Final Notes about Cote d'Ivoire

A followup Beaumont Enterprise story is available here:
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/southeast_texans_help_to_net_disease_in_africa_11-25-2008.html

You can view my Cote d'Ivoire photo album at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055775&l=5f9c3&id=3003527

Photos and more are available at http://umns.umc.org and http://www.txcumc.org

Thanks for everyone who followed along with the blog, on Twitter and Facebook, and said prayers or sent words of encouragement! May our Thanksgiving celebrations this week make us truly thankful and extravagantly generous.

Worship

Well kids, the word of the day is “worship.” Why?

Find out at http://www.txcumcmedia.org/africablog/?p=154

And I hope you have read all the posts, not just mine, on the conference blog page, not to mention the wonderful other bloggers listed on the blogroll. Merci beaucoup!

Que c'est la nouvelle?

What is the news? This question is the first one asked upon arriving in a village, especially for an official visit to the chief or the church. It’s apparently protocol for “What are you doing here? What’s your business?”

Read more at http://www.txcumcmedia.org/africablog/?p=129

Hope

Two stories from today: one from the Catholic hospital in Alepe, the other about our Gendarmie (national police) guard who accompanies us everywhere we go.

Read more at http://www.txcumcmedia.org/africablog/?p=126

Simplicity

Simplicity is not a choice here, not for the vast majority of the people I’ve met. One of the team members shared last night about going into a home to see the nets we’ve been distributing all week actually being used. This was a four room house, with each room smaller than the hotel room we’re staying in here. A family was sleeping in each room; 17 total people living in the house.

Read more at http://www.txcumcmedia.org/africablog/?p=85

Beaumont Enterprise article

Here's a link to the article about the trip from the Beaumont Enterprise:

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/ent-life/net_gains_give_life_in_africa_11-07-2008.html

Priorities

...It's not that I don't like football; but is that really what our highest priority ought to be? I couldn't help but think of the contrast between the Friday Night Lights and what is going on here this week in Cote d'Ivoire.

Read more at http://www.txcumcmedia.org/africablog/?p=79

Travel Update

There's a travel update posted on http://www.txcumcmedia.org/africablog/?p=60 and some nice pictures as well (including one of me!). Please find out about how the past few days have gone, and excuse the lack of posting--it should be more regular from here on out!

Juxtaposition

It’s one of my favorite 25-cent words: juxtaposition: what happens when you place two things side by side. You can’t escape it in Cote d’Ivoire.

Read more at http://www.txcumcmedia.org/africablog/?p=57

Leaving, on a jet plane...

Well, the team has assembled (loosely) in front of our gate at Intergalactic Airport Houston. I can’t speak for the rest of them...

Read more at http://www.txcumcmedia.org/africablog/?p=35

Africa trip information

Well, tomorrow will be a week until I head to Africa. I wanted to let my vast readership know about how I will be keeping up while I'm gone. I highly recommend visiting my comprehensive trip resources page at http://www.wesleylamar.org/africa for that information. You can also download the complete 12-day prayer guide for the time that we are gone.

Please donate to Nothing But Nets, follow me on Twitter and Facebook, read my blog, visit other peoples' blogs, and pray for us. We trust that the Spirit of the Living God will bring us together with the people of God and those doing the work of God so that the Kingdom of God will be revealed and enacted here on earth.

Nothing but Nets

One of the reasons I got into this pastor gig is because I felt the responsibility to do something constructive, creative, restorative with what I’ve been given. A lot of days, I feel like this is a goal that goes, at best, unfulfilled. (Catching up on emails, filing reports, committee meetings, and the like may be necessary, but rarely seem world-changing.) So when I got the call that invited me to be a part of my Church’s Net Distribution Team, I was beyond elated…but let me explain.

The people of the United Methodist Church are partners in the Nothing But Nets initiative, along with Sports Illustrated, NBA Cares, the United Nations Foundation and many more. Nothing But Nets is a grassroots initiative to eradicate malaria in Africa through the use of long-life, insecticide-treated bednets. Malaria accounts for 50% of all hospital and outpatient admissions in Africa, and 3 out of 4 people affected are children under the age of 5. Malaria is a nasty, killer disease, but the most effective means of curbing its spread and effects is through a simple $10 net.

So this November I’ll be distributing these nets to children in Côte d’Ivoire, where Texan Methodists have a relationship with Ivorian Methodists. Over a 10-day period, our 35-member team will be working with NGOs, the Ministry of Health, and the Church to distribute over a million nets (885,000 of which were donated through Methodists in Texas). That will still leave 6 million at-risk Ivorians unprotected, though...

...which is why I’m sharing this with you. It's not so that I can pump my own ego :) but to invite you to participate. If you haven’t already been to http://www.NothingButNets.net, I encourage you to do so to find out more about what this campaign is doing. You can donate, buy shirts & hats which advertise while providing a net, and share media & news. If you would like to help defray the team’s expenses, you can talk to me directly. I hate asking for money considering natural disasters and economic crises, but let’s face it—almost all of us are ridiculously better off than these infants, children, and pregnant moms. It’s an opportunity to be a part of mending the creation—making the world a better place—or being a good neighbor in the global village. And you can read about the distribution as it happens here at The Expatriate Minister.

Spend $10. Send a net. Save a life.

Quote Board

Well, since I don't have any original/inspired thoughts at the moment, I thought I'd bring you some thoughts by others.

"It's not that industry is bad. If we shut it down we do not progress. Greed is the problem. If PG&E had done the right thing morally then we'd never have had this lawsuit, lives would have been saved and they would not have been out of $1bn. That's just bad business. Honesty hurts, but it's at least respectful of people. I see no change at all in industry."

Erin Brockovich
The Guardian

Gandhi lite? Yes, but in a form perhaps more palatable to American/Western ears. Brockovich is an interesting person, and I think well worth listening to because of her wilderness perspective.

From a vastly different corner:

"It is impossible to love a God that we do not see when we cannot love those that we can see."

Joe Worley, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Groves

The Beaumont Enterprise

An excellent exposition of the love passages in 1 Corinthians and 1 John. Enacted, tangible expressions of love are perhaps the only way in which we can both share our faith and worship authentically.

My own thoughts will resume in the near future...

Second Sight

Not to put too fine a point on it, but great minds think alike... :)

The most recent dispatch from Bishop Janice Riggle Huie (Houston area, United Methodist Church) is another exercise in perceiving the presence of God, and worth a read:

Seeing the Presence of God

May you see and feel in a profound way the God who is at work in the world for good!

Post-Ike Thoughts

Well here we are again after the storm. I thought I might offer a few
thoughts on the presence of God in these difficult circumstances.

First, I think God is present in the way that people prepared. Those
who evacuated, the hospitals and nursing homes who arranged transport
for those under their care, the emergency management teams and 211,
first responders, government and non-profit relief organizations--
along with many others--all showed an awareness of the needs in their
communities and constiuencies. As Don Saliers told me in worship
class, "The Holy Spirit never minds good planning."

I also want to highlight the ways in which neighbors are helping one
another out as the long work of recovery begins. Citizens putting
others' needs ahead of their own comfort is a great example of
Christlikeness. Those who have hosted strangers and evacuees, shared
generators, waited with grace and humor in long lines for basic needs,
and more all made God incarnate by their attitudes and actions.

The question of divine will in a natural disaster is one I cannot
answer. But in the response to tragedy, may our communities of faith
keep hoping in a redeeming God and re-present that God to all we
encounter.

On Batman

So, there are a number of folks out there looking for a deeper interpretation of The Dark Knight than just an entertaining advancement of the Batman epic. Sojourners and The Wall Street Journal both offer up their perspectives as they relate to the War on Terror and George W. Bush.

But the hunt for a scapegoat in The Dark Knight hinges upon real wrongs done to real people--some deserving, some not--by the morally-troubling-turned-physically-and-psychologically-damaged Harvey Dent.

Sojourners wants the ending of the movie to be about our hunt for a scapegoat for all of our sins. The WSJ wants the ending to be about the inevitable blameshifting onto a worthy cause. But neither of those are the case. It is about the individuals with real power choosing to create a lie so that something greater doesn't die.

Both Sojo & the WSJ speak of this action as it is inevitable. But it isn't. Gordon has to forego his only real friend (!?) and partner while Batman is pushed further underground and anti-establishment even as he tries to preserve his real work. But it is a choice: not to reveal that Harvey Dent was pushed off the cliff by the horrific violence done against him and Rachel Dawes, and all its collateral damage in the soul.

Of course, one doubts that Gotham City could have understood the truth about Harvey Dent any more than they could understand how close they truly are to moral and social evil (see the ferrboat scene for an excellent example of the precipice). Gordon & Batman know precisely how close to the edge (or over it) Gotham is, which is why they opt for what they believe is the lesser of two evils. But don't mistake it--perpetuating/creating a lie instead of the truth is indeed an evil, no matter how lesser it may be. I don't doubt that Chris Nolan will make good use of this in his 3rd movie to explore the deep ramifications of good people choosing the fictious over veracity. (Chris, if you want help, watch Frodo's assistance of Gollum's descent after the waterfall scene in The Lord of the Rings.)

At the end of the day, what the movie portrays is a choice that has consequences. The scapegoating by the good citizens of Gotham--for whatever reason--is enabled by what Gordon & Batman choose to do. And this is the heart of the Christian story: that the sin which inhabits our world is there because of a choice we have made. It is no one else's fault but our own. Accepting a gracious forgiveness & freedom from God does not, unfortunately, mitigate the consequences of our actions. Batman's freedom to make a decision to save either Rachel or Harvey leads to diasterous consequences which set the endgame in motion: he must now think that the other option would have been the best. Human freedom is always hampered by finitude, if not by sin, even divinely granted human freedom. The Dark Knight is an excellent exploration of moral complexity and the dialectic between freedom and sin, which the Christian tradition knows all too well.

Dancing

Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.
And I'll lead you all wherever you may be,
and I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.

Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth

(Astronomy Picture of the Day is a great website to visit, by the way.)

or watch here:


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Archiving Complete

Okay, that's all the old posts for now. Since the housekeeping's done, you'll start seeing more from me soon. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging....

Full of Life

Sorry for the bloggus interruptus, but I'm back now.

I've been thinking a lot recently about what is going on at the Student Center: what kind of ministry do we want, what kind of effect should we have at Lamar and elsewhere, how do we get there. The thing I keep coming back to is I want us to be a body that is full of life.

Well that's nice and all, but what does "full of life" mean? A few thoughts have I (saith Yoda)....

+ Full of life means being open to receiving that life from the one creates, redeems, and sustains: the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ, and made present through the Holy Spirit.
+ Full of life means taking care of each other--being there in the good, bad, and in-between times.
+ Full of life means exercising personal responsibility, making decisions that reflect good and not evil, and attempting to live in the pattern of Jesus.
+ Full of life means being an agent of change in our society and culture, using power to serve one another rather than dominate, and to celebrate justice, righteousness, truth, and peace.
+ Full of life means living not out of a sense of entitlement or self-gratification, but rather out of gratitude and service towards others
+ Full of life means inviting others to "come and see" how we as Christians follow Jesus in this time and place...and that even they can be a part of the Kingdom of God.

Originally posted 10/2/07.

Fix It....

Driving through the South Park neighborhood and the Lamar campus the day after Hurricane Humberto visited us, my two year old son became quite upset. He began looking around and crying out plaintively, "Fix it! Ben fix it!"

My wife and I couldn't quite figure out what he was talking about until we really looked at the landscape around us. The whole area featured limbs and branches scattered on the road and lawns, landscaping uprooted, whole trees that had fallen over onto fences and yards. Ben was upset that things were not the way they were supposed to be, the way he knew they should be.

At a very early age, Ben is discovering that the world is not as it should be, and that it is easier to destroy than it is to build up...whether that is by natural or human hands. And he embodies that childlike quality that wants to mend what is broken, even if it isn't possible.

The world we live in is broken--more often by our own hands than by nature's--and I wonder whether we still possess the naive desire to try and fix it. It's naive because it can't be done by ourselves alone...but that desire is something God uses as we join in the divine work of mending the world.

Originally posted 9/14/07.

Making Time

I really don't have the time to be writing this right now. I should be doing a number of other things.

Unfortunately, responsibilities don't take a vacation when things get tough. Neither do disciplines. Not convenient to train for a marathon in the rain? Feeling bad about your poor progress on the piano? Not feeling like suturing patients? Well, tough. It needs doing.

So, writing the blog is a discipline for me. It means doing it even when I don't want to, don't have the time for it, or it is difficult. So it is with all the practices which make up our life of faith. I'm having a hard time imagining Jesus giving himself a free pass on forgiveness for the week. Or not teaching or healing when someone is right there in front of him, in need.

I'm told that the difference between a professional and an amateur is that the amateur quits when it isn't convenient--and the professional does it in spite of the difficulties.

Perhaps, as we continue to walk alongside Jesus, we can learn in this way to be professionals, so do the things that need to be done when they need to be done--to have the discipline that turns us from occasional amateurs into full-time, professional people of faith.

Originally posted on 9/4/07.

Do Not Set Yourself On Fire

Do not set yourself on fire. This is the only piece of advice that I can give at the moment which can be helpful.

As someone who has graduated from high school, college, and graduate school...not to mention kindergarten...I would have thought this would be pretty obvious. But, apparently, it needs to be said. Apparently, someone would like to do this...safely...as a practical joke.

I must concede that there is potential for humor--but there's also the potential for upsetness (at best) and death (at worst). But I've got to ask the question--where do we draw the line with our humor? The Wesley t-shirts that we have this year are incredibly funny to many of us--but others are less than amused.

Humor is subjective, like so many things in our lives. Their value depends, as Obi-wan reminds Luke, on our point of view. And faith itself can seem subjective to us because we value it differently at different points in our lives.

If we're in a tight spot, then our faith is quite valuable--help me, God! And if we're doing fine, then we're not interested as much in what we can do for God, other people, and the Kingdom.

So the question is...what value do you place on your faith? Is it just for getting you out of tight spots, or is it about living a life that reflects God? What kind of priority will you place this year on your faith? We're here to help, if you want to value your faith in any way. In so doing, you might just find out more about the God who values you so very highly.

Originally posted 8/29/07.

Starting Again

Well, it hasn't gone all that well. Me writing for this blog, that is. So, let's try it again. I'll write more consistently this fall. I hope that means we'll be thinking together about faith, and doing more than thinking--actively living it out.

I'm pretty jazzed about the upcoming year--I think we will find God working in strange and mysterious ways, through the Wesley. Let's be on the lookout for where God is at work, and join in!

Originally posted 7/10/07.

Why Do I Wear A Collar?

I get really funny looks when I go places on campus, because I'm usually wearing my clerical collar. (I get really funny looks from the good Methodists in this part of Texas, too.) No, I'm not Roman Catholic...so why do I wear the collar?

You might blame it on the fact that I most recently served as a pastor in England, and the custom in that place is that all ministers of Christ wear a collar, not just the high-churchy ones. But it goes deeper than that for me.

You see, the collar means that I'm a high visibility person. I wear my faith on my sleeve...err, neck. That's dangerous, because I'm as prone to mess up as the next person. But I'm not wearing it so I can be recognized. I wear it because it means that someone can stop me, wherever they see me, and talk. For some people, it might be a turn-off: "No way am I going to talk to that wierdo." But I hope the collar does mean that I represent a group of people searching for a different way of living.

And that's my hope for the whole of our ministry here at the Wesley: that we would be recognizably different from the hostility, distance, and violence that is present in so much of our common life. That won't be accomplished so much by wearing different clothes, but by living under different rules: hospitality, gracefulness, servanthood, integrity, righteousness, justice, peace, generosity, and the like. And I am convinced that where there are people who earnestly try to live by those rules, there we will be blessed by the presence of God.

Originally posted 1/18/07.

Word…for the week of January 7, 2006

The Baptism of the Lord
Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Isaiah’s prophesy forms the basis for a beautiful American hymn, “How Firm A Foundation.” The first time I encountered this hymn was when it was embedded in a choral version of Amy Grant’s “Thy Word” that my youth choir was singing. The hymn sings of God’s power and authority which does not leave or fail us, even in the middle of the worst experiences of our lives.

But the hymn doesn’t touch on the most interesting part of what Isaiah is talking about: the fact that God’s chosen people are the children of Israel. In what theologians call “the scandal of particularity,” God is willing to choose one (small) group of people over all the others. The Old Testament story is the story of that group, and the ways in which they struggle with God to discover what that means.

Is it important that God is willing to give up the Egyptians and Ethiopians for the Israelites? I’m sure that it is—and it makes me more than uncomfortable. I’m not sure I like the idea that God “exchanges” one nation for another.

And yet, we often measure the worth that which is most precious to us by what we had to give up. Perhaps that is what God is communicating to us in this passage. Was the people of Israel worth sacrificing all those other folks? Or was God planning on recovering the rest of those nations in the end as well?

I can only venture my own understanding: God gives up on no one. The scandalous, particular focus on Israel and the Church is meant to have a redemptive, ransoming, redeeming effect on the entire creation, including those nations which before have been seen as rejected. And in Christ Jesus, God's project of reconciliation extends to the entire world, through the particular agents of Israel and the Church.

In the end, God goes looking for everyone, and says the same thing which was said through Isaiah: "Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth--everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

Originally posted 1/9/07

Archive Migration

Well, as the summer progresses I'm doing a bit of maintenance on our web presence, which includes the Wesley Student Center at Lamar University blog. I'm starting over there, but I'm going to re-post some old material here. Low-budget migration. Anyway, look for few more posts to show up here with some older material. I'll have new stuff up soon as well.

Long Trip

Well, the expatriate minister is returning after a long hiatus. I'll make the usual promises about getting back into regular blogging (and probably fall short). I'm still blogging at Liturgical Nerds (see sidebar) and there's some other reading materials there that might pique your interest. So kick back, grab an overpriced cup of coffee (that's very emergent) and start reading again. Glad to be back...