Saturday, March 31, 2012

Honduras Update: Contending for life in a climate of death

When Gracie and I moved to Honduras in July 1982 the country was considered the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Wars raged in the region and death-squad violence created a climate of terror. Over the last 30 years we’ve witnessed the power of God’s love at work in individuals and communities, bringing visible relief through increased production, water projects, improved health, reconciliation between enemies, discovery of the good news in Scripture and healing. Right now the “not yet” of Jesus’ Kingdom has been in my face as violence increases in a climate of near anarchy. I have been accompanying one of my closest friends, Angel David, from a distance by phone as he’s walked through terrors and deep sadness in this seemingly interminable valley of the shadow of death.

The last six weeks in Honduras have been some of the darkest after a prison fire in our department capital Comayagua on February 15 burnt over 400 inmates to death. The next day Tierra Nueva’s past president Paco and his wife Gloria buried their 33-year-old son Edwin who suddenly fell sick after a flare up of aplastic anemia that had been in remission for 13 years. Back in 1999 Tierra Nueva had organized a big fund-raiser to pay for medical treatment and prayer campaign, which brought this disease into remission... until last month.

In the midst of all this pain it has become once again clear that God’s preferred way of coming close to human suffering is a mediated way—through human beings who themselves come close: Jesus, me, you—Christ’s body, the church.

I was in the UK teaching a course on missions to 50 or so graduate students at Westminster Theological Centre (WTC) in Cheltenham when I heard about the fire and our friend’s death. Paco and Gloria actually comforted me, telling me how their son had become active de corazon (from the heart) in a church in the months before his death, reading the Bible and seeking God’s presence. While clearly grieving, they told me they were at peace, glad for these last 13 years with their son.

The students interceded for Honduras, for our ministry there-- and the course was a powerful time of reflection, worship and prayer. The following week I taught my missions course to two different WTC groups. I was deeply moved when an offering was taken that brought in $20,000-- enough to purchase a truck for Tierra Nueva in Honduras.

Right now two of our colleagues from Tierra Nueva in Burlington, Nick and Salvio are visiting Angel David and the ministry there in Minas de Oro. I include Nick’s prayer update below, and greatly value your intercession for prayer points below.

“So much to share, but so little time before the internet cafe closes here in Minas de Oro. Here are a couple highlights with some prayer requests at the bottom:

Yesterday, Salvio, Angel David, and I were able to visit Tierra Nueva's coffee finca in Alta Mira. It's a bumpy 3.5 hour drive from Minas de Oro, and we took a truck that I'm pretty sure didn't have any shocks. Right when we got to the top of the 1510 meter rise (altitude is great for growing coffee but not for climbing unpaved pot-holed roads), the truck began to hemorrhage water from the radiator and oil from the gear box below the chassis. It was an amazing lesson in campo mechanics though: they put some powder from a coke bottle into the radiator, tightened up some things under the chassis, filled the radiator with another two gallons of water, and then we were on our way again. All in all, it was great to see the finca and check in with the muchacho who is running the finca for us, but by the end of the day Salvio and I both felt like we'd been on a 7-hour carnival ride--a seemingly endless agitation cycle only slightly easier on the body than the saddle sore we would have no doubt had making the trip ten years ago.

Today we went to Mal Paso, the town where Angel David is from. It's a town that a lot of us have been praying for through this past year. Unfortunately, it's almost a ghost town, with almost 70% having fled for their lives after a series of homicides that has left a pall of terror on the town's inhabitants.

Salvio and I led a Bible study on John 10, about the enemy's desire to steal, kill, and destroy--something that he's achieved all too successfully in Mal Paso--by sowing division, enmity, vengeance, and unforgiveness. We briefly touched on John 17--Jesus' prayer for protection, that the disciples would be one as he and the father are one--and we prayed for everyone for healing from the trauma from this last year. It was beautiful, but it was also really sorrowful. On Sunday we hosted a gathering of a lot of the local leaders who have been participating in the house churches in Minas de Oro and the surrounding communities. Salvio and I each led a Bible study, and we also got to play some Pictionary.

Lolito came and spent the night with us (Lolito is a great friend who lived with us at Tierra Nueva for two or three years before returning to Honduras). It was a sobering evening though as he described the escalating violence around his community. About a month ago, there was a gruesome homicide in a small village called Paradise just below where Lolito lives. Unfortunately the details are too graphic for me to relate, but suffice to say that an older woman was chopped to death by three young men just outside her house. The young men killed her because she had reported them when they slaughtered a cow illegally on her land. Two weeks later, each of the boys was shot and killed at midnight in his bed. Relatives of the woman who was killed have even been promising retribution on the families of the young men.

Which brings me to the sad news: although I reported earlier that things here in Honduras are a lot calmer than we initially feared in coming down here, we've been realizing that there is an undercurrent of violence and fear that pervades this community. Last week, we visited a woman who has lost two sons to hired hit men (sicarios in the local language); you could still see the shotgun holes in the door of her adobe home. If you ask people in Minas de Oro, most report that things are more calmado (calmer). But that calm has come at a price.

We’ve learned that Minas de Oro has a covert network of citizens who collect money from local resident collaborators to put into a special account in the local bank. When some of the local youth get out of hand, they pay someone to kill that person, which has resulted in the death of 60 youths in the past 5 years. So yes, things are calmer here in Minas de Oro, but it's an artificially wrought and superficial peace enforced by the threat of violence.
Please pray for the following:
  • A restoration of appropriate social order. There is very little justice here in Honduras, which is why civilians have had to resort to hiring hit men to carry out reprisals for petty thefts and delinquency. As many of you are already aware, the prisons and justice system are a wreck here, not only because of over crowding, the horrific fire three weeks ago, but also from the intrusion of gangs (today, from what I understood on the news, 17 were killed in one of the San Pedro Sula prisons). While I believe whole-heartedly in God's kingdom that goes beyond justice (loving enemies, generosity, and Calvary-like sacrifice), I am also appreciating how important justice is in a context like Honduras. I don't even know what to ask you to pray for without seeming trite, but hopefully you know what I'm getting at.
  • Salvio and I leave Sunday morning for Tegucigalpa to visit the clinic before leaving Monday morning. Please pray for safe travels and getting around Tegucigalpa without trouble.
  • Please pray for discernment and a smooth and honoring transition for the old guard of Tierra Nueva in Honduras as we try to invite more young leaders to participate in the new work of Tierra Nueva in Honduras.
Please pray for us as we work with Angel David to upgrade our accountability system for the administration of the coffee finca, the water project, and the pastoral fund so it can handle future growth.”

Nick

Please pray for the following additional requests, and consider if there are other ways the Spirit may be leading you to bring relief to Honduras.
  • Pray for Angel David as he leads Tierra Nueva in Honduras—for lots of wisdom, grace and for the power of the Holy Spirit as he leads Bible studies and prays for people in their homes, reaches out to at-risk young people on the margins and identifies and raises up leaders.
  • For collaboration and unity between the churches in Minas de Oro. For a true movement of renewal to sweep through Honduras that includes turning away from violence, forgiving enemies and pursuing all the is required for peace.
  • For comfort for Paco and Gloria and their family, and for the many others who have lost family members to the violence.
Finally, plans are in the works to upgrade the coffee farm through replanting, pouring cement drying patios, and building solar coffee bean dryers ($3,000). Tierra Nueva Honduras also is hoping to remodel their water purification plant building to include a home for Angel David and his wife Esperanza, guest rooms and a meeting room ($8,000). If you would like to designate support to these projects, please send your contribution earmarked for TN Honduras to:

Tierra Nueva
PO Box 161
Burlington, WA
98233 USA

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Prophetic Advocacy

Saturday in London I was on the tube (London Underground) on my way to visit a Servants of Asia’s Urban Poor missional community in Southall, an Indian immigrant community in West London. In the crowded metro I saw an African couple with young boy and girl in a baby carriage. The thought “give them £20.00 ($30.00)” suddenly dropped into my consciousness.

“Okay, if that’s you God tell me again in some way,” I thought, resisting the idea of giving that much money to a complete stranger. I got off the metro in one of downtown London’s busiest stations (Paddington) and made my way to the over-ground train to Southall, barely making the next train for another 25 minute ride. Towards the end of my journey I went to find a bathroom. I followed the signs, walking through the train from car to car—and then decided to stop as I realized we as were nearing my destination.

There in front of me was the African family I’d first seen in the underground! Rather than immediately giving them money, I briefly initiated conversation, focusing on the kids. Just then the train stopped and I figured they were likely going further. “If they get off here, then I’ll know for sure,” I thought. I got off the train and they did too. At that point I approached the man, handing him a £20 bill and said: “I think God is telling me to give this to you.”

The man immediately began telling me how he and his family were immigrants from Nigeria and had been homeless for the past week. “Last night we found a cheap B&B for £15, but we don’t know where we are staying tonight” he said. He told me how they had come to England seeking medical treatment for their three-year-old son, who suffered from what they’d thought was congestive heart disease. After some initial exams the British Social Services told them there was nothing they could do for them. “Can I pray for your son?” I asked. The father told me they had learned that exams that he has an enlarged heart that caused many health problems. They said they were Christians and would gladly receive prayer. Right there on the train platform I crouched before the boy and prayed for healing for his heart and a place to live for the family.

“Do you know anyone here in Southall that might know about housing?” the father asked. In fact I was on my way to visit Servants, a community committed to serving the urban poor (http://www.servantsasia.org/index.php/en/united-kingdom.html). I took his cell phone and email. There was joy in our faces as we parted company—and I was glad for the Spirit’s persistence with me in spite of my resistance. Later I called him with phone numbers of groups that offered services to homeless families.

It was inspiring to hear about the ministry of Servants that afternoon— whose community members and interns are each imbedded in different churches and existing ministries to the poor, helping with community gardens, children’s ministries and other social services and promoting Christian unity in the heart of some of England’s largest Sikh and Somalia communities.

Later that evening in a church near London Bridge I spoke to several hundred people gathered from five churches that form part of C4T, Christians for Transformation (http://c4t.org.uk). The title they had given me for my talk was “Your kingdom come in Bermondse & Rotherhithe as it is in heaven.” African immigrants joined English believers from different denominations—all longing to see Jesus’ Kingdom make a difference in traditionally working-class London neighborhoods marked by racism, alcoholism and spiritual indifference.

I had just completed two weeks of teaching my missions and Old Testament courses at Westminster Theological Centre in the UK. My objective is to prepare people to ministry outside the church, with a focus on the poor, immigrant groups, inmates and others on the margins. In the UK and Europe these days mainstream Christians are challenged by the rise of poverty, visible in homelessness, illegal immigration, human trafficking and other social problems. People are expecting increasing social unrest as European nations cut back on social benefits. My mission course includes sessions on Kingdom identity vs. national identity, with an emphasis on Jesus’ call for his followers to be differentiated from the dominant powers.
I am accustomed to some resistance when talking about Jesus’ way of combating evil (announcing the Kingdom of God, teaching, healing, deliverance, prophetic confrontation…the cross, forgiveness) in contrast to normal human approaches (law-enforcement, violence, war). Increasingly though I find people agreeing that our identity as sons and daughters of the Father in heaven must trump our visible identity markers (race, nationality, profession…), and even praying to be transferred from being under “the authority of darkness” (Col 1:13) into “stranger and alien” status. Our upgraded status in Christ includes being filled with and led by the Holy Spirit so as to carry the present reality of Jesus’ Kingdom more deliberately into our work places, cities and wherever we go.

The last two sessions of each of my three mission courses were on healing and prophetic evangelism. When demonstrating how to pray for healing in public we witnessed firsthand students being healed, including a woman from Zimbabwe who received healing from chronic ankle and knee pain from a car accident 11 years before www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp5kXHrMGj8&feature=youtu.be

As part of the course students actually went out into the cities of Cheltenham and later Litchfield in groups of three to pray for people the Spirit guided us to. People were often amazed that they would actually find specific individuals in places that the Holy Spirit revealed to them during the listening prayer time beforehand. Most had never stepped out of their comfort zone to publicly engage strangers in conversation—let alone with offers to bless them or pray for their healing. People were surprised and delighted by how many people welcomed their prayers (though there were some who refused). Highlights for me during these two weeks were the three debriefs after these mini missions—when students told stories of stepping over the lines from private to public faith in ways that brought visible blessing.

This past Sunday in the Gar du Nord just after getting train from London I said a prayer, giving the Spirit permission to use me then and there. While buying a metro ticket a young couple approached me, asking for money for a hotel. He was from Romania and she from France. Rather than giving them money I invited them to go with me to meet people in our church, and then offered to pray for them. Surprisingly they accepted, asking me to pray for her anxiety and pregnancy as she is three-months pregnant. I took their phone number and invited them to church that evening.

In the next three months we will be offering a course at Eglise Reformée du Marais on “diaconia prophétique” followed by three evening street outreaches in April, May and June in downtown Paris. Gracie and I travel to Belgium this weekend to speak to church leaders on how Christians can prepare for growing social unrest as Belgium is expected to soon cut back on social services.

A deeper, more holistic advocacy is needed today that combines respectful presence, concrete assistance and organizing for social change with prophetic proclamation of Jesus’ kingdom enhanced by the gifts of the Spirit. As we prepare for and actually practice stepping outside our comfort zone in keeping with Jesus’ teaching and example in the Gospels, guided by the Spirit, I am sure that we will be led into new adventures in effective social advocacy and evangelism.