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{..} The New Friars..

So I chose to read this book called The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World's Poor by Scott A. Bessenecker for one of my classes (the class is called: Principles of Christian Sustainable Development) and it's got some beautiful/inspiring/challenging/perspective-changing thoughts. It invites those who are tired of suburban Christianity to embrace solidarity with the world's urban slum dwellers. It invites the reader to join the movement of North American young people choosing to live under the same roof and eat the same food as those they are serving, kind of like how the monks did it from the missionary monastic orders of old. They become brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers instead of "missionaries" and "development workers."
If you don't mind, I'd like to share a few quotes with you:

"Perhaps what we as outsiders to garbage communities see as resignation or hopelessness is really a healthy dose of realism - a very practical view of the world."

"God's heart yearns for his children to have more than the dung that surrounds them: not riches, but a life in which their needs are met in a way that doesn't mask their need for him."

"Sin is more expensive in poor communities."

"The communities of men and women moving into slums with a commitment to love and to preach are building the kind of trust relationships that breathe life into the brokenness of the poor. They have an innate sense of what a holy life looks like but are sinful enough themselves to know not to preach from a pedestal but from the dirt."

"The disciples needed to strip themselves of the insulating power of money, food and extra clothes. Their profound neediness was a gift, a gift that would force them to depend on the Father whom Jesus talked about and upon the generosity of the townspeople to whom Jesus was sending them (Luke 10:7-9)"

"They would become real to the poor by becoming poor themselves, imitating Christ who voluntarily chose physical poverty and "moved into the neighbourhood" (John 1:14 The Message)."

"Living alongside drug users, asylum seekers and refugees taught her the lessons that kindergarten teachers long to teach us but rarely take root - to share our things and play well with others."

While the qualities that are emerging among new friar communities seem radical, they are ones all of us would do well to embrace:

• Incarnation - tearing down the insulation and becoming real to those in trouble
• Devotion - making intimacy with Christ our all-consuming passion
• Community - intentionally creating interdependence with others
• Mission - looking outside ourselves
• Marginalization - being countercultural in a world that beckons us to assimilate at the cost of our conscience. 

These new friars are saying to the prostitutes: "See, your Savior comes" (Isaiah 62:11.) They are carrying within them light, they are holding the hand of one of his beloved and they are telling her she is remembered. For her Savior remembers her. He comes for her, to her, into the darkest of nights, into her darkest of rooms. He stands with her there and holds her hand. 

See, your Savior comes.

"It gets darker and darker, and then Jesus is born." - Wendell Berry

{..} life in Chimaltenango..

How can I spend 3 hours listening to sermons and writing notes about Jesus and then when I'm in the ice cream shop in Chimaltenango, Guatemala I can depersonalize the boy who's trying to get a few quetzales (Guatemalan money) by selling little candies? I just brushed him off saying "no, Gracias" without even thinking about it as I handed the lady 13Q (about $2.00) for my double-scoop, chocolate dipped waffle cone. I glanced at his face as we walked out the door. He was probably around 10 years old, wearing a slightly ragged, dirty blue sweatshirt and black pants and I didn't get the sense that hope was gushing from his soul. Krysti and I stopped our stroll back to the seminary where we've been living the past month as we contemplated whether or not we should buy him an ice cream. The shop was filled with local Chimaltecos (people living in the city of Chimaltenango)...would it be culturally inappropriate for 2 white girls to buy the boy an ice cream cone? We decided we'd ask him what he wanted [Jesus did that often, right? check out Mark 10:51...I love how Jesus asks a blind man what he wants...obviously he wants to see. I wonder why Jesus asked him what he wanted...maybe the man had to realize what he really wanted...] When we got back to the ice cream shop, he had already left to try to sell his candies someplace else. I wonder if Jesus would have handed the lady the money then looked the boy in the eyes and asked him what he wanted, and if he said ice cream, given him his double-scoop, chocolate dipped waffle cone. Or maybe Jesus wouldn't have talked. Maybe Jesus would have put his hand on the boy's shoulder as he left the ice cream shop...
On our way back to the seminary, we were followed by an attractive man in a wheelchair.
For supper, we had hot dogs with no buns ("cheveres" in Spanish), with salty creamed black beans (mmm!), a slice of salty cheese ("queso" en Espanol), corn tortillas and coffee juice (hot, watered down coffee with loads of sugar) and watched soccer ("futbol" in the latin language) on the TV.
I love this country.
Last night, for supper, I ate 6 white buns, 2 sweet buns ("pan dulce") and a cup of coffee juice. Then I went to watch Alex play in a local men's league basketball game. Kyle and I were sitting on the cement bleachers, talking about high school teachers, living on sailboats and whether or not it's culturally appropriate to cheer in Guatemala. Since no Chimaltecos were loud an obnoxious, we decided to cheer on the inside.
At breakfast this morning, there was a group of Americans eating, and I hadn't been around other North Americans (outside of the Seminary Staff and Discover communities) for a few weeks. I sat with my Guatemalan friends, conversed in Spanish and ate my beans and tortillas, thinking to myself how cool and culturally-savvy I am. Oh, goodness. There goes my pride again...doing it's thing...
Here's a photo of some beautiful Discover chicas; we're getting chocolate covered bananas and mangoes in the rain in Chimaltenango. This was taken about half an hour before I got my 80's style hair cut while watching a Mexican version of Oprah, and right before going to the gym for my daily aerobics class. The gym is legit. It's called Perfect Body and the walls are bright yellow. To get to the mirror-lined aerobics room, you have to walk past the sweaty ladino men lifting weights, and give Greyman, the bouncer, the customary greeting: a kiss on the cheek. Evelyn, the instructor, is fantastic! She has purple hair, shimmery eye-shadow and a contagious smile. She counts out hundreds of squats, lunges, steps, and kicks as we "aerobicize" to Spanish techno and disco remixes. We then finish with between 500 and 1000 crunches/sit ups. Oh, goodness. It's amazing. (the second photo is of our seminary "aerobicizer" crew in front of Perfect Body ;)

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{..} Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones..
Proverbs 3:7-8


{..} My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh..
Proverbs 4:20-22