Where do you go to find spirituality and kindness in humanity? Church? Synagogue? Mosque? Family? Nature? Many seek this answer and SHOULD – because for individuals around the world, connecting to nature and to community is the difference between truly living or just counting out hundreds of days in a life.
One of my neighbors here in Warrenville, Illinois, is a young man named Eric Vinsel. As a college student who dreams of eventually attending seminary school, Eric decided to take up what seemed like an impossible quest – to travel nationally and internationally for one year and find spiritual grace and peace in humanity. Eric’s quest, “Project Peace and Grace,” is a learning experience for he and everyone he touches. More importantly, he perceives it as a way to join spiritual people’s from every denomination and socioeconomic status and unite us all in a common idea. It also has become his personal search for his own spirituality.
He spent most of 2008 searching out various Christian and spiritual communities who might allow him to spend one night of his quest with a host family to discuss their lives and spirituality. Eric’s hope was to have these families answer just three questions:
2) What does the world need to remember about God?
3) What is your community's greatest need?
What happened surprised him. Growing up in a closed and protected church community, he had always known generosity there and felt it would be easy to search out pastors and families to help him and encourage him on this experience. It was not easy. In fact, no one from the hundreds of churches he phoned would help him from any organization and he felt all hope was lost. In the spring of 2009, Eric became more driven than ever and felt deep in his heart that humanity’s compassion and innate need to connect would allow him to bring people together in a spiritually helpful way.
His constant companion on the first leg of his journey was a beaten up old Honda Motorcycle from the 1970’s named “Grace.” He started a “Project Grace and Peace” fan page on Facebook to let his friends and family know how it was going, then left on his journey in June of 2009. His faith was strong - with only a few telephone numbers of possible connections in his pocket – he hoped he would be able to finish his journey to as many states as possible and touch as many lives as he could.
What he learned on this leg of his journey was not at all what he expected. Eric wanted to spread peace, hope, and kindness to others, and found out that the most touching connection to spirituality was the kindness that was returned to him from complete strangers.
In Colorado, a new friend allowed Eric to stay and experience nature in the mountains where he met and practiced spirituality with The Adventure Rabbi. He continued on to stay and work for his dinner and meet new people at several places including a beer brewery run by monks, a working Mormon cattle ranch in Utah, and a free-thinking hippie commune. Sleeping along the road side, Eric’s struggles in the journey often centered on the desperate needs of an old and dilapidated motorcycle getting him to his next destination. These contacts were usually given to him by a friend of a friend and could be found on a crumbled piece of old paper in his pocket.
“Grace” broke down in nearly every city he ventured through which left him fearful for his safety and financially unable to feed himself. Yet, the kindness of strangers always prevailed. While traveling through corn fields, mountains, across rivers, and all over this amazing country, someone would help him when he thought he would not be able to go on. Eric helped others too – giving rides to anyone who needed it and sharing his food with whoever he came across who needed it.
Unexpectedly, it was not the religious sect who helped him as he forged onward. Instead, other motor bikers, kind old ladies, and farmers with tractors – all strangers – would help him when his bike broke down in middle of no where. In San Francisco he lived and worked with a motorcycle tow truck driver for nearly two weeks who was kind enough to take him in while “Grace” suffered some difficult repairs. Most shocking of all was when Arthur, a 26 year old, homeless, US veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) helped he and a traveling companion Eric picked up along the road see what Eric believes grace really means to him. It was a moment of self-discovery.
Eric says about Arthur, “He was asking for 75 cents to buy a subway sandwich when we saw him. We told him that we wouldn't give any money, but we would be honored to have dinner with him if he wanted to join us. He quickly agreed. When we got to the restaurant, we went through the line and ordered our sandwiches. Suddenly, Arthur had one of his [PTSD] fits. He scrunched into a ball and started to shake. When he snapped out of it, he stood up and only remembered that we were his friends. He thanked us profusely for coming with him to eat and then insisted on paying for our sandwiches. We refused and said no, we are going to pay. He then pulled out money from his pocket which confused us and said, ‘no, I want to pay. I am so grateful for our friendship that I want to buy this meal for you.’”
“Something clicked that was bigger than this impossibly bazaar moment. I realized that in that very spot, in a Subway sandwich shop, I was standing in the foundation of a church. It was right there were the Church should exist and faith begin [with every day people suffering a very human every day existence].”
“The truth is that I have a similar story in one way or another for every home that I have stayed in thus far. I guess the ‘churches’ may not have given me a place to stay, but I have been staying in churches every night without even knowing it. And though the ‘churches’ may not have fed me when I was hungry, I have been given a meal by the church every day without even knowing it. It has been God that has been feeding me and fixing my tires. It is our acts of love that form the church where God dwells and does His work.”
Eric’s adventures continued north through the state of Washington, where he faced the worst disaster yet - “Grace” was crashed into by another car in a grocery store parking lot and was barely driveable. He made it to Fairbanks and left “Grace” in a trucking depot. Once again, he got help from a surprise source – he hitched a ride with Ryan who is one of the drivers on "Ice Road Truckers" from the Discovery Channel.
Over two months from the day he started out, “Grace” and Eric finally made it back home for a very temporary respite. His journey to find peace and grace was not what he expected at all. But then again, making a difference for our community rarely is what we expect – it is what humanity dictates which fires our hearts in need.
Eric began the second part of his “Project Peace and Grace” journey on August 28, 2009 – floating down 2,100 miles of Mississippi River in a canoe… part 2 will detail his next adventures…
Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com
Thanks for leaving this note - I'd love to hear from more of the people he met along the way. He is indeed a wonderful young man - and his adventure is a good one!
Posted by: Shawna Coronado | September 21, 2009 at 08:00 AM
I met Eric last Thursday (Sept 17) here in Hardin, Illinois, Calhoun County, a town of 1100 on the western shore of the Illinois River. He's a delightful, intelligent, and perceptive guy. I wish that he had stayed longer.
Posted by: Paul Frazier | September 21, 2009 at 07:30 AM