United Church of Christ
Stillspeaking Magazine
For Max and Richard Brooke, the timing was great. The Mid-Year Volunteer Retreat for UCC Partners in Service Volunteers in New Braunfels, Texas, rolled around at the halfway point of their mega-ambitious, 10-month mission to present a multimedia chronicling of UCC Volunteer Ministries.
Reflecting and rejuvenating among kindred spirits from near and far, the 23-year-old twins from China Grove, N.C., relished the respite Feb. 9-13.
The Brooke brothers have a knack for doing the right thing. For five years, they participated in and promoted a work camp at their home church, Mt. Zion UCC in Salisbury, N.C. At age 16, they spent two weeks in Honduras as part of the World Gospel Mission.
Max went on to earn his degree last spring in communications from East Carolina University; Richard, a dual degree in political science and religious studies from the University of North Carolina.
Then their father, Tom, who sits on the UCC’s Wider Church Ministries board of directors, came up with a vision for his sons — a far-reaching mission that immediately caught the attention of the Rev. Mary Schaller Blaufuss, UCC executive for volunteer ministries.
“This is an out-of-the-box volunteer assignment,” says Mary. “UCC Volunteer Ministries was looking for a creative way to get the word out about opportunities to serve through the wider church. Here it is.
“We are pleased to be able to incorporate the Brookes’ Twin Maps project into the ‘Partners in Service’ program through which volunteers receive housing and a small stipend for food and personal expenses,” says Mary.
By Jan. 31, the Brookes had driven their Kia Sorrento 8,500 miles through 21 states, stopping to document volunteer efforts at 26 sites.
When their 23rd birthday rolled around Jan. 25, they were in southern Arizona, immersed in the trenches of the immigration struggle — and awash in a community’s compassion. They arrived in Tucson just five days after the Jan. 8 shootings that claimed six lives and critically injured 14 people, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)
After two weeks in southern Arizona, the brothers blogged on Jan. 30, “We’ve seen some incredible things. An activist community has been a bright spot in the raw and dry desert. People are dying. They die trying to cross the border, and they die because they don’t have enough food. Last year alone there were over 200 documented deaths in the deserts of Arizona.”
Despite the pace of their pursuit, the Brookes have held on tight to the ties that bind. They’ve shared time with a great aunt and great uncle in Phoenix — a reunion made even more memorable when the brothers’ grandparents flew in to join them.
“We hadn’t seen our extended family in nearly a decade,” says Max. “Even when we’re 2,000 miles away from North Carolina, we still find ways to surround ourselves with family and friends. That’s been the best part of this experience so far: We aren’t short on love.”
The scope and depth of the undertaking have been awe-inspiring for the Brookes, who will present an overview of their experience at General Synod in Tampa, Fla., July 1-5.
A blog entry posted March 10, 2011, sums up the first half of the brothers’ journey:
“We’ve enjoyed company with German volunteers, Danish volunteers, middle-aged pastors, young couples with a future, homeless people with nothing but the clothes on their backs, young adults fresh out of college with their talents to give to the world, the mentally ill who are spiritually full, the well-to-do who are willing to give, the intelligent with all to give away, the ambitious witheverything to gain and, most importantly, each other.”
Follow the Brooke Brothers’ trail of blog updates, photos and videos at <twinmaps.com>a nd learnm ore about UCC Volunteer Ministries at <ucc.org/volunteer>.