Vongsaly)
Beverly Wilson is an administrative assistant for MCC’s Global Service Learning department.
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