Into the Future

(The following text is from my e-mail "diary" I send out every few weeks. It's something I started way back when we first went to Kazakhstan. You can get these via e-mail by sending an e-mail to Ramsays-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.)

Weekend before last Shawn, Naomi, and I were in Western NY to attend Rebekah's graduation from Houghton College. We are very proud of her accomplishments and look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for her. She majored in History. For her senior seminar project, she studied the culture where she grew up, doing a major project on the impact of collectivization on the Kazakh people during Stalin's years. It is neat to see how the Lord is already integrating the experience our children had growing up into their adult lives.

As the graduates paraded across the stage, I could not help but wonder what the future holds. What sort of world will they be ministering in? The week before her graduation, we had a 2-day intensive session with a handful of staff and missionaries at The Mission Society to consider that question for ourselves as a ministry. We took a look out 25 years and gave thought as to what sort of world it might be - painting a picture of the horizon out there and our place in it. It was a good exercise to help move us away from thinking in today's set of assumptions. We all know that the rate of change seems always to accelerate.

We tried to imagine what the world will be like in 2033 and what would be the shape of the religious landscape. We know that mission will be a calling for believers until Christ Himself returns. But what forms will it take then? How will those who call Jesus Lord and Saviour best communicate that Good News to others? And given those possibilities, what do we need to be doing now as believers and as a mission agency to prepare ourselves for that world? This whole process is a precursor to a year of long range planning we will be doing with our missionaries worldwide. When one begins to look ahead, it can be overwhelming. Just looking around at the world today can cause a person to want to retreat into a fairly closed-off, isolated life, just ignoring the world. 80,000 dead in China. Conflict in the Middle East that seems it will still be going in 2033. Election years that evoke ever-increasing cynicism. AIDS in Africa. The warnings of limited oil from my childhood seeming now to become reality. Collapse of morality and basic social institutions. The list can go on and on.

But this should not scare us off as believers. God does some of His best work in the midst of human chaos and tragedy. He does not call us to be ignorant, nor does He call us to despair. But we are to fully engage the world in whatever location He has placed us.

That's what comes to mind as I think of these young folks completing their studies. I've gotten to know many of Rebekah's friends -these and other young folks I've met among our other children's friends and our young interns serving with The Mission Society. I think of the young believers we worked with in Kazakhstan. When I think of these folks, I can't help but be convinced that God is preparing a new body of Christ-followers who will be ready to engage this newly messed up world. He is always there in the present as well as in the horizon!

Bragging Time - I mean "objective evaluation of your child" Time

OK, I won't normally use this blog to brag on my kids - but when a guy's daughter graduates from college and has professors gushing to him about what a great student she is, it's hard to think about much else. This weekend Shawn, Naomi, and I went up to Houghton, New York to attend Rebekah's college graduation. She majored in history. Last week, she completed her final assignment - a 70-page senior seminar paper which she also had to defend before a committee of professors. The topic - the transformation of the Kazakh culture from a nomadic people to Soviet citizens. This is very painful period of oppression and forced cultural change among the Kazakh people of Central Asia.

I'll let interested readers ask Rebekah for the text, but it is such a joy to see her, having grown up in Kazakhstan, use that experience and interest to understand the culture better. I could include all the comments her advising professors said about her paper and presentation, but that might sound like I'm bragging. I could wax on about how blessed I was to see the deep friendships Rebekah has developed with some really great young people, about the love and respect I see people have for her, and just generally about what an incredible young woman she is, but, I'll avoid that. You just gotta be careful about people thinking you are biased about your own children....

Anyhow, we are very proud of her accomplishments and eagerly await how God will continue to work in her and through her in the coming years.

Stories

Fresh back from Colorado Springs where I attended a debriefing seminar at MTI (Mission Training International). It was good to work on some skills for debriefing missionaries. But I went away with much more. I left convinced that debriefing is not something just to get a quick check on "how we're doing", but it is a profound gift we can give people to tell their story - to express the joys and struggles of their experience. Without that possibility, people can get stuck and have a hard time getting perspective on their past. It was very interesting to see all the ways that we tend NOT to listen - that we tend to short circuit the process. Yet the Lord made us so that we need to tell our story and to listen to one another's stories. It is amazing how much of the Bible is exactly that - the Psalms are full of David's expressing the paradoxes of life. We no less need to give expression to the experiences we have. So hopefully I'll be a better listener and will seek ways to give people changes to reflect upon their life experience with me.

Paraguay Travel Log - April 18 - Foz do Iguacu

I can't really visit Paraguay without visiting the famous Falls of Iguassu. And having visited, this log would be incomplete without a couple photos of this amazing site. It was overcast and foggy during my visit there, so I don't have the rainbows that you might find in other photo collections. It is one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. The photos cannot do justice to the massiveness of the reality.

Paraguay Travel Log - April 19-20 - They Way Home

Well, the travel for this trip continued to be exciting. Argentina was experiencing a major forest fire resulting in a thick smoke settling in around the airport in Buenos Aires. My flight was delayed by 5 hours, causing me to miss my Delta connection to Atlanta. So I got to enjoy an overnight. The fun part was that the lady at the taxi place did not speak English, so I got to put my fledgling Spanish to the test and was able to ask for a cheap hotel close to the airport and even found out what was causing the smoke. So I enjoyed an extra day in Buenos Aires prior to finally getting home this morning at 6:00am. The hotel was nice AND both my bags arrived with me.

Paraguay Travel Log - April 13-18

My final few days in Paraguay consisted primarily of meeting with our missionaries. I come away from the trip with a great respect for the caliber of people we have working there. They serve in diverse ways - teaching in a seminary, drilling water wells, teaching at a Christian school for expats, working in a poor community, developing children's ministry, construction, etc. All do it with passion for the people. In the image to the right, missionary Alica Grey prays with an elderly woman who lives in a small 1-room squatters shack, about the size of a typical living room.

My meeting Tuesday with Pablo and Claudette went very well. Pablo serves as president of the Methodist denomination and his wife the educational work. They have served from the beginning. We had a good discussion about the future - vision and challenges - and how our missionaries can assist.

I enjoyed being hosted by the Carrick family this trip. They have really made Paraguay their home, speaking Spanish fluently, navigating the nutty traffic, and building close friendships with the people. Their three teenaged kids are delightful. By the end, I was even friends with the two enormous dogs they own. On my first day, I think they wanted me for an afternoon snack, but by the end I was able to pet them.

The challenges of our work in Paraguay along with the Methodist church there is to keep finding ways to share the faith with the people that will address their lives. Many are very poor. The risks of unhealthy dependency are very great in church work, especially with the abundance of mission teams who come with good motivations, but sometimes with money and attitudes that end up disempowering the local folks. But the church is established and will grow as people live out the grace and truth that is the Gospel.

Paraguay Travel Log - 12 April - Celebration!

Today I headed out early with Christian Dickson to visit a church camp run by the Methodist church. We were joined by Mary Jo and her daughter Rebekah Phillips, two fellow Kentuckians who have been engaged with the work in Paraguay for many years. Christian's daughters Camila (9) and Ann Belen (1) were also with us. The camp was great and I had the chance to see the swimming pool that was built using funds from Redwood Christian Park in California, where I'll be speaking in two months.

And we had ice cream on the way home. Wuhoo! Second round. And my luggage arrived - oh happy day.

This evening we attended the big celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Paraguay. I was able to share on behalf of The Mission Society, which has been part of this work from the start. About 1000 people attended from the various Methodist churches that have been planted throughout. (It was really, really hot, but I managed to wear a sports coat and tie in spite of it. I figured that should be worth several spiritual points and earned me another round of ice cream.)

It was good to see the relationship our missionaries here have with the people. Lots of hugging and laughing that made me sense the depth of the history that has been made over these 20 years, and the commitment required by those from all over (Brazilian, Korean, US, Paraguayan) who have been part of the work.

The celebration lasted over 3 hours, ending in a consecration service for four new pastors. We got home late, stopping for empanadas (sp?) on the way home.