Connecting Worlds

I am writing this while in the airport in Kazakhstan with missionary Joyce Chellis and her son Travis. Travis is leaving after his 2-week visit to his mother. It’s his first time to visit the place that has been home to his mother for nearly 13 years now. We had a nice chat on the way here about his experience. He said it sort of “gives a face” to what his mother has been doing. He had heard her stories, seen pictures, read letters. But now he can connect her life with his own experiences here.

This makes me mindful of one of the difficulties for the missionary that may catch a person by surprise. When you live some where for an extended period of time, it becomes an important part of your life. People become dear friends and the list of shared experiences grows in the place of ministry. And yet there are also friends and family back in the home country with a list of shared experiences. So the missionary and the missionary kids (MKs) feel in a way that they exist in two totally distinct worlds.

With our own family, we saw how our children eagerly desired that there would be connections between the worlds. The first time that their grandparents met some of the other members of our team on home leave in the US was a huge blessing. Finally the two worlds had at least some connection. I remember when Sherry Waid, a friend from our home church in Kentucky, came to visit us two years into our life in Kazakhstan. She experienced our life and met our friends. It was a huge blessing for us to have the connection and it created a bond with her that continues on today 10 years later, even though we don’t often have a chance to see one another.

So I’m wrapping this up as Joyce says “bye” to Travis, knowing now that when she speaks of the people and village she has grown to love, he will have a greater connection to this important part of her life. That will be a blessing to both of them that will now be shared for the rest of their lives.

A Question of Allegiance

I recently responded to an e-mail from Vince Rutherford, a good friend, supporter, and former long-time missionary to Pakistan who had some questions for reflections based on his recent reading of Paul Hiebert’s book Transforming Worldviews. (This is a book I would highly recommend for an understanding of missions). Hiebert identifies the difference in a “bounded set” approach toward thinking of the Kingdom of God as opposed to a “centered set.” The former focuses on the boundary – either a person is “in” or they are “out.” This is the most common approach the church has taken to the question of salvation. However, Hiebert argues that the more Biblical approach is a “centered set” where the focus is on the Kingdom center – Jesus Christ. A person is either moving toward that center or moving away. Whether or not there is a boundary becomes less the issue.

Vince repeated Hiebert’s question: “Can a village person become a follower of Jesus after only a very basic hearing of the gospel story?” Vince followed with his own musings: “I am wondering about the many people around the world who have heard a bit and have begun to pray in Jesus name for help in their problems. Are they ‘in the Kingdom’ even though they are only near the edge?”

I believe Hiebert was right on with the distinction between bounded and centered sets - as a math major, I like his use of those concepts! When one begins to understand that distinction, then it certainly does challenge all sorts of assumptions of what it means to be "in" or "out" - even those words themselves fall short of being good descriptors.

I believe for the final question, we have only to look at the Scriptures. Did the Samaritan woman, the man possessed by legion, the thief on the cross, etc have sufficient information to be considered a "follower of Jesus?" What they had was a real encounter with Jesus - not a propositional confession. That encounter was sufficient for them to shift their allegiance to Christ. I've found that speaking of allegiance to or alignment with Christ is more in line with Kingdom thinking than the more limited terms we tend to use when thinking of personal salvation. Certainly "born again" and "saved" are Biblical images - but they are not the exclusive ones that are used. They just fit more with the bounded set approach, so as children of the Enlightenment and modernism, we've tended to focus more on them at the exclusion of other images.

What this way of thinking does is really free us from assuming the burden of being the judge. It really is not (nor never has been) my responsibility to determine who is in and who is out. My responsibility is live my life in such a way that people will be introduced to Christ and have a genuine encounter with Him, such that there is a changing of their allegiance. Then in community, we work through the implications of this shift of allegiance on our lives. Our tools for that are His Word, the guidance of the Spirit, the community of faith, and (giving away my ecclesiology) the community of faith through the ages.

The Thrill of Discovery

A few of us are out here in California attending training in experiential learning and facilitation. Yesterday we got to practice our newly acquired skills on some college kids at a low ropes course. At the final debrief, one of the gals in my group said it was so neat how I didn't seem to have an agenda, but simply asked questions and allowed them to think through the issues for themselves, rather than giving them answers or even forcing them into certain answers.

It was so interesting to see how it worked. As our instructor encouraged us, to "trust the process." I was surprised how much discipline it took on my part to listen to the young people and tailor my next question or comment based on what they were saying, rather than thinking so hard about where I wanted to go that I didn't even hear them. Yet I found with patience and true listening, the insights they came up with were as good or better than content I could have delivered. Their excitement of discovery was enormously higher than if they had just received content from me. And the cool thing was that my enjoyment of hearing them come up with these insights actually was higher than the enjoyment of delivering the info myself.

It is good to be reminded that the One who had all knowledge spent three years giving teachings in the form of parables and often in the form of questions. Talk about content! He could have spent all three years lecturing and still not covered half his content. But instead, He lead the disciples (and us) on a journey of discovery. So often we forget this as we consider training and discipleship.

A Different World

I am writing from a conference in Bangkok Thailand. It's been an intense week of teaching, discussions, and meetings. Knowing all of us would have mental fatigue, the organizers left Wednesday afternoon free. So 4 other guys and I headed to the river. Well, we had good intentions of going to the nearest point on the river, but the little tuk tuk (like a little motercycle/tricycle used to transport people) driver had other ideas. What should have been a short 5-minute drive ended up being an hour all the way across town. Anyhow, we made it to the river. We decided to take a Thai longboat ride. These boats are so cool - they are long (go figure) with a high, pointed prow. There is a huge engine in the back well above the water with a long propeller. The driver moves the propellor in and out of the water and side to side to steer - there is no rudder.

He took us through several canals around the city. We saw parts of the city that you could see no other way. Houses right up on the canal or on stilts in bordering marshes with no road going to them. We realized we were seeing an entire subculture that probably exists quite separate from the busy city-life of Bangkok. People on little coracles, paddling around getting fish or collecting plants. One place looked like a village built totally on a marsh - all the houses on stilts, no roads anywhere. At one house, I saw a little girl no more than three on the veranda - no railing and the water below. I guess living there, having the water all around is just part of life. So we'd see kids playing in places that any landlubbing parent would freak out about!

Very interesting to see a totally different way of living. Our funniest was the "floating market" - which ended up being an elderly man on a little canoe-like boat floating up to us and offering various trinkets and beer.

Troubled Times

This past week was a tough one. Due to the economic tightening, which unfortunately often hits nonprofits the hardest, we had to lay off 6 people from our office. We had developed such a close-knit team among the staff, so this was especially hard not even considering the additional work load this will mean for those who are left. As hard as it was, I am so thankful that it was handled with love and caring - all of us felt God's presence in a very real way that entire day. We've already heard some good things from several of those who are gone about how God is already answering prayers. But either way, we miss them dearly. We fasted and prayed for two months that this could be avoided - yet when the time came and the December numbers were in, there was no doubt that this was necessary to stay afloat until things pick back up a bit.

So one wonders, "What is God up to?" A person could get pretty bogged down in theological questions. Did God will this? Did this happen because someone wasn't being obedient in their giving? Did this happen because somebody on Wall Street was greedy? Did this happen so that those laid off would be given new opportunities? Did this happen because the media has freaked everyone out? I guess we could drive ourselves crazy trying to answer such questions. I think the asking is normal any time there is pain, disappointment, suffering, or tragedy. When Jesus was asked a similar question about why the man was blind, due to his sins or the sins of his parents, He basically said, "Neither. So that God could be glorified."

Does God cause such things in order to be glorified? Well, I'm not going to touch that one or I'll be guaranteed a flood of e-mails! What I can know for sure is that God desires to be and can be glorified in any situation. He can be glorified in each of the lives of those laid off. He can be glorified in The Mission Society as we try to regroup and move forward. He can be glorified in the lives of those who have lost houses in this economic crunch as well as in the lives of those who have managed to hold on. The question is, will we look to Him?

A few months ago, my colleague at the Mission Society - Darrell - shared something he had noticed when in China. When people in America pray in times of difficulty, we usually pray for intervention - for God to protect us or change the situation. I can assure you, that's how I was praying last month regarding the possibilities of layoffs! But Darrell noticed that when the Chinese pray, they pray that God will enable them to be faithful in the situation. They've had corrupt governments for centuries - emperors, conquerors, communists. They really don't expect that to change - it's part of the landscape in a fallen world. But in Christ, they fully anticipate God to redeem each situation in their lives.

I've reflected a lot on that over the months. The question is not so much "Why did all this happen?" The question is, "Will we be submissive to God in the midst of it and seek to see Him glorified in us and in the situation." Sometimes He does His best work when folks respond with that level of submission to Him, submitting even the questions of "why me - why us?"

A Great Way to Start the New Year

On January 2, over 80 missionaries, missionary kids, Mission Society staff, and guests gathered in the mountains overlooking San Jose, Costa Rica for a conference. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, learning, worship, ministry, and fun. As we sought the Lord together, He answered with a spirit of unity and renewed commitment to being effective ministers of His Word throughout the region. I posted some photos on Picasa for those who might be interested in getting a visual picture of our time together.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jimbobka/CostaRica2009?authkey=H67NBM2zDRE&feat=directlink

EARTHQUAKE!!!

I was in San Jose, Costa Rica at the airport, awaiting my flight back to the US when it hit. At first I thought a plane had crashed into another part of the airport, but within 2-3 seconds, I realized I was experiencing a humdinger of an earthquake. The whole building banged a couple times, as if someone had tossed us and we were bouncing to a stop.

It is quite a sensation - wondering if it will continue, if it will get worse, if those big speakers on the column above you will come down, if you'll spend all night at the airport, if you'll be a statistic on the evening news! As it turned out, things returned to normal at the airport within a couple hours. Whew, it passed.

But did it? As the reports trickled in over the past couple days, it is clear this was a life-changing event for hundreds and a life-ending event for several. Many homes were destroyed, some roads are still blocked by landslides and there are still people who are stranded.

I realized how much I tend to judge an event by how much it affects ME. All is back to normal. Thank you God for protecting ME. Glad I didn't miss MY flight. In fact, if I hadn't just been to Costa Rica, would I have even known it happened or, if I saw the news item, would I have paid any attention? No conclusions here - just a reminder of how life can be dramatically changed in an instant. And a reminder of how self-centered people are at their core.