Integrity Can Also Mean To Be Conscious January 4, 2016

Integrity:1: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility

2: an unimpaired condition : soundness

3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided :completeness

As I set through another orientation on culture shock I have to ask myself is this all a good idea. In a matter of hours I will be boarding a plane to South India  where I will be spending the next 18days of my January vacation. Also I use the word vacation lightly…. Why do I sound as if I am worried about this trip? Well in truth I am worried. I want to talk about the kind of privilege it takes to say I am going to spent time outside of the country to “study.”  I spent the Christmas/New Year holiday with my partner’s his family as well as his friends, which was very rewarding and calming. The topic of my  fast approaching trip would come up and I would spend a little time talking about all I know. I was always a little embarrassed when talking about the subject. One of my partners friends asked how I was able to afford a trip like this. Honestly, I said, I paid out of my own pocket. This is where privilege comes in. I follow the argument that just about anyone can afford to travel no matter your income its just if you are willing to do so. I will be the first to say that I really hate talking about money, it bothers me to no end when it comes down to the topic of income, but this is very important that I take this chance to talk about it.

                 Having an expendable income is a privilege that a lot of people do not want to talk about. I mean we live with the American ideology of “you earn it you keep it” and money is a thing you earn. This is where my embarrassment comes in, while I could afford to go should I actually have signed myself up for this adventure. I told myself I could afford to go but that meant everything was tight. I planned a budget and all was going well until I had the rug ripped out from under me and I had to do some shifting quick. I also had to make some really hard chooses when it come down to what I could and could not buy and what I was willing to give up in order to do this trip. There was a couple of times when I had to ask myself what in the hell was I thinking when I shelled out 2 grand for this trip. I could have backed out a long time ago and get some of my money back, this is where Integrity comes in. I told myself years ago that I will experience life outside of my North American/United States context. Why you might ask? Well isolation breeds narrow mindedness as well as superiority complexes; which I believe is the reason why US citizens struggle with foreign concepts and tradition. It should not  be that all of my foreign  encounters be in an US context. As a USA citizen I have privilege thanks to my passport which allows me to travel anywhere at almost anytime paradoxically I know people that have never left there home state let alone their hometowns. It takes a strong person to step outside of their personal comfort zone. To take the big leap from “safe” to the unknown.  I value the privilege of being able to travel and better myself. I know this selfish to some degree because of the issue of money. Money and being able to afford to do things outside the norm, as I was writing earlier, is problematic. My want, and I view this as a wants, to travel and learn about myself through the culture of another over shadows my american ideology of being financially stable. Frankly I hate this idea of being “financially stale” as of right now I find this concept to be unimportant at this time. I only have to worry about myself so all of my income is expendable in my mind. I can’t force people to have this same kind of mentality but its a pretty useful one to have at this point in our economic environment.

Long story short I am still trying to figure out how to have Integrity in my life choices.

With Love

Tisha

 

Oh The Places You Will Go part 1 July 2, 2015

Mark 6:7-8 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;

I will say I did not follow our Lord’s order word for word, I took two bags change of cloths and some money but other than that I did what my Lord asked of me. Y’all might not know this but I am taking part in something called the New Faces of Ministry tour New Faces Of Ministry Tour . This means I signed myself up for an eleven week long tour de ministry, thus far I am finished with my first leg of my journey. Hi-fives all around for a month of almost non stop travel and speaking on the joy and struggles of the ever changing landscape of ministry. I am amazed to say the least. This world we live in is one of the beautiful and terrible things I have the honor to be a part of. Now sit back and enjoy a short recap of all that I have been thought over the course of June.

Bonner Love!
One of my first stops was the Bonner 25th Celebration at Davidson College. For those of you who do not know what the Bonner network is like the link found right here Bonner! for more information about this organization. The question I asked myself was what kind of role I, a seminarian, can play in the lives of students and young adults that are fully committed to active service in their community. The answer to that question…I still don’t have one. What I can speak on is the openness of the community of young adults some of which are barely out of their teens and yet have a better understanding of the current state of the world than I did at their age.
I spent three days getting to know some of these students, their schools, and respective Bonner leaders. At times I had deep metaphysical conversations trying to deconstruct the divorce between Faith and Service and put that understanding into digestible packages so those students could understand the kind of strength a faith driven service had. Then there were times when all I did was listen to both the happiness found in the service of others and the unrest with the state of society.
Like any other celebration there was your standard fare of workshops and debriefs which all related to what kind of impact the Bonner organization has had on the lives of everyone that has taken part over the past 25 years. One of the events that stood out to me was the workshop with a woman by the name of Emerald. She worked for an service program called City Year Here’s a link for City Year She focused on the inherent struggle faced by inner city and urban school teachers…How do you educate children in a system designed to fail. The workshop was interactive which made it even more heartbreaking. One of the Bonner students who said she wanted to become a teacher was at an utter lost for words when she realized that education for inner city children is an uphill battle. The workshop did not turn her off to the idea of becoming a teacher but it did help her to kind of understand the kind of Herculean task City Year educators face when they take part in this program. I have nothing but the up most respect for everyone that has taken part in this organizations. I could only hope for 25 more years filled with Bonner Love!

Small world. I did not catch this woman name but she knew one of my friends Justin who took part in DOOR ATL the same year I did YAV

Emerald, an amazing woman that worked for City Year! There was so much passion in this one woman

How many Bonner’s can fit in that back seat? Three plus a would be pastor

Patrick was a freshmen when I was a senior at Warren Wilson College small world.

Hanging Shirts with the interns

Betsy!!

What Does the Prophetic Mean to me. May 8, 2015

When it was proposed to our to class answer the question “What does the Prophetic mean to you?” Ezekiel chapter 37:3-6 instantly rang out in my ears:
“He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel in the valley holds a special meaning in my own understanding of the Christian faith. The first time I heard this particular narrative I found myself awestruck. There was so much apparent power in the words of the Lord. The prophetic is that which is diametrically opposed to the status quo. The prophetic falls outside the all too narrow confines of natural science; it cannot be bound by nature. It is like fresh water, that one breath you finally take after surviving something tragic; it is the first cries of a newborn child; G-d commands the prophet to stand before what appears to be a valley of death and suffering and orders the prophet to bring forth new life solely on the words of the Lord. When the people of G-d have been stripped of the very fiber of their being; that raw and naked nature has become the norm, G-d sends the prophet to circumvent that way of thinking.
What an insurmountable task, given to a more then average person, yet still the prophet did speak. With the spirit of Lord breathing down their neck telling them to do better, they spoke of new life and ushered in a metaphorical act of re-creation and resurrection into the valley. The breath of new life cries death to what once was and restoration and beauty to what is new. The status quo has stripped humanity of its ability to see each other as worthy of divine Love. Within the USA context it has become status quo to disregard the lives of those of black and brown skin. Recent events have taught us the say truth that you can kill a black person in the USA and almost certainty get away with it as long as you are perceived as white. #BlackLivesMatter movement is a direct response to the open season on people of color. Any prophetic movement is bound and determined to be in constant opposition to the oppressive forces of that given age. The prophetic does adhere to the bipartisan narrative of pleasing people or pleasing G-d. The prophet will always chose G-d, even if that means they are perceived as being cold and unloving. The prophetic voice I hear gives me the courage to say I’m more than willing to burn this country to the ground if that means the restoration of human dignity. To borrow words form William T. Sherman when he wrote to Prof. David F. Boyd at Louisiana State Seminary
“They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it… You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war.”
While W.T.Sherman was referencing the rising conflict between the Northern of the United States and the Southern half, I can not help but to call his words this day. The Civil War was not a war of northern aggression nor was it only fought to free the negro from slavery. It was a war of restoration. The restoration of the negro dignity, restoration of the Union, and above all else, the restoration of our countrymen humanity. Jesus proclaimed freedom to captives, be he did not say it was going to be easy.
One can argue that the prophetic has no place in the age of modernity, that the prophetic is strictly a construct of the Jewish tradition and that the status quo of today is nothing like the valley of sun-bleached bones. In some respects it is true that the prophetic we find in the Old Testament has no place in the modern age. But what we are forgetting is that the prophetic we have today is a hybrid of what we find in the Bible. No longer is G-d calling one person to bear the burden of the prophetic but rather the prophetic transforms into a fueling station of people’s movements. Our eyes have been opened to the common strife of humanity. Vox populi, vox Dei, the voice of the people is the voice of G-d. The people are tired of crying out “How Long?” Today the chant has become “There Will Be Hell to Pay” and G-d in the form of the Prophetic is the endorser of the check.

I sometimes wonder how Mary felt. March 16, 2014

HELLO!!!

Quick updates! 

Guess what! I and the other YAVs are going on our seventh month here in Korea! Oh yeah! SEVEN MONTHS!  Oh yeah!!! “DANCING” SeVen MoNthS “DANCING”  Okay, time to stop playing around and get down to the point of this blog post. We all went to Seoul…again…for five days and it enjoyable for the most part. This time around we were able to explore all by ourselves. I felt like big kid in a candy store. I am proud to say, Bennett and I were able to survive our Seoul adventure unscaved.

I went to the worlds largest Church and heres what I have to say….

Yoido Full Gospel Church, a mega-churches and the largest of them all. I want to give you scale, this church alone has a million person membership. There are seven serves each sunday and  service can have in upwards of 26,000 people. I swear to you, almost very set was filled. They had on the spot translators for a number of different languages ranging from English to Russian.  It was pretty cool. On the other hand, the governing body of Yoido Full Gospel Church is going through some major scandal yet the church as a whole is standing behind their senior pastor.  This is to say I in no way agree with the idea of a mega-churches but I have to admit, it was truly moving to see that large number of people coming together to have a faith experience and I will leave it at that.

North Korea is not what you think it is

We went to the DMZ and it was not that bad. Yeah so I am going to write another post about the DMZ a little later just bare with me.

 I went to a protest in Seoul and ended up in the News paper…..

On our last day in Seoul we had the honor to partake in the the wednesday protest outside of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Korea. I have written before about the comfort women issue that is an ongoing problem here in Korea and in other once Japanese occupied lands. On that Wednesday it turns out was also another very important day for the protestors.  On this very day a Korean ambassador to the UN spoke on the behave of the Korean government urging Japan to  reconsider their plan to re-evaluate their 1993 apology. Some of you might be asking why Koreans would urge Japan not to re-evaluate  their apology. Well it turns out the current government in Japan has an extremely conservative leaning and they felt the apology given in 1993 was too good. I will let that sink in for a little bit. It would seem that the  Japanese government  is totally oblivious to the needs,wants, concerns, and feeling of the Korean general public. I want it to be known that the Japanese government  has backed away form their plan to change the wording of the 1993 apology but the damage has been done.

As for the title of this section let me tell you it has been a while since I have had that many cameras in my face so there can be any number of photos of me floating around the interwebs.

Be good Always!

“I sometimes wonder how Mary felt; when he took his last breath, to know that her only son was gone.”

If you know more about Yoido Full Gospel Church here some links:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/megachurch-pastor-david-yonggi-cho-convicted-of-embezzling-12m-says-suffering-taught-him-individuals-shouldnt-possess-anything-115178/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoido_Full_Gospel_Church

More on the ‘Comfort Women’

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-japan-korea-idUSBREA2D04R20140314

Japan’s Lawmakers Launch Campaign Against ‘Comfort Women’ Memorials

Six months and I guess I am going strong….. February 23, 2014

Isaiah 6:8

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said “Here am I. Send me!” 

So I admit, Isaiah was a little drunk on the love of the lord when he threw his hands into the air proclaiming that he should be the one that is sent.  He asked God for how long and the big G-O-D said “until”  and left it at that. I too, like  Isaiah, threw my hands into the air when the time came but unlike Isaiah I know when my “until” will be and currently its a little less then six months from now. It is the half way mark for I and the other YAVs and gosh what a six months it has been. Being a Korea YAV/YAV in general has had a pretty big impact on my life, my hopes, and my dreams. There has many days where I actually question my sanity.  With that being said, there has been days filled with rainbows and unicorns  but also there where those days where the whole sky looked like it is going to come crashing to Earth in one fit of hell fire and brim stone.  But since you are reading this it would be safe to assume that the sky is still in it rightful place. Now now too the good stuff shall we……

Coming to Korea has pushed me to the limits of my comfort zones.

I write this hoping you, my lovely reader, has been keeping up my blog post if not it perfectly okay.  Looking back ,it feels as if I came here a life time ago, each week its own month, and each day a week yet I am still standing firm. It seems like my blog has become a place for venting all of the horrid  things that happened in Korea’s past.  The list of ugly goes on and on yet there is still a beauty in all of it. Strange as it sounds out of all the issues I have learned out here in Korea it took until I was  god-honestly tired of hear and learning about the suffering of another peoples for me to full understand what it means to empathize. I felt like I had reached my limit of caring for another calamities. Who would care that I had stopped caring. I am just one person and life will go one.  Then it all clicked; someone would care if I stopped caring even for one moment. I had spent so much time reminding myself that I know that other people feel this too that I had forgotten that that is the point…other people have felt this and yet they still pushed for acknowledgment of their cause. Their pain is real, and they care that pain with them every step of the way. Their pain is worth my caring. It is the least that I can do.  The calamities of our lives our not just our own. It is my responsibility as a participant in the human experience to connect to others by any means.

I know there is only a few beliefs besides death I hold to stand True with a capital T. The first is the belief that it’s all building towards something. Everything in our lives, no matter how big or small, well informed or miss guided, left to chance or well thought out,  it’s all for something.  We all know that every person on the face of this Earth  will suffer at some point. We  knew there will be times of unmeasurable joy, love, heartache, and hurt we also know that we will all eventually die. But at the end of the day, its all going to be worth it. The second is the belief that with all that knowledge I will not say “This is not my Life” and nor should anyone else. Our actions have meaning good or bad and it is for that reason that is worth trying to do better.  Always do better. If I had any doubt about my ability to live up to my highest  hopes, that belief in self-worth makes failure an option. I am not looking for an exist anymore, I want to fight like the war just started but  love like it has already ended. I can’t pretend that I can live my life by  philosophy radical honesty but sure will try.