Saturday, February 21, 2009

in the realm of the dragon- sri lanka update2


My friends, my family.
I cannot begin to speculate where the week has gone. Just seven days ago I was writing to you, having just been in Sri Lanka for a couple days. Now, with a week gone by, only a few days remain in my stay here. God has been gracious to us as we've traveled from church to church through hill country and then on to Batticaloa on the east coast, where we have been for the last four days. Thank you for your ongoing prayers. We have enjoyed safe and expedient travel, even through army occupied areas that I described in a recent talk as 'the realm of a dragon', complete with sacked buildings, nearly impassible roads, army arrogance, empty places of worship and desolation. We have felt the strength and protection afforded us by Northview prayer cover.

Before I go any further, I need to share with you what a blessing it has been to hear of Northview's ongoing love and support of our friends the Dynna's. I received news of Glenn's accident on Sunday morning here (Saturday night in Regina) in a phone call with Vonda. We have been praying regularly for Glenn , Donna, the family and the business since receiving word. I am so grateful to Pastor Belinda, Jaylynne and others, not only for keeping me posted through email as to how to continue to pray, but also for coordinating some systematic support for our dear friends. I have shared with the team here how proud I am of our church for binding together to love and support our friends. Know that I join you in praying for miraculous healing, hope, comfort and peace every single time the Holy Spirit brings the Dynna family to mind, as well as systematically at specific times daily. I also pray thanksgiving for a church family that serves its own as well as others. You are a blessing.

So this week we concluded our pastor and church meetings- meeting with 12 pastors in 6 churches over 5 days. The traveling through hill country by van was exhausting, but God sustained us and has done much to continue to foster church unity within the movement here in Sri Lanka . Pastor Jayamani has been doing an outstanding job as superintendent, and has been instrumental in bringing strength and identity to the movement here. Please continue to pray that the fellowship of the churches will continue to grow stronger and more unified, and will continue to bring God glory as it tackles the challenges that are part of life in a civil wartorn land.

Arriving in Batticaloa late on Tuesday night, we changed gears and focus, directing our energy to the Tsunami relief project. There was a fair bit of preparation work that was required in order to turn the houses over to their recipients on Saturday night. Our project includes ten houses, the first five to be given away today (Saturday.) Nothing could have prepared me for the depth of connection that I felt with this project personally. Northview's involvement began with a series of Tsunami relief offerings that were taken up in January 2005. I travelled here to Batticaloa the following summer and then a year later Matt Larson and I returned to this area of Sri Lanka to negotiate with the government for some land for Tsunami refugee relief. To sign letters of understanding on behalf of the pastors of all the Free Methodist Churches that gave to this project was deeply moving for me. However, to be asked to officiate in the turning over of one of the homes was surreal. As I have been honoured by these involvements, so our church has been honoured because, through it all, God continues to be glorified through the faithfulness of this little church of ours.

We will leave tomorrow after I speak to the church that Pastor Guna has drawn together in the shed on the project site. We head back to Colombo to lead a theology class for the pastors here. Please join me in prayer for the Board of Administration meeting that takes place on February 25th. There is much business to be discussed, including plans for the summer programs that Matt and Brooke Larson are leading a team into in August. We return home on the 27th, but I have no clue when... Vonda will know. In any event, I look forward to being home with you all again next weekend.

You continue to be in my prayers daily. Thank you for including us in yours.
poitu varam
d

Saturday, February 14, 2009

in the realm of the dragon- sri lanka update1


My friends, my family.
What a gift it is to be your pastor, serving here on your behalf! We arrived early Friday morning and have already done a lot of connecting with the pastors here. By the time of this writing on Saturday night, we had already met with three of the pastors and stopped in at Lanka Bible College to pick up some materials for the class that Dan Sheffield will be teaching in Colombo in our final days here. We have a very full itinerary, but if you would join us with prayer I know that God will afford us the strength to see through these plans- our intention is to visit every church or in the Free Methodist movement while here... Good thing Pastor Jey got here a bit earlier, as the connecting he did during the week prior to our arrival makes this visitation goal attainable. Vonda has received the updated itinerary and will be happy to get it to you if you want to be specific as a prayer partner.

Please pray for unity within the movement here. There are some issues that have crept in which threaten to bring division between some of the leaders here. As can happen in pretty much anything where people are concerned, problems with communication and trust pose some threat to the foundation that has been lain these past five years. We are working very hard to listen carefully and share discerningly, and are very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with all prior to the Board of Administration meeting that is to take place on February 26, our final day in Colombo.

I have been asked by the denomination to write a chronicle of the Tsunami story, beginning on boxing day, 2004 and culminating with the handing over of the first relief houses. Although this is an overwhelming task, I consider it an honour to be asked to write it. We are also doing some shooting for an accompanying documentary film on this topic. Being that Northview has been so involved in this story from the beginning, I am very excited about the project.

The political climate here is cooler than it has ever been during my visits. I am grateful to God for this, as it represents the answers to many prayers on many different levels. As you pray prayers of thanksgiving for this, please continue to remember to lift this country and its people up. The civil war dragon still considers this place its realm and this people to be its subjects- we received some bad news again today, and although we continue to travel in the shadow and shelter of the hand of God, I long for a time when the whole country enjoys the same peace.

Tomorrow we will worship in the Nawalapathiya church where Jared, Shalene, Vonda, Devon, Mark and I served during the first days of our trip in August, 2007. I think it's fair to say that "Godwin says Hi!" to you all. Ask those who have been here what that means.

Bless and be blessed
d

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

of dragons and would-be heroes



so i thought it might be interesting to explore the whole idea of dragons- but discovered early on that there are some key differences between how different cultures portray this mythological creatures, as well as the powers and such ascribed to them. rather than go on and on, let me say this about that:

go to wikipedia and type in 'dragon'
now read the entry.

there- so in order to move forward, let me just clarify... the dragons of which i speak are not the oriental ones- (probably the subject of a whole nother blog). no, we're looking at the horrific creatures that lace european mythologies with a larger than life, manifest evil presence. the stuff that jabberwocky (from lewis carroll's through the looking glass) and smaug (from jrr tolkien's the hobbit) are made of- the stuff that the great heroes like saint george and shrek have always had to defeat in order to save the girl.

(interesting: read revelation 12.1-17 with this idea in mind)

in his Complete Guide To Middle-Earth, robert foster defines the word Dragon as follows:
"Evil creatures of northern Middle-earth, huge, powerful, scale covered, long-lived, greedy for treasure and full of malice. They could bewilder anyone who looked in their eyes and their words were cunning and seductive…"

these giant villains of western myth are the ultimate self-serving consumers: destroying, controlling or hoarding all that is in their path, choking off life and freedom and while cultivating a stockholm syndrome-like bond of fear and appeasement, requiring absolute servitude of those who live within their realm. they create slaves- they always have.

it's funny how certain ideas act as hyperlinks to other experiences. all week long, i've been thinking of a certain bruce cockburn song which has embedded in it the title of the album in which it appears. the tune is called 'hills of morning' and the record is dancing in the dragons' jaws- very strongly based on and alluding to the writings of charles williams.

(tangent: no surprise that the quote in the previous blog entry is from the same record. sometimes we read a book or listen to a song or see a film and we receive one idea- other times the aesthetic leads us in a number of different directions through a number of different topics simply because we continue to be willing to receive more from the larger work.)


Women and men moved back and forth
In between effect and cause
And just beyond the range of normal sight
This glittering joker was dancing in the dragon's jaws
(bruce cockburn)

this song seems to hint at hope that lies beyond that which we readily perceive, but which is nonetheless real. it and the works by charles williams that inspired it "explore the sacramental intersection of the physical with the spiritual while also examining the ways in which power, even spiritual power, can corrupt as well as sanctify." (WIKIpedia, of charles williams)

the really cool thing is that, unlike his oxford writers' guild (self-dubbed Inklings) contemporaries c.s. lewis and j.r.r. tolkien, williams' fantasy pieces take place in our contemporary world- which perhaps invites the question:

what ARE the dragons of today? two rather nasty ones come to mind, along with a third that is unmatched in its subtlety:
  • Economics: commerce, trade and credit (affluence/ disparity)
  • Politics: abuse of power, influence and resource leads to injustice
  • Substance issues: counterfeit gospels offering temporary peace from the other two (and countless others) all the while establishing its own realm and subjects.
but with the identification of some rather heinous dragons, comes the responsibility to somehow fight them. how do we, the church, deliver hope and freedom to those who are held captive today? how do we, the church, bring a dance of freedom and hope into the very jaws of today's dragons?

well, first of all, we need to remind ourselves that it's not our fight. it’s a Spirit thing

matthew 28.18-20 (famously referred to as the great commission) speaks of Christ's authority, and of the need for those who follow him to go out into all the world. luke 24.45-49, tells the same story from the perspective of another, with certain nuances draw to the fore. in the luke version, Jesus speaks of going out, but reminds his followers that there is an order to things, and that they are to wait until they receive that which is promised to them from the Father: 'power from on high.' acts 1.8, (traditionally held to be written by the same author as the gospel of luke) records the words of Christ more directly related to this promise of power and authority: 'you will receive power when my Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses...' and so on.

see, without that power there is no authority and, one could contend that when there is no authority there cannot be any real victory over a dragon. mere mortals are limited in strength and resource and dragons seem to be these horrible things that know and respect no limits. the merely natural cannot prevail- the supernatural must engage for it is a supernatural battle.

so how do we engage supernaturally? how do we receive this promise of dragon-thwarting might? well, it seems to come through agreement entered into with God. it seems to come with being in league with good rather than evil, and being in relationship with the source of the good... without this relationship, there is no witness to bear.

the challenge (arguably greater, even, than the challenge posed by the dragon itself) is to actively cultivate conversational intimacy with God- to speak regularly with, not to God. speaking with connotes a dialogue in which both parties are engaged, taking turns, alternately speaking and listening. this allows God to draw up divine plans with his servants which enable these servants to be in agreement with and fully used within them.

it's not enough to be ready to fight.
we must needs be ready to be part of someone else's fight- God's.

so what does one wear to someone else's war?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

i read this and thought this 1


i read this:
Many of us are refusing to allow distorted images of our faith to define us. There are those of us who, rather than simply reject pop evangelicalism, want to spread another kind of Christianity, a faith that has as much to say about this world as it does about the next. New prophets are rising up who try to change the future, not just predict it. There is a movement bubbling up that goes beyond cynicism and celebrates a new way of living, a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of. (Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution, http://www.amazon.ca/Irresistible-Revolution-Shane-Claiborne/dp/0310266300/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233676295&sr=8-1)

and thought this:
sun's up- mm hmm- looks okay
the world survives into another day
and i'm thinking about eternity
(bruce cockburn, wondering where the lions are)

eternity- not the forever and a day kind, but the here and now kind. hope is a ray, having a beginning and no ending point, traveling towards a vague horizon.

what mission am i to fulfill at this point in time and space to actively participate in the sharing of hope and the moving forward of a people into a new day, prepared by God to be lived out to the realization of God's dream for us all?