If you want a picture of our lives here together take a look at the videos on Shae's blog.
http://sincerelyshae.blogspot.com/
There are stories behind most of the pictures - so if you have questions, just ask!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
tour of power in Canberra
Two of the members of the Irene's Place steering committee led us on a tour of Canberra looking at how Canberra is laid out and what that means about power and who is at the center and who is on the margins.
We started by looking at maps in our lounge.
Then we went up to parliament. We looked at where it is in the city, what it faces, what it is in line with and talked about what that might mean.
We moved on to something that is in the middle of things but largely unknown or un-noticed. We talked about how Australia has treated their indigenous people and how public statements are made about this relationship or not.
We walked through reconciliation place asking who is this talking about and how? What do we see here?
We looked around inside the memorial and asked what do you notice and is this a religious space? What symbols do you see and a few other thought provoking questions.
We ended with a discussion about what we had seen and were left to think about the placement of power in this city. Who is remembered and who isn't? What holds the places of power and what is sidelined?
We started by looking at maps in our lounge.
Then we went up to parliament. We looked at where it is in the city, what it faces, what it is in line with and talked about what that might mean.
We moved on to something that is in the middle of things but largely unknown or un-noticed. We talked about how Australia has treated their indigenous people and how public statements are made about this relationship or not.We walked through reconciliation place asking who is this talking about and how? What do we see here?
From there we went to the war memorial, but stoped first at a small memorial hidden on a mountainside to the indigenous people who lost their lives.
This picture is of looking at a statue outside the large war memorial.
We looked around inside the memorial and asked what do you notice and is this a religious space? What symbols do you see and a few other thought provoking questions.
We ended with a discussion about what we had seen and were left to think about the placement of power in this city. Who is remembered and who isn't? What holds the places of power and what is sidelined?Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Forum in Sydney
Last week I was asked to be part of a forum in Sydney on Christianity and War. This is the speach I gave:
In my work with young adults I often use an exercise called “I am” poster. I get each person to write down “I am” statements about themself. To start of today I wanted to give you a few “I am” statements about me.
“I am” – a child of God, pacifist, Anabaptist/Baptist/Mennonite, a child of my tradition, a survivor of violence, a follower of Christ, a young adult working with youth and young adults, an American who grew up Aussie, and a person who is still learning.
I was born into class, education, nationality, language, and skin colour that gave me great privilege – I believe that to those that are given much, much will be asked.
My tradition
I was raised in the Anabaptist and Mennonite tradition. During the Reformation the Anabaptist thought that the Reformers didn’t go far enough. They believed that they should be able to interpret the biblical text for themselves in community and not be told what the Bible said by priests. They believed in believer’s baptism, in an adult making this commitment to faith and a clear separation of church and state. They also believed that they could not take up the sword and fight because it contradicted the call of Christ. Because of these beliefs they were largely martyred. The tradition did manage to live on however and is marked by the continuing commitment to peace and non violence as well as community discernment and a simple lifestyle.
My family
I am the child of parents who read the gospels and felt that God was calling them toward a peaceful way of life and faith. Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII and many of my cousins have or are serving in the American armed forces. So being people of peace had to be a conscious choice. This means that I grew up knowing that I needed to live out my non-violent views and also be articulate about what we believed and why.
I have wrestled long and hard with the idea of military involvement because some of my cousins have killed people in their time in the armed service, so I can’t just demonise those bad soldiers, because they are part of my family. I cannot set myself up as over and against the other, I have to learn to know them and their motivations. But I find what the military does and teaches destructive, dehumanising and counter to my faith.
I realise that I have these views because my parents and my tradition are people of peace. My personal narrative has been flooded with stories of peace but I would rather tell these stories then add to the voices of the world that say the biggest guns, the most violence and the cleverest cunning wins.
My faith
I am a Child of God and a follower of Jesus Christ. My commitment to peace is deeply grounded in my faith and my relationship with God, through Jesus.
Jesus is my lens for how I read the Bible and look at life and faith.
When Jesus said “Love your enemies” he probably meant don’t kill them.
I see every person as a child of God and thus wonder, how dare we kill a child of God.
As the people of God I believe that we are not only called to not go to war, but to be active peace makers.
When I look to the New Testament and the life of Jesus I see a Jesus who was not violent. Yes, Jesus got angry but he did not repay in like kind, when violence was done to him he did not respond in violence, even to the point of death. He stopped violence by absorbing it and living out an alternative to retaliation.
I follow a Jesus that had power in weakness. Who stood up to the political and religious powers of his day and spoke truth. A Jesus who dodged stoning a woman by drawing on the ground, a Jesus who valued the least of these, but who was bold and compassionate at the same time.
A Jesus who said things like “Blessed are the peacemakers”, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
I believe that as Christians we are called to be in the world but not of it – actively living something that is countercultural.
Jesus does not make this life sound easy, in fact he calls us to take up our cross and follow him.
I believe that People of God are not defined by boarders and nationalistic boundaries. We are the people of God bound together in Christ body through faith. I believe we are called to value difference and see the other as a brothers or sisters in Christ.
My Pacifism
So, I am a pacifist or I try to hold to the ideas and actions of pacifism in my life.
I know that I am compliant to/in violence. But I am not willing to let others be violent for me. I don’t think it is ok for me to say I am non-violent and then call in the police or the army to do violence in my name. I must actively work for peace.
Me being a pacifist does not mean that I am passive, I can’t sit by, but neither can I make the war makers into my enemy – they are people too and children of God, beloved to our creator, just as I am.
A majority of people would say that they are for peace but our budgets for war making say something different – imagine training for peace with the commitment and money that we train for war!
This leads me to My work
I am a young adult who works with youth and young adults.
Explain name and work at Irene’s Place.
Some of my work is struggling with these what if statements:
What if we trained our children to approach the other with curiosity and openness instead of suspicion and fear. What if we worked toward cooperation and the good of all instead of bowing to the myth of redemptive violence and encouraging children to play out war, putting guns in their hands at younger and younger ages and telling them that it is fun and a game to point a gun at someone and pull a trigger. We need to measure success with the good of all in mind and not just try to promote the individual to the detriment of the community.
Closing
My faith, my relationship with God in the example of Jesus and with the guidance and wisdom of God’ Holy Spirit, leads me toward peace. It is a complicated, active, involved peace. It is a peace that means more than an absence of war but that is grounded in God’s great shalom and wholeness. My faith is more than a relationship between me and God, it is also between me and other people and me and all of creation, my wholeness and shalom in God is tied to their wholeness.
I am a pacifist but I also confess that I am a human and flawed and in desperate need of God’s grace and mercy.
Nowhere in my faith do I see a call to violence, let alone war. What I do see is a strong call to the opposite, to be a people of peace actively following the prince of peace.
In my work with young adults I often use an exercise called “I am” poster. I get each person to write down “I am” statements about themself. To start of today I wanted to give you a few “I am” statements about me.
“I am” – a child of God, pacifist, Anabaptist/Baptist/Mennonite, a child of my tradition, a survivor of violence, a follower of Christ, a young adult working with youth and young adults, an American who grew up Aussie, and a person who is still learning.
I was born into class, education, nationality, language, and skin colour that gave me great privilege – I believe that to those that are given much, much will be asked.
My tradition
I was raised in the Anabaptist and Mennonite tradition. During the Reformation the Anabaptist thought that the Reformers didn’t go far enough. They believed that they should be able to interpret the biblical text for themselves in community and not be told what the Bible said by priests. They believed in believer’s baptism, in an adult making this commitment to faith and a clear separation of church and state. They also believed that they could not take up the sword and fight because it contradicted the call of Christ. Because of these beliefs they were largely martyred. The tradition did manage to live on however and is marked by the continuing commitment to peace and non violence as well as community discernment and a simple lifestyle.
My family
I am the child of parents who read the gospels and felt that God was calling them toward a peaceful way of life and faith. Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII and many of my cousins have or are serving in the American armed forces. So being people of peace had to be a conscious choice. This means that I grew up knowing that I needed to live out my non-violent views and also be articulate about what we believed and why.
I have wrestled long and hard with the idea of military involvement because some of my cousins have killed people in their time in the armed service, so I can’t just demonise those bad soldiers, because they are part of my family. I cannot set myself up as over and against the other, I have to learn to know them and their motivations. But I find what the military does and teaches destructive, dehumanising and counter to my faith.
I realise that I have these views because my parents and my tradition are people of peace. My personal narrative has been flooded with stories of peace but I would rather tell these stories then add to the voices of the world that say the biggest guns, the most violence and the cleverest cunning wins.
My faith
I am a Child of God and a follower of Jesus Christ. My commitment to peace is deeply grounded in my faith and my relationship with God, through Jesus.
Jesus is my lens for how I read the Bible and look at life and faith.
When Jesus said “Love your enemies” he probably meant don’t kill them.
I see every person as a child of God and thus wonder, how dare we kill a child of God.
As the people of God I believe that we are not only called to not go to war, but to be active peace makers.
When I look to the New Testament and the life of Jesus I see a Jesus who was not violent. Yes, Jesus got angry but he did not repay in like kind, when violence was done to him he did not respond in violence, even to the point of death. He stopped violence by absorbing it and living out an alternative to retaliation.
I follow a Jesus that had power in weakness. Who stood up to the political and religious powers of his day and spoke truth. A Jesus who dodged stoning a woman by drawing on the ground, a Jesus who valued the least of these, but who was bold and compassionate at the same time.
A Jesus who said things like “Blessed are the peacemakers”, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
I believe that as Christians we are called to be in the world but not of it – actively living something that is countercultural.
Jesus does not make this life sound easy, in fact he calls us to take up our cross and follow him.
I believe that People of God are not defined by boarders and nationalistic boundaries. We are the people of God bound together in Christ body through faith. I believe we are called to value difference and see the other as a brothers or sisters in Christ.
My Pacifism
So, I am a pacifist or I try to hold to the ideas and actions of pacifism in my life.
I know that I am compliant to/in violence. But I am not willing to let others be violent for me. I don’t think it is ok for me to say I am non-violent and then call in the police or the army to do violence in my name. I must actively work for peace.
Me being a pacifist does not mean that I am passive, I can’t sit by, but neither can I make the war makers into my enemy – they are people too and children of God, beloved to our creator, just as I am.
A majority of people would say that they are for peace but our budgets for war making say something different – imagine training for peace with the commitment and money that we train for war!
This leads me to My work
I am a young adult who works with youth and young adults.
Explain name and work at Irene’s Place.
Some of my work is struggling with these what if statements:
What if we trained our children to approach the other with curiosity and openness instead of suspicion and fear. What if we worked toward cooperation and the good of all instead of bowing to the myth of redemptive violence and encouraging children to play out war, putting guns in their hands at younger and younger ages and telling them that it is fun and a game to point a gun at someone and pull a trigger. We need to measure success with the good of all in mind and not just try to promote the individual to the detriment of the community.
Closing
My faith, my relationship with God in the example of Jesus and with the guidance and wisdom of God’ Holy Spirit, leads me toward peace. It is a complicated, active, involved peace. It is a peace that means more than an absence of war but that is grounded in God’s great shalom and wholeness. My faith is more than a relationship between me and God, it is also between me and other people and me and all of creation, my wholeness and shalom in God is tied to their wholeness.
I am a pacifist but I also confess that I am a human and flawed and in desperate need of God’s grace and mercy.
Nowhere in my faith do I see a call to violence, let alone war. What I do see is a strong call to the opposite, to be a people of peace actively following the prince of peace.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Too many balls in the air
This past week saw me once again curled up on the couch and taking several days off work because I was sick. Over the October long weekend we went to a music festival outside of Sydney. As usual at this festival it rained and we were all camping. On top of that it has been unseasonably cold. So as you can see I would love to blame my sickness on things outside myself, but when it comes down to it I know that part of why I keep getting sick is that I am too busy and take on too many things.
In Sunday School last week we talked about playing and used the imagery of a juggler. I’ve been reflecting on that image and I think the long and short of it is, though I am practiced and can keep the appearance of everything gliding along smoothly, the truth is that I have too many balls in the air. I am trying to juggle more than I can handle at this point and my body is saying enough is enough.
The interns (Radical Journey team) arrived just over 4 weeks ago. We have had a full life together since they landed. Their volunteer placements are still getting rolling so they have had time to sit and read at home, but I have been run off my feet. There were people to talk to, conferences, events to plan, prep work to do for those events, a garden that needed to be planted, connecting the interns with organizations and trying to show the interns how to get around, where things are and give them a bit of an orientation to Aussie culture.
We are finding our patterns of life together and beginning to share a story of life here at Irene’s Place. I can’t count how many times I have heard one of them say “I need to blog” or after an activity or event saying “good, I can blog about this”. The narrative of this place and of us as a small people group coming together is emerging. We read the bible and pray together and so we name that God’s story is woven into ours. (See below for the interns blog addresses)
I have so much still to learn about myself and these things are exposed as I live in community. But I am thankful for words from a teenager that give me a reality check on my priorities. I am grateful for a co-worker who doesn’t give me a choice about taking time off. I am impressed by and sometimes in awe of these young women who travelled half way round the world to serve and to learn about God and themselves and how these stories weave together. I am taking time and beginning to see if I don’t put some of these balls down they will get dropped or I will fall over with exhaustion. It’s a slow process, but I’m learning.
In Sunday School last week we talked about playing and used the imagery of a juggler. I’ve been reflecting on that image and I think the long and short of it is, though I am practiced and can keep the appearance of everything gliding along smoothly, the truth is that I have too many balls in the air. I am trying to juggle more than I can handle at this point and my body is saying enough is enough.
The interns (Radical Journey team) arrived just over 4 weeks ago. We have had a full life together since they landed. Their volunteer placements are still getting rolling so they have had time to sit and read at home, but I have been run off my feet. There were people to talk to, conferences, events to plan, prep work to do for those events, a garden that needed to be planted, connecting the interns with organizations and trying to show the interns how to get around, where things are and give them a bit of an orientation to Aussie culture.
We are finding our patterns of life together and beginning to share a story of life here at Irene’s Place. I can’t count how many times I have heard one of them say “I need to blog” or after an activity or event saying “good, I can blog about this”. The narrative of this place and of us as a small people group coming together is emerging. We read the bible and pray together and so we name that God’s story is woven into ours. (See below for the interns blog addresses)
I have so much still to learn about myself and these things are exposed as I live in community. But I am thankful for words from a teenager that give me a reality check on my priorities. I am grateful for a co-worker who doesn’t give me a choice about taking time off. I am impressed by and sometimes in awe of these young women who travelled half way round the world to serve and to learn about God and themselves and how these stories weave together. I am taking time and beginning to see if I don’t put some of these balls down they will get dropped or I will fall over with exhaustion. It’s a slow process, but I’m learning.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Voices for Justice
This past weekend I took part in a conference called Voices for Justice. The focus of the gathering is to lobby politicians around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to halve world poverty by 2015. This conference is an initiative of the Micah Challenge which rallies Christians around Micah 6:8 – "what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humble with your God". We trained for two days and then spent two days on parliament hill meeting with MPs.
We started with a breakfast in the great hall where the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition spoke. This breakfast was to launch the poverty and justice Bible – a Bible that has all of the passages about justice highlighted in it (over 2000 references).
We started with a breakfast in the great hall where the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition spoke. This breakfast was to launch the poverty and justice Bible – a Bible that has all of the passages about justice highlighted in it (over 2000 references).
Then we moved outside to the lawns of parliament and held a rally. As part of this we presented an offering of letters to the Prime Minister – 5612 letters from people all over Australia.
One of our specific asks this year was around child and maternal health. To highlight this we looked at how many children never reach their 5th birthday. The school children in our group held these bears to represent kids who never make it to five years old.
The speakers at the rally rode in on a rickshaw.
I had the privilege of meeting with three politicians and letting them know that people do care about international aid and that we are not doing our fare share here in Australia.
We ended the conference with a 5th birthday party, both celebrating those children who do make it to 5 years old and commemorating those who die before their 5th birthday. As part of this gathering we ask MPs to sign a 5th birthday card that was given to the Prime Minister.
We were honoured to have several leaders from the pacific join us for Voices for Justice this year. They told stories about their home communities and how they are affected by poverty and climate change. I was amazed at their bravery to come and join us and their poise in telling their stories.
One of the many blessings of the conference was that I had 4 wonderful women stay with me. We talked for several hours in the evenings, sharing about our faith, our churches, what we think of calling, how we are working for justice, and also praying and singing together. What a gift!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
A few months moving fast
Wow we are already into September and I have not updated this in months. Sorry! I will get better at this. So here is a tour of a few things that have been going on.
Last week I was in Sydney for a week off. It was good to take some time out to be able to just sit and do nothing. In the few days that I have been back I have taken on far too much of the stress I thought I was going to avoid and am looking at a week’s worth of tasks and e-mails that were waiting for me.
In 15 days the Radical Journey team, who will be working here for ten months, will fly into Sydney. I am so excited to have them arriving and yet also staring at everything that needs to be done before they get here and wondering what kind of superwoman I need to become.
Last week I was in Sydney for a week off. It was good to take some time out to be able to just sit and do nothing. In the few days that I have been back I have taken on far too much of the stress I thought I was going to avoid and am looking at a week’s worth of tasks and e-mails that were waiting for me.
In 15 days the Radical Journey team, who will be working here for ten months, will fly into Sydney. I am so excited to have them arriving and yet also staring at everything that needs to be done before they get here and wondering what kind of superwoman I need to become.
I have been driving a cute little red Festiva that is owned by a family from church since I move to Australia a year ago. I knew I needed to get my own car but was slow in getting around to it. I know so little about cars that I dreaded having to look at cars and talk to dealers. Then near the beginning of July I got an e-mail that one of the families in the church was moving overseas and wanted to sell their car. I jumped at the chance, and two weeks later became the owner of a silver blue Toyota Camry. The car is big enough to be able to fit 4 passengers easily, which means that I will be able to transport all of the Irene’s Place interns at once. It is reliable enough that I can drive to Sydney or Melbourne in it if I need to without worrying if it will make the trip. I feel like this is a huge answer to prayer and have also felt the support of my church community in getting it through inspection and registration.
For part of July I travelled to Paraguay for Mennonite World Conference with over six thousand Mennonites from all over the world. It was amazing and pushed me to think to say the least. The singing, worship and diversity of people amazed me and I was drawn into the beauty. I attended the Global Youth Summit the weekend before the main conference and found it both challenging and the highlight of my trip. Let me tell you a few stories.
The first night of the main conference I was approached and asked if I would be willing to sign for a young man named Chris, who was deaf. The conference had been looking for someone to interpret and had not been able to get anyone. I have not signed much in years so I quickly turned them down. I sat through that evening service interpreting in my head and feeling guilty for saying no. The next morning I told the organizers if they couldn’t find someone else I would do my best and I ended up signing for most of the main sessions. This was challenging and exhilarating at the same time. I made lots of mistakes and learned so much. It made me dream about signing again and wonder how sign might fit into my future.
On the Sunday of Youth Summit we were all sent to churches to join their community for worship. I boarded a local bus with 6 other participants and rode about an hour and a half out of the city to a little community church. They greeted us warmly and welcomed us into worship and fed us generously. After lunch a group of young adults from the church led us through the town and up onto a little mountain where we could see the surrounding area. Along the way I befriended Anna. Anna is the pastor’s daughter and spoke English. She told me stories of how her younger brother was killed in a supermarket fire five years before and the struggle of their community to live through that grief. I heard how her family lived in the city during the week and came to this town on weekends to serve the church. She explained her dreams of study and work. I was sorry to have to say goodbye and glad that I saw her a few times over the main conference.
We were told that we were going to stay in dorms, which turned out to be classrooms cleared of desks with mattresses placed on the floor for us. Yet our little "classroom 6" ended up being a highlight of my experience. Riding the bus back and forth to the conference and hanging out every night with these women; we discussed what we were experiencing. We debated the life of the church and what we saw as young adults place in it. I was invited into conversations where woman spoke of their cultures and what it means for them to be a woman; working, studying, being in relationships and trying to lead. We were drawn into a level of intimacy with each other because we were all out of our comfort zones and yet in this place because of our shared faith.
Chris Marshall, one of the keynote speakers, spoke about unity in Christ. He used the passage which say “there is one faith, one hope and one baptism, one God and Father of all. There is one church, one body and life in the spirit given freely to all”. Chris’s words rang loud and clear and hit home for many there. It is easier to see our differences and the edges of separation in the international church than it is to name how we are one in Christ. His study along with many other teachings and actions over the week called us beyond divisions over worship style and theology to a place of unity in Christ that include all cultures.
Overall the conference was soul food for me. I spend my time revelling in seeing friends, singing with full voice, thinking long and hard, playing with people who don’t share a language with me, getting hugs, having my views and lifestyle challenged and forming new relationship. It was a rich time and has given me much to think about and also to sustain me for the work ahead.
The weekend after I returned from Mennonite World Conference I was delighted to welcome my friends the Grabers to Canberra. They were travelling for a few weeks in Australia and came to my lovely city for a few days. The Grabers are part of my church in Indiana and also serve on my support team there. I loved showing them around and introducing them to my church and some of my favourite places. I have not had visitors here from the USA for a long time and it was so good to catch up on news. Here is a picture of my wonderful Mennonite friends out front of the War Memorial. =)
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