Holmes, NY – I’m writing tonight from the summer intensive program of Face to Face/Faith to Faith, the program for college and high school students Auburn runs each summer. The youth are from Belfast, Capetown, Jerusalem and various places across the U.S.

Each year that I come (this is my fourth) the program gets better – mainly because we see kids go from being participants to leaders- in -training to counselors. Over time, you see how much impact a program like this can have on someone.

Today the participants did a ‘paper bag’ excercise -basically they anonymously react to words like “terrorist” by writing their thoughts down and placing them in a bag. Then they write them all up on a poster and talk. Afterwards they shared plaster of paris masks that they painted revealing how the world sees them and how they see themselves. So far, the discussions have been cordial – which is to be expected on the third day of the program – but things will probably heat up tommorow.