Giving Thanks in Freetown

My Thanksgiving was interesting- it was really nice in the physical sense (that is we watched the Macy's Day Parade and football, sat on nice couches, and ate all the glorious traditional Turkey Day food you can imagine- and all in air conditioning) but it wasn't at all like Thanks giving. Just a nice party with good food. No family, no prayers, no sitting around a table, no (explicit) giving of thanks really. Don't get me wrong, we were all thankful to be there and expressed that to our generous hosts and we really enjoyed chilling with friends and having a good time but it just lacked that "holiday family feel".

On the other hand, the dessert I made (pumpkin squares) was a hit. Erin told me that it was the best one there :-)

We're going on our final retreat this week. It's to a place called Franco's which I gather is some sort of hotel near the beach. Run by an Italian guy (Franco, presumably), they've got good food and air conditioned rooms (!) and are very near the famous River No. 2 Beach. We're doing some debriefing and how to re-enter our own culture and such and we'll be back Thursday.

The New "House of Hope"

The House of Hope is what they decided to call our new building in Kingtom over Kroo Bay where we met for our first morning meeting today. I had seen it in construction, but now that it's done it's really nice. Wood floors, nice lighting, three bathrooms and an out-building that can house people. A balcony on the first floor and two smaller ones on the second (with good views of the football field and clinic in Kroo Bay). Morning worship was great because it was so quiet! No cars, and the occasional sound of a kid nearby or someone hammering something, but that was it!

It exciting but everyone has their own ideas about what to do with all the new stuff so that could get hectic. But for now it's exciting to actually have an office instead of meeting in people's living rooms.

Black Friday

Re-read my post here

Turn your eyes heavenward

The past couple weeks I have been struggling with my own attitude about being here, but after taking a step in humility to share my struggle, God has been using things this week to show me how to look outside of myself, even to be blind to my selfish ways.

I was in Kroo Bay with some team members and Erik took us to a guy he had met while doing physical therapy with Erin. His name was Mohamed and he had hurt his back a few months ago and was unable to use his legs, but now the nerves are making the connections, but the atrophied muscles aren't. Erin and given him some exercises which Erik and I had come to help him do. One of them was standing.

As we helped him up, his thin legs wobbled, but his arms and torso were as muscle-bound as any working Sierra Leonean. He gripped me tight and struggled to get his legs to support him. He kept bending over because he was looking at his feet and so I told him to look up. That doesn't really translate in Krio so I told him in Krio to put his eyes on the sky. When he did this, you could tell he wasn't seeing just roofs and clouds, and birds- with so much determination and the struggle he had, he looked like he was looking into heaven itself. I almost dropped him to turn around and see what he was looking it.

Another day, I decided to spend my time doing some research. This is what I love about WMF- this was legit research. I had been thinking, "In the Gospels, Jesus is always 'withdrawing alone to the mountain to pray'. I'm gonna go find out what's so great about that". And so I did. I took transport to the US Embassy and hiked the rest of the way to the top of Leicester Peak which overlooks the whole city. I listened to birds, and felt the cool breeze and the clouds wrapping round my face. I read some Psalms out loud to the city and just spent some time with God. I figured out what's so great about it, but it's not really the kind of thing you can write down. Just go do it yourself.

Things like these have helped me to focus less on myself and more on God... it's been good for me. Thank you so much for all your prayers that helped lead me to this!

The Mind of Christ

This is something I've been thinking about (I can do that a lot here) for while now and I've had a hard time figuring out how to share my thoughts. So finally, I decided to cop out and quote something that resonated with what I was thinking.

Being Christian means... (that we) must have a passion for developing a truly biblical worldview... This means becoming increasingly aware of the modern (and often non-biblical) worldview to which our education and socializations holds us captive. This means working hard to re-create a genuinely biblical worldview that is truly holistic, including supernatural and all that is good in modern science

-Myers, Walking with the Poor

The cultural differences here have been hard, but they are slowly teaching me some things. I have a lot of time to think and reflect about the things I see each day and this has been a pretty productive thing for me. Even the books that I thought I randomly chose to read for pleasure have been teaching me some things that encourage me to stretch my perception of how much of the truth I am able to see.

C.S. Lewis hints at these sorts of things a lot in the Chronicles of Narnia, specifically in the first and last books of the series where characters perceive their surroundings differently based on what they believe the truth to be (whether it's actually true or not).

I read a random series, just for fun, on time travel and instead of the classic time machine or mind-boggling physics, the characters simply changed their environment and freed their mind from the "millions of tiny threads of reality" that hold us to our own time. Of course, not so accurate for time travel, but fun for fiction. But, it did make me considered the tiny millions of threads that hold me to my own narrow view of the truth.

I then thought- "What sort of worldview did good Christians have before things like the Enlightenment, or the Council of Nicea? What kind of worldview did King David, Elijah, and Moses have? What kind of worldview do my African Christian brothers have? All of these worldviews are good and right, but I have very little of it. "

What if someone could understand the worldview of all of these people? Or at least pick out what is true and good and mesh it all together? What was Christ's worldview? I believe it was something very like that- all the good and true parts of everyone's worldview (and more)... and the best part is that I read recently in I Cor 2 that "we have the mind of Christ"! What a crazy idea!

There's a lot more in that chapter about how we can go about being taught these things, but as I lived here in a different culture and amidst conflicting and coinciding worldviews, I have been realizing how limited mine is and I want to expand it. I don't know how but I'm trying to learn as much as I can while I'm here and it's kind of become a little research project of mine, trying some major thinking-outside-of-the-box.

Anyway, I know that was awfully long, but it's been heavy on my mind and it's good to share, so thank you for sticking with it.

Proposal

I promised that I would post on what my ministry proposal would be like. The proposal is an official Word Made Flesh thing that I have to submit before I go. I'm to identify a need and propose a way to minister to that need- something that the staff here can consider for real work to be done on in the future. It's a good way for them to get fresh perspectives and new ideas, and good for us to think critically about what we see around us.
My idea has to do with getting the Lighthouse youth involved in service. Allow me to quote briefly from what I've already written in the proposal draft.

The purposes of my proposal will be two-fold: to teach the Lighthouse youth a more holistic and natural form of service for the Kingdom of God and also to open up greater opportunities for cross-cultural relationships and a better understanding of the global church. These goals will be accomplished by a missions and service program that include gaining a deeper understanding of the theology behind the servant's heart, real-world experience in service, and an intentional and moderated cross-cultural discussion of these ideas and their manifestations.

Mostly, I think it's a good idea (if we're trying to help the poor redeem their identity from what society tells them they are, to an identity in Christ as children of God) to help them learn that they are blessed to bless others. I think it's the next step in the growing process- to pass on what we've tried to give them. The cross-cultural aspect is still in the works but the point is to help them see beyond their street and beyond Freetown and see their part in the global church and feel that sense of worth as they communicate as peers with other Christians without that stigma of "being the poor".

It's a work in progress. It's gonna be like five pages when it's done and probably pretty boring, so I won't post the whole thing, but if you want to see it email me and I'll send a copy.

Latest

Since we finished our Krio lessons, we have extra free time in the afternoons with which we are to "expect to get out what we put in". Here's how I'm filling my time.

This weekend I met a lady at International Bible Study who's a Lutheran pastor from America working with the Lutheran church in Sierra Leone. I mentioned that I had worked at camp for the past few years and that I had some extra time on my hands, so yesterday I met with the National Youth Director and he and I talked for a bit. This Sunday I'm going to talk up the idea of outdoor ministries for him at a meeting and during the week I'm going to hang out with some of the local youth in Aberdeen and help them with computer/internet skills.
When I'm not doing that (because it does take sometime to get out to Aberdeen- sometimes 40 minutes cramped in a poda-poda) I'll probably be playing foosball with some guys just outside of Kroo Bay. I went down there last week and was introduced to a young man who after telling me his named, announced that this was his street. Meaning he's the gang leader who's the main authority in the area. I decided to let him win the first game- just kidding, he was actually way better than me, but I can beat some of the younger guys and I tied the head guy once.

Fun times. We're still continuing with Servant Team Bible studies and book discussions. We're also working on our ministry proposals and I have a personal research project I want to do. I'll tell you more about each of those when I have them more figured out.