March 2007 - Posts

• 41 Years in the Making

  After graduating from college, I had hoped to serve God in missions. God fulfilled part of my dream by placing me at WorldVenture in the home office as an editor in our Communications Department. I help to tell the stories of God's work around the world, but never visited those places myself. Now, after working at the home office for the last 16 years, I got the opportunity to travel to Macau and assist WorldVenture missionaries. Our team of eight helped staff the Student Life Center, a ministry our missionaries in Macau used to make connections with Chinese students. While there, we built relationships and spread the word of the center’s work. One relationship I made was with a young woman who practiced English with me. In school she had been taught that all she needed to depend upon was herself. In Macau, people believed in God, but that was not what she believed. She respected the culture of others, but, for her, there was no God. I said, “I believe in God.” She graciously remarked her respect of my culture. She stressed in strong words that she only needed herself and that belief in God resided in a cultural expression. That it was not true for everyone. I said, “God is real and he has power. I believe God reaches through culture seeking the heart of all peoples.” Shortly before we left the field, I gave her a 365-day calendar with Bible verses on each page. I challenged her to ponder what the verses said. She had strong words against faith, but has asked many challenging questions of the staff at the center. Clearly, the Spirit is working in her hard heart. On this trip I realized that much of God’s mission takes place in the waiting. Waiting for his children to seek to serve him. Waiting for people to listen to his quiet voice and then make a choice that will transform their lives. God patiently spent 41 years preparing me for this. He waited until I was ready. I helped plant his seeds of faith — it was life changing; I better saw God’s heart for all peoples and found in my own heart, a greater love for missions. This short-term mission trip, regardless of the outcome in the lives of those I met, changed me. Posted Mar 14 2007, 03:00 AM by Transformed

• Micro Businesses in Mali

  "Micro businesses" and "micro loans" define one of the hottest trends in outreach and humanitarian work. The terms find airtime regularly now when humanitarian projects are discussed on radio or television. But beyond the big idea buzz surrounding these terms, what does this look like in the field? In a word — relationships. Tom Seward tells the story of the many "micro" enterprises surrounding their work in Mali. These enterprises resulting out of the need for adequate income naturally intersect with presence of the Sewards in the community. Tom writes, "Our guard/yard worker and his wife have opened a small boutique and are selling tea, sugar, kerosene, rice and soap. "Another friend is welding a donkey cart for our laundress to rent out for extra income and to help when we leave or she retires. "One of the men who we work with on the Jula language Radio Team is developing recipes, gathering clientele, and trying to accumulate kitchen appliances and the furniture to open a restaurant in Kadiolo. "A second individual on the Radio Team has a telephone booth, but the arrival of cell phones has diminished the demand. He'd like to buy a photocopier and computer to open a 'business center' with Internet access. These business start-ups are their own dreams in which they ask us for our help in various ways. We like helping, especially testing new recipes!" Most of these people are employed, but on a part-time basis. The need to support large families, pay for education for their children, and support elderly parents back in the village drive the launch of these ventures. Even though the Sewards' work focus is youth and leadership development, the life on life relationships they have as part of the Mali community naturally generate opportunities for micro business development. This could be the story of many other WorldVenture missionaries in developing countries. Redemptive relationships inherently require life on life involvement in practical ways. Jesus often answered the immediate need with the aim at addressing reaching the eternal one. Posted Mar 14 2007, 03:00 AM by Transformed

• Women of Wirira

  I first learned of the plight of the women of Wirira as my host, Joseph, drove me to the village. We planned to hold a trauma healing seminar for the women over the next week. All of the women of this village have suffered brutal rape, most have witnessed the violent deaths of their husbands and some of their children in the genocide of 1994. Most are HIV positive. Their lives are overwhelmed with sorrow and suffering. Heaping insult on injury, to have been raped in this cultural context is a huge shame. They handle this shame by keeping it secret. The very thing that would help them — i.e. sharing it and receiving support — is not a social option. Joseph says the women are weak both in body, because of injuries and the HIV infection, and in faith. As we drove, Joseph elaborated on the plight of the women. Marriage is difficult because of the numbers of women who survived compared to the men. Men can be more picky about marriage. Men in this area have been known to refuse to marry women outside their tribe because they won’t cook enough potatoes for them. Justice, also, is difficult to find. The gacaca — or local justice process — going on weekly across Rwanda fails these women because of the cultural restrains on exposing the crime of rape. If a man confesses before gacaca that he has murdered, he may be released into the community. But if he confesses rape, he will surely go to jail for life. Thus the men do not confess that they have raped. At the same time, women do not accuse the men because of the public disgrace of being raped. The conference covered many days but some significant moments deserve highlighting. One afternoon we took time to draw their trauma itself. The women choose what they will draw, and during this time they worked alone, and quiet. Later, we gathered in a circle again to share their stories. "The pain washes over me as I discipline myself to continue to listen and enter in. We weep together," I later noted in my journal. The next day, we continued the stories, painfully, quietly. Then I begin sharing a psalm, Psalm 13. It is a song of lament and it is very fitting. “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?” We talked about how David cried out to God, sharing his feelings freely. We noticed how David expected God to bring the help, and in the last lines, he expressed his confidence that God will not fail him — “But I trust in your unfailing love …” I asked the women to gather in small groups of three to four, and write their own laments to God following the same pattern. Later again we gathered and the women read them. Again we wept. We continued to read Scripture that reminds the women that they are loved by God, precious to him, and strengthened by him. I asked them to remind each other that they are loved, they are precious in God’s sight, he gives them strength, and he promises to be with them. Immediately, I noticed an excitement and laughter in the room as they turn to each other to share this. I went around the circle, taking hands with each, hugging them, telling them “You are loved. You are precious to God. He will give you strength.” Then in classic African style we danced and sang together for awhile. The rest of the week continued in deep investigation of the hurt and pain that these women carry. Story after story of the anger, abandonment, and humiliation they have felt. Even, thoughts against God, wondering why he let this happen to them and why, if he loved them, would he not have stopped it. We counted the children they had lost and the ones that remain among them and the orphans many of the women have taken into their home. Then unexpectedly, Joseph, asked to speak to the women. He had shared with me that he felt quite broken, hearing the women's stories, and their awful pain. He is a Hutu man, and wanted to ask their forgiveness for what has been done to them. After he shared this, the women eagerly forgave him, and extend to him their trust and their love. Thank God for the healing going on in Rwanda. Please, pray for more tenderness and honesty among the innumerable victimized and suffering of this country. Posted Mar 05 2007, 02:00 AM by Transformed