Evendays

I just finished writing and sending out our email ministry newsletter. I find this a difficult task and it often gets put off a week or two or three until it becomes abscessed and then it has to be pulled, I mean written up, before people think we’re dead.

We used to send everything by regular post, then email and post. Now it’s just email. When Randy and Sandra encouraged me to blog, this became a primary way of keeping people up to date, but it’s not a habit for all supporters to automatically surf over to Evendays. I understand.

One day, blogs won’t fill the gap either. Both Wife and Daughter are on Facebook now, which explains the current financial recession in the USA. Facebook, at least when you start it, is a FULL TIME JOB.

I’m not saying Facebook is not worth it. Wife has had contact with people she loves dearly but had heard from only twice this millineum. She and Daughter compare who has whom as friends (Daughter has more) and then talk about writing on someone’s wall or getting or sending tickles or pokes (or something).

For now, I’ll stick to 2 hours a week on blogs.

As I write this post, "My Yahoo" tells me that a US dollar buys 1.03 Swiss Francs, meaning the dollar purchases 18% less than 2007’s average exchange rate (not counting inflation…)

Unfortunately, I’ve got to take a check to the bank this week, and waiting doesn’t seem to make it much better.

So today a gallon of gas is $7.60.
A postage stamp to the USA: $1.80.
A Big Mac: $6.50.
A coffee (not Starbuck’s): $3.20.
A chocolate Easter Bunny: Priceless.

I know times are tough for many, but ask your mission committee and boards what they are doing for missions with the continued decrease in the dollar.

There has been a garbage strike going on in Naples for months. Seems that the Mafia controls the garbage pickup and disposal, and they decided to flex their muscles. There is garbage everywhere, stacked up on every other corner. Plastic bags float in the wind. Gulls and dogs nip at the garbage.

But the 14 youth who went on the mission trip never mentioned these things. When asked what they had seen, not a one mentioned the piles of trash or the nearby sea or Mont Vesuvius towering in the background. Not one.

They said they saw people who gave up their beds and slept on the floor so their guests could rest comfortably. They said they saw fellow Christians looking out for their guests’ every need. They said they saw hospitality that they’d never seen before and a desire to share Jesus with the inhabitants of the city of Naples.

They said they saw God at work, and that His perfume was invading the streets of Naples.

That’s what they said. 

 

Today, I’m in Naples, Italy with a group of teens on mission…

Jim McGuiggan had on his site a blurb about the practice of the Jews concerning contentious subjects which are not clearly defined by Scripture. When arriving in a new village (say… Naples), the Jew would simply ask the Rabbi: "What’s the practice here?" (about the contentious subject). Then the newcomer would follow the local practice even if s/he didn’t completely agree with the decisions of the local group.

I find there is much value in that. Some might call it chicken. Others might call it giving in to pressure. But you must admit that it eliminates those two dangers mentioned by Paul concerning faith expressions and community: "disdain for those who don’t and judgment against those who do".

Barry was in Bujumbura a year ago staying at the Catholic convent. In the courtyard he met Brother J., a 46 year-old monk who worked next door. As they began talking, Barry mentioned that it was hard for him to understand how a country that was nearly completely Catholic could suffer ethnic violence on such a large scale (think Burundi 1994). This question stuck with Brother J. and he came back to discuss it with Barry all during the week.

Visiting with J. was high on Doyle’s list for our last visit. We went to the Catholic headquarters where J. is the acting secretary for his order, reporting directly to the Vatican. We were welcomed with a huge smile along with an invitation to teach him from the Bible. The following evening, J. met me in the convent with his story, one of dedication to his order and church, but one that, in his words, had filled him with pride and had kept his people in ignorance. For 75 minutes he poured out his heart (he called it "his story") and asked that I teach him from the word the following day. He persisted in saying he wanted to be… simply a Christian.

The following day, he came to me with three realities written on a folded piece of paper which read: I am not baptized; I do not worship God in simplicity; I believe in the presence of Christ in the Eucharisty, but not in transubstantiaton.

We spoke of death, resurrection and reign. We spoke of promesses, forgiveness, faith and baptism. And J. asked us to pray for him.

Got back to sunny Lausanne just about noon on Wednesday after a good end to a good trip. We had a 27 hour layover in Addis Abeba (prize if you know which country that city is the capital of) and got to do something touristy. When my colleague from Geneva, Doyle, is on a mission, he’s on a mission! So we both enjoyed the break after 10 days of:

• Listening;
• Teaching;
• Preaching;
• Observing;
• Praying;
• Taking pictures;
  
• Opening wallet;
• Singing;
  
• Laughing;
• Eating;
  
• Sighing;
• Waiting.

Like I said, a good trip. We learned a bit. Gave encouragement. Got some too.

BTW, be nice to that guy the row over who’s having to use those airsick bags, even on the smooth flight. It might be you one day… I know…

More pics and a couple stories coming later. Thanks for your prayers…

 

January 8 marked 23 years since Wife and I moved to Switzerland. For her, 1985 was a bit like coming back home. For me, it was all new: Language, city-life, food, people.

I have often asked if it was the right decision… to leave “home” and come to Lausanne, even though that logic leads nowhere and we are not to second guess those things. But those of us who face discouragement still think about it, some times more than others, especially when you don’t feel as “led”.

We have received much and we have missed much. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think of Mom or Dad, or of my siblings and their families growing in age and number. I miss old friends that meant the world to me but I’ve not seen for years.

Despite the nostalgia, I will always celebrate January 8. It marks a time of transition, a time of trust, and reminds me that perseverance and change can both be expressions of faith.

Immigrant populations can often be open to Gospel while “Europeans” are not. The churches of Christ in Paris are essentially focused on the “changing France”, that is, one of the churches is largely made up of French citizens from the Caribbean (blacks) while the other is made up of French-speaking Christians from sub-Sahara Africa. Of course, many African immigrant children will become European citizens, possibly opening the door to new missions.

The Marseilles church is in a rather poor area of the city. Their members come, for the most part, from the neighborhood. On any given Sunday, you will find North Africans, native Marseillais, several European French who are retired people who cannot afford to leave the neighborhood. The church there is a reflection of the neighborhood.

The same is true in Lausanne and Geneva. There are ethnic Swiss, French, other Europeans, South/North Americans, and Africans all worshipping together. The church is a reflection of the city and the neighborhood. As long as this is the case, local churches appeal to all ethnic groups.

In general, it has proven difficult, for example, for predominantly African or Caribbean churches to attract “white” Europeans. As a church reaches out to specific ethnic groups and its identity is partially defined by that ethnicity, it may be “stuck” in that ethnicity until popular thought changes and that specific ethnic group is no longer marginalized.

People are evolving in the way they approach truth. It must be experienced, tactile, self-authenticated, rather than revealed through some outside authority. This is challenging to those of us who believe that faith comes through revelation (the light came into darkness), through God’s incarnation, through living and telling God’s story, through the Son who is Way, Truth and Life.

I’m not saying that Christianity shouldn’t be existential. The Relationship must be lived and the Will carried out. But the new creation in Christ calls us to pour our experience through the filter of the Message, rather than the Message through the filter of experience. 

Most Europeans believe that they have already heard the story and are not open to hearing it again. We tackle that problem through the formation of youth who experience the story as new. They are already capable of reaching their peers (who do not think in the same way as we older folks). What we strive to do is to form the mind, not by the means of today’s thought, but through the transformation of thinking that comes about through Gospel. Postmodernism will pass away. The Message, and its transforming power, will not.