In The Beginning - My Middle East Journey

Journal Entry from October 9, 2011  (Two Days Before the Start of my Transformational Leadership Course in The Middle East)

I’m (finally) on my flight, sitting in a brand new 737 my husband’s company rolled off their production lot today.  When I woke at 3:45 am, and jumped in the shower, it was as if God was giving me permission to leave, and take a break from my normal responsibilities.  My parents are in town to take care of my daughters.  I had a sense of Him saying, now for two weeks I have your full attention.  A luxury, learning and seeing what God has to show me will be an adventure - no doubt. 

The couple next to me from Dallas is wonderfully conversational.  Interestingly, she is an elementary school teacher for refugees from the Middle East and Africa.  We had a fascinating discussion about what it is like to be a refugee.  Children help their parents as they acclimate more quickly, and also tell their parents they need things like Gameboys and iPods for their school studies. 

The girls from Burma begin wearing head coverings when they start their period.  One sister wears one while another sister doesn’t.  Just imagine the trauma this could cause to the adolescent psyche.  This teacher acknowledges that the fathers are usually fully western despite the requirements for the girls. 

One of the saddest things she comes across frequently is girls who have had female circumcisions, something I’d never heard of until the first reading assignment for this course.  (Seems hardly coincidental that this random woman I’ve never met is talking to me about this unusual and horrific topic on a flight from Seattle to Dallas.) 

She told me stories about how families supplement their minimal food provisions in the refugee camps.  Her students often point at pictures of birds in books and tell of shooting them with a rock and eating them.  One time a boy showed her a picture of rats. That made her nervous.  He then pointed to the tiny pink babies and said they put them on a hook and fished with them.  Relieved for only a moment, she learned that they put the big rats on a stick to roast them.  

Another boy told her of having a pet dog.  Then he said, “And then we eat.”   She wonders if telling them they can go to the grocery store and buy chicken sounds just as strange to them.  

Imagining of the faces of the children in her classroom, I remember that when Jesus was young he was an international refugee.   His family fled their homeland and sought refuge in Egypt - the first destination on my journey.

For more on the plight of refugees in the world, visit the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees  - http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home    The number of people in the world who are wandering between countries, truly homeless, and often without identity of documentation or place, makes my mind spin and my heart bleed.  





I'm switching my blog back ON - even though I'm still in the thick of finishing my dissertation. I will post some of my journal entries from my trip last fall to the Middle East. I hope you will enjoy coming along with me on my journey.

2012 - On A Blog Break

I'm working on my dissertation and so I am taking a break from blogging for this season.  I hope you will check out the blogs in my blog archive and leave a comment or two.   Stop back in a couple weeks when blogs will begin again!  

Thanks for visiting.    - Laurie




Photo:  Cairo, Egypt

Hope in the Darkness

YWAM Team - Victor is in the back row on the right

With a big smile and a warm heart Victor is the kind of guy everyone instantly warms up to.  Passing through the west coast after living in Canada and Korea, we met him this spring when his YWAM group stayed in Seattle during the month of May.  Recently I spotted him in the background of a video taken in Mexico City that my friend in California posted.  It was kind of like "Where in the World is Victor Chun?"   This week Victor shared this amazing story about his trip to Mexico City.    

The most amazing time in Mexico City was our time at the Well, which is a halfway house for children who had been sold in the sex-trafficking industry. Benny and Janice Yu are the founders of this ministry and we were able to meet the girls on (of all days) the Day of the Dead. Benny was telling us some of the background stories of some of these girls went through. It was so horrifying what these girls (who were middle and high school age) went through that I didn't know whether to be enraged or start sobbing. I was reminded of what Jesus said,

"If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 18:6

Jesus will have retribution on those who hurt these girls, but I was still overwhelmed at the what it meant for the volunteers to walk with these girls through all the terrible things that had been done to them. When I finally met these girls, I realized that God saw these girls as so precious. As they were taking pictures of themselves in these kimono costumes that they had made and just being giggly girls, they looked so beautiful and I realized that God could completely restore them because of the love that Jesus had for them to give His own life for them to be fully restored. It was a beautiful picture of what the cross paid for...




Link to The Well website: LINK





Avoiding Ruin: Being People of Peace

Photo: Ruins of Capernaum

Share meals with each other often and bless someone in your faith community each day; as simply as offering a word of encouragement, an act of service or an invitation. --This is some of the advice given for creating a vibrant community, following Jesus and being a person of peace.

I've been thinking about People of Peace from a different perspective.  Clearly, based on what Jesus told seventy-two of his followers when he sent them out to share the Kingdom message of God’s love (Luke 10:1-16) people who welcome you in, want to serve you and listen to what you have to share, are the people of peace with whom you should stay and invest. For us it is great to know this, that in our lives, God is preparing people for relationship with us. He does the work. The people of peace Jesus is talking about are not just nice, kind and tolerant, they open their homes and lives. They hang out at the meal table, sharing what they have and who they are.

Jesus also said that if you are not welcomed and there are no people of peace, shake the dust off your sandals and move on. I think of it like a kid who innocuously twists his ankle in a baseball game and the coach says, “Shake it off.” Really meaning move along and don’t stand around whining. This permission and even freedom to move along when we are not welcomed is something I talked to some friends about just this week who are frustrated in friendships they've been pursuing.

However, Jesus says more as this passage of scripture continues. His comments should give us all pause to examine whether we are indeed people of peace. He said if there are no people of peace in a place, the town will be worse off than Sodom, a city destroyed by fire. Jesus warned the cities of Korazin, Capernaum and Bethsaida that in not being welcoming people of peace their cities would be destroyed. Jesus knew what he was talking about. Centuries ago these cities were destroyed, and even to this day guess what? They still lie in ruins; piles of dead lifeless rocks.

You can check out some of the ruins of Capernaum here (I was just there two weeks ago) and of Bathsaida here.

So what does this warning about people of peace mean to us or even a faith community or church? These were great cities, sometimes known as the orthodox triangle, cities where lots of devoutly religious people lived who had plenty of knowledge of God and adhered to the rules. Jesus did many miracles in these cities, and yet the people still refused to acknowledge and welcome him. They heard him speak and saw healings, and maybe they were even amazed, but they were still unchanged. They didn’t follow him in radically loving, serving and pursuing justice for one another.  Upon hearing Jesus’ news of who he was they did nothing. Imagine that according to Jesus their plight was to be worse than the cities where the blatantly sinful people lived.

There is a lot being written right now about consumerism in the church and how people often have more difficulty switching toothpaste brands than churches because church has often become about what meets needs. I talked to a friend this morning who after a while being frustrated trying to find a church that perfectly fits their family’s wants is realizing that it is really about the people of a church somewhere needing them. They are seeing themselves shifting from being consumers, to being producers, an opportunity to be more like Jesus.

No question it is difficult with all we manage and juggle in life, but when we are contributing and blessing others through sharing our lives, we can see God at work in us and through us. This is when we are people of peace and our relationships, communities and churches will not be buried as lifeless piles of useless ruins and rubble.

"Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all- it is dead and useless."  James 2:17






CHECK IT OUT: LUKE 10:1-16

What is Church?

The Search for Linen Pants

  

Getting ready for my trip to the Middle East, trying to keep up on my reading and writing assignments for my course and juggling everything else we have going on has been challenging.  I also tend to be fashion challenged, so packing for this trip has been part of my dilemma, especially since I can only bring about 4 outfits.  The pressure is on because I'd better love them.

In my struggle to find the perfect linen pants, I googled baggy linen pants and POOF  this is what was suggested.  Can you imagine?!   Want to hear something funnier - at $145 they are out of stock.  You'll have to keep your eyes open for someone wearing them, they will be easy to spot because they will be walking oddly with their knees close together...or maybe this is the latest thing and I  just continue to be fashion challenged... 

Image: Nupants

Happy Marriage: Seek and Find How to Serve

Albert Schweitzer once said, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

This caught my attention as my 22nd anniversary is coming up. I think both of us and those around us would definitely say we are happily married. In reflecting on this I considered the link between happiness and serving.

What would we tell people who are newly married or working on their marriage? There are the tips like we always kiss each other goodbye if we are leaving even if it is just to run to the store or drop a kid off here or there, and we try to talk even if just for a couple minutes during the day. Sure we don’t always get what we want. Life gets overwhelming and we can’t get everything done or spend enough time together, yet we treat each other with respect and honor using patience and kind words. We’ve struggled through some tough things, like enormous job demands, infertility and the loss of six of our children before they were born. Yet overall, I agree with Schweitzer, the willingness to serve each other has brought happiness.

It is heart breaking and awful when marriages fall short of dreams for varied reasons.  Yet, I’ve also heard of so many marriages lately where one or both people have decided they are not “happy.” Unfortunately, some of these people think if they are no longer married to the person they are with they will "magically" have freedom and find happiness. However, consider Galatians 5:13, “For you have been called to live in freedom- not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.”

Gary Smalley in his book I Promise: How 5 Commitments Determine the Destiny of Your Marriage confesses to learning late that he had spent his life trying to seek pleasure for himself regardless of the feelings or needs of others around him. When he started to shift his thinking on this, like how he could serve his wife instead of what he could get or his right to have things his way, his marriage changed dramatically.

Jesus is a model of serving, but it also takes knowing what our spouse’s needs truly are so we can be of helpful service, instead of missing the mark. Dr. Smalley suggests “promise your mate that you will make it your project to know his or her needs and dreams, and that you will dedicate yourself to meeting those needs and making those dreams come true.” Understanding that there are limits in relationships that involve abuse or control, he contends that in most marriages serving in this way will make you happier than you have been before.

What are the other four commitments or promises he suggests? Conform your beliefs to God’s truths, stay connected to God as the one who provides for your needs (not looking to your spouse to meet all your needs), find God’s best in every trial, and listen and communicate in love. Which to me sounds once again like things come back to the wisdom Jesus shared that we should be all about loving God and loving others.  What do you think?



Artwork:  Jaycee -thanks for the inspiration for this artwork during Peace Seeker's Pictionary this morning.  
:)

Missio Lux: Discerning the Next Steps

Last night the larger community of Missio Lux located near Seattle gathered to figure out our next steps in moving forward.   Most of this discussion and discernment would have been necessary at this point in our development, but the timing of it seems urgent as our Lead Visionary Pastor is moving to California.  While she still plans to be involved in Missio Lux's dispersed communities in various locations, her day to day involvement in the operational issues locally and for our core will be significantly reduced.  In addition, with shifts in how others feel led and available to continue to participate in ongoing administrative and implementation issues (including me) there are some big gaps appearing that need to be addressed. 

Therefore, we gathered last night.  First with a meal, of course, this is Missio Lux. Then people described the components of Missio Lux and there are a lot! However, our structure is still much like a fragile spider web that catches the dew at dawn, the network of relationships holding together the parts.  Many components are impressive in their own right. 

I'm hoping that eventually this web will become stronger like a fisherman's net that catches all who are lost in its path.   I think it is Alan Hirsch that wrote about the idea that people who come in contact with nets of strong healthy relationships can't help but be caught in the net of friendship, life giving purpose and  transformation.  After all, when Jesus said he would make fishers of men, he wasn't talking about fishing with a nylon thread and a tiny hook, he was talking about huge nets.  The fishermen spent a lot of time and focus maintaining, mending and ensuring their nets were strong before they even started fishing.

This is a critical time for our thin, delicate web stretched out over several continents and locations.  Yet we are confident that God has some big plans and is at work. We are working on out nets.  While some of the holes in the net seem pretty large right now, no doubt He will provide what is needed and necessary to move forward with His purposes, whatever they may be.   Don't miss the journey. 

Amazing Pancakes!

We have an annual Swedish Pancake breakfast and my husband makes pancakes most Saturday mornings.  Some of our friends' kids know us as the pancake people.  However, we have nothin' on this guy.  He is a dad who makes pancakes for his daughter - amazing pancakes!!!   Check this out:  http://www.jimspancakes.com/gallery/

What is the most amazing pancake creation you've made?

My Mom: A Missional Community Catalyst

My mom, Marilyn, is almost eighty years old.  Whether she knows it or not, she is starting a Missional Community. This is how they often start, with an idea, a helpful thought or suggestion.

My mom has enjoyed borrowing books from a shelf at the Country Inn Hotels. They let you borrow a book and then return it to one of their other locations. The Higher Ground coffee shop they frequent in Northern Minnesota does the same thing. If you have a book you want to leave for others, you add it to the collection. No one worries about whether it ever comes back.

The library I used as a kid at her church in St. Paul stopped functioning a while ago because it became too much work to track books, due dates and repeat offenders. However, people are missing the library and a couple bookshelves in a main area of the church sit empty.

My mom had the idea that to fill the gap this same type of book exchange she’s enjoying would be a great idea for her church. She went to her pastor to share her suggestion. Surprisingly, her pastor had already had a similar thought. The church was recently the site of a wedding and she thought the bookshelves with only a couple dormant books looked quite pitiful. With a weed through her books at home, she had already hauled a batch into the church.

My mom’s idea has resulted in enough happening that it took a twenty-minute phone explanation to describe. In just a few days, the effort has grown to include kids' books and cookbooks.  My dad's book of clean jokes has also been bequeathed to the cause.  Since the church often hosts activities for their neighborhood, people in the community will also have access to the collection. 

Labels are being made, people are excited about helping, systems of donations and screening are being established, baskets set up, announcements being written, and a "committee" forming.  I prefer to think of it as the emerging of a missional community; people working together around a common purpose or passion.  My mom is the catalyst. 

Someone had the idea that the book sharing could build community if each book had a bookmark.  If you read a book you sign your name on the bookmark. You might find the other people that borrowed the same book at a coffee hour or church service and talk to them about it. We wondered if people would sign the bookmarks in books written for crisis in your marriage, forgiveness of sins or weight loss. My daughter thought it would be fun to go through and sign all the bookmarks at one time, just so people would wonder.

You go Mom! I’m excited for the first kids that get to haul home books again.

What idea do you have that could start a missional community or a movement? Could you be a Catalyst?