Worldly Holiness

Arabic Teacher, originally uploaded by papalars.

I'd like to introduce you to my Arabic teacher from Barcelona and by way of this introduction open a door to the type of conversations we have had and the kind of relationship we share. Maybe my story can encourage others to consider making new friends with people from places like my teacher, who is from Syria, and help build bridges of understanding. One of my fears when I felt called to work among focus people was the disquiet of what might happen to me. Really. I wasn’t overly worried, but it was in the back of my mind. The stories of missionaries giving faithful witness and the persecution that sometimes followed was back there in the deep recesses of my mind. In all truthfulness, fear was a hurdle that stood in front of me and I never really liked running the hurdles in track.

Thank goodness God is God and fear is not part of life in the Kingdom except to fear God. Years ago, I had spent a lot of time meditating on Joshua 1:9 which reads, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." I know some of my thinking has been conditioned by our culture, by the events of our times and by the caricatures about the Muslim world which are popularized broadly in our common experience in the post 9-11 world.

Anyway, my goal for taking Arabic is twofold. I want to be able to communicate with our focus people. Arabic is not just a casual language for my new friends either, but is "holy" for them as it was the language in which they heard God speak, and in which much of the culture and worldview are contained. My other goal was to establish a "proximity space" with my new friends in which I can become involved in building relationships in a place. By the way, I got the language of proximity spaces from an excellent book by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch on Innovation and Mission entitled, "The Shaping of Things to Come." It is a very good read if you want something to chew on. The authors address mission and church in the context of the postmodern world. They have nothing to say about the Muslim world but the concept of how mission is conceived parallels our work with the Mosaics project and focus people in many ways. 

In our time in Barcelona, I was able to build one of these spaces with our focus friends just through the simple activity of taking a class in Arabic. Showing up and showing interest and beginning to build relationships is about 70% of effective mission in my opinion by the way. As I was able to build a relationship with my Arabic teacher, he began to invite me for coffee and to eat together. We began to talk about life, what concerns we have in the post 9-11 world, the values imposed on us by a Western world that is often more concerned about my purchasing power and line of credit than my heart. We talked about spirituality, the focus of my doctoral dissertation and he showed incredible interest. And of course we talked about the war in Iraq and geopolitics and the leaders in government around the world. I must add that Jesus was our unseen guest in each conversation and I trust the Holy Spirit is speaking to my teacher's heart, even though I am in Seattle now, and my teacher remains in Barcelona. Pray for my teacher and for the witness of the Spirit to give witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Bonfire, originally uploaded by papalars.

This is the longest gap between posts since I started blogging last fall. Let it be known I have good reasons—we moved from Barcelona to Seattle, had a family crisis, lived out of our suitcase for about 2 weeks and went hiking on the Washington coast. Standard stuff for missionary families sometimes but still, this all takes energy. We are gladly now in our new digs and getting settled. Let me tell a story of the hike I went on and generally catch you up to date on our lives.

Let me start, however, by making a clear statement that we are still engaged with the Mosaics Project and remain Covenant Project Missionaries. A few of the anticipated highlights for this coming year include:

• Telling the story of the Mosaics Project and more generally what God is doing with focus people in churches across the US  
• Networking with mission groups, churches, and other individuals doing ministry with focus people in the US and globally
• Recruiting and resourcing people toward engagement with focus peoples & ministries. I will be speaking at the Covenant Mid-Winter conference on this topic

I have written a 3 page report of our ministry in Barcelona this last year and 1 page of ministry objectives for this coming year if you are interested. Let me know by email if you’d like a copy at: prayformosaics@yahoo.com. We continue to thank you for your prayers and support and continue to need them. Please don’t forget to lift up our family and the ministry of the Mosaics project.

Now to the story of our hike. Years ago my Dad led a hike every Memorial Day weekend for 10 years in a row on the Washington Coast for the North Pacific Conference of the Covenant Church. We would start on the 3^rd Beach at La Push where this picture was taken and hike 16 miles with heavy packs and wonderful adventures south toward the Hoh River. This was back in the 70’s. I think I joined the group about 5 times and still remember one year having 80 people join the excitement. This is not a gentle coastline but requires several overland treks up and over huge embankments to avoid the treacherous rocks and incoming tides. The stories from these adventures have become part of our family folklore and remind us of the great experiences we had growing up.

A month ago Dad, now 85 years old, mentioned he would like to hike down to 3^rd Beach to do some beachcombing. We pulled a few family members together and went for it; on the condition we could carry Dad’s stuff. He used to haul 70 pound packs on our hikes, often carrying an extra sleeping bag for someone who couldn’t carry a full pack. Well, we hiked down to the beach, about 2 miles from the trailhead and made camp. The next day, Dad went north with two of my sisters to hunt for agates, leaving about 7 am during low tide. On their return, they made a miscalculation on the tide schedule and got stranded behind a rock jetty. We had to extract them by wading in the water as the incoming tide made it impossible to climb around on the treacherous shoreline. Dad pulled into camp all wet but stood by the campfire to warm up and dry out before he hit the sack. It rained hard that night as well but the next morning we had a beautiful sunrise and were able to hike out safely with another adventure to add to our memories and probably 25 pounds of agates to our packs. Luckily, Dad paid Erick, our 16 year old son to carry out the agates.