News from the Pews

Mohammad El Kurd and the Settler Takeover in the East Jerusalem Neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah

How do you grow vegetables when the soil is dry, space for farming is extremely limited and there is no water available? The answer lies in an innovative combination of fish, plant tubs, pumps and pipes! In southern Honduras, World Renew partners with Diaconia Nacional of Honduras for an agricultural project that’s having a big impact using aquaponics. 

In day to day life, I experience what I call “extreme empathy,” meaning that at times I feel the pain of others very deeply—almost as if it’s my own. Because of this extreme empathy, often when I look at the world around me, I am overwhelmed by the pain and sorrow that is seemingly everywhere. I want to fix it all and feel completely insufficient to make even the slightest difference or improvement. The ironic reality is that if I allowed myself to stay in those moments of despair, I would neglect to do the very thing I long to do: seek justice.

Mark 10:31 “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

We can all affirm that the months that ended 2020 and began 2021 were quite eventful.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to months of lock down intended to minimise the spread of the virus. However, as the socio-economic and political situation became challenging, the lockdown was lifted up in many parts of the world including Uganda. The situation had created limitations to community interactions. The opening up of international boundaries basically culminated into more community infections of the COVID-19 virus. We are locked in between the rock and the wall.

I am hoping that someone reading this will learn from my failures. I am still developing the muscle-tone at midlife to have conversations with people of color where I mostly just listen, the way God listens to me. I am a white male leader at a multiethnic, majority-white church, and I’m learning from my mistakes. I’m offering them here in the hope that if you need to, you might learn from them too. 

“The metaphor for love is Arishi*”. I heard this beautiful line in my leadership masters class recently, and it resonated deeply. Arishi means, ‘to speak mutually’. When I reflect on the meaning of Arishi, speaking mutually, its meaning extends beyond dialogue. In a conversation, the assumption and hope are to share thoughts and be heard and perhaps even be respected. To speak mutually is to enter the conversation on the premise of a joint agreement in each other’s value. 

Ladner Christian Reformed Church (Delta, B.C.) welcomed former refugees Kukuye and Kiya, along with their daughters, to Canada on October 1st.  The family shared some of their story with the church community while they were in quarantine until October 16th.  This interview between Kukuye and Kiya and Bev Bandstra was originally published in Ladner’s Community Connections newsletter and Do Justice has been given permission to republish it here.

We as image-bearers of God have an unprecedented opportunity to re-engage with our community tables that have been set before us. Our tables need to be large enough to invite our neighbors to join us for food, laughter and conversation. So naturally we ask the question, who is my neighbor? 

We are quickly approaching Orange Shirt Day on September 30th!  Orange Shirt Day was started to honour the history of children who were sent to residential schools and give an opportunity for everyone to learn more about the history.  If you’re looking for a way to start introducing kids to residential schools in an age appropriate way, this list can help.  We have also included some books in this list that are just plain fun and offer an Indigenous perspective.