Encounters from heart to heart with students of the Maori school in Waikato, New Zealand / November 14^th, 2019

On our journeys it is always a matter of the heart for us to come into contact with the young population of the country - the new generation - and to exchange their views on peace in their country and throughout the world.

At the Maori School in Waikato, we invited the students and teachers to join a meditation for peace. Together with the around 30 students, we expanded peace among their people, the Maori, peace in New Zealand, and peace around the world. The children who were still in preschool also joined in and took part.

The presence of peace and love allows us to feel our deep connection to all beings - even those we have only known for a few minutes. After the meditation we sang our praises with the children and played with them.
The children were in such joy, took us by the hand, led us to their school building and showed us their classrooms. There they sat at their tables and began to paint with the pens we had brought with us. They hummed sometimes louder and sometimes a little quieter our song of praise.

The other children preferred to play football or jump rope. From all corners you could hear children laughing and everywhere you could see fellow travelers from our group, who were integrated completely naturally into the plays of the children and were part of the group, as if it ever had been so.

At the end we were blessed with a spontaneous dance and singing of the children, which expressed what we all felt in our hearts - total joy of life, gratitude and happiness.

Deeply touched by the children's love for us, their heartwarming embraces and shining eyes, we said goodbye to them. Deep in our hearts we knew that we would see each other again. And we did - at least with a part of the school, because we invited one of the teachers and the secretary to our Peace Dinner, which took place the following days.
(This peace journey had been financed privately.)