A widow, a coin and a call

This morning Pastor Marilyn preached on Luke 15′s story of the widow who searched her home top and bottom for a lost coin. Marilyn said a phrase that caught my ear: The coin had much more potential found, than it did when it was lost. As a lost coin it had possibilities to help the widow. But it needed to be found for it to reach its full potential.

This is one of the best arguments I can think of for why we are called to  tell people about Christ’s power to reconcile us with God. Because it’s only through that reconciliation that a friend, a family member, a co-worker, the desperate young woman with the meth-induced twitch on the street, the neighbor who just got out of jail, you name it….it’s only through Christ’s sacrifice that they can be what they were built to do and to be.

Photo of the day

I don’t have any profound thoughts for the daily Haiti blog today. Or at least they aren’t organized enough to post. So I wanted to show you my favorite photo of the day.

We traveled to the region around the city of Kenscoff, to a village called Guibert. FH is running a program there called Child Protection, designed to protect children in the aftermath of the quake. Children in all of Haiti are vulnerable right now because they’re the ones who bear the brunt of the economic collapse, family problems, etc. resulting from the quake. Among other things, the program runs a children’s activity program called “Child Friendly Spaces” that gives kids a safe place to play and socialize.

Before we went to Kenscoff, my colleague Charith and I did a basic presentation on taking good photos. Then we loaded up the staff with the aim of putting the lessons into immediate practice. I’m waiting to hear more feedback tomorrow but from my end, it went well.

The staff and kids alike had a good time honing their skills (which were pretty good to begin with). But what caught my attention was how the staff were coaching each other. It was a sweet thing to see. This photo shows Mario taking a photo while his colleagues (from left) Leila, Jude, Miriam and Nixon give him advice.

Say What?

Today we headed to the village of Cachiman, a four-hour drive east from Port-au-Prince. We were just minutes away from the Dominican border, so thankfully I was able to use my Spanish and speak directly with some FH staff, parents and community leaders who had some Spanish.

Sometimes the conversation went English-Spanish-Creole and back again. I ended up translating for English speaking staff in the first few interviews. When I got tired or confused I had to enlist the aid of the child sponsorship program manager Melissa, so the conversation went English-French-Creole and back again. I was exhausted by the end of the day. But it was a very satisfying day. We learned a lot.

Much of the time, I struggled to find the right words to convey a simple question: “How has your involvement with FH impacted your family?” I tried many permutations…I changed verbs….I used hand signals…I got a few answers but felt like I never got to the bottom of the issue.

I talked with the FH staff about it later. What could I have done differently?

“You know, you are probably the first person who ever asked that mother what she THOUGHT about something, ” Melissa said. The whole concept confused her. No one had ever cared that she had an opinion. It’s conjecture, but one I need to consider. Being considered worthy of having thoughts is a privilege I have every day, and have had since I was a child. I was trained to believe that what I thought mattered to others.

Our worker in that community, Alfred, took a similar route in his counsel. The family you just talked to had six kids, he said. It’s all the parents can do to keep them fed, healthy and in school. They live day to day. The idea of even comparing the past with the present so they can see a change isn’t something they even think of doing. Again, I’ve been wired since I was a baby to recognize change, since the day my parents showed delight in my first smile and my first steps.

Alfred and others, like Pastor Francois who heads up the church in Cachiman, are trying to teach that desire and delight in change. Keep them in your prayers.

Roadrunner physics

Did I ever tell you how I ended up wrapped around a tree branch with kayak over my head?

It happened in a flash on Phoenix’s Salt River, on a day with high water and a strong current. I wasn’t watching what I was doing and suddenly I didn’t have the time or strength to pull away from a large, well-established tree. Normally the tree would be on an unapproachable island in the middle of the channel, but the unusually high water had submerged the island, and the tree’s bottom branches were only a few feet above the river.

Christian up

Is this a picture of a couple of little terrorists?

I can’t put words into the mouths of these two children. A colleague of mine snapped their photo at a temporary shelter for Pakistani flood victims today. I don’t know what they are thinking or anything about their story.

I doubt however that they are thinking of ways to blow up America.

Here’s the scoop:  Floods are nasty. Unless a dam breaks, they come upon you slowly. The community hems and haws about whether they should stay or go. If they go and it doesn’t flood, their belongings are up for grabs. If they are farmers, their crops and livestock may disappear at the hands of looters. The stress level must be enormous in the days leading up to the arrival of the flood waters.

If you get caught in a flood, the water isn’t exactly pristine. It’s filled with filth. People in these areas only have one set of clothes. There’s no water to do laundry. If it’s rainy and humid nothing will dry on the line.

What would I be thinking?

–When can I take a bath?

–How are we going to find food?

–Why are mommy and daddy so angry/silent/withdrawn?

–Did I do something bad that that made God punish me and my family?

Aid is trickling in for the Pakistan flood, which is affecting more people than were affected by the mother-of-all disasters, the December 2004 Asian tsunami.  An older child may be aware of the outpouring of help for Haiti. We know that unrestrained compassion is possible. But why withhold it from Pakistan?

I’ve heard far, far too many people say, “Because they don’t deserve it. Look at their record. They blow things up, they kill people, they hate Jesus.” (Who are “they,” anyway?  These two kids?)

I’m sure glad Jesus didn’t take into account whether I deserved it when He went to the cross for me.

Christian up, Church. Take action.

Reality check

I’ve been reading David McCullough’s 1776, a thoughtful and fact-packed analysis of the US Revolutionary War.    We’ve all heard how poorly supplied and trained the US forces were. McCullough reproduces various letters from eyewitnesses lamenting that troops were dirty, dumb, undisciplined and lacking even basic fighting tools. (At one point, due to gunpowder shortages, the troops were given spears to fight with. Spears.)

The discussion of the dire situation of the troops is a parenthesis, really, in McCullough’s description of Gen. George Washington’s character.   These sentences caught my eye:

“In truth, things were worse than they realized, and no one perceived this as clearly as Washington.  Seeing things as they were, and not as he would wish them to be, was one of his salient strengths.” (p 70)

It’s as American as apple pie to be a visionary.  And Washington was vision-driven, no doubt. But he evidently knew how to keep himself from the despair of measuring where he was at the time, and where we wanted to be.  Is reality checking a discipline?  It will be interesting to practice this in the coming days.  What if I truly asked God to show me what was real, instead of inventing all the possible ways life could go wrong?  What if I asked God to help me figure out the real problems?

Where is the persecuted church?

I heard a story this week that broke my heart.

A Christian I know is faced with a tough choice.  She’s in a position to help families and youth heal from substance abuse, family violence and other issues.  But people in authority are now saying she’ll need to offer referrals to traditional tribal medicine men.  My friend told her supervisor, I’m going to have to step down because I just can’t do that. She’s not willing to harm her Christian witness to her tribe.

This didn’t happen in Africa or the Amazon jungle.  This happened last week in Arizona.

Vision

My colleague Dave at Food for the Hungry spoke from his heart at Chapel on Wednesday, about his recent visit to Haiti.  Dave has many years of experience in international development and considerable teaching gifts, so his devotionals hit both your heart and your intellect.

He put the depth of the losses in Haiti into perspective for us.  The 2004 Asian tsunami  caused an estimated 230,000 deaths in 12 countries; the death toll in Haiti has surpassed that, with the damage concentrated in one country.  The government buildings are in ruins.  We were horrified when during 9-11, the Pentagon took a  hit. What if the White House and several of the cabinet-level offices were leveled in one fell swoop?  That’s what’s happened to Haiti.

Ebenezer

For some reason I was in a hymn-singing mood yesterday.  I went walking after work, with “Nearer My God to Thee” for the first mile and “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” as my companion in the second mile.   In that second mile I started processing the day with God.

And in the midst of the thoughts, I realized there was some lingering sadness for a situation that had occurred in the past several years. The situation caused a sense of emotional loss and grief. “This is stupid,” I said to God. “There’s no use carrying this around.  But how do I get rid of it?”

Wonder

I got my wonder back today.

A sense of wonder is vital to my life.  Wonder is only possible if you admit you don’t know it all. You can’t have any wonder if you think you run the world.

But I can lose that sense. I can think that I’m in control, that I have to create it in order for anything to come into existence or to succeed.