Quote of the day: At home and foreign in every land

“For the Christians are distinguished from other people neither by land, nor language, nor customs; for they do not inhabit cities of their own, nor use a particular language, nor lead a life that is unusual…But inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according to each person’s lot…they display to us their wonderful and admittedly paradoxical way of life. They inhabit their homelands, but as strangers…Every foreign land is their homeland, and every homeland a foreign land.”

– Epistle to Diogenetus, 2nd or 3rd C

Irvin, Dale T., and Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World Christian Movement: Earliest Christianity to 1453. Orbis, 2001: 96

Quote of the day: The infinite adaptability of the one truth

“The translational principle explicitly rejects the idea, enshrined in Christendom, that Christianity has a definitive cultural expression, that non-Christian peoples must embrace another culture as a condition for salvation. To editorialize John 14:6,

Christ cannot be the way if he does not know where we are coming from or meet us where we are.

Christ cannot be the truth if he is not providing answers to the particular questions we are asking.

Christ cannot be the life if he does not embody our humanity (framed by our specific contextual experiences and cultural heritage).”

– Jehu Hanciles

Hanciles, Jehu. 2008. Beyond christendom : globalization, African migration, and the transformation of the West. p105

Nice.

Right now we are enjoying a very pleasant surprise, which we never saw coming.

In eight hours, we’ll board the flight that will eventually take us to the States. We are in Prague, finishing a co-worker’s wedding and a couple days seeing the city. But our flight tomorrow is at 6am, which presented a big problem. What to do the night before, and how to maximize Gabi’s sleep? We want as cheerful a little girl as possible before a long plane flight. PRG airport is 17km from the city. As mentioned in the previous post, we have a lot of luggage. Public transportation would not be possible if we stayed in the city. I looked into airport hotel rooms (though I can’t stand paying $100+ for a room I’ll spend very little time in, I’m learning as a parent that some of these expenses are necessary), but even that would mean leaving the room at 4am and waking Gabi reeeaally early. So we decided to look for a comfy-ish place to sleep in the airport, a corner where we could put Gabi down in her travel bed. She’d be able to sleep a precious extra hour, and we’d be calmer knowing that we’re already at our destination. Of course, we predicted lousy sleep for the two of us, and a chance that Gabi would be awakened repeatedly.

Tough choice. We decided to scope out the airport and see how it looked, and then get a hotel room if necessary.

Unexpected surprise #1: We were able to check our heavy bags in at 6pm the night before our flight. Words can’t express how relieved we are to see all that stuff float down the belt and off to some back hangar, hopefully for a reunion in SEA.

Unexpected surprise #2: The woman at the check in counter didn’t give us any flack for bag weight. Some of our bags were definitely on the edge, and the wrong agent can make life quite difficult. Big smiles and small talk get you a long way in any culture.

Unexpected surprise #3: Ducking down an out of the way hallway on the third floor, we found the “Mama s Detmi” (mother with child) room. Huge score. This 20×20 carpeted playroom has a changing table, sink, table and chairs, a baby see-saw, a crib in the corner, and decorations of Lightning McQueen all over the walls! Oh, and it’s empty. Gabi had dinner and went to bed on time, and she’s been in dream land for three hours now. Jess and I got to spend some precious time in prayer for the huge transition ahead of us. We haven’t had nearly enough of that lately.

This is such a great gift from the Lord. It’s amazing how the little things mean so much to you, especially when you’re in flux. Where we expected constant loud flight announcements and bright lights on a hard floor, we instead got a quiet room with a quite romantic view of the sun setting on the runway. And now here I am blogging while Jess sleeps a few feet away.

So far our only guests have been an employee on break and a guy without kids, both of whom quickly excused themselves. If you’re reading this, pray for seven more quiet hours! And pray that we get some sleep.

*I’m slightly hesitant to blab the secret of the Mama s Detmi room, but I suppose the overlap is quite small between readers of our blog (a few) and people traveling through Prague and looking to sleep in the airport. So don’t worry PRG, your secret’s safe with us!

When we don’t blog, this is often why

This great article is worth a read by anyone who’s ever written a blog, read a blog, tweeted, or posted a facebook status. That should be all of you, since you’re here now.

In a nutshell (of a nutshell–it’s a very short article), it discusses how social media has put us all in the position of public debaters. That’s a scary position, as millions of people can now give their expert opinion on any matter in a matter of seconds, “going on record” for all time. We who do that writing often aren’t well-educated or qualified to speak out, and should be a bit more sparing with our words. Especially on complex theological topics and issues sensitive to our faith (and how we proclaim it to the world).

The author isn’t completely knocking social media, nor am I–I enjoy blogs and love the access to opinions and ideas through the internet! Yet I often find myself thinking about an issue and wanting to write or post to facebook about it, but then I realize that many others have written with a better handle on the issue, and that my half-baked thoughts might not need to be out there for all to see. Plus, my attention span and free time for blogging don’t allow for thorough coverage of many deep topics other than waiting in lines, trying to find decent tv, and comparing my life to the Terminator legend. Not exactly Jonathan Edwards.

So when this blog’s empty, it doesn’t mean our minds are empty.* It might just mean we’re taken with ideas too big for our little minds, and we’d rather you read about it elsewhere. Which this day and age, is easy to do. Just check your sources!

*Of course, thanks to Gabriela it does sometimes mean that.

The church and evil

What if, someone will ask, the people who now bear the solution become themselves part of the problem as happened before? Yes, that is a problem and it must be addressed. The church is never more in danger than when it sees itself simply as the solution-bearer and forgets that every day it too must say, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner,” and allow that confession to work its way into genuine humility even as it stands boldly before the world and its crazy empires. In particular, it is a problem if and when a “Christian” empire seeks to impose its will dualistically on the world by labeling other parts of the world “evil” while seeing itself as the avenging army of God. That is more or less exactly what Jesus found in the Israel of his day. The cross was and remains a call to a different vocation, a new way of dealing with evil and ultimately a new vision of God.

– From NT Wright’s excellent “Evil and the Justice of God”, p.99

Power, pride, & the visa process PART 2

Today I returned to the visa processing office to pick up an extension of the temporary document which states that our visa applications are in process. (If that sentence makes no sense to you, read the previous post. Or don’t, and just forget about it.)

While there, I asked the employee about the process for registering Gabi in-country. They told me that the situation with our daughter was “neugodno,” which roughly translates to distasteful or unpleasant. Because we are volunteers (paid from outside Bosnia), they explained, it’s not technically appropriate that we have children here with us in the country. If we had official jobs here, or owned property or had some other more official ties, she said, it wouldn’t be a problem. Volunteers shouldn’t be allowed this. But for now, she’d make an exception and I could just have Gabi registered through the police department and then we’ll talk again next year.

I tried hard to smile and not be a smart alec, but the subtle implication that our presence here is a drain on Bosnia’s resources stung me. The truth is that 1) we spend money all over Bosnia, helping the economy, 2) our employment is offering free English courses, seminars, textbooks and resources for college students which the government does not provide, and 3) Americans don’t usually come to the Balkans to live the easy life and drain the system.

I left, and as I drove home I considered the other side of the situation. This is one more moment where my privilege as an American hits me. In almost every other case, it’s the foreign power who has the upper hand–giving financial and humanitarian aid, ordering law changes, even governing Bosnia. Bosnians are constantly made to feel that they are less by foreigners who expect gratitude and obeisance for their handouts. It’s not fair, and it’s a feeling I as an American can’t truly understand. One of the only opportunities Bosnia has to turn the table is in the visa office, where I am at their mercy completely. Who can blame them, or be surprised, if they take the chance to take a stab at a foreigner for once? Instead of remaining mad, I become humbled by the subtle power dynamics undergirding every situation here, and reminded of the privilege I enjoy but personally have done nothing to earn.

Self care

“Self-care is never a selfish act–it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give it the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.”

-Parker Palmer, quoted in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

God’s laws are pretty cool

I’m reading through the Bible again, since last time it was a great exercise. Right now I’m midway through Exodus, and God’s giving the first parts of his Law to the Israelites. It’s really good! God’s guidelines were practical (yes, with a few exceptions in Leviticus that I don’t get) and just plain good for society. A few themes from this morning stand out to me, and disprove some of the subtle beliefs we have about the OT…

Love your enemy isn’t just a NT idea.

4 “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it. – Ex. 23:4-5

What do we expect to see in the OT about enemies? Stomp on ’em, crush ’em! Right? Eye for an eye was everything to these guys, we think. Yet here, God commands the Israelites to go out of their way to help a person who hates them. Sounds a lot like that other guy, Jesus. Hmm…maybe he really meant what he said about being the fulfillment of the Law.

Women weren’t to be treated as objects.

¹⁶ “If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife. ¹⁷ If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins. – Ex. 22:16-17

It may not be the boldest statement to our 21st-C ears, but it was a big deal in this time. A man can’t just have his way with a woman and discard her. If he commits the sin, he must take her in marriage and provide for her. A family will be established, and the child will be raised by its two parents. And there’s even a clause for the woman who really wants no part of this guy…she still receives the dowry of a wife, as repayment for his actions.

Slavery wasn’t what it is today.

2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything… 5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life. – Ex. 21:2-5

We picture the North Atlantic slave trade’s barbarism, and contemporary child and sex labor. But here we have the picture of something mutually beneficial, and with a 7th year get-out-of-slavery free clause. And apparently it wasn’t uncommon for the slave to want to stay! While the part about the awl is a bit shocking to my ears, it’s obvious it’s something the servant is choosing happily. BTW, slave and servant are the same word here.

God takes justice for widows & orphans personally.

22 “Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. 23 If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. – Ex. 22:22-24

So maybe we didn’t doubt this one, but it’s powerful to see His very personal interest. In these chapters God gives a lot of instructions on how to treat others, and their property. He calls on the Israelites to resolve their issues through discussion, money, and courts. Yet here, he says that he himself will bring justice, by his own hand. That’s serious business. This theme is repeated throughout the Scriptures…our God loves justice for the least!

It’s not just about Israel.

21 “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. – Ex 22:21

9 “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt. – Ex 23:9

12 “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed. – Ex. 23:12

This one’s all over the OT. Seriously, you can’t read through a single book without seeing God’s love and plan for all nations pop up everywhere. Israel wasn’t the only people to receive God’s love. They were the chosen instrument to shine his love to all other nations, inviting them out of their false religions and to the one true God over the whole earth. Foreigners were invited to join the Lord’s family, provided they adopted God’s Law–obviously, since this is the lifestyle for all believers. Praise God that he has always welcomed aliens=foreigners…that’s how I got into the family!

On this Independence Day, a good reminder

Thank you God for the freedoms I enjoy as am American. And may my allegiances always stay in the correct order:

Jonathan Edwards in his work of moral philosophy, The Nature of True Virtue, argues that if you love your country more than God, you will be belligerent toward other nations and races. He points out that the Romans considered love of country to be the highest of all virtues, yet this priority “was employed as it were for the destruction of the rest of mankind.”

P. Ramsey, ed. Ethical Writings, in vol. 8 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards, quoted in Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods

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Observations in the USA, part 2: We used to be cool

On Saturday we got to be part of the wedding of two dear friends, Robyn and Danny. Jess was a bridesmaid, and Deron married them. R and D were students whom we mentored, and later IV staff at Cal Poly. That meant a lot of IV friends and former students were present.

During the reception, the two of us had nearly-constant companions at our side–students who had been under us and were now older leaders in the fellowship we led. It was so great to catch up and see how they’ve grown and are now leading others (we met younger students that they are now mentoring).

And man, we felt LOVED and APPRECIATED. They were so excited to talk to us, catch us up on their lives and inquire about ours, and tell their younger proteges about the influence we’d had on them. It was flattering, and also strange…

…strange, because it’s an almost wholly unfamiliar feeling these days in Bosnia! When we directed InterVarsity on the Central Coast of California, we were cool! We taught the Bible at large meetings in halls full of students. We mentored groups of them, and more were always asking for our influence. Our leadership team of 50+ put on exciting events to engage the campus. We were able to use a variety of gifts and talents. We spoke the language, which meant we could be witty and speak with style. We had, as much as any minister does, the respect of our community.

In Bosnia, we are a small part of a small ministry in a small religion considered a cult by the majority faiths. Nobody understands what we do. Our believing students are mostly lukewarm about receiving our influence in their life. When we speak, it’s in our second tongue. We make grammar mistakes, and forget about being stylish or witty. We rarely get to teach in front of a group larger than 8 or 10.

That’s our reality. We aren’t particularly negative about it, but at times like this the contrast is so stark it’s kind of humorous. Yet this doesn’t mean we want to go back. Our years in SoCal were wonderful, but we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God called us to the Balkans, for an as-of-now unknown duration of time. The reason we don’t get much “props” in Bos is exactly the reason we’ve come there: because there is no sizeable community of believers to appreciate us and line up for our influence. We are sharing the hope Jesus offers with an audience of 4 million who don’t recognize their need for him, in the hope that some day Bosnia will be full of vibrant young believers, growing in Christ and mentoring others to come after them.

There are a lot of places in God’s world where the blessed reality that we experience in America because of our Gospel heritage is not reality. In those places the missionaries are not understood or received, and the local Christ-followers fare worse: they are persecuted, rejected, or at least benignly ignored by those around them. And it’s important for us here to learn about their struggle and support it in prayer and physical means, whether we are seeing visible Gospel “progress” or merely seeds hitting hard soil.

Just some thoughts that are rolling through our minds. And to all of you who’ve ever expressed appreciation for us, thanks…we can sure use the encouragement!