Technological Orphans

Still purging unused office equipment. This mass of poor, huddled computer monitors in the hallway caught my eye. They stand clustered under a 'Free!' sign. Seems we've all gone to flat screens or laptops. Want to adopt one? Come 'n' get it...

Unputdownable Books

As several people who know me well have pointed out, my trip to California tomorrow has a hidden cost. While I'm hobnobbing with friends of Central Asia, the latest J.K. Rowling book will be delivered to my doorstep. I will not be there to open it. (Pictured here is the cover of one of the two British editions - not available in the U.S.)

I'm not the 'fan' type, really; I don't have favorite bands, or go see certain movies over and over. I don't 'collect' anything. But I do have a tendency to be somewhat compulsive.

And, since I was a kid, that's included a frequent inability or general unwillingness to put down a good book (and sometimes a not-so-good book!) You know that "just one more chapter... " feeling? I remember staying up all night to finish Gone with the Wind when I was 14 or 15. I've read it three or four times since.

Sometimes it's a great story or the author's skill in maintaining thrills or tension that makes a book 'unputdownable.'

Sometimes it's just the characters and the world they live in - you just don't want to leave.

Other books are appealing because of their associations. The characters remind you of someone you love, or of some part of your life that was particularly wonderful. Or even some other book, or character, or genre.

Many children's books have a whimsical touch that is much more appealing than reality. It wasn't until I was a grownup that I discovered Danny the Champion of the World, but it reminds me of Homer Price. Also as an adult I read Ella Enchanted, Holes, and Sarah Plain and Tall. Practically perfect stories! Right up there with Swallows and Amazons, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Emily of New Moon!

When you pick it up may matter. The actual situation in which you are reading may have some significant emotional stamp. I read Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven when I was avoiding an important writing deadline. (Reading someone else's book was irresistible when I was avoiding writing my own!) I read David Foster's Emergence on my first visit to Central Asia; it was such a perfect escape I actually read it twice on that trip - it's long, action-packed, well-written - and this is part of its appeal: told in first person by a character who is satisfying to identify with.

I'm not sure why I like the Harry Potter books. Or why they've been so popular, worldwide. But I do, and they are.

I may not be the best measure of these things, though. A book doesn't have to work that hard to hold me. I finish most of those I start. More of a gourmand than a gourmet. So sometimes I'll go to the library on a weekend afternoon and read /skim something on the lighter side in about two hours. Christian fiction, usually written at a seventh-grade reading level or so, can be consumed like that and may be best that way.

However, real life interferes with reading - and well it should. I won't get Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows until Sunday afternoon and will have just over a week in town before I fly off to Eastern Europe for two weeks - probably unaccompanied by Harry... Do you think I'll finish it before then?

These days when I go to the rec. center I'm riding the exercise bikes for half hour or so at a go, and bringing Orson Scott Card's Sarah which is about the biblical character of the same name. I love Card's science fiction; Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are definitely unputdownable! He is a Mormon, though, and this book is published by an imprint of Deseret books. I wonder how much that affects its content? I know Genesis pretty well but I don't know how Mormons view or teach the patriarchs... I know what parts come out of the Bible but am not so sure what parts are from Card's imagination and what ones from Joseph Smith's. Anybody know? I may poke around and see what I can find about that.

Network Gathering Next Weekend / Potential New Staff Member Visiting

A cool opportunity to attend a meeting of like-minded people - focused on a place I really care about - just dropped into my lap! I was invited to the meeting months ago. I kept the invitation but had no compelling 'excuse' to go. This week that changed.

The sending agency I'm now part of needed a representative; they want to begin work in this much-overlooked little country... one that it just so happens has a special place in my heart and history. I spent three months there doing research in 1994. Have tracked with developments in the years since, though not as closely as I would like.

Recent changes in the region may provide new opportunities to get in and serve these people.
Next weekend I hope to find out.

Managed to get a last-minute ticket from Denver to LA for just over $300. Our organization's leaders for the region are going to pick up the expense.

It is rather nice to have the freedom to do this sort of thing, to just jump on a plane and go. With Deb out of town I'll need to find someone to look after the dog and water the plants, but that's about it.

Another interesting ministry development:

I've had several conversations with a young woman who is quite interested in joining our staff and being part of the same kind of work I've been doing, helping out with ethnographic research projects.

This weekend she's catching a ride out to Colorado from the Midwest and will spend all day Tuesday in our office checking out what it would be like to be part of our team.

I'm a little reluctant, embarrassed, hesitant - after all we've been through, our community spirit has been pretty shattered! If she really sees how messed up we are, what is she going to think? I've tried to be honest with her about that but don't want to scare her away entirely!

Personality-wise, I think she's the type that could do really well in our kind of environment.

Pray for Emily's visit, that it might be encouraging and illuminating.

Photos and Feeling

Over the years our ministry has provided many opportunities to speak on behalf of those who have no "voice." Photography in particular can do so much to build bridges of connection. How could you look at these two girls from Tunisia and think, "Those people are all terrorists"? (Photo by Walt M.)

People do respond to children, don't they? Shane wrote about that in the article that went out in today's Missions Catalyst.

It may take a thousand words or more to have the same effect as this photo, but writers can change how people see the world too. Here's some more Mary Pipher:

Language is weaponized when it is used to objectify, depersonalize, dehumanize, to create an “other.” Once a person is labeled as “not like us,” the rules for civilized behavior no longer apply. The phrase “illegal alien” is an obvious example. Both the word “illegal” and the word “alien” separate us from the person being described. Indeed, America treats illegal aliens quite badly. The truth is that no person is illegal and no person is an alien.

A writer’s job is to tell stories that connect readers to all the people of the earth, to show these people as the complicated human beings they really are, with histories, families, emotions, and legitimate needs. We can replace one-dimensional stereotypes with multi-dimensional individuals with whom our readers can identify, creating a world of I–thou relationships.

Mary Pipher, Writing to Change the World

Art.... beauty... truth...

I love this print - it's actually a painting. The artist was displaying his work this weekend at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.

I'd love to have this hanging in my room or over my desk. It's just... refreshing. I miss the water. Deb leaves tomorrow for two weeks in Anacortes, WA with her mother and sister. They are planning to take a ferry across to the islands one day. Ah...

How do you suppose God sees the creative arts? The scriptures don't give us a whole lot to go on. Or do they? God did commission a lot of intricate handiwork for his tabernacle. Sounds like heaven is a pretty arty place too. The Bible is quite big on singing and making music to God, and chock full of poetry and stories. There's a lot in the scriptures about beauty. Clearly it's something God appreciates! Like everything else, arts and artists bear the fingerprints of God.

Yet the signs of the fall seem so apparent in some of what I saw this weekend. I thought, "that looks kind of evil..." and wanted to turn away. Bad art, I thought. Maybe not technically bad, but morally bad. Or so it seemed. To me.

Is art always, never - or just sometimes - morally neutral? Does it depend on the intent of the artist? The heart and mind - and eye - of the beholder? Or some combination of those? Is there some kind of objective measure, or perhaps some guiding principles, that would mark art as immoral?

Maybe that has to do with its effect on us. For example, the human body is beautiful, but pornography stirs up lust and encourages us to go against what we know to be good and true; in some situations the boundaries may be unclear. (One of my friends, home-schooling her young sons in art appreciation, used markers to clothe some of the nudes. Probably better than not teaching the class.)

Art isn't always about beauty, nor need it be. It's not all Thomas Kinkade (no offense; we have this one in our living room!) Art that is violent or disturbing may stir us up against injustice, or tyranny: Surely that is good.

Much art defies analysis - or even if it doesn't, it still tends to go to the emotions first. One of the early Greek philosophers argued for the suppression of certain kinds of music for this reason. It does seem presumptuous, doesn't it, not to ask permission from the mind before stirring the guts? But others might say that's the best thing about art, or music. Might we harness that power?

Followers of the Creator God have sometimes rejoiced in being creators too, fostering and enjoying the arts. Yet just as often they have picked up the scent of evil in art, or music, or literature, and tried to squelch it, and especially to keep it from their children.

If Jesus were walking through the arts festival with me, I wonder when he would sigh with pleasure, or cheer for truth and insight, and when he would turn away? Or would he turn away? I suppose he would never turn away from the artist even if he did not think much of the art!

What do you think?

(I Googled "What does the Bible say about art?" and found this article.)

Hard Times

I though I'd write something light and playful about now, but today is not the day! Once again I feel, well, to be a bit melodramatic about it, kind of on the brink of madness! All week I've been dealing with a deep-seated conflict and it's tearing me apart. Alone and lonely, depressed and afraid, longing both for the life that I no longer have and for another which seems unattainable. The summer seems so long and empty, and contentment and peace so elusive. Yuck!

However, I know this is a common-enough experience, and that pain (while you are in it) seems eternal.

We are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. (Psalm 74:9)

And, (once again!) the words of a someone I had the privilege of interviewing and writing about years ago comes to mind. I'm so glad for the ways God has wired these stories into me. Writing or teaching is so good for that.

"Donna" was living in Central Asia when she lost her dearly loved father. She not know how to grieve over it. For a long time there was nobody who could really come alongside her and help her see she wasn't crazy...

“I didn’t know how to do this grief thing. I was really hurting. No one here had ever met my dad except for my husband, who only knew him a little bit, and nobody was at the funeral with me. So it was only a loss for me. But I was here, and my twins had just turned a year old. When I came back after the funeral it seemed like the whole world was invited to my house as guests. ‘Don’t be upset,’ they all told me. ‘Don’t tell me not to be upset!’ I wanted to shout, ‘I am upset!’ It was a really, really hard thing. It helped that I knew the Lord and knew my father was with him. But it still hurt like all get-out!”

Feeling unable to express her grief made things worse. “I couldn’t cry in front of the kids, because it would upset them. With three kids, relatives, and guests staying with us, what could I do? I couldn’t have quiet times, because I knew I would cry! I had ‘ritual’ times, but I knew if I really engaged with God I would cry. You just get distant from God if you live that way.

“I thought I was obsessed or going insane. I loved my dad so much but I didn’t know why it hurt so bad for so long. It was all very confusing for our marriage. I talked to my husband about how I felt, but he didn’t know what was normal either. I would ask him, ‘Am I insane?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he said.

"I thought I was a basket case."

Finally, someone came along who had been through a similar experience, and that really helped. Donna also told me she had to adjust her perspective on God and what he promises:

“God has promised to walk through this stuff with us,” says Donna. “Well, I didn’t want to walk through this, or be walked through it; I wanted to go a different direction! God promises he will be with us in this world. He didn’t promise things wouldn’t hurt.

"When all the people left Jesus, the disciples still said, ‘Where else would we go?’ I knew no matter whatever else happened in the world, I had no other place to go but God.

“My heart didn’t feel it. I couldn’t sing those songs like, ‘Lord you are good.’ It took about a year before I could feel anything in my heart but pain. It was hard. He had kept his promises to me, and they were good. They just were not the promises I thought he had made.”

One of the pastors at my church often shares stories about things he's learned from his wife. A few weeks ago he share something she said way back when they were in college. Dan sat up and took notice when Kerri, coming upon him when he was struggling, said: "When I'm going through a hard time, I like to read the book of 1 Peter."

What an excellent suggestion. I think I'll dive in and look at it. Today, this verse, 1 Peter 5:7, stands out:

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Actually, the whole passage is rich; here's 1 Peter 5:6-11...

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Amen!

Telling the Story for Cyberspace

Today is the one-year anniversary of the merger of Caleb Project and ACMC.

Should we celebrate? What a disaster it turned out to be! And what a year this has been. About a week ago I got a check from one of my college friends with a note: “Sounds like this has been a very hard year for you – maybe your hardest ever.” True? Of course the merger was not the only big event, but July 1, 2006 is a pretty significant bookend.

New web site...

Well, quite a few bits of our organization remain and as the writer / strategist / keeper of tribal lore, I spent a good bit of energy this week writing, rewriting, formatting, and tweaking content for the new web site that will represent our current ministry. We’re not quite ready to launch it and set up all the “redirects” that will help people find us. But it is already accessible if you know where to look. Take a sneak peak at www.takeitglobal.net.

Trying to describe who we are, what we do, and where we come from in ways that would answer readers' questions but not raise too many others was a fairly tricky process. And when others on our staff review the contents I’m not sure everything I wrote will make it.

I hope people who end up there looking for Caleb Project or ACMC or Initiative360 will know they are in the “right place.” You and I know that in many respects these ministries are no more, but in other ways they continue: through resources, experience, and continuing services. So much so that for some of those who find us, depending on what they are looking for, it will be as if nothing has changed!

Writing history

But for those who choose to read them, I ended up with four linked pages that fill in the background and answer the “what happened and why?” questions as well as we can: “about us,” “about ACMC,” “about Caleb Project,” and, yes, even “about Initiative360.”

The “about Initiative360” page was the trickiest. It may end up being eliminated or cut way back; we’ll see. What was the vision behind the new direction and the merger? How and why did it fail? How, when, and why did PIONEERS step in? Once I found ways to put some of this into words, weaving together text from various communications along the way, I felt a weight come off my shoulders. I could go back and write the rest.

I found a ‘brief history of ACMC’ page in my files. It did a good job at describing the ACMC vision and legacy, and setting up the remaining ACMC staff to carry on that legacy. It wasn’t well-written, but that I could fix; it covered the right ground. I wanted something that would do the same for us. But how to describe 25+ years of Caleb Project history?

I already had well-crafted text on how and why Caleb Project began, and a nice summary of the first ten years. After that all the documents I found seemed to skip ahead to ‘current ministries include…’ The ‘current ministries’ lists changed pretty regularly, which gave me clues for what to include. I didn’t want to miss anything really pivotal, though what is important may be a matter of opinion.

The network of Calebites, the traveling teams, student mobilization, and the research program were all early ministries. I added references to church mobilization and Perspectives; people-specific advocacy and prayer journeys; the births of the media department and Caleb Project Europe. I didn’t make specific mention of children’s mobilization, Crossing Cultures, or Encountering the World of Islam: those things come across well enough on other parts of the web site.

Well, take a look if you are interested.

Old-timers, this is your story, too, and I’m sorry you were not here to write it. Let me know if I got a date or detail wrong, explained something in a way that seems strange, or left out something that seems too significant to omit... Wait, I think I left out the move from Pasadena to Littleton! Well, one nice thing about the new web site is that it is very easy to go in and edit.

Working on this project was good for me. It was kind of bittersweet, but trying to put things into words for others helped me celebrate the good things God has done.