This month’s current events article has been contributed by Billy Nichols, a 2006-2007 Peacebuilders alumnus from Naperville, IL. He is currently studying civil engineering at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign.

There had always been a barrier between my high school and the Marian Park Community. This separation was felt by a lot of the students, because my school is mostly white and Marian Park is mostly African-American and Hispanic. It hurt a lot to see a division that we were taught had already been abolished with the Civil Rights Movement. Still, I believed that change was possible and Peacebuilders gave me the perfect opportunity to make this change. I recruited volunteers from my high school to volunteer at an afterschool program for young kids at the Marian Park Subsidized Housing Complex. This community outreach became known as the Marian Park Peace Project.

At the beginning of my senior year, I spent a lot of my time with my mentor, friend, and partner contact Diane, who helped me tremendously in planning the project. I gathered up the courage to go over to Marian Park and one of my friends, who miraculously had already volunteered there, offered to come along. We volunteered at the afterschool program for a couple weeks and started talking about it with our other friends. In a couple Masses at school, I talked about my experience at Peacebuilders and the new project I was starting. I handed out flyers and made a sign-up calendar for people interested in volunteering. During lunch periods, I set up a table where people could ask questions or sign up. Word spread fast in the halls and classrooms, and before I knew it, most of the volunteer spots were filled and it was no longer just my friend and me.

I could go on and on about my peace project experience, but I believe the one and only thing that made it fulfilling and successful was that God had His hand in it. I had never organized a volunteer project before or talked in front of hundreds of people or spent so much time playing and tutoring young kids, but by “Letting Go, and Letting God,” everything fell into place. He allowed me to be His servant for peacemaking and I am grateful for that. At St. Francis High School, we used to always recite the Prayer of St. Francis, and it wasn’t until Peacebuilders that I was able to truly understand it. As Cardinal Bernardin concluded his book, The Gift of Peace, with the Prayer of St. Francis, I encourage you to begin your peacemaking journey with this same prayer. God Bless!

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.