Estan en Todas Partes

“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

“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

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

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

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”

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.