Visit to the Holy Land

At the invitation of Kristi’s parents, we recently returned from almost two weeks in the Holy Land, visiting sites situated in modern day Israel/Palestine. After visiting two coastal cities and going to the top of Mount Carmel, we spent a few days on and around Lake Galilee, smelling the scents, listening to the birds, treading the areas and seeing the very landscapes where Jesus and his disciples made known the Kingdom of God through demonstrations of God’s mercy and power. 

Mt. Arbel, the highest point above the Sea of Galilee where Jesus may have ascended to the Father;

we spent some time here in mediation and prayer

Our first evening together in Galilee, a wonderful meal overlooking the Sea (or Lake) 

I was moved to tears leaving the very place on the shores of Galilee where Peter was restored by Jesus after Peter’s failure. Moving up to Dan in the high north, we stood at the entrance of the city which Abraham would have entered 4,000 years ago, also passing Caesarea Philippi, a place of a panoply of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses where Peter answered Jesus’ question about his identity, confessing to Jesus, “You are the Messiah.” Moving south, we travelled down into Jericho, down to the Dead Sea and then up again through the Judean Wilderness on our way up to Jerusalem. 

Tabgha, the place of seven springs where Jesus restores Peter
after his thrice-fold denial (see John 21)

Touching a stone from the original synagogue in Capernaum where
Jesus taught and healed

 I was deeply moved as we prayed alongside devout Jewish men, women and children at the Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall), and it was a blessing to exchange greetings in Arabic with young men in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. We were mesmerized as we descended down from the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane and, on our last day, as we walked the traditional Via Dolorosa (the Way of Suffering), following the general path Jesus would have taken from the traditional place of judgment outside the Temple (destroyed in 70 C.E.) to Golgotha, where he was crucified. At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site of execution and a traditional site for burial and resurrection, I was able, despite the masses, to meditate on Jesus’ agony and enter into the spirit of the place alongside Eastern Orthodox believers who spread their cloths and kissed a holy stone believed to have been in the tomb where Jesus lay. 

The iconic view of the Temple Mount from the top of the Mt. of Olives 

Devout Jewish men worshiping and praying
at the Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall)

Members of our large group on the Southern Steps, a place where Jesus and his
disciples would have entered the Temple

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a large an ornate church shared by seven communities of faith; it is the traditional spot where Jesus would have been crucified, buried and raised 

 Kristi and I want to express our immense gratitude to Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, the leadership of our trip and the local guides and bus drivers for organizing this significant pilgrimage, and we are so grateful to have experienced it with Mom and Dad Bertolet. It was amazing to see fellow pilgrims from all over the world, from Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Korea, Ghana, Ethiopia, Eastern Europe, the US, and other distant lands. May we treasure up in our hearts the things we have seen, heard and experienced as we continue to follow in the footsteps of the Risen One, the One who continues to tread through the steps of His broken and beloved people. Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

How do adults learn?

A few weeks ago I (Kristi) attended a second training about Community Health Evangelism (CHE), along with two colleagues from South Sudan. We spent the week discussing how to effectively teach people in a way that they would connect and respond to, and also the vision for promoting spiritual growth and physical well-being in community.

One teaching was about how to introduce a lesson using a drama, story, or activity. We were each given a topic and told to come up with a ‘starter’ for the lesson that would grab people’s attention. The dramas had us buckled over in laughter. Through our healing and reconciliation workshops, I appreciate how much drama adds to a teaching by helping people to emotionally connect with the topic and visually see the principles at work. 

Peace and Tesila created a skit about family
planning that could be used to start a lesson.

A real focus for CHE is on empowering communities or groups to identify and resolve their own problems. With this goal in mind, the trainer always seeks to ‘facilitate’, to help people discover truths and solutions rather than just presenting answers. The goal is that the focus always be on the participant, not the teacher. Therefore, discussion, practical activities, or group work are always a part of any ‘lesson’ that a facilitator presents. We studied how the learning process is different between adults and children, including the importance of letting adults identify and own their own problems and be challenged to find solutions, rather than simply being told what to do. We looked together at Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well (John 4), and how he asked her questions and prompted her curiosity, rather just telling her the spiritual truth he wanted her to believe.

Elijah and Moi doing an exercise where one person describes a pattern 

of geometric shapes to the other person, who draws it without looking. This showed 

us how differently someone might interpret what we think we are communicating!

My colleague Elijah recently visited the town of Aweil, in the north-western part of South Sudan. While there, he visited a small rural congregation that started about two years ago. As is common in this culture, the congregation took the opportunity of having a visitor from the capital city to present their list of ‘needs’. They needed a building, and in the mean-time a large plastic sheet to worship under, they needed help getting land, chairs to sit on, instruments for worship, etc. As Elijah told me the story, he said “I decided to use CHE principles!” He listened to their request, and then challenged them to consider what resources they had and what problems could be resolved without appealing to the denominational leadership in Juba. “There are some things that you need help with, but you can not expect the denomination to meet every need,” he told them. The congregation realized that they could get the plastic sheet for a temporary building in their area, and that they could make bricks for a building. The local government also affirmed the positive impact that the church has had in the community and allocated a piece of land for them – they only required about $300 for finalizing the legal registration of the land. Elijah, encouraged by the significant work that the local pastor has done in evangelizing and helping the community, was able to give a personal contribution from his family towards the land registration, further motivating the congregation in carrying on the work. And, to top off the story, the congregation never realized that Elijah is from a tribe that has experienced a lot of conflict with their tribe.  I was excited to hear that Elijah didn’t wait for a ‘project’ or a designated training to share what he had learned.

Elijah visiting the church in Aweil

It is always helpful to be challenged to try doing things in a different way.  As we seek to promote God’s shalom, well-being, and salvation in our churches and communities in South Sudan, we know that it will not be easy. We are grateful for the principles of CHE, which always focus on community and its members as the owner and driver of any change that happens. We trust that God will guide and use us in the difficult but sacred process of learning and walking together with community leaders as we pray for God’s transformation in South Sudan.

Participants and facilitators at our recent CHE training in Nairobi

An Outside Perspective

An outside perspective always helps. Within the last two weeks I have been able to sit and share with a couple of visitors who have come to Juba, this being their first visit here to South Sudan.

Antoine Rutayisire  is an Anglican pastor, Christian leader, and preacher/teacher extraordinaire from Rwanda. Some of you reading this post will know his name quickly, others will not. I lived with Antoine in Rwanda for one year and served alongside him for two and a half years with the organization he led, African Evangelistic Enterprise, Rwanda. Antoine has always been known as an original thinker and a man of deep understanding and abiding faith. I still refer to him as my “spiritual father.” I could sit and listen to Antoine for hours; his life and his story and the story of his people are the primary reasons I was drawn to this great continent. A couple of weeks ago Antoine and three colleagues came to South Sudan on an exploratory trip, listening and learning to church leaders, discerning how they can come alongside them and promote a way of “being church” that will better serve the peoples of South Sudan. During our evening meal and fellowship during his visit, I asked Antoine, “What are your impressions now at the end of your trip?” Antoine’s ready response came with one word, “Potential.” In the midst of so much trauma and dysfunction which seem to define this young country, the word that Antoine reached for was ‘potential’. He described how South Sudan feels like it is just waiting for the right environment so that it can take off. Antoine also shared his observations regarding the “weariness and tiredness of the people.” He says that he does not feel a sense of urgency amongst the people. “People have been living in an environment that is so troubling and difficult for so long, they have no idea what normalcy might even look like,” he said. Yes, there is potential, but there is the tragic history and the dysfunctional present which keep people down. 

With Antoine and his wife Penina and their sons, Christmas 2014 (in Kigali)  

     

Rev. Karen Krige returned to South Africa from Juba this last Sunday. She was sent to us by the Network for African Congregational Theology (NetACT), a network of theological institutions in the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rev. Karen had come to assist me with the Spiritual Formation class I am teaching. I gave her the last two weeks classes of the course for the degree and the diploma students. She taught my students about the value of Spiritual Direction and also the need for discernment. She took time to do Spiritual Direction individually with students, quietly and humbly and lovingly listening to their stories of pain and trauma. In listening to these stories, she was struck by the utter cruelty exacted against so many in this land. Yet, in spite of all the pain and hardship, she saw glimmers of hope, and commented on the power of the human spirit, with divine aid, to overcome. 

Rev. Karen Krige sits and listens to the story of one of our students 

It is always helpful to see the place where you live and breathe and work 24/7 with new eyes and fresh faith. I am grateful for both Antoine and Karen and their recent visits. I feel strengthened and encouraged to continue the good work God has called us to here. May God bring more visitors here to encourage His people in the work He has called us to do. Amen.

A Coalition of Hope

For the last year, several of us who were trained last year in Rwanda to conduct healing and reconciliation workshops have been meeting together, trying to find ways to work together. We come from different churches and organizations, and our vision has been to promote this work within our churches, but also to cooperate and promote an ecumenical effort. But it has proved to be harder than we anticipated. We are an informal group of people with a common passion; we want to be faithful to work within the priorities and interests of our own churches, but we also want this message to reach a wider audience and promote cooperation. But when we approach the council of churches or other organizations to support our ecumenical efforts, we struggle to describe who we are and we don’t have credibility as a ‘known entity’. The church partner I work with, the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, has been active in promoting this work of reconciliation, and we have organized a few workshops this year. But we know that long term the work will have more impact and reach more people if we collaborate with others than if we try to ‘go it alone’.

Last week our loosely connected group came together for two days, facilitated by Joseph Nyamutera from Rwanda and Allan Waihumbu from Kenya, both having experience in this ministry of reconciliation and experience promoting it at the grass-roots level. We reviewed with them the current situation in South Sudan and the factors that have contributed to division and conflict in specific regions. Together we discussed a vision for the future, and what our role could be in promoting healing and peace. We explored what exactly we are as a group, and what structure we could work with. Are we a network? Are we an organization? We finally settled on ‘coalition’, and hope that describes our desire to be distinct parts/groups who come together to work as one united group.

We worked together on a vision statement, although that task will take some more time to nail down. And we dreamed together about what we want to see happen in South Sudan – that children could grow up in a safe environment, that people would be healed from their trauma, that displaced people could return home, and that churches would faithfully disciple people to follow Jesus’ example of breaking down barriers. We are excited, but it also feels a little intimidating to me. Please pray for us! It is never easy forming something new, while also trying to work with existing structures and processes. We know that God wants to bring healing and renewal to South Sudan, and trust that He will guide us in this process.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Rwanda N’ziza*

Rwanda N’ziza, you have come so far
Towers, your peaks in Kigali
Shines modernity in the face
Nations, coming to you.

You are a thrill to see, a wonder
Young people, dotting and doting
Smiling leisure, you have arrived
The pain of yesteryear, behind.

Or is it...actually...behind -
Hiding beneath, surface, smiles
Rwanda, my beloved, Rwanda N’ziza
What stories, not told, which stories.

Yes, there is the story, the one we all know
"The Genocide Against the Tutsi"
Danger in a single story there is -
As Sister Nigerian likes to tell.

Rwanda N’ziza, our dear sister people
Whose voice, now given voice?
Whose voice, not given voice?
Rests now, deep silence now.

Oh, Rwanda N’ziza, could it be true -
"Revenge with diplomacy"
As my friends says...
The order of the day.

Oh, Rwanda N’ziza, have you
Conquered the monster within,
You, truly renewed, new
All that glimmer, something true?

Rwanda N’ziza, Good Rwanda
Remain I, forever your friend
Do justice, to all, your people,
Do not…close…in.


* "Rwanda N'ziza" means "Rwanda is good."As some of you know, Kristi and I lived in Rwanda in the early 2000's. Kristi and I actually met in Rwanda in 2003, on the placid and majestic shores of Lake Kivu while attending a missionary conference. Rwanda continues to carry a special place in our hearts and it always will. I wrote this poem shortly after a recent visit. May the Lord's hand of grace and healing rest upon this beautiful land and all her peoples.