Among the Fray

Well, the journey is almost over. It feels like we’ve been here forever and leaving will be bittersweet. We’re so eager to see our friends and family again and that will be wonderful. But it’ll be hard leaving the people and communities we’ve formed bonds with. Especially the one’s like Dakutan and Payatas where we know the kinds of lives they have to return to.

Let me apologize for not updating this thing more regularly. Life gets in the way all too often. Anyway, this will be the last update for now. As we remain in contact, once we return to the States, with people we’ve met here, we’ll use this blogspace to post updates.

In other news, I AM DONE SCHOOL!!! I recently finished my two final projects and received A’s on both of them (ok, an A minus on one but Dr. Mtika can be tough). Anyway, so, I officially have my masters degree. That’s weird because international development is a field which seems impossible to “master” considering its ever-changing landscape. Anyway, I’m done, for now, and its Brooke’s turn. She will be returning to Eastern University in January to finish out her undergraduate degree in Anthropology.

There have been several highlights since I last posted an update. I really want to focus on one as we can fill you in on the rest when we get home.

Imagine you’re driving through and beyond the outskirts of a bustling, densely populated Asian metropolis. As you begin to exit the city limits, the mountains, once in the distance, begin to come into focus and to the fore. I remember thinking, “wow, you can see the mountains clearly today.” As you get closer and closer, it becomes clear that what you presumed were mountains were nothing more than massive mounds of waste at Payatas, Manila’s largest landfill.

It wasn’t long after this realization that a member of our team informed us that the little tents running up and down the sides of the trash heap were actually people’s homes. People live and feed off of the waste of one of the largest cities in the world. We entered Payatas. It was one of the locations the British team, with which I was working at the time, had a vested interest in so we were there to sponsor the building of a roof for a community center. There, I met father Paul, one of the founders of Heart of the Father, an England based Christian NGO. Father Paul is an extraordinary man who has actually made the move to Payatas, in and among the poorest of the poor. It is heroes like this, among the fray, who deserve the recognition they’ll never receive.

Father Paul has options, but he chooses to value the lives of the people of Payatas as he does his own, compelling him to become one of them. This is what it means to truly live. This is the abundant life Jesus offers; to value the lives of others, regardless of socioeconomic status, age, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, habits, occupation, et cetera, as we do our own. None of us are more or less a “sinner” than anyone else. Sin is something that stains us from birth, no exception. But everyone…everyone is created in the image of God.

Shane Claiborne, in his book the Irresistible Revolution, tells a story that captures how significant an understanding of this concept is to our faith. He recounts an incident where he and some friends were hanging out. His friend says nonchalantly, “Shane, Jesus never talked to a prostitute.” Naturally, Shane became defensive and began to reach for his bible claiming, “Yes he did, I’ll show you where it is.” As he began flipping through the pages, his friend stops him and says, “Shane, Jesus never spoke to a prostitute because he never saw a prostitute. He saw a child of God whom he was madly in love with.”

I know it sounds cliché but, spending time in a developing country changes you. It can’t help but to. You begin to realize what matters in life. You begin to realize what is essential for living, for working, for having fun…for faith. We’ve met people from all walks of life here. Tradesman, government officials, wealthy landowners, the homeless, street kids, subsistence farmers and fisherman, priests, pastors, Catholics, Protestants, children, the elderly, the rich, the poor, prominent public speakers, et cetera. I’ve met Catholics desperately in love with God and Protestants simply going through the motions…and vice versa. Why? (And just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it isn’t true or worth restating) because the true Church is not confined by a physical structure.

Just to leave you with one last thought. Rob Bell points out that in the Hebrew language, there’s no word for spiritual. It simply doesn’t translate or exist. So if you were to ask a 1st century Jew or even Jesus, a prominent Jewish rabbi, a question like, “How is your spiritual life?”, you would likely be given a peculiar gaze and a “What are you talking about?” in response. Why? Because there was no separation between life and faith, between theory and praxis, between what one believes and what one does. So when we feed the hungry, care for the oppressed, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, et cetera, this…is…Christ.

See you soon!! We love you all.