Past the Surface-Depths of Truth

Past the Surface-Depths of Truth

The last few weeks, I have had a changing life experience with the mobile hospital. Because the mobile hospital has been in Chapare, a jungle area about 4 hours outside of Cochabamba, I have been part of a small group of workers who have been walking house to house in the rural areas that we serve. We are getting family information and medical history in order to help us serve the communities better. This has been one of those experiences that will forever impact my life and has altered, in its own way, the way I see the world. I guess I wasn’t quite ready, or rather caught off guard, to meet the people face to face, that before, had only been statistics in books for me. The weighted true reality hit me, as house after house, I heard stories that were heartbreaking. And not only the fact that these stories were real from people I was spending time with, but the appearance of acceptance or normality to these sub-human conditions made me seek...

 Some of the children from the rural communities sitting on the mobile hospital

This experience left me pondering many things and I left feeling...helpless and deeply saddened. I had been to these same communities a number of times, but now I had an understanding of these places that was beneath the surface. 

 A group of women and many of their young children attending a workshop on health

How often I still only see the surface in my own life and those I come in contact with. One recent example for me was when I was volunteering this last fall at Christ’s House, a homeless medical shelter for men in Washington, DC. I came into the situation with my own bias, ignorance, and opinions about homelessness and what I found after getting past the surface was absolutely incredible. Once I was able to spend time with the men, develop relationships and trust, and hear their life stories, it was able to change my perspective on not only homelessness, but more importantly, superficially labeling anyone without getting to know the heart of that person. It may be easier or keep life simpler to not go beyond the surface, but I believe it leads to a life of illusion and ignorance as well hindering us from reaching our full thriving potential. 

Man on the street staying dry during some rain in NYC

I am currently listening to a course on the lives of Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammad, from the Great Course Teaching Company, which I highly recommend, and I am reminded of what was said about the Buddha, “After his first awakening it didn’t bring him peace but restiveness, it was enough to cause him to walk away from his life of ease and comfort. He could have easily stayed within the walls of illusion. He could have done what most of us do when we glimpse our frailties and mortality, just forget about it. With the aid of alcohol and other drugs, cosmetics and surgeries, amusements and sports, mindless consumption and acquisitions, we try to stop thinking about what we know to be true. We do it so well that usually we aren’t even aware that we are doing it. Perhaps this has been the approach of choice for most humans throughout history. Our species has devoted an incredible amount of creative energy to creating new methods to hide the truth from ourselves.” 

I wanted to share this experience with you even though it has been difficult to accept and it’s something I continue to grapple with. As crazy as it may sound, I am grateful for the opportunity to be in these type of situations that profoundly impact my life. It’s just the truth of our reality, and I am thankful to have had my eyes opened to it personally. I hope in some small way I can give back and have a positive impact on the people I come in contact with, because they have impacted mine.
I’ll finish this entry with some words of encouragement for any of you who are reading as well as myself. “I realized that you do not find clarity in the mind but in the heart. And the heart will not speak to you unless you quiet yourself and liberate yourself from such masters as greed, envy, and illusion. But if you can do this you will find, in the stillness that follows insights of wisdom that are obtainable in no other way. You will begin to see things as they really are.”   

San Lorenzo-Beni

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San Lorenzo-Beni

A couple weeks ago I went to San Lorenzo which is a small little community in the jungle (1000-1500 people). It is located in the department of Beni in the northern part of Bolivia. Bolivia is a plurinational country divided up into nine different departments. The opportunity arose when Jonathan, a short term volunteer with International Orphanage Union, told me he was heading out to the jungle for about 10 days to get a Tilapia fish farm started. When I heard he would be flying out the next morning, I asked if there was any more room on the 4 seater plane. He made a phone call to the pilot and I got the ok to join him. Thus began my first ever experience in the jungle...

View on the way down

The hour and half flight into San Lorenzo gave me a taste of the vastness of the jungle. Shortly after we had crossed over the pass in the mountains, the terrain changed quite quickly. Soon, the only thing in sight was green trees as far as the eye could see with brown or dirt colored rivers slicing up the green tapestry. As we started to lower our altitude, I started looking for the runway and found the little open strip of land cleared of trees. We landed in a flattened grassy area and because of the amount of water we kicked up some good mud as well. If it hadn’t quite sunk in for me that we were in the jungle, based on what I saw, it sure did when I stepped out of the plane. The weather in Cochabamba is very nice but mild, and in San Lorenzo we were welcomed with high heat (90‘s) and high humidity. 

4 seater plane

Landing

We brought our stuff to the orphanage, which had recently been built in San Lorenzo, and would be the place we called home for the next 11 days. So after I got a fuller description of our plans, the objectives were to drain one of the ponds on the property, clean out all the existing weeds/plants, and then refill it and plant duckweed. On the list of things to do, was also to catch and kill an alligator (2 meters) that had been causing the neighbor problems with eating a couple of its animals and would be depleting the fish population we would be trying to grow. Lastly, we were to help with some construction on a radio tower that is being finished up and also to translate for the short-term mission group that was coming in from Georgia. 

one of the gator baits-with no success 

Future Tilapia Pond

I want to preface this with a few things about my personality in regards to time or structure. I can be quite unstructured, free-spirited, and have a pretty easy time adjusting to changes. I’ve learned this many times over through my life but specifically through my time spent in other countries. I prefer living in this manner in many aspects of my life and have grown to love the freedom to live in the moment and to except the uncertainties and beautiful surprises that life can and will bring. 

So those were some of the goals we had, and I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to accomplish them given the time we had...And then I learned a little something about life and circumstances in the jungle...

1. Presence not Productivity

I have to say this isn’t necessarily unique to the jungle but it is definitely magnified there. The emphasis or priority is definitely given to people before work. We were invited into so many homes to have juice, fruit, food, snacks, etc. and ended up hanging out and just enjoyed each others company. The hospitality in San Lorenzo was unlike anything I have seen before. In definitely makes it difficult to accomplish tasks, but we had so many great experiences with the people. The culture is a whole lot more about being rather than doing. I was told that half the population don’t have “jobs” but yet they have the necessities for life. When they are hungry they kill one of their animals,(cows and chickens mostly) go fishing in the nearby lake, knock some fruit down from their trees, or pick some vegetables from their garden. This allows them the freedom to spend time with people or doing things they enjoy. I don’t want to romanticize the situation because life is very hard and labor intensive. The processes that take us only a little time in the developed world takes significantly more time, labor, and ingenuity in order to find a way to accomplish the task because of a lack of resources. 

2. Schedule/Time-I have 3 examples I want to share in regards to schedule/time. 

I have to say it kind of became a joke with trying to set anything up or have any idea of what was going to happen for the day. One example of this was our fishing trip that we had set up for Saturday afternoon. Well, when we showed up we didn’t have a canoe because the owner was using it so we had to postpone the trip. Ok, understandable, not much communication but we will go on Sunday instead. Sunday rolled around and sure enough another problem arose. Wow, bad luck to have back to back days fall through, I thought. Well, I guess we will go on Monday, sure enough we were given another reason and told manana (tomorrow). I started to think we really weren’t going to make the trip. Just when I had started to accept the fact that we might not actually go, our fishing trip finally worked out. It was either on the 4th or 5th try. We went fishing for 12 hours with just a line, a hook, and some bait (meat). Between the four of us we probably caught 45 fish, mostly piranhas (very tasty but lots of bones). It was quite the experience, and I wish I could post pictures but I had my camera in my bag at the bottom of the canoe, and I didn’t notice the slow leak fast enough so my camera is currently not working. Anyway, just one example of how trying to set up a schedule was quite challenging.

Time, on the other hand, was not a matter of minutes but rather hours-plural. One example of time...We were told about a group of guys who were going to play basketball at three in the afternoon. We started to walk out to the court and, as usual, we were stopped to talk with some friends. As we were talking we told them we should get going because we were going to play basketball at three. They said, “Oh, they won’t be playing at three because it’s too hot. You should go around four or four thirty.” Ok, so we were invited into their home and hung out and had some juice. A while later we decided to head over to the court for basketball. As we were walking, someone else stopped to talk to us and as we told them our plans they said, “Oh, they won’t be playing until 5 or 5:30.” At this point in time we decided to scratch the idea of playing basketball, because we had also been invited into another families house from the day before. They told us to come over in the afternoon (which can mean anywhere between 12-6ish). We made our way over to this families house and ended up having tea/coffee and empanadas (cooked bread with cheese in the middle). We had some great conversation and ended up walking back to our house in the dark around 7pm. We had spent a couple hours at their house just hanging out. 

Lastly, our plan was to fly out of the jungle on Saturday in the morning to head back to Cochabamba. On Thursday, two days before we were supposed to leave, we received word from the pilot that plans had changed and the plane was not going to be available until Monday. Another example of how quickly things change, of how little importance time is, and also the great acceptance of not being in control.

3. Ingenuity/Difficulties with lack of resources

I have to say the people in the jungle are some of the most resourceful and ingenuitive people I have come across. It is amazing the different ways they reuse materials, fix broken ones, and find ways of making something work without having basic tools or resources. Jonathan and I had a little taste of the experience to be lacking resources that these people live with all throughout their lives. One of our main tasks was to get the fish farm ready and first we had to drain the water. The pump that was suppose to come with us didn’t, so we had to find another way to drain the water. We ended up digging a trench because there was another pond not too far away that was downhill and significantly lower in water level. The trench was successful in draining about 2-3 feet of water but we still had another 2-3 feet to go. We couldn’t do much cleaning of the weeds, because there was still water and we were told there are poisonous water snakes. Onto plan B...We ended up finding two different pumps but had to find a way to get some power to them. We ended up connecting wires to the electric line (there is only electricity for 3 hrs each day in San Lorenzo from 7pm-10pm) and ran them to the pump. Now we also had to find some tubes to run the water through. You can start to see how everything can be very time intensive. After all the work, neither of the pumps worked for reasons we still aren’t sure of. So our main objective of emptying the pond and getting it cleaned out turned into a failed attempt. It was a great experience to learn what its like to have to make things work without having “basic” resources to get the job done and also to experience a little of what the reality of life in the jungle is like. 

I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to go to San Lorenzo and spend time with the people and see a very different way of life. I hope to be able to go back in the future and reconnect with people as well as finish up what we had set out to do. 

random video to give you an idea of the landscape

next door neighbor Cynthia in her house cooking

Stove

Neighbor boys Alvin and Garlin fishing

Kids singing in Church

What I'm Doing

Blog Entry: What I’m Doing

So I finally feel, for the most part, that I know where I will be spending a majority of my time in the months to come. Some things could still change, but for now I feel really good about the different opportunities I have to serve. I’ll break them down one at a time. 

First Stop: El Salvador “San Javier”

View from the outside of the school

El Salvador is a fe y alegria school (faith and happiness). I have been helping out at the school twice a week. I am currently co-teaching with the physical education teacher, which is the sister in law of my host mom. I help out with the younger kids ages (6-12) from two till six in the afternoon. In Bolivia, and much of South America, students only get the opportunity of going to school for an extended half day. There aren’t enough resources (schools, teachers, etc) for each student to be able to attend for a full day. So the schedule looks something like this (generally). In the morning, 8-12 is either the younger students (elementary and middle roughly) or older students (high school). Whichever group is in the morning the other group has the afternoon slot 2-6. In the physical education classes we do some typical exercises for strength, endurance, and flexibility. Afterwards, we play games which usually means soccer. Some students, predominantly girls, play basketball and volleyball as well although we have no nets and the ball situation is quite bad (anything round and somewhat inflated works). This last week, I brought in a couple of new games from my elementary days. The kids really enjoyed the game tiburons y pescado (sharks and fish) I adjusted the name from the original sharks and minnows. After we got done playing the game the kids started chanting “otra vez, otra vez” which means again or another time. I look forward to getting to know the students and the families who live in the community and starting to become more a part of it. 

A view from the inside of the school. One of the "canchas" that we play games and soccer for PE class.

 Another view from the inside of the school. It's pretty big and educates well over 1000 students.

 Rhegan-I thought of you when I saw this. The saying on the wall translates more or less, "Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Another piece of art from the inside of the school.

Second Stop: Hospital Movil-Mobile Hospital

 Here is a shot of the mobile hospital in one of the communities that we serve in.

Some kids I met and played with while working with the mobile hospital. We played hide and go seek, I flung them around like airplanes, and flips of course. (made me think of my great nieces and nephews back home) love you Trent, Rylan, Brandt, and Trey.

I got in contact with the mobile hospital through one of the other Franciscan missioners, Catherine, and her connections. I have been going 2-3 times per week with the mobile hospital out into the campo (country or rural areas). I am lucky that where I live is right on the mobile hospitals route, and I get picked up right outside my house. The mobile hospital serves in five different rural communities in Zona Sur-South Zone of the city. They go to each community one time per week. We usually have about a half hour drive to reach our communities. It’s not all that far (I live pretty far out to begin with) but the roads are really bad. It’s absolutely beautiful to get up into the hills and be able to look down over all of Cochabamba on a clear sunny day. 


Each day we ride out with a minimum of one doctor, one dentist, our driver who is a promotor of health (social worker), and myself. There have been two doctors so far, Ernesto and Wilfredo. They see patients, diagnose them, and treat them as best as they can with the given resources. They also teach classes/powerpoint presentations on health for both children and women. The dentist we have, Roxana, sees patients with mouth and teeth problems and believe me she is always busy. Teeth problems are quite bad here. She also teaches classes/powerpoint presentations as well. Our driver, Luciano, has many jobs. He helps to advocate the opportunities offered by the mobile hospital to the people in the community by walking the streets and talking to anyone he can. He gets people together and helps organize different groups to try and maximize what we do while we are there and also to maximize the amount of people we can reach. He has many other random things he does as well. 


And then there’s me...gringo/foreigner...What do I do? Good question and I don’t have a real clear answer on that yet. Every day I have the great opportunity of learning spanish because no one speaks english. Quechua is also spoken quite a bit and when that happens I just scratch my head...Not much I can do with that. I think I know one word in Quechua right now sapa=every. Quechua is the predominant language in the campo but many people still can speak spanish. I help with setting things up (getting the mobile hospital ready for patients). I help clean up at the end of the day. I observe the doctor, because it is an interest of mine, and help out with little things where I can. He is really good about teaching me what he is doing and is open to my questions. There are always little random things that can come up like making little packets out of pieces of paper for the pills of patients. (maybe I can do origami now). Anyway, that about sums up what I do for now. It’s a continual process of learning so many things. I do want to share a story about one of the patients we saw this last week. 

The conversation went from the patient, who is a 61 year old woman who only spoke Quechua, to a translator (the woman’s daughter) then to us in spanish, so the details might not be one hundred percent accurate. This is how I understood what happened...

There was a lady who came in with wooden crutches because she had been having a very hard time with her leg recently from an automobile accident she was in a year and a half ago. She had a wrap on her leg and when she took it off you could tell she had some pretty serious problems going on. She had an open wound that had gotten infected. The infection or bacteria had gotten within her bone and was spreading. She needed to have a specialist operate on it or the situation would continue to get worst and she could/would most likely lose her leg. Well even the cheapest option for surgery is way above what she can afford. (I’m not sure but I thought the doctor was saying something like 400 dollars). The woman was obviously distraught over the situation and on top of that while the doctor was examining her he says that her heart (esta faltando) is not doing well or failing. Well the combination of the information she had just received was too much and she started to lose it. She broke down and started to sob. Her daughter also had tears rolling down her face although she was trying to console and calm her mother. I felt helpless to the situation, but felt an urge to offer what I could, compassion, love, and faith. I asked her daughter if I could pray for her mom and she said yes and that she is a Christian. As I knelt down, I put my hand gently on her leg and began to ask God to work within this woman. We soon were both in prayer. The sobs that I had once heard were no more. While we both were offering up prayers, my emotions were deeply moved for this woman and her situation and tears began to run down my face. Our joined silent prayers had a very powerful affect within me. Afterwards, I got the name of the woman, Maria, and told her I will be continuing to pray for her. They both thanked me for the moment we spent together in prayer. I don’t know what will happen to this woman, but I pray for something miraculous to work out or to happen to her. There was a powerful sense of oneness/connectedness with her and it was such a powerful example of how we are called to feel, love, and act with compassion towards all our human family. 

This situation also made me think of my mom. Here is this woman who is 61 years old and needs to have a surgery to keep her leg and to restore or improve her health, and as of now, unless something miraculous happens, she is destined to live out her remaining shortened life in lots of physical pain. I thought of my mom and what if she was the one in this situation. The thought was unthinkable, but yet its the reality for so many throughout the poor marginalized world that we live in. 

Some other angles of the mobile hospital. It is pretty well equipped.

Third Stop: International Orphanage Union

http://ioubolivia.org/

During my first 6 weeks that I was here in Cochabamba taking language classes at the Maryknoll Institute, I was invited by one of the teachers to attend CIC (Cochabamba International Church). A quick flashback to before I left for Bolivia: I had some friends tell me there is a family from Holland, Michigan (Timmers) who have been doing mission work in Bolivia for a number of years and that I should look them up. Yeah ok, like thats going to happen. I didn’t know what city they were in and didn’t know anything about them besides the fact I knew they worked with orphans. Now back to my first experience at Cochabamba International Church. I found my way there a couple weeks after the initial invite. CIC attracts lots of foreigners and missionaries but also has lots of local Bolivians. The service has parts that are in english and other parts in spanish. Well during the announcements I heard something about the Timmer family and my eyebrows went up like, did I really just hear that? Could it be the Timmers from Holland? After the service, I talked to the man who preached the message. He was also a foreigner and I asked him about the Timmer family. He said he would introduce me to Mike Timmer and sure enough it was the Timmer family from Holland, Michigan. I talked with Mike for a bit and told him what I was up to and that I was looking for different service opportunities. 


Long story short he told me of some different opportunities in helping with construction of their orphanages as well as getting involved with some of their side businesses that help support and keep the orphanages self-sustaining financially. Well besides the construction need, he said they are in the process of trying to use the land they have in Beni (another department in Bolivia to the north-jungle) to start a Tilapia fish farm and also growing some different products (fruits, vegetables, etc) to help financially with their orphanages. Well, I was extremely excited to hear of these different options because both construction and agriculture are two areas I have been interested in gaining some experience. And who wouldn’t want to fly into the jungle on a bush plane and work the land for a while? 

I have only recently made this connection and have only helped out one time so far this last week. About a week ago we had a pretty strong wind storm and some trees fell down causing some serious damage to one of their orphanages. A group of four of us went out to help clean up the situation so work can get started again on finishing these two orphanages.

One of the trees that caused a lot of damage. The picture does not do it justice. The root system for this tree which you can see in the back of the picture was almost 10 feet tall. 

Here is another look at the orphanages and some of the damage and work that needs to be done.

Here is a picture from the inside of one of the orphanages. It has a new sun roof for the time being thanks to some huge eucalyptus trees.

I am not sure how this is all going to play out, but I like how flexible my schedule is right now. I am hoping to be able to work two days a week with the mobile hospital, two days a week at the school (El Salvador) and two days a week with International Orphanage Union. I also will have the opportunity of taking some short trips with (IOU) to Beni and Chapare both places in the jungle. I also have become aware that the mobile hospital goes out into the jungle once the rainy season dies down for about a week at a time, so I will have a few different opportunities to see drastically different parts of Bolivia. I am extremely excited about the opportunities that have made there way to me and look forward to trying to piece these things all together. God is good.

Part 2 Crisis of Individualism, Globalization from Below, A Revolution

Part 2 

Crisis of Individualism, Globalization from Below, A Revolution

(I took more freedom in my interpretations on this part and added in many of my own thoughts to this section of the overview of the book Jesus Today).

Crisis of Individualism

  There is a growing crisis of individualism throughout the world but most strongly in western industrialized countries. We highly value the ideas of self-made, autonomous, and self-sufficiency. These ideas or values in themselves are not bad and even can contribute to our freedom and happiness. There seems to be a duality between being free and capable, but still realizing we play a part in the whole of something bigger than ourselves. For me it comes down to having the right relationship (where is the heart at behind the action) whether its with personal growth, self-sufficiency, autonomy or with our own spiritual journey each have the possibility of enhancing and enriching our lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters or the possibility of destroying or altering that right relationship in our lives and all those both near and far. Spiritually we are called to continuously grow inwardly and develop a deeper relationship and love for God. As Gandhi said, “The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Yet, this is only the first part of the call. 

  The second part, is the call to action. In James 2:14-17 “What good is it my brothers and sisters, if someone says they have faith but does not have works? Can that faith save them? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “go in peace be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” We also have the responsibility, which should be a privilege, to seek to grow physically, intellectually, and emotionally to develop our God given abilities and talents to find our place or role(s) in making this world a more loving, compassionate, peaceful, and joyful place to live. In other words, bringing a little piece of heaven down on earth. In Luke 17:21 it says, “The kingdom of God is within you” we need to seek it and bring it forth here on earth. In Romans 12:4-6 “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” 

Some words of wisdom which sums up the essence of spiritual/personal growth inwardly and then putting it into action goes like this. “When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realized that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have had an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.” 

One of the biggest ways we can see this growing wrong relationship with individualism is through our destruction of the environment. We have brought the environment/planet to the edge of chaos through our selfish interests and shortsighted actions. We have known about global warming and the affects we are having on the natural order of the environment for many years, yet we lack the will to give up our selfish and unsustainable practices. We are surely on course to see the opposite of heaven on earth if we don’t change from within and make the necessary changes that are imperative for all 7 billion of us who call earth home. 

Globalization from Below

Recent history and history in general, has proven that the enormity of human suffering has been extreme. The two world wars, racial and ethnic hatred in the U.S. with African Americans, Nazi Germany with Jewish population (others), South Africa system of apartheid, British colonization in India during Gandhi’s struggle, and the list could go on for far too long. In our recent history we have seen people challenge these different forms of inhumanity and have shown through various revolutions that there is power behind a message of truth and righteousness, and that the power of the ordinary many can make positive change against the destructive interests of the few. These movements/protest/revolutions have brought us things like an end to slavery, women’s rights, end of colonization (directly), reversal or greatly decreased levels of racism in places like Nazi Germany, South Africa, India, and the U.S. The thing about history is that we either forget our history and the lessons we learned, or should have learned, or we find new ways of creating misery and suffering. 

Today, apart from the huge number of people who are dying from preventable disease, starvation, and AIDS, an issue that has been getting huge attention is the growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. Just in our country alone the disparity between the wealthy and poor is incredible. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the richest 1 percent of families (14,000) have over 22 percent of the countries wealth while the bottom 90 percent over (133 million families) have just 4 percent. The same trend that has been happening in our country has also been happening all over the world. The global system we all, more or less, live in, has given rise to a wealthy powerful elite. Through these neo-liberal policies or globalization the system has rewarded policies which disregard the many for the gain of the few. 

The system humanity currently lives in, Capitalism, has the need for continual growth and consumption, which is really a forced materialism, in order for the economy to function or “work”. Yet the basis or root of this foundation is completely irresponsible for our one planet earth with finite resources. An alarming stat from greenchange.org is that if every person on earth used the amount of resources that the average person in the United States does we would need 5 earths in order to meet the resource need. This shouldn’t be a comfortable fact for us to look at, but its necessary to understand the reality, to accept it, and decide to do something about it. A system of infinite growth with a finite planet. Lets think about that one...Not to mention all the spiritual implications of materialism. 

I won’t digress into a tangent on this, but I think its extremely important to raise some questions for us to think about. I’m saying us, meaning people in the U.S., because we currently are the biggest player in this game or the worlds superpower if you will. This is our current situation and “with power comes great responsibility” we have, arguably, the greatest capability and responsibility to ignite some positive changes. I’m not trying to say the United States is the problem and other countries have it right. I have no doubt within this system whatever country has world power/dominance will take advantage of the system as we have. Here are some questions to think about...How do we, a small portion of the worlds population, have such a large control over the natural resources? What does this mean for the vast majority of the worlds population? What does this mean for our future as far as sustainability goes? How do our lifestyles/actions create a demand for the continuation of such disproportional resource allocation? How has the income inequality grown worldwide and what implications does this have for social interactions? Not simple questions to answer but the root causes to these answers all play a significant role in all our lives. 

What is significant, and for me very encouraging, is the base/majority of people who have and are uniting to make their voices heard. The voices from the bottom or base have begun to protest throughout the world with numbers which have not been matched in history against the arrogance, selfish individualism, values and methodology of the system in our global environment. The voices from the bottom/base are beginning to be heard. Even though not all the people protesting are there for the same 

reason(s), and sometimes the message is unclear. As I look out into the world we all live in, I am thankful there are so many who are trying to shed light on the truth of the state of our current world. I can’t, in good conscience, except it, they can’t except it, and when enough of us decide we can do better, way better...we will...together. 

A Revolution

Jesus was not a reformer, he didn’t come to patch up the Judaism or the influential sects of the day (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, 4th Philosophy). He came to turn things upside down for the established religion of the time, or rather, to show us and teach us what life could look like if we lived right side up. Here are some examples where Jesus’s teachings were completely subversive to the status quo of religious teachings. He spoke of turning the other cheek instead of revenge against ones enemies. He spoke of doing good and loving those who hate and curse you. He also taught that our limit of forgiveness should be almost endless for a heart that is sincere about admitting ones faults or failures. 

Jesus was also quite controversial about what he had to say about the rich and the poor. An example is the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-24 “Sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me. When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” I interpret this passage as the difficulty of the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, not based solely on the riches alone, but on having the wrong relationship with money. Allowing money to have control over us and not being able to relinquish our plentitude to the needs around us. It shows a hardness of heart to not be able to give joyfully in our excess to the needs of our brothers and sisters. 

Another liberating teaching of Jesus was that of his uncompromising belief that all people were equal in their value. He showed this by treating tax collectors, beggars, crippled, and the most lowly and outcasted in the society with the same respect as the high officials and upper class. He also completely disregarded what people said about him (reputation) and was willing to do what was right regardless of the personal cost. Some examples of these controversial teachings in the bible are the stories of the good samaritan, prodigal son, laborers in the vineyard, and the woman caught in adultery. 

Jesus’s spirituality was based on the Torah (Law) but he turned that upside down or right-side up as well. He did not reject the law but came and renewed it. Nolan says, “Jesus felt perfectly free to break the law whenever observance of it would do harm to people.” (pg. 55) Jesus saw many of these laws as human traditions that had been distorted from God’s original plan. He sought to free people from these distortions and showed them the radical freeness of a life lived in complete unison with God’s desired plan. 

Jesus also made a connection with the kingdom of God and a new family. It wasn’t based upon a biological family but rather anyone “who does the will of God.” This can be seen in Mark 3:31-35 where Jesus says, “Who are my mother and my brother.” Jesus indeed was creating a new community/family based on those who showed love to one another, as is the reason so often these “family” members called each other brother and sister. 

The last thing Jesus did was by far the most radical, shocking, and contradictory to expectations of the time. He was/is the messiah and instead of bringing forth the powerful “Rein of God” he preached and lived a message of service, pain and suffering, and ultimately death on the cross. Nothing could have been more contradictory to conventional beliefs. He showed us what life could be like without the distortions of such things as pride, jealousy, envy, lust, anger, and showed us that, “you were called to freedom brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13. “Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for all.” Matthew 20: 28 So ultimately, Jesus’s revolution was one of fulfilling and showing us what living right side up looks like. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10

I´m not sure how to site this but I referred to the outline and information in this PDF document in helping me write this blog entry. http://www.smd6.co.za/docs/Jesus_Today.pdf 

I have decided this will be my last blog about the book and am planning on adding more stories/activities and pictures from my experience in Bolivia. Via request. 

Part 1 Jesus Today-A Spirituality of Radical Freedom

Jesus Today-A Spirituality of Radical Freedom

by Albert Nolan

Part 1

I read this book a couple weeks ago and wanted to sum up some of the powerful points and themes presented.   

Before I start with themes and points, I want to write a little about why this book was written and what its aim is...

Many book are written on faith(s), spirituality, religion(s), etc. This book tries to reveal what Jesus’s personal spirituality was and holds it up as the mark of measurement for all of us-Humankind. The crisis that humankind is now facing needs a spirituality that Jesus offers us. We have not taken the teachings of Jesus seriously and have wandered into a world of individualism, self-centeredness, consumerism, and have either closed our eyes to the effects of our actions or have done so in ignorance and it has brought us to the edge of disaster. The author sees this spirituality as having relevance beyond the church and writes to an audience of Everyone. If we are to follow Jesus then we have to take seriously what is happening in the world around us and the sign of the times. (Mt. 16:3-4)

1. Hunger for Spirituality-The first example given was the book “The Da Vinci Code” and the popularity of the movie and book throughout the world. This is one example of a barometer on where people are at today. People today seem to have much less confidence in the certainties of the past. (scientific, religious, historical and cultural) Everything is now being questioned regardless of the authority. We live in an age of unprecedented skepticism and academics call this attitude of mind “Postmodernism.”

Modernity and Postmodernism

Modernity was the age of reason and began with the Enlightenment with such names as Isaac Newton, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Galileo Galilei, and the list goes on. Contributions by Newton include the law of gravity and Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which lays the foundations for most of classical mechanics. Locke is known as the Father of Liberalism. His theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern ideas of identity and self. Hobbes published his work Leviathan which established the foundation of much of Western political philosophy from the perspective of appropriate relationship between individuals and their governments. Voltaire wrote extensively about freedom of religion, freedom of expression, free trade, and separation of church and state. Galileo made improvements to the telescope which allowed a greater understanding of planets and he discovered 4 of Jupiter’s moons. He also was a strong advocate of a heliocentric-sun centered universe, as apposed to the geocentric-earth centered universe, which was a strongly held view of the power/wealth elites of the time including the Catholic church. He was called before the Inquisition and was found guilty of heresy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but was able to serve his time under house arrest because of extenuating circumstances (health). 

Postmodernism really gained momentum after the two world wars, many failed communist regimes, and religious scandals. From these events, authority has been undermined in one way or another. In the past, people found security and stability in culture and religion, but with the slow disintegration of cultures throughout the world and with the undermining of religious authority there is less for people to feel secure in. Our age is one of increasing insecurity and it only takes one to look at the news to see the growing fear of war, disease, drugs, and lack of resources due to our depleting of our planets resources. All these things lead to feelings of even more vulnerability and instability.  

One reaction to all of this instability is to try and go back to fundamentalist beliefs to regain our security and stability. You can see this taking place in all of the major world religions. This is a response to try and grasp the illusion of certainty. The other response, which Nolan argues is growing and gaining momentum: the search for an appropriate spirituality. This search can be one of two things. 1. an escape from the current circumstances and insecurities or 2. an authentic search for a spirituality which brings out the best in us. Nolan discusses Thomas Merton’s role in trying to address this  desire and how he points to mysticism as a solution that has increased in our day. Mystics have been thought of as rather odd and eccentric, but today their emphasis on experiencing a oneness with God and all things has an increasing relevance and need. This new spirituality is something that seems to be growing outside of the established religious churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples and is seen as separate from religions even though it is rooted in these traditions. Many people who go to the established religious places of worship have been quick to write this off as “New Age” but as Nolan points out, there is no one coherent spirituality or movement that can carry this label. What is clear and evident is that more young people are attracted to spiritual things without necessarily being attracted to specific dogmas and doctrines. One really good example of this spirituality taking form is in the Taize community/worship where over 100,000 young people make pilgrimage each year to France for prayer, bible study, sharing, and community work. 

Part 2 to come...

Give Me Your Eyes

This song has been in my mind and on my heart for the last week or so and I wanted to share it with you. Here are a few of the things that have had a powerful effect on me. 

1. How broken of a world we live in and how many people are spiritually and physically hurting.
2. To see through the eyes of God and recognize our oneness with all people and to strive to love each person as ourselves. (which means we first must love ourselves)
3. Seeking to reach out to those with broken hearts, one’s forgotten, people who are beyond our reach-growing to understand how our local actions play a role positively or negatively in others lives who are beyond our immediate realm.
4. What can I do in my day to day life to have a positive impact on those around me and also those who are beyond me through my actions...
5. Lastly, from Matthew 25: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”

I am pretty new to singing and playing so you will have to bear with me. Its a learning process just like everything else. The words are quite powerful.

Look down from a broken sky

Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touch down on the cold black top
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breathe in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

Step out on a busy street

See a girl and our eyes meet

Does her best to smile at me

To hide what’s underneath

There’s a man just to her right

Black suit and a bright red tie

Too ashamed to tell his wife

He’s out of work, he’s buying time

All those people going somewhere

Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

I’ve been here a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just move and pass me by

I swear I never thought that I was wrong

Well, I want a second glance

So give me a second chance

To see the way You’ve seen the people all along

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see