John's Blog - Lutheran World Relief

Freedom Now!

2009-07-04T16:38:00.001-05:00

In honor of Independence Day, some thoughts on freedom. Happy Fourth!

Freedom now! Not as a human demand, but as a divine declaration.
Freedom now! Not as a right based on race, but as a gift of God’s grace.
Freedom now! Not as a sweet by-and-by, pie-in-the-sky fancy, but as a yearning fulfilled, as a prayer answered, as a panting satisfied.
Freedom now! Because Christ came to earth, in the here-and-now, and now we have the “right now” promise that whomever the Son sets free is free indeed.
Freedom now! To speak as voices for the voiceless, especially persecuted believers.
Freedom now! To fight for what is right.
Freedom now! To turn relational war-zones into sacred shalom zones.
Freedom now! Liberated by Christ from the sandbox of selfishness.
Freedom now! Launching into a life of service.
Freedom now! Spreading forgiveness far and wide.
Freedom now! Soaring with wings like eagles.
Freedom now! Running without ever getting weary.
God is granting freedom now!

“Well Done is Better than Well Said” From Historic Trinity Lutheran Church—DetroitSunday, 21 June 2009

2009-06-24T06:44:00.004-05:00

Beauty for the soul is as much a gift as is bread for the poor. My sermon on Sunday, encouraging Christians to love actively in responding to global hunger, was preached in one of the nation’s most astounding masterpieces of church architecture. God’s gifts lie astride any false divides of aestheticism and activism. What’s common is that love takes on tangible expression within the world—for the sake of the life of the world.

Here’s a summary of my remarks:

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue
but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

I believe the message for us here revolves around the writer’s observation that the highest truth is not found in documents or statements, because too often it’s the case that after all is said and done, more is said than is done.

Tomoji Tanabe died this past Friday in Japan. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, he was the world’s oldest man at 113 years. His secret was seafood in case you’re wondering. I don’t know if you plan or even desire to live that long, but try this with me: in your mind, calculate your age. Got it? Now, if you’re older than 42 years old, you don’t have to raise your hand, because in numerous places where LWR works, you’re already dead, you have lived longer than the average person.

We have no idea how fortunate we are, even here in southeastern Michigan, the U.S. epicenter of the global financial crisis. The Spirit moves us through the words of today’s reading from 1 John. We are called and compelled to do something, to move beyond talking about the problem to taking action.

God’s love is not an abstract, pie-in-the-sky, feel-good emotion. No, it’s much more dramatic than that, much more concrete. Picture the most grotesque human suffering imaginable. This love doesn’t run or retreat from it, but gets involved. “What wondrous love is this” that takes down-to-earth action for my sake, for your sake and for the sake of all who suffer.

This love in action can be documented: Love, born in a barn in backwater Bethlehem. Love, breathing for us our poisoned air and drinking for us our deep despair (cf. Martin Franzmann). Love, bleeding for us on a cross of sacrifice so that others might live. Love, buried, but bursting to life again so that we might dare to get involved in places of high mortality; the love of Jesus gives more than 113 years of life. It is a living statement of abundant, full, humane, just, overflowing, everlasting life.

John and the Rev. Dr. David Eberhard,
Pastor of the Cathedral Ministries of Historic Trinity

The Long Road Ahead for Sri Lankans

2009-06-22T08:39:00.003-05:00

Displaced Sri Lankan women make nutrition patties
for children in an LWR-supported community kitchen.

News reports proclaim that the fighting between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has ended. But for thousands of Sri Lankans who remain displaced—far away from home and family—the story does not end there.

They are still in dire need of our help. Many continue to live in overcrowded camps where there is not enough food or water. Children remain separated from their parents. People are weary and sick and wondering when this nightmare will end.

Our Sri Lanka Country Program Manager, K. Thampu, works with our partners on the ground to provide for the needs of people who must, for now, call a displacement camp their home. I pray you’ll read her words and let your hearts be moved to help.

Dear John,

After visiting the camps, I write to urge our supporters to continue helping the displaced people in Sri Lanka.

With the gifts we’ve received so far we’ve been able to feed thousands of people in the camps. We try to reach as many people as possible, providing food and water to newly arrived people and through community kitchens where many come to eat. But our supply of food is running low. If we do not act soon, our supplies will run out and people will begin to starve.

People desperately need water, for drinking and for washing. Lack of water has led to sanitation problems, causing the rapid spread of diseases like diarrhea and hepatitis. We are seeing more cases of these diseases and people are beginning to die from them.

I met one set of parents in particular whose story deeply touched my heart. Their daughter was very sick, so they took her to the small medical center at the camp. But the staff at the center did not speak Tamil, so the family could not understand the prescriptions or the treatment instructions and their child continued to worsen. The next closest medical facility was about 5 kilometers away. They managed to get on a bus going toward the hospital but unfortunately their daughter died just after arriving there.

My heart aches for this family, and for the many children in the camps who don’t have families to look after them. They are hungry and there is no one to feed them. They are ill and there is no one to care for them.

There is so much our supporters can do to help. Working with partners on the ground we can care for the people in the camps. We can ease the suffering of many. We can save lives.

I pray that many are moved to help the people of Sri Lanka during this difficult time and I give thanks for those who already contributed. Your kindness shows tremendous respect for the dignity of your brothers and sisters.

In thanks,

K. Thampu
LWR Country Program Manager
Sri Lanka

I urge you to make a contribution to the Sri Lanka Crisis fund. Your gift will save lives.

Thank you for your support of Lutheran World Relief and for the people of Sri Lanka.

Never Content

2009-06-07T20:12:00.001-05:00

It’s that season, the season of caps and gowns and graduates eagerly anticipating the next phase of their lives. I’ve been honored to speak at more than one graduation ceremony this year, and each one is moving in its own unique way. I thank God for the blessing of sharing such an important moment, the beginning of a new journey, with these students and their families. When I spoke with the graduates of Concordia University Texas a few weeks ago, on May 9, I shared a few words of discontent:

“Never Content”

On this Mother’s Day weekend we take sober and somber note that nearly 10 million children under 5 die each year from causes related to poverty, like measles, diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria; diseases which are fully beatable and treatable; diseases which we can prevent; diseases which do indeed prevent the hopes of proud mothers from becoming reality; diseases which prevent families from ever seeing fabulous graduations like we are experiencing today; young lives, over before they really begin. That's 27,000 a day—in Texas, that would mean a high school football stadium full of young children dying every day, 38 a minute, on average, nearly 500 now dead while I’m talking this morning.
On the way over here this morning, my hospitable driver, your president, Dr. Tom Cedel, a man with an unceasing discontent for mediocrity, proudly told me of the 1700 students from this institution who volunteered this year to make a difference here in this world. Congratulations, graduates! We need your spirit, young people with plenty of energy who will not accept the irrationality of millions of needless, senseless deaths every year.
Martin Luther King, Jr. captured well your spirit when he said: “Deeply woven into the fiber of our tradition is the conviction that all people are made in the image of God. If we accept this, we cannot be content to see people hungry or suffering.”

“You Must Go”

2009-06-02T06:40:00.003-05:00

On May 22, I had the honor of speaking to the graduates of Concordia Theological Seminary at Fort Wayne, Indiana. I’d like to share with you a few of the remarks that I shared with these remarkable men and women. Like these seminary grads, each one of us has a call, and a responsibility, to go into the world and make a difference. The way we do that will, of course, be different for each of us depending on our own unique talent and vocation – but into the world we must go.

It’s a well known fact—and sometimes an excuse used by those who “drop out”—that the world’s wealthiest man never completed his college education at Harvard. But not finishing college was not Bill Gates’ biggest unfinished business, according to him.

“I do have one big regret,” the Microsoft man has remarked. “I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world, the appalling disparities of health and wealth and opportunity that condemn millions to lives of despair.”

The Gates Foundation is now making a huge difference. And at LWR we work with them.

But we desire to work more with you, also—with the church. Because you posses something unique: You go into the world—as women and men, splashed in the strong name of the Three-Person God, therefore, the transcendent dignity of every human person is not a question for you. People living in oppression need your theology-on-the-go, and your theology, in order not to become docetic, needs them.

Even as you walk across this center stage, you walk out into a world that’s more like the world the founder of this seminary found than you may at first realize. When he arrived at the village of Fort Wayne 150 years ago, Wilhelm Sihler found a place that was “primitive and life expectancy was short.”

You are going into a world of immense suffering; a world with H1N1; a world with an economy that, economic experts say, … sucks; a world, where, as the prophet Isaiah says: “Justice is turned back, righteousness stands at a distance, and truth stumbles in the public square” (Isaiah 59:14).

But, there’s something about this world that’s non-negotiable for church-workers like yourselves according to the founder of this venerable institution: Into such a world, “you must go!”

Desperation in Sri Lanka

2009-05-18T09:40:00.004-05:00

IDP tents with up to 40 people per tent.

Friends,

Perhaps you’ve seen it on the news, or maybe not: thousands killed and displaced as a result of the on-going fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

It is a scene of graphic violence and human suffering. Our Sri Lankan staff is working with partners on the ground to provide desperately needed food and water to the families who have been driven from their homes and into government camps.

The recent news of attacks on government camps (ironically called “safe zones”) makes the following report from our Sri Lankan staffer, K. (Nalee) Thampu, all the more timely.

Read Nalee’s words and let your hearts be moved to act on behalf of the people of Sri Lanka.

Words cannot accurately describe the suffering of the people of Sri Lanka. The technical term for these huddled masses, who now reside in crowded government camps, is internally displaced persons, or IDPs. What I saw going into the camps to deliver food were families whose lives have been severely interrupted—traumatized—by violence, terror, and separation.

A few days ago we visited an IDP camp in Vavuniya, a government controlled city about 10 miles from the front lines of violence. We went there to distribute 850 food packets with our local partners. People traveled for weeks to get to the camp and had little access to food along the way. In the camps the only food available is being supplied by the local organizations, like our partners, with the help of volunteers from surrounding villages.

When we arrived there were many men waiting for food. The men are the ones tasked with providing food for their families, so there they stood—hundreds of them—their eyes imploring us to hand out the parcels. I could not wait to get the food that we had into their hands so that they could share it with their wives and children. The distribution was a bit chaotic with so many hands outstretched in need of food. The one thing that haunts me about this day is that after all the food was distributed we met a little boy who had gotten lost in the throngs of people who showed up. He was separated from his family and he was hungry. He asked if we had just one more food package and it broke my heart to tell him that there was no more.

On that same trip, we had the occasion to speak with a social worker working with LWR’s local partner. She spends her time talking with IDPs and trying to provide some comfort to them.

Ms. Vijaya told us about a woman who became separated from her baby amidst the chaos. The woman and her family had fled their homes and were staying on the beach when, without warning, that beach came under attack. The woman and her husband rushed to gather up their children and what few belongings they could carry. Almost immediately the husband and wife were separated. When they met back up in the government safe zone both were horrified to find that their eight month-old baby had somehow been left behind, both parents assuming the other had him.

A lost child is any parent’s worst nightmare but in this situation—with so much violence and very little order—the loss is tragic. The woman is understandably inconsolable and cannot eat or drink. She just waits for news of her lost baby. Ms. Vijaya is trying to help her cope with her anxiety.

It is important for LWR’s supporters to know that their donations are helping the people of Sri Lanka. We are able to get into the camps and distribute food and other desperately needed items. The thing that strikes at my heart is that for every person we help there are many more who we have not yet reached. There are many more children like the boy who stood hungry with no one to care for him. There are many more families in need of food. There are many more parents who wait in desperation for news of their lost children.

I appeal to you, in the U.S. to be as generous as you can. Your gifts put food directly into the hands of hungry people. Your generosity provides life saving support.

I was able to take a few pictures while in the camp that I would like to share. I hope these pictures and stories will move the hearts of people in the U.S. to help their brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka.

Join the Sri Lanka crisis relief effort—and provide food and other life saving support—with your gift today.

community kitchen in the camp

community kitchen provides a warm meal for this young girl

The Generous Spirit of Glenwood

2009-05-18T06:48:00.003-05:00

I pose with Pastors: Krista S. Lee and Randy S. Chrissis

Tucked cozily adjacent to Lake Minnewaska is the town of Glenwood, Minnesota. (That’s the 32nd state of the union [smile!]). Although this hamlet has a population of just 2532, it should by no means be thought of as sleepy or provincial. The 2117 members of Glenwood Lutheran Church offer themselves passionately in as compassionate givers, engaged in quilting projects, health kits, and for the sake of those living in extreme poverty. Earl Hauge, is a key, energetic lay leader. Margie May, a registered nurse, is a stellar example of the hospitality and concern this bustling small-town congregation extends to guests. Though there’s only one set of traffic lights in the entire Pope County, this congregation is a beacon the light of Christ for those living without hope.

Thanks for having me as a visitor and speaker on Good Shepherd Sunday, 3 May 2009.

Divine, indeed

2009-05-05T14:02:00.004-05:00

It's always a blessing to make connections with our partners from around the world. This time, they came to us --here I am in Washington, DC with three representatives from Kuapa Kokoo, in Ghana, who were in town for a meeting with Divine Chocolate. In case you haven't heard about Divine yet, it's one of the coolest companies out there -- Fair Trade and farmer-owned. The farmers of Kuapa Kokoo grow all the cocoa that goes into Divine, and it's the chocolate that we feature in the LWR Chocolate Project.

I hope you'll try some for yourself, and I hope you'll join us in our quest to raise $100,000 to help Divine expand into new markets in the U.S. The more demand we create for Divine Chocolate, the greater the benefits for the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo and their families. Click here to make a gift, and thanks!

Enjoy your chocolate ....

The Language of Gratitude

2009-04-24T08:42:00.005-05:00

I was in Chicago with several colleagues this month to visit with Bishop Hanson and ELCA staff to say thanks for their investment in our mutual ministry. They have supported our shared mission, as we talk with and walk with and work with communities experiencing the most painful forms of poverty on the planet. We are profoundly grateful for the partnership we share with the ELCA (and also with the LCMS, but that’s another blog post for another day). I’d like to share with you some of my thoughts from this “thank you” day.

In the midst of these crazy economic times, it is easy to forget to say thank you. We Americans are so focused on putting our own economic house in order that we are tempted to be overly turned in on ourselves. That’s the temptation of tough times, to forsake our mission of ending hunger, to focus so much on our own situation that we forget the excluded and the marginalized, and forget to say thank-you.

Money talks especially loudly these days. But money, or a lack of money, is not the language of our faith. The ELCA knows, as LWR knows, that we need to remember the impact of the economic crisis on people in poor countries. As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote (28 March 2009), “It’s worth remembering that the consequence of a deep recession in a poor country isn’t just a lost job but also a lost child.”

Money talks, but it can never say enough. Instead, we are called to speak the language of faith, a language of prayer, worship, and praise. It is with such language that we express our gratitude for our partnership with the ELCA. With a fullness of heart, flowing from God’s love-language to us, the crucifixion, and rooted in our hope in the resurrection of Jesus, LWR says thank you. Praise God for those who courageously do justice, for those who patiently call forth human dignity, for those who strive to live as peacemakers.

Lenten Repenting in Frankenmuth

2009-03-10T11:13:00.002-05:00

A durable definition of development is “reduction in vulnerability.” I can’t think of a time in my twenty-eight years of public life as an adult when I have not been associated with a local or global, faith-based organization seeking to assist families and children in developing better lives. I can think of times when I’ve been more attentive to causes of the poor and less diverted by the economic realities of the relatively affluent.

Served by banquet staff in lederhosen this past Saturday in Frankenmuth, MI, a mentor to me and many, Dr. Robert Miles, surprised me with an award from the organization he heads, Lutheran Child and Family Services of Michigan. I’d say my response to this “Friend of Children” award was bumbling. My words stumbled because of the thoughts of regret chasing through my mind. Even while Bob was graciously lauding me, I was considering—confessing, perhaps—the ways I’ve been way too focused lately on this economic crisis. Of course non-profits are economically vulnerable, but not more vulnerable than children burned by a deadly downdraft of disease, violence, poverty and daily crises. Thanks, Bob. Your words and that award call me back to more perspective.

Success is a process. As a president and CEO who sees himself in perpetual development, these days I need a personal reduction in my preoccupation with this troublesome economic situation. Yes, money matters to our ministries, but never more than the children and families at risk. Those communities digging themselves out of poverty, those for whom LCFS and Lutheran World Relief exist, deserve the priority of our best imagination and most visionary creativity—energy currently being over-expended by me on how to stay ahead of curve in this fiscal crisis.

Lord, make me an even better friend of children. Give me your Spirit and clarity, especially through times of economic crisis! Amen.

So, the child-focused theme of this blog entry gives me a good excuse for posting a favorite photo of one of my grandsons, Malachi Emmanuel, who’s currently living in Baltimore with Monique and me.

On to Peru...

Bandiagara Cliffs

2009-02-17T14:31:00.003-05:00

Awakened by waves of Harmattan wind
Sweeping new dust through boulders, revealing
Children, full of grace, from Banani who
Cry though smiling with mimicry, while they
Shoulder impassable poverty and
Trade francs for shrieks of Ave Maria.

Ah, with chagrin, palimpsest of pilgrims,
Rewrite, please, this kind guide’s dead sentiments,
Or else foredoomed be the fruit of all wombs.

Birth with these Dōgon, in deep sediment,
An earthed symphony without misery:
Vivid, gemmed, weightless as flying Tellem.

So, children find voice in redemption songs
Ushering a rush of revolution
Inscribing streams, irrigating dry dreams,
Erasing blood and blame for who has sinned,
Ambushing old dust from caves with fresh green
Awakened by waves of Harmattan wind.

Taking Half the Road

2009-02-11T08:09:00.005-05:00

One of my favorite cultural customs in Mali is the elegant way departures happen here. There’s nothing hasty or unannounced about them. When visiting a community, we don’t merely get up and leave. We request permission to “take the road.” If one’s host has enjoyed the visit, she or he will say, “You may take half the road, leaving the other half for your return visit.”

Kirk Betts, LWR Board Chair with Aldiouma Guindo,
President of the SEPROBIO Sesame Program.

Upon granting us half the road, Aldiouma Guindo, the president of the SEPROBIO Sesame Program in Koro, Mali said, our work is only possible because of Lutheran World Relief.

“No,” I retorted, “your success is due to your hard work and God’s blessing.”

“I understand that” he replied, “but when you ask for God’s blessing, God sends others like you to help us.”

At that we simply said, “Thanks,” and took half the road.

Free to Go to School

2009-02-10T15:30:00.002-05:00

Freed from scraping for scraps to survive, families will send more children to school. That’s a basic premise and promise of Lutheran World Relief’s development work. Rather than children being forced into working the fields, parents can now afford books and clothes and school supplies. In community after community we’ve heard this story. “My children can now go to school.” This really, really matters in countries with the highest fertility rate in the world (averages can be more than 7 per female), and where children 18 and under comprise about half of the population.

Historically, the colonializing French occupiers—who ruled these sections of west Africa from the 1800s until about 50 years—valued how much agriculture could be produced more than how much formal education could be achieved. School-going rates at the time of independence in the early 1960s were grotesquely low, in the single digits.

While LWR does not partner with educational organizations or operate schools, we do deeply value the power of education to change lives, as well as the priority of education, once food and safety are securely available. So, as we engage in monitoring visits like this one, going to school is one of the variables for which we listen.

When we visited with the Fada Dairy Program in Burkina Faso a year ago, Miriam Diallo (pictured with me) reported being a parent of ten children, one of whom was attending school. Because of the partnership with LWR, she is now sending two children to school. One could dismissively say, “Well that’s only two of ten children,” but a one hundred percent improvement in education rates within one year, especially within a formerly desperately poor family, represents a remarkable impact.

A Hero Named Hadizatou

2009-02-06T08:12:00.002-05:00

What’s new in Hadizatou Makole’s life? She stands alongside LWR’s Africa Director, Dr. Evariste Karangwa, outside the storage facility and offices of the Hanzari Women’s Group in Dogondoutchi. In the past four years Hadizatou has a newly improved knowledge of peanut oil processing technology. Despite personal circumstances leaving her as the primary provider for eight children, she gleams, telling us how she manages a family budget for food and clothing, paying cash for everything. With proceeds from her peanut processing business she has purchased four ewes and one cow, representing unheard of viability for a woman in this community. Newfound personal leadership potential animates Hadizatou with a playful and savvy confidence as she outlines plans for her future.

Dressed in her hijāb, this lady courageously stands at a historical intersection of gender roles. Lutheran World Relief is navigating this crossroads with her. None of what she has done would have been possible for her unforgotten mother. All of what’s new to her will one day be viewed as normal to her daughters—“each person and every generation,” LWR’s vision statement proclaims. Oppressive cultural traditions are falling away with each harvest. Heroes like Hadizatou gradually and winsomely sow a new way forward. Félicitations à Madame Makole!

Celebrating in Niger

2009-02-05T13:07:00.002-05:00

All cultures express hospitality. Perhaps none are as lively as these communities in West Africa. Dancing on the ground’s hot sand, drumming on percussive instruments that seemed to sing, ululating, blessing—yes, loudly voicing their benedictions upon us as we walked by.

At Konni, the community opened itself to include us in their inner circle of leaders; what’s more, seated prominently, we were vested in traditional garb and gave remarks then translated into Hausa. Lutheran World Relief’s board chairman (pictured in the photo) commented to representatives of the 3,300 member wheat grower’s federation, “We look at this project as a model for others around the world.”

At Matankari more than 2000 persons thronged to the town center at the Niger flagpole. Older boys took to the trees for a better vantage of the ceremonies. No energy was spared to speak welcome, in music, meals and detailed presentations of the transformational benefits from our partnership.

I believe this energetic expression of welcome is a testimony to LWR’s expression of development work, the accompaniment model. We relate to grassroots experts, facilitating access to agricultural inputs, access to credit-granting institutions, access to markets, access to a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). Our preposition of choice is with. We don’t impose, presume or tower over others. God is with us and others, so, we are with others. We walk with, work with, wait with and even dance in celebration with—giving thanks and praise for the change that comes when people are with one another.

The Backbone of Black History Month

2009-02-04T08:11:00.001-05:00

February is Black History Month in North America. Fittingly, this is my second consecutive February in West Africa. Last year’s visit to LWR projects proved so personally transformational that from Burkina Faso. I text-messaged LWR board chair, Kirk Betts, with an invitation to join me in February 2009. Within two minutes he text-messaged me back, “Count me in.” Now we are here.

My reportage this year will go in two directions. I will attempt as usual to give you a look at the depth of our projects while I also go in search of the breadth of the metaphors that define these diverse communities in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.

Metaphors “serve as a repository of that culture’s dominant mode of intelligence and tradition,” according to Caribbean scholar, Patricia Ismond. Through our photographs and words, I hope to interweave LWR projects with the images, stories, and mythological truths animating the lives of the amazing people in the rural places where LWR works. My hunch is that this approach will intensify your profound sense of why this ministry matters. From these communities and these cultures you may acquire a deeper sense of the many metaphors that crossed the Atlantic in chains to the New World during the slave trade to become the backbone of Black History Month.

LWR Board Sees the Hands that Help

2009-02-03T09:45:00.005-05:00

Oversight and governance constitute key duties for the members of the Lutheran World Relief board. These 13 women and men, 8 from the ELCA and 5 from the LCMS, take seriously their stewarding of the mission, vision and fiscal operations. Three times a year these dedicated generative thinkers come together to meet from California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Wyoming. Once every three years, however, these volunteer leaders travel to the faraway places LWR works to see for themselves how the things they read and hear in staff reports correspond to the work we do at the last mile.

By co-creating “vibrant, functioning rural economies,”—to employ a favorite phrase of Executive Vice-President Jeff Whisenant— we move, albeit incrementally, toward a world of justice, dignity and peace. I say co-creating because without the Holy Spirit’s help, without the expertise of partners who accompany local communities, without the heroic labors of campesinos (peasant farmers), without the prophetic, loving and wise counsel of the LWR board, making progress would be entirely impossible.

Reading the numbers and narratives on paper at the Baltimore boardroom can’t quite equate with hearing firsthand the impact like what board members heard in Matagalpa, Nicaragua: “We are not poor anymore,” testified one community leader. “Instead of extending our hand to receive help, we extend our hand to help others.”

Estan en Todas Partes

2009-01-30T07:31:00.006-05:00

“Development is the story behind the well.” That phrase says a lot. It’s shorthand for a critical principle I learned last year from Annastasia, who directs LWR Kenya. Her metaphor suggests that LWR’s influence goes beyond what can (and must!) be measured. Some of the impact resists any metrics, for example, the way we touch all aspects of a community’s life. While what grows in the field feeds a community, yet what dawns on the horizon because of what grows in a field is a future never before seen, undreamt of, never before deemed possible.

I arrived home yesterday from Nicaragua, where our LWR board meeting included monitoring trips to some projects. I heard transformative human stories unfolding behind what my eyes could grasp: behind the coffee farmer is a former contra fighter who has exchanged his weapons for a farm tool; we monitored the work of a skilled dry mill operator who several years ago was a man without the opportunity to go beyond a second grade education. See him now, standing with dignity, now that he can finally provide for his family.

LWR Executive Vice-President, Jeff Whisenant, during one meeting, posed a probing question to Fátima Ismael, “Gerente General” (General Manager) of SOPPEXCCA (Association of Small Producers and Exporters of Coffee). Jeff’s query attempted to uncover any unique benefit of a partnership with LWR from the point of view of a partner. Immediately, she replied: “Because of your long-term sustainable approach, you take the time for making an impact on the total community. Estan en todas partes--you’re in all things.” In this case, that’s the development story behind the coffee bean.

Photo, Fátima Ismael and LWR board member, Emma Graeber Porter.

Words Reconsidered

2009-01-26T08:35:00.001-05:00

“We encounter each other in words,” she spoke “into the winter air.” Barack Obama’s inaugural poet, Elizabeth Alexander, described the range of ways we speak to one another: “words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.”

Words to reconsider were spoken at another inauguration on 14 January 1963 (the day I was born, actually) when the Alabama governor, George Wallace, promised, with spiny words, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”

Less than fifty years later, less than one week after my 46th birthday, an American with a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother, was inaugurated president of the United States. I pray for this new president and I personally praise God for the racial integration he represents, like me and millions, blatant genealogical diversity, reconciled in a single person.

Reconsidering these two inaugurations rouses us to thoughts of national redemption and a deeper awareness of the ways we encounter one another and the future with our words.

Joy to THIS World: The Field of Faith

2009-01-19T22:07:00.002-05:00

The season of “Joy to the World” is over till next year, but LWR is far from done harmonizing with its partners around the world. Together, we weed out those thorns that infest the ground, as the song says. Thorns of poverty yet plague this planet. Undesirable undergrowths of injustice choke people of the joy God wants to plant in their lives.

During one transatlantic flight on the way home from LWR business, long after my mind had blurred from too much reading of my PhD material, I turned to the in-flight feature, Bucket List. The lead characters are facing an imminent death. These roles incidentally are played dazzlingly by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. So, they compose and then execute their list of things to do prior to “kicking the bucket.” They drive fast cars. They skydive. They travel worldwide.

Upon arriving at the pyramids, the character played by Morgan Freeman muses on how the ancients believed there would be two questions posed at the end of life: (1) “Have you found joy in your life?” and, (2) “Has your life brought joy to others?” These queries frame a self-critical filter that has remained with me for months now. How would I answer these questions? I’d say I have discovered joy, or better, I’ve been discovered by joy through my faith in Jesus. But the second question implies an action. Joy isn’t for hording. We are nudged to consider how we use our resources to extend joy to others.

We who sing carols lustily, with even more vigor we must bring joy to the world, bring peace on earth year-round, bring goodwill to all we serve. That’s what the Gospel calls to do: “The same gospel which demands intense inwardness as the theater of faith points to the world as a field of faith” (Joseph Sittler, The Structure of Christian Ethics, 69).

A Daughter’s Remembrance

2009-01-12T23:08:00.003-05:00

Preaching a funeral sermon is never easy, but preaching the homily for one’s father would induce dread to many, never mind having a dad with the stature of the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Marshall (see Jan. 6 post). But moved by the Spirit of God and consistent with her dad’s inspiring leadership, the Rev. Margaret Niederer offered this illustration during her sermon on 3 January 2009 in Burlington, IA.

In Tony Buzan’s book, “The Power of Verbal Intelligence,” there is a wonderful example of the potential of one’s life. He tells the story of the origin of the Suzuki method – a method that helps millions of children learn to play the violin. …During his life, Suzuki had two profound, significant insights – the first was when he visited a building that served as an incubator for thousands of Japanese songbirds – larks. The breeders were taking the eggs and incubating them in giant, warm, silent hallways that functioned as giant nests. The only sound the hatchlings would hear is the song of an adult lark – an adult lark with high quality singing ability.

Suzuki noticed that every little chick that hatched would copy the master, singer lark. Even more remarkable was – that after a few days – each chick that had started life by purely copying the master lark – began to develop its own variations. The breeders learned of the potential in each chick that was born. They waited for each chick to develop its own style and then selected the next master lark from the newly hatched chicks.

This observation led Suzuki to his next revelation: …Each new life holds untapped potential - each life receiving specific God-given gifts.

Marshall’s mark on his family and on LWR may be just that: a nurturing environment centered in Jesus Christ, richly blessing every human person, accompanying others, all the way around the world, to uniquely develop their farms and funds and their own families to their fullest potential.

Photo: John and Pr. Margaret Niederer at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, Leonia, N.J.

Murder on New Year’s Eve

2009-01-08T08:40:00.003-05:00

A grenade attack in Atánquez ended much more than a New Year’s Eve celebration. It also ended the lives of Gloria, aged 66, Azael, aged 25, Marelvis, aged 45 and Maria-Teresa, aged 26. They are members of the indigenous Kankuamo people, a group under siege in a nation rocked by conflict. Since 1999 more than 250 people from this Indian group numbering 13,000 nationwide have met untimely deaths in Colombia. Injustice is a fully appropriate term to describe this illicit process that permits people with political and military power to target the powerless, and kill non-combatant women, children, and ordinary campesinos.

When I traveled to Colombia in November of 2007 I heard similar reports: husbands and sons murdered. Wives and daughters raped. Grandparents who had farmed for generations being forced into exile. Good crops fumigated by U.S.-funded spraying aimed at illegal crops. Story after story, heartwrenchingly reported to us, because somehow they believed that U.S. Lutherans care about making a difference.

That’s why LWR, on behalf of U.S. Lutherans, partners with Agenda Caribe, an umbrella organization that advocates on behalf of Colombia’s most vulnerable citizens, especially Afro-Colombians and indigenous folk, like these whose dancing was turned to mourning and the last day of the year became the final day of their lives.

Below is a recent video produced by our partner Agenda Caribe, illustrating the lives of the people in Colombia they serve.

“Hope Challenges the Futureto Outdo the Past”

2009-01-06T13:36:00.002-05:00

In Memoriam, Robert J. Marshall

We add our voices to the choruses of remembrance sounding now for the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Marshall (1918-2008) Dr. Marshall passed away on Monday, December 22, 2008. For more than a quarter of a century, he lived his faith on the board of Lutheran World Relief, from1968 to 1994. Fifteen of those years he was the chair of the board, exemplifying a senatorial demeanor, notes LWR Executive Vice-President, Jeff Whisenant. His tenure was characterized by an uncanny capacity to “unravel the strands of complex issues” with clarity and charity—charity in the best sense, meaning God’s unconditional love in Christ Jesus.

Our mourning carries, however, an undertone of thankfulness for the manner in which Dr. Marshall prepared LWR for the 21st century. In his own words: “Hope challenges the future to outdo the past.”

In his final annual report, Dr. Marshall noted that the staff of LWR was dedicated “to pouring themselves out, often away from home for weeks, conferring for long hours, prayerfully assessing opportunities and then recommending actions and working with fellow humans the world over to develop new hope.”

LWR’s mission abides: to fill the future with hope for each community and every generation.

Mary and Malaria

2008-12-22T23:40:00.007-05:00

Pregnant and poor, this vulnerable virgin would be a prime candidate for death by malaria in many of the places where Lutheran World Relief works. 75 percent of those million killed each year by this disease are pregnant mothers and children under the age of five.

During this sacred season we reflect on Mary—the bearer of the God—and Jesus, whose birth brings light and life. My prayer for 2009 is that Christ’s light will lead the ELCA and LCMS to bear life to the poorest and most vulnerable through our Lutheran Malaria Initiative.

photo: St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Baltimore, MD

Heartened at Heartwood, Wisconsin

2008-11-06T09:53:00.006-05:00

Retreat participants discuss the book The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier

My heart gets built up every time I travel internationally to see our work or travel domestically to hear the commitment of our U.S. constituents.

At the recent LWR Renew and Discover Retreat at a picture-perfect, autumnal setting
(http://www.heartwoodconferencecenter.com/), I was amazed to hear how succinctly these core supporters summarized what we do together. For example, when asked about their LWR elevator speech, what quick points they use to tell others about LWR, here’s what they said:

LWR is not about handouts.
LWR is about transparency and accountability.
LWR has many years of experience in their quest for justice.
LWR helps people create their own lasting change.
LWR makes it possible for millions of people to work together for common good.

That indeed (and in deed) is the heart of who we are!

A time to reunite for the alumni of the 2007 Tanzania Study Tour
with Women of the ELCA (Group 2)