It is difficult to speak about the passion for staring our project, because there was no project planned in the beginning. But there was passion. The idea of sharing monthly impulses of the gospel was born during a Bosnian-German peace initiative in Bosnia. In that time, something around the year 1999, we lived together with about 40 young people for a couple of weeks working on Bosnian war’s destroyed buildings. But the most important aim of that time was to build “invisible buildings”: bridges between our countries (there were several nations participating) – friendships like streets, which nourish a fear-freed living – acts and prayers of concrete love becoming places of confidence and hope. But we knew: real peace is a gift that man can neither produce nor guarantee. So we started day by day reading the gospel of the day as it is read all over the catholic world. For some moments we moved the words of the gospel in our hearts and then comprimised its message into a motto whish we would not forget during the day (even not when working at noon with 40 degrees celsius and no shadow in sight ;-))

The mottos could be something like: “Dare a step for peace today!” or “Always be the first to love!” In the evening we gathered to share what we experienced during the day. For most of the participants the weeks of the summer camps became the most intense time during the year. There are different reasons for this, but one decisive reason was the very strong experience of discovering what power the words of the gospel contain and how life changes when it comes to living with the word and to living with the word in solidarity with others.

Of course, it is easy to be strong in putting charity into practice when you are together with others doing it as well. It is much harder to stick to this way of life when you are alone or bored or challenged in your everyday life.

So, at the end of one camp a participant was asking how we can stay connected in the concrete life of the gospel after the time together with the others. And THIS is when “onword” was born. We thought to take one word of the gospel, print it on small cards followed by a letter giving an idea of how to put the word into practice and send it to the young people in Bosnia and Germany. At the end of each month people are invited to collect their experiences and send them to the Jugendhaus Hardehausen, in Germany.

After a short time a young woman of Czech Republic asked if we could translate the cards in her language. Of course we did. Afterwards there was someone asking from France, then from Belgium, Italy and so on.

In this sense onword was a simple answer to a question right out of the life with the word. Today we translate 1500 cards into 13 languages and send them into 49 countries from all continents.
   
The chance of onword is to be connected in the life of the gospel in a very simple way, leaving young people the rhythm of their life and giving nothing except the very gospel. There is no particular “spirituality” going with it from which someone might feel being excluded before starting at all. There is even no need to speak with someone if they don’t want to or if they don’t know anyone whom to speak with.  

But still, in some places young people gather every week, every two weeks or once in a month to read the monthly text and have a short exchange of what’s up in their lives and how their life with the word goes on.

The handling of the cards is maybe as various as there are people sharing this life. Some of them just put the cards in their pocket so that they would be reminded in every moment they take of the keys or some money. Others fix the cards around the monitors of their computers, beside the mirror, in the car, at the bike…

Some take a look at the cards and the monthly impulses in the evening for thinking back through their day. Others read the letter just once and enjoy the card. (Interestingly, almost everyone reads the experiences – up to now they are existing only in German language - of the others first and only then reads the letter, but just few people take the time and really write their experiences down.)

So, these are some ideas of our way. Thinking of you then and praying for your way of the preparation of the World Youth Day.

Annedore  and father Meinolf