Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of DeKalb

Our Mission

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of DeKalb is a liberal religious community of seekers. In our quest for truth and justice, we share understandings gleaned from our lives and experiences. We unite to nurture in all the divine seed that furthers the work of creation. We work for balance, wisdom, peace, hope and love in our families, congregation, communities and the world around us.

Tents of Hope for Darfur

On Saturday, November 22 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will host a social and educational event celebrating the DeKalb and Naperville community art project Tents of Hope for Darfur.  You are cordially invited to attend this event of food, music (UUFD and guest drummers will drum and our choir will sing African freedom songs), a powerpoint presentation about the tent project by NIU art students, and a gifting celebration for the NIU students and the Hope Haven children who turned a plain white 8-foot-by-10-foot tent into a colorful masterpiece. 

When I was contacted by Hope Haven Director Lesly Wicks about this project, I have to admit that I struggled with how we at UUFD could contribute.  As a small congregation, our time, energy and resources too often seem limited and stretched.  It’s sometimes hard to see our abundance when we feel the pinch of making our own congregation’s budget meet all our needs.  But the more I learned about the project and the devastation suffered,  my heart was turned. 

Our UU Service Committee Drumbeat for Darfur website reports:

Since 2003, the violence in Darfur has forced 2.5 million people – one third of the region’s population – to flee their homes.  Over 2 million Darfurians now live in camps for the internally displaced.  Another 250,000 have fled across the border into Chad as refugees and live in camps there.  In one camp alone, the Kalma camp, live an estimated 90,000 people.  Seventy percent are women and children.  People continue to arrive having walked for days.  They report that their villages are attacked and families killed. 

Some Kalma inhabitants have been living in temporary shelters for five years.  In the summer, temperatures in Kalma camp can soar to as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and in the winter, they can drop to as low as 40 degrees – especially at night.  An entire family may share one blanket, sleeping on top of mats or plastic sheeting on the sand.  Women and girls spend hours waiting in line every day to fill their family water containers, and walking up to four and five hours to gather firewood or grasses for fuel and animal fodder. 

In the Kalma camp, violence, disease, malnutrition, and dependency trap children in a cycle of poverty.  Children have limited access to primary-school education and no access to secondary-school education.  And then there is the violence and death.  Women and girls risk rape and assault each time they leave the shelter of Kalma camp.  People in the camps and humanitarian aid workers have been looted, beaten, and killed.  The Save Darfur Coalition’s website states that the death toll in the region is anywhere between 300,000 to 400,000. 

It is difficult to connect with people across the globe.  But UUSC and local leaders help us.  The Tents of Hope project in DeKalb was coordinated by NIU art education professor Mira Reisberg.  Mira and Karen Popovich, an art teacher at Thayer Hill Middle School in Naperville, brought together NIU art students, students from Thayer Hill, and children from Hope Haven, DeKalb’s homeless shelter, to paint the tent, create a mandala rug for the floor, and to paint squares depicting their hopes for the future.  The tent imagery includes the natural world of Darfur with stories of homelessness, refuge, and hope.  At one time, the tent was to be kept at UUFD after it was shown at the exhibition in Washington D.C. from Nov. 7 through 9.  But, circumstances changed, and through donations the tents are going to Dafur to help those who most need them.  The local tent will be sent to become a school in Darfur. 

How did UUFD help?  Both individuals and the congregation provided support.  Diane Johns donated hours stitching together the mandala floor; Jim and Helen Merritt provided much needed financial assistance;  Maylan Dunn Kenney and I gave time and support while Dr. Reisberg, Hope Haven children and NIU students worked drawing and painting at our building; and we, as a congregation, gave approximately 15 hours of  free building use and 20  plus hours of minister’s time over the past two months. 

What did we gain?  Friendship and stronger ties with Hope Haven and with the NIU art program.  The opportunity to help Darfuri and others in the region (Sudan, Chad) -- people we will never know personally.  But if, as we claim in our UU principles, we truly affirm the interdependent web of all existence…not knowing them personally will not matter.  Our spirits are lightened as we give.   Lesly Wicks told me this story, “I think the Darfur project will be a way for the shelter kids to give back, but also to help them heal.  A girl (who went south to help rehab homes after Katrina) said to me, ‘being able to help someone else was the first time I ever felt peace inside me.’”   Peace inside.  Ah, yes.  I think we gain that too. 

Please come on November 22.  I think you will be proud and maybe even enjoy some peace.  

In the Spirit of Life,   Rev. Linda Slabon

Sermons

November 2
Choir
Worship Leader: Rev. Linda Slabon
Assistant: Maylan Dunn-Kenney
Sermon: Honor & Remember El Dia De Los Muertos

November 9
Choir
Worship Leader: Nicole Berns
Assistant: Mark Matuszewski
Sermon: Identity & Aging

November 16
No Choir
Worship Leader: Glenda Cosenza
Assistant: Toni Tollerud
Bi-Annual Congregational Meeting

November 23
Choir
Worship Leader: Donna Veeneman
Assistant: Dave Becker
Sermon: Beauty Before Us – Lifting the Spirit with the Sacred in Nature

November 30
Choir
Worship Leader: Rev. Linda
Assistant: Clark Neher
Sermon: Light Bearers: Those who bring hope

December 7
Choir
Worship Leader: Mark Matuszewski
Assistant: Susan Dorbeck
Sermon: Oh, My Goddess!

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of DeKalb
158 N. Fourth Street
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-756-7089
uufdchurchoffice@aol.com

 

Child care services available.

Our church is handicapped accessible.

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