Worldly Holiness

Well, the Larsen boys are back from our adventures, Erick to Oman and me to Malta. I haven't gotten the full run down yet from Erick, but understand that things went well for him with some new understanding of that part of the world and friendships.

I am a little tired from my time in Malta. It was a full packed schedule with keynote speakers, smaller workshops on many topics like media, member care issues [that means the stuff we all deal with living and ministering in our context, cross-culturally, that may require some special assistance], etc. There was a core track woven throughout the conference that featured ministry highlights from each country across the region. This was very helpful in giving a bird’s eye view of what God is doing and who the players are. I was able to also engage in a ton of networking with others focusing on this region and type of ministry with our focus people. The value of this last piece is huge and will have implications down the road as the Mosaics project takes more definitive shape and we grasp our specific roles in the panorama of ministry options. My time with colleague, Ken S. [ www.mosaicsworld.blogspot.com ] was also very good. We spent a lot of time debriefing some of the keynote sessions and explored important questions for our own ministry. And we networked. A lot of new ideas and crucial connections.

Ken and I, sometimes along with Erik Amundsen [son of Byron and Judy, our bosses in Mission Headquarters in Chicago…well not really “bosses”], got out in the community a few times to see the area, have a good cappuccino [see pictures to the side] and refresh our minds before we went back into sessions at the conference. This was an important aspect of our time to maintain our sanity. After all, the mind and heart can only absorb as much as the butt can endure! Malta is an interesting place that has a long history of military campaigns being fought on their small but strategic piece of land in the middle of the Mediterranean. The ones who were most recently on top were the British. That explains why they drove on the wrong side of the street, spoke English well, and had these old buses [photo] from England in the bus fleet. Maltese, the native language is a Semitic language put to a Latin alphabet. Very interesting.

By the way, Malta is not the piece of land at the end of the boot of Italy that I mistakenly mentioned in my last post before I left. That would be Sicily. How dumb of me. Malta is at the end of the soccer ball, much smaller, and is what they call an “archipelago!” Look that one up on Wikipedia. While you are there look up Malta and you will find some fascinating history. Well, I better get back to unpacking and sorting. You could take that to mean my clothes, as well as all the business cards and little pieces of paper with important contact information on them in my shirt pockets, backpack and who knows where else. If you’d like an issue related report from the conference, let me know and I can email that to you. As always, leave a comment or send a greeting. You can also find a set of 55 photos from my trip in the flickr site to the right.

Vale! Venga! Ciao. 

Vertigo in Plaza Catalunya, originally uploaded by papalars.

I'm leaving tomorrow for a conference in Malta. It is late and I should be asleep, but I can't settle down in my heart yet! Too much to think about before I leave. Some last minute details for my trip, but also I'm thinking about, and praying for, my family tonight. Let me get a few things off my chest, then maybe I can go back to bed. And please, I hope you don't feel I'm bragging in this post about traveling so much. If you haven't noticed already, we do a fair amount of that. But that is our call, and there are downsides. Hang with me for a few lines. First let me tell you a little more of what I'm doing this week, then the rest. The little country of Malta forms the piece of land at the end of the boot that makes up Italy. Remember the geography class in Grade School? It will be an important time to look at models of ministry and partnership, and to network with people working with our focus groups here in Barcelona, many of whom come from North Africa, but also from other areas in the region.

This afternoon, Erick left for the little but important country of Oman on the Arabian Peninsula with his school. He is participating in a very fascinating conference on water conservation, desalinization and other related topics. 7 other students and two faculty from his school are attending along with other students from Uganda, Saudi Arabia, England, and of course Oman. He is excited as we are for him. Nicki continues her studies at CBC/Ecuador with reports of growing and stretching in her spiritual life. Kjel is holding down the other American continent in his last semester at North Park in Chicago, keeping busy with work, play and studies, not necessarily in that order. Carol will be home here in Spain keeping us all coordinated and stabilized. Her job may be the toughest.

I’ve had vertigo before and this is a little like that. It all makes me a little dizzy trying to keep track of where God has each one of us this week. I don't think we have seperation anxiety but we do miss each other and wonder how each is doing in their place. It also makes my mom’s [that would be grandma to my kids] heart a little anxious, trying to keep track of us all in prayer. Will you join her, and us, praying for God to watch over us, to bless and use us, to expand our vision for what God is doing in our respective places, and how he wants to use us in his service? The journey is truly an adventure and he is so faithful. He promised to be with us to the ends of the earth. I’m staking my life on that promise this week especially.

Oh, by the way. The photo composition above is a mosaic of a single photo that I took this last weekend at Plaza Catalunya, rotated on its side several times to make this interesting piece. Hope you like it. You can click on the photo and it will take you to my photo page where the original is posted. Anyway, this composition made me think of vertigo a bit.

Another by the way. My first class of Arabic tonight went well. I'm in a small group of 7 students, three from Morocco, two from Spain, the teacher from Syria and me from the US. It will be intense and is a language entirely new for me, unrelated to anything I've ever tried before, except a semester of Hebrew in seminary too long ago to be of any help here! Well, I think I'm ready to turn in. Hasta next week. Don't think I will have access to my blog in Malta. We'll see. As always, comments are welcome.

Tomorrow night I take the plunge. I’m going to start Arabic classes. When I share this with people here in Barcelona, most seem impressed. I’m not really and I don’t know how far I will get in understanding this beautiful language. I have begun to hear it spoken here on the streets in Barcelona and in a Moroccan restaurant where I found a great “plato del dia” that fits nicely into my budget. With the language learning, my family wonders how I will wrap my tongue around a new set of sounds, let alone understand the incredible caligraphy. Since arriving here, I have provided more grins than I really wanted for them, with the funny combination of sounds coming out of my mouth. And that is without even trying to get the local language, Catalan, down. Castilian, different than the Spanish we learned in Mexico, has been challenging enough. Don't worry. I'm not suffering too much. This is a joy to take on a new challenge and to get to know some new people.

Anyway, I know that working on a language provides doors of understanding into a culture as well as opportunities to build bridges. That is probably my primary goal. I also want to be able to read the Q'uran in Arabic at some level. It would be nice to have some competency too. On that one we just have to wait and see. I'm taking the class at a Muslim cultural center downtown and my teacher is from Syria. The class will be taught in Spanish too. Should be fun. I guess people learn new languages everyday. My monolengual upbringing has given me a handicap but I'm willing to work with my disadvantage. 

By the way, did you know that Arabic significantly influenced the Spanish language during the time of the Moors in Spain? The little flyer for this class claims there are thousands of Spanish words that have an Arabic origin. I knew this to some degree but did not know how much. For instance, the words in Spanish that begin with the letter “z” or “al” probably come directly from Arabic. How about the expression used commonly in Spanish, “Ojala!” What does that sound like to you? Try “O, Allah!” Well, after this beginning class, I will be able to tell you more.

Do pray for me, that my brain work well and I am able to keep it fun. Pray also for relationships that I build and for new friendships of trust to be built. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity. I know my family also will have more material to laugh at as I try to produce some new sounds. Oh well. Comments? Anybody else feel tongue tied occassionally?

"The impact on us was sobering," as I mentioned in my last post. Questions of war and peace are thorny and complex for a follower of Christ. Before I dive into those questions, and maybe in part to avoid them, I just need to say what for most is obvious. War is ugly. Violence is a tragic commentary on our times. The brute reality of so many lives given to a conflict and the sophistication of humanity’s destructive ways are really, really disconcerting. And we’ve made significant improvements on our capacity to destroy since D-day!

At Pointe du Hoc, one of the important sites during the Normandy invasion, we walked around the craters left from the Allied bombardments and sat in the German fortifications, imagining the events of that day. Of the 225 Rangers who had embarked on the insane adventure of taking the German fortifications, only 90 were left to fight on day two. 80 of their comrades had lost their lives in this tiny corner of Normandy, scaling the rock and mud cliffs using ropes and ladders provided by the London fire department. Altogether, more than 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. Allied casualties totaled around 209,000, including 37,000 dead from the ground forces and almost 17,000 from the airborne forces.

One of my hopes and prayers today is that followers of Christ can be as sophisticated and committed to finding ways of making peace and creating conditions where the “ministry of reconciliation” of the Gospel can be offered, as our world has been able to destroy. We so need it! I'm reminded today of the passage where Christ talks about the stones crying out if his disciples were made to be silent about their enthusiasm for praising God.

"When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to joyfully praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop!" He replied, "I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." (Luke 19:37-40)

Then the Psalmist gives me pause:

“O God, Thou are my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I behold Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory. Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.” Psalm 63:1-3

This is Normandy Beach, looking down on the path of assault on D-Day during WWII 

I’m doing some reflection and reading on the topic of war and violence. It is so relevant today in our world and touches on our immediate work here in Europe and situations dealt with by our focus friends, many of whom come from areas of war, ethnic and religious strife and violence. At this point I have more questions than answers. Admittedly, I also have questions about what it means for Christians who follow the Prince of Peace [see Christmas reflection earlier in this blog] and how religious convictions are many times marshaled to argue for or against war and violence. I plan to do some musing on the theme in several posts here in this blog. Bear with me. I don’t intend to arrive at hard and fast conclusions. It is a theme, however, that followers of Christ need to think seriously about, especially today.

Here are some of my questions that I intend to explore–What do we believe about war and violence? What are the teachings of Christ on this and how do they sit with other apparent teaching in Holy Scriptures? How are we to behave as followers of Christ in the world today in situations of war and violence and what kind of response should we give to the questions posed by the headlines almost everyday? Are there ways we answer the questions as citizens of a country that are different than as members of a church? Are there grounds for responding differently in separate situations? Maybe more specifically, are there situations in the past, present or future, in which we can claim "Just War" theories to support them? Whether we answer that in the negative or positive what kind of thinking can we marshal for going forward today in our present situation?

We visited sites in France over Christmas that stand as some of the significant historical footprints in our collective memory about World War II. The photos that accompany this series are from there. The impact on us was sobering. To help in my reflection I’m reading some interesting books that I would also recommend to anyone interested: Violence in God’s Name by Oliver McTernan; Waging Peace on Islam by Christine A. Mallouhi; Resident Aliens by Hauerwas and Willimon; Faiths in Conflict? By Vinoth Ramachandra; A God of Vengeance? By Erick Zenger which is a commentary on the Psalms; A History of Christian-Muslim Relations by Hugh Goddard and the Place of Tolerance in Islam by Khaled Abou El Fadl. As always, please feel free to comment along the way.