Youth Mini-Mission Events – St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

Youth Mini-Mission Event: Hiking Trail Clean up

Recently our young people gathered with friends and hiked on the AT (Appalachian Trail), enjoying a glorious day, entering into the beauty of God’s creation, exploring and playing in the nearby stream, climbing on a natural jungle-gym, and reflecting upon how God speaks to us through nature. It was a time of joy and embrace of the goodness we find in one another and in nature. We picked up trash as we went along, always trying to leave the place better than we found it. It’s amazing how we can fall into deeper friendships and closer relationships just by walking a trail together — but we did! Our Youth Mini-Mission Event program is designed to offer our young people (9-18) the opportunity to serve the world around them while reflecting on what our activities tell us about God and each other.

To view more photos of the event, please see the photo gallery on this website.

Take, eat, this is my body, given for you. Christ the King sermon

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

The Rev. Barbara Hutchinson

Christ the King Sunday

November 26, 2017

Take, eat, this is my body, given for you. In these simple yet remarkable words, Jesus gives us everything. In our outstretched hands, we receive whatever it is we are lacking in our heart, mind, body, or soul, be it hope, healing, joy, comfort, inspiration, challenge, insight, creativity, strength, or a taste of what is yet to come in our lives. It is a moment which we would talk about as sacramental, meaning that it is an outward expression of inward grace or, in simpler language, it means Jesus is there, in that bread, in that grace of acceptance we feel in our hearts, and in that pull toward our own wholeness, in God’s righting what has gone wrong in our lives, Jesus is there.

In our gospel lesson today, Jesus asks us to make every moment sacramental, and tells us how to do this. First is to see Jesus in every moment by looking at the need that is before us. Who is hungry, either for food or for respect and dignity? Who is feeling exposed or naked? Who is being imprisoned by jail cell doors or by poverty or addiction or race? Who is heart-sick and needs the touch of a human hand upon theirs? Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. See my body around you. See me in the need of others.

Jesus then asks us to be Jesus in each of those moments, by having the heart of Jesus. That’s the point behind receiving communion – that our hearts might be shaped and formed, so only love, whose origin is divine, will flow from us, so we will see the need in others and we will care. As hard as it is to be present to someone in need, whether it be grief or hardship or shame or rejection, we will stand with them as their companion and champion. Take eat, this is my body, which is given for you. Be my body, my heart for others.

Finally, Jesus asks us to do for or do to Jesus in each of those moments, by moving from caring to action, by imaging Jesus is each of those people before you, and asking you for help. These instructions aren’t merely metaphors, just as Jesus is not a metaphor. Jesus intends for us to actually put the plate of homemade food before the hungry person. Jesus intends for us to make that phone call to the person we know is lonely, or bring that casserole to the family in need, or talk to the person with kindness, even if we can’t understand them well due to their foreign accent. Jesus calls us into “Kingdom living,” which means seeing and responding to each moment sacramentally, as though Jesus were in the conversation, the interaction, the need. Take, eat, this is my body given for you. Do this for me, for my face is in each of the faces you see.

In Matthew’s gospel, today’s story is Jesus’ last teaching opportunity before he is crucified, so we have to imagine Jesus has saved the most important for last. Jesus is saying to us that our actions matter. We are to be accountable to what Jesus has asked us to do. This really is non-negotiable. You may notice that Jesus’ last teaching has nothing to do with orthodoxy, right belief, or how the church is to be structured, but rather, it’s all about orthopraxy – walking the walk, being authentic, making a difference in the world, being accountable for our choices or the choices others make on our behalf. We are living an authentic Christian life when we receive the bread on Sunday and on Sunday afternoon, as we plan our week ahead, we orient our lives to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger. Jesus did all of these things, which is why, when we do them, these moments are sacramental. Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you. In receiving the broken bread, we become Christ’s body, so that we can see, be, and do for Jesus, so we can be sent out into the world to move it toward justice, where wrongs will be set right, and only God’s love will pour from all hearts.

When I was working with the results from the Friday evening exercise at our Diocesan Convention, one person responded to the question, “What is your burning desire?” by saying he wanted to stop doing all the church activities and get out there and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. I was relieved to see this person wasn’t a member here at St. Andrew’s, because it said to me that that parish had lost its sense of Jesus’ imperative to make a difference in the world by looking around us and meeting the needs of others. Many times, churches can get self-absorbed or focused on activities of the people who come to church all the time, but forget those who are still outside the walls of the church. Jesus’ message today is a good reminder that we as individuals and as a parish should always use this as our criterion for making decisions about what to do or how to be or how to spend our money – do our actions meet a physical or spiritual hunger? Do they provide protection for those who feel naked, exposed, or vulnerable? Do they open our hearts so we love as Jesus did, unconditionally and with the desire to heal in every moment? Do they welcome those who may not have felt at home in church before? This is gospel work. Jesus makes that very clear today. This is why two of the promises we make in our baptismal vows are centered on how we make the love of God real to others in concrete ways. We promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. These promises cover it all. If we live into these two vows, through our choices and actions, we will indeed make each moment sacramental. We will indeed feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, and visit the sick and those in prison. Take, eat, this is my body, given for you.

Our actions matter, for through them, we enter into a knowledge and experience of Jesus, and that is our salvation. You may notice that when you hand someone a plate of food that you have lovingly prepared at the community meal, or listen to their story, or offer to help them get to their doctor’s appointment the next day, or when you make someone feel really welcome when they sit next to you in the pew, or when, as our young people did, you meet people of different backgrounds, like we did at the ESL class, or when we created a garden for people imprisoned by domestic violence, that you feel a particular closeness to God. That’s Jesus being there. That’s what sacramental living, or Kingdom living is all about.

Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is a day when we celebrate a number of attributes of Jesus, but in particular these two: first, Jesus is the Lord of lords, the King of kings, which means Jesus’ power is over all of the world. This means that if all is not well, it is not the end. This is particularly comforting in our world today, when each week it seems there’s some new thing to be alarmed by, either here in our country or elsewhere around the world – some natural or human evil released into the world. It’s good to know that this is not the end. Jesus will have the last word. Our story from Ezekiel reminds us that, when the Israelites strayed from YH, YH allowed them to stray, permitted them to be oppressed, so they could choose to return. They were never separated from the love of God, who is presented as the metaphor of the Good Shepherd in that story, but they were allowed to wander, living in the wilderness for some time before ultimately being brought back into the fold. This story gives us hope that this will happen to our world also. That, as Desmond Tutu predicted, if we each drop our kindness into a bucket, eventually that bucket will overflow, and goodness will reign. That’s God’s dream and intention for us. Each time we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned, we are adding to the kindness in the bucket and helping God’s reign come near. Each time we make these choices, we are acknowledging that Christ is Lord of lords, King of kings, and God’s goodness will prevail. Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you – so you can become Jesus in the world.

The second attribute of Jesus we raise up today is that there is judgment involved. That’s what kings do, they judge their subjects. If we had believed the stories from our last two Sundays were of the real Kingdom of God, not the fake Kingdom of God others presented, this statement might cause us some consternation. That “king” would have slammed the door on all those unprepared, all those without the appropriate resources, all those who lived in a place of fear or punishment. And if we were honest, we’d acknowledge that we’ve been in those places ourselves, and we’d be looking at the outside of a closed door. But here’s something interesting: those described, those unprepared, those without resources, those who live in fear, sound a lot like the people Jesus is instructing us to care for – those who are hungry, vulnerable, imprisoned by fear or paralyzed by oppression. This is when we realize Jesus is a really different kind of king. Jesus, as the King of kings, cares about justice, cares about everyone, cares about righting the wrong ways of the world. Here’s a way this could play out. Jesus as the King of kings, the one who cares about justice, can be good news for the bullies and those bullied. Jesus as the King of kings says that the power of Jesus will work with those who feel the need to prove themselves to be better or stronger than others, by giving voice to his or her victims, which of course has been the whole “#me too” movement, raising voices together to say this isn’t the way of the Kingdom, or by being the force behind laws or school rules that make this behavior unacceptable, and by drawing the bullies into a place of healing the deep hurts or rejection that is at the root of this behavior. This is also good news for those bullied, for God will be their companion and champion. Jesus will be with them. And if Jesus is there, then we will be also. Jesus knows what it is like to be bullied and was able to create new life from this violence and aggression. Jesus, through our actions, will do that for those who find themselves in this situation. Take, eat, this is my body, given for you, so you can do this for and to Jesus himself.

We will break bread together shortly and in receiving it, we will be given everything, all that we need to be whole, all that we need to make the world a better place, all that we need to see Jesus in every moment, to be Jesus in every moment, and to do for or to Jesus in every moment. Our life experiences are our daily bread, as are our times of joy and sorrow, courage and fear, strength and weakness, abundance and scarcity. As we allow Jesus’ body to be broken so we may become it, may we also allow Jesus to break open our daily bread, our lives, so that Jesus may come within. Let us allow Jesus to be our Lord of lords, King of kings, acknowledging that his way is our way and the way toward justice in our world. Amen.

Learning about how to be right with God.

Our focus this year is on how to be in right relationship with God by being in right relationship with our earth, God’s creation and primary revelation. Our young people are leading us in this effort, of course! Yesterday, we held a Youth Mini-Mission Event which helped us understand how crops and livestock can be grown in a way that works with the earth.

We visited Oyler’s Organic Farm, where they harvest apples, raise cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, and have a wonderful farm stand which sells only certified organic products, that either they produce or other business do. The woman, who was a 7th generation Oyler, told us about their commitment to growing produce organically, both in terms of the future direction of farming, but also because she remembered her father coming in after applying the pesticides with dilated pupils and pesticide poisoning and deciding that’s not a good future for his children and grandchildren.

Apples at this wonderful organic market – Oyler’s

We tasted amazingly delicious cider after seeing the processing room and examining the equipment which cleaned all the apples produced in their orchards. One thing that really stood out to me was the mindset behind organic farming — building up the strengths (nutrient rich soil supplements), bringing in and supporting the natural pollinators (bees), and training the apple trees in such a way that helps them naturally resist infection. It sounds a lot like a spiritual rule of life — support those practices which build up our strength in God, bring in resources that help our spiritual lives come to fruition, and adopting disciplines that keep us supported and growing in the right direction. There was a lot of wisdom in what she shared with us.

After experiencing what it would be like to be a migrant worker who would paid to prepare the crops for sale, such as cleaning the garlic cloves, we left there happy and refreshed in the idea that people are purposefully choosing to make a difference in how they move from “users” to “caretakers” of our land.

We then went to Boyer’s Orchards, where we had the opportunity to glean for apples, in cooperation with the Gleaning Project of South Central PA. We had a great time picking and sorting Crispin apples. We picked over 1000 pounds of apples, all of which will be distributed to food banks in our area. It was a perfect day of having fun, while making a difference in our world, to those who are hungry, and to the earth which we are called to care for.

Our next Youth Mini-Mission Event is 11/5, when we will go into the Michaux State Forest to learn about how to manage forests well and to clean up a trail. All are welcome to join us!

Youth Mini-Mission Event: Watershed Clean-up

A number of us gathered this past Saturday, as the warm air surrounded us and the bright sun shone down upon our shoulders, warming us to the chilliness of Middle Spring Creek, which we found ourselves wading in as we participating in a stream clean-up as one of our Youth Mini-Mission Events.

We began by learning about what a watershed is and why it matters. The map shown to us by our excellent guide visually showed our connections with each other, from those living in New York State, all the way down into Maryland. The blue intricate lines all over the map set the framework for our work as mission: loving our neighbors as ourselves means caring for the water and ground in our area well, so it doesn’t damage those further down in the watershed, and with cleaning up the stream, means actually enhancing the water quality for those in Maryland.

Our work, which was also fun and involved laughter and play, meant we were to wade in the creek and pick up trash.

Some of us were recording the amount of trash collected. Others took water samples for testing.

Some delighted in identifying the insects, fish and ducks which we came across during our walk.

All of us had fun.

All of us came away believing we had done good work.

All of us came together to “love our neighbor as ourselves” in a real and concrete way. All of us helped restore our earth to the way it should be.

This was good and faithful work, my friends!

To view more photos from our fun day together, please go to our website and look at the latest photo gallery: http://www.standrewsshippensburg.org/youth-mini-mission-event-watershed-project/

Our next mini-mission event is scheduled for October 21st when we will go gleaning and visit a farm which produces food while not damaging the environment. For more information, please see Mother Barbara or Tim or Irene Hawkins.

Youth Mini-Mission Event: Exploring the beauty of God’s creation

Today, in the glory of the sunshine and the beauty of God’s creation, 23 of us gathered together to spend the day enjoying each other’s company, learning something about God, and taking time to relax, breathe, put away our cell phones, and connect to something deeper within each one of us, and among us — a sense of family. We were expertly led by three guides: Joe, Jeremy, Kristin who not only instructed us on how to canoe, but also helped make the trip memorable, inviting our young people to refresh in the cool crisp water of the Conococheague, alerting us to the blue heron who seemed intent upon guiding us down the Creek, delighting with us at the large carp swimming among us, and bringing us to the perfect place to nourish our bodies and souls, when we needed a lunch break. It was a day of peace, calm, fun, and care for each other and God’s creation.

Group photo of people spending a day enjoying God’s creation.

Oh, the joy of having fun together in the water!

We ended the day reflecting upon the “best” of the day for each one of us. Answers varied from the wildlife we saw (such as a bald eagle, which was incredible!), to the varied nature of God’s creation, to the community easily formed, to the weather, to our safety, to our guides, to our sense of calm we found was finally ours to settle into.

Several of the comments offered made my heart smile– the sentiment offered was that even if they can’t get to church each Sunday, they are still welcomed, embraced, and engaged with as a part of our parish family on events like this. This is exactly the church I want us to be and live into. We say, in our mission statement, that we are an inclusive and welcoming community. This is one way we live it out: that we are not a closed club. We are not a group of people who demand a certain level of involvement or commitment to be “counted among us”. We always swing wide the door, always inviting people further into the mysterious place with God and within our parish family — and we also acknowledge and love people wherever they find themselves. Today we lived into this space. Thanks be to God!

These Youth Mini-Mission Events are designed to help us understand our relationship with our earth, and therefore, with God, the creator of the earth, and there were those among us who worked tirelessly today to help repair that relationship. One of our young people, Tom, was relentless in retrieving tires that others had foolishly and irreverently thrown into the creek. He quietly and purposefully went about his business of doing what was right, ridding the creek of pollution, finding a way to bring the tires out and then to dispose of them appropriately. It was very inspiring to see someone take this initiative to make a difference.

With care,

Mother Barbara

Youth Mini-Mission Event: Growing hearts by getting our hands dirty

I never want to take for granted the good-will of our young people. Many are teenagers and it wouldn’t surprise me, nor appall me, if once in awhile, I saw a discrediting look, or a rolling-of-the eyes, or a resistance to roll up their sleeves and do some hard physical work. Yet what I see instead takes my breath away. Rather I see willingness to do whatever is asked, or I see their capacity to stretch to meet the new requirements of the situation, which may have seemed out of their comfort zone before, or I see their ability to tell jokes and laugh together in a way I had not sensed before, or I see a sensitivity to include others, like a young resident of the WIN shelter today in our activities, which seem “normal” to us, but are anything by normal to her.

Our young people are truly amazing, which makes the work of the church in some ways easier and in some ways more challenging. We’re starting with young people who have been taught to care for others, so that makes our “work” of engaging them in mission events easier, for their hearts are already headed that way. It makes our “work” of engaging them in mission events more challenging, for it means we need to invite them into hard situations, so they realize caring for others comes at a cost. Sometimes that cost is discomfort that the world isn’t as we wished it would be for all people.

Today our young people and accompanying adults went to the new Women-In-Need shelter, which is designed to provide safe refuge for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. I have been on the board of WIN and then active as a volunteer and active as a PA Advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. It has been a time of intense learning and sorrow at the way others have been forced to live. I have learned a lot about life through this experience.

Our physical work today involved clearing sod from the garden area, assembling the raised beds, filling them with topsoil, and planting vegetables and herbs, either grown from our seedlings planted months ago and nurtured by the Hawkins family or provided by WIN. Our spiritual work may have involved asking the question why some people’s lives unfold this way and where God is in it all.

There were two stunning moments today for me. One was when one young resident (9 years old) came and joined us in the planting and fun. She laughed, planted plants and giggled over the jokes about the “creek” created by the overflow of the hose. She had a chance to have “normal” fun, a real treat to her, I suspect.

The other joy was one of the women in the shelter who came to help us plant. We asked her advice on where to plant the cucumbers, and she clearly knew her stuff. She offered good advice on where and how to put the plants together. I don’t know if we realized the value of asking her opinion, but I bet it meant the world to her. Most women who come to the shelter have no idea of who they are or of any value they have, so she clearly is making great progress. That’s to be celebrated.

Today was a great day of service. My heart is filled with gratitude that we are a church who makes this a priority and see it as a way to be formed in our faith.

Please see the photos below or view the photo gallery on our website: www.standrewsshippensbur.og.

Many blessings,

Mother Barbara

Thinking about how this will all fit together

Creating flower pots with zinnias to cheer the heart

Youth Mini-Mission Event – ESL Class with refugees

On the Monday after Easter, our young people and adults went to Catholic Charities in Harrisburg to meet and work with refugees who were in an ESL (English as a 2nd Language) Class. It was a wonderful way to take the gift of the joy of Easter (the risen Christ) out into the world, to help make a difference to those in need. Jesus instructed us to “welcome the stranger” and that’s exactly what we did.

We shared our goodie bags which we created before and brought with us a number of bilingual dictionaries to offer to the class.

The class was amazing! We began with the teacher asking the students to show us where they come from, pointing their home country out on a large geographical map. We were fascinated so many people come from Bhutan. There are 7000 refugees in the Harrisburg area from this country. These are people from Nepal who have been pushed out of the country and forbidden to return. We also met a man from Iraq and a number of people from Central Africa.

ca.

We discovered how easy it is to communicate with people who don’t speak the same language. Laughter and love seem to be universal languages.

We helped the students learn how to speak some beginning word sounds, since sounds such as “f” are not found in their native languages. We played “Go Fish” to help them with this exercise. We also engaged in conversation, asking them basic questions, and responding to their questions. It was fascinating and heart-warming to be a part of something that is helping people settle into our country and learn our language.

We had a wonderful time. Our hearts were stretched and filled with a sense of compassion and love. There were many ideas of how to extend this ministry. Hopefully, there will be more to come!

All of us, together!

Youth Mini-Mission Event – Serving residents at Bethesda Mission

Our youth began Holy Week by serving others. As adults who plan these events, our focus is on our young people experiencing what it means to follow Christ. We don’t use that language necessarily, and although we debrief afterwards and are willing and ready to talk about what the church does and thinks about the work we’ve just done, the emphasis has always been on developing the hearts of our young people to care about others. If we can do that well for our young people, there will be a place for faith in their lives, for they will discover, almost unexpectedly, that their hearts will be turned toward bringing goodness and healing into the world, and there aren’t too many better definitions of what faith is all about than that!

We gathered at Bethesda Mission, a homeless shelter for men in Harrisburg. There were 25 of us from St. Andrew’s, there to tour the facility and the serve the guests (those who come through the Soup Line, who are not residents of the home) and the residents (those who live at the shelter and are actively engaged in steps toward creating a better life for themselves).

Deacon Wanda met us there as she had made the contact with the mission. She did a great job of engaging us with the residents, encouraging us to pray for those who had asked for our prayers, and to hold the mission in our thoughts.

We were delighted that the facility was so well run and kept. There was a brand-new medical and dental clinic available to the residents. The hallways were freshly painted. Everything was spic and span! They also provide lockers for the residents to have a safe place to keep their belongings, which is so important.Also, they recognize that when people come off the street, they come “as they are”. They offer them a package of clean towels and sheets and toiletries, and treat each person with dignity and respect.

They have a well-filled pantry, stocked with donations from companies and individuals. Anytime you would like to donate food, there is an outside donation center where you can drop off clothing or food. We brought lots of new men’s crew socks, since that’s something that often is needed.

They do have an over-abundance of men who stay there than beds, and pull out these mattresses at evening so all have a place to sleep.

We had a great time serving the meal to the guests and residents. Some offered salad, others desserts (very popular) while others served the main course of fish, rice and beans and vegetables. All the residents were so grateful for our presence. I loved it that our young people felt so at ease with everyone, always wishing them “a good evening”. It’s the little things that really matter and our young people naturally thought of just the right things to do and say.

After we had fed them all, we went out to eat our dinner and to enjoy each other’s company.

It was a great day and wonderful way to enter into the holiness of Holy Week, by doing what Jesus did, feed the hungry.

Youth Mini-Mission Event – Refugee Resettlement

During these winter and spring months, our young people will be learning about and helping people who are displaced. These people will include refugees (people who come legally into our country to escape persecution), people who find refuge in domestic violence shelters (Women in Need), people who live at a Ronald McDonald House while their children are being treated at a nearby hospital, people who are homeless, people who are in military service, children of migrant workers who move with the farming work, and people returning home from military service.

This past Sunday we were blessed that Nina, an American citizen who came to our country and specifically to Shippensburg 22 years ago with her family due to persecution in Bosnia, shared her story with us. Nina and her son are amazing people who are dedicated to make the best of their lives here, in gratitude for the opportunity afforded them. Nina’s family were sponsored by Memorial Lutheran Church, whose members helped her parents find work, and who helped them settle into school and our community.

We also were fascinated by the story of David Luo, a faithful member of our parish family, who shared his journey into American citizenship as a refugee as his father resisted the actions of the Chinese government in the Tiananmen Square protests. Christina Luo, then shared her experience as an attorney helping those seeking asylum due to persecution in their home country. It was a very rich experience we were able to share.

Our young people then prepared goodie bags for the adult refugees they will be helping in their ESL class sponsored by Catholic Charities in Harrisburg. Nina shared how helpful these classes were for her parents, which makes our work seem very meaningful. It is a gift that we can teach our young people how to take Jesus’ commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” very seriously.

Feeding the body and soul.

Yesterday was a spiritually “full” day, by that I mean, it was a day when the presence of God seemed to saturate us at St. Andrew’s. At expected and unexpected moments, I kept bumping into the awareness of the presence of something bigger than any of us, something more pervasive than effort any of us could sustain, and something richer than any of us could image. After a remarkable morning of glorious worship, when Deacon Wanda, Mother Carenda and I stood behind the altar, raising up in our hearts all those who have worshipped and ministered in our parish over the past five years, when we were uplifted by a homily by Veteran Amber Endrusik, our youth gathered in the afternoon to help others, and by doing so, grew their hearts.

We participated in an effort called Food Recovery Network by collecting leftover food at the Shippensburg University, packed it in aluminum containers, then served it to the residents of the Episcopal Square. We presented an abundant feast, helped them fill their plates, offered them coffee, and sat and shared a meal with them. Then something marvelous happened! All of a sudden our young people were playing dominoes with them. Our young people didn’t know how to play this game, but the residents paired up with our young people and jumped right in to teach them. We went from serving others a meal to being with new friends. This is what Jesus is all about: making that shift from helping by giving to being in communion with others. We fed and were fed.

In our conversations following the meal, I became aware of how big the hearts of our young people are. They were willing to walk into the uncomfortable place of unfamiliarity to help other people. This is the zone where Jesus shows up: in our hearts, when we’re reaching out to help other people, when we’re struggling with the bigger issues affecting other people, when we want to make a difference, and when our hearts are turned toward justice. I thank God for our amazing young people, for their parents and our community who are forming them to be faithful Christians through their love of others.

Youth Mini-Mission Event: Gleaning

This past Sunday 17 young people and 10 adults gleaned 900 pounds of apples! It was remarkable! The day was beautiful and the energy high as we headed out in the rows of apples to pick any remaining fruit from the tree or to choose good apples from the ground. it was an amazing experience to have so many of us show up to gather food, which was then transported to SPO (Shippensburg Produce Outreach) and was distributed today to their clients.

We are forming our young people in their faith by offering them the opportunity to do hands-on mission work, so they can actively make a difference in reducing the problem of hunger in our area.

After the gleaning, the youth gathered in age groups to discuss their experience and reflect upon how this connects with our scripture (The Book of Ruth) and any social justice issues raised by our experience.

Thank you to everyone who participated!