News from the Field

This past week, I had the privilege of attending COP27 (the UNFCCC’s annual climate change conference) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.  The opportunity arose when I was accepted to the Christian Climate Observers Program, or CCOP.  The program is amazing, the team was both international and incredible, and I am immensely grateful to our two leaders and program founders, Lowell Bliss and Brian Webb.

When I arrived in Kigali, Rwanda in October 2022, it was in the dark of night after a seventeen hour flight from Grand Rapids with stops in Detroit and Amsterdam. Takia, a small framed young Tutsi woman, found me in the airport and guided me to the vehicle that took me to Rabagirana Ministries which housed Healing Hearts Transforming Nations (HHTN) reconciliation training just outside the capital. Rwandan Hutus massacred almost 1 million Tutsi men, women, and children, along with moderate Hutus in 100 days in the spring of 1994.

“Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:16b-19) 

When I wrote about deconstruction I didn’t expect to have so much to say. Even still, I continue to process and verbalize my own experience. It gives me grace and empathy to walk with others going through their own paths of deconstruction. 

I know not everyone shares the same perspective on deconstruction, or the same definition (see previous post), but regardless of this, I think there are helpful ways to walk with those in deconstruction. 

On a warm Sunday evening in downtown Thorold, a young couple and their two girls walked down the street.  Suddenly, the smell of dinner caught their nose. They peeked inside the school door only to be welcomed and invited to stay for a meal. They met new people and ate their fill. To their surprise, this gathering had been organized by a Christian group called a “missional community.” That’s what our church plant, The Table, calls ourselves: a missional community.

Many of us are trying hard to reduce our household carbon footprint.  We’re changing the sources of our electricity, switching to solar power and electric heating, using public transit, reducing waste, recycling, composting, and more.  As we continue to make these changes in our lives, we are meaningfully reducing our emissions and living in increasing balance with God’s creation.  There is one lifestyle choice, however, that can undo all of our annual emissions reduction work in a matter of hours – and that is air travel.

Alcohol and drug use in Indigenous communities has a dark history among our people.  Due to intergenerational trauma communities next to American Indian reservations, or Canada off-reserve First Nation see many Indigenous people residing in Cities of Broken Glass from broken alcohol bottles and drug paraphernalia.

Broken shards of glass can be found in many parts of our Indigenous land. These sharp pieces of colored glass reflect, sparkle, glimmer, and shine and can be mistaken for a sea of glass, like crystal among metropolitan ghettos.  

One of the calls of the deacon (as is with all Christians) is to participate in God‘s mission in the world. This work has reformed beyond mere charity and saving of souls; into a much more layered contribution to community. Service looks at physical, emotional and spiritual needs. If Christian faith communities are to have a strengthened relationship with others, we should consider our public witness. Have Christians done the difficult work of self-reflection, with a willingness to hear and examine criticISM’S?

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of spending three weeks in Egypt. I travel regularly to Egypt for my work with Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), but it was my husband’s first time in the country. Thus, we did some of the prerequisite things like getting our pictures taken at the pyramids and traveling along the Nile River to learn about the thousands of years of ancient history when the Egyptian empire existed at the center of civilization. 

This is the last installment in a short series. You can see the previous blog posts on this topic here.