Verena Hoffman of Rose Bay, Nova Scotia
keeps a lot of "stuff" in her car, because she doesn’t always know
where the Holy Spirit will lead. And for the past fifteen years, the Spirit had
kept her pretty busy.
Since her immigration to Canada from
Switzerland in 1985 and retirement from teaching in 1992, Hoffman has been the
caretaker of a ranch in northern British Columbia, a caregiver to the
mother-in-law of a pastor in California, and the manager of a restaurant in
Ireland.
This past winter, she spent two months
working at New Hope House in the state of Georgia under the auspices of Service
Opportunities for Older People (SOOP), a joint program of Mennonite Central
Committee (MCC) Canada, Mennonite Mission Network, and the Mennonite
Association of Retired Persons.
"To people who don’t know, it sounds
strange to talk about how the Holy Spirit moves people to action," Hoffman
says. But it’s become a fairly normal occurrence for her.
Hoffman heard about SOOP in 1999 through
friends and wrote MCC for more information. The envelope she received sat in
her car for nearly three years before she felt compelled to reply.
"I didn’t feel the slightest doubt
when I dropped the application form into the mailbox," she says. "I
was filled with a deep joy, and that’s when you know it’s the right
thing."
Within a few weeks, the application
process was complete and Hoffman, in her 1995 Ford Escort, was on her way to
Georgia for a two-month SOOP assignment at New Hope House. Located near the
city of Griffin, approximately 90 kilometres south of Atlanta, New Hope House
is a not-for-profit organization that provides lodging, along with social and
spiritual support, for families of inmates on death row. Volunteers, many of
whom come to New Hope House through the SOOP program, spend their time
maintaining the organization’s facilities or attending trials with the
families.
Hoffman chose to spend her time in the
courtroom, where she witnessed the trials of two young men. The first man was
convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. The second
was convicted and sentenced to death. "I think it is terrible thing to
cage and confine any of God’s creatures, especially people," says Hoffman.
"How is it possible that we can kill each other?"
This experience led Hoffman to question
the ways in which people in North America define freedom. "Freedom is not
about doing whatever we please. Real freedom has all the ingredients of caring,
respect and responsibility—for others as well as ourselves. Real freedom
liberates us into a joyful sense of belonging and unity."
Hoffman says she felt the dark nature of
what was taking place when she first entered the courtroom. She compares her
emotion to a ton of bricks suffocating her spirit. That’s why, initially, she
fled the courtroom. "I had to go out. There in the sun, in the fresh air,
I asked God what he wanted me to do. The answer was clear. LIGHT. So I went
back and settled myself behind the defendant for the rest of the trial, calling
on Christ and His Word. I was willing to be his channel."
When the verdicts were read, Hoffman says
her world stood still. But in the following days, she says it slowly dawned on
her that God’s ways are not our ways. "God’s values, and God’s working
cannot be comprehended and measured by any human mind," she says.
When Hoffman’s SOOP assignment ended, she
was back in her car and on the way back to her winter home in Rose Bay. She
knows her presence in the courtroom didn’t change the verdict of the jury, but
that doesn’t mean her efforts were in vain. On the contrary, she believes her
contribution may have done something greater. "I don’t think we should
always expect direct results. I think there’s a bigger impact and that there is
more taking place than we see or realize. I don’t know what goes on in the
hearts of other people, but there’s not the slightest doubt in my mind that
God’s presence was in that courtroom."
If
you would like to know more about how you might become involved with SOOP,
please visit http://www.mcc.org/getinv/soop/index.html.