This morning we walked out on the tarmac of the Lusaka Airport one last time and I am now sitting late at night in a hotel next to the London Heathrow Airport...there are feelings of sadness leaving and fears about adjusting back to life in the States and a deep, deep longing to be home...and after 3 hours of sharing and closing conversation last night in a large African hut restaurant space there are so many things we have seen, tried to process, and experienced these past 2 weeks since we left O'Hare and you all...so here goes nothing and is a brief summary of my reflections on the plane out of Zambia back to the first world...
10 THINGS GOD TAUGHT ME WHEN I TRAVELED TO THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY CALLED ZAMBIA:
1. The globalization of the world allows us a unique opportunity to be a truly global church that loves and learns from each other while seeking to bring God's reign and rule to all hearts and nations together
2. The African Christians can and do help us live out a much more authentic and simple and vibrant faith as we see them live with great trust in Jesus every day
3. This generation of students has a deep need to see that the biblical value of justice is played out in the lives of each person made in the image of God
4. A remarkably small amount of financial resource given in Jesus' name can truly and dramatically change now and for eternity so many lives in so many places around the world
5. Our shared passions and interests, whether they be soccer or dance or music or health care or learning can be used to build instant friendships and are remarkable platforms for the Gospel to be brought forth in all its fullness to people everywhere we go
6. God is truly doing fantastic things to make His name known and to use His people to bring healing to a broken land thru Zambian pastors, caregivers, World Vision staff, teachers, grandmothers, midwifes, and young people in Africa today
7. If God can use a group of high school students to bring transformational change to the lives and future of a community thousands and thousands of miles away, He is clearly in the business of giving out dreams and helping people make visions become reality as part of His purpose and plan to change and redeem the world
8. The images of poverty and disease, unreal injustices, unadulterated joy, deep and pure love, and remarkable beauty in God's created work we have seen in Africa are burned into our minds forever
9. Taking a missions/vision trip overseas only justifies the cost and the time if one's world view and heart for people is so altered that our lifestyles are different and we respond with action to God's promptings from the Spirit to do something to change how we live and how life is lived in the places we have been
10. What the Zambia Project at Wheaton Academy has been all about and accomplished can and ought to be the norm rather than the exception for Christian schools, churches, ministries, and groups of Christ-followers in light of the incredible needs across the globe and across our towns, the state of rich blessedness we live in, and God's desire for it to happen!
I shared in our final Zambia Project chapel just over one month ago from Jesus' most clear action step we are to take on this planet when He declares in Matthew 22 that the Second Greatest Commandment that follows the First is to 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' I am so excited to see what that continues to mean in my own life and the lives of 24 others who spent 2 weeks together in the summer of 2008 in Zambia as we all continue to seek to love people at WA, in West Chicago and other suburbs, on college campuses, and in Africa and all other parts of the globe...
This trip is designed to be both an ending and a beginning in response to seeing the impact of the Zambia Project and discovering the next step for each of us as it relates to our response to the global needs of people close to us and so far away...I can't wait to see the next phase of the impact and power of loving our neighbors in the lives of this community I have loved being part of for the last 13 days and the larger WA community in the days, months, years, and lives to come...
Here's a final thought from U2's Bono about working in Africa and why we believe so strongly as we come home that we can make a difference: "We can't lose because we're putting our shoulder to a door that God Almighty has already opened."
SEEKING TO BRING AFRICA AND ALL IT HAS TO OFFER BACK HOME WITH US TO SHARE WITH YOU,
Chip
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Safari Day in Africa
Today is my final blog from Africa as we head back to Lusaka tomorrow and leave Zambia on Saturday…we hope to get a chance to do some work in the RAPIDS office, a USAID funded program to help in the prevention and care of those suffering from HIV/AIDS all across Zambia…
We had an amazing time traveling to Botswana and seeing a wide assortment of animals up close and personal in our safari at Chobe Game Park today…we started out cruising the river and met up with crocidiles, hippos, exotic birds, and elephants taking baths to cool off on a sunny day…after lunch we headed out in jeeps on the land and saw three lions sleeping on top of each other, a group of ten giraffes running in sequence across the African plains, and so many impala, buffalo, kudu, and more elephants you can’t even count them all…we should have incredible pictures to show you and going to the zoo back home may not be so exciting for a while…
After our final dinner in Livingstone tonight we sat down to talk about the reality of what we have seen in Africa in the last ten days and what our response might be as we begin to prepare to come home…we will finish that conversation tomorrow, but there was an air of heaviness and tension as we discussed what we have and even our struggles these last two days staying at a nice resort, eating lunch at a gorgeous safari lodge, seeing sex workers at the border as hundreds of trucks wait to clear customs, and still having so many scenes of our friends and their needs in Kakolo Village and the villages right next to our accommodations be so fresh in our minds…I have discovered over the years that coming and having my heart moved in Africa creates this deep tension about what life ought to look like for both me and those who live here…there is almost a fear in coming home because you know you must live somewhat differently if you are to honor the trip and God’s work in your heart and life…and we often don’t know what that might mean…and yet I see that there is such great growth in this journey as we seek to bridge these two worlds and the people God loves so deeply in both spots…as you pray for us between now and Sunday afternoon would you pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to speak and that in community we can wisely help one another pursue God’s call both now and in the days and months to come as followers of Jesus who love and want the world to know Him and experience life in all the fullness He has designed for it…
Africa has once again touched us deeply and we are forever grateful that God invited us to join Him here this last week and a half…
We are so anxious to see you Sunday afternoon at O’Hare!!
On the journey home and to a deeper life with Jesus and commitment to His Kingdom work with your students…CHIP
We had an amazing time traveling to Botswana and seeing a wide assortment of animals up close and personal in our safari at Chobe Game Park today…we started out cruising the river and met up with crocidiles, hippos, exotic birds, and elephants taking baths to cool off on a sunny day…after lunch we headed out in jeeps on the land and saw three lions sleeping on top of each other, a group of ten giraffes running in sequence across the African plains, and so many impala, buffalo, kudu, and more elephants you can’t even count them all…we should have incredible pictures to show you and going to the zoo back home may not be so exciting for a while…
After our final dinner in Livingstone tonight we sat down to talk about the reality of what we have seen in Africa in the last ten days and what our response might be as we begin to prepare to come home…we will finish that conversation tomorrow, but there was an air of heaviness and tension as we discussed what we have and even our struggles these last two days staying at a nice resort, eating lunch at a gorgeous safari lodge, seeing sex workers at the border as hundreds of trucks wait to clear customs, and still having so many scenes of our friends and their needs in Kakolo Village and the villages right next to our accommodations be so fresh in our minds…I have discovered over the years that coming and having my heart moved in Africa creates this deep tension about what life ought to look like for both me and those who live here…there is almost a fear in coming home because you know you must live somewhat differently if you are to honor the trip and God’s work in your heart and life…and we often don’t know what that might mean…and yet I see that there is such great growth in this journey as we seek to bridge these two worlds and the people God loves so deeply in both spots…as you pray for us between now and Sunday afternoon would you pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to speak and that in community we can wisely help one another pursue God’s call both now and in the days and months to come as followers of Jesus who love and want the world to know Him and experience life in all the fullness He has designed for it…
Africa has once again touched us deeply and we are forever grateful that God invited us to join Him here this last week and a half…
We are so anxious to see you Sunday afternoon at O’Hare!!
On the journey home and to a deeper life with Jesus and commitment to His Kingdom work with your students…CHIP
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Victoria Falls
We spent an absolutely gorgeous Zambia afternoon at one of the most beautiful and staggering displays of creation on our planet...we wandered around Victoria Falls for a couple hours seeing babboons show us their red back sides, get soaked by the mist of the spray of the thundering water pouring down as the Zambezi river empties down some 300 feet, watching bungee jumpers plunge off a bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe, seeing double rainbows above the falls, and taking hundreds of pictures above the falls where missionary David Livingstone came upon them in a small canoe over 150 years ago...
And there were quiet moments reveling in the midst of God's splendor while knowing the poverty and disease and political turmoil and so many people in desperate need were all around us...and yet the power of God in the falls speaks to the vastness of His love and grace and strength for all things in a truly remarkable way...
We are off to see all kinds of His created animals tomorrow on safari as we wind down our time here in Africa...
We are truly counting the days to see you all and again and show and tell what this experience has been for all of us...
CHIP
And there were quiet moments reveling in the midst of God's splendor while knowing the poverty and disease and political turmoil and so many people in desperate need were all around us...and yet the power of God in the falls speaks to the vastness of His love and grace and strength for all things in a truly remarkable way...
We are off to see all kinds of His created animals tomorrow on safari as we wind down our time here in Africa...
We are truly counting the days to see you all and again and show and tell what this experience has been for all of us...
CHIP
Saying Good Bye to our Community of Friends
We are currently on our way to Livingstone and later today we will see Victoria Falls, one of the most amazing wonders found on the earth...and then tomorrow we will be off to Botswana for a safari at Chobe Game Park...we will enjoy some of the amazing things Africa has to offer...the trip feel changes at this point and we will as a group spent lots of time trying to ask God to lead us in how we tangibly respond to all we have seen and experienced here in Zambia...please pray that what we have seen and heard and done will truly be used by God to create new dreams and visions for how we can live out our faith with great purpose and joy and passion as a result of our time here...
On Tuesday we had another day full of remarkable things...we started out in the Zamtan area just a few miles away from our Kakolo Village community...many of us had chances to see our sponsored children and that is truly a remarkable thing...we walked around the village community and stopped at the homes where the children we have only seen in pictures or received notes from lived...they are always in their best clothes and it is a joy to bring a few gifts and to tell them personally how much we really do care about them and love them...sponsorship here changes both their individual lives and helps the whole community as resources are pooled to benefit everyone in the area...it was an emotional moment for many of us as you hear the stories of a whole generation beinbg gone and only a grandmother left to care for the children and seeing a family of seven sleeping in one room on a cement floor...there is such a power in relationships and as I saw one of my family's children proudly wearing my son's old tball hat as he held my hand walking to the community baseball game, I was so very blessed...
Many of our group had the chance to make a meal for a group of sixty pre-school children at a school that often provides the only meal some children might get that day...and we got a tour of the remarkable Zamtan Medical Clinic which is truly becoming one of the most impressive and impactful facilities in the whole nation of Zambia...we walked thru the maternity wing which was funded by WA where over 40 babies have already been born without HIV due to the PMTCT project God invited us to participate in...to see that vision saving lives and changing the future of a whole generation in this community was so fun for our group to see...
We also had the chance to play a baseball game on the soccer field where we played against a Zambian team...a former WA alum brought baseball first to this area and the whole nation of Zambia during a summer internship with WV Zambia and his legacy lives on...we beat them 6-5 in a close game where the old man on our team was able to recall his college playing baseball days by an act of God and hit a grand slam...
We then heard from a couple area church pastors who are spearheading a major community work where the churches all come together to minister to people's needs and focus on the work of prevention of HIV with the next generation...they are doing amazing work and are getting ready to take the mantel of spiritual and community leadership as World Vision prepares to leave the area in 2010 as they move into self sustainment...
Our final activity was a dedication/groudbreaking event for the new schoolhouse addition which the community is so excited about...the past 2 years of the Zambia Project have fully funded this incredibly necessary step and we were each able to use a pick axe to break the ground and dig the first hole as the people danced and prayed and praised the name of Jesus for this answer to their prayers and the completion of a dream only God could put in our hearts...
We were given many gifts from the community as we got ready to leave and as hundreds of children hung onto your students and ran after the bus as we drove away, I was struck again by the remarkable connection our God has created among those who are part of the body of Christ here in Zambia and in Chicago...we have been told over and over again by our friends here that we are one and that this place is our second home...as we shared with the Zambian staff our latest school video and the words of many students about how this project has changed their lives and our school community, the presence of God filled our hotel conference room...
We will be in many ways forever connected to this place...the children and their faces and names are etched in our minds and our hearts have been broken by the needs we have seen with our own eyes...we have been humbled by how we have been loved and served by these amazing brothers and sisters here...and we are being transformed into the global followers of Jesus that Scripture clearly invites us to be as we individually and corporately seek out where God wants us to serve and how He wants us to live differently as a result of His invitation to come to Zambia...
Your students were Jesus to a community and so many kids this past week, and I watched with great joy and tears and love as they too fell in love with a people and place that has stolen my heart...
Coming to Africa is good for your soul and in some strange way also wrecks your life in the best way...thanks for your prayers and your love and support...
Blessed by the Goodness of God as we wave good bye to Kakolo...CHIP
On Tuesday we had another day full of remarkable things...we started out in the Zamtan area just a few miles away from our Kakolo Village community...many of us had chances to see our sponsored children and that is truly a remarkable thing...we walked around the village community and stopped at the homes where the children we have only seen in pictures or received notes from lived...they are always in their best clothes and it is a joy to bring a few gifts and to tell them personally how much we really do care about them and love them...sponsorship here changes both their individual lives and helps the whole community as resources are pooled to benefit everyone in the area...it was an emotional moment for many of us as you hear the stories of a whole generation beinbg gone and only a grandmother left to care for the children and seeing a family of seven sleeping in one room on a cement floor...there is such a power in relationships and as I saw one of my family's children proudly wearing my son's old tball hat as he held my hand walking to the community baseball game, I was so very blessed...
Many of our group had the chance to make a meal for a group of sixty pre-school children at a school that often provides the only meal some children might get that day...and we got a tour of the remarkable Zamtan Medical Clinic which is truly becoming one of the most impressive and impactful facilities in the whole nation of Zambia...we walked thru the maternity wing which was funded by WA where over 40 babies have already been born without HIV due to the PMTCT project God invited us to participate in...to see that vision saving lives and changing the future of a whole generation in this community was so fun for our group to see...
We also had the chance to play a baseball game on the soccer field where we played against a Zambian team...a former WA alum brought baseball first to this area and the whole nation of Zambia during a summer internship with WV Zambia and his legacy lives on...we beat them 6-5 in a close game where the old man on our team was able to recall his college playing baseball days by an act of God and hit a grand slam...
We then heard from a couple area church pastors who are spearheading a major community work where the churches all come together to minister to people's needs and focus on the work of prevention of HIV with the next generation...they are doing amazing work and are getting ready to take the mantel of spiritual and community leadership as World Vision prepares to leave the area in 2010 as they move into self sustainment...
Our final activity was a dedication/groudbreaking event for the new schoolhouse addition which the community is so excited about...the past 2 years of the Zambia Project have fully funded this incredibly necessary step and we were each able to use a pick axe to break the ground and dig the first hole as the people danced and prayed and praised the name of Jesus for this answer to their prayers and the completion of a dream only God could put in our hearts...
We were given many gifts from the community as we got ready to leave and as hundreds of children hung onto your students and ran after the bus as we drove away, I was struck again by the remarkable connection our God has created among those who are part of the body of Christ here in Zambia and in Chicago...we have been told over and over again by our friends here that we are one and that this place is our second home...as we shared with the Zambian staff our latest school video and the words of many students about how this project has changed their lives and our school community, the presence of God filled our hotel conference room...
We will be in many ways forever connected to this place...the children and their faces and names are etched in our minds and our hearts have been broken by the needs we have seen with our own eyes...we have been humbled by how we have been loved and served by these amazing brothers and sisters here...and we are being transformed into the global followers of Jesus that Scripture clearly invites us to be as we individually and corporately seek out where God wants us to serve and how He wants us to live differently as a result of His invitation to come to Zambia...
Your students were Jesus to a community and so many kids this past week, and I watched with great joy and tears and love as they too fell in love with a people and place that has stolen my heart...
Coming to Africa is good for your soul and in some strange way also wrecks your life in the best way...thanks for your prayers and your love and support...
Blessed by the Goodness of God as we wave good bye to Kakolo...CHIP
Monday, June 16, 2008
A Day of Joy in Kakolo
Hello again from warm and sunny Zambia! It is a beautiful time of year here and we enjoyed being part of a Sunday morning service in a local village church and even sang a song called "everlasting love" with dancing and motions for the people of the church...we also had the chance on Sunday to dedicate a new building that will soon be finished called the Kakolo Good News Club which we have funded...it will serve as an inter-denominational site for evangelism, discipleship, and counseling for all the children of the vilage...there are close to 1000 children in this small community...we spent the afternoon relaxing, either sleeping or heading to the Kitwe country club (not really what you are thinking) where we 8 guys played golf with 2 clubs and 2 balls and several girls got tennis lessons from a member of the Zambia national tennis team...we finished Sunday night with a lengthy and passionate discussion about the church, both here in Africa, and what this group of students thinks and needs to do to lead and carry out its mission in the next generation...and we discussed our need to use our gifts and resources after hearing a message about the parable of the talents in the church service...
But Monday was truly a day like no other on this trip...it was a day spent fully in Kakolo Village where we have focused our Zambia Project efforts for the last six years...as our bus rolls thru the village literally hundreds of kids coming running out of their huts yelling "DO IT" (we taught them this phrase in 2004 and it has truly stuck!) and chasing our bus toward the schoolhouse...we spent all morning celebrating and praising God for what He has done to bring new life and transformation to the lives and future of this community...After hearing the whole student body (now up to 799 pupils in a two room block structure!) sing the Zambia national anthem they began to do a traditional Zambian dance of thansgiving along with songs written about praising the Lord and testifying what has happened to them...a group of girls and Corbett responded with their own dance along with a special gang of male helpers to the song Beautiful Day by Bono...only in Africa do we get the chance to dance like we do here as we all joined in a dance of celebration...
We also had the chance to meet with the head educational official for this part of Zambia who came for this celebration...both he and the headmaster at the school shared their vision and need for a larger facility for this ever-growing group of kids who want to learn, and we were thrilled to tell them face to face that we have raised over $250,000 towards the buidling of several new blocks and teacher homes in the village...and we then spent close to 2 hours individually giving the school supply bags we built as a school over Homecoming Week to each of the students at the school personally...when they heard that they were going to get these bags, they erupted with a cheer that brought me to tears as I thought about the blessing of being able to know and meet the needs of others and bring them such great joy...it was fun for the rest of the day to see these orange bags draped over the backs of hundreds of kids walking around the village when last year they received $50 as a school for school supplies...
We had another incredible moment as we cut a ribbon and dedicated a new submersible water pump station that will supply water for the school and health clinic we have funded as well right across the field from the school and the individual clean water needs of families in the village...it holds 10,000 liters and Ben Souders was able to cut the ribbon and reveal a sign announcing the new water site given by Wheaton Academy after his brother Scott and several other faculty and alums from WA climbed Mount Ranier to raise funds and make this "water for life" project now fully become a reality as the Zambian and USA flag both flew over the new water site...
And finally after lunch we were able to play a soccer match on the beautiful Kakolo pitch they built by hand and have named the Chip Huber field...pretty cool to have a field named after you in rural Africa, to be honest...and the WA United posted their first win in Zambia since Jan 2006 with a 3-2 win over the Kakolo Rangers...I got my first goal on this field with help from my former all-american player Jason VanderVeen and Tim Streets and Kyle Pilcher also tallied goals and Ben Souders made a few brilliant saves in net for our team...there is nothing like playing this game that the Zambians love so very deeply in their own land with them for a soccer player...as we give out a copy of the New Testament and our jerseys and a game ball after the matches it is truly a moment of unbridled joy and connection as we use the gifts God has given us and connect passions with our brothers in Africa...the girls also tied the Kakolo team in netball and are getting better at this game they didn't know before they came to Africa...
And above all in Kakolo it is about the children...children who have lost parents, may have one outfit of clothes, and who eat perhaps one meal of enshema (corn meal cooked over a fire) each day...every time I look around I see a WA alum or current student hloding a child in their arms or having both hands held by kids as the walk across the African dirt...these children are the hope and the future of Kakolo, of Zambia, of Africa, of our global world...and we believe without a shadow of a doubt that we are following in Jesus' commands and desires and passions as we love them, educate them, feed them, hug them, and pray for and with them...the Kingdom of God has come to Kakolo thru God's Holy Spirit and the lives of a bunch of high school kids on the other side of the globe...and when you walk and run and revel in its presence like we did today, there is simply no place you would rather be and nothing you would rather do than experience this life in this moment...
We are dirty, tired and so very blessed beyond measure in Zambia as we go grab pizza tonite together...we love you and thank you for being part of allowing us to meet God and His children on a day like this Monday in Africa...
Praising God for this team and the legacy of hundreds and hundreds of WA students we represented today...
CHIP
But Monday was truly a day like no other on this trip...it was a day spent fully in Kakolo Village where we have focused our Zambia Project efforts for the last six years...as our bus rolls thru the village literally hundreds of kids coming running out of their huts yelling "DO IT" (we taught them this phrase in 2004 and it has truly stuck!) and chasing our bus toward the schoolhouse...we spent all morning celebrating and praising God for what He has done to bring new life and transformation to the lives and future of this community...After hearing the whole student body (now up to 799 pupils in a two room block structure!) sing the Zambia national anthem they began to do a traditional Zambian dance of thansgiving along with songs written about praising the Lord and testifying what has happened to them...a group of girls and Corbett responded with their own dance along with a special gang of male helpers to the song Beautiful Day by Bono...only in Africa do we get the chance to dance like we do here as we all joined in a dance of celebration...
We also had the chance to meet with the head educational official for this part of Zambia who came for this celebration...both he and the headmaster at the school shared their vision and need for a larger facility for this ever-growing group of kids who want to learn, and we were thrilled to tell them face to face that we have raised over $250,000 towards the buidling of several new blocks and teacher homes in the village...and we then spent close to 2 hours individually giving the school supply bags we built as a school over Homecoming Week to each of the students at the school personally...when they heard that they were going to get these bags, they erupted with a cheer that brought me to tears as I thought about the blessing of being able to know and meet the needs of others and bring them such great joy...it was fun for the rest of the day to see these orange bags draped over the backs of hundreds of kids walking around the village when last year they received $50 as a school for school supplies...
We had another incredible moment as we cut a ribbon and dedicated a new submersible water pump station that will supply water for the school and health clinic we have funded as well right across the field from the school and the individual clean water needs of families in the village...it holds 10,000 liters and Ben Souders was able to cut the ribbon and reveal a sign announcing the new water site given by Wheaton Academy after his brother Scott and several other faculty and alums from WA climbed Mount Ranier to raise funds and make this "water for life" project now fully become a reality as the Zambian and USA flag both flew over the new water site...
And finally after lunch we were able to play a soccer match on the beautiful Kakolo pitch they built by hand and have named the Chip Huber field...pretty cool to have a field named after you in rural Africa, to be honest...and the WA United posted their first win in Zambia since Jan 2006 with a 3-2 win over the Kakolo Rangers...I got my first goal on this field with help from my former all-american player Jason VanderVeen and Tim Streets and Kyle Pilcher also tallied goals and Ben Souders made a few brilliant saves in net for our team...there is nothing like playing this game that the Zambians love so very deeply in their own land with them for a soccer player...as we give out a copy of the New Testament and our jerseys and a game ball after the matches it is truly a moment of unbridled joy and connection as we use the gifts God has given us and connect passions with our brothers in Africa...the girls also tied the Kakolo team in netball and are getting better at this game they didn't know before they came to Africa...
And above all in Kakolo it is about the children...children who have lost parents, may have one outfit of clothes, and who eat perhaps one meal of enshema (corn meal cooked over a fire) each day...every time I look around I see a WA alum or current student hloding a child in their arms or having both hands held by kids as the walk across the African dirt...these children are the hope and the future of Kakolo, of Zambia, of Africa, of our global world...and we believe without a shadow of a doubt that we are following in Jesus' commands and desires and passions as we love them, educate them, feed them, hug them, and pray for and with them...the Kingdom of God has come to Kakolo thru God's Holy Spirit and the lives of a bunch of high school kids on the other side of the globe...and when you walk and run and revel in its presence like we did today, there is simply no place you would rather be and nothing you would rather do than experience this life in this moment...
We are dirty, tired and so very blessed beyond measure in Zambia as we go grab pizza tonite together...we love you and thank you for being part of allowing us to meet God and His children on a day like this Monday in Africa...
Praising God for this team and the legacy of hundreds and hundreds of WA students we represented today...
CHIP
Saturday, June 14, 2008
The First Few Days in Zambia
Hello again...I am back today with internet access...we hope all is well in Chicago...we had an easy flight from South Africa to Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia...as we walked across the tarmac into the terminal I really couldn't think of a place I would rather be flying to than this beautiful country as the sign above us welcomed us...the people of Zambia are always incredibly friendly and we received a very warm welcome from our friends at the national office of World Vision Zambia...there are over 700 staff who work on behalf of the poor with World Vision in this country and they are truly leading remarkable Kingdom work...
On Friday we headed outeast of town to visit our first Area Development project in an area called Kapaluwe...it was our first encounter with what I would call the "real" Africa and we spent the day there doing a variety of things...As our bus pulled up to a village medical clinic, about 25 HIV/AIDS Caregiver volunteers from that community were singing and dancing and personally greeted each one of us...it always overwhelms you when you are greeted by strangers with incredible joy and love...we had the opportunity to be part of a bike distribution to each of these caregivers who now will be more able to go and visit as volunteers their clients/patients in the surrounding area who are suffering from AIDS...they are incredibly loving servants who truly live out caring for the least of these in an exemplary way...they will even take some of their clients on the back of the bike to the medical clinic to get seen and to often receive their ARV treatments that help them to recover from the ravages of this disease...these specially made bikes were created thru some Chicago donors who have created and organization called World Bicycle Relief and have distributed over 20,000 bikes here in Zambia...the caregiver project is part of a larger initiative called RAPIDS tat has been funded by a grant from the US GOVT in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief...what a privilege to be part of the giving of these gifts that are so deeply appreciated and will chang lives for both these volunteers from local churches and people suffering in the community...
We then also had a chance to visit people suffering from HIV/AIDS in groups with an individual caregiver...here is where you truly see the impact of AIDS and the remarkable needs present in the lives of Zambians...the woman who I had the chance to visit was named Nadia and she is a grandmother in her 60's...her story is one that grabs and breaks your heart...her husband died over 20 years ago, most likely from and early undiagnosed case of AIDS and she has has 10 children...and yet only three of them are still alive...and she believes that she contracted the virus after talking with doctors while she was taking care of her daughter with open boils on her skin as she was dying...she has also been caring for a double orphan frm the area who has lost both parents...she was very ill before her caregiver began transporting her to a nearby clinic to get tested and begin an ARV regiment in the last year...the impact of this disease is dramatic on this one family, and we wondered if her 6 grandchildren had been tested yet as well...there is a saying here in Zambia that just about everyone has been infected or affected by AIDS and you see it so clearly in a place like Kapaluwe...
And yet in the midst of suffering there is always joy that surprises and almost shocks you as you interact with the people of Africa...it is found in the children running around you, in being called into a dance circle by new friends, (when the video of me dancing makes you tube I may get a few comments from my peers, students and bosses at WA!) in playing soccer and netball on a dirt field where cows are grazing just behind the goal...by the way the girls lost a close game in netball and Jenn Lee scored our only goal in a 2-1 loss to a club team from the area...
As we sat around after dinner at our guest house last night and debriefed fro a couple hours, there were so many comments about the tension that coming to Zambia creates in one's life...you see that you don't need all your stuff to enjoy life, you can have a deep and real faith even in the midst of unthinkable suffering, and you are most struck with the challenge of how do I respond to what I have seen and bring justice and mercy and health and a different future to this part of the world...coming here is incredible, but in many ways it stirs in you the deepest of questions as you encounter life and relationships with a place and people not like you...the Zambians have been and continue to be some of my greatest teachers in my life as I see them live out what it means to know and be Jesus every day...
Your prayers are much appreciated as your students and our staff try to discern all that God is showing us and speaking to us...I long for the Holy Spirit to break us and break into our hearts in a radical and new way as we spend one more week here in Zambia...we are now up in Kitwe and tomorrow morning we will head to Kakolo Village for a community worship service that will frankly blow students away...we can't wait to worship together as the body of Christ with the people God has called us to know and love and serve for the past half decade...
We have been blessed with good health and travel so far...and we are trying to journal and capture everything we can to bring back home to you...
We love you and miss you...I will post again in the next few days...
With Love as the Zambia sun sets tonight...CHIP
On Friday we headed outeast of town to visit our first Area Development project in an area called Kapaluwe...it was our first encounter with what I would call the "real" Africa and we spent the day there doing a variety of things...As our bus pulled up to a village medical clinic, about 25 HIV/AIDS Caregiver volunteers from that community were singing and dancing and personally greeted each one of us...it always overwhelms you when you are greeted by strangers with incredible joy and love...we had the opportunity to be part of a bike distribution to each of these caregivers who now will be more able to go and visit as volunteers their clients/patients in the surrounding area who are suffering from AIDS...they are incredibly loving servants who truly live out caring for the least of these in an exemplary way...they will even take some of their clients on the back of the bike to the medical clinic to get seen and to often receive their ARV treatments that help them to recover from the ravages of this disease...these specially made bikes were created thru some Chicago donors who have created and organization called World Bicycle Relief and have distributed over 20,000 bikes here in Zambia...the caregiver project is part of a larger initiative called RAPIDS tat has been funded by a grant from the US GOVT in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief...what a privilege to be part of the giving of these gifts that are so deeply appreciated and will chang lives for both these volunteers from local churches and people suffering in the community...
We then also had a chance to visit people suffering from HIV/AIDS in groups with an individual caregiver...here is where you truly see the impact of AIDS and the remarkable needs present in the lives of Zambians...the woman who I had the chance to visit was named Nadia and she is a grandmother in her 60's...her story is one that grabs and breaks your heart...her husband died over 20 years ago, most likely from and early undiagnosed case of AIDS and she has has 10 children...and yet only three of them are still alive...and she believes that she contracted the virus after talking with doctors while she was taking care of her daughter with open boils on her skin as she was dying...she has also been caring for a double orphan frm the area who has lost both parents...she was very ill before her caregiver began transporting her to a nearby clinic to get tested and begin an ARV regiment in the last year...the impact of this disease is dramatic on this one family, and we wondered if her 6 grandchildren had been tested yet as well...there is a saying here in Zambia that just about everyone has been infected or affected by AIDS and you see it so clearly in a place like Kapaluwe...
And yet in the midst of suffering there is always joy that surprises and almost shocks you as you interact with the people of Africa...it is found in the children running around you, in being called into a dance circle by new friends, (when the video of me dancing makes you tube I may get a few comments from my peers, students and bosses at WA!) in playing soccer and netball on a dirt field where cows are grazing just behind the goal...by the way the girls lost a close game in netball and Jenn Lee scored our only goal in a 2-1 loss to a club team from the area...
As we sat around after dinner at our guest house last night and debriefed fro a couple hours, there were so many comments about the tension that coming to Zambia creates in one's life...you see that you don't need all your stuff to enjoy life, you can have a deep and real faith even in the midst of unthinkable suffering, and you are most struck with the challenge of how do I respond to what I have seen and bring justice and mercy and health and a different future to this part of the world...coming here is incredible, but in many ways it stirs in you the deepest of questions as you encounter life and relationships with a place and people not like you...the Zambians have been and continue to be some of my greatest teachers in my life as I see them live out what it means to know and be Jesus every day...
Your prayers are much appreciated as your students and our staff try to discern all that God is showing us and speaking to us...I long for the Holy Spirit to break us and break into our hearts in a radical and new way as we spend one more week here in Zambia...we are now up in Kitwe and tomorrow morning we will head to Kakolo Village for a community worship service that will frankly blow students away...we can't wait to worship together as the body of Christ with the people God has called us to know and love and serve for the past half decade...
We have been blessed with good health and travel so far...and we are trying to journal and capture everything we can to bring back home to you...
We love you and miss you...I will post again in the next few days...
With Love as the Zambia sun sets tonight...CHIP
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Day in South Africa
Hello from Johannesburg, one of the largest cities in the world and the center of life in South Africa...we landed here after a long flight and are staying at a nice hotel on the outskirts of town...
We had a very unique experience today as we visited the Apartheid Museum here in the city...it was a very involved exhibit and we had the chance to spend 90 minutes learning about the history and experiences of the people of South Africa have been over the last 100 years...
It was full of video, photographs, newspaper articles, and was increibly powerful to go thru as people with varying degrees of understanding about the issues...truly an incredible educational learning experience...as we read yesterday in our devotions about God making everyone of us in His image, the reality of apartheid and the fact that many who were professing Christians helped to put that system into place in South Africa causes you to once again look inside your heart and consider how you view people and the various prejudices we can hold in our hearts as we view others in this life...it was really neat to then talk to our drivers of some of our vehicles who had grown up in townships and experienced apartheid and the change in South Africa beginning in 1991...check out the website if you want to take a piece of the journey we did today: http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/
We also had a chance to visit the World Vision national office for South Africa...we had a reunion of sorts with their Operations Director who used to work for World Vision Zambia and visited Wheaton Academy almost five years ago as the Zambia Project was just beginning to grow...as Kanyata said today, it is a small world when you end up reconnecting in a different country on the other side of the world...they are heavily involved in HIV/AIDS education work and meeting the needs of children all over this country of 40 million people...they are even caring for some of the recently displaced foriegn nationals who were under persecution in the last weeks and dealing with Xenophobic issues here in this country...
In many ways, we are seeking to bring change to the people of Zambia like Nelson Mandela once did here and World Vision South Africa is doing in a nation with more people suffering from AIDS than any other in the world...we want to break the cycle and change the very way people will live here for the long term future...tomorrow morning we fly up to Lusaka and will begin our next 10 days in Zambia...after a Chinese dinner we spent an hour talking about why we came all the way here...it was clear that many of your students have clearly felt called to come here and many of them can't wait to meet people they have fallen in love with and yet never met...my heart is here in a real way in Africa and I can't wait to see God meet each of them as He meets me in a place full of great need and so very full of God's presence and joy in the midst of great struggle...pray that their hearts will be gripped by a deep purpose, the love of Jesus, and the needs of the world and all whom God has created in a new and personal way...thanks for your prayers...everyone should get a good chance to rest tonight after a long travel journey...
I've had great access to email so far...that will most likely change tomorrow as we go up North and away from the first world to the thrid world...so I am not sure when the next blog will come...we look forward to having Trent join us tomorrow as we hooked up with Tony Frank from the World Vision office today here in Joburg...
We love you and miss you...off to Zambia we go!
CHIP
We had a very unique experience today as we visited the Apartheid Museum here in the city...it was a very involved exhibit and we had the chance to spend 90 minutes learning about the history and experiences of the people of South Africa have been over the last 100 years...
It was full of video, photographs, newspaper articles, and was increibly powerful to go thru as people with varying degrees of understanding about the issues...truly an incredible educational learning experience...as we read yesterday in our devotions about God making everyone of us in His image, the reality of apartheid and the fact that many who were professing Christians helped to put that system into place in South Africa causes you to once again look inside your heart and consider how you view people and the various prejudices we can hold in our hearts as we view others in this life...it was really neat to then talk to our drivers of some of our vehicles who had grown up in townships and experienced apartheid and the change in South Africa beginning in 1991...check out the website if you want to take a piece of the journey we did today: http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/
We also had a chance to visit the World Vision national office for South Africa...we had a reunion of sorts with their Operations Director who used to work for World Vision Zambia and visited Wheaton Academy almost five years ago as the Zambia Project was just beginning to grow...as Kanyata said today, it is a small world when you end up reconnecting in a different country on the other side of the world...they are heavily involved in HIV/AIDS education work and meeting the needs of children all over this country of 40 million people...they are even caring for some of the recently displaced foriegn nationals who were under persecution in the last weeks and dealing with Xenophobic issues here in this country...
In many ways, we are seeking to bring change to the people of Zambia like Nelson Mandela once did here and World Vision South Africa is doing in a nation with more people suffering from AIDS than any other in the world...we want to break the cycle and change the very way people will live here for the long term future...tomorrow morning we fly up to Lusaka and will begin our next 10 days in Zambia...after a Chinese dinner we spent an hour talking about why we came all the way here...it was clear that many of your students have clearly felt called to come here and many of them can't wait to meet people they have fallen in love with and yet never met...my heart is here in a real way in Africa and I can't wait to see God meet each of them as He meets me in a place full of great need and so very full of God's presence and joy in the midst of great struggle...pray that their hearts will be gripped by a deep purpose, the love of Jesus, and the needs of the world and all whom God has created in a new and personal way...thanks for your prayers...everyone should get a good chance to rest tonight after a long travel journey...
I've had great access to email so far...that will most likely change tomorrow as we go up North and away from the first world to the thrid world...so I am not sure when the next blog will come...we look forward to having Trent join us tomorrow as we hooked up with Tony Frank from the World Vision office today here in Joburg...
We love you and miss you...off to Zambia we go!
CHIP
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Hello from LONDON
I am sitting in the new Terminal #5 at Heathrow Airport and in a couple hours we will board our 11 hour British Airways flight to Johannesburg, South Africa...we had a good flight over and many of us actually got some good sleep (although not the case for all I am sorry to report)
We spent several hours today taking the "Tube" into downtown London and seeing some of the historical sites before eating lunch outside on a beautiful British afternoon on the steps of the National Art Gallery...
Travel like this gets exceedingly long at times...at this point, you just want to get to Africa...it has been fun wearing our shirts and being able to share the story of why we are going to Zambia with almost everyone we run into...
I am really excited to get to see the Apartheid Museum and hear what World Vision is up to in South Africa along with a shower and a bed for the first time in a couple days at our hotel...
Thanks for your prayers for health and safety and rest as we get ready for why we have really come in the days to come...
Hope all is well in Chicago...hope to give you a report on our day in South Africa before heading to Zambia on Thursday morning...
With our Love and Prayers, CHIP
We spent several hours today taking the "Tube" into downtown London and seeing some of the historical sites before eating lunch outside on a beautiful British afternoon on the steps of the National Art Gallery...
Travel like this gets exceedingly long at times...at this point, you just want to get to Africa...it has been fun wearing our shirts and being able to share the story of why we are going to Zambia with almost everyone we run into...
I am really excited to get to see the Apartheid Museum and hear what World Vision is up to in South Africa along with a shower and a bed for the first time in a couple days at our hotel...
Thanks for your prayers for health and safety and rest as we get ready for why we have really come in the days to come...
Hope all is well in Chicago...hope to give you a report on our day in South Africa before heading to Zambia on Thursday morning...
With our Love and Prayers, CHIP
Monday, June 9, 2008
Prayers for the Trip of a Lifetime
Dear Friends and Family and Parents/Relatives of 2008 Zambia Trip members…
In a couple hours we will be heading out over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Zambia...this is my 4th visit to Zambia and I've never been more excited or more ready to go back to a place that holds a big chunk of my heart...this year has truly been arguably the most difficult of my personal and professional life since I came home from Zambia last July...it has been filled with death and grief and loss and pain...it has been filled with personal health struggles and professional challenges and questions...I've been broken and disappointed and overwhelmed...and in the midst of all that the last 12 months have brought, a constant source of strength and courage and life has been a place on the other side of the world...no one understands more what it is like to deal with pain and questions and fears and yet rise up with hope in the power and presence of the living God than the people of sub-Saharan Africa...so in many ways this June I don't only want to go to Africa, I need to go to Africa...and so do many of those traveling with me...for we get to travel with amazing students and friends as we take a radical faith journey together and the people of Zambia offer joy and empathy and ministry to all of us in a way that only God could have designed for a group of folks from the suburbs of Chicago...
I always deeply feel like I am going on behalf of so many of you to meet some amazing Zambian folks and to discover what God continues to do and what still needs to be done in the midst of the AIDS pandemic that is ravaging southern Africa…we will have dedication ceremonies at a new ministry center that is telling the children of this area how much Jesus loves them, at a water tank that will supply clean water for the children of Kakolo Village as they grow up, and at the future site of a schoolhouse addition that is truly the completion of answered prayers and dreams…we will see students in a schoolhouse learning and growing as they seek to create an incredible future for themselves and the next generation of Zambians…we will visit a medical facility that gives life to the sick and life without AIDS to those being born...we will play soccer matches and hold clinics for children along with a baseball game as we use sports to help bring change in a community…we will meet many of our sponsored children who we have only known via letters and pictures…we will participate in worship and dance and music and discussions as we celebrate and talk about life and faith in America and Zambia with other students…and we will get to work alongside and get to know and become brothers and sisters with those on the frontlines of God’s Work in Africa…and we are constantly seeking a new vision/project for the next school year where we can continue to help bring God’s Kingdom work to earth…we will be traveling all over Zambia and we will be involved in many, many projects and conversations with the World Vision Zambia staff God is using to meet the needs of so many impacted by poverty and disease in this generation…Our team is absolutely thrilled God has given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to us…I expect God to change the lives of 25 students and adults and to break my own heart all over again as I am going to see how He wants me to continue to be His advocate for the people and the church in this nation and the continent of Africa…
As we head off to Africa in a few hours, here's a prayer update I want to offer to you...we covet your prayers as we seek to have a transformational life experience together with our dear brothers and sisters in Africa...I'll be blogging from Zambia several times over the next 2 weeks...…here are ten specific prayer needs you can pray for us:
1.Safety and health in our lengthy travels to and back from and around Zambia over the next 13 days
2.A good working out of schedule and administrative details as we attempt to see and be part of many different experiences in a short time period
3.Ability to connect with and love and learn from our Zambian brothers and sisters
4.The continued impact of the Kakolo Village schoolhouse which is being used by hundreds and hundreds of students in this community, and the further expansion of this school to serve the needs of children through grade 9
5.The work being done to save and extend lives and prevent the spread of the HIV virus through the new medical clinic and maternity ward in the Zamtan community
6.A deep sense of community and growth in our team as we seek to discuss and mull over the experiences and resulting questions we will encounter
7.A fresh vision for future projects and personal involvement in the work God is doing in Zambia and other nations in Africa and around the world
8.A greater love for Christ and a heart that beats and cares and loves the poor and oppressed and sick people in our world
9.Opportunities to pray for/with and encourage believers and churches and the World Vision staff in Zambia as they share the Gospel in word and deed with the children and adults of their communities
10.Ability to write and video and receive stories and learnings that we can then take and use as powerful resources in being advocates and leaders when we return home
We can’t wait to return and give you the stories of our trip along with some photos and videos we will have taken…once again, thank you for being part of God’s grand vision in Zambia…your overwhelming generosity and partnership is truly a remarkable blessing in my life…I thank God for your friendship, gifts of love, and your prayers…
Together in His Work, CHIP
In a couple hours we will be heading out over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Zambia...this is my 4th visit to Zambia and I've never been more excited or more ready to go back to a place that holds a big chunk of my heart...this year has truly been arguably the most difficult of my personal and professional life since I came home from Zambia last July...it has been filled with death and grief and loss and pain...it has been filled with personal health struggles and professional challenges and questions...I've been broken and disappointed and overwhelmed...and in the midst of all that the last 12 months have brought, a constant source of strength and courage and life has been a place on the other side of the world...no one understands more what it is like to deal with pain and questions and fears and yet rise up with hope in the power and presence of the living God than the people of sub-Saharan Africa...so in many ways this June I don't only want to go to Africa, I need to go to Africa...and so do many of those traveling with me...for we get to travel with amazing students and friends as we take a radical faith journey together and the people of Zambia offer joy and empathy and ministry to all of us in a way that only God could have designed for a group of folks from the suburbs of Chicago...
I always deeply feel like I am going on behalf of so many of you to meet some amazing Zambian folks and to discover what God continues to do and what still needs to be done in the midst of the AIDS pandemic that is ravaging southern Africa…we will have dedication ceremonies at a new ministry center that is telling the children of this area how much Jesus loves them, at a water tank that will supply clean water for the children of Kakolo Village as they grow up, and at the future site of a schoolhouse addition that is truly the completion of answered prayers and dreams…we will see students in a schoolhouse learning and growing as they seek to create an incredible future for themselves and the next generation of Zambians…we will visit a medical facility that gives life to the sick and life without AIDS to those being born...we will play soccer matches and hold clinics for children along with a baseball game as we use sports to help bring change in a community…we will meet many of our sponsored children who we have only known via letters and pictures…we will participate in worship and dance and music and discussions as we celebrate and talk about life and faith in America and Zambia with other students…and we will get to work alongside and get to know and become brothers and sisters with those on the frontlines of God’s Work in Africa…and we are constantly seeking a new vision/project for the next school year where we can continue to help bring God’s Kingdom work to earth…we will be traveling all over Zambia and we will be involved in many, many projects and conversations with the World Vision Zambia staff God is using to meet the needs of so many impacted by poverty and disease in this generation…Our team is absolutely thrilled God has given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to us…I expect God to change the lives of 25 students and adults and to break my own heart all over again as I am going to see how He wants me to continue to be His advocate for the people and the church in this nation and the continent of Africa…
As we head off to Africa in a few hours, here's a prayer update I want to offer to you...we covet your prayers as we seek to have a transformational life experience together with our dear brothers and sisters in Africa...I'll be blogging from Zambia several times over the next 2 weeks...…here are ten specific prayer needs you can pray for us:
1.Safety and health in our lengthy travels to and back from and around Zambia over the next 13 days
2.A good working out of schedule and administrative details as we attempt to see and be part of many different experiences in a short time period
3.Ability to connect with and love and learn from our Zambian brothers and sisters
4.The continued impact of the Kakolo Village schoolhouse which is being used by hundreds and hundreds of students in this community, and the further expansion of this school to serve the needs of children through grade 9
5.The work being done to save and extend lives and prevent the spread of the HIV virus through the new medical clinic and maternity ward in the Zamtan community
6.A deep sense of community and growth in our team as we seek to discuss and mull over the experiences and resulting questions we will encounter
7.A fresh vision for future projects and personal involvement in the work God is doing in Zambia and other nations in Africa and around the world
8.A greater love for Christ and a heart that beats and cares and loves the poor and oppressed and sick people in our world
9.Opportunities to pray for/with and encourage believers and churches and the World Vision staff in Zambia as they share the Gospel in word and deed with the children and adults of their communities
10.Ability to write and video and receive stories and learnings that we can then take and use as powerful resources in being advocates and leaders when we return home
We can’t wait to return and give you the stories of our trip along with some photos and videos we will have taken…once again, thank you for being part of God’s grand vision in Zambia…your overwhelming generosity and partnership is truly a remarkable blessing in my life…I thank God for your friendship, gifts of love, and your prayers…
Together in His Work, CHIP
Sunday, June 8, 2008
The Benefits of Brokenness by Philip Yancey, CHRISTIANITY TODAY
Yancey's subtitle of this article "Why I sometimes wish I was an alcoholic" grabs your attention pretty quick...and yet this whole idea of brokenness and my own need for it to experience and be a conduit of God's grace is being taught to me day after day in this season of my life...it is so difficult for me and many of my peers to not succumb to self-righteousness as we measure ourselves by certain standards...and yet the almost hourly battle in my own heart with my ego and need to be noticed and successful and known on a grand scale is really where the rubber meets the road in my own faith journey...may I, may you embrace the benefit of being broken as we realize anew what God has done for us in Jesus' unconditional love and mercy...
Listening to the rhetoric this election season, one might assume that a new batch of politicians in Washington will solve the problems facing this country, not to mention the planet. Elect candidate X, and he or she will tackle global warming, solve the health-care crisis, eliminate poverty, right the economy, and unite a divided country.
For two problems, however, no politician dares offer a solution: death and evil. Endemic to the human condition, these two will haunt us all our days. Yet these are the very problems the gospel promises to solve—not through politics or science, but through a reclamation project begun at Golgotha.
Biblical scholars point to Romans 3 as the most compact expression of that Good News. Before revealing the cure to those two problems, Paul must detail the helplessness of humanity to find a solution apart from outside help. Like a physician, he has to impress on the patient the dire nature of the illness before presenting a cure.
I am struck by Paul's three categories of sinners in Romans 1 and 2. He begins by listing flagrant violators: depraved perverts, murderers, God-haters (though, curiously, he also mentions such "everyday" sins as greed, envy, gossip, and disobeying parents).
Just as his good-citizen readers nod knowingly, smug in their moral superiority to such miscreants, Paul turns the tables in chapter 2: "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."
I may never have robbed a bank, but have I ever fudged on my income taxes? Or had rehab work done on my house without applying for a building permit? Or ignored a pressing need because of compassion fatigue? Paul follows Jesus' logic in the Sermon on the Mount: murder and adultery differ from hatred and lust only by a matter of degree. Indeed, the flagrantly evil person has a peculiar advantage of sorts: an inner gyroscope of conscience that registers a sense of being off course.
The flagrantly evil person has a peculiar advantage of sorts: an inner gyroscope of conscience that registers a sense of being off course.
I once accepted a speaking engagement among Christians involved in Twelve Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. As I talked with the attendees and pondered what to say, I finally decided on the ironic title, "Why I Wish I Was an Alcoholic." It occurred to me that what recovering alcoholics confess every day—personal failure, and the daily need for grace and help from friends and a Higher Power—represent high hurdles for those of us who take pride in our independence and self-sufficiency.
Paul reserves his most scathing comments for a third category, self-righteous people, who in his day comprised the Jews who scrupulously observed the law. A Pharisee of the Pharisees, Paul knew the pattern well, as his pronouns attest. He refers to the wicked as "they" and the good-citizen types as "you." But when he discusses the self-righteous, Paul shifts to first person plural. "What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all!"
In his most self-righteous days, after all, Paul had persecuted Christians and assisted in the stoning of Stephen. He knew the danger that accompanies a feeling of moral superiority. Just as denial may keep a person from seeing a doctor about a lump or skin lesion, thus endangering life, denial of sin may lead to far worse consequences. Unless we accept the grim diagnosis, we will not seek a cure.
Paul's confessional description of self-righteousness reminded me of a quirky attempt by M. Scott Peck to identify a new psychiatric disorder called evil. In his book People of the Lie, Peck surveyed the types of evil and concluded, with Paul, that the most dangerous type is the most subtle. We all condemn bullies and child abusers—but what of controlling, manipulative parents who may have an equally devastating effect on their children? Peck came up with these surprising characteristics of evil: scapegoating behavior, intolerance to criticism, pronounced concern with a public image and self-image of respectability, and intellectual deviousness.
Paul concludes, "There is no one righteous, not even one." In perhaps the darkest passage in the entire Bible, he stitches together an anatomical description of deceitful tongues, morbid throats, poisonous lips, bitter mouths, violent feet, and arrogant eyes (3:10–18). All of which sets up the magnificent presentation of the gospel beginning with Romans 3:21, the explanation of justification by faith alone that ignited the Reformation.
God's grace, the only solution to death and evil, comes free of charge, apart from law, apart from any human efforts toward self-improvement. For a free gift, we need only hold out open, needy hands—the most difficult gesture of all for a self-righteously evil person.
Listening to the rhetoric this election season, one might assume that a new batch of politicians in Washington will solve the problems facing this country, not to mention the planet. Elect candidate X, and he or she will tackle global warming, solve the health-care crisis, eliminate poverty, right the economy, and unite a divided country.
For two problems, however, no politician dares offer a solution: death and evil. Endemic to the human condition, these two will haunt us all our days. Yet these are the very problems the gospel promises to solve—not through politics or science, but through a reclamation project begun at Golgotha.
Biblical scholars point to Romans 3 as the most compact expression of that Good News. Before revealing the cure to those two problems, Paul must detail the helplessness of humanity to find a solution apart from outside help. Like a physician, he has to impress on the patient the dire nature of the illness before presenting a cure.
I am struck by Paul's three categories of sinners in Romans 1 and 2. He begins by listing flagrant violators: depraved perverts, murderers, God-haters (though, curiously, he also mentions such "everyday" sins as greed, envy, gossip, and disobeying parents).
Just as his good-citizen readers nod knowingly, smug in their moral superiority to such miscreants, Paul turns the tables in chapter 2: "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."
I may never have robbed a bank, but have I ever fudged on my income taxes? Or had rehab work done on my house without applying for a building permit? Or ignored a pressing need because of compassion fatigue? Paul follows Jesus' logic in the Sermon on the Mount: murder and adultery differ from hatred and lust only by a matter of degree. Indeed, the flagrantly evil person has a peculiar advantage of sorts: an inner gyroscope of conscience that registers a sense of being off course.
The flagrantly evil person has a peculiar advantage of sorts: an inner gyroscope of conscience that registers a sense of being off course.
I once accepted a speaking engagement among Christians involved in Twelve Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. As I talked with the attendees and pondered what to say, I finally decided on the ironic title, "Why I Wish I Was an Alcoholic." It occurred to me that what recovering alcoholics confess every day—personal failure, and the daily need for grace and help from friends and a Higher Power—represent high hurdles for those of us who take pride in our independence and self-sufficiency.
Paul reserves his most scathing comments for a third category, self-righteous people, who in his day comprised the Jews who scrupulously observed the law. A Pharisee of the Pharisees, Paul knew the pattern well, as his pronouns attest. He refers to the wicked as "they" and the good-citizen types as "you." But when he discusses the self-righteous, Paul shifts to first person plural. "What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all!"
In his most self-righteous days, after all, Paul had persecuted Christians and assisted in the stoning of Stephen. He knew the danger that accompanies a feeling of moral superiority. Just as denial may keep a person from seeing a doctor about a lump or skin lesion, thus endangering life, denial of sin may lead to far worse consequences. Unless we accept the grim diagnosis, we will not seek a cure.
Paul's confessional description of self-righteousness reminded me of a quirky attempt by M. Scott Peck to identify a new psychiatric disorder called evil. In his book People of the Lie, Peck surveyed the types of evil and concluded, with Paul, that the most dangerous type is the most subtle. We all condemn bullies and child abusers—but what of controlling, manipulative parents who may have an equally devastating effect on their children? Peck came up with these surprising characteristics of evil: scapegoating behavior, intolerance to criticism, pronounced concern with a public image and self-image of respectability, and intellectual deviousness.
Paul concludes, "There is no one righteous, not even one." In perhaps the darkest passage in the entire Bible, he stitches together an anatomical description of deceitful tongues, morbid throats, poisonous lips, bitter mouths, violent feet, and arrogant eyes (3:10–18). All of which sets up the magnificent presentation of the gospel beginning with Romans 3:21, the explanation of justification by faith alone that ignited the Reformation.
God's grace, the only solution to death and evil, comes free of charge, apart from law, apart from any human efforts toward self-improvement. For a free gift, we need only hold out open, needy hands—the most difficult gesture of all for a self-righteously evil person.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Spiritual Friends by John Ortberg
In a lot of ways, this has been one of the most difficult years of my life...lots of personal grief and loss, personal struggles with my own fears and mortality, and lots of questions about how God wants to continue to use my gifts and passions for His Kingdom sake in the next half of my life...and in the midst of these increasingly difficult moments, I have had the blessing and grip of truly remarkable friends...people who know me and know Jesus and who love and who love Jesus...and the power of those friendships has sustained me and brought hope and strength in moments of doubt and weakness and despair...this article by one of my favorite writers tells the story of my life in many ways...and perhaps in this year I have never appreciated this gift more...
Here's the gift you should really be seeking.
There is an old Celtic saying: "Anyone without a soul friend is a body without a head." There are not many Celtic sayings about what people without success are; the Celts didn't seem to be terribly interested in success. But they were pretty big on friendship.
I've been thinking about this because I just got back from a once-a-year weekend with four of my oldest friends. We've been friends for over thirty years.
Mark is the smartest of us. He does philosophy professionally. None of us argue with him, because we're afraid that if we did, he might prove we don't exist.
Tommy is the WD-40 of human relationships. He makes any group he's a part of better, more human, and deeper, because of his ability to draw out whatever is inside of you.
Kevin is a charmer. Girls were drawn to him enough in college that we used to hang around just hoping for a chance with some of his discards.
And Chuck is my oldest friend, whose sense of humor can be described only as demented (and I mean that in the most complimentary way); a doctor who drove an ancient car he named Waldo and begins each day in prayer at his practice and makes us laugh till we cry with the same stupid material he's been using for 30 years.
We meet each year at a cabin up in the hills. We have developed certain rituals: we walk certain paths; we grill a huge salmon dinner on Saturday night; we talk and pray for hours before a fire Sunday morning; we smoke cigars and watch the sun go down behind the Pacific; we laugh until we cry at things an eighth grader would find sophomoric and unsophisticated. We mark our lives by this annual meeting. We speak of our marriages, our families, our dreams, our scars, our depression, our therapy, our victories, our brokenness, our knowing God. We are a circle in which everyone matters, and we never know what will be said next.
I do not understand very much about friendship. I think one reason I value it so much is that I went a long time without it. I did not have a real friend my own age (outside my sister and my cousin Danny, and they were both more or less obligated by genetics) until my sophomore year in high school. I was lonely without even knowing it. It would have been beyond my self-awareness, or maybe pride, to name it.
And then one fall, I was in two classes with this kid named Chuck. One month I did not have a friend, and then I did. I don't know how it happened. I just know it changed my life and gave me a deep hunger for this thing called friendship that has never gone away. Then I went to college and again spent a lonely freshman year, and then a guy named Kevin opened a friendship gate and I was inside another circle.
Years ago I was wandering through a bookstore in Pasadena and picked up a book on spiritual friendship by a monk named Aelred who lived centuries ago. And I loved it, because here was someone who was enchanted by friendship and never got over it—who loved it so much that he said, "God is Friendship."
A friend, Aelred said, is someone to whom you can entrust the secrets of the heart. He said that sometimes you may think of someone as a friend but they are really only useful to you (like people in your pyramid sales group). I sometimes think that relationships between pastors and folks in their churches are like this. It's not that friendships cannot develop between pastors and attendees; they do, and I've enjoyed a few myself. But there are dynamics of role and confidentiality and the desire for success that often complicate them.
A friendship, like falling asleep, is something you cannot enter into by sheer willpower. I can open myself up to it. I can pray for it. I can look for people (Aelred actually recommends putting potential friends through a probationary period) and invite them out for coffee. Then maybe we find common ground. Maybe we make each other laugh, or find the same books interesting. Then we find that we are somehow loyal to each other, want good things for each other, are willing to speak difficult truth to each other.
But I cannot make this occur. Friendship happens, when it happens, as a gift. It comes like rain or sunshine or Cinnabons; a delight and joy and bonus that makes the world a better place. I think, maybe, that when you come right down to it, friendship is pretty much what the Church is about. And the human race, for that matter. And—this is beyond my theological competence—maybe the Trinity, too.
I need to work and grow and hone my abilities and add value to the world. But mostly, I think, I need friends. My friends are those people, those few and mysterious people, who love me for no reason at all. Which is the only really good reason to love.
John Ortberg is pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (California) and Leadership editor at large.
Here's the gift you should really be seeking.
There is an old Celtic saying: "Anyone without a soul friend is a body without a head." There are not many Celtic sayings about what people without success are; the Celts didn't seem to be terribly interested in success. But they were pretty big on friendship.
I've been thinking about this because I just got back from a once-a-year weekend with four of my oldest friends. We've been friends for over thirty years.
Mark is the smartest of us. He does philosophy professionally. None of us argue with him, because we're afraid that if we did, he might prove we don't exist.
Tommy is the WD-40 of human relationships. He makes any group he's a part of better, more human, and deeper, because of his ability to draw out whatever is inside of you.
Kevin is a charmer. Girls were drawn to him enough in college that we used to hang around just hoping for a chance with some of his discards.
And Chuck is my oldest friend, whose sense of humor can be described only as demented (and I mean that in the most complimentary way); a doctor who drove an ancient car he named Waldo and begins each day in prayer at his practice and makes us laugh till we cry with the same stupid material he's been using for 30 years.
We meet each year at a cabin up in the hills. We have developed certain rituals: we walk certain paths; we grill a huge salmon dinner on Saturday night; we talk and pray for hours before a fire Sunday morning; we smoke cigars and watch the sun go down behind the Pacific; we laugh until we cry at things an eighth grader would find sophomoric and unsophisticated. We mark our lives by this annual meeting. We speak of our marriages, our families, our dreams, our scars, our depression, our therapy, our victories, our brokenness, our knowing God. We are a circle in which everyone matters, and we never know what will be said next.
I do not understand very much about friendship. I think one reason I value it so much is that I went a long time without it. I did not have a real friend my own age (outside my sister and my cousin Danny, and they were both more or less obligated by genetics) until my sophomore year in high school. I was lonely without even knowing it. It would have been beyond my self-awareness, or maybe pride, to name it.
And then one fall, I was in two classes with this kid named Chuck. One month I did not have a friend, and then I did. I don't know how it happened. I just know it changed my life and gave me a deep hunger for this thing called friendship that has never gone away. Then I went to college and again spent a lonely freshman year, and then a guy named Kevin opened a friendship gate and I was inside another circle.
Years ago I was wandering through a bookstore in Pasadena and picked up a book on spiritual friendship by a monk named Aelred who lived centuries ago. And I loved it, because here was someone who was enchanted by friendship and never got over it—who loved it so much that he said, "God is Friendship."
A friend, Aelred said, is someone to whom you can entrust the secrets of the heart. He said that sometimes you may think of someone as a friend but they are really only useful to you (like people in your pyramid sales group). I sometimes think that relationships between pastors and folks in their churches are like this. It's not that friendships cannot develop between pastors and attendees; they do, and I've enjoyed a few myself. But there are dynamics of role and confidentiality and the desire for success that often complicate them.
A friendship, like falling asleep, is something you cannot enter into by sheer willpower. I can open myself up to it. I can pray for it. I can look for people (Aelred actually recommends putting potential friends through a probationary period) and invite them out for coffee. Then maybe we find common ground. Maybe we make each other laugh, or find the same books interesting. Then we find that we are somehow loyal to each other, want good things for each other, are willing to speak difficult truth to each other.
But I cannot make this occur. Friendship happens, when it happens, as a gift. It comes like rain or sunshine or Cinnabons; a delight and joy and bonus that makes the world a better place. I think, maybe, that when you come right down to it, friendship is pretty much what the Church is about. And the human race, for that matter. And—this is beyond my theological competence—maybe the Trinity, too.
I need to work and grow and hone my abilities and add value to the world. But mostly, I think, I need friends. My friends are those people, those few and mysterious people, who love me for no reason at all. Which is the only really good reason to love.
John Ortberg is pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (California) and Leadership editor at large.
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