Mother's Day Theology

(from Angie Mabry-Nauta)

Mother’s Day, it seems, has become a sacred festival.  Not many churches across our country fail at least to mention mothers on “their day”, which is this Sunday.  Many churches have mothers and motherhood as the theme of worship and the sermon. 

Odes to Mom are shared.  Special music is played, often accompanying a slide show of pictures that make everyone cry.  And Proverbs 31 is read – at least verses 28-29 that mention a mother’s children and husband praising her.

I wonder how many churches honor our Mother who gave life to us all – Christ?

One of the most beautiful theologies of what happened on the cross was given to the world by Julian of Norwich.  At the age of 31 and a half (ca. 1373), she suffered from a potentially life-ending illness.  As she neared death, Julian experienced sixteen intense revelations, or “showings”, as she named them, of Jesus. 

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Thank God for teaching churches

(from Angie Mabry-Nauta)

Sanctuary of Maple Avenue Ministries, Holland, MIThere is a sign above the bed in my sister and brother-in-law's home that reads, "Home is where your story begins." I first noticed its arrival in when they were hosting an international student for a year. It was in a different place then, but the message was just as effective. It is so like my sister-in-law to do something like that -- purchase and hang a sign to share a subtle yet immensely hospitable sentiment. A sense of home is important, especially if one is separated from one's family by oceans and multiple time zones. I have no idea if the student saw or read the sign, but I remember thinking that I would have appreciated it (and my host mother) if I were in his position.

"Home is where your story begins." I experienced the timeless truth of this statement on Sunday when I returned to the church where my pastoral ministry story began. Eric and I first stepped into the building of Maple Avenue Ministries (MAM) in July 2001. We had just moved to Holland, MI. where via transfer I would attendWestern Theological Seminary (WTS). I was so green! I was high on passion and void of pastoral experience.

As part of WTS' teaching church program, MAM took me in as one of their pastoral interns. (Each seminary student is required to have a certain number of part-time and full-time internship hours to graduate.) For the first two of my three years at WTS the MAM congregation loved on me and watched me grow while somehow granting a level of pastoral authority to me. They grinned and bore my clunky sermons of those early days, and by some means found space for shouts of "Amen!" and "Hellelujah!" One time, when I went too far in a children's sermon about the Sabbath, saying that God "slept" instead of saying that God "rested," my theology was gently admonished in a way that did not shame me. What I remember most clearly about Eric and my time there is how generously the staff and congregation showered and sheltered us with love, love and more love and prayer, prayer and more prayer when our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. MAM was our church and we were MAM's people.

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I'm here to help!

(from Thomas Johnson)

Remember that old joke that has its punchline as “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you?”  What makes this funny is the recipient’s well-reasoned doubt that he truly needs whatever it is the government has to offer.  Sometimes, as a foreign missionary, I think that you could easily replace “government” with “church” or “mission” with the same result.  People may indeed want help, but it’s not necessarily along the lines the giver is willing and able to do.

Here in Niger, Westerners are clearly associated with great wealth.  What’s worse, though, is the common assumption among the people that we’re getting paid a lot of money to live and work in the world’s poorest country.  Sadly, when speaking of United Nations and international non-government organizations, that is indeed the case.   In Niger, most foreign organizations pay a 25% hardship bonus above base salary for living in “primitive” Niger, as everything Western costs more to buy in the country.   At the end of the day, we’re all considered financial mercenaries of a sort.  Yes, the Westerners want to make a difference, it seems—but only if we’re well-paid to do so. 

I recently attended the opening of an obstetrics fistula repair hospital in which the visiting American surgeon addressed the crowd and said (along the lines of), “I have been richly blessed by these female patients”.  His Nigerien interpreter (roughly) rendered his words into French as “Ces patientes m’ont biens enrichis “ or in translation, “These female patients have made me rich”.   The interpreter was simply sharing his understanding of Western charity in the developing world.  The only real reason anyone would come to these places is to earn a lot of money, right?

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Aunt Ada's Adaptation

(from Eric Johnson)

The first time I heard my friend mention his Aunt Ada, it was in the telling of the story of what she said to his wife at their wedding, ‘It’s a shame you are marrying my nephew.  I always liked you and now I know you’ll never be saved.’ He shared this with good natured humor, but the lingering hurt of it was there too. 

Well today he is back from Aunt Ada’s funeral and as is often the case, on the day his family gathered to mourn a death and celebrate a life, the time proved to be marked by grace and growth.  He’d described Aunt Ada as a person who was rigid and judgmentally religious.  At the funeral, he heard more about her life and gained insight.  Perhaps living in a story where all things are either good or bad provides some sense of security or control, but it also comes at a cost.  He talked about Ada’s son who married a Jewish woman and had real wine at the wedding!  He talked about a grandchild who went to jail.  He reflected on the reality that Ada’s own story placed her at odds with the people she loved and the reality that to some degree she was able to revise her story later in life so that she didn’t become isolated from her family. 

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Hearing vs. Reading The Word

(from Thomas Johnson)

Here in rural Niger, you rarely encounter Nigeriens reading books.  In fact, my local friends tell me that the safest place to keep your money in a Nigerien home is in between the pages of a book.  No one who visits your house will ever thumb through it and there’s absolutely no chance a burglar would ever open the book, expecting to find anything of value!  Given that Niger has one of the world’s lowest rates of literacy, one shouldn’t be surprised.

Instead, people enjoy the radio.  Radio units are quite affordable, the simplest ones work with 25-cent batteries and they can be employed either in private or as a group-oriented activity with your friends or family members.  Radio content often comes “live”, providing you with the latest news and information for all who are within the station’s transmitting radius.  In the age of cell phones, radio also offers interactivity, with call-in shows being among the most listened-to programming, even among villagers.

Reading, though, is often hard work in Niger, even for those who have been to school.  Whether in our Bible School classrooms or with a Nigerien family during evening devotions, I rarely hear the Hausa Bible being read in a pleasant, conversational tone.  Frequently, the average reader struggles to decode the words on the page, many of which are strange to him or her—and not just biblical names. 

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This Is Not Our Home?

(from Angie Mabry-Nauta)

Driving down the road the other day, some lyrics to a contemporary Christian song struck me. I'd heard the song dozens of times. But this time it was as if the music in the background and all other sounds except the words were inaudible. "This is not, this is not our home," crooned the vocalist. My face cringed and my shoulders raised up near my ears, as often occurs when I hear theological thoughts about which I'm not too sure. "Well..." I said out loud to no one.

In defense of the song writer and artist, this is not the only contemporary Christian song that decries this theology. Indeed, there are others. "Take this world from me. I don't need it anymore." open MercyMe's "Spoken For". Some tried and true hymns that have been with us for eons are not immune. The refrain of one of my favorites, as an example, intones, "Give me Jesus, give me Jesus. You can have all of this world. Give me Jesus."

On this day in my vehicle, I began to wonder. Is this not our home?

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Book Review: "My Own Worst Enemy" by Janet Davis

(from Angie Mabry-Nauta)

Just who do you think you are?" sneers an all too familiar voice. "Who do you think you are to live your dream? to share your knowledge on a subject legitimated by your education, publications and talents? to be true to yourself? to say no to someone other than your children?" We recognize the questions because they hit us regularly like unmerciful waves. And the voice? Well, it too is unmistakable because it is internal. It is our own. Women have the tragic tendency to sabotage themselves, says author Janet Davis. Consequently women, their families and communities and even the world at large are poorly served.

In her third book, My Own Worst Enemy: How to Stop Holding Yourself Back(Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2012) Davis speaks of, to and about women standing in their own way. The reader hears the author's and other women's voices in addition to those of women in the Bible, as their stories are shared. With each speaker one journeys through the pain of personal sabotage; wades through the ebbs and flows of emotional and spiritual growth; and experiences the sweetness inherent in hard-won victories of wholeness.

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Safety Versus Sacrifice

(from Mark Heijerman)

The story of Marie Colvin reminds me of my safe approach to life.  Colvin was a British Sunday Times foreign correspondent, who, while covering the conflict between government and rebel fighters in Syria, was killed by rocket fire.  Having previously lost an eye to shrapnel in Sri Lanka, Colvin persisted in the dangerous work of reporting the horrors of both war and oppressive regimes.  Of her, newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch said, “She put her life in danger on many occasions because she was driven by a determination that the misdeeds of tyrants and the suffering of the victims did not go unreported.”

I have no idea if Colvin was a woman of faith, but in many ways, she and the Apostle Paul had much in common in that both risked their lives so that the masses would see truth.  Colvin put her life on the line so that others would be changed by seeing world events—good and bad; Paul put his life on the line so that others would be changed by seeing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is how the apostle put it, “As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left (II Corinthians 6:4-7).

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A short-term mission success story

(from Thomas Johnson)

I’m in the midst of reading Toxic Charity: How the Church Hurts Those They Help and How to Reverse It by Robert D. Lupton.  The author has joined a growing chorus of critics who argue that most short-term missions’ (STM) trips are expensive, distracting, unproductive, harmful to local recipients of mission teams and they primarily exist to gratify Western Christians’ self-delusions of adventure and sacrificial charity.  

As an RCA Missionary who has hosted dozens of volunteers in the mission field, I know that these critiques carry a great deal of merit in the global mission community and they should be taken seriously.  When folks ask me if they reflect my experience, though, I always reply “No.”  My primary rationale is that because Niger is a hot, dusty, poor, non-English speaking country that is expensive to visit and possesses few easily-accessible tourist sites, it simply doesn’t attract the kind of volunteer who often frequents short-term trips in more agreeable settings.  Lupton notes, in comparison, that churches in the Bahamas receive 1 volunteer for every 15 residents in those tropical islands!

We just don’t get that many visitors in Niger. I have supporting churches that send STM teams all over the world, but only a few have ever approached me about bringing a group to Niger.  Those volunteers that we do get are generally quite conscientious of how little they know about the place.  Most come with a willingness to serve and participate as local Christians and the missionaries best see fit.  Of course, we RCA missionaries (there are 2 couples in Niger) try to coordinate with team leaders and explain our context and work with the volunteers to shape the likely program before they ever arrive.  Our groups tend to be small in number—5 might be the average—as we know that most of the time we can’t successfully handle the logistics for many more than that.

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When Politics and Morality Battle

(from Mark Heijerman)

This is my first foray into blogging since General Synod and I’m going to touch on the hot button topic of politics and religious freedom.  Putting it right out front, I believe that the Obama administration’s attempt at mandating contraceptive coverage is an assault on religious freedom.

About seven years ago while en route to the airport, I found myself inadvertently in the same car with a young devout Roman Catholic man.  He was delightful, and in our conversation, it came out that he and his wife traveled around to various Roman Catholic churches giving presentations on the importance of natural birth control.  We had a kind-spirited debate of sorts—I don’t see anything wrong with contraceptives preventing conception—but in the end, we respectfully disagreed with each other and parted amicably.

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