Local Teen Alexis Comeau Starts Cross-Country Adventure

By: Alan Pollock, Cape Cod Chronicle
HARWICH — Driving across the Great Plains, 18-year-old Alexis Comeau of Harwich can look all around her and see wheat fields all the way to the horizon. On Sept. 9, she loaded up a customized van and embarked on a cross-country odyssey that's already broadened her perspective in other ways, too.
Comeau has been planning the trip since she was 14 and dreaming of this kind of travel adventure for much longer. Having graduated high school in the spring, she decided to take a year off before college and chase that dream.
“I've been doing research probably two full years now,” she said, speaking by phone Monday from Minnesota. She and her father, Perry, researched the perfect van and then spent two months renovating the interior into a cozy camper. Inside there's a sink, refrigerator, bed, storage space and a dining table; on the roof are solar panels that charge deep-cycle batteries that provide electricity.
Comeau is traveling with her boyfriend, Tom Shanahan of Brewster, who shares the driving duty. The pair has been making good progress on their goal to reach the West Coast, where Shanahan has family, and then return to the Cape before Christmas.
“Yesterday we drove 500 miles,” Comeau said. The driving is enjoyable because the van is in good shape, and the vista is ever-changing. After visiting some of Comeau's family members in Western Massachusetts and Vermont, they stopped at Niagara Falls and made a short detour to Ontario. Living in the tiny van isn't a hardship, she said.
“It makes you realize just what you can live off of, which is so simple,” she said. “All you can fit in a van is all you really need.” While she does miss being able to take a shower whenever she likes, the freedom of the road more than makes up for that inconvenience, Comeau said.
Half of her “gap year” will be devoted to this trip, and in the spring she will begin some kind of volunteer work, spending a few months on some worthy project – maybe rebuilding hurricane-ravaged homes in Puerto Rico, maybe working in an animal shelter, or maybe teaching English in India.
“I want to do everything,” she quipped. When she begins college next September, she plans to follow a degree program related somehow to the environment and sustainability. (In fact, she and a friend started a small company a few years ago that organizes environmental trash cleanups.)
Admittedly, it was a bit of a challenge getting her parents to support the idea of the trip.
“It took them awhile,” she said with a chuckle. But in time, she convinced them that the journey would be a chance to add to her education in a meaningful way. “And it has been, so far,” she said.
Encountering heavy rain on Sunday, the pair pulled off the highway at a random exit in Indiana and immediately noticed something new.
“There was this smell in the air,” she said. Soon they discovered the source: a smoke-belching steel mill. And then another, and another. “There's just miles and miles of industrial factories and pollution,” she said. On the shore of Lake Michigan, “you can see all of the factories – towers everywhere pouring pollution – and there are kids swimming in the water,” she said. The experience left her with a new appreciation for the clean air and water on Cape Cod, and a strong desire to pursue an environmental career.
“It makes you realize that global warming and climate change are very, very true,” she said.
So far, it looks like the trip has been a life-changing experience for both Comeau and Shanahan.
“Both of us have lived on the Cape our entire lives,” she said from the road in Minnesota. “On Cape Cod, everything is so narrow you can only see what's right in front of you. When you're here, you can see forever.”

     A colleague of mine was recently bemoaning the fact that she cannot find anyone to teach church school in her congregation.  No one.  She said that most of the parents work, are exhausted and needing to be fed on Sundays.  Others feel ill-equipped.  Older members in the church tell her “Sorry, but I’ve done my time.  Been there done that.”  So each Sunday she flies solo and tries her best to give the few children who come a meaningful experience.
 
Fortunately, I don’t find myself in her position.  There is an incredible willingness in our congregation amongst parents and members-at-large to do their part in supporting the faith formation of the children and teens in the church.  And the Christian Education ministry isn’t alone.  The same enthusiasm can be found in other ministries of the church as well.  A recent memorial service called on the support of the Ruth Ministry (an invaluable ministry in our church that provides receptions for memorial services).  Within a few hours, Pat Caswell had assembled a team of volunteers to bake, serve and host the event.  The response to her call for help was incredible.
 
Why is this?  No doubt we have an incredible congregation with a broad range of talents who are generous in giving their time.  But, I’d also add that our unique approach to being a “team ministry” is a big component.
 
The team ministry approach here at the First Congregational Church when it first was employed was certainly “outside the box” if you will.  But more and more churches who are reporting growth and vitality are working in a similar fashion.  When employed, team ministry is not only extremely effective, but a model that embodies the characteristics of the most powerful team ministry of all, the Holy Trinity, sometimes called the “Biblical Dream Team”.  Modeling our work after that of the Trinity translates into working collaboratively in harmony, equal yet unique, all-for-one and one-for-all.
 
In a recent article I read, the author suggested that he used to believe that there were two different types of people, those who walk into a room and say, “Here I am!” and those who walk in and say, “There YOU are”.  But then he went on to say that over the years, he learned that there was a third type of person, who walks into a room and says, “Here WE are”.   And that’s the perspective for which we really all should be striving.  That is one that acknowledges the vital importance of community over self.   He goes on to say, “Church teams or teams of Christ-followers are groups of people who pull together to reach a common goal for the sake of Christ. They are the people pulling not only for their church or organization, but pulling for each other, and pulling for their shared potential in life and ministry.”
 
We presented the congregation with a showcase of our ministry teams last Sunday at our Ministry Fair. It will also be available this Sunday and we encourage everyone to experience it before or after worship, or even during the week.  It is truly a visual cornucopia of team ministry in its splendor.  It’s a celebration of people working as God’s hands in our church and community.  The Ministry Fair’s purpose is not only to educate folks of all of the wonderful things happening here, but also to encourage you to be part of this special team.  You may discover a call to lend your time and talents in a way that surprises you or perhaps you have a particular knack for something and are willing to share that with your church family.  But beyond that we also want everyone to learn how the ministry teams in our church can best serve you.  So please come by and experience your congregation saying to you “Here We are”!