Making Disciples to Transform the World

For the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18 to 25. 

Prayer 

Loving God,

                You call us, your people, to love.

                Grant us courage to love our neighbors

as fully as we love ourselves.

Living Christ,

                You call us to follow you,

                Serving the least of these, our sisters and brothers,

                                They are blessed, we are graced.

Sending Spirit,

                You call us to mission, locally and globally.

                Send us forth, as a sign of your presence

In kairos and spaces, here and now.

Triune God, you call us to unity.

                Inspire us to reconcile and be reconciled,

                Discerning your will in our lives,

                                United in love and service.                              

Litany

Voice 1

Believing in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ,

Following Jesus’ call to love and discipleship,

We, the church, are commissioned to be earth’s salt and light.

All:    Let our lights shine, let our saltiness preserve love’s essence.

JustinUlmer of Sevenapples Christian Art
donated the image to represent
this year's theme for the Week of Prayer. 

Voice 2

Making disciples to transform the world?

What a daunting task, or is it the Spirit’s work in and through us?

Christ, have mercy.

All:   Lord Jesus, teach us to pray, teach us to lead, teach us to disciple.

Voice 3

Transforming the world requires right relationships,

Integrated and wholistic mission for kindom building,

Justice-making, and evangelism.

All:   Comforting Spirit, heal and renew your creation

Cosmic Christ, dwell in us as we pitch tent in your presence

Glory and thanks. Halleluiah! Amen.

                

Written by Rev. Elizabeth S. Tapia, Ph.D., director of mission theology, mission & evangelism at the General Board of Global Ministries, the United Methodist Church. 

Learn more about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from Greymoor Ecumenical or the World Council of Churches.

I Am Human Relations Day

Brennen D. Boose, poet and youth coordinator at Hamburg First United Methodist Church in Hamburg, Arkansas, became empowered through the JustUs Youth network, a community of young community developers, supported through Human Relations Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Brennen D. Boose)

Imagination, 

You'll need it for this one,

Lets take a trip,

Please excuse the minor dips,

Gaps, 

You see I only have 500 words to get you there and back.

Imagine God's grace, oh the beauty,

Being placed on a young man's face,

Golden child, no that's not the case,

Speeding through life at a lethargic pace,

Searching for relevancy he finds it in the most obvious place,

The church.

A program empowering youth in the technical skills of video production,

Managed to uncover a business mind, 

Coupled with a technical talent of rare kind,

And yet its greatest accomplishment was the discovery of a place inside a church,

The United Methodist Church

A new way of worship, 

Different from his own, 

He struggles to understand its purpose,

Yet, he rests assured whatever God has for him it will be worth it.

Now imagine a shy little guy,

Standing in front of a crowd of gazing eyes,

Stomach curling and twirling, still his spirit is at an unusual high,

God speaks through him, Breathing life into a room

Not one eye dry, 

Yes, the young, the old at the altar they lie,

God controls his being, out of body, he stands by,

In awe and amazement, he became a leader in worship,

Harambee, bringing it all together,

All the things he heard from his mother,

Exposure to the side of himself that was better,

A freedom in worship, no burdens, light as a feather.

The discovery a place where its was JustUs Youth,

Ahhh relevancy, 

He begins to expose others to his truth,

In himself he realizes everyone should have these opportunities,

From state to state he travels the nation,

Shining light on the power of his disgruntled generation,

Empowering youth to work in compilation,

Instead of revolting and stirring up more strife and hatred,

Training and being trained in the intricacies of Gospel of Jesus Christ,

Yet he still searches for purpose,

Not satisfied with who he was, 

He embarks on a journey, a path that would make anyone nervous,

Self exploration.

What starts out as an eight-week journey away from home,

Turns into a two-year voyage… alone,

Out into the deep he is thrown,

No life jacket, it's time to swim on his own,

Engulfed by the water he thinks there's no place like home,

He feels God's love and as He whispers, you're never alone,

Changes in his members,

Erase what he remembers,

Of a young man that he knew in June, It's now December,

Such a short timespan but God has given him time to expand,

Now he teaches youth to Break Free from the expectations and limitations,

Put on them by man's hands.

Such a wonderful story,

All to our Father for His Glory,

He looked down on earth and found one young man to be worthy,

Me,

I promise I have done nothing to deserve it,

And the praise and honor all goes to Him, I would never pervert it,

Please realize I am but a small pawn,

In His amazing plan and purpose.

That we all can be a part of on this day,

by the way, Thank You for your generosity in the past and on today.

Know that I, Brennen D. Boose, am the image which your gifts portray.

I AM HUMAN RELATIONS DAY.

Brennen is a leader in the JustUs Youth and the Community Developers movement, a part of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. Human Relations Sunday funds this movement. This Sunday is a special opportunity for United Methodists to celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day weekend through giving to Human Relations Sunday. Learn more about the Community Developers program and Human Relations Day.

Traveling Five Hours by Bicycle to Seminary

Revs. Jay and Grace Choi, missionaries with the General Board of Global Ministries, are with their sons. What follows is a story from Jay about his work at the Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines. Grace works with the Harris Memorial College with the Community Health Program. (photo courtesy of Grace Choi)

Knowing how local pastors do their ministries and study under hard circumstances challenges me more.

Pastor Honeylet Limos is serving in a small congregation in a mountainous area. One time, he came all the way to attend class riding his bicycle. It meant that he had to ride the bicycle for five hours from the mountain to the school. The reason was simply because he had no money to pay for the public transportation which was 300 pesos (six dollars) for the round trip bus. What he receives from his church assignment monthly is 500 pesos (ten dollars).

The members of the church are poor farmers who cannot afford give their pastors more than that. As many other rural churches do, the members share in kinds like rice and other food with the pastors. But when there is no more money, the workers fall into trouble like traveling with bicycle.

By God’s grace, a Korean missionary provided Pastor Limos a scholarship for the study. The life of a seminary student serving God’s people in such a condition echoes like a prophetic message to the churches that tend to depend on money and power in doing God’s mission.

Missionary Grace Choi distributes deworming medicine. Because the children had difficulty swallowing pills, a group sent chewable tablets so the medicine was far easier for the children to take. (Photo courtesy of Grace Choi)

Read the missionary bio of Grace Choi or Jay Choi to learn more about their mission and ministry.

A Christmas Message from Children

Hannah Hanson, on the left, Mission Intern, advocates for justice.
(photo courtesy of Hannah Hanson)

As I walked into the Haitian revival service, it reminded me of some of the services I miss form my time in other countries. So it may have been my first time in an all Creole environment, but it was still familiar.

It was a special children's service and just so genuine and sweet I truly was honored to be there. The pastor wanted me to introduce Justice for Our Neighbors, because our new Lakeland clinic will be able to serve people from the congregation. 

The pastor also wanted to take part in "A Wish for the Holidays: That all Families Be Able to Stay Together." (A project of We Belong Together.) So after the service I went back with all the children and we talked some about parents in other countries and deportation. Then they wrote to President Obama and Congress. It was amazing to me how much a connection the children got and how well the ones with parents still in Haiti took it.

So I wanted to share some letters with you:

Mom is in Haiti. I want my mom to be with me. 

My Christmas present is to stop deporting families.

For more of the children's letters, read Hannah Hanson's blog.

To learn more about the Mission Intern, link to the missionary bio of Hannah Hanson.

Finding Love in Cambodia

Missionaries Marilyn and Joseph Chan shared their story of the
persistent power of love and faith. (Photo by Melissa Hinnen) 

by Melissa Hinnen*

Perhaps I should not be surprised that a road trip in Cambodia with a missionary couple named Mary and Joseph (okay well actually Marilyn and Joseph) would be full of amazing stories. From the moment they greeted me at 7:00 a.m. in my hotel lobby in Phnom Penh, I felt a sense of pure joy from the Chans--they are truly extraordinary people who radiate love.

We drove for about three hours to the rural area of Svay Rieng Province. We met with pastors, visited churches, studied the Bible, ate at a wonderful roadside restaurant, made some pastoral-care visits, and stopped in a village community where with the support of the Women's Division, women are learning basket weaving from church leadership to generate income.

It was a very full and rich day, and I heard many stories of how the Methodist Church in Cambodia is growing and how ministry with the poor is integrated into the fabric of the mission initiative. The community outreach is not exclusive to Christians, and their evangelism does not condemn the dominant Buddhist faith. They live out their faith as models of Christianity and invite others to share in the Good News.

I learned about their dream for starting a senior center when they retire (Joseph is 67). "Many people want to help children," said Marilyn, "but it is hard to find support for the elderly."

Woven into our visits, I heard a powerful love story. Joseph and Marilyn met once as children--her aunt was married to his cousin and they did not see each other again until ten years later in a Thai refugee camp. Marilyn was raised in the northern part of Cambodia in the northwestern Siem Reap Province, where she went to high school. Joseph was raised in Cambodia but attended university in Yugoslavia. In the late 1970s, he returned to Cambodia to Phnom Penh in the southeast because he wanted to help the people who had just come under a communist government--the Khmer Rouge.

Because they were educated, both Joseph and Marilyn were targeted by the government and forced into labor. While many people around him were slaughtered, Joseph survived because he had agrarian skills like "being able to catch eel in a bamboo shoot and planting rice." Marilyn survived in spite of herself--life had become so difficult that she attempted suicide repeatedly.

"When we were imprisoned in the temple, others were begging for their lives, but I was just relieved that finally all of this pain would be over," she recounted, showing me a photo of the temple that still stands in the village where she grew up. She was released after only a few days and put back to work.

They both escaped, making their way on foot over the border into Thailand. Joseph's journey took more than two months. Marilyn remembered that she had a relative (Joseph) who she believed was studying in Europe. She had hopes that, once she crossed the border into Thailand, she could contact him, and he would sponsor her to go to Europe. At the refugee camp in Thailand, she turned around and was surprised to see Joseph standing right behind her. "You have come to sponsor me?" she asked. He looked at her without recognition and replied, "Do I look like someone who can sponsor you? Look at my clothes--I don't even have any shoes. Do I even know you?" Marilyn removed her scarf and said her name, and as the pieces came together in their minds, they both cried.

Less than a week later they were separated and brought on buses back over the Thailand border into Cambodia. The bus released them into the forest and many people ran toward the river for water. Suddenly a landmine exploded and countless people were killed. Marilyn and Joseph each assumed the other had been killed. Stranded in the forest with no food and terrified of going to get water, they saw the situation as hopeless. Marilyn said that parents were forced to leave their young children to die because they could not carry them. Joseph spoke of people lying on the ground dying and begging for water.

There was a hole that they had to jump over that was filled with landmines. Those who were too weak fell into the ditch and were killed. Joseph crossed the ditch, and when he looked back he saw a child about to jump across by himself. Joseph crossed back over the hole and helped the boy across. He did this repeatedly because he could not think about watching anyone fall into the hole. When Marilyn got to the hole, someone helped her across because she was too weak to do it on her own.

Eventually, Marilyn and Joseph reunited. They made their way to Marilyn's mother's house. Marilyn's mother had been caring for refugees who had come her way with the hope that someone would be caring for her family in the same way. Arrangements were made for Joseph and Marilyn to be married because, Marilyn said, "we did not want him to get separated from me again." It wasn't quite that easy. After they married, they decided to escape again.

Joseph went ahead of Marilyn and her family to find the best way. Unfortunately he was not able to get back to them. Marilyn was determined not to lose her husband and set out after him. The path forked into three paths, and, having no idea which way to choose, she took a guess. Fortunately it was the same path Joseph had chosen. Finally they were reunited and walked to the refugee camp in Thailand. Marilyn commented to me that she is still amazed they kept finding each other. After 30 years, families are still reuniting in Cambodia, but she and Joseph were continually drawn together.

The Chans, on the left, are praying in Cambodia.
(photo by Melissa Hinnen)

It was in the refugee camp that Marilyn and Joseph converted to Christianity. The first Scripture they learned was Matthew 6:33: "But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Joseph said that at first they thought it just sounded good and was superstition. Soon their hearts were changed, and Joseph began teaching Christianity in the camp. Marilyn said that through Christianity they came to understand that it was not just that they were "lucky" to have survived and found each other in this ordeal, but that God had a purpose for them.

"Thank you for sharing your story," I said as they dropped me off at my hotel and handed me some fresh bananas. "The story is not finished," Joseph reminded me. "Please pray for our senior center."

Joseph's and Marilyn's love for each other, for Christ, and for all people--especially those living in the margins, "the invisible and discarded," as Marilyn says--is simply and authentically beautiful. Sometimes you meet people who open your heart just a little more in a way that is transformational. Marilyn and Joseph had that effect on me. Cambodia is blessed to have them sharing the love of Christ throughout their country. I am blessed that they shared their love with me, and I pray that the light of Christ will shine a little brighter in me thanks to their witness.

(I suggested to Marilyn that they write a book, and as it happens there is already a book written about them that is part of the United Methodist Women 2012 reading list: Because He Lives by Catherine Guess. Proceeds will support the senior center.)

*Melissa Hinnen is the information officer of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. 

To learn more about Marilyn's ministry in Cambodia, visit the missionary bio page of Marilyn Chan. To give to this ministry of love through the Advance, link to the secure page at Giving for Missionary Marilyn Chan.

To learn more about Joseph's ministry, visit the missionary bio page of Joseph Chan. Make an online donation through the Advance, the designated giving channel of the United Methodist Church at Giving for Missionary Joseph Chan.

Gratitude for Our Home Church

Stephanie and Ashley Norton are missionaries with the United Methodist Church.
They are working with the Mizak community in Haiti. This Thanksgiving they are
giving thanks for their home church in Michigan, US.
(Photo courtesy of Stephanie Norton)

We are calling this the year of the endless summer. Its hard to imagine people getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, when its over 100 degrees and sunny every day in Haiti. We are especially grateful for the love and support that Westwood United Methodist Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan gives us. 

Westwood is our home church, and is in a covenant relationship with us. This means that they support us with prayers, correspondence, and monetary donations. In Haiti, there is no postal system. The cell phone towers are shut off regularly. The internet is spotty at best. 

When we do get to travel to a city and use the internet, it is such a joy to read all of the emails from our friends and family at Westwood. It doesn't alleviate homesickness, but we feel connected. 

One of the products that is made at the HAPI (Haitian Artisans for Peace International) co-op is the gratitude journal. These are made from recycled cement bags. They are sturdy, durable, and attractive. 

I've been filling out a gratitude journal that I bought from the co-op with messages to Westwood, including this message: "Thank you for raising me, teaching me, loving me, and supporting me."

Stephanie Norton writes this from the mountainside community in Haiti. She and Ashley Norton are missionaries of the United Methodist Church through the General Board of Global Ministries. Link to Stephanie's bio.

HAPI is one of a dozen Advance projects uplifting and empowering the people of Haiti. Individuals can learn more about HAPI or shop in their store at haitianartisans.com.

This card, depicting the children of the world,
is made by HAPI artists,
 and is for sale at HAPI. 

To purchase a bundle of small-sized gratitude journals, contact HAPIproducts@gmail.com for pricing, ordering, and payment information.

Find out more about HAPI and the self-empowerment programs at advancinghope.org.

When giving to HAPI, Advance project #3020490, as always, 100 percent of your gift goes to the project.

To learn how you, or someone you know, can apply to serve as a young adult missionary.

Difference is a Gift

Rev. Elizabeth S. Tapia, Ph.D., is director of mission theology at the General Board of Global Ministries. 

Here is an excerpt from her opening reflections at the meeting for Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Asian Church leaders held in New York on October 13, 2011. (Photo by Felipe Castillo)  

Another aspect is mutual respect. Each part needs to be treated with equal respect and care in order that all may  function together harmoniously. "If one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored, all rejoice together."

This is damayan spirit as we call it in Tagalog. Isn’t this a theology of belonging and interdependency?

For Paul says, "You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it. Even the gifts of the spirit are to be used in this harmonious body. There are varieties of gifts, but all these are activated by the same Spirit." -1 Cor. 12:11.  

Difference is a gift. As all gifts are recognized, all may function in harmony within the body of Christ. And what is the missional principle in all this? It is the principle of love, “a still more excellent way.” 1 Cor. 13.

Our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Island traditions promulgate a theology of belonging and interdependency. There is room for everyone, there is food for everyone, there is mission for everyone. Ours is a strong communal sense of relating.

But as we live and work in an individualistic, capitalistic, and globalized society, communal sense is being eroded. Here is where we need to develop and nurture multicultural ministries and churches. Here is here we need to develop and nurture migrant churches. Here is where we welcome diversity as a key to congregational vitality.

As global migration has become a major phenomenon, diversity is becoming more and more a major reality in schools, business, travel, and politics. But  it seems Majority white churches are slow to welcome diversity;  monoculturalism rather than multiculturalism; assimilation, rather than self-expression; clausthropobic rather than cosmopolitan...

I want to believe that part of our participation in  God’s mission in today’s world is to offer and practice our communitarian way of life, spirituality of sharing and hospitality, and a theology of belonging and interdependency.

Learn more about the Asian American, Pacific Islander and Asian Church Leaders Gathering, held last week at the General Board of Global Ministries in New York City.

Communion = Common Union

This is Kara's view of the barrio surrounding the white church in Bogotá, Colombia. (Photo by Kara Crawford)

On Sunday, my church had communion. This was my first time taking communion here in Colombia, and, as taking communion for the first time with any group, it was a new experience for me. This church all waits and takes the elements at the same time, different than what I am used to (by-and-large) in the US, moving forward in an orderly, single-file line and take the elements as we receive them (well, or if we’re doing intinction, we dunk then partake). But two things really struck me this go-round of communion.

First, at some point during the service, the pastor said that we would be taking communion, and he then referred to it as a “común unión” – a common union. And this was the first time that I had really thought a lot about the significance of the term communion. He said it’s a point of common union – a common union with God, a common union with each other. I thought that this was a beautiful way to understand communion, that brought a new light to the subject.

Second, after church we had a potluck of sorts, to which many people brought food to share with the group. Now, for me, growing up as a United Methodist clergy kid, potlucks were an integral part of my church experience. In fact, at times, they have almost felt like more of a common union, a communion, than the actual Eucharistic act. Everyone brings what they have to a common table; we all share and partake, and participate in a familiar (both in the sense of being well-known and in the sense of being a family) act, sharing a meal together, sharing in conversation, and simply sharing.

This particular potluck was to celebrate that the month of September (I believe it’s the whole month – at least that’s my understanding) celebrates “amor y amistad” – “love and friendship” – here in Colombia. So the fact that I was able to, so early into my forming community here, partake in this familiar act of common union, of communion, of potluck, was incredibly significant to me, and I’m already beginning to feel more and more welcomed as part of the family. Because when you share and break bread with the family, whether in an act of Eucharist or in an act of sharing a literal meal, you are taking part in a connection that is greater than yourself. In this case, the connection was in the Methodist family, in the Christian family, in the human family.

Read more from Kara's blog. Or support Kara's work through Global Ministries

Kara Crawford is a missionary, a Mission Intern, of the United Methodist Church. (photo courtesy of Kara Crawford)

God Is Able

This reflection is from Deborah Archie, a community developer, (center, back row) who stands with other advocates for children. 
Front Row: L to R: Rev. William Robinson, Better Community Development Inc. in Little Rock, AR; Angela Byrdsong, Wesley Community Center Inc. in Dayton, Ohio; Erie B. Stuckett, I Challenge You, Inc. Youth Program of Revels United Methodist Church, Greenville, MS; Rev. Herbert Brisbon, Pastor of the Ebenezer Charge in Washington, DC;
Back Row: L to R: Rev. Drew Giddings, ACT for Children, Brooklyn, NY; Lisa Nichols, CCW, Henry Fork Service Center, Rocky Mount, VA; Deborah Archie, CCW, Community Development for All People, Columbus, OH; Earnestine Varnado, CCW, St. Andrew's Mission, McComb, MS; Kim Lehmann, Global Ministries' Office of Women and Children, New York, NY. (Photo by Scott Jacobsen.)

The emancipation of slaves in 1865 did not bring an end to economic exploitation. In 1896, the Supreme Court made racial segregation the law of the land until 1954, when the same court determined that separate but equal was inherently unequal and unconstitutional.

But legally dismantling segregation in public schools did not end racial segregation. It took marches and protest, sit-ins, boycotts, freedom riders, arrests, beatings, shed blood, the murder freedom workers, and all the social action  and civil disobedience of the 1950s and 60s to bring about the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and 1968 Fair Housing Act.

The passage of civil rights laws has not ended racial hatred and bigotry. You cannot legislate morality; you cannot pass laws that make people love one another. That takes a casting out of the spirit of fear and hatred; that requires an exorcism of all the demons that are loose. That type of spiritual exorcism is left for God. Over time the vestiges of overt racism are largely gone in the Deep South.

A change has come about which I, as a young girl, could never imagine. Even now when I return to Georgia and other parts of the South and I am welcomed to sit and eat at establishments that were once forbidden to me, I know that this is the type of change that only God can bring into being.

We can only do what we can do, but we must do what we can do. In the civil rights era that meant various acts of civil disobedience and in today’s time it means social and political action designed to pressure law makers and policy makers to adopts laws and public policy that does not favor the wealthy over the poor and most vulnerable and does not relegate them to second class citizens.

There is strength in knowing that our faith has power. If we do what we can do, we have the faith to believe that God is able to do the rest. When God instructed Joshua and the children of Israel on the seventh day to march seven times around the city of Jericho with seven priests blowing seven rams’ horns in front of the ark of the covenant, it was not the marching, the blowing of rams’ horns, or the loud battle cry that brought down and destroyed the walls of Jericho. It was the priests and the children of Israel doing their part and God doing God's will that brought about the destruction of Jericho.

God alone is able to do all things, but because God is in relationship with us God expects us to do what we can so that God can do God's will. Similarly, if we do our part and demand a fair just society for everyone, God will do what seems impossible and bring it into being, because God is Able to do all things.

Deborah Archie is a Church and Community Worker with the West Ohio Conference through the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church. She attended the Proctor Institute, organized by the Children's Development Fund (CDF), at Haley Farm outside of Knoxville, Tennessee in July 2011.