Making Connection

I’ve been connected to this conversation called “Emergent” for a few years now. On May 3rd near mid-night I’m flying to Dubai and then on to Kampala, Uganda to join in the Emergent conversation for the first time in person. I'm joining the conversation at the Amahoro-Africa Gathering. It is difficult to articulate how I’m feeling. It will be my second time to Africa. I'm different. This time as I prepare I’m feeling humbled. I’m excited yet the excitement is not one of jumping UP and DOWN. Rather it is one of staying DOWN on my knees and connecting with the one who is taking me UP in the air and DOWN to the ground--to Uganda and Rwanda.

I feel like God is so profoundly a part of my going—he is connecting the dots of life experience. I shouldn’t be going to this conference. Who am I? I’m just an English teacher in Korea! Yet something is so right about my going. I know why I wanted to go in the beginning. Yet I get the feeling that God has more that I ever dreamed wrapped up in this. What will unravel? I wonder what I will hear him calling me to be and to do after I return to Korea.

The whole tone of the conference is “right up my alley”. And not because it is how I am but because it is how I want to be. This isn’t the typical conference. It isn’t all about taking in the lectured knowledge from the expert. It is more about relationships, partnership, listening, experiencing and of course connecting. There will be about 200 people. The minority of the group will be from the “west”. The majority will be from Africa.

One of the conference leaders sent out some words of wisdom and preparation. Frankly, for me it is a different way of approaching mission and ministry. It is one I want to embrace. Brian Mc Laren suggested that we gather together “not to preach but to listen”, “not to teach but to learn”, “not to fix but to be fixed”, and “not to convert but be converted”. I often enter mission/ministry from the “preaching, teaching, fixing, converting” perspective. Of course all have their place in ministry. Yet, so often what is needed on my part is “listening, learning, my being fixed and my own conversion”. I’m going to listen and learn from people! How refreshing.

It is all so connected. Looking back to last August I see that God began then to prepare me for my time in Uganda, Rwanda, Korea and beyond. The week before I returned to Korea last summer I watched, “Hotel Rwanda”. That movie left a huge impact on me. I remember reflection on where I was in April to July of 1994. I was a 17 year kid in 1994 who knew nothing of Rwanda or the political climate. In April 1994 when the genocide began my biggest problems were, researching Universities, securing “A’s”, planning my last summer full of basketball camps and begging my father to let me go on my first mission trip. Little did he know what that “first” mission trip would connect to! 800,000 people died in 4 months and we were all clueless.

It is all connected. Last semester I found myself learning about and following from a distance the current crisis in Sudan. Again genocide. Week after week our church prayer team prayed for Sudan. We were only a little better than "clueless". At least we knew of it and could pray. What else could we "do". During that time I learned of the Amahoro-Africa conference.

It is all connected. I have been thinking and learning about “what it means to be human”. God values his creation. He calls it good. He breathes his Spirit into all people. Even within his own, who became less than good; God redeems, recreates and reestablishes goodness. Even his judgment is his mercy. Often God uses his judgment to beckon his own back to call upon himself, again. Christ lived and died to redeem every nook and cranny of human life--even creation itself. Yet I’ve been wondering how it is possible to reconcile extreme poverty, extreme pain, extreme suffering, extreme tragedy, and extreme evil (and the not so extremes of life) with a Christological anthropology that is entirely optimistic.

It is all connected. This winter I visited Auschwitz and faced inhuman humanity and began to see “sin” as a dehumanizing “force”.

It is all connected. At Taize I was challenged with the phrase “the spirit of God is in all people without exception.” Is that true? Or is God’s Spirit only in the confessing believer? That is what I usually think. What if I gave myself permission to not have to answer the question “yes” or “no”? Maybe there was a better question. I began to ask, “what if I choose to live my life from the belief that God’s Spirit is in every human person without exception? I might love more and love better. Maybe that is the point! I might create more space in my life for others who are typically not welcomed. The brothers and sisters at Taize choose to live from the belief that God’s spirit resides in every human person without exception. They practice reconciliation and creates space for reconciliation. What if God is challenging me to be a part of God’s reconciling work in the world?

It is all connected. Going to Italy and spending a few days with the community at Vallechiara--The Fraternity of Jesus. I began to see that living a “fully human” life or a life one-with-Christ is not done a part from community. We are not designed to live out our humanity alone. To be a human person is to be connected! When we do not live out the connections we are somehow less than fully human. If I am to be on the way, becoming fully human, then I must be committed to others and connected to others. I still wonder what that can look like outside the monastery and inside my everyday life—even life here in Korea.

It is all connected. Last week when I read our itinerary for the Rwanda field trip I was bewildered by the fact I’m to be visiting places where human tragedy—genocide—occurred not so long ago. It seems so fitting and incredibly humbling that in an international community we will wrestle with and remember the Rwandan genocide—both those who lost their human life and those who continue to live from that tragedy.

I just wonder. What other connections are coming? God connects people and life experiences so well. He is the master of making connection.