Ok, now it’s time for a work update. A lot has happened, and as we approach the rains there is a lot of work that needs to be done. I want to invite you to pray through this update, asking for God’s grace to be given to us and to these farmers.
The farmers who have gone for loans through Equity Bank in our Pilot have hit a snag in the process, and are frustrated by long delays and broken promises on the part of the bank. I think by now everybody has their rice crop in the ground and is doing ok, but everything was delayed because cows got sick and then the loans didn’t come through in time. This was a classic case of “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is;” the farmers were given a timeline by the bank, they followed through, the bank hasn’t (yet). There are a lot of reasons for this, some valid and some not so valid, but the exciting thing is that our farmers are really looking at this as a learning opportunity; all of the hiccups and bumps along the way turn into ideas and improvements for the future when these farmers see the whole process as a learning experience. And if they carry that mentality into all their work on the farm, that’s a very good thing. In the meantime, keep praying for them, for their rice, and for the market come Nov-Dec!
Our farmers in Ngare Ndare sold a bunch of onions considering El Nino rains flooded the fields and kept them from getting a truly great harvest. About half of the group repaid what they took from the group plus interest (although some of them still have balances from previous projects), and so when we visited them this past month we expected a great report. Unfortunately, things ain’t so simple. The group had used their loan repayments to buy onion seeds for their members, and they went with a new seed company this time. The problem? Only about 30% of the seeds germinated. Again, this is a major disappointment for them, but they’ve been figuring out how to deal with these issues on their own for over a year now, and we feel confident that this is a setback that they will overcome. Those folks up there are smart, hardworking farmers; let’s pray God would bless them in their efforts (and that they will get a refund for the seeds from the company)!
Embu farmers sold all of their sunflower oil and the byproduct with a lot of marketing help from our Anglican partners. That means that a good number of them should be able to get new loans from the group for the next season. That’s a huge success for the project if so, even if there were major issues along the way. Meru farmers didn’t do quite so well, but a number of them will get new loans if the logistics can work out. It’s amazing how many projects get sidetracked because of simple logistical failures (remember the bad seeds and slow banks?), so please pray that they would get through this.
We continue to look for markets for the aloe vera farmers. They’ve sold some, and they’re working hard, but this market is a new and complicated one, so pray that God would give us wisdom in how to search it out and connect farmers with it.
And last but not least, in Kibete we finished our training on Table Banking. It only took us, oh what, like 14 months? But we did it. For those of you who have forgotten, this training will help the group use their group savings like a mini-credit union, allowing members access to loans for investments, emergency loans for death or illness or heavy property loss, and for savings with interest. For a brilliant explanation of what this looks like, check out our friend Trey Nation’s blog on savings groups in Cambodia at http://myfatherwasawanderingaramean.blogspot.com/. Please pray that these farmers would get a good start on this project, that they would have the wisdom necessary to take care of their group’s money, and that this table bank would be a blessing to them and their community.
In our earlier blog post this week, we talked about systems of injustice working against the poor. Here again in our work life, you can catch hints of similar issues at play. Why has the bank gone so slowly? Why would a seed company sell such bad seeds? The loan officer for the bank has routinely not only made promises that he has then left unfulfilled, he has also made mistakes in the process, and then asked farmers to take responsibility for fixing them (come to town again, wait another week till I come, fill this form out now that I’ve fixed it, etc).
We have seen this same thing happening in both the church and among a number of other organizations we’ve run into. Our farmers tell us that the government ministers involved in getting irrigation to their community will call them at 11 a.m., when they are in the middle of work in the fields, and say, ‘drop what you’re doing, I need you right now.’ And so they do it. Church leaders will show up at poor churches and expect them to make special donations as signs of gratitude for their pastoral work. When development organizations make mistakes, often instead of fixing them themselves, they push responsibility for the clean up onto the poor members their projects are supposed to help. Why did this project fail? Certainly not because the development workers didn’t do their job right. Must have been the poor folks.
In other words, one of the systemic issues in Kenya and in the U.S. is the way that perceptions about the poor fuel demeaning attitudes and actions towards the poor. Most cultures have a handful of myths that explain why the rich are and should be rich, and the poor are and should be poor, and neither of the countries we’ve lived in are any different. Maybe it’s the American idea that everybody gets an equal opportunity, that both wealth and poverty are simply the result of a set of individual decisions made by people who could all do equally well, or poorly, if they only made the right decisions. Or maybe, and more common here, is the heretical health wealth gospel, which subverts Jesus blood given ‘not for works we had done,’ and turns it into, ‘hey, if you just have faith, your cows won’t get sick and your kids won’t die.’ Not surprisingly, this anti-Christian doctrine is preached predominately by the rich to the poor, whether that looks like the wealthy Western world televangelists who are broadcast daily on every T.V. station here, or the wealthier Kenyan purveyors of this doctrine who, having learned the script well from the American televangelists, preach the message: ‘if you just ‘plant a seed’ by giving money, maybe one day you can live rich like me.’ These aren’t the only myths, either. There are all sorts of myths that justify the rich man’s riches and the poor man’s poverty.
The result is a callous lack of concern at best, and a straightforward abuse of the poor at worst. We have heard horror stories of the big institutional churches here “punishing” pastors who offended their bishop by “relocating” them to the slums or a poor rural area. The poor get worse service, receive worse advice, and are constantly forced to wait on the wealthy churches, governments, schools, or development organizations to do things in their own, precious time. In short, the myth that the rich simply earned their riches and the poor their poverty gives the rich an excuse to treat the poor as unimportant second class citizens, and the poor every reason to accept and believe this categorization about themselves.
So as you pray through this report about all our various endeavors here in Kenya, join with us also in praying that our hearts and attitudes about the poor would change. Pray that God’s Word would challenge our own arrogance and the arrogance of the wealthy and powerful here, that we would remember that God has a special place in His heart for the poor, that they are equally valuable bearers of His divine image in the sight of Jesus who died for us all. Pray that heart changes would lead to dramatic changes in attitudes and actions, that we would begin to treat the poor as God does, and to recognize that many of them would have done better than we have if they had been given the lavish opportunities we have received . . . and that many of us would have done far worse if we had received the opportunities that they have been given.
All of this is very close to our hearts; we long to see the wealthy, including ourselves, grow in our ability to see the poor as God does, and to refuse to buy into the myths that allow us to look down upon them. None of this negates the very Biblical message of individual responsibility, which is a tremendous factor in the success and failings of all people everywhere, but it is a reminder that the world is a complicated place, and that we’re called to have mercy oozing from our hearts, and eyes sharp enough to see the unjust systems, beliefs, and practices that hurt the poor among us.
May God’s kingdom come in our hearts, that we might truly live the prayer: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Michael
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
A Long Overdue Update (Or At Least A Start At One)
Well, I’m actually embarrassed by how long it has been since I’ve written anything. So this week I’m going to play catch-up. Check out what has been happening in our lives at church and what we’ve been learning there in this post, and then check back in mid-week for an update on work. And, if all goes according to plan, we’ll sum up how our ever-growing love for and understanding of the Scriptures dovetails with all of the dust of daily living before you go home for the weekend on Friday.
Jesus knows what he’s doing; the past 8 months at NCF have turned into an unexpected pastoral internship of sorts that has been an incredibly powerful, challenging, and growing experience for me. Since Januaryish, I have met every Tuesday with our two pastors to help plan and evaluate worship services and to discuss and pray through the pain and joy of our congregational life together. I’ve gotten a chance as the interim worship leader to really think deeply about worship that glorifies God in the context of an extremely diverse group of folks, and then to try to actually live a theology of diverse worship in a world of broken mics, busted speakers, cross-cultural conflicts, and busy schedules. And because our pastor has had to go down to S Africa for a couple months to finish some studies, I’ve gotten the incredible experience of preaching to an audience that has seminary professors and Hindus who have never heard the gospel sitting side-by-side.
Both Rebecca and I have also gotten the chance to learn a bit more about what it means to be present to suffering, particularly among the poor. Just this past weekend we spent the night at the hospital with a friend with very painful pneumonia and pelvic inflammatory disease, we encountered a situation of grave injustice committed in a “Christian” workplace against a dear friend of ours, and one of our closest friends from the slums lost her mother.
On the surface, each of these stories could be very similar to the experiences of families in our own home churches. But the reality of life lived on the margins economically creates a deeper, darker reality that our affluent American lifestyle has kept us from seeing. In each of these experiences poverty created a void, a gap, a situation of powerlessness filled by injustice. A friend endures sexual harassment because she’s afraid to lose her job in a culture where masochistic tendencies protect powerful men and leave vulnerable women defenseless. A sick woman enters a hospital environment where staff are stumbling drunk and where apathetic doctors give second-rate service at first-rate prices because those who (like me) don’t understand medicine can’t understand the issues. And a mother of seven, who cannot find regular work and lives in a one room mud hut in the largest slum on the continent, faces a culture which requires her to provide hundreds of dollars worth of meat to greedy relatives who will come to her mother’s funeral in order to feed themselves. The consequence if she does not? As one of our friends told us, “If she does not follow the culture and feed them well, they will call her names for the rest of her life, say she is the one who shamed her mother, and even curse her using witchcraft.” And in this case, which is really the worst of the three, these greedy relatives probably won’t stop eating off our friend’s tab the day they lay her mother in the ground; our friend fears that they will probably steal her farm there as well because she, as a poor woman, cannot defend herself against the land-grabbing of her cousins and uncles.
If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. (Leviticus 25:35-36)
The law of Leviticus, as well as other parts of the Old Testament, reflect the belief that poverty at its worst has the ability to exclude individuals and families from the community. And in a month where we have seen injustice of Old Testament proportions, with the wealthy oppressing the poor, with men taking advantage of the women in their midst, with witchcraft being used to backup greed, we hear these words and realize once again that the Biblical story provides the most powerful exposition of injustice the world has ever known, and at the same time the only hope for a world wracked by injustice: the rule and reign of Yahweh God, who hears the orphan and the widow, who protects the stranger, who brings His wrath in power against all of those who use their position, influence, culture, and even demonic involvement to abuse and oppress any of God’s treasured children.
Because the system is against the poor and the powerless, whether it’s the hospital system which provides decent care for the rich and negligent extortionate care for the poor, or the cultural system which leaves widows vulnerable to land theft and abusive cultural practices even in the midst of their deepest grief, or masochistic systems of authority that protect men who abuse women. The threat of demonic curses, and our friend’s stories of seeing and experiencing the power of witchcraft in the past, has forced us spiritually confused Prebyterians to re-evaluate our laissez-faire stance towards the demonic world and to ask ourselves hard questions. But one thing we do know: Satan works some of his most deadly deeds in the nebulous and difficult-to-define systems of our world; that the truth of sin is that the systems we create are worse than the sum of our sinful parts, that the structures that oppress and push down the poor are exponentially more evil than the evilest individuals, and that their deadly effects are more easily hidden because we cannot point to simple individualistic violations. Who do you blame for cultural evils? Whose fault is it that the courts don’t do justice? Whose fault is it that only the rich hospitals can afford decent doctors? The answer must be all of ours, but in our individualistic American mindset that is an answer we all too often ignore.
But the God of the Bible does not. The God of the Bible provides an answer to the demonic forces that affect our structures. The answer is the rule and reign of God, the Kingdom of Christ. And we are called to prayerfully work for the poor and against injustice wherever the curse is found! So pray for our friends, and pray for us, that justice would roll down like rivers, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Peace,
Michael
Jesus knows what he’s doing; the past 8 months at NCF have turned into an unexpected pastoral internship of sorts that has been an incredibly powerful, challenging, and growing experience for me. Since Januaryish, I have met every Tuesday with our two pastors to help plan and evaluate worship services and to discuss and pray through the pain and joy of our congregational life together. I’ve gotten a chance as the interim worship leader to really think deeply about worship that glorifies God in the context of an extremely diverse group of folks, and then to try to actually live a theology of diverse worship in a world of broken mics, busted speakers, cross-cultural conflicts, and busy schedules. And because our pastor has had to go down to S Africa for a couple months to finish some studies, I’ve gotten the incredible experience of preaching to an audience that has seminary professors and Hindus who have never heard the gospel sitting side-by-side.
Both Rebecca and I have also gotten the chance to learn a bit more about what it means to be present to suffering, particularly among the poor. Just this past weekend we spent the night at the hospital with a friend with very painful pneumonia and pelvic inflammatory disease, we encountered a situation of grave injustice committed in a “Christian” workplace against a dear friend of ours, and one of our closest friends from the slums lost her mother.
On the surface, each of these stories could be very similar to the experiences of families in our own home churches. But the reality of life lived on the margins economically creates a deeper, darker reality that our affluent American lifestyle has kept us from seeing. In each of these experiences poverty created a void, a gap, a situation of powerlessness filled by injustice. A friend endures sexual harassment because she’s afraid to lose her job in a culture where masochistic tendencies protect powerful men and leave vulnerable women defenseless. A sick woman enters a hospital environment where staff are stumbling drunk and where apathetic doctors give second-rate service at first-rate prices because those who (like me) don’t understand medicine can’t understand the issues. And a mother of seven, who cannot find regular work and lives in a one room mud hut in the largest slum on the continent, faces a culture which requires her to provide hundreds of dollars worth of meat to greedy relatives who will come to her mother’s funeral in order to feed themselves. The consequence if she does not? As one of our friends told us, “If she does not follow the culture and feed them well, they will call her names for the rest of her life, say she is the one who shamed her mother, and even curse her using witchcraft.” And in this case, which is really the worst of the three, these greedy relatives probably won’t stop eating off our friend’s tab the day they lay her mother in the ground; our friend fears that they will probably steal her farm there as well because she, as a poor woman, cannot defend herself against the land-grabbing of her cousins and uncles.
If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. (Leviticus 25:35-36)
The law of Leviticus, as well as other parts of the Old Testament, reflect the belief that poverty at its worst has the ability to exclude individuals and families from the community. And in a month where we have seen injustice of Old Testament proportions, with the wealthy oppressing the poor, with men taking advantage of the women in their midst, with witchcraft being used to backup greed, we hear these words and realize once again that the Biblical story provides the most powerful exposition of injustice the world has ever known, and at the same time the only hope for a world wracked by injustice: the rule and reign of Yahweh God, who hears the orphan and the widow, who protects the stranger, who brings His wrath in power against all of those who use their position, influence, culture, and even demonic involvement to abuse and oppress any of God’s treasured children.
Because the system is against the poor and the powerless, whether it’s the hospital system which provides decent care for the rich and negligent extortionate care for the poor, or the cultural system which leaves widows vulnerable to land theft and abusive cultural practices even in the midst of their deepest grief, or masochistic systems of authority that protect men who abuse women. The threat of demonic curses, and our friend’s stories of seeing and experiencing the power of witchcraft in the past, has forced us spiritually confused Prebyterians to re-evaluate our laissez-faire stance towards the demonic world and to ask ourselves hard questions. But one thing we do know: Satan works some of his most deadly deeds in the nebulous and difficult-to-define systems of our world; that the truth of sin is that the systems we create are worse than the sum of our sinful parts, that the structures that oppress and push down the poor are exponentially more evil than the evilest individuals, and that their deadly effects are more easily hidden because we cannot point to simple individualistic violations. Who do you blame for cultural evils? Whose fault is it that the courts don’t do justice? Whose fault is it that only the rich hospitals can afford decent doctors? The answer must be all of ours, but in our individualistic American mindset that is an answer we all too often ignore.
But the God of the Bible does not. The God of the Bible provides an answer to the demonic forces that affect our structures. The answer is the rule and reign of God, the Kingdom of Christ. And we are called to prayerfully work for the poor and against injustice wherever the curse is found! So pray for our friends, and pray for us, that justice would roll down like rivers, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Peace,
Michael
Friday, August 20, 2010
Pilot Project: Small Struggles, Small Victories
Quick update on the Pilot group for those who are interested. We went there yesterday, and it looks like about half the group has begun planting in earnest (from the nursery to the field), and the other half is getting ready to do the land preparation. What this means is that everybody is a little behind. We've had a series of small obstacles, starting with hoof and mouth disease among the cows (less bulls for plowing, less cash for paying people to plant or help with preparation). Some farmers went to the bank we've been working with for an emergency loan, but it has been slow in coming, also causing delay. Also the weather probably made the germination a little poorer than could've been hoped for.
On the other hand, farmers tend to be a pretty negative bunch and as best I can tell, there have been no serious issues that will follow us to harvest. What's more they've worked together to figure it out, and have been persistent, without throwing up their hands and waiting for us to come up with solutions. Best of all, at this past meeting we got a "market survey report." Becca and I were wondering why they were talking about that thing we did way back in January until we realized that the group had, on their own, found out about a large buyer, raised the money to send somebody to investigate, and will be sending somebody again with a sample today. If the price is good, this buyer will be a basically inexhaustible market, but he only buys in bulk: in other words, this group would do exactly what it meant to do, to allow a group of farmers to better producers and find better markets than they could on their own. AND it indicates that the process we brought to them, which is the heart of the whole project, has at least to a minor extent been carried on. We taught them the value of market research, showed them how to do it, they bought it, and at least this time, carried it out on their own. Praise the Lord! Pray that the bank would move faster, that the buyer would come through, and that the group would keep on trucking!
Peace,
rhodes
On the other hand, farmers tend to be a pretty negative bunch and as best I can tell, there have been no serious issues that will follow us to harvest. What's more they've worked together to figure it out, and have been persistent, without throwing up their hands and waiting for us to come up with solutions. Best of all, at this past meeting we got a "market survey report." Becca and I were wondering why they were talking about that thing we did way back in January until we realized that the group had, on their own, found out about a large buyer, raised the money to send somebody to investigate, and will be sending somebody again with a sample today. If the price is good, this buyer will be a basically inexhaustible market, but he only buys in bulk: in other words, this group would do exactly what it meant to do, to allow a group of farmers to better producers and find better markets than they could on their own. AND it indicates that the process we brought to them, which is the heart of the whole project, has at least to a minor extent been carried on. We taught them the value of market research, showed them how to do it, they bought it, and at least this time, carried it out on their own. Praise the Lord! Pray that the bank would move faster, that the buyer would come through, and that the group would keep on trucking!
Peace,
rhodes
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Some Thoughts On (Almost) Being Arrested
On a regular basis I am stopped by the Kenyan Police Department. Often I am asked for bribes. Amost always they mention an obscure "offense" pertaining to my 20 year old car (your passenger window doesn't roll down, etc). Sunday I had a different experience altogether.
The first thing you need to know, though, is that I had the opportunity to preach on being the body of Christ on Sunday morning. It went pretty well, and I was pretty pleased with my challenge to the congregation to put off the old self and live like new creation people for Christ.
On the way home I was pulled by a police officer who promptly told me that I had committed an offense because one of my tires was too worn. "Seriously?" I thought. "That doesn't even sound like a real ticket." And so I somewhat politely I told the guy that I didn't believe that was really a ticket but if he wanted to write me a ticket I would take it. Which he did.
Now you should know that in my probably dozens of times of being stopped I have never seen anyone ever receive a ticket. I assumed this was part of the bribe rigamarole. So I sat there smug and calm, waiting to give him my self-righteous answer about bribes when he asked. Except he never did. Just handed me a ticket and told me to come to court the next day at 8 a.m.
This post is part public confession.
I lost my temper. I was rude. I asked the guy why he was bothering, why he wanted to waste my time with a garbage ticket when we both had better things to do. By the time I drove off I was shouting at the guy, making a fool of myself, and effectively doing the worst demonstration of putting off the old self I could possibly come up with considering I'd been eloquently preaching on the matter like 27 minutes previously.
Three things happened that evening. First, I called a local, well-connected friend to ask him what I should do, because I didn't know what to expect at court or even where it was. Second, I researched on the internet and quickly found that this officer was fully within his rights; driving with a worn tire is a ticketable offense. And third, Jesus convicted my socks off that I had chewed out one of the few officers I'd run into in the last year and a half who wasn't trying to rip me off. One in a hundred had actually been doing his job; and I yelled at him.
My friend knew the head of the traffic department at the police station. The officer told me to just bring the ticket in and he'd throw out the offense. By the time I got there I was so riddled with guilt that I asked to see the officer who had given me the ticket, prompting the two officers I was with to ask me why and forcing me to explain that I had been very rude and needed to apologize. And then the guy who is currently throwing out this ticket for me, says "Ah, that is very bad. And were you coming from church?"
"Actually I was preaching." Yikes.
In the end I apologized by letter to the officer I had spoken with and apologized to his immediate supervisor. I promised to try to treat each individual officer by their own actions, to not judge them by the actions of other officers I'd encountered. And I left.
Why am I writing all of this? Public confession, I suppose. We're studying Jonah right now at church, and I read somewhere that one interpretation of that whole story is the tale of missionaries who need converting. Clearly my hard heart falls in that category. And because sometimes I have a soft heart towards those the world finds less loveable (the poor, people from other cultures), it's easy for me to get all puffed up and make a fool of myself with my lack of love to somebody else (say by preaching on love and then yelling at a police officer).
But also it demonstrates a powerful point about the difference in the lives between the wealthy and the poor as well. Wealth and education come with a whole basket of benefits that we don't always recognize, not least the benefit of social capital with people who are connected, in power, in the know. I didn't do anything illegal, nor did my friend. But because I "knew somebody who knew somebody," I was able to get the info I needed. Here and at home systems of all sorts can be like nets that the poor among us get caught up in, and often times their social capital doesn't include people who have influence or knowledge to help them get out. What a blessing it has been in my life to have an uncle who does my taxes, a dad who helped me buy my first health insurance policy, lawyer friends who helped me get out of more than one ticket. I got my last two jobs largely through being recommended by people who were connected.
And so often these are the exact things that the poor don't have. Ever since we helped our househelp get a bank account she has saved faithfully. But among her own peers that wasn't something anybody really knew a whole lot about. And so maybe another lesson in all of us is that by building relationships with the poor, by simply letting them into our lives, we will let them into our networks and be able to help them in real and empowering ways. Meanwhile we will be blessed by their social-networks as we learn more about a different culture, about the hospitality that is nearly always best demonstrated by the poor, and about the depth of relationships forged on the margins.
Peace,
Michael
The first thing you need to know, though, is that I had the opportunity to preach on being the body of Christ on Sunday morning. It went pretty well, and I was pretty pleased with my challenge to the congregation to put off the old self and live like new creation people for Christ.
On the way home I was pulled by a police officer who promptly told me that I had committed an offense because one of my tires was too worn. "Seriously?" I thought. "That doesn't even sound like a real ticket." And so I somewhat politely I told the guy that I didn't believe that was really a ticket but if he wanted to write me a ticket I would take it. Which he did.
Now you should know that in my probably dozens of times of being stopped I have never seen anyone ever receive a ticket. I assumed this was part of the bribe rigamarole. So I sat there smug and calm, waiting to give him my self-righteous answer about bribes when he asked. Except he never did. Just handed me a ticket and told me to come to court the next day at 8 a.m.
This post is part public confession.
I lost my temper. I was rude. I asked the guy why he was bothering, why he wanted to waste my time with a garbage ticket when we both had better things to do. By the time I drove off I was shouting at the guy, making a fool of myself, and effectively doing the worst demonstration of putting off the old self I could possibly come up with considering I'd been eloquently preaching on the matter like 27 minutes previously.
Three things happened that evening. First, I called a local, well-connected friend to ask him what I should do, because I didn't know what to expect at court or even where it was. Second, I researched on the internet and quickly found that this officer was fully within his rights; driving with a worn tire is a ticketable offense. And third, Jesus convicted my socks off that I had chewed out one of the few officers I'd run into in the last year and a half who wasn't trying to rip me off. One in a hundred had actually been doing his job; and I yelled at him.
My friend knew the head of the traffic department at the police station. The officer told me to just bring the ticket in and he'd throw out the offense. By the time I got there I was so riddled with guilt that I asked to see the officer who had given me the ticket, prompting the two officers I was with to ask me why and forcing me to explain that I had been very rude and needed to apologize. And then the guy who is currently throwing out this ticket for me, says "Ah, that is very bad. And were you coming from church?"
"Actually I was preaching." Yikes.
In the end I apologized by letter to the officer I had spoken with and apologized to his immediate supervisor. I promised to try to treat each individual officer by their own actions, to not judge them by the actions of other officers I'd encountered. And I left.
Why am I writing all of this? Public confession, I suppose. We're studying Jonah right now at church, and I read somewhere that one interpretation of that whole story is the tale of missionaries who need converting. Clearly my hard heart falls in that category. And because sometimes I have a soft heart towards those the world finds less loveable (the poor, people from other cultures), it's easy for me to get all puffed up and make a fool of myself with my lack of love to somebody else (say by preaching on love and then yelling at a police officer).
But also it demonstrates a powerful point about the difference in the lives between the wealthy and the poor as well. Wealth and education come with a whole basket of benefits that we don't always recognize, not least the benefit of social capital with people who are connected, in power, in the know. I didn't do anything illegal, nor did my friend. But because I "knew somebody who knew somebody," I was able to get the info I needed. Here and at home systems of all sorts can be like nets that the poor among us get caught up in, and often times their social capital doesn't include people who have influence or knowledge to help them get out. What a blessing it has been in my life to have an uncle who does my taxes, a dad who helped me buy my first health insurance policy, lawyer friends who helped me get out of more than one ticket. I got my last two jobs largely through being recommended by people who were connected.
And so often these are the exact things that the poor don't have. Ever since we helped our househelp get a bank account she has saved faithfully. But among her own peers that wasn't something anybody really knew a whole lot about. And so maybe another lesson in all of us is that by building relationships with the poor, by simply letting them into our lives, we will let them into our networks and be able to help them in real and empowering ways. Meanwhile we will be blessed by their social-networks as we learn more about a different culture, about the hospitality that is nearly always best demonstrated by the poor, and about the depth of relationships forged on the margins.
Peace,
Michael
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Crescents and A Cross: Some Thoughts And A Book Rec
Let's face it: whether you live in Kenya, North America, or Europe, the crescent and the cross have been making major headlines in the news. A Dutch lawmaker is working to outlaw immigration from Islamic countries, there is a political battle waging in New York over a proposed Islamic community center complete with prayer room two blocks from Ground Zero, and some church down in Florida (called the Dove World Outreach Center for heaven's sake!) is holding Koran burnings.
But what has hit closest to home for me has been the coverage of "the church" in Kenya. "The church" in Kenya has been one of, if not the leading voice against the new constitution that got passed this week. Why? One of the primary reasons cited was the inclusion in the constitution of a number of legal courts set up to allow Muslims to settle family disputes (these courts have been around since Independence as a way of uniting the country politically).
Large numbers of churches and church-goers over here really did embrace the sort of inflammatory, unlistening, unthoughtful, "us/them" rhetoric that they probably learned from listening to U.S. politicians and Christians (like Pat Robertson, who poured thousands of dollars into the country to fight the constitution). In case anyone has forgotten to read the life of Jesus lately, let me throw out a thought: the way of Jesus is the way of weakness, it is the way of suffering as the path to life. In case anyone has forgotten, Jesus' strongest words were not for the religions actively engaged in persecuting his own, but for his own self-absorbed religious leaders. In case we've forgotten, the Jews had plenty of violent revolutionaries, many supported by "religious conservatives," and yet Jesus rejected both their method and their aims. And in case any of us are tempted to forget, let's remember the message of Easter: Jesus Christ is the Cosmic King. He has won. He has conquered death. His kingdom is unshakeable in its foundation and in its coming. We have nothing to fear. Period.
As Christians Christ calls us to reject this "us/them" zero-sum war. If we are in a war, it is a war to see who will be the greatest demonstrators of love to those we disagree with, who will be willing to use their life and voice to love, honor, listen to, and befriend the religious "other." Some of you will say, "well the Muslims started it." Maybe. But there is a whole lot of history out there going way back that most of us haven't listened to, a history that shames us as much as anything. And anybody in Christendom who wants to be judged by their most fanatical members maybe needs to get back to that history.
Because you know who loses in all of this? The church. And by that I don't mean the National Association of Evangelicals or the PCA or the National Council of Churches in Kenya. I mean the body of Christ. Because Muslims throughout Kenya (and in the US now) are reading the opinions of our most radical, angry members, and they are lumping all of us together with them. Countless Christians here voted yes for the constitution because they believed that it provides the best shot at real reform in their country. But as far as the media is concerned, as far as what will be put on the doorsteps and dinner tables of millions of Muslims in this country, the church lost. And that hurts the body in the one cause we should be really concerned about: loving our neighbors so much in every area of their lives that they joyfully embrace the Savior. We're not to be defined by what we don't do, aren't like, don't believe, and certainly are not to be defined by what we hate. We are to be the love letter from Christ to the world, the one body of Christ, defined by our self-giving, long-suffering, cross-shaped love. Where do Koran burnings fit in?
This pastor from Florida who is propogating hatred in the name of the King who wilfully died for us "while we were yet sinners" asked the question: when you look at Muslims, how can you even think they're happy? Have you ever seen a Muslim look happy?
The reason he can ask that question is because he doesn't have any Muslim neighbors. I do. My neighbors on both sides are Somali Muslims. They are wonderful people. They have helped us with water when our tank runs out, given us leftovers from their Ramadan fast meals, watered our garden when we were away, invited us into their homes, worried over us when were gone for long periods of time, helped us get our power back on. Last week even as the headlines were winding down about "the church" making their final push "against" Muslims, the same papers were running stories about the prayer rallies for peace whatever the outcome . . . sponsored by the Muslims. And even now in my own country, where a Muslim leader who has declared that he wants to "outwork" radical Muslims like Osama bin Laden by promoting peace and helping Muslims work to understand other faiths, Christians are making news burning Korans and campaigning against one of the most important parts of our Constitution: the freedom of religion that means that we can have, if we took the time to, more opportunity for honest and open and loving conversations about Christ with Muslims than almost any other country in the world.
In light of all of this, I'd like to recommend a book published by the Navigators by Dr. Nabeel T. Jabbour: The Crescent Through The Eyes of the Cross. Dr. Jabour is an Arab from a traditionally Christian family who gave his life to Christ and lived and worked in Egypt for 15 years. He helps us understand the "state of Islam" today in a way that transcends the two normal options of either ignoring the real dark sides of Islam or stereotyping the entire religion into radical homogeneity. I got this book from my cousin David Jemison, who has been serving as an independent translator for the U.S. army in Iraq for two years now, a Christian whose life has been threatened on repeated occasions by Muslims through his involvement in the war . . . and yet who still works tirelessly among his family and peers to help Christians understand that this is only a miniscule part of the story, to help us see the Crescent through the eyes of the God who gave Himself on the Cross for us . . . and for them.
Until we try to understand the people we disagree with, including Muslims, we will continue to, in my opinion, shame the cross of Christ horribly in public. The best way, of course, is friendships, and some of us have incredible opportunities to be neighbors with Muslims. But for those of us who don't, or for increased understanding on how to relate to the Muslims in our midst, this is an incredibly helpful book.
May Jesus Christ who died to bring us peace teach us how to walk in His light through our difficult and complicated world.
Michael
But what has hit closest to home for me has been the coverage of "the church" in Kenya. "The church" in Kenya has been one of, if not the leading voice against the new constitution that got passed this week. Why? One of the primary reasons cited was the inclusion in the constitution of a number of legal courts set up to allow Muslims to settle family disputes (these courts have been around since Independence as a way of uniting the country politically).
Large numbers of churches and church-goers over here really did embrace the sort of inflammatory, unlistening, unthoughtful, "us/them" rhetoric that they probably learned from listening to U.S. politicians and Christians (like Pat Robertson, who poured thousands of dollars into the country to fight the constitution). In case anyone has forgotten to read the life of Jesus lately, let me throw out a thought: the way of Jesus is the way of weakness, it is the way of suffering as the path to life. In case anyone has forgotten, Jesus' strongest words were not for the religions actively engaged in persecuting his own, but for his own self-absorbed religious leaders. In case we've forgotten, the Jews had plenty of violent revolutionaries, many supported by "religious conservatives," and yet Jesus rejected both their method and their aims. And in case any of us are tempted to forget, let's remember the message of Easter: Jesus Christ is the Cosmic King. He has won. He has conquered death. His kingdom is unshakeable in its foundation and in its coming. We have nothing to fear. Period.
As Christians Christ calls us to reject this "us/them" zero-sum war. If we are in a war, it is a war to see who will be the greatest demonstrators of love to those we disagree with, who will be willing to use their life and voice to love, honor, listen to, and befriend the religious "other." Some of you will say, "well the Muslims started it." Maybe. But there is a whole lot of history out there going way back that most of us haven't listened to, a history that shames us as much as anything. And anybody in Christendom who wants to be judged by their most fanatical members maybe needs to get back to that history.
Because you know who loses in all of this? The church. And by that I don't mean the National Association of Evangelicals or the PCA or the National Council of Churches in Kenya. I mean the body of Christ. Because Muslims throughout Kenya (and in the US now) are reading the opinions of our most radical, angry members, and they are lumping all of us together with them. Countless Christians here voted yes for the constitution because they believed that it provides the best shot at real reform in their country. But as far as the media is concerned, as far as what will be put on the doorsteps and dinner tables of millions of Muslims in this country, the church lost. And that hurts the body in the one cause we should be really concerned about: loving our neighbors so much in every area of their lives that they joyfully embrace the Savior. We're not to be defined by what we don't do, aren't like, don't believe, and certainly are not to be defined by what we hate. We are to be the love letter from Christ to the world, the one body of Christ, defined by our self-giving, long-suffering, cross-shaped love. Where do Koran burnings fit in?
This pastor from Florida who is propogating hatred in the name of the King who wilfully died for us "while we were yet sinners" asked the question: when you look at Muslims, how can you even think they're happy? Have you ever seen a Muslim look happy?
The reason he can ask that question is because he doesn't have any Muslim neighbors. I do. My neighbors on both sides are Somali Muslims. They are wonderful people. They have helped us with water when our tank runs out, given us leftovers from their Ramadan fast meals, watered our garden when we were away, invited us into their homes, worried over us when were gone for long periods of time, helped us get our power back on. Last week even as the headlines were winding down about "the church" making their final push "against" Muslims, the same papers were running stories about the prayer rallies for peace whatever the outcome . . . sponsored by the Muslims. And even now in my own country, where a Muslim leader who has declared that he wants to "outwork" radical Muslims like Osama bin Laden by promoting peace and helping Muslims work to understand other faiths, Christians are making news burning Korans and campaigning against one of the most important parts of our Constitution: the freedom of religion that means that we can have, if we took the time to, more opportunity for honest and open and loving conversations about Christ with Muslims than almost any other country in the world.
In light of all of this, I'd like to recommend a book published by the Navigators by Dr. Nabeel T. Jabbour: The Crescent Through The Eyes of the Cross. Dr. Jabour is an Arab from a traditionally Christian family who gave his life to Christ and lived and worked in Egypt for 15 years. He helps us understand the "state of Islam" today in a way that transcends the two normal options of either ignoring the real dark sides of Islam or stereotyping the entire religion into radical homogeneity. I got this book from my cousin David Jemison, who has been serving as an independent translator for the U.S. army in Iraq for two years now, a Christian whose life has been threatened on repeated occasions by Muslims through his involvement in the war . . . and yet who still works tirelessly among his family and peers to help Christians understand that this is only a miniscule part of the story, to help us see the Crescent through the eyes of the God who gave Himself on the Cross for us . . . and for them.
Until we try to understand the people we disagree with, including Muslims, we will continue to, in my opinion, shame the cross of Christ horribly in public. The best way, of course, is friendships, and some of us have incredible opportunities to be neighbors with Muslims. But for those of us who don't, or for increased understanding on how to relate to the Muslims in our midst, this is an incredibly helpful book.
May Jesus Christ who died to bring us peace teach us how to walk in His light through our difficult and complicated world.
Michael
Friday, August 6, 2010
Praise God for Peace!
Well the official statement hasn't been made, but it seems that the new constitution passed with flying colors, and that the process has remained peaceful. What a blessing!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Pray Today For Kenya
Kenyans are voting on whether to accept a new constitution to replace the colonial one designed by the British. Please pray for peace and for God's will in the outcome. The new draft purports to help reform broken, unjust, and ineffective systems surrounding land, legislation, the judiciary, and government ethics.
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