We have all come together here today to celebrate our time as Peace builders. We have been truly blessed to spend an amazing year together. This ceremony does not imply the end, but only the beginning of our roles in our communities as Peacebuilders. Both of us are honored to be speaking on behalf of the entire peace builder’s community.

As stated in our mission statement, we have been called, to gain a deeper understanding of our religious faith, further develop our leadership skills, resolve conflicts, and become advocates for peacemaking. We were chosen to become Peacebuilders because of our individual gifts and talents that we have. While being interviewed by Megan and Kyle, they knew that each of our diverse gifts would immensely contribute to the advancement of this program. We have also been challenged by our extraordinary mentors to gain a sense of confidence and competence to work as ambassadors for Christ and understand our call to ministry and service in our Churches, our communities, and throughout the world and to go beyond ourselves, to fully connect with other people and their lives.

Our summer experience is what truly began our transformation, not only did we develop new skills, but we also polished the skills that we had already acquired. The greatest aspect that we achieved was the ability to overstep our boundaries. We set our own limits; we were able to use our social skills to form friendships with each other. The aspects of our summer program were the initiators to help us amplify our connections with each other and the community.

There were five main parts of our summer experience: Yoga, Theology Sessions, TR Groups, Ministry Sites, and Community time. Yoga helped us to become more in tune with ourselves; we achieved inner-peace, and were able to relieve stress. Our TR Groups, or theological reflection groups, created a comfortable environment where you could open up and discuss personal things in your life without being judged by others in your group. As Peacebuilders, we have a great passion for service. And at our Ministry sites, we were able to experience lifestyles and cultures much different from our own, which helped us gain a compassion for one another in our community. Even though we may have had a feeling of uneasiness at first, we were able to express ourselves and connect in a more creative ways with help of the gracious people that we met at our sites. We learned how to live in peace with one another and the earth. Community Time helped us to grow together as a family. We grasped a new perspective on our lives and our potentials, and especially on what our Christian calling to ministry and service is, in its many forms meant to us. Our different qualities shined through each of us and we formed bonds with each other, we became a family.

Theology Sessions helped us to respect each other’s creativity; we were guided on how to embrace life as a peace builder. We also taught how to interpret God’s message and then using that message in the modern world. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan crossed the road to give aid to a man quite different from himself; he was able to step out of his boundaries to help the man. Understanding this parable helped us to break down our social barriers, to get know new people. Pope John Paul II once said, “No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness.” This is forgiveness is essential to peace making. In Father Bob Schreiter’s presentation of forgiveness as peace building, we learned to live out the values of reconciliation in our everyday lives. With forgiveness we are able to give up our resentment and gain new perspective. Forgiveness is also about not letting the past control our lives,
During the process of creating our projects, many of us felt stressed and frustrated dealing with the obstacles that we had to overcome, but when we completed our projects, the results helped us to feel a sense of pride, and we knew that we would do it all over again for the same results. The projects we have created reflect everything that we were taught during our retreat and the love that we have for each of our ministry sites, which helped our creative minds to craft such amazing projects. We were able to share with others who were not a part of this program the experience of being a Peacebuilder. With the aspect of service, we were able to let people know that we should all care for each other. Our peace projects also helped us to experience peace building as a way of life. Keeping in mind that we must be at peace within ourselves in order to share and spread the peace. You cannot share something that you do not have.

This program truly is a life changing experience. It opens so many doors for us as young Christians. Peace Builders revives and renews your life mentally, physically, and spiritually, and we can speak for everyone when we say, we cannot imagine what our lives would be like without Peacebuilders Initiative.

Standing before you today, we would like to thank several people. First, thank you to the partner contacts for always supporting and for nominating us to become participants of the Peacebuilders Initiative. Secondly, we would like to thank all of our parents, who supported us through our journey as Peacebuilders. Next, we would like to thank Megan, Kyle, and all the mentors for doing such an amazing job with us throughout the year. Lastly, thank you our fellow Peacebuilders, you have given us the honor to speak here today, and everyone in this group has always supported each other. We are unable to express in words the true effect that Peace builders Initiative has had on all of us. What we can say is that this program has inspired us to inspire others in our churches, our schools and our communities. It has inspired us to be the change. What we can remember is that we are the future, but more importantly we are the NOW!