New Opportunities

The events in Ferguson, Missouri have captivated the world of social media this week. On Saturday afternoon, eighteen year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police while walking home with a friend. A candlelight vigil to remember Brown turned violent on Sunday, leading to looting and more than thirty arrests. Monday and Tuesday saw tensions rise as residents gathered for peaceful demonstrations, demanding the officer’s name be released and details about the incident be made public.

"A country is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable." Although the source of this oft-mentioned quote is up for debate, it is undoubtedly a powerful statement that stands in judgment of our nation.

This morning a radio announcer went with a pithy headline: "Yesterday First Nations Chiefs Left $1.9 Billion on the Table."

This is the third year in a row that Lulu has celebrated her birthday in sanctuary.  Almost two and a half years ago, Lulu and her parents saw no other option but to move into a Toronto church when they were threatened with deportation to Hungary.

About a year ago, I met a woman named Belle, who was trying to leave prostitution. As we began to form a friendship she began to tell me her story. Though the details differ, her story echoes those of other women who have survived prostitution. Despite being smart, funny, resilient, courageous, loving, and sensitive, Belle has not yet been able to find a way out of addiction and abusive relationships. Though I’ve worked in one way or another with people on the margins my entire adult life, I experienced a profound awareness of Christ’s presence as this woman and I formed a friendship.

For centuries, Christians have been fending off a certain heresy that the early church tried to put away– a heresy called Gnosticism that said that bodies and souls are separate, and not equal. This lie tells us God cares about our spiritual lives, but not about our physical lives.

Scripture tells us that we are whole people – body, spirit, heart, mind – and that all of this is what makes us image-bearers of God himself. God is not interested in just our souls. For God, dualities like that don’t exist. We are whole people – body and soul together.

Come see what God is doing! The two winners of the first prize (one Canadian and one American) will win a trip to Edmonton, Canada for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. If you’re between the ages of 18 and 30, you’re invited to submit a 400-800 word reflection or mixed media contribution (eg. spoken word video, Prezi presentation, poem) on one or more of the following questions to the judges panel through drowaan@crcna.org before February 21.

This winter, World Renew and the OSJ are able to offer up to 20 scholarships towards the registration cost of The Justice Conference, happening in Los Angeles, Friday evening February 21 through February 22. If you would like to apply for a scholarship to attend this conference let us know by filling out this application by January 20.

“I had to admit I harbored the rudiments of racism, an unconscious attitude that I fight daily, but that none of us can totally escape,” writes Mary Pipher in her book The Middle of Everywhere. How true! As refugee committees we discuss who to sponsor even though in our mission statement we express the desire to help anyone from anywhere. We worry if our country will stay ‘Christian’ and be trouble free. We stereotype and show our fear of strangers especially those coming from Muslim nations, I would argue, because of their aptitude for violence and their notorious low value on females.

Prison missives have power. When the normal liberties of life have been stripped away, all that remains is the humble authority of conviction and the truth of an unbreakable spirit. On September 9, community leader Jorge Montes was unjustly accused of belonging to the FARC, Colombia's largest guerrilla group. He is seen as threat to society and is currently in a maximum security prison, from which he writes, “I only ask God that he keep bitterness and revenge far from my heart and that he fill me with the wisdom to confront and endure this nameless torture.