This morning’s post is written by Leroy Barber the global executive director of Word Made Flesh. I am reposting this from his recent newsletter firstly because the sentiments in the letter so touched my heart. The question they raised in my mind is How can we support and be hospitable to people of colour wanting to work in missions? I am also posting this because I will be speaking at the Word Made Flesh staff conference in a couple of weeks and am excited about meeting people I have corresponded with but never met who are so dedicated to helping the world’s poor. It is fellowship with people like these that keeps me sensitive to those who are disadvantaged in our world. They encourage me to grapple with hard questions that keep me on the path that God intends me to follow.
I think I am a bit angry today. I know I should be used to the story, but it always hits me like a ton of bricks when I am faced with the reality. We have a great group of interns for the summer. They are committed young people who are beginning a journey and are looking to commit their lives to living out justice. They come to learn, offer their gifts, and explore the possibilities of doing ministry like this for the rest of their lives. I love the process. It’s not always easy or neat but incredible through all of it.
We have a diverse crew this summer, something we desire, and work hard for as an expression of our faith. We want everyone to be able to serve. The difficulty lies in the fact that we are locked into a system of support raising, and inevitably it rears it’s ugly head as it’s already doing this summer. The persons of color, though highly qualified people, don’t have the networks to support even a summer. This is a reminder of the legacy of injustice of the brokenness of our systems that favor privilege. Mind you, God continues calling young people from all backgrounds. This inherent injustice merely points out the brokenness of our system and how far removed it is from God’s heart. The God of Justice, keeps calling all people and our broken system keeps hurting them.
This summer reminds me of the hard places Donna and I have found ourselves while trying to raise support, raise a family, and answer the call in our lives. We chose to keep at it, but the tax we paid as people of color in missions was great. Extra jobs on the side, sleepless nights, and at times, months without pay. It is my desire to change this for young people of color starting out on this journey.
I want to believe that 25 years later we can do better. Diversity is, of course, important because many of the communities “served” are communities of color and people need to see people like them in roles of leadership and service. Not to mention that by excluding people of color, we are missing out on a greater understanding of who God is. Since we are all made in the image of God, the more diversity we have, the more of God we see.
This month marks one year for me at Word Made Flesh. Throughout this year, I have had the opportunity to visit people around the world and encounter some great local leaders. Leaders that are doing excellent work in their communities but for whom personal support raising is not an option. There are usually no middle class uncles, aunties, churches, or parents to send monthly gifts. Yet the work they do each day as social workers, teachers, and executive directors is vital to the life of the community.
This month I ask that you send a gift to support our interns of color. That you recognize the leadership they bring and the sacrifices they make. I challenge you to give generously. Your gifts will not only help our interns, but will also support local and leaders of color around the world.
Leroy Barber is an ordained Christian minister who has dedicated more than 25 years to eradicating poverty, confronting homelessness, restoring local neighborhoods, healing racism, and living what Dr. King called “the beloved community.” He is currently the Global Executive Director of Word Made Flesh, an international organization that works among the most vulnerable of the world’s poor. He serves on the boards of Mission Year, The Simple Way, The Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), and the Christian CommunityDevelopment Association (CCDA). He is the author of three books: New Neighbor: An Invitation to Join Beloved Community (Mission Year, 2008); Everyday Missions: How Ordinary People Can Change the World (Intervarsity Press, 2012); Red, Brown, Yellow, Black and White: Who’s More Precious In God’s Sight? with Velma Maia Thomas (FaithWords/Hachette Book Group, 2014). Leroy has been married to Donna for the past 29 years and together they have five children.
This morning John Birch of faithandworship.com posted this prayer on the Light for the Journey Facebook page. It is such an apt prayer for this time that I thought I would repost it here.
Thinking particularly of that tragedy in Ukraine, but encompassing so many others…
We pray for all whose lives
have been touched by tragedy,
whether by accident
or a deliberate act.
For those who mourn,
immerse them in your love
and lead them through this darkness
into your arms, and light.
For those who comfort,
be in both the words they use
and all that’s left unspoken;
fill each heart with love.
We ask this through Jesus Christ,
whose own suffering brought us life,
here and for eternity. Amen
©John Birch, http://faithandworship.com
Having just read this prayer, I turned to my scripture readings for the day which included Psalm 31. This psalm and particularly verses 14 & 15 But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God. My times are in your hands; and the final verse Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord have been my scriptures I return to throughout my life. Part of the scripture is on the cover of an old bible.
Reflecting on that gave birth to this prayer:
Lord our trust is in you alone.
In a world with much despair and trouble,
where people are famished for hope we turn to you.
Make us strong to comfort those who are in despair.
Give us hope to encourage and strengthen those in trouble.
Send your unfailing love to surround those who are in harms way.
Comfort the comforters,
Mourn with the mourners,
Protect the innocent,
Draw us all into the shelter of your wings.
©Christine Sine
This morning I read this interesting article 10 Ways You’re Making Life Harder Than it Has to Be. Some of what it said did not seem to apply to me but it got me thinking about what I do in my own life that complicates life and adds pressure to my days.
Part of what I realize is that how we make life harder than it should be depends on our personalities. Those of us who are easily distracted complicate life by moving in too many directions at once. Those who tend to introspection complicate it by navel gazing and feeling we are to blame for everything bad that goes on around us. This is where tests like the enneagram or Myers Briggs can be helpful. They help us know ourselves so that we identify more clearly the ways in which we complicate life.
Anyhow here is my rather self revelatory list of how I make life harder than it should be. What would yours look like?
1. I expect too much of myself. Believe it or not I grew up thinking I was lazy and so have always felt guilty when I am not moving frantically in many directions. Developing a rhythm that balances work and rest, solitude and community, spiritual and secular, has been both challenging and essential. It has required a lot of discipline as well as education – education that convinces me that this balance is essential. Trusting in God and believing that God does not expect me to be busy 24/7 has been one of the most important lessons I have learned in the last few years.
2. I expect others to know what I am thinking. It took me a long time to realize that other people cannot read my mind and that they don’t necessarily interpret my actions in the way I expect them too. This, I think, is partly a cultural thing. Like making a cup of tea for a visitor. For me it is an act of hospitality I never expect people to refuse. If they do I feel insulted. For others who have different cultural values it can be an imposition. This type of thinking applies in so many areas – how we express love, affection, how we spend money, use our time, or relate to others are all translated into expectations on others. I agree with what the article I read above commented: Unmet expectations will be at the root of most of your unhappiness in life. Minimize your expectations, maximize your joy. I would add learn how others interpret your actions and help them understand you – that too maximizes your joy.
3. I let the internet steal my time. This is a common problem today and one that has led to many addictions and much waste of time. How often do you check your email, Facebook, twitter, instagram or other social media sites? How often do you go off at tangents reading articles, playing games, checking up on what your friends are doing? Some of these habits are hard for me personally, others I have watched in my friends’ lives. It wastes time or more bluntly IT STEALS TIME FROM US. At the beginning of the day I like to frame out my commitments in my head. Writing them down is even better. Working out when to be on the computer and when to close it and put it away are some important boundaries I am still learning to apply.
4. I let work not God set my agenda. When I don’t start my day focusing on God, allowing the spirit of God to sweep over me, to relax and calm my spirit my stress level increases exponentially. That is part of the reason I write prayers and often post them at my desk so that I can come back to them throughout the day. All of us need God pauses, yet we rarely take them. This always reminds me of what a friend who spent time in a monastery told me after his experience. He said: I thought that pausing for prayer throughout the day would be restricting, but instead I found it to be liberating. No matter what I was doing at certain times I had to stop, put down my tools and pray. Nothing was allowed to get in the way of my times with God. How many of us have that same conviction. What do we allow to get in the way of our times with God?
5.I don’t take time to be grateful for what I have. It is easy in our consumeristic society that always makes us feel we do not have enough to focus on what is missing in our rather than on the blessings of what we have. I have mentioned before that an important part of journalling each week for me is asking the question. What am I grateful for? Recently I have added another question Where have I caught glimpses of the kingdom of God? These questions have changed my perspective on life and on the world around me in ways I never imagined possible. They have transformed my attitudes in so many places that I am sometimes astonished by the change in myself. As a teenager I was prone to depression, and felt the world was against me. Gratitude and thankfulness, catching glimpses of what God is accomplishing makes joy and faith bubble up from within me.
So how do you complicate your life? What increases your pressure? Steals your time? Robs you of joy? Take some time today or this week to find out. Let me know. Writing down and sharing our struggles and challenges is half of the battle in overcoming them.
“… hospitality asks for the creation of an empty space, where the guests may find their own souls.”
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932 – 1996)
It isn’t surety that heals,
Nor the giving of an answer,
What we have to do is allow,
A soul to be its own dancer.
As space is given in spades,
Healing comes into its own being,
It comes at the right time,
And the soul is left there, seeing.
HOSPITALITY is centrally a beautiful thing in the mode of ministry; the ministry of a soul’s healing. In the mode of host we have issued an invitation that all may come and find a home with us. Finding such a home necessarily means that the host is ready not so much to share their own burdens and therefore add to another’s burden, but that the host is ready to provide space for them in their struggle; to give meaning to the struggle because space is made for it to exist as it truly is.
This space is actually against providing an answer, because it acknowledges that it is space that people require to enter into their own suffering in order to find their own healing. Space is the great enabler.
Healing cannot abide in pat answers, as if a standard remedy would apply. The host with the answer, therefore, is disqualified, for they are closed off to the necessary allowance of space the person being ministered to needs. There is a sharp degree of nonsense in the very thought that one person’s answer might align with another’s.
The host is able to open their home – which is spiritual home and not a house – in order that the person who desires to be healed might find rest, respite, and cooperation in their pain.
There may be no such thing as an instant faculty for healing. Of course, this makes much sense to anyone who struggles to believe in miracles, not to say that miracles don’t occur. It just means that healing, whilst it is mysterious, isn’t in the order of the ridiculously sublime. There is an explainable process and outcome, even if the outcome is still somewhat mysterious.
***
There are no instant answers or experts in healing, but healing can come through the open space of hospitality. A host doesn’t have the answer, but they do provide space, to listen and to enquire with the person who is struggling, and to allow another soul to find his or her own healing.
© 2014 S. J. Wickham.
Steve Wickham is a Baptist Pastor who holds Degrees in Science, Divinity, and Counselling. Steve writes at: http://epitemnein-epitomic.blogspot.com.au/ and http://tribework.blogspot.com.au/ This post was first published here.
I hope that you are enjoying this series as much as I am. I appreciate the richness of the guest posts that have been contributed and look forward to what will continue to be contributed in the future. In case you have missed some of the posts here is the list so far. I have also included a couple of my favourite recipes in case you want to consider a little hospitality over the summer too.
Hospitality and the Prosperity Gospel: What’s in it for me? by Meredith Griffin
Hospitality and Listening – Lynne Baab
Hospitality to the Poor, Oppressed and Marginalized As A Way of Life – Mark Votava
Embracing the Wild Hospitality of God
A Hospitality of Openness – Kate Kennington Steer
An Adventure of Amazing Hospitality By Fay Williams
Hospitality for the Gluten Free
Hospitality As A Call For All Of Life by Lynne Baab
A Celtic Hospitality Liturgy
Radical Hospitality – A Reading List
An Invitation to Summer Hospitality.
The Most Delicious Carrot Cake I Have Ever Tasted
Redeeming the Curse – Count your Blessings
Welcoming Angels Unawares by Amy Boucher Pye
Guests of the World.
Cooking Is Not A Spectator Sport.
Strangers, Friends, Angels Unawares
Communion not Conversion, Slow Church Not Fast Food
Sharing Food, Sharing Life.
Pear and Raspberry Bread – A Delicious Alternative to Banana Bread
Making Bread – Slowly
Amazing Quinoa muffins
Hunza Pie – Great Way to Use Greens
A Wonderful Apple Cake
I made this carrot cake for a gathering over the weekend. It is the best I have ever tasted – even better the next day.It is definitely going to be a feature of our hospitality over the summer. Unlike many carrot cakes it is not too sweet. The honey gives it an out of this world flavour, it is healthy and does not have the oily taste that so many carrot cakes do. I adapted it from this Healthier Carrot Cake that I found at Natasha’s kitchen. Try it and enjoy!
Ingredients for the Carrot Cake:
3 cups carrots, peeled and grated
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs at room temp
1 cup honey (preferably local & raw)
1/2 cup canola oil, safflower, or sunflower oil.
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup applesauce
1 cup walnuts or pecans – finely chopped (optional)
Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting
2 cups powdered (icing or confectioner’s) sugar
16 oz cream cheese at room temp
8 oz butter softened
1 tbsp vanilla
To Decorate
1/2 to 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans finely chopped to sprinkle on top.
1/4 cup honey
I like to sprinkle the nuts over the top and drizzle the honey over the top whether I put frosting (icing) on the cake or not.
Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9″x13″ dish (preferably glass) with butter or oil.
1. In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking soda baking powder and cinnamon. Add grated carrots and 1 cup of nuts and mix until they are coated evenly with flour.
2. In a large bowl beat eggs on high speed until foamy (about 1 minute) Add 1 cup honey and beat on high another 4 minutes. Blend in oil, vanilla and applesauce.
3. Fold the flour/carrot mix about 1 cup at a time and mix with a spatula until it is just incorporated into the batter.
4. Spread the batter evenly over the baking dish. If you are not planning to use frosting, sprinkle nuts over top and bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
5. Let cake cool completely before adding frosting or drizzling remaining honey over the cake.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
Beat 8 oz softened butter with 2 cups powdered sugar on low speed until combined. (About 1 minute) then slowly increase to high and beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
Cut cream cheese into about 8 pieces and slowly add. Mix until combined. Once all of the cream cheese is incorporated mix for another minute. Add vanilla and mix until combined. Refrigerate frosting until ready to use. If it has been refrigerated for a long period allow to soften to make it easier to spread.
I wrote this prayer at the beginning of the week and have used it as part of my daily meditation ever since. The imagery of God’s living and cleansing water flowing over us is very powerful in the Bible. Water is a precious gift that renews, refreshes and restores us.
I was reminded of that this morning as I read about Nestle’s water privatization push and about the drought in California. I think of it too as I remember those who do not have access to clean water and pray for those like our friends at the Overflow Project who help dig wells and provide fresh water.
Water is a gift in so many ways. As you pray this prayer today I hope that you will remember that.
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