As the new Director for the Sycamore House, I’d like to introduce myself on the blog. I’ll start by sharing a bit of my own story:
It was 2006, and I was about to graduate from college. I applied to one program to spend a year working in France, where I had spent a semester abroad. I applied to another program to travel to Haiti and work with a human rights group. There were so many exciting and exotic opportunities around the world. But the more I read about investing in people, community, and the cities of the U.S., the more I realized that God was calling me right here- only 20 minutes from my college- to Harrisburg, PA.
Mother Theresa is quoted as saying, “You can do no great things, only small things with great love.”
That has been my mantra, a phrase that has guided me since that seemingly small decision in 2006.
I focused on the small things- I worked with children in the community at an after-school program, I got to know neighbors, I met and married my husband, I went to DC to spend a year in community, and returned to get my Masters in Social Work. I went to Belize and worked with college students at a study abroad program, focusing on relationships and learning about the natural world there. I returned to Harrisburg yet again to raise my first child (and now we’ve added another). It has been a journey of small steps with a lot of discernment; constantly learning what it means to love in each situation.
So here I am- focusing on the small things- a 7-month old and 2-year old, and investing in community again at the Sycamore House.
I have been lucky to get to know many past Sycamorians- my husband being one. Though I did not spend a year in the house, it has profoundly shaped my time in Harrisburg, and the lives of many of my friends.
I sit in a café on a snowy afternoon in Harrisburg, and I feel privileged to be here. To be in this small Pennsylvania city that I have fallen in love with (certainly not what this Jersey girl expected). To be the new Director of a program I believe in, one that has left its mark on the city and many lives.
As we move forward as a program and a church, may we continue to be attentive to “the small things with great love.”
-Micalagh Moritz
