Autumn Adventures

I’ve been pretty silent on the blog, but I’ve been having plenty of adventures in these autumn months.

Canning my mom’s famous salsa with four generations of my family (Grandpa, Mom, Cousin, Cousin’s son)

I spent a few hours exploring ArtPrize in downtown Grand Rapids.  This was one of my favorite pieces, called Cascade.

 

I headed west for a couple of weeks.  First, I spent time with my sister and brother-in-law in their new home in Colorado.

Mary and I drove up to Independence Pass, about 40 miles of mountain driving from their house.

It was peak color season for the Aspens and their vivid gold against the deep evergreens was spectacular.  For anyone wondering, late September or early October is an excellent time to visit—the weather and trees are beautiful and it is considered “shoulder season” so things aren’t so busy.

Mary is talented and made a video of our time together.  It features lots of footage of mountains, aspens, their canine companion, a gondola ride, and me awkwardly crossing a footbridge.  You can see it on her blog.

Next stop: Laramie, Wyoming.  This was a new state for me, and it was like no other place I’ve been to.

My reason for going to Wyoming: visiting my friend Allison, her husband, and infant son!  It was so good to see them!

Back to Michigan: an impromptu lunch at Crane’s Pie Pantry with my mom—apple dumpling and apple cider…yum!

An afternoon hike to Hoffmaster State Park

Lake Michigan from Hoffmaster’s Dune Overlook

Goodbye, Grand Rapids

Tonight is the last night I will sleep in my apartment in Grand Rapids.  For the foreseeable future, it is the last night I will stay in GR as a resident, and not someone’s guest.  This is a sad night for me.  This is the place I became an adult.  I have lived here for 3/4 of my adult life.  I went to Calvin College here.  I went to Calvin Theological Seminary here.  I had my first call at Church of the Servant here.  Living in Grand Rapids has shaped me in so many ways. 
People love to hate Grand Rapids; some call it “bland rapids.”  It is not as big or as cosmopolitan as New York or Chicago.  But Grand Rapids has its own charm.  There are lots of wonderful places and things to do in Grand Rapids.  Let me share a few of my favorites with you:

• Calvin College—where I learned how to be a thinking Christian mindful of the broader world
• Oakdale Park CRC—the church I attended while I was at Calvin
• Ice skating at Rosa Park circle
• Little Africa Ethiopian restaurant—a favorite place my friends would go when we were at Calvin
• $5 student tickets to the Grand Rapids Symphony
• Calvin Theological Seminary—where I did the formal education part of becoming a pastor
• Monroe Community Church—the church that loved me through seminary
• Kava House
• Art Prize—most interesting and fun thing that has started in GR recently
• The Green Well—a favorite with some of my seminary-era friends
• Peking Wok (which has very sadly closed)
• Eerdman’s Bookstore—they have a great selection of discount Eerdman's books
• Concerts at Calvin College—why didn’t I go to more when I was a student?  They have really interesting artists
• The Festival of Faith and Writing—so many wonderful readers and writers gathered together
• Church of the Servant—where I became a pastor
• Summer concerts at the Fredrik Meijer Gardens Amphitheater
• Bethany Refugee Services and the hundreds of refugees that are resettled here every year
• Baker Books and Icons Coffee—wonderful bookstore and coffee shop really close to my house
• Kentwood Public Library

And of course, the people are such an important part of Grand Rapids and my experience here.  Professors and friends from Calvin College.  Professors, staff, and students at Calvin Seminary, where I was enfolded into community.  Other wonderful friends that I made during my seminary days.  Colleagues and congregants at Church of the Servant.  I wouldn’t be who I am without all of you all.
I don’t know where I am going to land in the future, but I am thankful for the ways Grand Rapids has shaped me, and I am excited to take that with me to my unknown destination.  Thanks, Grand Rapids.  Its been great!  

Tahquamenon River Vacation

After the wedding last weekend, I continued farther north to Paradise! 

Paradise, MI is on Whitefish Bay of Lake Superior, just north of where the Tahquamenon River flows into the lake.

 

Whitefish Bay at the Rivermouth

I went for an outdoor, camping getaway.  I stayed at Tahquamenon Falls State Park’s Rivermouth Semi-Modern Campground.  It is a beautiful campground, right along the Tahquamenon River.  I also liked the semi-modern aspect—that means it is a rustic campground with vault (pit) toilets and water faucets, but no electricity or paved pads.  It is right next to the modern campground, so I was just a short walk away from a modern bathhouse with showers, which is my big campground criteria.

I spent lots of time watching the river in different weather and at different times of day, whether there was bright sun or drizzling rain.  I also observed a beaver in the river and a number of different kinds of birds.  I think that was the first time I’d ever seen a beaver in the wild and it was pretty cool to watch it right across the river eating grass and bushes.

The real reason for Tahquamenon Falls State Park is, of course, the famous Tahquamenon Falls.  They really are a beautiful part of God’s creation!  There are the magnificent Upper Falls, which are some of the tallest falls east of the Mississippi River.  The river is the orange/brown color because of tannin that leaches into the water from Hemlock, Cedar, and Spruce trees in the area the river flows through. 

Although the Upper Falls are the more famous ones, I actually think that the Lower Falls are more interesting.  They are a set of five smaller falls cascading down around a small island.  There are trails along one side of the river, but the better way to see them is to rent a row boat and take it to the island.  From the island you can get close to the falls and even wade into them when it is warmer and the water is lower.  You can also see the falls that are on the opposite side of the island from the trail.

I also hiked between the falls.  The trail follows the river, sometimes high above the river and sometimes right alongside of it.  It is about a five mile hike, so I used a shuttle service to spot me to the beginning and hiked back to my car.

One day I also drove up to Whitefish Point, which extends up into Lake Superior.  The stretch of Lake Superior to the west of Whitefish Point (to the Pictured Rocks area) is one of the most dangerous areas of the Great Lakes.  There is a museum about the many shipwrecks in the area on the Point.  We went there when I was kid on family vacation, but somehow I was picturing the shipwrecks happening because of horrible storms and ships alone at sea.  Actually, many of the shipwrecks happened because of collisions with other ships.  I also found the additional buildings really interesting, especially a volunteer who does a lot of diving on shipwrecks.

 

All in all, it was a great vacation.  I was blessed to be able to get away, have some quiet, and enjoy the sunshine, rain, and outdoors.  I came back feeling much calmer and able to engage life.

Grains of Hope

“We have, what do you call it, a small bit of wheat at the end of stalk, a grain.  We have what you would call, grains of hope.  When I face, when I am in darkness, even there when I am beaten and tortured every day, I have hope.  I do not stop.  That is what keep me alive.” 

These words came from the lips of a man who came as a refugee to Grand Rapids, and they became the title of the play Grains of Hope.  Grains of Hope is an ethnographic play created by Stephanie Sandberg and the Calvin Theater Company.  Stephanie and Calvin students interviewed over 100 people in West Michigan who came here as refugees or work closely with refugees.  From those interviews, she chose 7 stories—7 people—to feature at the center of the play.   An 18 year old woman who came to Grand Rapids from Vietnam with her family when she was three years old.  A man who fled Sudan as a child and when he eventually came to Grand Rapids, all he knew of America was Mickey Mouse printed on a t-shirt.  A Bhutanese man who spent 15 years of his life living in a refugee camp in Nepal in a simple bamboo house with dirt floors.  In the play, actors brought each of these characters to life using their own words from the interviews.  

They told of how they came to be in Grand Rapids and what they have faced since they arrived.  Stories of the difficulties of learning English and finding work.  They told stories of struggles to find good and affordable housing.  And they told stories of friendship and the people who have helped them along the way--middle school teachers, caseworkers, and doctors, an English tutor who became a friend, an older woman who became a family’s adopted mother and grandmother.

This play was performed 13 times in various locations around Grand Rapids over the last few weeks.  My congregation was privileged to host one of the performances last Sunday evening.  We have been active in working with refugees for many years, and several of the people who appeared in the play were members of our church who have developed relationships with families who came as refugees.  It was moving to see their dedication over the years brought to life. 

An actress telling the story of a woman who came from the DR Congo

As I watched the play, there were points where I was almost in tears at the stories.  Even the people who I don’t know personally have elements of their stories that are similar to stories I have heard from people that I know.  These are people that have welcomed me into their homes with various kinds of chai, fruit, and other snacks.  Who seem glad to have me there, even if much of the conversation around me is in a language that I don’t understand.  Who have loved me and prayed for my mom when she had surgery last winter.  They are people who have come through horrific circumstances to a new life in America.  And that life isn’t necessarily easier—safer and with a higher material standard of living, perhaps—but with the new challenges of DHS who cuts benefits (like food stamps) if you miss a letter or appointment, a mind-bogglingly complex medical system, and a culture that is independent to the extreme. 

I am so inspired by the people I know who arrived here as refugees.  I have seen Christ in them, again and again.  I am thankful for the opportunity to get to know so many of them in the past few years.  I have seen their hope, even in midst of despair.  I hope some of that has rubbed off on me.  And I hope that I and churches across North America would offer the friendship that gives hope to dealing with the transitions.  I pray that we would reflect Christ to our friends, because Jesus is the source of true hope.

Resources:

Video promo of Grains of Hope

Bethany Refugee Services

Refugee Stories from the UNHCR

11 Facts About Refugees

Wheat photo by Marilylle Soveran, http://www.flickr.com/photos/86953562@N00/47812279/, used under a Creative Commons License.
Play photo from Calvin College publicity, http://www.calvin.edu/news/archive/grains-of-hope

People of the Book and My Neighborhood Mosque

I recently read the novel People of the Book by Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks.  It tells to story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illustrated Haggadah (liturgy book for the Jewish Passover) that was created in Spain in the 14^th century.  It escaped Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, survived Catholic censors in Vienna in the 17^th century, and was rescued from underneath the Nazis in Sarajevo. 

Brooks took the historical outline of this special object and imagined how it made the journey.  Working back through history she created characters that interacted with the book—a Muslim librarian in Sarajevo, an alcoholic priest and his gambling rabbi friend, a young Muslim woman who became a slave for a Jewish doctor.  I actually don’t usually like books as complicated as this one.  Some chapters are a modern day story moving chronologically about the conservation of this special book.  In between those chapters are the chapters that describe each stop, and then move in reverse chronological order.  Each of those chapters is in a new time and place with a new set of characters to get to know.  And for this book, it works.  I was drawn into the story—the story moving forward and the individual stories moving backwards.

One of the questions or themes of this book are how people of different religions get along, or don’t get along, as often happens.  The novel is populated by “people of the book”—Jews, Christians, and Muslims.  Through the centuries, people of all three religions create, move, and preserve the haggadah.  But it usually comes in times of persecution, when people of one religion are in power and oppressing the others.  Christians censor books of other faiths in seventeenth century Venice.  A Muslim ruler captures a Christian woman and forces her to become his wife in fifteenth century Seville.  There are moments of beauty and depravity by people of all three religions. 

It is a long standing question: how do we relate to people of other faiths?  People of faith generally hold their beliefs strongly and that causes conflict.  We see it played out through the history books and browsing the news today.  And when faith gets combined with power—particularly political or economic power—things get messy.  I can only speak as a Christian, and we have made some terrible mistakes.  Those mistakes have brought dishonor to the name of Jesus, who came to bring shalom (peace, wholeness) to the world. 

I want to be part of bringing that shalom to the world, and that means both not perpetrating violence or harm to others, but also speaking the name of Jesus who brings peace.  Easier said than done.  I hear stories of people who have had to flee their homeland because of religious differences.  I walk by the mosques in my neighborhood and am curious about the people that worship in them, but I don’t know many of them.  And so I pray, may I be an instrument of peace.  May people of all backgrounds find shalom in Jesus Christ, where true peace is found.  And may all followers of Jesus bring peace and not violence of any sort.  

People of the Book image from Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/People-Book-Novel-Geraldine-Brooks/dp/0143115006/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1367202355&sr=8-1

Image of the mosque from Muslim in Michigan, http://muslimsinmichigan.org/2010/04/12/islamic-mosque-and-religious-institute-kentwood-mi/

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie eleison*.

It has been a long week in this world, Lord.

Full of violence to body, earth, and spirit.

Lord, have mercy.

Christe eleison.

Bombings.

Shootings.

Explosions.

Flooding.
Earthquakes.

Rejection.

Abuse.

Starvation.

Some of it unexpected,

And some of it horribly routine.

Christ, have mercy.

Kyrie eleison.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come through your Word, Spirit, and Sacraments.

Come and show us that you are Immanuel—God with us.

Immanuel at the musty funeral home.

Immanuel in the sterile hospital room.

Immanuel at the prayer service.

Immanuel in the flooded home.

Immanuel when the computer bears bad news.

Immanuel when the partner keeps manipulating.

Immanuel when there is no rice or bread.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come and bring your new heavens and new earth.

Come and turn swords into plowshares.

Come and wipe every tear from our eyes. 

Come, Lord Jesus.

Lord, have mercy on us!

*Kyrie eleison means “Lord have mercy” in Greek and is an ancient liturgical prayer.

Personal image taken on Iona, Scotland, January 2013.

UK #12: God Gathers, Protects, and Preserves

I wrote this on the plane, somewhere over the Atlantic off the coast of Greenland, and my way home (where I did arrive safely).  I have lots of specific stories to share in the coming days, but for this post I am going to focus on a theme that I have found again and again on this trip.  

A cross on the island of Iona, with the parish church in the background

 People have said the church in Europe is dying, or even dead.  When I talked to Rosie, she said that people have questioned why she is going into ministry, since the church is going to be gone in ten years.  And the church certainly doesn't have the cultural prominence that it once did.  But the church is not dead.

As I visited churches, from York Minster's Gothic arches to cushions on the floor at Holy Trinity Brompton in London (more on that in another post), the words of the Heidelberg Catechism echoed in my head: "God gathers, protects, and preserves [the church] for himself" (Q&A 54).  This is one of my favorite phrases in the Catechism because it reminds me that the church doesn't belong to me, or my congregation, or denomination.  We are God's church, God's people gathered in the world, and God is sovereign.

York Minster

God has been gathering the church for thousands of years.  Most of a thousand years in Britain alone.  God has passed down scripture through the ages--I saw Codex Sinaiticus at the British Library, which is the earliest manuscript of the complete New Testament from the middle of the fourth century (and it has the earliest and best witness for some Old Testament books).  It was all copied by hand in Greek.  It was moving to see how God passed his word from generation to generation.  God isn't going to drop the church now.  

So yes, the church looks different than it did 100 years ago.  
Yes, there are empty church buildings.  
Yes, it is not easy to be a Christian in Britain these days. 

St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in Edinburgh

But no, the church is not dead.  In fact, the church is growing in places.  I think because Alpha courses at starting now (or Christianity Explored at All Souls), many of the Sunday services I attended interviewed a member of the congregation that was a new Christian because of these courses.  So I got to hear a number of stories of how the church is growing because of evangelism. It was encouraging to see these new brothers and sisters in Christ and hear about how Jesus has changed their lives.

The church is not dead because God is not dead.  God is alive, and he continues to gather, protect, and preserve for himself the body of Christ. 

Worship at Holy Trinity Brompton in London

This is just as true of the church in the U.S., too.  I have heard that denominations are going to be gone in 10 years.  Our culture is changing.  It isn't as easy to be a Christian as it once was.  But I trust that God is still in control. Maybe the church will look different in 10 years.  If it does, I hope that we are as creative as some of the British churches.  I hope that we become as welcoming to different sorts of people without knowledge of the church. And I hope that we will see people of all ages being found by God and entering the church.  I look forward to serving this church and watching how God will continue to gather, protect, and preserve us.

My Thanksgiving Adventure

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.  For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100:4-5)

For Thanksgiving this year, my parents and I decided to celebrate at my apartment and invite some of the refugees I work with.  I invited a family of 5 that recently arrived from Nepal, and we cooked and set the table accordingly.  As I was driving over to pick them up, I was wishing my apartment was bigger so I could have invited a Sri Lankan family that lives nearby, too.  When I got to the Nepalese family’s home, I found out the mother wasn’t feeling well and the daughters were going to stay home to care for her.  That meant only 2 of 5 were going to come. 

We got in the car and started driving home, but as we were about to pass the Sri Lankan family’s apartment I decided to stop and see if they wanted to come over.  I didn’t have their phone number in my phone to call them, so I just knocked unannounced (which I don’t usually do).  I asked if they had plans and invited them over.  They said yes and I waited while they got ready to leave. 

I arrived home with 6 people instead of 5, so we slipped another chair around the table and put the food on the table.  My mom and I cooked a pretty traditional Thanksgiving meal—turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce, a spinach salad.  At times, conversation seemed strained, since I was the only person that really knew everyone.  But as the meal went on, it got easier.  Everyone helped clean up (except maybe my dad because one of my Nepalese guys told him in their culture the young people serve the older people) and participate in the day.  My parents told them stories about life in Michigan farmland.  My mom played with the 3 year old.  He had discovered my baskets of toys and games, and one of the young men asked my mom how to play Phase 10.  She explained it and then I heard him enthusiastically say “let’s play.”  He has been through an incredible amount of pain in his short life, and it made my heart glad to hear him excited about a game.  So we played a few phases of Phase 10 before it was time to go home.

As we were saying goodbye and leaving the house, several of them said they felt like they were a part of a family today. 

That is about the best thanks I could receive.  The day wasn’t quite what I was planning, but it worked out well.  I am thankful for this opportunity to share home, food, parents, games, a holiday, and love with others.  I am thankful to be able to share “hospitality with strangers” (Hebrews 13:2).  

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: A Post-Election Prayer

Many prayers were offered before the elections in the United States this past week.  I know that some people are thrilled their prayers were answered their way and some are devastated that their prayers were not.  Here is my prayer for this country (and American Christians) as we go forward.

Healing God,

You see our broken and fractured country. You see broken relationships, even within the church, because of politics.  You see fractures among people of different ages, races, genders, classes, and religions.  Bring healing to these fractures.  Heal broken relationships.  May we find our unity in you.  Help us to see beyond ourselves, our interests, our party affiliation, and see the good in others’ points of view.  Heal the broken hearts of candidates who lost elections after pouring their heart and soul into the race.

Wisdom-giving God,

Give your wisdom and discernment to our leaders.  Help them to discern what is best for our country: for our citizens of all kinds, for those hoping to be citizens, for our allies around the world, and for our relationships with countries we might consider our enemies.  And help them to work together for good.  May we all find the power of compromise with one another.  May our laws and policies bring a touch of your peace and justice in this broken world.    

Sovereign God,

Our help comes from you, maker of heaven and earth (Psalm121:2).  Help your people to remember that you are sovereign, that this world belongs to you.  No matter what happens to our country, you are still in control.  Remind us again and again that our primary identity is not in our citizenship, but in the waters of baptism.  We are new creations in Christ, and our only comfort in life and in death is that we belong to you (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1).   

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.