Waking up…

Sitting in my apartment here in Karaganda, I hear the footsteps of my upstairs neighbors and the reality of their humanity sets in. They walk around their apartments, cook, clean, eat, use the bathroom, sleep just as I do. Their footfall makes them real; no longer mythical creatures in a far away land, but real; real people right above my head. I begin to see them as neighbors. And, as with each time I travel, I begin to see more and more that we are all neighbors, all human beings, all made in the image of Almighty God. And with this realization comes an overwhelming love.

 

This is the beauty of travel – whether it be to the farthest corner of the earth or to some forgotten neighborhood in our own cities – that we come in contact with other parts of the human race; some we may not have known existed, but parts that are equally real, human, and as precious as our own. (When I say travel I don’t mean breezing through a given locale in a hurry to get somewhere else. I mean stopping, looking, tasting, feeling, touching, smelling, interacting, and having open eyes, an open heart, and an open mind.)

 

And with traveling we come to see that we share so much in common. Even our fears are common. We fear for our children’s safety. We fear disease and decay. We fear growing old. We fear losing our rights (whatever we’ve been taught to believe these are). We fear for the wellbeing of our loved ones. We fear being left with nothing. We fear being alone, being forgotten. But one thing travel also does is help us realize that we don’t need to fear each other. When we begin to refuse to see our neighbors as Muslim, Christian, Jew; Democrat or Republican; Kazakh, Russian, or American; black, brown, or white; educated or uneducated; rich or poor; slave or free; we begin to see each other and our neighbors in the holy light of God’s divine image. We begin to see God, and we begin to treat each other as we would treat our Holy Father.

  

May the God who loves us teach us to love as he does. And may we be transformed by this indefinable, incalculable love.

Pictures!

Here’s a pic of my team and some of the first few days in Karaganda, Kazakhstan! Enjoy!

Hello from Karaganda, Kazakhstan!

I just got back from a short run, and I am sitting at my desk typing while a cool morning breeze blows through my open window, listening to the Black Keys hammer out some dirty blues. There’s a crisp feel of fall about the air this morning. The weather has been very nice thus far; high 80s during the day and crisp and cool in the late evenings and early mornings. Even though it’s fairly warm this time of year, the short fall will be coming soon and on its coattails will come winter. I’m very excited to experience the changing of seasons in a different country!

 

We’ve been here now for a few days. The alum teachers have showed us around a little bit, and we’ve each done a little of our own exploring. Erich, my roommate, and I live on the 3^rd floor of a very Soviet-esque apartment building. I was very pleasantly surprised by our flat. It completely exceeded my low expectations. Each of us has a bedroom, and we have a kitchen, a bathroom, and a sizeable living room with a balcony. It’s really in good shape and very comfortable so far.

 

Teaching begins Monday, Sept 8, and the week prior we interview our students to place them in classes according to their English skills. I’m excited and a nervous for classes to begin. I will be teaching Conversational Fluency in which the focus will be conversational English. Some of the topics we will deal with will be introductions, idioms, debate etiquette, etc. Now, with the time leading up to class we will be exploring the city as to become familiar with it, we will be preparing lessons for the semester, and we adjusting to life in Kazakhstan.

 

Please be thinking of my teammates and me, and my thoughts are with you.

At Training…

I have officially been at training for 3 complete weeks. I can’t believe how fast it has gone by. Before I came I couldn’t imagine a month of training…what could we possibly do during that time? But I’ve really been humbled.

So what does a typical day of training look like for me? Good question, Jeff. Here it is:

·     7:00 – Breakfast

·     8:00 – Team/individual devotions

·     9:00-11:45 – TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) sessions

·     12:00 – Lunch

·     1:30-4:00 – Cultural training and team building (which includes Russian language training)

·     4:00 – Practicum prep (on the days we don’t teach practicum we have this time to ourselves)

·     6:00 – Dinner

·     7:00-9:00 Practicum (we are practicing our teaching skills 2 nights a week at a local church – most of our students are Chinese adults wanting to improve their English – it’s a blast and a little nerve-racking because we are being evaluated as we teach)

·     9:00-9:30 Debriefing with team

So as you can see we are keeping pretty busy, but that helps the time go by quickly. I’m also really impressed with the spiritual training that TeachOverseas has provided. It challenges me daily, and I am realizing just how scary love and community truly are, but just how life-altering and world-transforming they are meant to be and will be.  We’ve also had the chance to have some fun on weekends. We’ve spent some of the days at Santa Monica, in Hollywood, hiking to waterfalls, and just relaxing.

I’m so blessed to have this opportunity, and I am reminded of how God’s kingdom was inaugurated. It came and proliferated in such an unexpected way. Instead of being clad in impenetrable armor, wielding a glimmering sword, and riding on a snow-white steed, Jesus came squeezed out of a goopy, messy womb born as a vulnerable, helpless baby. Instead of being born with the best doctors on call in the most sanitary and reputable hospital, Jesus was born in a stable/cave. Instead of being born to a powerful, earthly king, Jesus was born to a most likely impoverished teenage girl, living in an occupied territory under an oppressive rule. And every time Jesus faced what we consider to have been an enemy or a hypocrite, Jesus didn’t simply say “off with his/her head!” Instead, Jesus saw his own image in them, and he loved them. Now this did not mean that he never rebuked them or had hard things to say. Jesus wasn’t some push over, lovey-dovey guru. But when he rebuked he did it in love and with compassion.

 

Also, please keep the Russia and Georgia situation in your thoughts. Hope that the Christians on either side will remember that the people/enemies/innocents they are destroying are not just the unavoidable casualties of war but rather the image of Almighty God, not just foes to be put down but rather the least of these by which we will be judged.

 

And think of those we consider our enemies; bin Laden, Islamic militants, maybe even some politicians. Hope, remembering that they are our neighbors and that even the hardest hearts have the potential to be softened, even the most calloused skin can be made fresh again and experience revolutionary transformation. Hope for Chinese president Hu Jintao to use his position as the leader of the world’s most populous country to benefit the human race rather than proliferate genocide and support oppressive regimes. Hope the same for our president. Hope that Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir will see the Darfuris he is seeking to obliterate in the holy light of God.

 

May we pray unceasingly believing that our God is good! To him be the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen!

The Dark Knight…

This is a long one…

 

I saw The Dark Knight the other night in Pasadena…WOW!! I loved Batman Begins, and now I also love The Dark Knight. It was truly a spectacular film in my opinion. It was a very, very dark film. I liked how the movie portrayed justice as being in the people’s hands as well as in Batman’s hands, and that every citizen of Gotham had a role in the process of justice.

 

I also thought it portrayed just how “real” evil really is. Even though it was a fictional story with fictional characters it reminded me that evil is an unfortunate reality, and that as Christians, we must take it very seriously. We cannot just brush it off and expect it to disappear if we think good thoughts and avoid its appearance at all costs. Evil is real and active. And as Batman learned, evil is not something that can be combated with some overreaching magic formula. He also learned that to “destroy” evil does not mean to destroy the person or persons committing the evil. Just as a teacher does not attack his/her troubled student personally, rather, the teacher attacks the problem behind the behavior of the student, Batman sought to bind evil rather than destroy the person acting out the evil.

 

“Ridding the world of evil,” as some of our politicians declare will not truly rid the world of evil. Hitler said the exact same thing, and Osama bin Laden and those responsible for 9/11 said virtually the same thing. Hitler’s goal and Osama bin Laden’s goal was to rid the world of what they deemed “evil,” so they tried to obliterate that which they thought to be evil. With Hitler it was the Jews, and with bin Laden it was 2 American symbols and the people they contained. And now it is also our leaders dropping smart bombs, cluster bombs, and not-so-smart bombs on innocent Iraqis and Afghanis all in the name of ridding the world of evil terrorists. True, our leaders have hunted down some very evil people, but in the process they have pulled many innocents down into the grave; children and the elderly, fathers and mothers.

 

And that makes me ask, Why are we fighting? Why are we fighting when we believe that the final sacrifice has been made to free us from the wages of sin? Paul teaches us in Romans 6 that “the wages of sin is death.” Sin could be pride, arrogance, shedding innocent blood, idolatry, murder, revenge, etc, and the wages of these sins and all others is death. I believe that this death isn’t just after life death, but rather a demise that is realized here and now.

 

Another thought: We sing songs like “Victory in Jesus,” but do we live like we believe in that victory? And what exactly is the “victory” that Jesus won for us. If it is victory over death, shouldn’t we believe that victory begins on this earth, in our lifetimes? In the words of Paul, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Are we trying to claim victory in our name, or are we allowing God to fight and claim victory in his name?

 

Maybe, we should think of Jesus as the final innocent civilian to die, the finally casualty of war, the final victim of sin, but instead we choose to create more unwilling civilian corpses all in the name of ridding the world of evil. For every “bad guy” we annihilate, we seem to take 10 innocents along with, and we justify this, again, all in the name of freedom and democracy. Some sources have the death toll for Iraqis at over 1,000,000, the majority innocent civilians. Too me, that is unacceptable, especially to us who are Christians and say we believe the words of Paul – don’t take revenge, and the words of Jesus – love your neighbor as yourself. How can we let this happen? Is it because we ourselves feel so insecure and unsafe? Are we like a cornered animal lashing out in violence at anything that moves? Is it because we are living in fear of terrorist attacks while we ourselves are sponsoring a far more severe terror than was even realized in the 9/11 attacks? We must remember that Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.”

 

How then shall we live if we are not to be afraid?

 

In the final “fight” scene between the Joker and Batman I see a picture of what Jesus has done for us. Batman ultimately wins the fight and the Joker tumbles out the window from a height that would surely kill him. But instead of letting the Joker fall to his imminent death, Batman lassoes (not the right word, but oh well) him, thus saving him from death; choosing not to “rid the world of one evil doer”, but rather preserve a life overcome by evil. And then, in the closing scenes, Batman takes the blame, or the fall, for the evil done by both the Joker and Harvey Dent (Two Face); bearing their burden as criminals, taking upon himself the wages that were due them for their sin.

 

“While we were still sinners (his enemies), Christ died for us.” – the worlds of Paul, Romans 5:8.

 

How then shall we live; as the world who teaches us to think and act out the words, “No aid and no comfort to the enemy, never!” or as Jesus who suffered and died to aid and comfort his enemies, us?