BoLiving

back in the U.S.

2012-01-22T09:57:00.001-04:00

For those who haven't heard, Becky and I have ended our service with Word Made Flesh and are back in the U.S. Our daughter is fine, but we had some concerns about her adjustment to (and continued development in) the altitude. E-mail us for details, friends. - Peace-

Prayer of the Elders of Optino

2011-12-31T07:45:00.001-04:00

This is an Orthodox prayer (with various iterations floating around) that my sister passed to me when she was with WMF Romania. I remember reading it every morning soon afterwards. I just re-discovered my paper copy in an old book.

It's worth reading slowly, line-by-line. Some mornings, I think it's futile to try to get "spiritually edified" by some mind-stretching devotional at 6:30 am. There are times when all we can do is calm ourselves, and ask God to do his slow, steady, persistent work in all the details of our day.

Lord, grant that I may meet the coming day with spiritual tranquility.

Grant that in all things I may rely upon your holy will.

In each hour of the day, reveal your will to me.

Whatever news may reach me this day, teach me to accept it with a calm soul, knowing that all is subject to your holy will.

Direct my thoughts and feelings in all my words and actions.

In all unexpected occurances, do not let me forget that all is sent down by you.

Grant that I may deal firmly and wisely with every member of my family and all who are in my care, neither embarrassing nor saddening anyone.

Give me the strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring.

Direct my will and teach me to pray,
to believe,
to hope,
to be patient,
to forgive
and to love.

Amen.

Jan. 2012 Prayer Letter

2011-12-28T04:00:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

The concept of God’s will has always been difficult for me (Becky). I’m sure it always will be – it’s just one of those things that once I think I understand, it eludes me again. I remember doing a study when I was about 14 called, “Experiencing God.” If I remember right, it talked a lot about discerning God’s will through scripture, circumstance, prayer/the Holy Spirit, and the voices of those who are wise around us. I think at that time in my life, I felt that God’s will was fixed and if I missed it, then I missed it forever. This made decision-making very stressful. I wanted to do God’s will, but didn’t always know what that was.

Since then, I have come to see God’s will as a little more fluid. I have made decisions in my life where there were several good options in front of me – open doors that I could walk through. And I’ve also experienced closed doors. I’ve come to believe that seeking God may be more than the final outcome. God desires us to draw near to him, to desire him first. If I stand in front of three open doors, it may not matter which one of those good options I might take, but that my heart is turned toward my Father as I step over the threshold.

However, I’ve come to observe a tendency I have in making a decision. Sometimes, my efforts to please others can cloud my vision. It sneaks up on me, because I want to “seek the counsel of the wise,” especially as someone who is young. But I can sometimes go beyond that and seek to please others, which of course never works. There will always be at least someone displeased with any given decision I make. Thankfully, L. is helping “cure” me of this a little, because I care much less about others’ opinions when L. is affected by my decisions much more directly than anyone else.

Sometimes I lament that fact that I have never heard God’s voice audibly. There have been a few occasions where I sensed Him speaking to me, but they’ve never been about a decision: Go here, or do that.

Deciding to go to Bolivia in 2009 was one of those decisions where Adam and I looked at an open door and chose to walk in, sensing that scripture backed this choice. Circumstances seemed to confirm it since we were able to raise support to go. Deciding to return this fall was, for me, a much more difficult decision. I kept hoping God would work through circumstance to close the door. L. has been such a joy for us, and it was difficult to picture taking our precious little gift into a more chaotic (to put it lightly) environment. So I finally committed to put one foot in front of the other and nothing more. The door could have been closed several times. But each time I thought the door would close, it never did. I continue to step forward and watch as God leads. With each step I know that God’s grace is with us and that your prayers are upholding us. Thank you so much for praying and please continue to pray: for L.’s healthy adjustment and our transition back to life in Bolivia.

As the new year is upon us, may you see the new thing that God is doing (Isaiah 43:19).

Becky, Adam, and L.

two quotes to ponder this Christmas

2011-12-25T08:03:00.000-04:00

I found the following in the Dec. 8 reading of the great Advent collection Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas. It is from J. Heinrich Arnold in Discipleship: Living for Christ in the Daily Grind:

Jesus' life began in a stable and ended on the cross between two criminals. The Apostle Paul said he wanted to proclaim nothing but this crucified Christ. We, too, have nothing to hold on to except this Christ. We must ask ourselves again and again: Are we willing to go his way, from the stable to the cross? As disciples we are not promised comfortable and good times. Jesus says we must deny ourselves and suffer with him and for him. That is the only way to follow him, but behind it lies the glory of life - the glowing love of God, which is so much greater than our hearts and our lives.

This excerpt I found in The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus by Bruxy Cavey, which I'm reading on my Nook. He is quoting Dennis F. Kinlaw from Let's Start with Jesus, p. 69:

When we did not want God, God wanted us. When we would not come to God, he came to us. When we resisted him, he plotted to win us. When we could not cross the chasm that separates creation from deity, God decided to cross it and become one of us. He would not give up his deity; rather, he would united divinity and humanity in a single person so that God and humans would really meet and become one.

It doesn't "feel" like Christmas

2011-12-24T20:20:00.001-04:00

There are bright sunny mornings where your forearms get burned as you work on the laundry. The afternoon brings predictably unpredictable hailstorms. Grass is green and plants are growing.

It doesn't feel like Christmas. At all.

Our schedule is all messed up. We're weary from travel. We don't know how to explain to our child what's happening. We're strangers in a strange land.

Come to think of it though, didn't a stranger stop by this afternoon? A visibly poor mother and her three children, bringing a gift of platanos for my family (ok, it was for my landlords, but they weren't home).

Weary travelers, a baby, visitors with gifts... maybe it does feel like Christmas after all.

Latinoamérica by Calle 13

2011-12-20T05:00:00.000-04:00

Here's a music video of "Latinoamérica" by Calle 13, a musical group very popular in Latin America. I've copied an approximate translation of the lyrics below (source) but of course, art doesn't translate very well.

This one nearly brought me (Adam) to tears, and I'm not even Latino! Knowing just a small bit of Latin American history and living in / traveling to three different countries south of the border made me appreciate this all the more. More than anything, it's a story of life, culture, pride, diversity. A message we do indeed need to keep hearing.

You can hit the full screen, watch at 480 resolution. Music starts at 0:30.

I am
I am what that they left
I'm all about what that was stolen.
A village hidden on the peak,
My skin is from leather that's why it stands any weather.
I'm a factory of smoke,
A peasant working hand for your consumption
Cold Front in the middle of summer,
Love in the Time of Cholera, my brother.
The sun that is born and the day that dies,
with the best evenings.
I am developing raw,
a political speech without saliva.
The most beautiful faces I've met,
I'm the photograph of a missing person.
I'm the blood in your veins,
I'm a piece of land that is worth it.
I'm a basket with beans,
I'm Maradona against England scoring 2 goals.
I'm what that holds my flag,
the backbone of the planet is my Andes.
I'm what that my father taught me,
Who doesn't love his fatherland don't love his mother.
I'm Latin America,
People without legs but can walk
You can't buy the wind.
You can't buy the sun.
You can't buy the rain.
You can't buy the heat.
You can't buy the clouds.
You can't buy the colors.
You can't buy my happiness.
You can't buy my pains.
I have the lakes, I have the rivers.
I have my teethes for when I smile.
The snow that puts make up on my mountains.
I have the sol that dries me and the rain that wash me
*A desert intoxicated with beautiful drinks of pulque
To sing with the coyotes is all that I need.
I have my lungs breathing clear blue.
The height that suffocates.
I'm the teethes that chew the Coca.
*The autumn with its dropping leaves
The lines written under the starry night.
A wineyard filled with grapes.
A sugar cane plantation under the Cuban sun.
I'm the Caribbean Sea watching over the houses,
Doing rituals of holy water.
The wind that combs my hair.
I'm all the saints that hangs from my neck.
The juice of my struggle is not artificial,
Because the fertilizer of my land is natural.
You can't buy the wind.
You can't buy the sun.
You can't buy the rain.
You can't buy the heat.
You can't buy the clouds.
You can't buy the colors.
You can't buy my happiness.
You can't buy my pains.
(from purtuguese)
You can't buy the wind.
You can't buy the sun.
You can't buy the rain.
You can't buy the heat.
You can't buy the clouds.
You can't buy the colors.
You can't buy my happiness.
You can't buy my sadness.
You can't buy the sun.
You can't buy the rain.
(we are drawing the way, we are walking)
You can't buy my life.
MY LAND IS NOT FOR SALE.
Working hard but with pride,
Here we share, what's mine is yours.
These people can't be drawn with big waves.
And if it collapsed I'll rebuilt it.
*neither blink when I see you.
So that you'll remember my surname.
Operation Condor is invading my nest.
I forgive but I'll never forget!
(we are walking)
The struggle breathes here.
(we are walking)
I sing because it sounds.
Here we are standing.
Long live Latin America.
You can't buy my life.

http://lyricstranslate.com

traveling tomorrow - prayer request

2011-12-12T10:24:00.000-04:00

We're traveling pretty much all day tomorrow and Wednesday. We would appreciate your prayers for safety and sanity. Thanks.

pics from pampas jungle trip + article on Madidi Nat. Park

2011-12-07T11:15:00.000-04:00

outlook of Rurre, main river, and mountains

Fearing that parenthood would greatly decrease my ability to continue adventuring (not that parenting isn't adventurous!), I (Adam) convinced Andy to bring his two older boys on a trip to the pampas near Rurrenabaque, on the edge of the magnificent Madidi National Park. The park itself protects land from the Amazon rainforest proper all the way up to the Andes mountains. We chose the budget-friendly pampas tour (insanely affordable for the value), instead of the actual rainforest, because you actually see more wildlife there.

orgullo en su pais

The tour was essentially water-based, centered around a humble river that cut through cattle-grazing land. Together with a German woman, a Swiss couple, and some Kiwis, we loaded our belongings into a long canoe with an outboard motor. We took our time getting to camp, stopping to look at wildlife along the way. Camp was a simple affair, with walkways and rustic cabins (shacks with blue tarps and not-quite-sealed mosquito nets) on stilts for when the pampas really gets flooded.

To avoid a lengthy commentary, I'll try to just list some of the things I remember. This was 1/2 a year ago already. All photos are credit Andy Baker - amazing photographer!

*an unsuccessful anaconda hunt. This means giving the gringos some wading boots and telling them to spread out throughout the swamp - yell when you see something. I was more interested in the new birds I saw...

*caiman nighttime hunt from the boat (shining lights at their eyes). Pepe was the camp croc, supposedly tame. I tried to keep my distance when they were tossing him meat.

trust me

*piraña fishing (we ate them for lunch)

*barefoot soccer and cold drinks with other guides and groups as the sun set over the pasture

*swimming with pink freshwater dolphins

you've got company

*howler monkeys waking us at 6 am sharp. The most other-worldly song I've ever heard. Turn up your speakers, close your eyes, and imagine you woke up to this, sleeping in the jungle, with no idea what it was:

a type of Capuchin monkey, much smaller than the Howler

*huge jarbiru stork nesting in a tree above our camp (these things are as tall as Becky + 8 ft wingspan)

*experiencing all of this 4- and 8-yr old boys. awesome!

The scariest moment was when one of our crew was rendered immobile/unresponsive by just 7 bites of tiny black ants. Crazy! Thankfully, he recovered.

It was quite the adventure, but we didn't hack deep into virgin rainforest or anything. Some people still do that... and it's not pretty. Here's an excerpt (warning: it's graphic) from Bugging Out - Into Madidid's Teeming Jungle: A Photographer's Journal by Joel Sartore (March 2000, National Geographic)

... Marcelo, our lead boat driver, tells a quick pig story as we pack up to leave.

We were hunting the chanchos (pigs) last year near the Rio Beni, not far from here. We saw a group of fifty. We killed Ten. This made them mad. They charged us. We ran and climbed trees. One of my friends didn't get high enough, and the chanchos pulled him down. We heard screams for a while, then waited to come down. When we found him, we found only pieces. Many pieces. We took the pieces of him to his parents' house. We were sad our friend had died such a terrible death."

Even the pigs can kill you here. A man Rosa Maria knows survived a pig attack but now has no butt. He didn't get quite high enough in the tree, and the pigs bit it all off...

...It's almost Christmas, and I'm more than ready to go home. I feel for the people here. Poverty abounds. Everything is worn out or broken. The kids in town swim in raw sewage. Rosa Maria points out that most of the world lives like this.

I know she's right. But I'm beat, and I just to sleep.
Now, if only the boro [live botfly maggot] in the back of my hand would do the same.

Editor's Note: Eight weeks after Sartore returned from a second trip to Bolivia, a wound on his lower right leg began to grow. He had contracted leishmaniasis -- caused by a flesh-eating parasite -- through the bite of a sand fly. The infection spread to his lymph system and created a hole in his leg the size of a silver dollar. The infection was eventually controlled by a combination of surgery and a 21-day intravenous treatment of an antimony compound. He'll know in ten years if he's fully cured.

Louis Pasteur more dangerous than Darwin?

2011-12-05T05:00:00.000-04:00

From The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South by Philip Jenkins. I am omitting some context, so don't make too much of this isolated paragraph. Nevertheless, I find this excerpt from p. 184-5 interesting.

Nowhere is the North-South gulf [in global Christianity] more evident than in matters of healing, which is so central to the Christian gospels. The Northern world, however, has developed a professional and scientific model of medicine that has probably contributed more to the spread of secular values than all the insights and discoveries concerning the age of the earth and its place in the universe, or the story of human evolution. Louis Pasteur and Alexander Fleming may have altered attitudes to the role of religion far more than Galileo and Darwin. In the twentieth century, too, mainstream Western Christians came to accept wholeheartedly secular treatments for diseases of the mind or psyche.

Christmas gift idea - support our friends

2011-11-28T04:00:00.000-04:00

Sean Gladding, friend of WMF Bolivia co-founders Andrea and Andy Baker, is selling signed copies of his book, The Story of God, The Story of Us: Getting Lost and Found in the Bible. Until Dec. 15, all the net proceeds he makes from this special sale will be sent to support the Baker's work in Bolivia.

He's asking $20 for the book (includes shipping) in order to provide a good donation, and he's matching the first $500 to boot!

Here's the Amazon.com link for the book, but don't buy it there. Check out the details on Sean's blog.

quotes from "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

2011-11-26T21:49:00.000-04:00

On doubt

I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spend an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. (Ch. 7, p. 28)

On defending God

There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business as usual." But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God's that the self-righteous should rush. (Ch. 25, p. 70-71)

Abuela Grillo

2011-11-21T11:12:00.000-04:00

December Update

2011-11-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

It is so good to write you all and thank you for your prayers for L.’s safe arrival and my recovery from an emergency cesarean. I believe this is the first time I (Becky) have written since her birth and it’s a joy to share with all of you again.

L. is growing and doing well. She’s gaining ¾ ounce per day, smiling, laughing, rolling up onto her side, grabbing at toys, and kicking as if her life depended on it. It’s so wonderful to watch her while I nurse her, talk with her, snuggle with her, sing to her, and listen to her “talk” and coo. I love watching her different expressions and having the most wonderful “conversations” about anything and everything. And best of all, she’s sleeping through the night! I’ve enjoyed teaching and working with other kids, but of all the different jobs I’ve had, this is where it’s at! I have a strong sense that for the next 20 years or so, nothing will trump this vocational call. Anything else I do will just be another job.

There’s something about parenthood that brings on a whole new level of vulnerability. My heart is full of joy when I’m with L. and I ache for her when she is not with me. My desire to protect her is so strong that it took all my self-control not to tackle the young lady drawing her blood in the hospital. The grizzly bear in me wanted to draw some blood from her! (Okay maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it was difficult – same with her immunizations). This is kind of a new sensation for me since I’m normally a pretty fun-loving person.

All of these thoughts, feelings, and experiences have me thinking about God as a Father, especially as Christmas draws near. It puts new light to the sacrifice of Christ and the costly gift He was for us. Even just to send Jesus to Earth was an enormous sacrifice. This is certainly not a paradise here. He entrusted his Son – his most precious gift – to the young mother, Mary. And on the cross the all-powerful God who controls the cosmos turned away, giving up the control and the power to save his Son. I sense a whole new level of vulnerability as a mom. It seems that for us, God chose to experience vulnerability. We were worth that sacrifice.

What keeps coming to mind recently is the verse: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong,” (I Cor. 1:27, NIV, also see verses 26-31). He gave up his Son to become lowly and weak (also see Phil. 2:6-11). God allowed Christ to be humbled – to enter the earth in the form of a child – in order to baffle the wise. What almighty God would take such a meek form?

May Christmas be the reminder to you of God’s gift and sacrifice. May you be amazed at his choice to humble himself and become a child for your sake.

I want to expound a little on a prayer concern and request, asking you to be in prayer for us, especially these next few weeks. On December X, we plan to fly out of Indy, through Santa Cruz, Bolivia and then Cochabamba, Bolivia. We are taking a different route for concern of L.’s health entering the La Paz airport at 13,000 feet. We plan to spend a week or so in Cochabamba, which is around 8,000 feet, to adjust some there. We have received varying medical information and advice and this is part of the reason for our delay in returning. Other missionaries we know of have delivered their babies in La Paz, which is a little different. We weren’t able to rely as much in this situation on others’ experiences. If all goes well in Cochabamba, we will then fly to La Paz, where our home and ministry are. There are plenty of children living in La Paz and El Alto, but as we discovered even with my pregnancy, things can sometimes be different when your ancestors haven’t lived there for centuries.

So, first of all, we are praising God for the extra time we’ve had to rest and recuperate and for Word Made Flesh’s understanding and cooperation with us. It has granted me some needed recovery time and L. some extra growing time since she was so tiny. Adam has been patient with the changes in schedule and continues to substitute teach. Because our paternity/maternity leaves are up, we are doing what we can to work remotely, sell purses, etc.

But I would ask, too, that you be in prayer for L.’s adjustment.

§ Pray that she gets the oxygen she needs for her healthy growth and transition.

§ Pray that the flights and connections go smoothly so we have the ability/energy to continue to care for her needs.

§ Pray for wisdom and discernment as we evaluate how we all are adjusting to the altitude and life in Bolivia. We believe we need to go back, but please pray for confirmation around us.

§ Pray that God would hem us in, behind and before, and lay His hand upon us (Psalm 139:5).

And as an aside, we have a little news for Suti Sana. The new website (www.sutisana.com) should, Lord willing, be up and running December 1st. So if you have a few moments, take a look and hopefully there will be some new products to check out.

With humility and love,

Becky, Adam, and L.

a few good reads (nov)

2011-11-05T05:00:00.000-04:00

Projecting Poverty Where It Doesn't Exist, by missionary Steve Saint

Why conservative Christians flock to a Chicago gay bar (BBC)

Bolivia Amazon protestors resume Tipnis road march (BBC)

Heart of Dark Chocolate: In Search of Bolivian Dark Chocolate (Outdoors Mag)

Curbing Cooking Smoke that Kills More People than Malaria (NPR) to make a difference, loan a few bucks at EnergyinCommon.org

In the Rush to Deport, Expelling U.S. Citizens (NPR)

November Prayer Letter - Giving Thanks

2011-11-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. It’s never too earlyto start being thankful.

Taking L. to get her two month immunizations reminded meto be thankful for medicine! I have a family member who suffered from polio asa child. Many of the Bolivian children we work with routinely face serioushealth threats (some 80% of kids in El Alto are anemic). So many kids aroundthe world don’t get live-saving, cheap medication and vaccines. I thank God forthe scientists, lab testers, fund-raisers, doctors, field workers, politiciansand health advocates who have helped us turn back the curse of sin in thisworld. And in this thankfulness is a reminder that we are to be God’s hands andfeet of restoration.

We also took L. to the 17^th annual CraneFestival in rural Michigan to watch Sandhill Cranes on their migration south. Iwas thankful to God for displaying His beauty in Creation for L. to see.Thousands of these majestic, five-foot tall birds soared into the swampy plainafter a day of foraging, joining their voices in an other-worldly call. Irecalled Psalm 50 from my prayers earlier that week:

For all the animalsof the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field aremine.

Even though we are away from our official work duties fornow, we’re thankful for the work that we have. Becky works tirelessly to feed,dress, and clean L.. I (Adam) have been trying to stay on top of makingmeals and running to the pharmacy. I’ve also helped out with set-up andtear-down at the local farmers’ market, as well picking up a few substituteteaching assignments at Becky’s mother’s K-8 school. Both overworking andunemployment are not in God’s plan. Caring for the earth and each other, incycles of exertion and reflection, is exactly what he intended for our soulsand bodies.

Underlying all this thankfulness for the people and rolesand things in my life is a reminder that we are to be God’s hands and feet ofrestoration in the world. Thankfulness is good in itself, but it is not anending point. It is tied together in an unending cycle with action (what somehave called a rhythm of action/contemplation). Seeing my access to goodhealthcare shouldn't make me feel guilty. It should motivate me to help the 8million U.S. kids without health insurance to find proper care. Likewise,soaking in the natural beauty of a Michigan autumn should inspire me to supportdevelopment in the Amazon and the Andes that improves people's well-being whilepreserving and protecting the beauty of God's artwork (Creation).

Prayer Requests

*Continue to pray for our travel plans. We are still seekingout medical advice and working on the details of transitioning back to life inBolivia.

From a thankful trio,

-Adam, Becky, and L.

what of spiritual disciplines?

2011-10-28T05:10:00.000-04:00

I found a lot of good nuggets in M. Robert Mulholland Jr., Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation (1993) concern spiritual disciplines and the work of God. I thought it would be good to simply copy them here.

*Disciplines as means of grace:

There are times, I grant you, when the nature of our response is such that God, you might think, would instantly touch us into wholeness. But I have discovered in my own life and in reading the saints of the church that those times are the exceptions. The rule is that God begins to work with us there and to grow us up into wholeness over a period of time as we continue to offer the disciplines as a means of grace. (p. 39)

"Somewhere between the extremes of avoidance of discipline and the imprisonment of discipline is the holistic practice of balanced spiritual disciplines which become a means of God's grace to shape us in the image of Christ for others. Paul seems to intimate this in his seemingly contradictory "Work out your own salvation ... for God is at work in you" (Phil 2:12-13)... Our tendency, however, is to destroy the tension of the paradox." (p. 103)

These classical spiritual disciplines of the body of Christ form the scaffolding, the structure, the support network within which we then exercise the distinctive, personalized disciplines into which the Spirit of God leads each of us as we journey toward wholeness in Christ. (p. 104)

*The importance of using historic prayer in community:

This is why we should, as individuals and communities of faith, make use of the prayers of the church that have come down to us from the past. This is why, as individuals and communities of faith, we should pray the psalter. This is the essence of the classical spiritual discipline of prayer: not our private, individualized prayers, but immersing ourselves in the deep, sacrificial prayers of the saints through which the church through the ages has offered itself to be the body of Christ in the world. Unless our individual prayer life exists within the greater support structure of the prayers of the saints, it will tend to become very narrow, individualized and privatized, and we will shy away from yielding control of our existence for God's purposes in our world. (p. 108)

*The inner postures that make discipline fruitful:

There is a tremendous tension here. Without our performance of the disciplines, God is, for all practical purposes, left without any means of grace through which to effect transformation in our lives. But without God's transforming grace, our disciplines are empty, hollow motions, the form of godliness without the power. What is the solution? / The solution is found in the inner dynamics of how we engage in the disciplines, the deep inner posture of being we bring to the disciplines. This inner posture is expressed in the classical Christian spiritual tradition by the terms silence, solitude and prayer... In silence we let go of our manipulative control. In solitude we face up to what we are in the depths of our being. Prayer then becomes the offering of who we are to God: the giving of that broken, unclean, grasping manipulative self to God for the work of God's grace in our lives. (p. 136, 140)

Prayers for Harvest

2011-10-24T05:00:00.000-04:00

Since I am currently in the U.S. it's harvest time for corn and soy farmers (including some cabbage and gourds in the field - "cold crops") I thought these prayers from the Book of Common Prayer appropriate. Both sets of my grandparents farmed, and there is still Iowa soil in my family. My dad is a manager for a seed company.

And of course, every last one of us eats. As Wendell Berry astutely said, all of us farm by proxy.

For agriculture

Almighty God, we thank you for making the earth fruitful, so

that it might produce what is needed for life: Bless those who

work in the fields; give us seasonable weather; and grant that

we may all share the fruits of the earth, rejoicing in your

goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Harvest

Most gracious God, by whose knowledge the depths are

broken up and the clouds drop down the dew: We yield thee

hearty thanks and praise for the return of seedtime and harvest,

for the increase of the ground and the gathering in of its fruits,

and for all the other blessings of thy merciful providence

bestowed upon this nation and people. And, we beseech thee,

give us a just sense of these great mercies, such as may appear

in our lives by a humble, holy, and obedient walking before

thee all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom,

with thee and the Holy Ghost be all glory and honor, world

without end. Amen.

For the Harvest of Lands and Waters (feel free to adapt language for modern use)

O gracious Father, who openest thine hand and fillest all

things living with plenteousness: Bless the lands and waters,

and multiply the harvests of the world; let thy Spirit go

forth, that it may renew the face of the earth; show thy

loving‑kindness, that our land may give her increase; and

save us from selfish use of what thou givest, that men and

women everywhere may give thee thanks; through Christ

our Lord. Amen.

in praise of limits

2011-10-18T05:00:00.000-04:00

An economy without limits is an economy without discipline.
Wendell Berry, in Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community (p. 37)

Who wouldn't invest in a company with unlimited growth? What non-profit would turn down a grant that would triple their yearly income? Who goes up to a lunch buffet, picks out a small plate of salad, then stops?

The United States has an expansionist history and this greatly impacts our view of the world to this day. There is so much land! So many indigenous tribes, hardwood forests, buffalo herds, passenger pigeons, gold to be mined... surely we will never run out! There was, and is, no limit to our ambition. To this day, we tolerate an enormous wealth disparity, on par with many poor African nations. Some have said this is because we each dream that someday we will strike it rich and can live the big life ourselves.

Surely, some limits are more bad than good: when a single Bolivian mother's income is so limited that she considers prostitution to feed her kids; when an African farmer has no access to credit to buy fertilizer for the coming season; when the new treatment for our sick child is not sufficient to battle the disease.

And at some level, I really appreciate the drive to ignore the limits and plow ahead. We landed on the moon. Disadvantaged kids earn PhD's. People who are written off as too bitter, hardened, and violent are softened and rehabilitated.

But I'd like to simply voice a minority report on the benefits of limits.

My assumption is that limits are an inescapable reality of the world we inhabit. First, it's true on a scientific level. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, about 300 million meters per second (well, probably). Humans can only run, jump, and throw so far (broken records inevitably become less frequent and by smaller margins). We can only swallow so many empty calories before our bodies become sick and disease-ridden. Once we reduce natural habitat to a certain critical point, the land can no longer sustain a given population or community of animals.

As I was watching The Social Network, a fictionalized account of the creation of Facebook, I couldn't stop daydreaming about all those untold billions of dollars going to a guy my age. Just imagine! But the amazing fact is that lottery winners and quadriplegics are just as likely to be happy one year after their life-changing events (see this TED talk, starting at 2:18). Unlimited choice (which unlimited money allows) is not bliss. Psychologist Barry Schwartz argues in this highly recommended TED talk that the unlimited choice available to us today, with literally millions upon millions of goods and services available at the click of a button, does not, in itself, make us better off. In fact, this "paradox of choice" might be paralyzing us (Schwartz's supermarket has 175 kinds of salad dressing).

Just think how often we compared our lives to that of our more "well-off" neighbors in the U.S. Their success begins to diminish the happiness of our own! We view poverty and wealth as relative, but this makes us blind to the enormous amount of choice we have access to. If we lived the exact same lifestyle in, say, Bolivia, we would see yourself as very wealthy. We would not feel miserable about driving a beat-up old car and dining on corn flakes.

Psychologically, this quest for the unlimited wears us down. Some successful people have chosen to forgo cell phones or smartphones (such a Wired founder Kevin Kelly, and billionaire Warren Buffett) Buffett lives in the same three-bedroom house in Omaha that he bought 50 years ago. He found that having an enormous house would not make him better off. This is why an e-reader without 3G or Wireless capabilities is actually more valuable to me. I want to read, I don't want to access to the internet. I want to be limited to the one text at hand.

In the temptation of Christ, Satan offered Jesus power. Power is a way to circumvent limits. It allows you to do, make, and demand things from other people. Jesus rejected the way of power. He offered himself to very poor and vulnerable people, people of limited means (physically poor) and limited esteem and moral development (spiritually poor). He showed us that in our weakness (limits), we are strong by the power of God.

In our weakness, in our limits, we can discover how to be fully human, to live out our vocation as children of the one Creator God. The sooner that we stop pretending that our consumer society will allow us to bypass these inescapable limits, the sooner will can be done with falsehood and deceit.

repair my church, which is in ruins

2011-10-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

St. Francis of Assisi heard God call him to "Repair my church, which is in ruins." He took this literally, repairing a decripit church with his own two hands. He finally came to realize that his calling was a spiritual quest of living a life of radical obedience to God.

There was recently an opportunity to help clean the beautiful stained glass windows of Holy Trinity, which had not received a touch up in some twenty years. I jumped at the chance for some physical and meditative labor. I was reminded of the story of St. Francis as I carefully took out and washed each window. The stained glass told stories from the Scriptures that spoke of God's power, faithfulness, and love. For most of the history of the church, Christians were illiterate. They relied on music, liturgy, and art to convey the truths of God. It was an honor to play my very tiny role in physically maintaining this tradition, letting God's sunshine illuminate these stories for all of His children.

After cleaning, I took a walk on the backside of the church's 10 acre property. They have carved out a quiet and beautiful space for reflection and prayer. It includes a prayer labyrinth and "The Stations in the Pines" (Stations of the Cross). This little woodlot / yard / scrub area behind the church is a refreshing refuge from the stripmalls and highways surrounding it.

If nothing matters, there's nothing to save

2011-10-11T05:00:00.000-04:00

A reading from the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (true story of the author's family):

The worst it got was near the end [of World War II]. A lot of people died right at the end, and I didn't know if I could make it another day. A farmer, a Russian, God bless him, he saw my condition, and he went into his house and came out with a piece of meat for me.

He saved your life.

I didn't eat it.
You didn't eat it?

It was pork. I wouldn't eat pork.

Why?

What do you mean why?

What, because it wasn't kosher?

Of course.

But not even to save your life?

If nothing matters, there's nothing to save.

five fundamental laws of the cosmos

2011-10-09T12:23:00.001-04:00

In his sermon this morning, Father Jim shared his five fundamental laws of the cosmos, expanding on the normal four.

Electromagnetism
Gravitation
Strong nuclear force
Weak nuclear force

And love.

baby blessing at Holy Trinity

2011-10-06T05:00:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday, L. went to church for the first time. The very welcoming and hospitable community at Holy Trinity have been asking about her for weeks, as I have been going on Sundays alone. It was a little weird to see complete strangers (to L. and Becky) with such interest in the baby; but on the other hand, it's a beautiful expression of Kingdom brother- and sisterhood.

The Very Reverend Jim Croom prayed a special blessing over all of us, in front of the congregation.

"A Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child" (p. 439 in the Book of Common Prayer)

For the parents:
Almighty God, giver of life and love, bless Adam and Becky. Grant them wisdom and devotion in the ordering of their common life, that each may be to the other a strength in need, a counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion in joy. And so knit their wills together in your will and their spirits in your Spirit, that they may live together in love and peace all the days of the life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For a child not yet baptized:
O eternal God, you have promised to be a father to a thousand generations of those who love and fear you: Bless this child and preserve her life; receive her and enable her to receive you, that through the Sacrament of Baptism she may become the child of God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Celebrant may then bless the family:
May God the Father, who by Baptism adopts us as his children, grant you grace. Amen.

May God the Son, who sanctified a home at Nazareth, fill you with love. Amen.

May God the Holy Spirit, who has made the Church one family, keep you in peace. Amen.

more of our princesa (fixed)

2011-10-01T11:33:00.003-04:00

(Update 8:30pm: Fixed the slideshow, and added a video below...)

Here are some post-hospital highlights from the first seven weeks as a family...

"thank you"

2011-10-01T10:56:00.003-04:00

October Prayer Letter

2011-10-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

A friend recently told us, “What you have experienced is the Copernican revolution of parenthood. You now have a new center. Enjoy!” Revolution, it has been indeed.

She recently completed her first month of life (which was lessthan two weeks after her due date). She has put on about 2 pounds since her birth. She is still smaller than some full-term newborns, but we’ve noticed adistinctive baby chub that is forming on cheeks, arms, and legs. It seems sheis playing catch-up for her early entrance.

We are all enjoying maternity leave, but mom has not stoppedworking. She merely changed positions to a 24/7 baby-feeding attendant! Both babyand mother are really getting the hang of feeding; it’s slowly becoming lesstrying and more automatic. Dad has taken the role of cook, “gopher” (go for thewater, go for the diapers), and, with a long torso and large hands, he’s a professionalbaby-burper. L. and Adam also share at least one daily nature walkconsisting of a tour of the same 100 meters of neighborhood sidewalk. Thecrickets, planes, clouds, sunshine, and wind keep all of her senses engaged,and dad is more than willing to proudly boast about his bundle of sunshine toany passers-by.

We’ve had great medical care, healthy food, and theemotional support of family and friends. Seeing our blessings puts in starkcontrast the reality of many children and families in the world. You all haveheard the statistics and many of you have personally experienced someheart-breaking situations, whether overseas or right here in the U.S. As wepray, we count our blessings as we also cry out to God to help the sick, thepoor, and the lonely. We do not feel guilty for the simple abundance the Lordhas provided. But neither do we let wealth and comfort lull us into isolation andapathy. I ask that you to could celebrate with us, as well as seek out tangibleways to care for the orphan, the widow, and the lonely.

Lastly, with our latest bundle of joy have come a few newexpenses for our family. Medical deductibles, visas and passports, plane flights,not to mention diapers. If you are able, any additional monthly support wouldhelp our support account supply these new needs. (One-time or monthly contributions can be made online at this link).

Prayer Requests

*Pray for the growth and development of our daughter.

*Pray for the newest member of Suti Sana - Delsy.

*Pray for our travel plans. Heading back into the altitudeis somewhat risky for anyone, not to mention newborns. We are still trying tonail down when and how we will be re-entering La Paz.

From the whole team,

-Adam, Becky, and L.

a few good reads (september)

2011-09-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

Red Letter Christians TV - Tony Campolo interviews WMF head Chris Heuertz.

Keith Drury's columns are back. And he kept the first one simple: The Five Pillars of Christianity. If we had five pillars like Muslims do, what would they be?

Can religion tell us more than science? (BBC) Very interesting editorial. Worth a read for anyone.

Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot) plays "Instead of a Show" based on Scripture in Isaiah. I thought it's words were especially poignant, and the music isn't too bad either. (The video was composed by a 3rd party, alternating from cheesy to potent).

explaining Gen. 1-11; Byron Center Reformed responds

2011-09-27T05:00:00.001-04:00

Well, I did in fact get a reply from my letter to Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church. It was simply a booklet from which the flyer was condensed ("Genesis 1-11: Myth or History?"), which I had already found online. No letter, signature, or even a return address, just the booklet. It went straight to the recycle.

Paul himself in the New Testament constantly engaged the culture around him. He went to the centers of learning and presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He responded to challenges and explained the details. Yes, he put his foot down where it mattered, but he also apparently tried to find compromises to handle the smaller issues.

No wonder unbelievers are frustrated with the Church! What are the words we use to describe our friends and family whom are thinking of coming to the faith? "He's asking questions." "She's wondering whether the Book of Mormon was really inspired." "He doesn't believe, but he keeps coming to Bible study." We want them to be open-minded, inquisitive, curious, and truth-seeking.

But once they join our particular denomination, we turn them into twice the sons of hell that we are (Not that I could judge with any truth anyone at BCPRC in particular, nor they me; speaking generals here). The facts are settled. To ever change our mind on anything is to invite heresy. We are right. Everyone else is wrong. Instead of holding one's own beliefs up to careful scrutiny, conversation is over. Don't listen. Just keep talking louder. This mailing gave me such an impression.

If I may hazard a metaphor, I liken the moment of conversation to the Way of Jesus as landing on a beautiful shoreline in a new land from a long ocean journey (if I can interject some Manifest Destiny, let's say it's North America). It is foreign, but yet you know it is the only home you'll ever need. You spend several days at the beach, soaking in the ocean's roar, the smell of salt, the pure sand. Yet you see many people who have built up permanent residence just above high tide. They rarely venture outside their homes but for the basic necessities. They know this beautiful shore where land meets sea, but they are unaware of anything beyond. They have forgotten that they are travelers in a journey. They have not smelled the sweet, wet earth of the hardwood forest, the solitude the mountain valley, the winding path of the river. They never hear the complete silence of the desert, the cry of the mighty wolf, the crunch of snow underfoot. They leave a whole continent of treasure and goodness for a lifetime at an unchanging beach.

I am not ashamed (re-post from my friend Jake)

2011-09-23T16:00:00.000-04:00

I thought this reflection by my old college roomie Jake was so very well-put. He works as a missionary nurse in West Africa, and is currently at language school in France.

I might be embarrassed by the times we’ve acted in hate, bias, and ignorance, instead of in love, compassion, and mercy—but I’m not ashamed of the Gospel.

I might grit my teeth when I think of all the times we’ve made war before even trying to make peace, and I can’t help but shake my head when I think of all we’ve invested in making empires and kingdoms (personal and political) instead of taking care of orphans and widows—but I’m not ashamed of the Gospel.

I might desire to slip quietly out the back when I see some of us being anti-intellectual, domineering, or hypocritical instead of loving God with our whole being—mind, strength, and soul; and I’ll admitting to taking a couple steps back when I see some of us selling our most prized possession like it was a used car, instead of a gift to be given in profound love—but I’m not ashamed of the Gospel... (read more)

a 9/11 refleciton by a Pakistani Muslim acquaintance

2011-09-22T09:10:00.000-04:00

With his permission, I want to post this e-mail an acquaintance sent out to all his contacts on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. His family lived close to us for a short time. I think I met him be bringing around some zucchini to all the neighbors. He and his wife welcomed me into their home with a warm cup of tea and later withstood some probing questions of their religion and culture for my university class requirements (Muslim neighbors aren't exactly plentiful in Indiana!). They had emigrated from Pakistan some time before. They were the kind of couple that I could see my family, if we had lived in the same neighborhood somewhere, becoming friends with, our children playing together. Growing up, my first best friend lived two doors down in the same neighborhood, the son of the Indian doctor who delivered my brother at the hospital. I don't know that we ever noticed or mentioned our skin color or religion. We just liked basketball and Nintendo a lot.

Anyway, I re-post here because it's a message of hope and also, it seems, a lament and a warning.

Dear Friends,

The 9/11 anniversary has always been a time of personal reflection for me. Of course the 10th anniversary of 9/11 gives us a bit more of a perceptive to reflect upon the aftermath of a tragedy of such proportion & magnitude.

To most of my American friends, I may be the only Muslim that they have been personally acquainted with. Thus I feel a responsibility to share some of my thoughts on this somber anniversary that reminds us all of the world-altering tragedy that unfolded 10 years ago to date in the USA.

I must say that I never felt more American than I did in the days and weeks following 9/11/2001. My colleagues & friends never once made me feel like I was a pariah. On the contrary, they made me feel more accepted and made me feel as if I belonged to this country more than ever before. I had the honor to say the pledge of allegiance for the first time in my life outside our office building with all my colleagues and friends. I will never forget the affect of that vow of friendship that I felt that day.

The love and concern shown to my ex by her patients and the support offered to me by my colleagues and friends still fills my heart with gratitude. Our friends and well-wishers were worried about our safety given our last names and our physical appearance. But I am equally proud of the fact that we did not feel any hostility towards us from anyone that I can recall. We were all Americans in the days following 9/11. To me, that experience speaks volumes about what this country means and should mean to the rest of the world.

Ten years on, I am saddened to see that we as a country have lost sight of that very American ideal and identity that was so pronounced right after 9/11. In the past few years I have seen more polarization in this country than ever before. I have seen fear-mongering taken to such heights as never before. I have seen Islamophobia been propagandized to such a shameful extent just to score some political points. Be it the very un-American opposition & weariness towards the building of a Mosque in Murfreesboro, TN OR the irrationality and fear surrounding the passing of an anti-Sharia bill in the state of Oklahoma (which hardly has any Muslim population whatsoever) OR questioning the elect-ability and Americanism of a Presidential candidate by spreading rumors about him and calling him a "Secret Muslim".

The America that I respect and call home, would not only counter such hysteria by rejecting such rumors and fear-mongering, But instead, in my opinion, the truly American response to such non-sense is "So What IF Obama Is A Muslim?" or a Christian or an Atheist for that matter. What makes this country great and what guarantees my rights is the Constitution of this country and the fore-sight of its founders NOT the religious affiliation of its President.

I will try to sum up my thoughts by quoting a poem by Aeschylus that Robert F. Kennedy narrated as part of his speech in Indianapolis soon after learning the news of Martin Luther King's assassination:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

May the Almighty bless us all and guide us towards His beacon of love, tolerance and compassion for our fellow human beings all around the world, Amen.

Mass at St. Mary Magdalen Parish

2011-09-19T10:09:00.002-04:00

During these strange and wonderful and frightening few months as a family, we are in West Michigan, away from our home church in La Paz. I've been attending the Holy Trinity Episcopal church nearby. I was struck by the welcoming kindness of the congregation, the reverence and beauty of the Eucharistic liturgy, the Spirit-filled music, laying on of hands for personal prayer needs, and relevant homilies. Being a new dad, I've no time to "get involved," but simply sharing in worship has been refreshing.

I also wanted to sit in on some worship experiences in other churches. Today, I combined my 10 mi long run with a visit to the 9 AM mass at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Kentwood, MI. Having only attending two Catholic masses in my life, it struck me how similar it was to Anglican liturgy. After all, they are first cousins of sorts, not distant relatives. The sanctuary was beautiful; light poured in the stained-glass right on my pew (does God put the spotlight on those in extra need of mercy? ;). It's a mostly Caucasian congregation, though I noticed many singles and families of Asian background. I guessed Filipino, but at coffee hour I was told there was a large contingent of Vietnamese immigrants. An important reminder to me of realities forgotten: Christians in Vietnam worship in secret under a hostile government.

Based on his accent, I guessed the priest was from Africa. I found this Nigerian man had been serving for three years at this parish. As he preached from the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, it struck me of the potential for spiritual growth through intercultural community and mutual submission. I don't know if this man came from a rural background, but it was much more likely to be true than of the post-industrial congregants. The daily circumstances of most people in the majority world (especially rural) are much more representative of life at the time of Jesus. I suspect there are many cultural subtleties we lose being so far removed from Jesus' time and place.

During the Mass, I moved to the other side of the congregation to find the Priest and ask for a blessing (indicated by folding my arms across my chest in an "X"; at least that's how we did it at Gethsemene Episcopal, so I hazarded a guess!). Catholics have closed communion; I wanted to respect their tradition and not discomfort any acquaintances I might run into (I did meet one person) so I went for the next best thing. From what I understand, the main difference in the way Catholics and others view the Eucharist is transubstantiation, believing that the bread and wine of the communion table literally becomes the body and blood of Christ. Some Anglicans believe in that doctrine, but I'm not there yet. It's always seemed "weird" to me, although that really is a silly reason for me to be so dismissive. Take a read through the Apostle's Creed. None of it makes sense! It's faith, after all.

Seeing people from every nation, tribe and tongue worshiping together is another thing I appreciate about the more denomination-faithful immigrants (Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican). There's no "church shopping" for individual tastes. God has a church, and you belong to it. Yes, community is hard, but there is no Christian alternative to the Church.

Observing all this as an outsider, I know that there are negative aspects to these heirarchical and ritualized faith traditions. But I generally hear about these without any of the positives, so I wanted to highlight some things I am thankful for.

images matter in the process of dehumanization

2011-09-09T02:00:00.000-04:00

This HSS (Hospitality Staffing Solutions) advertisement ran in a hotel trade magazine:

In the image above, we are being led to believe that humans are mere widgets in an industrial machine. HSS is making a statement about their employees; that their personalities, their gifts, their requirements, their families, their legal status, their struggles, and their humor simply do not matter. Each is pre-packaged to factory specifications like a candy bar. Any anomalies should be sent back to the company for a refund.

As the author of "Less Than Human" points out in a recent interview, dehumanization can be subtle and gradual, but that is no excuse to ignore it. We should not fool ourselves. And only a few names and descriptors can bring back the worst of human history: Jim Crow, Rwanda, Holocaust, and any number of racial and religious slurs that reduce humans to anything less than what they truly are. Even aside from these extreme examples, many of us live and work and worship in cultural and religious ghettos, homogenized so that we do not have to confront the "other" who is less human than us. It is reflected in our language. It is influenced by the jokes we hear, the newscasters we listen to.

As Christians, this second, more subtle dehumanization is especially important. We are not just to avoid the most obvious of evils and be good little citizens who pay our taxes and keep our nose out of our neighbors' business. We are to allow our hearts to be completely transformed, to desire what God desires. We are to humanize our neighbors, as we humanize ourselves. We affirm with God that His Kingdom is comprised of humans from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Rev. 7:9). We follow Jesus' example of humanizing the handicapped, the prostitute, the soldier, and women. We make no qualifiers as to whether they are agricultural or post-industrial, literate or crack-addicted, greedy or philanthropists, virgins or sexually impure. We are all God's children in need of His salvation.

We are all human, and to become more human in the best sense of the word is to become more like God.

. . .

Source: As Hotels Outsources Jobs, Workers Lose Hold on Living Wage. There will be disagreement about the political and economic perspectives detailed in this analysis, but one thing is non-negotiable and unacceptable for followers of Jesus: to treat our brothers and sisters as anything less than human.

responding to "Genesis 1-11: Myth or History"

2011-09-05T02:00:00.000-04:00

I debated for a moment whether to post this or not. Most things that we fight about simply are not worth it. Others are. Although this doesn't exactly touch on my work in Bolivia, I think it is ultimately important to faith. And for that reason I will err on the side of sharing. And continuing to hit my head against the wall :) Hopefully it doesn't sound like most letters-to-the-editor.

I received the following bulk mailing to my in-laws' house (scans are below; click to enlarge, or read the long version online)

I'm going to mail out this response (yes, actual mail, because e-mails are looked over so much more easily):

3 September, 2001

Please pass this along to those distributing thenewsletter for BCPRC, or the appropriate leadership. I wrote it initiallythinking Prof. David J. Engelsma belonged to your church, but it seems like heis a leading thinker in your denomination and his booklet was excerpted in yournewsletter. But as a reprint appears as an endorsement of his beliefs, I’llleave it in the first-person. Thanks!

I’d like to write you in regards to your bulk mailing thatarrived to my door Sep. 3, “Genesis 1-11: Myth or History.” As a brother in theChristian faith, I think what you discuss (how we understand the Scriptures andGod’s observed creation) is important, but the way you frame the discussiongave me reason to be concerned. First of all, I hope that I’m kind and generousin this letter, free from any harsh words. I really do not wish to “convert”you to the scientific consensus that evolution has lead this very old earthdown the road to the diversity that we now know, humans included. I will onlynote Christians throughout time have held differing perspectives on this issue,and even Augustine’s theology leaves room for a more flexible interpretation ofGenesis. The beautiful, unifying Apostle’s Creed is where we all draw a line inthe sand together, that we “believe in God, the Father almighty, maker ofheaven and earth.” Exactly how He didit is a fascinating and only partially-knowable mystery, but ultimately notworth defending to the death.

You write that, “Onthe day I am convince that Genesis 1-11 is mere myth (which, by the preservinggrace of God, will never happen), I will renounce Christianity andChristianity’s God.” Simply put, I’m afraid this attitude will cost theKingdom souls, not gain them. When God-fearing folks (like me, like you) cometo accept evolution, perhaps someday like everyone today accepts that the earthcircles the sun, we are presented with a false choice between our faith and ourreason. The Church at one time thought the geocentricity was non-negotiable tothe faith. It warranted excommunication. We now have the hindsight to see howthey overreacted to the “threat” of the Sun being in the center of the solarsystem.

Myself and many other Christians that I admire and knowtoday stand as (imperfect) examples of how Christians can integrate scienceinto a Christian worldview, even accepting a non-literal interpretation ofGenesis 1-11. We affirm the historic Christian Creeds. We worship the TriuneGod in community with other Christians. We serve and love our neighbors asJesus commanded us. We proclaim that Christ died, Christ arose, and Christ willcome again. As someone who transitioned from a rigid, literal interpretation toa more flexible and mysterious and poetic reading, I understand exactly howthreatening this feels. It really does feel like the authority of theScriptures is up for grabs. One begins to question other tales in the Bible ofNoah’s ark or Jonah and the whale. But just because something is a “myth” doesnot mean it is not divinely inspired in some way, does not have any truth ormessage, or is only one of numerous fairy tales. I take this Scripture veryseriously, and therefore I cannot take it literally. I’m not saying this mentaland spiritual transition is pain-free, only that I believe God provides grace for thejourney.

I only wish to challenge you a bit on your literalinterpretation and rejection of modern science. Do you, for example, believethat there is a layer of primordial waters at the top of creation, above themoon and sun? (Gen. 1) How did God create a literal, 12-hr-or-so cycle of“night” and “day” on the first 24-hr day if the sun and moon were created onday four? (Gen. 1) Are you technically a polytheist like the people of the OldTestament, who expressed in Scripture that our God Yahweh is simply the best ofmany gods? (Exodus 18:11 and Judges10:6) Or did God simply have the grace to meet them in the space and time (andworldview) they inhabited? To put the literal interpretation question in moreNew Testament terms (which seems much more relevant than how God created theearth), do you believe Jesus literally meant that we are to love our enemiesand do good those who hate us? (Matt. 5:43-48) A strict, literal reading of theNT leaves room for little other than a strict pacifism. If you are a pacifist,that’s great, but in my experience there are few Christians who take a literalreading of the Scripture this far (and if we should take anything literal at all, it should be the commands of our Lord,should it not?)

As to the validity of God’s general revelation in the formof modern science, do you use antibiotics for your kids when they are sick? Doyou use cell phones and computers in your daily life? Do you listen to weatherreports? If you do any of these things, be assured that you trust to a verylarge degree in the revelation of God’s truth through our five senses. I myselfeven trust a complete stranger (nurse) to inject a strange liquid from a vial inthe fridge into my three-week-old daughter’s arm! I would suggest that if you haveever received a vaccination against the flu, you are consenting indirectly tothe truth of evolution. After all, if there can be no truly new flu viruses,why would we need to keep updating our vaccines?

Is humankind’s wisdom flawed? Of course. Do we makemistakes, or use this knowledge to do great evil? Absolutely. Could we be wrongabout evolution? Yes. But history shows us the danger of hasty excommunication basedon rejecting new revelations that God allows us to discover over time.

Again, I really only wish to express my pain at you sopublically excluding people (Christians and non-Christians alike) of ByronCenter who are not willing to check their brains at the church door. There are thousandsof people here who are searching for God, and the Church should be a place forthem to explore His truth, not rely on simple interpretations that have none ofthe tension and contradictions that we see all the time in our daily lives. Andon a personal level, I completely understand the threat that you feel sciencehas to your faith. Though it wasn’t clear in the letter, if you hold aleadership position in your church, I must imagine that the tension is evenhigher yet.

If you are interested in discussing any of this, I’d bewilling to grab a cup of coffee with you, or even just write letters. I wouldlove to show you that there are many theistic evolutionists who are orthodoxChristian believers, good-hearted, and trying their best to follow the way ofJesus. I also have a few resources that really aided me in this transitionaltime. I live and work in Bolivia, S. America as a missionary, but I’mtemporarily in Byron Center on parental leave for another month.

The peace of the Lord be with you.

becoming Anglican

2011-09-01T05:00:00.026-04:00

I did mention this in our August Prayer Letter, so I'll try not to be redundant; that is, to repeat myself. Mostly wanted to put up this picture.

Just before we left for the U.S., we decided to officially join our church, Iglesia Anglicana Cristo Salvador. And since our diocese is only comprised of seven churches that span the entire country, we get to see Bishop Frank pretty often, and he was there to preside. Anglicans are pretty sparse in Latin America, but it's a worldwide communion of almost 77 million folks ("Episcopalians" in the U.S.), nearly half of whom are African. They are one of the earlier/older Protestant branches, out of which came my native Methodism.

We read from the confirmation liturgy: Aunque muchos somos, un solo cuerpo formamos, porque todos un solo pan compartimos. "Though we are many, we form one body, because we all eat from the same bread."

It's a deal.

In defense of ritual (and liturgy)

2011-08-27T05:00:00.001-04:00

I can see two main reasons why I had questioned the value of rituals in the past:

1) Culture. Western society (the language of globalization) is driven by disruptive technological innovation and individual consumer preference. My grandfather farmed, my father is a manager, and I work in an office. We have all eaten, learned, and worshiped differently than our fore-bearers. Our economy, for example, goes through severe disruptions and changes every few decades, not every few hundreds of years as in most cultures.

2) Religion. I hit young adulthood right as youth groups were becoming popular within mainline Protestant churches, and with a rise in the influence of Evangelicalism in general. We saw the traditional United Methodist service as dry and lifeless, without heart and spirit. Nobody was "coming to the Lord." We wanted God full-on, personally, experimentally and dramatically. We quoted Jesus in Matt. 23:23a,

What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. (NLT)

We wanted to regain the heart at the core of a faith centered on Jesus. We replaced shirts and ties with jeans and flip-flops. Changed out organ lines for guitar riffs. Prayed, "Daddy, please just..." instead of another "Our Father...".

My experience at an Evangelical university was like my youth group on steroids. Everybody wanted Jesus. Right now. For me. (And my future spouse, and career options). We were so keen to hear God speaking that we heard Him whether He was talking or not! We were done with dry and dull. We wanted it loud, personal, and improvised.

That spirituality ultimately wore me down. Some of my classmates even left the faith, partially out of sheer exhaustion.

Why?

I think most of the answer is anthropological. Some attribute this to cultural evolution, some to God, and others to both. But I think it boils down to this: we cannot exist without ritual.

We've tried probably harder than any other culture to disrupt, improvise, change, and re-imagine. Yes, part of it is our cultural heritage itself, and it can be exciting. But even in the midst of all that, it only serves to catalyze even more, newer rituals.


Everyone please raise their hands spontaneously (IndWes.edu).

Examine a typical Evangelical gathering. (And they become typical because they are, in fact, forming new rituals and liturgies). People dress up in jeans and t-shirts. They drive a large vehicle and park in an over-sized parking lot. They smile at the greeters. They sing several worship songs about personal relationships with Jesus. Yes, they rotate the music of course, but they generally center around romantically-themed pop songs. Several people raise their hands in adoration, just like they did the week before. Everyone bows their heads and closes their eyes to pray. (Why? To remove distractions and focus on Jesus, of course. The same reason the highly-liturgical Orthodox might use painted icons).

Secular meetings, as well as individual lifestyles, have obvious rituals as well. Think of the 7th-inning stretch at a baseball stadium. The swearing-in of a new President. The religious devotion (there exist no more accurate words) that the pagans and faithful alike show on Black Friday.

I felt compelled to write this because I have had strong personal reactions against ritual in the past. My wife and I recently joined the Anglican church, which is much more liturgical than Evangelical churches (although our services in Bolivia look like Evangelical ones to North American eyes). It is a very mild homecoming of sorts, having been raised in the United Methodist tradition. But I have many Evangelical friends and family members, in North and South America, who came out of mostly Catholic religious traditions that never taught them the beauty, excitement, mystery, and personal transformation of a life with Jesus in community. It became just another cultural necessity. For them, dialing back the traditions helped them come alive. I understand that, and I experienced it to a certain degree myself. But I suspect that for many of them, they have not considered (or at least not just seen or experienced) any negative aspects of such a severe pendulum swing in the opposite direction. I will mention a few below as counter-points to the enriching aspects of ritual and liturgy.

Why ritual? I write mainly in terms of religious community (churches).

*Ritual has history, and history is not without value. Since we cannot live without ritual, we should very cautious at replacing a carefully-worded, long-held theological tradition with something a small group of us (or only us) came up with inspirationally. God speaks to us, yes, but having more Christians agree to a certain spiritual conclusion generally increase its validity (or at least its orthodoxy). Hence the tendency for an ever-splinting Protestantism to produce cults. Spiritual safety in numbers. The democracy of the dead (saints who have gone before us). Prophets are necessary and Biblical, but sheer statistics show us that we're probably not them.

*Ritual points toward meaning, even if it doesn't contain it. To paraphrase Richard Foster, the answer to empty ritual is not no ritual, it is meaningful ritual. Yes, it can become meaningless, as my friends and I were so quick to point out. But we forgot to finish quoting Jesus in Matt. 23:23, which ends: "You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things." Jesus did not come to abolish the actual giving of the tithe, he came to remind us of the heart of the tithe is generosity and gratitude. When we abolish the ritual, perhaps we end up with church members that give a percentage point or two of their income, instead of what is probably a Biblical minimum 10%. If we no longer make the sign of the cross, we may forget the deep truths that they embody.

*Ritual makes sure we don't neglect the important things. Alone and improvised, we might forget that living as a human is a textured and rhythmic experience. We lose a baby and forget what joy was like. We grow fat and comfortable and forget about famine deaths. We get good medical care and forget that we will return to ash. All week long we are told we are trash; at church we hear that the Creator God calls us friend. We may not necessarily need to be reminded each of these every week, but somebody does. So even when we don't want to be generous, or be reminded about theological truth, or simply don't have the faith to believe anything, ritual pulses in the background as a "stream of grace" that allows us to simply step in when we are ready. Here comes the grief train that Jesus himself is on: all aboard. Here is what it means to be charitable and compassionate: hop in.

*Ritual is bigger than ourselves. It's Christmas again. Drop your plans and break out the glass Coca-Cola bottles, the evergreen tree, the giving of gifts. This is what we do. We are healthier, wealthier, and have more convenience than any other culture in the history of the world. And we have more depression, anxiety, and depression than anyone else as well. Participating with others gives us an identity, a feeling of togetherness, a team effort. Ritual is an anchor against our individual tendency to drift.

*Ritual puts words to our longings. Evangelicals can teach a thing or two to Catholics about putting some soul into prayer. But sometimes, we just don't have the words. Or maybe we're too spiritually immature, or doubting, or crushed, or noisy to be able to pray. Not that you shouldn't pray at those times, but from my experience, it often becomes a wearying babble. "Lord, we just... we just... dear heavenly father, we need you right now to uh... be with us... and us, help us with this thing, and..." For example, there should be regular space for people to confess actual, specific sins to trusted brothers and sisters in the faith, but every week in the Episcopal liturgy, we "Confess that we have not loved you [God] with our whole heart.... We have sinned in thought, word, and deed." We know we need to repent, but we don't always have the words. Ritual has the words for us, and we walk in her shoes.

*Ritual builds "spiritual muscle memory." Our int'l executive director Chris has talked about this. We only see the 1% of athletic life that is broadcast during brief times of competition. The other 99% is working hard to train the mind, body, and soul to arise to the challenge at key times.

So I have just two questions:

-How have you found rituals to be frustrating, or life-giving?

-What role do they play in your life and church?

Ritual resources:
*Missio Dei Breviary
*Lots of resources linked up at David Bayne's blog (he works with Word Made Flesh in Argentina)
*Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

L. hospital pics (+ leg exercises)

2011-08-23T11:53:00.000-04:00

We spent longing than we would have liked in the hospital, but with the great support of the grandparents we did alright. Even if the check-ups and poking and prodding got wearisome, we were thankful to receive great medical care, knowing how many people around the world (including friends of ours) don't have such security.

At six days, L. was already back up and over her birth weight. Usually they say to give it two weeks, so we are happy to watch her development going well.

a few good reads (Aug. '11)

2011-08-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

The Poor Will NOT Always Be With Us. Brief 2 min YouTube clip, explaining how we take Jesus' words in John 12 way out of context. He was speaking to Judas, not us. Makes a lot of sense.

Lulismo v. Chavismo. "The tide of Latin American history has turned against Mr. Chavez." (He is the president of Venezuela. Lula, until recently, was the very successful president of Brazil.

In Bolivia, strollers compete with baby slings. Slings have the advantage in practicality, but strollers are possible. IF they are built like a monster truck!

American zoos help return condor to South America (NPR).

The mountain that eats men alive. "Cerro Rico is famed for the harsh conditions faced by its miners. But... it is not only men who are ‘rock-breakers’ in Bolivia’s Potosí region. Women too, some as old as 81, work in the shadow of the sacred mountain."

In money we trust

2011-08-21T08:54:00.000-04:00

The lucid words of the New Testament are still true: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Tim 6:10). Perhaps those words should replace "In God we trust" on the dollar, since they are a better expression of its purpose.

-Jon Sobrino, "Where is God?" p. 67

everything is possible again

2011-08-13T12:36:00.001-04:00

Ten minutes, just ten.

The lights were low and I started to doze off in the recliner, sleep deprivation dueling it out with my heightened emotions, and they were calling it a draw. Becky was in a similar state, though she saw my altered state and raised me a dose of narcotics.

And then: a lightning-quick cascade. The baby's pulse took a startling nose dive. Becky and I picked up on it instantly and our stomachs sank. In minutes I was left with nothing but an adrenaline shot and the fading figure of my wife on a strechbed surrounded by a half dozen gowned strangers, off to the OR. I stood, shaking, amidst hastily-thrown wrappers, swabs of iodine staining the floor here and there. I did what any child would have done. I grabbed my mother, and sobbed.

It was the most frightening experience of my life.

Grandparents and I hit our knees and cried out, "Lord have mercy." Nightmares from the last eight months came back to me, the ones that I never dared to share with Becky.

And then in just moments, good news. Glorious, unbelievable, despair-shattering news. Then, I was the one being whisked away.

In just ten minutes, I went from drowsy half-consciousness, to a quick dance with the darkest depths, to this.

Then, I beheld her.

L. Thada

(I removed weight, length, and birthweight for privacy)

. . .

A few days after we came home from the hospital, I sent a letter to a friend, including a photo of my son and some first impressions of fatherhood. He responded, simply, 'Everything is possible again.' -Jonathan Safran Foer, "Eating Animals"

a brief visit to St. Gregory's Abbey

2011-08-11T20:35:00.000-04:00

I got to spend two days with the monks at St. Gregory's Abbey near Three Rivers, MI, "a community of men living under the Rule of St. Benedict in the Episcopal church."

My first impression, or rather, anticipation of this monastery is its otherness. How can such a relic survive in 2011? In rural Michigan? When there are billboards, radio, raging stock markets, famine in Somalia? What is this place? Critics will always call these refuges out-of-touch, out-of-place, irrelevant. And I don't believe the monks would necessarily disagree. Their otherness and strangeness force us to ask questions about the values of society outside the Abbey grounds.

The monastic way appears to include a focus on economy. My growling stomach, something I haven't felt in the last three snack-filled weeks in the U.S., reminds me of the pleasure and blessing of food. I anticipate, then I partake and cherish. Likewise, a carefully kept silence helps us anticipate and cherish conversation. Endless chatter and noise, paradoxically, render us deaf.

Meals were eaten in silence, book-ended with simple prayers. The food was simple, and I cherished those brief moments. A monk read to us from a non-fiction book.

After mass, I twice had coffee with an older monk who had been there nearly 40 years. After I told him my work and the struggles I have encountered through it, he assured me that God's work is always with the poor and oppressed.

When he came, there were twenty-three monks. They are now seven men, with an eighth soon joining. In the course of their week, they either sing or speak or hear all 150 of the Psalms. I did some quick math: this man had been through the Psalms more than 2,000 times. He had prayed nearly a third of a million Psalms.

The central bell called the community to prayer seven times a day, in addition to Mass and shared meals. Matins at 4 am, Lauds at 6, Terce and Eucharist at 8:15, Sext at 11:30, followed by lunch, None at 2, Vespers and meditation at 5, dinner, then Compline at 7:45 pm. Afterwards, the Greater Silence is kept until Eucharist then next day. It sure seemed like a lot of "work" to me, a burden almost. However, each prayer session lasted only about half an hour. This is less shocking when I realized that the average U.S. American spends the same amount of time watching television every day. How far are our values and ideals from true Christ-like devotion!

Words were spoken slowly, deliberately. Psalms were usually chanted with simple, repeating melodies.

Worship is multidimensional and sensory. This stained-glass figure is not an icon (I think) in the official sense, but it redirects our minds into a worshipful stance before God, turning our distractions into moments of praise. Candles lit the church. Holy water waited by the door for aid in making the sign of the cross. The faint smell of incense permeated the sanctuary day and night.

And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints

ascended before God from the angel's hand. (Rev. 8:4)

The main building that housed the church, dining hall, and library had a strong focus on wood. It was a natural beauty that harmonized with its surroundings.

The community owns about 500 surrounding acres. It is mostly wooded, with some cultivated land rented to farmers. A small lake is a peaceful break in the woods.

The cemetery lies a short walk form the monks' cells. While some of them break their vows just like us married folks too often do, their vocation is until-death-do-us-part. These simple markers are a reminder. Momento mori.

This large granite cross in the cemetery was left unharmed by a severe tornado that passed through in June. These downed branches became for me a reminder of our mortality, that time will inevitably bring us all back to the earth. Let us praise God and serve our neighbor while we still have breath!

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. (Ps. 42:1)

“Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young?Or can you mark when the deer gives birth?

Can you number the months that they fulfill?

Or do you know the time when they bear young? (Job 39:1-2)

The monastic way shows us that God is still present in the world, guiding us down life's path of mystery, danger, and beauty. If only we would still our hearts to listen.

observations during my first week in U.S.

2011-08-09T05:00:00.000-04:00

*I'm amazed at how much my childhood climate/ecosystem is so thoroughly ingrained in me. The cicadas, songbirds, forests, gardens, and even - or especially - the suburban lawn. I saw a pileated woodpecker the other day, a couple baby raccoons, and very likely caught a glimpse of my first coyote.

*I remember how much I like biking through the Indiana countryside.

*What people call "family homes" here, some of my friends in Bolivia would call mansions. Especially when your attached three-car garage isn't enough and you build an additional, detached two-car garage!

*Although Americans are known for our obsessive climate control, A/C on those muggy summer days is really, really nice.

*I see signs of hope. A local farmers' market has sprung up in the last five years and seems to be doing well. At the 4-H fair, I was impressed with the variety of animals. We have not abandoned all agricultural wisdom and diversity and knowledge just yet. It's easy for city folks like me to look down on country bumpkins, but we'd be toast without their expertise. It is nothing less than the root of all human culture.

*We have not destroyed our community spirit and neighborliness yet. Our narcissism, distractedness, and gated/guarded communities and homes still tend to drive us towards our TV's. But underneath we are not a guarded, cold, private culture. I think we are the opposite. Some technologies have the opportunity to connect us to those roots in new ways, though pitfalls abound.

N.T. Wright on why our bodies (& creation) matter

2011-08-05T05:00:00.008-04:00

Q: What does your understanding of Jesus’ bodily resurrection mean fora how we treat people along those lines of justice and justification?

One of the great things that I began to realize when I was working on Jesus’ resurrection and on the New Testament’s vision and the early fathers’ vision of the whole creation renewed — think of Irenaeus and people like that, amazing picture of whole creation being transformed by the love and power of God as you find in Romans 8 for instance — is that you suddenly realize that when Paul is then being very specific, say in 1 Corinthians 6, about what we do with and behave with our bodies — that God is going to raise this body, so jolly well take care what you do with it — and you realize, this isn’t just a kind of flag-waving bit of rhetoric. It’s quite serious. He really means it. We’re not mucking around with trash here. And in the same way with creation, this creation that we live in, that we pollute or grow plants in or whatever, is the world that God is going to renew.

So for me, a rediscovery of the biblical vision of new creation validates in advance all the things that anticipate that work, and if anyone were to say, “But it hasn’t happened yet,” the answer is, “Well, it has actually — with the resurrection of Jesus.” This is why the bodily resurrection of Jesus is not just a nice theological option for people with a vaguely conservative bent or whatever. It’s the most explosive thing there could be. It is the launching of new creation ahead of time, creating a platform on which we can work for new creation in the present until the day when God finally does it. And I still find that vision very, very — it’s not only helpful, it reconciles the deep vision of different strands of Christians.

In England, I see this particularly — the Gospels Christians and Epistles Christians, if you like. The Gospels, that “Jesus did all this neat stuff about feeding the hungry and going with the poor. We’re going to do that.” Fine. OK. Then all that stuff about salvation sort of gets lost off. Then the Epistles Christians say, “No, what matters is to be saved, and here’s how, and don’t worry about all the social work. Leave that to the politicians.” And a lot of my work over the last many years has been to try to hold those two together and explain to them the larger biblical framework of thought within which both make sense but both need each other.

From FaithandLeadership.com

Aug '11 Prayer Letter

2011-08-01T05:00:00.008-04:00

Dear friends and friends,

It’s nearly crunch time. What we used to refer to as our “little lentil bean” has become more like a bowling ball! I’m pretty sure all his or her parts are formed and functioning, now it’s just time to grow, grow, grow. Our latest appointment confirmed that our little one is healthy and right on schedule, size- and weight-wise. Becky experiences Braxton Hicks contractions now and then, and although she’s often tired, she is still getting around fine. She’s been quite a fighter these last 7.5 months! We are on a plane tonight (July 13) for our trip to the U.S.

There have been several events and transitions of late that have given us encouragement, reasons to be thankful to the Creator:

*During language school last year, we became good friends with the night guard, J.M., a young Catholic man who is one of the best Bolivian fellas we know. Generous, friendly, and devoted to God. We were invited to his wedding last October – he had fallen in love with a U.S. student (Protestant) from the school. They had a last-minute disruption, however, when the Evangelical pastor bailed a couple days before when he found out there would be wine and dancing at this celebration. So of course another ex-student friend and I were asked to co-officiate the wedding. Not wanting to leave him hanging on the biggest day of his life, we did our best. I remember reading from chapter five of Ephesians and that was about it – husband and wife!

His wife soon became pregnant and returned to the U.S. for the birth, but his visa to the U.S. was anything but sure. He came to La Paz and we prayed for him as he went into the bunker-like U.S. Embassy for an interview. After a three hour wait and coming face-to-face with the woman who denied his previous visa attempt, he was granted permission to travel to the U.S.! I just saw on Facebook that his wife gave birth… we are praising God that he was able to be by his wife’s side for that special moment. And as hard as it is for some people to get into the U.S., and as much economic and cultural and racial struggle they often face, I’m thanking God that we have a homeland that welcomes aliens and strangers from all over the world. What a great opportunity we have as children of God to live the Gospel and minister to these people in transition!

*Becky and I recently were accepted as members into the Anglican church we have attended for the last year, Cristo Salvador (Christ the Savior). In front of our rector (pastor) and bishop, we confirmed the vows made for us at our baptisms, and we were anointed with oil. The Anglican church (known in the U.S. as Episcopal) is at an interesting crossroads. It is perhaps emblematic of what must of God’s Church is facing. With around 80 million members, it is the third largest communion behind Catholics and Orthodox. Historically very tied to English culture and politics, now nearly half of Anglicans are in Africa. This marks a massive transition of Christendom from North America and Western Europe to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. For more on these trends, I highly recommend The Next Christendom by Phillip Jenkins or, for more U.S.-based trends, The Next Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah. The Anglican communion continues to be wracked by divisions over gender and sexual identity issues, not unlike many other churches today. Please pray for wisdom, unity, and faithfulness to God and His Church.

The Anglican church in Bolivia is still relatively young and small, seven congregations in all. If you have been to an Episcopal service in the U.S., you will notice quite a difference. Our spirited praise music and sermon last for about 30-60 minutes each, and we don’t have copies of The Book of Common Prayer scattered about the sanctuary. It’s not quite as liturgical as I (Adam) would like; it has a very strong Latin flair in that it imitates the style of a lot of Evangelical churches in the U.S. But thankfully God’s church is not what we like. It’s not a social club for our entertainment; it is God’s tool for making us a holy people, inch-by-inch becoming more like Him. With membership we are trying to take steps of faith and submission to God’s body here on earth, to be transformed by the power of God in community, where He seems to work the most.

*Lastly, if this letter arrives in time, I would ask that you would pray for my (Adam) personal retreat from Aug. 8-11. I will be spending two full days with the monks at St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, MI. It is a community of men living under the rule of St. Benedict in the Episcopal Church. Please pray that I would be receptive to the silence and stillness of God and be willing to hear any new word spoken into my life. And that the baby would not come early while I’m there! At the very least, getting up for Matins and Lauds at 4 a.m. will get me ready for the sleepless nights ahead.

Grace and peace,

Adam (and Becky) Thada

a few good reads (July '11)

2011-07-18T17:05:00.000-04:00

How Industrial Agriculture "Destroyed" The Tasty Tomato. And it's not "just" a tasty, nutritious fruit/vegetable that we've lost. It's actual, modern-day slavery in Florida fields. Remind me of this when I'm tempted to buy an out-of-season tomato.

Bolivia: Coca-chewing protest outside U.S. Embassy. Last time I went inside, they wouldn't let me bring my small bag of coca. Just silly.

Coca Colla hopes to create a buzz in Bolivia (BBC). A new softdrink derived from the plant they make cocaine from.

Great wrap up at the Jesus Creed blog on the cover article in Christianity Today, "The Search for the Historical Adam."

Beware NIV 2011. One of those fundamentalist Christian sites that is so crazy you might think it is fake and just poking fun, although I suspect this is legit. One of those groups of people that make you pull out your hair and think Christianity is doomed because the watching world sees such a messed up people. One of those times I have to take a deep breathe and realize that God's church will keep on keepin' on, as it has for two millenia thus far.

World's Most Dangerous Test Drive. Mitsubishi in the cloud forest of Bolivia.

singing our theology

2011-07-17T05:00:00.002-04:00

There was this East Indian Jesuit named Tony de Mello who used to tell this story about disciples gathered around their master, asking him endless questions about God. And the master said that anything we say about God is just words, because God is unknowable. One disciple asked, "Then why do you speak of him at all?" and the master replied, "Why does the bird sing? She sings not because she has a statement but because she has a song."

-Anne Lamott
Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

letter to my unborn child

2011-07-11T07:11:00.034-04:00

When I held Sam alone for the first time ... the night that he was born, I was nursing him and feeling really spiritual, thinking, Please, please God, help him be someone who feels compassion, who feels God's presence loose in the world, who doesn't give up on peace and justice and mercy for everyone. And then one second later I was begging, Okay, skip all that s***, forget it - just please, please let him outlive me.

- Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

. . .

I've been meaning to write.

We're doing okay out here. Just take your time and enjoy that moist, muted, unicolored resting pouch. It's dry and bright and dangerous and noisy out here. You'd think I'd adjust after 26 years of post-womb experience, but adding memory to pain sometimes makes things difficult. You'll see.

But first things first: I feel like we already have a lot of catching up to do! I saw you in the first ultrasound, since you were a lentejita (little lentil bean). I saw, but did not really believe. Not until your mom's belly started growing abnormally did I really understand that you were alive and growing. The last ultrasound was a quick and a little blurry, so I still don't know whether you're a girl or a boy. Or, if God would really like to test me, something in between. I'm sorry - someone. You'll quickly find out that we've got a long ways to go in this world towards becoming human.

Speaking of God. Well, there's quite a bit of it around here actually, the speaking of part. (Lots of shouting and hating and killing too, but let's not talk about that yet.) We humans have big brains and occupy a unique niche on our planet, so we've got a lot of interesting ideas about life's big questions. We've found out quite a few things in the last couple hundred years, but it seems that each new discovery just opens up more questions. I suppose if we had everything figured out, you might not even bother showing your face. So there's plenty of work for you here, but don't imagine for a second that you'll ever have all the answers. Some people today think they do and man are they annoying!

Your mom and I answer the big questions through the Christian tradition; more specifically, the Methodist-Anglican flavor. In short, we believe there's one God, and He came down here to our thin blue-green sphere and lived like one of us, showing us the best way to live. He took the worst of human evil onto himself, then came back to life to show us that we don't have to live without hope. So here we sit, twirling at about a thousand miles an hour, waiting for Him to show up and put things to right once and for all. We've been waiting for almost two thousand years. That's what faith is, I guess.

And speaking of genders known and unknown, you'll notice we refer to God as "He" but it's mostly tradition and male stubbornness. We don't literally mean that God has certain identifiable components of the kind well be looking for as soon as you come on out. God certainly has a feminine side as well, a nurturing care that is carefully detailed in our holy texts. The whole gist about the Christianity we've embraced is trying to imitate God Herself, to live like God. So I hope your mama shows you God's mothering love, and perhaps in a small way I can mimic the good Father.

Religion helps us make sense of what seems to be a pretty tough deal that we got here. Famine, death, pain, snow, scorpions, and locusts and the like. And to make matters worse, we humans often act worse than the animals do! We cheat and steal and rape and scheme and murder and lie. We see a good option and choose the bad one. We see life and we choose death. So... yes, of course. We want you to choose life, mercy, peace, hope, and compassion. All the ideals that a few special humans model for us so well, and that the rest of us can only hope to come close to. We are trying to come close. We're not making any formal vows to you per se, but we're changing everything in our lives to welcome you in, so it's a kind of promise. And with all promises, we often fall short. So please have some patience with us. As my friend Monica says, "The beautiful thing is, we are all works in progress. None of us has arrived. God has more planned for each of us and is revealing it day by day. Even if our daily routine stays the same, the spiritual journey never ends for us." Your mom and I have reached the temporary steady-state of adulthood, but you're a great reminder for us: we're all in process.

So let's run with that thought... life as progress and process. I need to tell you that there are a few animals and plants and other beautiful and mind-blowing creatures that aren't around anymore. Sorry. My parents kinda did the same thing. Well... I'll just say it's an interesting time to be alive. We humans have been really good at reproducing (I'll tell you why later... maybe in another decade or so), and there's about seven billion of us now. You'll make seven billion and one. And instead of just eating some whole-grain bread and chillin' in our houses all day, we wanted to fly around the world, eat meat at every meal, have stuffed-crust pizza delivered to us in oil-propelled vehicles, eat tomatoes in January... Yes, we're pretty greedy creatures, but in our defenses we're just so darn inquisitive and inventive as well. Plus air-conditioning was really nice on those hot summer days. But we didn't know when to stop. We kept filling in the swamps and chopping up the mangroves and drag-netting the oceans. Then we came back home from the other side of the world and realized our planet wasn't infinite after all. I'll plead ignorance, although maybe that's just a cop-out. For this reason your tush might be graced by cotton diapers instead of hardwood forests and oil-derived absorbent polymers. I just don't want your 6,000 diapers to still be slowly decomposing in a La Paz landfill in 2513 A.D., long after you and me have been dissembled back into God's carbon building blocks. Ok, it's a very small thing, but you'll soon find out how limited each of us are. One seven-billionth of humanity each. Beautiful, each and every one.

But the good news is that the day keeps dawning new. Life keeps evolving, Creation heals, and you'll see things I never could have imagined. Well... what do you think you are after all? Sex is a good strategy, biologically speaking. As Shakespere wrote, "Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again."

Speaking more specifically to your context, you'll be a person with quite a bit of travel experience quite soon in life. You'll have hit three countries within two months of being born. Shoot - we even had a vice-presidential candidate who didn't even get her passport until she was 43 years old (warning: your mom kinda looks like her). I hope to have yours within 43 days. In the womb, you traveled up and down half a mile in elevation almost every day with your mother. You grew at altitudes that most of your compatriots will never even visit, not once. You're a tough little thing.

And your first landing on U.S. American soil will be so emblematic. Miami, Florida is geographically about halfway between your parents' two "homes." Culturally, it's halfway as well. It points to a more Latino destiny of the USA as well. I want to teach you Spanish so that you're not afraid of it like so many folks.

Speaking of fear, just.... don't. You may not be "rich," but I'm confident you'll probably have heating, air conditioning, antibiotics, education, and ample meat and diary. I hope and pray you'll have family and friends that love you more than all these material things that come and go with the wind. But lots of rather comfortable people these days are so scared. Just don't. Rest in the arms of a loving God. Don't be afraid of the bomb, the gays, the Republicans, the tsunamis, the singularity, the asteroid, the atheists, the global warming. They'll come and go, and we'll move on and be just fine. Sure, we'll still fight, but we won't get ulcers.

But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, throwing all this religion and politics and technology and ecology in your face before I've even seen exactly what kind of face I'm looking at. So tuck this note away for a rainy day after you've mastered the toilet and at least one human language. Just take it easy, sleep a lot, and don't give your mom too hard of a time. She loves you a lot. So do I.

I can't wait to meet you. There's a lot here to explore.

semiannual birding update

2011-07-07T08:56:00.002-04:00

My bird list continues to grow, owing to the fact that I'm still getting the opportunity to travel. I traveled to the Amazon for the first time ever and picked up 23 birds in 4 days. My last update was in January with 229 birds. I've now seen more birds in S. America than in the Northern continent. Makes sense, being that Bolivia alone has hundreds more than N.A. (north of Mexico).

256 bird species total, of which...
3 in Africa (2005)
9 in both N. and S. America
103 only in N. America
141 only in S. America (11 were in captivity, 6 from my trip to Peru, and one I found dead on a La Paz street - a flowerpiercer)

So I've got just over 10% of all birds in N. America, as well as 10% of Bolivia.

Now if I can get to the salt flats, I can finally add some flamingos...

The following four photos are credit Andy Baker...

Cocoi Heron and two Neotropical Cormorants

Jaribu Storks (nesting above our campsite)

Cocoi Heron

Great Egret + Turtles

July '11 Prayer Letter

2011-07-01T05:00:00.004-04:00

Dear friends and family,

Our Servant Team has left and two new volunteers have arrived on a Discovery Team. These last couple of months have seemed to go by so quickly, especially with all our transitions and changes. Since January, we have received and parted with the Servant Team, moved twice, Adam traveled to Peru, I survived the first trimester of pregnancy, we’ve both had E. coli, we’ve welcomed two interns, and we’ve prepared for our time in the States to receive this new little life.

This past season has certainly been one of growth and challenges for me. However, through the times that we’ve failed and fallen short, I have seen God’s grace working in our midst. Adam and I discovered that, although it was wonderful to have the opportunity to host a Servant Team, we operate and work very differently and are perhaps not one of those couples that make a great team. I’ve also seen God working some on my over-achieving tendencies with my pregnancy. Not only does life in Bolivia bring a new set of limitations, but being pregnant in Bolivia brings even more. I’ve gotten a lot of practice in saying “no” these days.

At times, I’ve felt like pregnancy (especially the nausea), our transitions, and time spent with the Servant Team tore us away from the ministry here, or at least scattered our focus a bit. I only made it to the brothels twice since January and when sharing lunches with the ladies on Wednesdays and Fridays, I felt a little detached and scattered. But again, I believe God’s grace was working in ways I may not ever realize. It’s a good reminder for me that God doesn’t need me and my efforts, but at times graciously chooses to include me in His kingdom work. And for this, I am grateful.

Prayer for our Community and Suti Sana
I want to specifically petition our prayer warriors in regards to some current transitions and challenges within our community here in El Alto. Our field directors have transitioned back into ministry after their sabbatical year. With their re-entry, it is a great time to evaluate programs and facets of our ministry, as well as implement changes and new visions. But this is a process that takes time, prayer, and wisdom, so please pray with us that it will be a fruitful and God-honoring process. Also pray that as our directors resume responsibilities, God would continue to guide them in wisdom and discernment as they lead.

This second year of Suti Sana (the small-business enterprise with therapy for women leaving prostitution) has been especially challenging. We are looking for ways to transition new-comers into the program so that they are well prepared for dignified work within our community. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to be working in their hearts to prepare them for such a transition (out of the brothels and into the Suti Sana program).

Tentative State-side Schedule

(e-mail for details)

Grace and Peace

- Becky (and Adam) Thada

trees, stability, community

2011-06-28T05:00:00.000-04:00

I wrote this reflection nearly a year ago during our every-three-years global Word Made Flesh meeting, The Gathering. The setting was beautiful Lied Lodge, run by the Arbor Day Foundation, I believe. A small woodland was just steps from the lodge, and I tried to walk through there once a day. It inspired these thoughts:

...

My wife and I are part of a movement/organization/community called Word Made Flesh. We're in the midst of our North American staff gathering that happens every three years. The theme of our time together is stability, reflecting on a recent work by our friend Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove, "The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture." I would like to reflect on a tree as an analogy for our particular Christian community. Like any analogy, it can be stretched to far, so I apologize in advance if I do so. But Creation is what we inhabit. We are Creation, at least a part of it. It makes sense to me to draw our deepest and most meaningful insights from the world we inhabit.

Any individual tree exists in a community of trees, a forest. The tree that became Word Made Flesh started as a fragile seed, a gift from another particular tree, pollinated by yet another. It's unique combination of genes ensure it was slightly different than it's parents. In the beginning, it was small and fragile, but it grew quickly. It shifted, surged, and sent out new branches in response to shifting sun, to small changes in the nutrients of the soil, to a pruning chipmunk. Soon enough, it began to grow up. Stronger, thicker, sturdier.

The interior of a tree, the bulk of it really, is actually dead. It's the xylem, rings of cells laid down annually that draw water upwards. This is where water displays capillary action - something of a miracle that man usually can only manage by aid of fossil fuels. It lifts ton after ton of water through it's trunk up and out the leaves. As any kid knows, the rings reveal the age of the tree. Individuals within our community stretch across these rings. Some folks reach across nearly all the rings. Others have yet to lay even one down. Yet the rest of the tree lives around this xylem. It is physically dead but it is still functioning, making life possible for the larger organism.

The living layer in the trunk lies outside of the xylem, laying down new cells on either side of itself, the outer layer becoming the bark. This is perhaps where the current community resides - living inside a protective bark layer, but right in the mix of the flowing sugars, nutrients, and water.

Sometimes, as they say, we can't see the forest for the trees. Our particular tree is unique, life-giving, and beautiful, but it loses it's meaning outside of the forest community. Other communities lived and died before us, building the topsoil and forest community upon which we depend. Other life dwells between the trees, above them, below them. A huge portion of the plant diversity doesn't even grow from the soil, but lives directly on the surface of trees (called epiphytes). Trees live in a community of other trees, exchanging, giving, and taking. Each tree, as part of it's purpose, gives birth to new seeds, new ideas. Some die, but some grow into new trees.

Although trees are great symbols of stability, strength, and perseverance, every tree must eventually die. Some species literally live for millennia. Others go down early. None live forever. But even in death, when the "life" of a tree is abandoned, it's structure serves the forest community. Raptors perch on it's leafless branches. Woodpeckers carve out a home. Termites dismantle. In time, a final crash. The mosses and fungi take hold, and nutrients are cycled back into the soil. The canopy closes in a scramble for light. There appears to be no record of the tree's existence. Yet in the soil, the air, in the very genes of the living plants, the tree lives on.

The forest lives on.

My First Baby Shower

2011-06-27T17:34:00.005-04:00

Last Sunday (the 19th) our pastor's wife approached me before church and asked when we were leaving for the States. I said the 13th of July and she said, "Oh, we don't have much time! Can we throw a shower for you the end of the month?" I said we'd be around and it was later announced in church that they would be throwing a shower for me that Saturday the 25th. I guess when she asked me I didn't realize how soon the end of the the month was! Anyway, so this past Saturday, I had my first baby shower.

I've only been to one baby shower in Bolivia so I started getting nervous toward the end of last week. I felt like I lacked knowledge of proper Bolivian Baby Shower etiquette. -- Side note: there is no translation for baby shower, they just say in accented English "baby shower."-- Saturday morning I asked Andrea (whose lived here 10 years) about baby shower etiquette. She told me not to ask who each item was from. I'm so glad she told me this. Apparently, people feel bad if someone else got a nicer gift than theirs, so it's better not to ask. I'm used to trying to make sure I know who got me what so I can write a thoughtful and specific thank-you. They don't really expect thank-yous though. It felt a little odd holding up the gifts without thanking someone in particular, but I got used to it as we went along.

I also wasn't sure when to arrive. I usually arrive to things about a half hour to 45 minutes later than the time given. But I didn't want to be too late since it was a shower for me. The shower was supposed to start at 3:30 and I showed up around 3:55, I think it was. I was the only person there and 10-15 minutes later, Alicia, from our WMF staff, arrived and slowly people started trickling in over the next 45 minutes. We started the shower at 5 pm. So I guess I could have come a little later :)

We played some games (guess the diameter of my belly shown above) and at one point some of the women shared stories about their pregnancies. They shared things that they craved, which children they had a lot of nausea with, and which deliveries went more easily than others. One woman shared that with her 2nd or 3rd pregnancy (I can't remember) it was during a time of scarcity in Bolivia and she only had rice, yucca, and plantains to eat... no vegetables, but mangos. So she said she gained 30 kilos (66 pounds) during that pregnancy and her son was born naturally at over 5 kilos (over 11 pounds). Another woman shared that by her third pregnancy, her son came out like a bar of soap. So... overall we had a nice time :)

Mormon poetry

2011-06-25T05:00:00.007-04:00

I submitted this poem to a poetry contest hosted by a used bookstore in Marion, IN.

Mormons by Adam Thada

...

Mormons, Mormons,
White shirt and tie.

Mormons, Mormons,
Siempre hay.

...

Artist's statement:

Last year I moved from Marion, IN to El Alto, Bolivia
in S. America. There are many cultural, linguistic, and environmental
differences that keep me constantly aware that I am a stranger in a
strange land. But often I see a strange constant - Mormons. They come
here on their missions from neighboring countries like Argentina,
Chile, Peru, and Brazil. The similarities to the Mormon evangelists in
the U.S. are many - always two by two, neatly trimmed in black and
white, accenting their otherness by the refusal of common cultural
habits and customs, smilingly and persistently facing grumpy neighbors
who have heard the pitch a dozen times before. A pair of young Mormon
women were in fact the first visitors at my new home here. We had tea
and sang a hymn, although they declined the customary cheek-kiss upon
saying goodbye.

The last line of the poem can be translated "They're always there." No
matter where my globe-trotting instincts take me in the world, I can
count on the reassuring presence of pairs of these peppy, well-pressed
folk.

what say ye: should we infant baptize?

2011-06-21T05:00:00.001-04:00

The question, Lord wiling, will be soon forced upon me.

When I mentioned I was thinking about choosing infant baptism for our baby-to-be, I had a Servant Team member suggest that I was being trendy (something I don't take as a compliment - show me anything and I'll play the Devil's advocate and be against it). In many Evangelical churches, baby dedication is the new normal, giving the child the chance to choose baptism as an adult (or at least a teen). To defend my un-trendiness, I responded by saying, "The Church is two thousand years old. Anything that has happened in the last fifty years is still a trend!"

Our historian-Servant Team member reminded me that move towards infant baptism many centuries ago was probably from political motivations, not theological ones (like the celibacy requirement for Catholic priests). Ok, possibly. And if so, touché. But the Christian Creeds are pretty Constantinian as well, and those happen to form the bedrock of my faith. They, like infant baptism, have a rich history. The Church is alive in the Spirit of God. We can redeem traditions and infuse them with meaning. We are not doomed by history.

My personal spiritual home is in the Methodist church. Since then, I've gone to a Wesleyan school, an African Methodist Episcopal Church, and now an Anglican community in Bolivia. I've stayed with the wide stream of John Wesley's influence. The UMC says this about infant baptism, and it has a certain draw to me:

Why Baptize Babies?
From the earliest times, children and infants were baptized and included in the church. As scriptural authority for this ancient tradition, some scholars cite Jesus’ words, “Let the little children come to me…for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (Mark 10:14). However, a more consistent argument is that baptism, as a means of grace, signifies God’s initiative in the process of salvation. John Wesley preached “prevenient grace,” the grace that works in our lives before we are aware of it, bringing us to faith. The baptism of children and their inclusion in the church before they can respond with their own confirmation of faith is a vivid and compelling witness to prevenient grace.

Either way, I'm not convinced it's a matter of life or death. I think God is more gracious and loving than that. I was actually re-baptized during college in a kiddie-pool at a Calvery Chapel church, temporarily convinced by some people that my first baptism wasn't quite good enough. I actually wouldn't do it again if I had the chance, but I think God just smiles and shakes his head with all our theological hoop-jumping, so I don't let it bother me. If my child makes the same "mistake" that I did, no big deal.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for now.

What did you do with your child? What did your parents decide for you? Have your thoughts changed during the course of your faith journey?

a few good reads...

2011-06-19T05:00:00.002-04:00

Not necessarily published recently, but that's when I got around to them...

Joining the Eternal Song: How Liturgical Prayer is Saving our Community from Burnout by Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove in Christianity Today

'Global War on Drugs Has Failed' Former World Leaders Say from NPR. Drugs are big business in Bolivia. Although the lucha has never crossed my path directly, we have friends who know families who have been destroyed in the trade.

Bolivia: Where Adaptation Equals Abandonment at a leading climate change blog. I commented and pushed back at the author a bit, a little doubtful that all of Bolivia will be turned into a desert (Due to a site re-make, the comments were still not available as of 2 June). We have seen a couple glaciers die in the mountains, however, including one that used to be seen from our ministry center.

Bolivia Enshrines Natural World's Rights with Equal Status for Mother Earth at the Guardian. They literally worship Mother Earth here... but I have yet to see much of a connection between the political rhetoric and any concrete action. The crux of the issue is that Bolivians are consuming more and more resources as they slowly pull themselves out of poverty (just like Westerners did) and their non-drug exports are almost exclusively natural gas and metals/minerals.

Do Christians and Muslims Worship the same God? Christianity Today interview with Miroslav Volf. I intend to get to his book Exclusion and Embrace this year.

Shopping for Sweat: The Human Cost of a Two-Dollar T-Shirt in Harper's, from January 2010. And something of an opposing view (and a much shorter read) in regards to the garment industry in Haiti, at NPR: Would a $5-A-Day Minimum Wage Make Life Better in Haiti?

An Open Letter to This Generation, by Ron Sider in Relevant Magazine, in which he asks us four key questions. Sider is the author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, a required read for WMFers.

Denouncing the Rapture Heresy, by David Chronic, WMF Africa & Europe Director. Not just misguided pastors that predict the end of the world... the whole idea of the rapture.

Lithium Dreams: Can Bolivia Become the Saudi Arabia of the Electric-car Era? in the New Yorker.

The Emerging Church Brand: The Good, The Bad, and the Messy, by Shaine Claiborne at Red Letter Christians Blog

Early Americans helped colonize Easter Island (mentions Bolivia)

Servant Team 2011

2011-06-16T05:00:00.022-04:00

For 3.5 months we had the honor of hosting four young women who lived and volunteered with our community. They went home June 2.

These photos represent a lot of fun and travel, but the girls also served faithfully at Missionaries of Charity, caring for men and women with various levels of physical and mental disability (not posted here for security). They endured cold nights, stolen documents, broken buses, and being far from family & friends. They also did a visit to the brothels and served lunch to the women twice a week, among many other things.

DIY corner table shelf thing

2011-06-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

I'm not quite sure what to call it, but I made it. And in only one day, which is a Bolivian miracle from a combination of wood I found in a dump, bought at a store (used + new), and one eucalyptus branch from Baker. The wood, nails, new tape measure, and sand paper came to about $6.30. I had a hammer. I borrowed a saw. I worked on the tile patio. Through the bent nails and smashed thumbs, I didn't curse out loud once, even though the final product was so shabby the thing could probably be blown over by a stiff breeze. Luckily, it's forever wedged in a nook to serve its purpose and won't be bearing a lot of weight.

Tools of the trade, or lack thereof. Notice the notch I cut out so it's fit our funky wall.

Still have all my fingers.

Becky for scale. The tank is to the left of her.

All done!

The result? We have about 0.24 m² more counter space for our tiny kitchen, and our natural gas sits goes underneath my contraption. We only have to move out super-light stove to get to it.

Now on to the shelving...

got any old cell phones?

2011-06-09T20:27:00.000-04:00

I remember reading that cell phones last, on average, about 18 months in the U.S., leaving a lot of old units unused in forgotten drawers. Becky and I managed to make ours last nearly 5 years, including some service in Bolivia. I gave it to a friend here, but it was stolen from her in the market recently.

Which actually happens somewhat often. Just in the last two weeks, two more of our staff had their phones stolen. The thieves are so practiced that nobody ever realized they were robbed until later. The very cheapest new phone here starts at $21 or so, which is kind of a hit for a Bolivian on an average income.

So it would be a great blessing to us and our friends if you could send us your old phones! We pass old phones out when their phones die or get stolen. Sometimes the software requires a little reprogramming (which is done here), but as long as it has a SIM chip under the battery in the back, it should work. (I brought a Verizon phone from the U.S. that had no chip and was not usable here). Phones can be sent to Becky's parents' house. If you need the address, e-mail us.

Thanks for your generosity and for going green (giving old electronics a new life).

...

Fun fact... I'm pretty sure cell phones, like most electronics, have lithium. Which Bolivia has a TON of. They're just not mining it. Yet...

Earth as Art - Bolivia

2011-06-03T05:00:00.001-04:00

Bolivian deforestation, taken in 2000 (and, I think, famously used in Al Gore's global warming powerpoint presentation).

a search for stability - June Prayer letter

2011-05-28T05:00:00.001-04:00

Dear family and friends,

The rainy season is over! Constant sun shines down on the city, but winter is on its way. Already in El Alto, our Servant Team members report that wet clothes put up on the line are frozen by morning. Our four hardy volunteers have just one week left with us. They have been a great joy to us, providing lots of energy and light-hearted fun during an unstable season of our lives.

I (Adam) recently traveled with them by bus to Lima, Peru to visit our WMF field there. WMF Peru works with children who work and sometimes live on the streets. They deal with many issues that my sister & brother-in-law dealt with while serving with WMF Romania. We got a great tour of the city, during which we saw several of the kids they are friends with. The Servant Team and I also hit the beach on the Pacific Ocean, perhaps as far away from El Alto as could be imagined! We had a few sweet hours splashing in the waves and watching the Inca Terns diving for anchovies. We too took our turn at fish. Ceviche is the local dish: fresh raw fish cured in citrus juices. It didn't sound like a plate I would miss, but do I ever. Our return trip stretched out to 50 hours instead of the planned 27 due to a fatal bus malfunction. But our crew had learned to roll with the unexpected punches, and after a night stuck at the Peru/Bolivia border we got home just fine.

To see a great reflection summarizing life in El Alto, check out this blog post by one of our Servant Teamers.

As you know, we found out at the beginning of this year that Becky's morning sickness was being made much worse by the altitude, not to mention that the right ventricle of my heart was a little oversized. For 2.5 months we lived with a few friends in the South Zone. I'm glad to say we just moved into a new place of our own, just about as far down as we can go. It's located behind a family that goes to church with some of our friends (we have a shared front gate), so it's super safe and still independent. It seems to have everything we need without some of the more unnecessary luxuries that sometimes accompany life in this more wealthy neighborhood. It is also about 10 degrees (F) warmer than El Alto. Our main challenge with life here will be remaining present with our Bolivian staff and with the women among whom we serve (almost all of them live up in El Alto).

And finally, we are coming back to the U.S. for the birth of our first child, due in August. We will be arriving to Indianapolis mid-July and heading back to S. America in late October. We will be around Crawfordsville / Marion, IN for the last half of July, then spend most of August, September, and October in West Michigan. We would love to meet up with you all - the best way to stay in contact with us is e-mail.

Please pray:
*for stability in the midst of a lot of change, turmoil, and a bit of stress
*for a commitment to presence with our friends in El Alto
*for our Suti Sana business and the 6 women currently in the program
*for the continued health of Becky and baby. All of our Dr's check-ups have been going great.

>>To purchase Suti Sana purses, visit here or here. "Like" our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

-Adam (& Becky) Thada, 26 May 2011

(we missed the print deadline on the prayer letter for the first time ever this month - so it's e-mail only!)

a few good reads...

2011-05-24T05:00:00.002-04:00

One servant team member posted this eloquent reflection recently, describing life with an average family in El Alto.

I caught this recent headline: "Sexual workers ask brothel owners to help with their retirement" (article is in Spanish). You could try an automatic translation of the article if you want, but here's a few details: 35,000 women, transsexuals, and transvestites in prostitution in Bolivia. They are proposing a law that would require brothel owners to formalize their work, granting them healthcare and retirement benefits. 90% work in brothels and earn money based on their work each night, while 10% work independently on the street. Since 2009, 15 workers have been murdered on the job. (There are likely more than go unreported).

"Hard-to-Learn Love" by Tony Campolo, reflecting on the difficulty - and joy - of a Jesus-filled neighborly love

"Perceiving the American Church's Approach to the Poor" by David Chronic, WMF Europe/Africa Regional Director, on his new blog

"Is buying sex a better way to help Cambodian women than buying a t-shirt?"

2011-05-19T11:39:00.000-04:00

That's the question posed by Slate article "A Brief Tour of the Cambodian Sex Industry," sent to me by a friend. I responded with this, and thought I'd share it here:

Great question. And ultimately, it should be up to them to decide where they work. The sad fact is that many (thought certainly not all) don't decide and are either outright enslaved or coerced. Also, leaving prostitution isn't as easy as leaving a factory job, for psychological and cultural reasons. I do not envy the decision between watching your child starve or turning 20 tricks a night, but as people of privilege and options we need to give vulnerable people the benefit of the doubt.

As for the consumption-side (Is it better to buy sex or buy shirts?) I think the Christian answer (or even w/o an explicitly Christian ethic) is never to buy sex. It wouldn't be an economically attractive option if there wasn't a demand. Very few women that I know who sell sex would choose prostitution over a factory job, given the same wages. And if men spend less on sex, they'll spend it on something else, creating jobs elsewhere.

Good to see that the bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. includes at least some degree of labor standards, although the article casts into doubt whether or not these are being followed. I think living in luxury while the workers who make our clothes suffer is equally immoral as buying sex. And I wish I had a good answer. We would like to pay the women who work in our new sewing business more than we do, but we are trying to make it a sustainable business, not just a charity. Our Int'l Exec. Co-Director came up with a personal self-tax solution that satisfied his conscious for awhile, inadequate though it was (google "chris heuertz p.r.e.t).

Facebook as social pornography

2011-05-10T20:50:00.001-04:00

I recently had the privilege of taking our Servant Team to Lima, Peru. We visited the WMF community there and took some vacation as well. We went on a desert escape that included dune buggies, grilling out around a campfire, and sleeping in the sand under the stars. As we crawled out of our 4x4 to duneboard down a tall slope, a young man from another vehicle looked out over the incredible vista and proclaimed for all to hear, "Facebook profile picture baby!"

Before I get started I do want to mention that I do utilize social media and find it useful to stay in contact with friends and supporters, even if I, like so many, occasionally fall into overusing it. I also ride planes and buses, send text messages, and download books to my e-reader. Many technologies enrich and improve my life.

But technology is not a benign medium that merely conveys and transports ideas and objects. Technologies also come with their own values and side effects. Vehicle transport means fossil fuel pollution, cell phones demand immediacy, agriculture gave birth to cities, and improved yields have recently led to an explosion of megacities. Westerners are often confused at anti-globalization protests. The high-paced and quickly evolving economy is all many of us know. We sometimes fail to understand that by "only" exporting new goods and technologies (as universally loved they may be), we export our culture as well. Cultural change is often painful.

And now we have the internet, which social media utilizes in a highly-personalized and up-to-the-minute way. And it, too, changes our culture. Sand dune guy was thinking about the future (what would be his profile picture) something that would document the past (where he had been). Westerners are known for emphasizing the future. We plan, save, and prepare. We look down on people who don't. Many young people, in fact, now have access to so many resources and options that they are often paralyzed and unable to decide on, not to mention committing to, any certain future. Strangely, many have become trapped in a cage of privilege.

Now we can document the past better than ever. Not a single moment goes by unrecorded if we don't want it to. Our social media leaves an accumulated history of our experiences. To the extent that cool and interesting photos and status updates reflect our access to resources (traveling far distances, utilizing expensive services and entertainment) a cool Facebook profile is the new sports car. Many young people have supposedly rejected excessive materialism, but only on a superficial level now that material has gone digital.

And so we are left with the present. Youth have always been accused of listening too much to their immediate bodily desires, and perhaps there is truth in this. And it seems our technology is all about the immediate reality - cell phones interrupt conversations, granting instant access to someone not present, Twitter spreads breaking news to hand-held internet devices, Facebook statuses tell our friends where we are and what we're doing, even when it's not at all newsworthy. Yet again, this is a mirage. At one point we were falling over the crest of a dune, a climax of our dune buggy experience for which we had paid a decent price in travel, hassle, and money. I observed that the majority of my fellow riders were looking up at their cameras, recording the experience for a later time. They were focused on a small screen, without paying full attention to the actual events. The same thing happened to me when I watched then-Presidential candidate Obama deliver a speech in Marion, IN. I caught myself staring at my camera for minutes on end, instead of looking upon and listening to the future President of the U.S. standing just meters before me.

Photos and videos of loved ones and of cherished memories are terribly important. The photo album (or perhaps now DVD-Rs or a hard drive) is the first item grabbed when the house catches fire. These are necessary tool to trigger pleasant memories when we want to remember the past well. But even memories are electric impulses in the brain, firing in the present. We are accumulating thousands of pictures that even we may not take time to gaze upon later (in that future present-time).

The men who frequent the brothels of El Alto use pornography for self-satisfaction, but it is a cheap and unsatisfying substitute for real intimacy, just as fast-food is to home cooking and social media is to truly living in the now, fully present. We have managed to make the word "love" nearly useless, and now we've finished off "friend" as well.

In the desert, I became aware of why, perhaps, the Church father and mothers chose these abandoned and forlorn places. The silence was so intense that I only heard a faint ringing in my ears. The stars of the Milky Way and the dancing flames of the bonfire were our only lights. The crickets and trees and nocturnal birds were no where to be found. With enough discipline and time, I felt that one might truly hear the Song of the Cosmos.

I had the privilege of space and time to notice my surroundings. I walked the ridge of a large dune and noticed that sand shifted differently depending on slope and exposure. I saw a minute beetle struggling through the sand, a complex species that evolved over countless generations to adapt to this unforgiving environment. I saw subtle, creeping waves of wind blown sand, like a fog tethered to the ground. I saw a star shooting across the night sky, the constellations slowly turning on their courses. I felt with my feet warmed sand few inches down, hours into the chilly night.

It was kind of a blessing that my camera repairmen in El Alto was a little slow, leaving me in Peru without my cherished device. Of course, I'll request digital copies from them so I can remember the special trip. But I had many uninterrupted moments of great joy simply being in and interacting with such beautiful Creation.

...

For more reading on the more frustrating aspects of modern technology (or the accelerated narcissism of this generation), check out the Tweetage Wasteland blog, or almost anything by author Douglas Coupland.

May 2011 Prayer Letter

2011-05-02T19:48:00.004-04:00

Many of you have already read our May prayer letter. But for those who haven't, here's the news:

Dear friends and family,

It’s exciting to share that my belly is growing and our doctor check-ups show a healthy and growing baby. A family in our community (the Bakers) has a 4 year-old boy who said the other day after noticing my belly, “Mommy, Becky’s baby is growing.” I thought it was such a sweet way to put it (he could have said I was getting chubby).

We recently announced to our community here that we are planning to have the baby in the States. This was not an easy decision for us. Initially, we felt pretty strongly that it would be more convenient to stay here instead of traveling and not worry about the risks of coming back into the altitude with a new born. However, after I had such a rough go at the beginning with nausea and vomiting, it got me thinking about the challenges of having a new born. Our community has been supportive in our tough times here. They’ve made us meals and given us lots of hugs. But thinking about bringing our first child into the world so far from family began to sound like a really difficult choice.

In our case, it’s not really a question of medical facilities and care. For the most part, it’s as trustworthy as anywhere. As much as I want to acknowledge my new community here and the support they provide for us, I can’t deny the fact that my family (extended family really) has been the constant community in my life when everything else has changed. Both Adam and I have really supportive families and it just seems like a way to give a little back – a gift we can give our parents for all they went through raising us.  I also have observed in the last year that our community here is very much burdened by the extensive needs of our ministry. At the end of the day, we don’t have much left over to give to each other, even though we would to. As new parents, I envision a lot of needs that Adam and I will have. Our hope is that having the baby in the States will take away a few stressors from an already stressful time.

My fear in telling our community this decision was that they would have the sense that they were not enough for us – that they would sense a sort of rejection. And maybe they do to an extent and I have to be okay with the fact that sometimes my decisions are not the favorite choice of others. But I did sit down with our cooks, Viki and Feli, and had a great conversation with them about this process of deciding. They affirmed to me that the baby is already Bolivian (another staff said in accented English that our child is “Made in Bolivia”) and that when daughters have good relationships with their moms, Mom is the best person to have around in these times. They found out that I’m the only daughter in my family and said, “Oh your poor mother, you need to go.”

We haven’t decided this because it would bring us the most applause, but I have a sense that this is going to be the best decision for both Adam and I and for our little one.

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to apartment hunt (our current place is temporary) and make plans for the arrival of the new addition to our family.

Humbly,
Becky (& Adam) Thada

off to Peru!

2011-04-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

I (Adam) am headed off to Lima, Peru today at 2:30 PM EST... on a bus. Yes, 27 hours in a bus! I'm taking the four women of the Servant Team, plus gringa and Boliviana staff members are visiting with us as well. We'll be partially relaxing, partially getting to know WMF Peru, and partially just getting out of El Alto.

Please pray for safe travel and fruitful new friendships.

(Becky is not traveling due to the effects of the ungodly-long bus ride and the huge changes in altitude on her body. Pray for us too... this will be the longest we've ever been apart!)

streets paved with gold - why?

2011-04-27T05:00:00.000-04:00

I listened to a song today about how great it will be to walk on streets of gold someday, presumably up in the clouds somewhere in a rather ethereal afterlife.

But why, in heaven, are streets paved with gold? Well, the Bible does mention that Main St. in Heaven City will be pure gold, as clear as glass. My first question: gold clear as glass? But let's not get caught up too much in the exact descriptive details of Revelation... or else we'll think the entire book is literal descriptions of past, present, and future events and we'll miss their prophetic beauty (and warning). (For a modern take on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, you can follow Mars Hill's current preaching series).

But the simplest answer to why God would be so "lavish" as to pave with gold is not because God is into bling, per se, but because His value system is so diametrically opposed the human system of greed and oppression we've created. In other words, gold will be worthless!

I have heard some interpret this passage from Revelation 18 (NLT) (below) as a description of what the world values, in descending order, from gold and silver on down to horses, chariots, and slaves.

The merchants of the world will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods. ¹² She bought great quantities of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet cloth; things made of fragrant thyine wood, ivory goods, and objects made of expensive wood; and bronze, iron, and marble. ¹³ She also bought cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and bodies—that is, human slaves.

¹⁴ “The fancy things you loved so much
      are gone,” they cry.
   “All your luxuries and splendor
      are gone forever,
      never to be yours again.”
¹⁵ The merchants who became wealthy by selling her these things will stand at a distance, terrified by her great torment. They will weep and cry out.

What this shows us (in reverse) is God's value system: first is the God-imaged humanity, then the animals and plants of an abundant and interdependent creation, then the fine products, metals, and tools that humanity values so much. People have called it the "upside-down Kingdom." But of course, one has to wonder who really has their kingdom upside-down, and whose is right-side-up.

The merchants of Babylon are those who cannot, even in the end of the age, loosen their grasp on worldly comfort, on systems of oppression from which they benefit at the expense of others. God turns the tables and exposes their kingdom as the one that's wrong-side-up.

Likewise, Ezekiel foretells of "The desolation of Israel" as the NLT headlines the section. (I'm not sure whether this is a time scholars think already happened [the exile?] or some time in the future... forgive my lack of Biblical studiousness here). Chapter 7:19-20 (NLT) states...

“They will throw their money in the streets,
      tossing it out like worthless trash.
   Their silver and gold won’t save them
      on that day of the Lord’s anger.
   It will neither satisfy nor feed them,
      for their greed can only trip them up.
²⁰ They were proud of their beautiful jewelry
      and used it to make detestable idols and vile images.
   Therefore, I will make all their wealth
      disgusting to them.

We simply cannot imagine throwing precious metals out in the street.... but their true worth will one day be revealed when the divine economics really kicks in. It will expose our lust and greed for power and domination. Before a God who is pure generosity, love, and compassion, our petty earthly concerns will be revealed.

In other words, if we are excited about the fact that we'll be walking on streets paved with gold, we've missed the entire point. We should be excited to be inhabit a land where relationship and love and beauty is our all-encompassing reality!

And instead of imagining heaven as a cloudy place up in the sky where we're instantly masters of the middle age stringed instruments, maybe we can imagine it as a recreating and restoring of this present earth, eminently physical and actual and right here, as it seems to suggest in Revelation 21 - heaven coming down to earth and making its home here. If you are intrigued, you can catch up on Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright's perspective on what life after life after death might look like. I also highly recommend his (very accessible and not lengthy) book Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. This, of course, has all kinds of implications for the kinds of lives we live here, now, today.

So if you have gold now (or stocks, or land) be thinking about converting it into something more valuable... because it will eventually be used in a divine pavement plan!

phone company "tricks" and the ethical foundation of markets (and/or capitalism)

2011-04-25T18:19:00.002-04:00

I'm going to really sound like an old-timer today...

Pre-paid cell phones dominate the market in Bolivia, so you just add some credit and just use it up until you run out. I generally know how much phone calls cost - $0.14/min to my "Friend's Club" and $0.20/min for everyone else. Conversations are generally loud and short; it's affordable for me, but still pricey for most Bolivians. The majority have never had a landline phone and have only picked up mobile phones in the last few years. There were already much more mobile users in Latin American in 2009 than the combined populations of the U.S., Canada, France, and Germany, and this now includes more than two-thirds of Bolivians.

On to my complaining...

After a visit to the phone office, I discovered that I was being charged about US$0.10 each time I turned off and then powered up my phone (the network has to "find" you or something). I was also subscribed to 50 text messages a day ($0.50/day) which I understood from the promotion to be a one-time purchase I made a couple weeks ago. I generally send 5 or so texts a day. While scrolling through my phone, I became interested and clicked on "Dictionary." When I realized it was connecting to the system (internet?), I immediately clicked "Back". That cost $0.20. The cheap-o in me is a little frustrated, but I can afford to pay these quasi-invisible and somewhat-unauthorized charges. Bolivians cannot. I know that U.S. phone companies have similar mysterious charges for their clients.

My complaint/observation (shared by many people over 50 years old) is that tricks, gimmicks, and self-interest prevail more than they used to. Contracts and agreements are no longer sealed with one's word and a firm handshake, but with endless paperwork. And be certain it's in the paperwork, because if it's not, you may be up a creek later.

I'm reading a book by Indian economist Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom. He takes the view (obvious to me, it seems) that markets are generally good and natural things - they allow the exchange of good and services and information. They exist within capitalism, socialism, and even communism. Some people claim (some economists almost gladly, other with cynicism/criticism) that capitalism's bedrock is each individual's myopic, narcissistic self-interest. But Sen disagrees. He points to the massive amount of collaboration and cooperation that is needed for a market economy to thrive. Laws and courts are needed, of course, but common courtesy and standard business practices are needed to avoid constant litigation. I'm not going to sue sue my phone company of charging me $0.10 for a time that I was certain my phone remain on and required no service, even though they had technically overcharged me. But my expectation is that when said error was pointed out, they would erase that charge and restore my phone credit. Legally, they didn't have to. In so doing, they have increased my skepticism and my rage at their business. I shouldn't be upset that they are trying to make money - that is what trade is about. But if I can find any way to "cheat" the company in a similar manner, something unethical or slightly shady but still legal, I'm much more likely to do it.

I see a similarity in my attitude towards major corporations and companies vs. locally owned small businesses. I naturally expect big companies to use perfectly legal "tricks" to squeeze more money out of me with or without my knowledge. I don't expect that of a business that has an employee that recognizes me when I walk in the store, perhaps even knows my name. For our transaction to be mutually beneficial, it requires reciprocal acts of honesty, openness, and generosity. Does that describe your latest transaction with a multinational corporation?

I had mentioned this frustration earlier, on Facebook, about my insurance company giving me a somewhat absurd exchange rate for reimbursement (in their favor, obviously). I suppose if I was paranoid and skeptical, I could have anticipated this and asked about it beforehand before signing up for the insurance, but instead I simply assumed something that silly and trivial would not be made an issue. A friend commented that I must be hostile to capital-ism, something he is fond of even to the point of being ideologically enamored with it. From my perspective, I was quite excited about a market exchange... I expected a mutually beneficial exchange based on common values of honesty, openness, and reciprocity. I was hostile towards slight-of-hand, the truth but not the whole truth, and an exchange based only on the tiniest details contained within our contract.

Call me old-fashioned, but I expect more than that. The kind of so-called "capitalist" society that values contracts before relationships, details before personalities, and profit before purpose? No thanks. It's a culture that is closed, shrinking, dark... one that is destined to collapse under the weight of it's own narcissism. And so in the spirit of the right kind of entrepreneurship, our mission's micro-business won't be that way either :)

August triathlon - join me!

2011-04-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

As you know, we're coming back to the U.S. for the delivery of our firstborn (Lord willing). I'll (Adam) probably be applying for a leave of absence, so I'll need something to keep my restless soul/body busy. Triathlons! Road races! Join me!

I've got my sights on an off-road triathlon in Logansport, IN on August 13th. A friend and I completed it a few years back and it was a very fun course. And it certainly beats biking/running on endless pavement. 1/2 mi swim, 10 mi mountain bike, 4 mi trail run. $70 for individuals, or $120 for a 2-3 person relay team. And trust me - you don't have to be a pro, because I certainly wasn't. I came out of the water nearly last, and I used a Huffy on the biking portion!

So, I'm going to wait a couple more months before I register... but I'd love to see you there!

Entre Viernes y Domingo / Between Friday and Sunday - a Holy Week reflection

2011-04-19T23:17:00.000-04:00

I'm posting the raw Spanish text of my devotion for tomorrow, without a good spell check or even Spanish punctuation. I just typed it up tonight (and it's way past my bedtime). You can probably get the jist of it just by the translated title. I will include this tomorrow at our community devotions, after I go through the Good Friday service from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (Eng/Span). Our friend Mache will complete the liturgy by serving mass.

...

Viviendo como una comunidad de hijos y hijas de Dios es saber toda la historia de la vida, la muerte, y la resurrection de Jesus. Para muchos de nosotros, es tan comun que hemos olividado el escandelo, la belleza, la enormidad delo que paso’ durante la semana santa. Cuando oramos, cuando leemos la biblia, cuando alabamos, o quizas cuando estamos escuchando las oraciones de la liturgia, nos aburrimos un poquito. Ya tenemos salvacion, ya tenemos fe, esperanza, la garantia de vida nueva y vida eterna.

Pero – traten entrar en la mente de los discipulos de Jesus. EL era toda su esperanza, caminando como un ser humano como ellos. En EL han puesto su fe que cambiaria todo – que seran vencidos los Romanos, que los pobres tendrian comida, que los Judeos tendrian justicia. Y en una manera tan cruel, tan barbaro, le mataron a su Salvador.

Estaban totalmente perdidos.

Leemos la biblia hoy dia sabiendo que sera el fin. No sentimos perdidos. Podemos ya avanzar en la biblia y decir… “Pero esta bien! Jesus resucito!” Pero eso no es el proposito y el mensaje de la historia de la crucifixion. Era un tiempo de dolor, de tristeza, de lagrimas.

Aunque es doloroso pensar en eso, tambien me da aun mas confianza en Dios. Todos nosotros pasamos por tiempos dificiles, y vamos a pasar por aun mas en nuestras vidas. Si, siempre tenemos la biblia, y la iglesia, pero a veces dudamos nuestra fe. Dudamos que vamos a perseverar. Dudamos que Dios es fiel, y es amor, y que El quiere lo mejor para su creación.

Pero eso no es pecado. Eso es nuestra realidad.

Jesus mismo, en la cruz, grito al Padre: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” que significa “Dios mio, Dios mio, por que me has desamparado?” Y sabes que… Dios no respondió.

Entonces, espero que celebremos la Pascua, la resurrection, este año. Eso es toda nuestra confianza y alegria. Pero antes del Domingo viene el Viernes. Un viernes que no sabe que pasara manana.

Entonces, viernes es un simbolo para nosotros de nuestro dolor y angustia aqui en la planeta tierra, y no es pecado expresarlo.

Quiero que escribes algo en tu vida que quires que muere. Sea un habito malo, tu ira, tu venganza, tu codicia. Cualquier cosa en tu vida. Vamos a escribirlo y ponerlo aqui en la cruz. Es totalmente privado, entre tu y Dios (voy a destruirlo despues del servicio sin verlos). Y quiero que pensemos en la muerte del pecado ante los ojos Dios. Que Jesus ya ha sufrido por el pecado de la humanidad, y que el puede tomar tambien nuestras luchas y desafios que hoy dia tenemos. Entonces, entrega a Dios todas tus cargas.

That I May Dwell

2011-04-17T05:00:00.003-04:00

Becky's article for The Cry just came out, although she wrote it in Nov/Dec (it mentions 2 chickens, one of which we had for Christmas dinner). It can be read here, or on this big PDF download, page 8.

Pregnancy Advice / telling the gender

2011-04-14T12:38:00.006-04:00

Since being pregnant, I've received just about daily advice from friends and acquaintances here. Giving advice when it hasn't been asked for is completely culturally appropriate and accepted. Also, you don't have ask someone if you can touch their stomach. You just do it, everyone does.

I can't remember them all and am sure I'm missing a few good ones, but here are few (mind you, some of the following are from doctors).

Don't nap. If you sleep too much, you'll get anemia.
Advice to a friend with her first pregnancy from her doctor: wear wool underwear to keep the baby warm.
If you're experiencing nausea, don't drink a lot of milk products.
It's really important that you're eating and drinking all kinds of milk products.
You shouldn't go up and down in altitude while pregnant.
Going up and down while pregnant doesn't hurt at all. Where you sleep makes the difference.

If you're having nausea you have to go on a strict diet of vegetables and fruit. Don't eat any bread products or noodles. It ferments in your stomach. I was drinking gingerale and this person said I shouldn't have any carbonated beverages either. I said ginger supposedly helps (I read that research has been done where ginger was shown to help with nausea). She said it's probably psychological.

My daughter hugged you, that means you're having a boy.
My son really likes you and clings to you (he clings to everyone because his mother is really unaffectionate), that means you're having a girl.
If you dream about vipors or snakes, you're having a boy. If you dream about jewels and flowers, you're having a girl.

And my mom was browsing maternity clothes (in the U.S.) for me the other day (I got the package, thanks mom!) and the woman helping her said that your boobs get even bigger if it's a girl. So I'll let you know if I'm dreaming about flowers and jewels tonight!

C.S. lewis on prostitutes & pride

2011-04-12T12:56:00.000-04:00

"Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger."

quoted on p. 152 of The Jesus I Never Knew, by Phillip Yancey

purchasing power parity

2011-04-05T18:50:00.000-04:00

This is a fancy economics term that points out that money in lower-income countries goes much further than in the wealthiest ones.

For example, I got a haircut the other week for 10 Bs (US $1.44). A similar bargain haircut in the U.S. would cost maybe $9, which is more than six times as expensive. The thing is that I wouldn't receive six times the services in the U.S.... the two haircuts were nearly identical in their outcome - Adam with shorter hair. Likewise, I can get a dozen bananas in Bolivia much cheaper than in the U.S., and they taste a lot better too! Money generally goes further here.

There are exceptions, obviously. Milk is more expensive here. Each kWh of electricity costs the same as the U.S. average. But in general, things are much cheaper.

Bolivia's GDP is about $17 billion, less than the least populous U.S. state (Wyoming - $27 billion) despite having 22 times the population (11 million vs. 1/2 million). This breaks down to about $1,707 for every man, woman and child. But Bolivia has even more income inequality that the United States, meaning that many millions of families live on less than $1,707 / person / yr (including some of our staff with families - although we certainly do pay them enough to live dignified lives).

For a comparison, the GDP per capita of the U.S. is $47,132. All things equal, U.S. consumers would demand nearly 28 times the goods and services as Bolivians.

But things not being equal (cheaper prices down here) Bolivia's Purchasing Power Parity GDP is $4,451 for every man, woman, and child. So U.S. consumers still demand (well, we're speaking of income, not expenditures, but let's assume we spend exactly 100% of our income) almost 11 times as goods and services as Bolivians.

In other words, if you want to know what an average Bolivian might live like, try living in an average U.S. town (Crawfordsville, IN being too cheap) on $22,225 for your family of five. Also take into account that Bolivia doesn't have the same level of government and private safety nets. Then remember this is an average, not a median, so you have more families living on less than this, rather than more. Just like you have more families living in the U.S. living on less than $47,132 / person than more.

So what would that salary look like in the U.S.? You probably couldn't afford heating or cooling, so you'd have to live in the south with no A/C. You'd be reliant on public transport, bikes, and maybe a scooter. You wouldn't eat out - most of your meals would come from scratch. Your spouse would probably be tending a garden & canning the abundance while your three kids played in the yard (or the street). You'd have almost no capacity to save, leaving you vulnerable to major expenses of hospital bills and home repairs. It might be about the standard of living of the U.S. two to three generations ago.

We have often heard that around a billion of our brothers & sisters around the world live on $1/day, and perhaps another billion live on $2/day. Let's not fool ourselves - this is real, grinding poverty. But, PPP tells us, it would not be the equivalent to living on an annual income of $365 in the U.S. Survival would be literally impossible without relying on the help of others.

One last interesting factoid: When I took our income here in Bolivia and multiplied it by 2.6 (Bolivia's PPP GDP $4451 / actual GDP $1707), it came out really close to my post-tax salary at St. Martin Community Center, which we lived off of in Marion, IN. So... yet another similarity between El Alto & Marion :) ... the stray dogs, beer bottles, dilapidated houses, foul smells, beggars...

Whew! That hurt my brain.

"Quinoa's Global Success Creates Quandry at Home"

2011-03-29T08:29:00.000-04:00

That's the news. Unfortunately, it has the side effect of raising malnutrition of some Bolivians families who can no longer afford this ancient crop. On balance, I still think this is good for Bolivia and it's development. Higher prices should incentivise more production, and I can only hope that education can encourage families to make quinoa a food-priority for their family.

In the meantime, Western consumers are getting exposed to a very healthy food. I say keep buying! And if your conscious is strong, donate to a Bolivian NGO that is doing good work in Bolivia (like Samaritan's Purse or Food for the Hungry).

April 2011 Prayer Letter

2011-03-26T05:00:00.001-04:00

Dear friends and family,

Our Servant Team arrived mid-February and they are doing pretty well. They are enjoying their host families, falling into a routine, and doing their best to avoid getting sick. We are enjoying their presence with us and getting accustomed to having them around at the House of Hope.

Since our last update, we have moved (half-way) to an apartment in the South Zone. Adam mentioned last month that we noticed my nausea was lessened, if not gone, when we visited a couple thousand feet lower (the South Zone) than El Alto. We still have our apartment in El Alto and haven’t moved all our belongings. We are living with two North-American teachers, so Adam and I have our own room, but sharing everything else. It’s not ideal, but I feel better and am able to function where before I really couldn’t accomplish much other than resting and trying not to throw up. And it’s nice to have a few luxuries for now like a washing machine, warmer weather (it’s warmer because of elevation), and hot water on tap. Now we have to decide whether to apartment hunt down here, or if we still have ambitions of moving back up after our little one arrives.

All these changes and decisions sort of have me reflecting a bit on stress. In fact, I think I have kind of been in survival mode for some time now. First, all my efforts and energies were focused on not throwing up, trying to eat well, and resting when I could. Then, when I discovered I felt better at lower elevation, I started taking oxygen three times a day because the nausea turned out to be more related to oxygen than normal morning sickness. So I became somewhat functional, but then we were preparing for and receiving the Servant Team members, taking them to the doctor when they got sick and helping them learn how to get around El Alto and La Paz. Then we moved (making our commute about an hour and 15 minutes), conducted a retreat with our Servant Team a few hours bus-ride away (thankfully I made it on this bus ride without wetting my pants), where I picked up some sickness that gave me… well, you can probably guess. So I think it’s safe to say it’s been a little crazy and we’ve had a few stressors piled on us lately.

I’m feeling better now and finishing up my medication for the bug I had. But it’s caused me to stop myself a bit and evaluate our schedule, responsibilities, and stress-load. I think I have to admit that with the stresses of living over-seas and being pregnant on top of it, I have greater limitations, even though I feel better now living down at 11,000 feet. It sounds so obvious writing it down, but I think I’m slow to realize and accept it. Thankfully, God is patient with me and my thick-headedness.

We know prayers are being prayed on our behalf. We are so grateful for them and for all of your support. As you continue to pray, we ask for your prayers specifically in these decisions and changes we are experiencing.

With much love,

- Becky (and Adam) Thada

the Scriptures as a foriegn language

2011-03-21T21:28:00.000-04:00

It struck me on the long bus ride home tonight that there are a number of words and phrases in Spanish that I've only slowly come to understand over the last 15 months. They are hard to translate into English, which is why, perhaps, they weren't immediately explained to me by other gringos. Forgive me for not remembering exactly what phrase it was that triggered this memory, but even if I could remember it, well... I couldn't translate it very well.

Perhaps there is an analogy here with the Scriptures. There is a huge gap between the context of the various Biblical writers and my own world. I don't understand all the agricultural and geographical references, and they certainly knew nothing about nuclear energy, evolution by natural selection, or the Holy Spirit-trajectory of the Church on issues like slavery. Entering into the mystery of some of these ancient texts like the teachings of Jesus is like listening to a foreign language. Women covering their heads? New wine in new wineskins? Love your enemies?

Yet as we continue to pour over the Scriptures, meditate on them, hear them from other voices with new perspectives, and listen to them carefully applied to our own context, we slowly become literate. When someone asks us, "What does it mean to love your enemy?" we are slow to formulate an answer. Perhaps, instead, we ask them to walk alongside us until the opportunity presents itself, then we show them. Or they show us. We don't exactly know how to translate it, but we know how to speak it, even if we carry a heavy accent until the day we die.

So let us strive towards fluency, immersing ourselves in the rhythms of the Scriptures, the values it holds, the language God speaks.

March '11 Prayer Letter

2011-03-04T16:48:00.000-04:00

No big insights this month - we're just hunkering down for the rainy season, dreaming of sunshine. A special surprise awaited me (Adam) yesterday as I reluctantly was cleaning out our chicken's coop (actually a doghouse) - 6 eggs! After 4 1/2 months of waiting, we finally have protein. I was about ready to give up hope, so this has been a lesson in patience for me.

A few prayer requests, and finally some prayer resources:

*As I write, we are making last-minute preparations for our Servant Team, who will arrive the morning of Feb. 16. God is sending us a group of four young women from the U.S. & Canada who will participate in our ministry at the Casa, volunteer at a Missionaries of Charity home for the developmentally disabled, and explore several important books, articles, and lifestyle celebrations formative to who we are as Word Made Flesh. Please pray for these women and their host families, who will living together in El Alto until early June.

*Our WMF community in Lima, Peru serves among vulnerable children on the streets. They were robbed during the night in February. Thankfully, everyone was safe, but they lost thousands and thousands of dollars of supplies and equipment. I copied a summary of the event on my blog (http://bit.ly/WMF_Peru_robbery). They could use your prayers at this time, and any extra donations will help them resupply the center and enable them to better serve the children of Lima.

*As you know, Becky and I are expecting our first child, and she has been suffering from a lot of nausea, making it hard to keep food and water down. We have been staying the night occasionally at our friends' house down in La Paz, and the 2,300 ft elevation drop has proven to be just enough extra oxygen to make her feel significantly better. She has started taking oxygen daily and this has helped her a bit as well. There is always the option of moving down out of the altitude, but it means a very long commute and being far away from most of our staff and the women we are here to serve. Please pray that we could have wisdom to make the best decision for Becky during this time. We also need to discern whether to have the baby here or return to the U.S. for maternity leave.

*During the last couple years, I have found guided, written prayer to be very relaxing, healing, and meaningful to me. One resource I use (and not faithfully enough) is the Missio Dei Breviary, four weeks of morning and evening prayers put together by an intentional Christian community in the Twin Cities. It can be read online at http://bit.ly/MD_Breviary, or purchased in paperback at Amazon.com.

Another prayerbook recently released is "Common Prayer: Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals," put together by Shane Claiborne, Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro. It has a reading for each day of the year and taps into the spiritual resources and practices of many Christian traditions. Each day's reading can be found at http://commonprayer.net/, and a hard copy can be found at Amazon.com.

May the Peace of the Lord be with you,
Adam (and Becky) Thada

choosing to believe in Providence this morning

2011-03-01T06:57:00.000-04:00

I need to get going... I have to go with the Servant Team ladies (4 volunteers from U.S. & Canada who are serving w/ us 3-4 months) to a Missionaries of Charity project on the outskirts of El Alto. A contingent of nuns take 24/7 care of a host of men & women with varying levels of physical & developmental disabilities. Out Servant Teamers serve there once a week, 8 am - noon, washing floors, stirring pots, changing beds, playing rummy, & changing clothes.

The Scripture for this Tuesday morning in the Missio Dei Breviary was Mark 14:32-52, Jesus praying in the garden, and then his abandonment by the disciples. The prayer that follows the scripture was:

Reflect upon Christ's betrayal. His friends failed to stay awake to pray with him, and later deserted him.

Next was the Padre Nuestro (The Lord's Prayer), followed by this closing prayer:

Father, we thank you for sending you Son to struggle and die. We thank you that he is not only like you - fully Divine, but like us - fully human. He has experienced the depth of humnanity, including loneliness and pain. May we never desert the lonely. May we be faithful to your Son by being faithful to the brokenhearted.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen

I can't help but think about the image of Christ in each man and women at Missionaries of Charity. How simple and loving they can be, how vulnerable. And yet I, a "normal" person who seems to have it all together, or mostly so, can barely muster the patience and compassion to consistently serve the most basic needs of my vulnerable brothers & sisters in whom Christ is hiding.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us, sinners.

Contentment

2011-02-25T21:33:00.000-04:00

Paul said he knew the secret of being content in any situation:

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Phil. 4:11-13)

I don't feel that I can claim this ability for myself. So what is the secret? Is it that Christ is the source of our strength? That only in Him can we be content? That would make sense, but I still don't know if it's really clear for me.

I have a confession in regards to contentment. When one is discontent, it seems to naturally coincide with covetousness. Sunday I was in a church in the South Zone of La Paz where it's about 10 degrees warmer in general than up here in El Alto (just as a function of the altitude difference I believe). During the service, I noticed a large space heater off to the side of the small sanctuary. My mind was immediately distracted from the sermon and went into a sort of rant. A space heater! What do they need a space heater for! It's not even cold and it just sits here for a 2 hour service and then probably doesn't even get used! I sit in my home and put on layer after layer and just can't get warm as the cold seeps into my bones! I need a space heater! I suppose the ironic thing is that no one is keeping me from buying a space heater for our apartment, except myself (I should clarify, homes here don't have heating of any kind).

It must be difficult for my friends who have less than me not to covet. If I find myself envying people who have hot water on tap, space heaters, washing machines, and microwaves, what about the conveniences I have that my friends don't? I could just buy a space heater and microwave I guess. But I think there's a greater issue here. I was most alarmed on Sunday, not so much by the desire to have a space heater, but by my bitterness. Bitterness is so dangerous. It takes root and spreads like a cancer if we are not careful. I don't think buying the things we covet is the answer. This isn't to say that I should never buy a space heater or other conveniences, but it won't necessarily get at the root of the problem.

Can I learn to be content as Paul was? Can I celebrate what others have instead of coveting what they have and harboring bitterness towards them? Can I rejoice in the blessings I have and learn to sometimes do without? My first response is to say yes. That I need to pray for God to give me strength, as Paul says "I can do all this through him who gives me strength." But the skeptic in me isn't so sure. Maybe this is where I need to be like the father of the demon-possessed boy who says to Jesus, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24).

I don't know that I have a conclusion or an answer for myself. But I think that's okay. I'm on a journey and in the meantime, I hope I can begin to learn the secret of being content in any and every situation.

clean energy access for the world's poor

2011-02-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knows me (Adam) knows that I love learning about international relief & development. I'm also a little obsessed with learning about renewable energy's potentials and pitfalls. Although our work with WMF is pretty specialized and not about broad-based relief and development, energy access is still a big deal here in Bolivia. As recently as 2005, one in three didn't have access to electricity, and this soars to 70% in rural areas.

Just wanted to let you know about a new non-profit that is trying to close this energy gap, starting first in West Africa. It's a micro-loaning set-up called Energy in Common. You can loan $5+ to someone in Africa who can then purchase a solar-powered lamp or a clean-burning stove. Families spend a very high proportion of their income on energy (whether than be wood, dung, or charcoal) and inefficient stoves cause horrible indoor air pollution, killing more people each year than malaria.

CNN has this short video with the founder & president: "'Green' microloans that aid the planet."

Prayer Petition

2011-02-12T19:52:00.000-04:00

Many of you know that we are expecting our first little one. I'm 11 weeks along and have been experiencing a fair amount of nausea and vomiting. What I've discovered is that when I visit our friends (overnight) at 11,000 ft (we're at 13,300) I feel significantly better. In fact, it's almost a night and day difference. It's been the difference of vomiting and nausea and just discomfort. So, one recommendation was that I take oxygen 3 times a day to both help the nausea and the baby's development. I'm trying that starting tonight, and hoping that it does in fact help both. We'll see, but your prayers are very much appreciated. I'm concerned about both sufficient nutrition and oxygen for myself and the developing baby.

We're also excited that we're receiving a Servant Team this coming Wednesday. They will arrive bright and early and we will be in charge of their 3 1/2 month stay here. These four daring ladies will be helping us at the Casa, brushing up on their Spanish with some classes, and working with Missionaries of Charity. And they've already made my day before even arriving because they're bringing me goodies I'm craving from the States. Your prayers are also appreciated for their safe adjustment to altitude and a positive overall experience.

Thanks so much. We know you're praying and we appreciate your support.

WMF Peru center robbed

2011-02-10T15:22:00.000-04:00

Here is an urgent prayer request from a WMF Peru staff member. Please consider putting aside some time of directed prayer for our community there. There is a link at the bottom where you can donate financially as well, to help them recuperate from this loss:

Friends & Family,

Early this morning, Thursday - February 10th, our office was robbed. They took about $10,000 worth of computers and other donations including our projector, a huge donation of school shoes, and our safe with about $2,200 inside - most of which was for our educational assistance program. The police are investigating at the moment. We're thankful that no one was hurt. Mostly we're sad about the money for the kids who are getting ready to go back to school and for all the information lost on the computer hard-drives. Please pray with us as we figure out the next steps. We continue to praise God for his faithfulness to us and we know, as our friend Oscar reminded us this morning, "when they rob us, it only makes us grow stronger".

We also ask for your prayers for tomorrow - we have been waiting for an appointment with the Civil Defense Ministry for over a year and they are supposed to come check the ministry center tomorrow to see if they will approve our operating license request. We are praying that they will extend grace to us and take into consideration what happened and that it will not cause problems for the licensing which we desperately need to continue with our programming here in the center. Please join us in this prayer.

They can steal our computers, our projector, our money, our things.

They can't steal our community, our joy, our faith, our love. [i mean, it would be WAY too big to fit in their tiny trucks...]

We're going to need to start raising the money to replace the things and to get the center secured again so if you feel so inclined follow the link and designate your gift to WMF PERU: http://www.wordmadeflesh.org/support/give/

market bounty!

2011-02-07T05:00:00.005-04:00

Becky & I both generally enjoy going to the market. The sounds & smells, the variety, the open air, our favorite casera (vendor). Not to mention it's usually a good deal. On a recent trip, I decided to take a picture of everything I lugged home in tote bags:

2 bags of homemade jam (orange & pineapple)
1 doz. bananas
2 lbs carrot
1 lb quinoa (the complete-protein high-altitude grain)
2 apples (probably from Chile, the rest is from Bolivia)
1 avocado
3 lb potatoes
1 block of homemade cheese
1 pepper
1 lb tomato
10 eggs
3 lb yucca
2 lb sweet potato

If I remember my prices right, I think we spent about $8.50 for all this. About the price you might pay some places in the U.S. for one pound of quinoa or two!

"The New Ecumenism: Becoming the Living Body of Christ"

2011-02-03T05:00:00.002-04:00

That's the title of a recent article by our Int'l Executive Co-Director Chris Heuertz. It explores some helpful areas of both misunderstanding and coordination between the various strains of Christianity; specifically, between Catholic and Protestant traditions. He speaks within Word Made Flesh's context of serving among the poor.

February Prayer Letter

2011-02-01T09:05:00.000-04:00

Dear friends and family,

Living in community has been a new and unique challenge for us. It brings us both joy and at times sorrow. But it’s such a wonderful way to learn God’s mercy and grace. It’s similar, I think to family. Whereas we can choose our friends, community is like family in that God places those people in our lives. They might be the last person we would have chosen, but God may have purposes in mind for that person in our life. They might be able to teach us something that a friend we chose might not. In a recent reading of ours on community, the author wisely observed that those who leave a community to get away from a certain person, enter a new community only to find that same person there. In other words, you can’t expect to get along perfectly with every person God has placed in your life, whether family or community.

Henri Nouwen points out that we shouldn’t view community as loneliness grasping onto loneliness (I’m lonely and you’re lonely, so let’s get together), but rather, beloved to beloved. If we can enter God’s presence each day and allow him to remind us that we are His beloved, we enter community from a place of wholeness rather than emptiness and loneliness. If we come from a place of loneliness, we will put unrealistic expectations on members of our family or community. I might expect Adam, for example, to fulfill needs of mine that he simply cannot fulfill. And this is also where forgiveness is needed. I have to acknowledge that I am not capable of loving perfectly, nor are those in my community capable. I need their forgiveness for my imperfect love, as well as they need mine.

So as we continue to navigate community life, I think we are learning what it means to confront in love, to communicate needs, to forgive and be forgiven, and to listen to one another. It’s a long journey, it seems, of disappointments and victories, but thankfully we have God’s grace, which makes room for our mistakes.

We had quite an eventful Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas overseas, so we certainly missed our usual traditions and being with family. But we also experienced a few adventures. We had our first experience caroling in the brothels. Both Adam and I felt a new compassion for the men we saw as we caroled. We normally fight anger towards them, but somehow in this experience, God managed to soften our hearts (we both wrote blog posts on it). We participated in a Bolivian Christmas Eve tradition with a friend’s family by eating a turkey at midnight. Then Christmas Day, Adam slaughtered our rooster (we thought we bought a laying hen) for lunch. We also took a vacation to the eastern part of Bolivia where we escaped the altitude and cold for several days. And then our biggest Christmas news involved a sonogram! We’re excited to say, we’re expecting an addition to the Thada family the end of August. Your prayers for healthy growth and development are certainly appreciated! And you can also pray for me as I’m feeling pretty awful!

With much love and gratitude,
Becky (& Adam)

tree quotes from Lied Lodge

2011-01-30T05:00:00.001-04:00

I saw these quotes on the inside of the huge, timber-built Lied Lodge, where we had our WMF staff retreat last July...

The forests are the flags of nature. They appeal to all and awaken inspiring universal feelings. Enter the forest and the boundaries of nations are forgotten. It may be that some time an immortal pine will be the flag of a united and peaceful world. - Enos A. Mills

The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. - Genesis 1:12

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. - Rabindranath Tagore

Living on the Generosity of Others

2011-01-26T08:16:00.005-04:00

It's hit me before and it hit me again recently. Sometimes, I just can't quite get my mind around the fact that I'm here in Bolivia because of others' generosity. I eat today because a friend or family member has opened up their hand to give. It's very humbling to acknowledge.

It kind of takes away any justification I might make for the "right" I have to use "my" money how I want. I think when I was taking a salary as a teacher, I felt a little entitled to use that money how I wanted. But the money I receive now and the money I received then are both gifts from God. I suppose it's just easier to recognize the gift now since I'm dependent on donors. But the ability to get an education and to teach are also gifts from God. It never was or has been "my" money.

I'm also humbled because I know that the giving of so many is truly generous. It's not what they had left-over after they spent what they wanted, it's truly a sacrifice - it's a genuine dent in their finances. This is not easy to swallow either. I'd almost feel better if I knew it wasn't a sacrifice. But I guess I can look at it differently, too. God is pleased when He can bless us through others. Things that He has the power to do Himself, He instead chooses to work through His people. I don't completely understand it, but I've seen it to be true. I believe it to be a part of the body of Christ and it's mystery.

It seems a delicate balance between allowing God to use others in order that we may serve here, but also not becoming a burden as Paul mentions in his letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 11:9). We would also never want to exploit those who give nor those among whom we minister. Our hope is that we are instead partners together. That those who give feel as though they are here with us, serving. I guess that's partly why we write here as often as we can; to bring Bolivia and our ministry a little closer to you all.

And I've not even addressed the generosity of prayers! I've had several people tell me "we're praying for you everyday," or "we pray for you each week in our church group." I'm not even faithful in praying for my own husband everyday! I just can hardly fathom the commitment some have made to prayer. It humbles me and calls me to be a more faithful prayer warrior myself. And we know you are praying. Some days I can almost feel it. I think, this should have fallen to pieces by now, or I can't believe I'm making it through this. There is definitely darkness here, just like I suppose there is anywhere. But I believe your prayers are carrying us, giving us that little bit of light we need.

So I guess this is a post of gratitude, just thanking you all. Sometimes when I write a note of thanks, I don't really have the space to express all that I want to. Just know that your support humbles and teaches us. We are so very grateful.

yet another birding update

2011-01-22T17:42:00.003-04:00

updated 24 Jan '11 - I finally figured out that it was a Crimson-Mantled Woodpecker I saw on the Choro hike months ago...

I set a goal at the beginning of 2010 to learn the songs, flight, and markings of 10 birds of El Alto / the altiplano. I'm not sure if I did it, but I did find about ~~120~~ 121 new birds last year (well, through 22 Jan '11), about one every 3 days.

So my numbers now look something like this:

~~228~~ 229 bird species total, of which...
3 in Africa
7 in both N. and S. America
105 in N. America
~~113~~ 114 in Bolivia (11 were in captivity)

So, I still have about ~~97.72%~~ 97.71% of God's winged friends out there waiting for me, along with any more that evolve while I'm tramping through swamps and over mountains. Onward!

Here's a few of my favorite recent ones (photos are not mine). All of these, save the high-altitude Andean Goose, are from our Christmas trip to the lowlands.

Andean Goose

Red-Capped Cardinal

Olive Orpendola

Masked Tityra

Rufescent Tiger Heron

Guira Cuckoo

Wattled Jacana

MLK - celebrating & strategizing

2011-01-16T06:00:00.068-04:00

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day is tomorrow. Few other figures in U.S. American history were as unique, as powerful, as committed. And Christians should also remember proudly that MLK was a fellow brother in the faith, some might say even a martyr, who saw that living out the Kingdom of God had political and social ramifications wherever we happen to find ourselves. Faith is not a private Sunday morning consolation for life after death.

I saw a friend's blog on the 13th where he posted MLK's entire "I Have a Dream" speech. Later that day, a funny coincidence that where I picked up reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" was the section on the civil rights movement. I can across this quote:

If we are arrested every day, if we are exploited every day, if we are trampled over every day, don't ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have compassion and understanding for those who hate us. We must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not totally responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight, we are always on the threshold of a new dawn.

I also learned that MLK was just 27 years old when he helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. 27 years old! While MLK is remembered most for promoting non-violent resistance to spur racial equality, towards the end of his life he also came out strongly against persistent poverty in the U.S. and in the world. He also denounced the war in Vietnam for the great injustice that everyone eventually saw it to be. It seems slightly ironic that our country now has a Federal holiday for a man who was so strongly opposed to the social conditions that the dominant culture found acceptable.

To honor his legacy, I'd like to ask you to comment on some progress that has been made in recent years in the U.S. or in the world. Some place where poverty has been on the decline, where peace has prevailed over war, where racial reconciliation is making progress. Then second, point out what still grieves your heart.

For #1, I would just point out that, due to our continued history of immigration and changing birth rates, the United States has becoming more diverse with each decade. The is not an intentional "achievement" per se, but it is a great opportunity. By 2050 or so, everyone will be a minority. While much has been said about the decline of the church in America, it is often white commentators looking at historically white churches. As Soong-Chan Rah points out in "The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity," many immigrant and non-English speaking or dual-language churches are growing and expanding, not declining. While I certainly don't in any way celebrate the decline of historically white churches (like my own), the growth of these new churches presents a great gift from God. New theologies, new families, and new congregations meeting the needs of their neighbors in the name of Jesus. Certainly, the Christian-perspective always leans toward a celebration of the multinational, multilingual community we call the Church. When others embrace racism, fear, and violence, Christians celebrate the beautiful diversity we call human culture.

For #2, I think back to an early morning walk last week. I came across a trash pile and saw a women poking through a mass of brown bananas that weren't fit to be sold, shooing away the street dogs. I wondered how desperate, how hungry, she must have been compelled to search through an open trash pile. I bought bananas later that day for my wife and I, and noticed that they cost about US$0.04 each. The persistence of such poverty in a time of immense global wealth, innovation, and communication remains one of our greatest shames.

Jan '11 Prayer Letter - a special note from The Casa de Esperanza

2011-01-06T20:31:00.000-04:00

(We sent this letter to all the supporters and friends of N. American staff working in Bolivia. Because this is a public blog, I have omitted pictures and names. If you would like more information, just e-mail me.)

Dear friends,

Every week we visit the dank, grimy streets of El Alto’s red light district and invite the women who work there to lunch at Casa de Esperanza. Over steaming hot meals, we get to know them as friends and start to share the love our Savior has for each of them.

We want to introduce you to some of our Bolivian staff who make it possible to open the Casa de Esperanza’s doors each week. They are our five longest-serving employees, and currently their salary needs aren’t being covered. This year, would you consider helping to support their salaries, so we can continue our ministry of presence and hospitality?

E. is our oldest Bolivian staff, and probably the one you’ve heard the most about. She was trafficked from Argentina as a teenager, and worked in prostitution almost 30 years before taking a job at the Casa de Esperanza and finding true love in Christ Jesus. She is in charge of cleaning and maintenance, and miraculously keeps dozens of plants alive through sheer love in the frigid El Alto weather.

Need: $185 a month for part-time salary and benefits

F. grew up in forced servitude, working as a maid for an abusive family in Bolivia. She escaped when she was 23 years old, married, and moved to Peru. When she finally moved back to Bolivia, she heard an announcement at her church for a job at the Casa de Esperanza. As our head cook, F.’s special ingredient is her infatiguable smile.

Need: $185 a month for part-time salary and benefits

V.Q.

V. grew up in the dry countryside as a pastor’s daughter, and took care of the family sheep and llamas as a child. After she married, she moved to El Alto, where she met WMF staff Andy and Andrea Baker, and began hosting Servant Team members. When the position of assistant cook opened up, V. began working at the Casa de Esperanza, where she always has a warm hug available.

Need: $165 a month for part-time salary and benefits

D., her mother, and her five siblings were one of the first families to host Servant Team members. After working for several other organizations as an administrator, D. finished her degree in accounting and joined WMF Bolivia as the head of Administration and Accounting, to help us wrestle with the complicated Bolivian bureaucracy. She resonates deeply with the WMF Lifestyle Celebrations and believes she has found her calling from the Lord in WMF.

Need: $440 a month for salary and benefits

V.M

Once V. found Christ as a teenager, she was instantly drawn into His heart for the poor. For nine years she served with boys living on the streets, and now works as the Coordinator of the Casa de Esperanza. This year she initiated workshops in candle-making, chocolate confection, and baking for women still in prostitution. V. keeps us organized and has a knack for finding the best deal in the city on absolutely everything.

Need: $440 a month for salary and benefits

Whether you are able to give $5 or $55 a month, every gift will help us continue ministering to the needs of vulnerable women on the streets of El Alto. To set up automatic giving from your credit card each month, please go to http://www.wordmadeflesh.org/support/give/. You may send checks made out to “Word Made Flesh” with a separate note designating the funds towards one of our staff salaries (“Bolivia - D.” for example) to Word Made Flesh P.O. Box 70 Omaha, NE 68101.

Thank you so much for joining us in working towards the Kingdom of God!

Love,

Andy, Andrea, Cara, Adam, Becky and Alicia

And since you've read all the way to the end of this letter, there is a special announcement from the Thada clan - we're expecting Thada #3 in August! Your prayers for everyone's health are much appreciated. At 6 weeks, we saw our little "lentil bean" and even heard a heartbeat. We are simply amazed.

A Late Christmas Note

2011-01-04T17:22:00.001-04:00

Silas West (works in the office of WMF Omaha) sent us this reflection from Henri Nouwen and I just recently read it. Though it's a little late, I still think it worth sharing.

May the Child born today be the center of all your celebration
May He be the source of your joy
May the Child born today shine His light into the recesses of your stress, sorrow, grief and despair
May He strengthen you and uphold you
May the Child born today dwell within you and go before you
May He shine out from deep within you
That you may be the visible sign of the Child born today