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North American Office Spotlight:

Reflections on Trauma and
the Boston Marathon

Jennifer Nahas, OCF
Executive Director

OCF, IOCC and the GOA Metropolis of Boston held an open discussion for young adults and college students about the recent events in Boston.  Bishop John and OCF board member and IOCC first responder, Fr Peter Preble led the discussion; they were  joined by Fr. Patrick Tishel, and other local clergy and chaplains. 

OCF students were at the finish line and along the route at the time of the bombs went off.  Many passed by the exact location of the bombs.  Some saw suffering they had to come to terms with; others witnessed incredible selflessness of those running to help.  Our students described what they experienced as being in a movie; watching the horrors unfold, confused on how to react and not sure how they were going to get out safely.  Thank God, everyone did make it back to apartments and dorm rooms, but what remains are emotions  --  confusion, guilt, emptiness, sadness, anger  --  that are difficult to manage, understand and heal.

Through this experience, I learned what trauma looks like -- blank stares, unbelievable grief and general disbelief.  Our college students did not have their family to wrap their arms around them.  But, the Theotokos wrapped her arms around our students, keeping them safe on Monday, April 15th at 2:00.  And, on Tuesday evening, OCF wrapped its arms around the students with comfort, love and understanding.

Please pray that our students heal and re-establish their connection to God, beauty and hope. 

2013-2014 STUDENT LEADERS BEING SOUGHT TO SERVE ON THE STUDENT ADVISORY BOARD (SAB)! APPLY ON-LINE

OCF is looking for our 2013-2014 Student Leaders to serve on the Student Advisory Board. We are looking for talented, committed students who are passionate about OCF to help guide the direction of Orthodox campus ministry. For details about each position and to apply, CLICK HERE. Applications should be received by May 15, 2013.

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 Campus Happenings:

Random Acts of Kindness at Oakland University, WV!

We are the OCF chapter at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, MI. We are only 9 members strong, but 9 is better than nothing! For Serve for Saint Patrick, we decided to have an event called Random Acts of Kindness. My sister and I did this event years ago with our Church throughout the city where it is located. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we decided to focus this event on our OU community and serving our student body through kindness, just as St. Patrick did. We advertised the event around the school through flyers, banners, and attending other Christian/Service group meetings to gain attendance numbers for the event. We held our event with our OCF group and had a lot of fun doing it. We had some really positive feedback about this event and even caught the attention of OUTV, our school's tv station, who came and followed our event. It will be showcased on our school's tv show as well as online. 

For the event, OCF at OU went out and did random acts of kindness around campus! Every group that went out got a suggested activities list and a tool kit bag with just a few items in it needed for some of the suggested activities. I loved delivering treat bags to random professors offices. Each bag had some Starburst, Tootsie Rolls, and a can of A&W pop with a tag that said "You're a Star! You're on a Roll! You're an A&Wsome professor! Have a nice day!" We even gave some to the librarians and janitors - they absolutely loved them! My personal favorite, though, was decorating the student center (what we call the OC) with positive sticky notes. It was so fun to place them in weird places or give them to random students. We wrote phrases like "don't forget to smile," "there's only 5 more weeks of school, keep on studying!," or "you ARE beautiful." The student center was covered in them!

We managed to have a really great time serving our OU community through our random acts of kindness. Thanks for all of OCF wonderful programs and support! We love our OCF chapter at Oakland University! 

Submitted by Rachel  Deranty & OCF at OU.

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