Bishop Julius C. Trimble is the Resident Bishop of the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church.

Bishop Trimble has the personal mission to encourage all people with the love of Jesus Christ to rise to their highest potential. It is his commitment to his personal mission that led Bishop Trimble to create the “To Be Encouraged” Podcast along with co-host Rev.Dr. Brad Miller.

Bishop Trimble says, “I am compelled by Jesus to share with you an encouraging word or two about Jesus, theology, the Bible, the pandemic, the environment, racism, voting rights, human sexuality, and the state of the United Methodist Church.”

To Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble is to be published weekly and is available at www.tobeencouraged.com and all the podcast directories.

https://www.inumc.org/bishop/office-of-the-bishop/

The Arc Benders: Young People Leading the Way in Creating a Just and Peaceful World

In episode 065 of "To Be Encouraged," host Bishop Julius C. Trimble and co-host Rev.Dr. Brad Miller are joined by the Director of "Alive Fort Wayne (www.alivefw.org) Rev. Angelo Mante and by members of that organizations summer youth leadership training program Peacemaker Academy Timothy Poindexter and Samantha Morris,

The episode explores the power of forgiveness, the significance of peacemaking, and the transformative impact of intentional community. Here are three key takeaways from the episode:

1. Forgiveness is a Healing Process:

The episode emphasizes that forgiveness is not about condoning the harmful actions of others, but rather an act of self-liberation. Unforgiveness is compared to drinking poison and expecting the enemy to suffer. The process of forgiveness includes telling one's story, naming the harm, considering forgiveness, and either renewing or releasing the relationship. Telling one's story and naming the harm is essential in moving towards forgiveness and healing.

2. Peacemaking: Creating Positive Change:

The episode highlights the remarkable work being done through the Peacemaker Academy, a three-week program that focuses on teaching nonviolence and addressing trauma. The program, spearheaded by Rev. Angelo Mante, has exceeded expectations, positively impacting students in Southside High School in Fort Wayne. The academy includes activities such as guest speakers, field trips, and peace circles, where students can share personal experiences and bond with each other. The program's success has caught the attention of the district for potential expansion to other schools.

3. Beloved Community and Intentional Relationships:

The episode emphasizes the importance of creating intentional communities, known as beloved communities. By embracing the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the speakers recognize that peace is not merely the absence of tension but the presence of justice. They discuss the need to work towards a world where everyone is seen as God's children and can come together to create peace, unity, and understanding. The power of intentional relationships and smaller clusters fosters a sense of belonging and promotes a positive and peaceful future.

Conclusion:

This episode of "To Be Encouraged" highlights the transformative power of forgiveness, the significance of peacemaking, and the importance of intentional community. Listeners are encouraged to embrace forgiveness as a healing process, actively participate in creating positive change through peacemaking initiatives, and work towards the establishment of beloved communities. By doing so, individuals can contribute to a more peaceful, just, and inclusive world.

For More Information on Alive Ft Wayne and Rev. Angelo Mante and the Peacemaker Academy go to (www.alivefw.org)

Episode Time Stamps

timestamped

00:01:36 Moved from Atlanta to Fort Wayne in 2009. Cousin's murder in 2016 prompted move back. Started Peacemaker Academy in 2017.

00:08:22 Empowered to lead by confronting inner trauma.

00:10:13 Intense summer program expands; peacemakers making impact.

00:14:06 Nonviolence education: principles, curriculum, and student learning.

00:16:46 Dr. King's principles and steps for nonviolence.

00:20:03 Intervention program for troubled student yields success.

00:24:07 "Church sometimes misunderstands peace; peacemaking essential."

00:26:09 Beloved community cuts through divisions in world.

00:33:09 Process of forgiveness: story, harm, release.

00:34:42 Forgiveness creates freedom from anger and resentment.

00:39:18 Appeal to share podcast, create peace, pray.

00:41:24 Encouraging podcast with Bishop Trimble. Join us.

Hello, good people. Welcome to to be encouraged with

Bishop Julius C Trimble. The podcast, we will look to offer an

encouraging word to an often discouraged world. Our

special guest today on the podcast is Reverend Angelo

Martin from the Alive Fort Wayne organization,

which has to do with making peace in their community in Fort

Wayne. And what particular program they have is the Peace Maker

Academy, which is a leadership development program

for high school students at Fort Wayne. And a couple of students are with us

today. They are Samantha Morris and Timothy Poindexter. So,

Bishop, would you help us welcome these folks to our podcast here

today? Welcome angelo and

Samantha and Timothy. And thank you for sharing

this time with us. We know people will be blessed and encouraged be

enlightened as a result of your sharing. So thank you so very much. Angel,

can you just briefly introduce our two students yourself and the

two students who are with us, and they can say just a word about themselves?

Yeah, I'm Angelo. I'm the executive director of Alive here in Fort Wayne.

And to my left is

Samantha Morris, and to my right is Timothy

Poindexter. They are high school students here in Fort Wayne, and they

are part of our Peacemaker Academy this summer. And you'll give us just a little

bit of context about how elia

Fort Wayne came into being and then

evolved into the Peacemaker Academy. A little context there then. I want to get a

little context from Samantha and Timothy as well, but just

a little background here. I'm from Fort Wayne, born and raised,

but we left to go down to Atlanta

back in 2009. I attended Candler

School of Theology down there, and we started

planting roots after I graduated in Georgia. And

we went down with one child, and we had a few more when we were

there, and we were planning to stay there

for the long term. But in 2016,

I got a message early in the morning on September

13 that my first cousin here in Fort Wayne was murdered.

He was shot and killed, in fact, just a few blocks from where we're sitting

right now. And I didn't have a little brother

growing up. He was the closest thing that I had to a little brother. So

this is really something that it was

devastating. And I had friends that I lost

growing up to gun violence, but never a family member.

And it's something that even to this day, for our

family, is really difficult, to say the least.

He had three kids. He was 30 years old, and he was

killed. And I'm spending some time with his

oldest today after the academy.

So after that happened, we felt called to move

back to Fort Wayne. We prayed about

it, and we were already following the trajectory of violence here in the

city even before that happened to my cousin. But when that happened and

I came back and I officiated the funeral. And even as I was

preaching at the funeral, I knew it was time to come back home.

So the next year we were here in

the summer, we moved back in June

of 2017. And that first year we spent a

lot of time just learning, getting to know other families who've been affected by

violence, meeting with churches,

pastors, nonprofit leaders in the community

that were trying to do something about this issue of violence and trying to figure

out where we fit into that. Where we started

was we were coming alongside families who had been

affected by violence, and especially children. There's

so many kids in communities everywhere

who fall through the cracks, who've been affected by violence.

We started coming alongside them, connecting them to resources. We

started the support group, but the more that we did that work, the

more we felt that we really needed to do more around

prevention and intervention, something that would lead to less families

needing support like that in the first place. And so we

got connected to this Kingian nonviolence

network. I went down to Selma for some violence

trainings, and through that network, I got connected

to this school in Chicago that was doing some really cool work

around violence education in their school

in the North Lawndale neighborhood. And so

out of that emerged this vision, fort a

Peacemaker Academy. They were making a huge difference in their school

and reducing violence. And so we said, hey, why not here? Let's

try something here in Fort Wayne. We started with Southside High School here in Fort

Wayne. The whole idea of the academy, it's a three week experience in the

summer for students, where we teach them nonviolence de escalation work

on our trauma and inner piece, but

then we go forth from the summer and walk with them throughout

the course of the year to help them build peace in their

school. And so this is the first year we have a few students

from other schools, but South Side is still

our primary focus right now. But this is the third year that we've

been doing this, and we never anticipated how fast that

this would take off. Awesome. You got a couple of those students with us right

now. And Samantha Morris, once you introduce yourself, tell us

a little bit about yourself, where you're a high school students and what got you

involved with Peacemaker Academy. Yeah. So I'm going to be a

senior at Northrop High School. And what

got me involved with Peacemakers was my dad is like a pastor at

the church. It's hosting it this year, and so I've heard a lot about

it through that and the impact it had at Southside.

And I've seen a lot of violence within my school and community, and I wanted

to take Peacemakers to my school to help fix

that and at least provide some relief for them. And Timothy Point

Dexter share us a little bit about your story, what you're in school, and tell

us how you got connected with Peacemaker Academy. Well, my name

is Timothy, and I'm going to be a junior at

Southside High School next year. And how I got introduced to

Peacemakers was I have a friend who went to Peacemakers. He went to the

academy a year before me, and he told me about it, and I

was interested. So I started off by going to the club, and I really liked

talking to the people that were there. So that's how I was introduced to the

Peacemaker. Well, Bishop, I know you had several things

you wanted to ask these students and

Angelo about here. Just want to ask Timothy and Samantha and

maybe start with Timothy Peacemaker

Academy. I looked at the website and

watched some of the videos. It says it

empowers young leaders. I want to know how this

experience is really empowering you as a

leader and maybe some of the

backstory, how you've grown as a leader

and the benefit you see from participating in Peacemaker

Academy. And the same question for Samantha.

Well, peacemakers for me has definitely impacted me a

lot. It's definitely taught me how to use my

mouth instead of my fist to stop violence. Well, using my

fist wouldn't stop violence. It would create more violence. So

that's why I am learning from here how to use my words,

because at this place, it teaches you using your words is

more courageous than fighting someone

and how when you talk to people, it can resolve more

than what you would do in a fight. Often it seems like

a fight doesn't have a conclusion, because if one

person gets the upper hand, then

nothing is really resolved. So it seems

like Peacemaker Academy in terms of empowering

leadership, there's a process, and I know both

of you have gone through the various steps related to

nonviolence. So thank you so much.

Samantha, I didn't mean to cut you off before you got

started. For me, I think it's empowered me to be a better leader in that

I've learned to deal with a lot of my own inner violence and trauma

and things like that. So it's allowed me to kind of project that outwards to

my family, to my friends, and hopefully to my school when we start

school back up. I've just learned a lot about how

to deal with not only the violence around me,

but within my own life. And I think that's really provided me a

lot of balance and peace that I can then

use within my leadership skills to help change the community

of my school. Does the academy provide an environment for you to

share more of your stories or what you're going through? I know you mentioned

Timothy, you mentioned the club. Can you help our

audience understand what are Peacemaker

clubs? Okay, so after school

on Thursdays, there would be a club in one of the classrooms

where they'd have snacks. We go and

we sit in a circle and then they'd start off by ringing a bell

to get us all calmed down and get in the mood to talk. And

then they pick a subject and we talk to each other about

it. And it felt like peaceful. It felt

open because it felt like you were being judged. It just felt

like you could actually talk to people, which does help.

And I really liked it. It was comfortable talking to the other people

at the Peacemakers Club. Angelo,

you've talked about what are the highlights that people I know, they have so

many experiences. What do people come away from Peacemaker

Academy saying how this experience has impacted

them? How does this flow over into the school

environment? Because I understand that you've got administrators now on board,

people. This is kind of picking up steam.

Yeah. It's amazing

how much we're able to fit into three weeks.

We're in our third week right now. We have a couple of days left and

we are exhausted. But it's a good exhaustion. There's just

so much. We have speakers come in.

We had deputy chief of police that came in yesterday.

We do field trips. We went to Turner

Chapel. We have a really strong relationship partnership with

them. It's the first black church established here in Fort

Wayne. It's an AME congregation and learning the

history about the AME and the history

of that particular congregation here in Fort

Wayne. We spent time at the rescue mission

here. We ate with the residents, homeless

men, and then learned from some of their staff. And there's

just so much that we do in addition to the curriculum that we teach

here. We're going to do an evaluation in a couple of days,

give the students an evaluation of the summer

program. But the first two years, all the different things that we

do, what's come out on top as

the highlight of the summer experience is are the peace

circles. The peace circles, that's something that anybody can it is not

complicated. We start each

day, as Samantha said, in a circle.

We normally start off with a more light hearted question and then we go deeper.

So I think on the second day, the deep question was how

have you been impacted by violence? Students don't have to share. They can

pass. On that second day, most everybody

shared some really deep stuff and that's what bonds us

almost immediately. And of all the things we do, that

elevates to the top of the list for students in the summer experience. Now,

as far as how everything is going in the schools,

that's what this is all about. There are lots of summer programs out there and

all of that. But we see this as the launching point. So the summer

academy, it's very intense, but it's the starting

point for everything else in the school.

Over the past couple of years. What the students have been able to

accomplish has been remarkable, and they are

making a huge difference in the school. And

I can list specific things if you want, but

it's catching the attention of the district to the point

where and the superintendent spent time with us a couple of days ago.

They're working on a referendum for the fall around district safety, and

they're looking at weapons detection and some more resource officers

and some other things. They've added a line item for us

because they want to see what we're doing expand into all of the Fort Wayne

community schools, high schools, which is huge. We saw that

happening maybe over the next ten years, 15

years. But to be happening right now is just a testament

to the impact that it's having in the

school. And the principal has spoken on our behalf

and the vice principal and administrators and

98% we did a teacher survey and a student survey. I think

it was 98% of students and 99%

of teachers, or maybe it was the reverse

that said that peacemakers are making a positive impact

on school culture. That's

phenomenal. We got to work on that other. 2%, I

guess, but it shows systematic change, which

is so hard to come by right

in the interchange between kind of a church based or religion

based thing and school systems and government systems and

all that kind of thing. My goodness. That is awesome, isn't it?

Bishop? It is awesome. Let me ask

about the whole violence

training and the basis for it. A lot of people were

born after Dr. King was assassinated,

so some people have little or no knowledge other

than maybe they heard that I Have a Dream speech and

that there's a King holiday. But this notion

of nonviolence, I think his last book, The Rev. And

Dr. Martin Luther King was. Where do we go from here? Chaos or

community. And it seems like there's a lot of chaos in our

society when it comes to particularly gun

violence. I grew up on the

South Side of Chicago, and a lot of times the violence was

really measured by an occasional knifeing.

But now mass shootings is almost well, it

is more than a weekly occasion. So tell us a bit

about the principles of nonviolence and how

that is translated into the curriculum

itself. What do students learn? Maybe I should

ask them what they've learned. So we memorized the

six principles of violence as well as the six steps to

nonviolence, and those really I mean, I don't have to recite them

right now, but they really taught me how to

have violence in a community in a

realistic way. So it's not just some

big dream that's way far ahead in the future, but it's something that we can

start working on now and that we can practice in our daily lives,

not by way of life for courageous people. And that was one that we focused

on a lot. That's the first principle. So really making it a way of life

and implementing it into our communities is what I took away from that

the most. So this is not a test, but

help us. What will be a couple other the principles, timothy? Well,

as Sammy said, the first principle is that nonviolence

is a way for courageous people. The second principle would

be the beloved community is a framework for a

better future. The third principle, it would be attack forces

of evil, not the persons doing evil.

The fourth step, suffering without retaliation

for the sake of the cause to achieve goal.

The fifth one, avoid violence of the

spirit as well as

external physical violence. And the 6th principle

would be the universe is on the side of justice. Not

bad. Too many people to put on the spotlight yet, my friend. That's right.

No pressure. The principles are the heart and

soul of the curriculum. Dr. King, he first

articulated principles in it's called The Pilgrimage

to Violence. It was published as an essay, but it was also

in his first book, Strive toward Freedom, chapter

six, I think. So we learn about the principles,

but we also learn the steps. The six steps of nonviolence. The principles are often

referred to as the will, and then the steps are the skill that's how

do you organize a campaign? How do you go from

gathering information to education and kind of

go through the process, direct action and

protest, if that's necessary. But the end goal is

reconciliation. So the principles and the steps are

the foundation. But there are lots of other things de escalation

learning, types of violence, levels of violence. This framework of

nonviolence, I think, is the greatest gift that Dr. King gave us.

We think about his achievements and the Civil Rights Act

and the achievements that he was able to

accomplish throughout his career. But the framework

of nonviolence gives us the

vehicle to continue to create change in

our own lives and our interpersonal conflicts that we have, but also

in our school, in our community, and at the larger social

level. Because when you talk about something as complicated as gun violence, we have

to address that at the individual level all the way up to the political and

social level. And nonviolence you mentioned, Angelo,

and about the statistics, about how 98,

99% of the students and the teachers and

the faculty in the school system say this has made an

impact, this peacemaker academy has made an

impact. I really would really be interested in hearing

the story about that to see if there's actual stories

that have been come to life either in your own life,

Angelo, or in Timothy or Samantha, where they've seen

that play out in real life, either it might have been

in the school or might have been at home or someplace else. But

I'd really like to hear from the students and for you, Angela, about any actual

stories, how they've seen something that's happened in their schools, where

maybe there was a de escalation or maybe there was some

different approach rather than violence. Can any of the three of you speak

to that, please? I can start.

So definitely around South Side. I don't really go around the

commons and stuff, but there's usually a bunch of fights

that happen in the commons. But around when

peacemakers started getting bigger in the school, more fights have been de

escalated by people. Instead of people watching the

fights, people have tried to stop the fights before they could happen.

So that's a way that I've seen the peacemakers impact my school. The

commons, is that the cafeteria or is that a public space or what's? The

commons. The commons is like a big area

around the school.

No, it's in the middle, I would say, around the school. And it's like where

a bunch of kids come to congregate and talk to each other. There was

a particular student at the beginning of this past

year, the academy. This is a leadership

program for students who are leaders. This isn't an intervention

program, so these are kids that are already on a good

path, but we wanted to work

toward doing more intervention. And so

we talked to the administrators about that, and they gave us the name of

one particular student, and they said this would be a good place to start

because he's having a lot of issues. And so

our staff person in the school started to start a

building relationship with him. He was on house arrest and

was really on the verge of getting expelled from

school, and so started building that relationship and

ended up learning about all of this trauma, just

learning his story and seeing where that violence,

where those issues were coming from. And that's something we're really big about, seeing

violence as a symptom and really trying to get underneath

that. And so we did that with this student, and

within a couple of weeks and we had people here at the church praying

for him and really started seeing

some pretty miraculous changes. And he told us that he wanted to be a

peacemaker, so we said, all right, well, let's start

by squashing this beef with this other student that you have.

And so we called them into a room together,

and he took the initiative and apologized for his part in the conflict. And this

was a really serious issue that could have really

escalated. They were able to squash that, put it behind them,

and he's been part of what we

do ever since, been part of our peace club. That's

just one example, one story, but there are

lots of stories like that that we could share

at the individual level, but also at the school level.

Samantha, how about you? Have you seen any evidence of this in your life or

in your school? So it's the first year that it's going to be at my

school. So I haven't really seen it within my school yet. But within my personal

life, I've been able to teach everything I've learned to my family, use

it in arguments. With my sister. We learned affect labeling, which

is basically ignoring whatever words are being spoken, buying the

emotion and reflecting that back to the person and just saying, hey, I understand why

you're upset. This is what you're feeling. Let's figure out why and not

yell about it. I've used that with my sister to kind of de

escalate any situation when she gets angry with me. And that's honestly helped us get

along better. Within the past couple of weeks, I've noticed not that

everything's perfect, but that's helped me within my own personal family life,

and I feel like I'll be able to use it within my school. I've seen

what impact it's had at Southside, and I hope I can do the same

thing when school starts. I'm sorry, I was going to say we

often think of Martin Luther King, Jr. As a civil rights

leader, but he was a Christian minister, a Baptist

minister. So I like some

commentary around this is not some would say

this is not necessarily totally new in that

Jesus teaches, Blessed are the peacemakers fort.

They should be called the children of God. What does it

mean for us to embrace this

Christian principle and translate

it into

living it out? I'm wondering if some of what you're learning in

peacemakers, Samantha, for example, is that

consistent with what we are learning or we should be learning or

teaching in our church experience as well?

At least for me, I would say yes. It really does align with what I

learn in church and what I hear on Sunday mornings.

It really does have to do with the

love your neighbor, all that stuff. Really. It's kind of based off

of Jesus teachings. I feel like that's probably what inspired Dr.

King. It really is integrated with Christian life. Yeah, I can speak

to that as well. I think that one thing that

the church doesn't always get entirely right

is the concept of peace. Like, what is peace? Dr. King

talked about the difference between positive peace and

negative peace. And that's something that we talk a lot about in the academy. Just

not being violence isn't enough,

right? So I think a lot of times we feel like, oh,

we're peaceful. We're a peace church or a

peaceful community because we're not actively

contributing to the violence. Like Dr. King said, the positive peace is

the presence of justice. Right? It's not just the absence of tension.

So I think that this whole idea of being a

peacemaker, that's why we use that word more and more. I mean,

we use the word nonviolence too, but we really like that word

peacemaker because it's active. We are

actively making peace. We're actively stepping into

situations of conflict and violence and injustice and

making peace, sometimes causing conflict. Sometimes we actually

need to create conflict in order to really

get to the heart of the issue of

injustice. And so I think that peacemaking is

absolutely essential and central to

discipleship, to this journey of walking with Jesus. And

creating peacemaking also involves and

is a part of your mission, I believe, creating a beloved community. And

certainly what Martin Luther King talked about, I know Bishop Trimble talks about that all

the time, creating the beloved community. But that means creation of that means you're

actively involved with getting things done. I'm

reminded of John Ten about the abundant life.

The opposite of that is the deteriorating life. And

so theologically, I think there are some real good foundations

for this. But can you speak a little bit to that? The creation of

the beloved community is kind of at the heart of what you folks are about.

Angelo yeah, so I think there is so much

chaos in the world and so much

division. We divide around all kinds of

different lines, whether it be race now

politically, the divisions that we have, the divisions that we've

had in the church over theology.

And so I think beloved community really cuts through all of

that, recognizes the idea that we're all God's children

and how can we come together and

create this beautiful thing together and these

pockets of beloved community. And that to me is where it's about because

a beloved community happens really in

clusters, right? The larger you get, the harder it is to really

have that beloved community. Because it's about relationship, it's about being in tune

with what's going on with

your sister, with your brother. I think of Acts chapter two,

that intentional community where they're living together and they're

living among one another and breaking bread and praying for one another. No

one among them had any needs, right? And so

we see that happening here in the academy. Like if there's something

going on, that's why we wanted to keep it a smaller,

more intimate group. I think Jesus was on to something. Jesus could

have had 2000 disciples, but

he had twelve of his closest and walked with

them. And so when we gather with these folks every

day and we're sharing what's going on in our lives, if something happened

in our home last night, we're sharing that and we know what's going on. If

there are any needs, we know what's going on. And so having

this pocket of beloved community and when we look at South Side,

that's what we're trying to create, pockets of beloved

community. I don't know that you can have a beloved community of 2000 people. Maybe

you can. But if every student has a place

corner of that school where they could feel like they belong and have a group

of students and do that in a way that's not

clickish though, where it's not like our group over here and your

group over there, and all moving toward a

more positive, more peaceful future together. That, to me,

is what it's all about. Bishop, what are we learning

here from Elia, fort Wayne and Peacemaker Academy, especially in

terms of how this can be either an inspiration or a

model for other United Methodist churches, our clergies, our community,

because violence is not contained to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

We all know that, and not just the school systems there. So,

Bishop, what do you think? Are some transferable principles or some lessons learned here that

we can apply other places? Well, I think

of some of the sayings of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One of them

being that progress does not roll in on the wheels of

inevitability. It translated fort me is

that if you don't do something, you can't expect things to get

better. And what I give thanks to Timothy

and Samantha and Angelo and a whole host of others that are

not on this podcast today is they decided to

do something and invest in it. Angelo could have brought the idea

and no one signed up. It wouldn't have made

a difference if students don't actually embrace it. So we've got

to create the world that we want to have, the schools that we want to

have, and it's not just on one person. It is,

as Angelo said, clusters of people who can

catch a vision and decide, well, I know one of the

steps is you got to educate yourself and prepare yourself

to do the work. So we really have to we have to create the world

that we want to have. And I see that's part of what's happening.

I want to do a little like a little game, if you will.

It's not a game, but one word, and get

reflections on it from Timothy and Samantha in particular. So

here's the first one. Inner violence.

When you hear that inner violence, these are things that I've heard said

that are related to peacemaker. So what do you think

about when you hear that inner violence? What is that? Go ahead,

Timothy. Well, when I hear someone talk about inner violence, I think about

the violence of the spirit, like what you're keeping inside, like something

you're not talking about or the way you're feeling, and it's eating you

up. If you keep your internal

violence, if you keep letting yourself attack yourself,

then you're going to unleash it and attack someone

else. Has that been part of your experience? And do you think that's

common with other students or younger people and they just never had

of a chance or a place to really to share their. Stories or

that definitely. Internal violence is a big part of my

life, and I feel that it impacts other people because people

don't like talking to Luther people. They think it's

weak. So I feel like if people had something like this or. If people

were able to talk to each other more, I feel like it would definitely help

a lot. Samantha, interval.

For me, I think it can come in many forms that could be

trauma, mental illness, mental illness caused by trauma, really

a lot of things that cause us to bring ourselves

down. And in that, I feel like it brings out a lot of

physical violence or outer violence that we project out. So I

think that within at least my generation, I feel like, timothy,

you'd probably agree inner violence is like, a really big reason for why

we're violent externally. For me, I know I've

experienced a lot of inner violence myself, and I

think peacemakers has helped me work through that, but also to learn that I can't

have that if I want to have external peace as well, which goes right

along with I think it's principle five, I'm pretty sure.

Yeah. So I think that when I think of inner violence, I just think

of how we can fix that through peace circles,

things like that, to kind of help us get through that. It's something that has

to be worked through before we can have true peace. Well, let me throw another

word, and Samantha, you can start and pass it to Angelo and

then Timothy, forgiveness. What do you think about when you hear that

word? Forgiveness? Yeah,

I think that forgiveness does have to do with

inner violence, because you can't really have that peace within yourself. If

you're not going to forgive whoever has

caused you harm in the past, it doesn't mean

that you're condoning whatever's happened to you or whatever that person has done.

It just means that you're going to accept that it happened and you're going to

not really be angry anymore, and you're going to

kind of find that it's more about finding peace within yourself. You're forgiving them

for yourself rather than forgiving them for

that person. It's not a gift you're giving to them. It's a gift you're giving

to yourself. Yeah, I think it's

something that you do for yourself, and I think that's one of the biggest

misunderstandings that people have. They don't want to give that to somebody

that's harmed them. But it's

like Dr. Lafayette, who I learned nonviolence from, he said

that unforgiveness is like drinking poison and

expecting your enemy to die. But it's

also a process and a resource that's really helpful. We teach this in the

academy is Desmond Tutu's forgiveness? The first is to tell your

story. That's number one. And then it's to name the

harm. To consider forgiveness, and then to

renew or release the relationship is the fourth step, but

it's a process and the whole tell your story piece the first step. We had

a whole exercise on that in the academy where

after we asked, how have you been impacted by violence? We

then had the students write a letter to

the person that caused them harm, and it was just a journaling

exercise. But being able to name the harm and tell your story

is such an important part of that, what can be a really

lengthy process depending on the severity of the issue.

Thank you. Timothy. You hear the word forgiveness and we talk about wanting

to be peacemaker. And Angelo talked

about another student that they had to bring in to work out through something.

Do you think about forgiveness? Is that something that

we really don't pay attention to?

Yeah, I feel like people take forgiveness for granted because

they feel that they don't want to give the person.

They don't want to give the person, make

them feel good about themselves. They don't want that person

to feel like everything okay, like they're good and

happy and everything. But forgiveness isn't trying to

make the person that you're forgiving feel better about themselves.

Forgiveness is telling. It's like accepting that something

happened and that you have no hate towards them. And it

helps you because not forgiving someone eats you

up inside and when you're holding something

in, it doesn't feel good. It makes you angry because you're

constantly thinking about it. But if you can forgive the person who's wronged

you, it's like releasing a weight off your shoulders. Yeah. Brad, it's

interesting because we pray that Lord's Prayer frequently. I wonder, do we really

pay attention to that core statement, forgive us our

trespasses or debtors or forgive us our trespasses as we

forgive those who trespass against us? So forgiveness

is kind of a core center to that

prayer that Jesus taught as a model prayer. And

I think that's an important aspect of that, just what angel said.

But forgiveness is really for ourselves, it really is

for others. Well, I think the flip side of that

reflection, when we think about how others have

harmed us is really doing some deep inner work,

reflecting on the harm that we've caused others. They're

part of it too. And as we do that, that's a really humbling journey

because often we don't really sit with that,

the harm that we've caused. And so that's a really important part of

this process too. Yeah. Well, Bishop, this is a conversation that could go on and

on and on, couldn't it? And it should go on. Right.

But let's conclude with this thought. The theme of the

Bishop's podcast is to be encouraged. So I just really

would like to hear what's encouraging to all of us here to conclude

with and Bishop, if you could conclude our time together here with you, what you're

encouraged about in a prayer. So let's just start with

Samantha. Samantha, what's one thing you are encouraged by as we

conclude our conversation today? I think I'm encouraged just by the connection I have

with all of the other peacemakers and how much I think that we're going to

be able to do just in all of our planning that we've done over the

last couple of days. That's what really encouraged me and makes me really

excited for the future. Awesome. Timothy, how about you? What's something that encourages you

today? I'm really just encouraged by the

peacemakers in general. I'm encouraged that people can come together

and work on making this world a better place. And I feel

like the more peacemakers we can have together,

the more better that the world can be. Angel, how

about you? Something you would consider, something to be encouraged about?

I'm deeply encouraged by these two. I'm deeply

encouraged by all of the young people that we're working with, that we've

worked walk alongside with over the past couple of years.

Sometimes it looks like the world has fallen apart if you just get on social

media and a lot of chaos, they give me hope.

Dr. King says the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward

justice. And sometimes we have to put ourselves around hopeful

situations and people, young people, who

are doing hopeful things, for us to be able to have the perspective to see

that arc bending and then be part of it. And Bishop has said this

before, we got to be arc benders.

These two other students are bending that arc, and we get a

front row seat. So that is deeply encouraging to me, knowing

that they are doing the work that they're doing and knowing that there are young

people all over our conference, all over the state, all over the country

and world who are ready and willing to

lead now. So that gives me

a lot of hope and encouraged. That's awesome. Well, Bishop, before you give your

final comments and your closing prayer, if you will, I just want to give my

personal word of thanks to Angela and Samantha and

Timothy from Alive, Fort

Wayne and the Peacemaker Academy. They sacrifice

important time in their schedule, their circle time, to

be with us here today. And I want to give my personal thanks to them

show that I am certainly encouraged by your work. So,

Bishop, a final word that you are encouraged by. Maybe you can pray for everybody

involved here, too. I'd be glad to. And I would just make

an appeal to Angelo, Timothy, and Samantha that

when this podcast is published, that you'll have an opportunity

also to push it out and have people hear you on the

podcast. We think it's part of leadership

development as well, for people to

see and experience us on different platforms. I'm

paraphrasing a paragraph from

where do we go from here? Chaos or community? Then I will close with

the prayer, and I'm paraphrasing from Martin Luther King,

Jr. On chaos or community.

Peacemaker is not something that we

find, but something we must create.

Peace. What we find when we enter these mortal

planes is existence. But existence

is the raw material out of which all life must be created.

Listen to this. A productive and happy life

is not something that you find. It is something

that you make. Let us pray.

Loving God, for the gift of encouragement, we give

you thanks and praise. And for these who have given

up their time and their witness, Timothy Angelo

Samantha, we ask your blessings. And upon all of the students

who are participating this summer in the Peacemaking

Academy in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And for others who

may hear this podcast, who want to be encouraged

and encouraged others in the work of

peacemaking, we ask that you would grant us the

power, the will and the fortitude to do one

thing at a time, do small things

with great joy. Bless us, O God, not that we might

brag about our blessings, but that we might be instruments of

your blessing, your instruments of your peace, your justice

and your love. We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen. Amen. And we thank you for

joining us here today on the to be encouraged

podcast with Bishop Julius C. Trimble. This is the podcast

where we look to offer an encouraging word to an