I just got an article from a friend about homeless homosexual men on the streets of New York City. Twenty beds for 100 plus individuals is a tragedy, according to one of this NYTimes author's sources. I am severely underwhelmed.
Here's an email I just wrote to HD. It explains a bit of what things are like in this unnamed place that I am living for awhile. BOB
Here's a snapshot of where i am -- all of which is perception and none of which necessarily correlates to reality. Things are easy in one sense here because there is no poverty and no disease -- at least, they hide all that stuff like all good developed nations do. At the same time, there are other types of poverty. The church here has a very different witness than I am used to -- it is very ahrd for them just to maintain membership, much less impact their culture. Parliament elections were two weeks ago, and the Christians were basically laughed off the ticket, in terms of votes. The Christians here are not moving anywhere. I come with my americano mindset and become impatient at the church not doing its job, but I think I underestimate how difficult that job must be. They are struggling across Europe for legitimacy in the eyes of a hurting and broken and suspicious public. And the immigrant question is foremost on everybody's mind. Most nations in the EU just voted people into that parliament who are very anti-immigrant and pro-themselves. The state runs everything and offers all the services, but the state is lost and calling out its direction and advice from a dark, lonesome place.
The church has little to say about this, since it is fractured and split in a million ways. They need direction, but not from me. It is unusual and heartbreaking for me to be in a physically rich place OR in a spiritually poor place, and this place can be both. Still, that context makes certain things more important, like sincere worship or prayer time. God is still moving, even here. He is gathering Arabic and North African and Turkish people to himself, oddly enough! And I get to be part of that!
Wow. The Muslims are coming into the kingdom and witnessing to the Athiests and Catholics... still rare, but becoming more and more common. Come soon, Jesus! Help us to seek the low ground for service, which is our strategic ground for ministry.
Our days are filled with learning to greet people well: people and neighborhoods and organizations. There are so many politics, but greeting someone in a way that values them AND their group orientation and communal identity breaks down certain barriers. We spend a lot of daylight listening to people's complaints and hopes and dreams, and a lot fo midnight hours planning how missionaries might better greet and serve these communities. How might development one day happen from the inside? Where is God working?
Sigh. I don't know if it was this complicated in the Philippines, Hope. It was harder there in some ways (like India?), but still straightforward and hopeful. Europe (specifically here) doesn't hope for very much, it seems. Keep praying for the kingdom. I think it is coming in spite of us!
So that's a word-picture of what I'm experiencing. Thanks for listening.
Hugs and Prayers,
THE TALL ONE
PS -- heard psalm 19 in Arabic today and felt more called to Muslim communities than ever... hmmm.
there was once a man from Judah who went to serve the Lord but didn't make it home alive. this was in the time of the divided kingdom. he went to bring the word of the Lord but it didn't go down like he thought and the Lord's instructions were just flat out unreasonable. no food? no reward? sour grapes sitting under a fig tree doesn't solve anything, but that's just what he was doing when along came another prophet.
this prophet was up to no good. he lied to the man from Judah and told him the Lord had changed his mind about those instructions. well, the man from Judah was just waiting to hear that he was right all along and that the Lord really was being as unreasonable as he thought. he leapt up and went to the false prophet's house to break his fast, instead of returning home.
unfortunately for the man of Judah, the Lord did not intend to play the fool. the Spirit rushed upon the second prophet and he told the man from Judah that the Lord was about to take his life. sure enough, on the way home, the prophet form Judah met a hungry lion. the lion won, and both kingdoms had something to talk about for years and years and years.
enter Amos, another man from Judah. in fact, he was a man from Judah sent to a man named Jeroboam -- just like the first man from Judah. despite what happened the last time during the reign of the first Jeroboam, Amos was determined to serve the Lord. his instructions were different than those of his predecessors, but Amos still had opportunity to disobey.
he had pretty well won the people over and then surprised them by taking them to task for not being the covenant people they ought to be. everybody was offended, but they were listening. enter another prophet, a prophet of Israelite who did not like this man from Judah usurping his position. he challenged Amos and told him to go earn his bread back in Judah. but Amos' call wasn't to Judah. he had strict instructions to tell Israel how things were. here's how he responded to this Israelite prophet: "not only am i not going back to Judah, i'm not even really a prophet, neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. and what do you mean go earn my bread elsewhere? i'm not earning any money here. i serve the Lord."
go Amos. go Amos. it's your birthday.
so anyway, the regional director of a European organization recently asked me what kind of prophet I wanted to be. Amos seems the best, but he had the hardest job. on the other hand, he made it out alive. AND did his job obediently. that still counts for something, right?
come night
come
use my negligence
find here a space
large enough
come here
come understand
the failure
of the miser's unsunned
dreams hopes
heaps of potential
hidden
from wind or stars
or generosities unasked-for
come dwell
come night and dwell
within the space
of loneliness and lacking love
teach me dark
togetherness
woo me gently
with maiden's hair
smiling eyes
come night
come
dwell within the void
heartless grasping
has created in my heart
come make me glad
with singing
fullsome
convincing
fulfilled
bake for me
good bread
with your own hands
teach me
to bake after you
to feed another
with myself
come night
come
embrace
prepare me for a dawn
of new repentance
(many thanks to jm. you are one of the many reasons i write.)
OK, I'm back online. Can anybody explain to me the political definition of "terrorism?" And what's the difference, while you're at it, between terrorism and the response of governments to terrorists? I'm watching The Devil's Own right now in Belgium. Hollywood is having its way with my affections, as usual, and I'm not really seeing much difference between the IRA and the Irish government. In fact, I don't really see much difference between the PLO and the Israeli government, at elast not in terms of method. Of course their ideologies are different and all that, but philosophy and theory of government aside, no one's really innocent here. Are they? How do things like this ever get resolved? Bah!