live in the present moment.

"I try to live in the present moment, to accept reality as it is - the reality of my body and spirit, the reality of my community, the reality of creation and of our world. Today, it is sunny and cold; yesterday, it was raining and cold. Accept each day, each moment as it comes - the different seasons..."

-- Jean Vanier, Founder of L'Arche

this is eurasia.

we wanted to 'go out with a bang' for our final project with the eurasia communications team.
so here it is: our stop-motion project to show not only the diversity of eurasia but also the ways in which youth from every field are participating in the Kingdom.



it was true collaboration.
quite the labor of love. but so worth it in the end.

why go veggie?, dos.

vegetariantimes.com has a wonderful and compelling list that responds to the question, 'why go veg?' all good reasons; you should read the full list. but here are my main motivations:

• You’ll help reduce famine. About 70 percent of all grain produced in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter. The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the American population. “If all the grain currently fed to livestock were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million,” says David Pimentel, professor of ecology at Cornell University. If the grain were exported, it would boost the US trade balance by $80 billion a year.

• You’ll save money. Meat accounts for 10 percent of Americans’ food spending. Eating vegetables, grains and fruits in place of the 200 pounds of beef, chicken and fish each nonvegetarian eats annually would cut individual food bills by an average of $4,000 a year.

• You’ll help reduce pollution. Some people become vegetarians after realizing the devastation that the meat industry is having on the environment. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for more than 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams. Runoff from farmlands is one of the greatest threats to water quality today. Agricultural activities that cause pollution include confined animal facilities, plowing, pesticide spraying, irrigation, fertilizing and harvesting.

really it's about solidarity. and it's about not contributing to these systems. one happy veg at a time. : )

the subject of mushrooms

Last summer when I returned from Europa, Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life both challenged and inspired me to live more local with more sustainable eating practices no matter where I may call home. [Note to prospective readers: at points you have to push yourself to keep reading, since Kingsolver can and does spend pages just describing asparagus, but the journey with her family to deliberately grow/eat locally for one year is absolutely worth it.]

Now, after living in Europa for the past six months, I've returned multiple times to a Speaking of Faith interview where Krista Tippett talks with Barbara Kingsolver about this year of food life. Such good stuff. Here's the full podcast, if you want to listen in for yourself: The Ethics of Eating

Below, taken from the podcast, describes a bit of what I love about Europa -- just one of the things I hope to glean from my time spent here...

Barbara Kingsolver: It's so interesting to me when I'm in Europe and spend time with my Spanish friends or Italian friends, and they are working people too. They're women who are working in offices or, you know, they're editors or are laboratory scientists. And as soon as they're out of work, they head straight for the market. And they go down to see what fish has come in or what greens do they have now at this season. And even at high-powered business lunches with editors in France — this has happened to me so many times — these women in their fashionable shoes and business suits will stray from post-colonial literature over to the subject of mushrooms. And, you know, there's no shame in their enthusiasm for cooking. They feel that cooking for their families is a really important part of who they are. This, I think, is that, at the heart of the problem for a lot of us, anyway, I think I belong to the generation of women who grew up thinking that walking away from the kitchen was walking away from some kind of slavery, you know? It's how we think about it.

Krista Tippett: Yes, you're right. If we thought of cooking as this great pleasure that we could look forward to at the end of the working day, I suppose that would change it.

Barbara Kingsolver: If we look at it as family time, as entertainment, as a spiritually enlightening even, you know, if we look at it as a destination rather than a rock in the road, I think we would do more of it. And not every day, maybe not on Monday nights, OK, but definitely on Saturday.

why go veggie?

Taken from Eating for Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
"Mindful eating can help maintain compassion within our heart..."

"...UNESCO tells us that every day, forty thousand children in the world die because of a lack of nutrition, of food. Every day, forty thousand children. And the amount of grain that we grow in the West is mostly used to feed our cattle. Eighty percent of the corn grown in this country is to feed the cattle to make meat. Ninety-five percent of the oats produced in this country is not for us to eat, but for the animals raised for food. According to this recent report that we received of all the agricultural land in the US, eighty-seven percent is used to raise animals for food. That is forty-five percent of the total land mass in the US.

More than half of all the water consumed in the US whole purpose is to raise animals for food. It takes 2500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. A totally vegetarian diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4000 gallons of water per day.

Raising animals for food causes more water pollution than any other industry in the US because animals raised for food produce one hundred thirty times the excrement of the entire human population. It means 87,000 pounds per second. Much of the waste from factory farms and slaughter houses flows into streams and rivers, contaminating water sources.

Each vegetarian can save one acre of trees per year. More than 260 million acres of US forests have been cleared to grow crops to feed animals raised for meat. And another acre of trees disappears every eight seconds. The tropical rain forests are also being destroyed to create grazing land for cattle.

In the US, animals raised for food are fed more than eighty percent of the corn we grow and more than ninety-five percent of the oats. We are eating our country, we are eating our earth..."

...while many go hungry.

india elects first woman speaker

The elections recently wrapped up in India, and the new Speaker is a woman. Meira Kumar is not only the first woman to occupy the Speaker of the House seat, but she is from a lower-caste, Dalit background.

The BBC article (linked below) says this, "Observers say her election improves the Congress party's image as pro-women and a supporter of the lower castes."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8080474.stm

Read it all for more info. This sounds like a pretty significant step for India -- for women, for Dalits, for all. I can't wait to see what comes of her new position...

you can't do it all alone

don't push so hard against the world, no,
you can't do it all alone
and if you could, would you really want to?
even though you're a big strong girl,
come on, come on, lay it down
the best made plans
come on, come on, lay it down
are your open hands
are your open hands

-- deb talan

all around us

there is so much i want to share on here. so much to say. and so much to catch up on. but for now, this will have to suffice:

more and more, i am seeing the truth that there are saints all around us... everywhere you go. living in a million and one different contexts. but living such real and full and bold lives. i was able to see and simply be with such people this past week.

there's the two sisters in lisbon, portugal, age 50 and 60, who decided last fall that they wanted to open their home up to the kids in their neighborhood... teaching them in creative ways and loving on them by simply sharing life. these kids probably wouldn't be inclined to step into a church building, but they're experiencing community through the intentionality of these two sisters.

then there's the volunteers i met in madrid, spain; one from tijuana, mexico (we know the same people from there!) and one from nicaragua. both women, in their mid-20's, moved to madrid for a two-year commitment to build relationships in a totally new place by partnering with a local church and various community groups in the city. yes, they both were spanish speakers, but they entered a totally new cultural context in spain and have learned and loved with such openness and humility and grace. they both just love people. period. in word and in deed. they refer to their work as, "the gospel of friendship." amen and amen.

and then there's my new family member; my sister francine. francine opened up her home to my friend jenna and i while we spent time in montpellier, france. what rich hospitality. it's difficult to formulate into words how much her life and her creativity sparked something in me. francine shows me what i want 60 to look like: sanding a table and then repainting it eggplant purple, picking up fresh bread from the nearby bakery for guests, an ever-eagerness to hear someone's story, long walks in the cool of evening, allowing myself the grace to still take risks... francine is planning a solo backpacking trip in the states for the late summer - i reeeeeeally hope we get to see each other in colorado! francine loves. that was a complete thought there. she loves. loves being alive. loves tapping into creative energy through her artwork. loves her church. loves sharing her story. loves listening to other people's stories. loves helping. loves sharing. loves the creator, the sustainer, the giver of all life.

i realize now that the three examples that came spilling out were all from women; of course i don't espouse that one gender has more to offer the church than the other, but i guess for me, i seem to connect most quickly with women who are living lives of risk and purpose and even adventure in their local context. i love seeing that age is no issue for them; there's no thought of, 'oh, i'm too young to be doing this,' or 'i'm too old to be doing this.'

they just live life. and love life. and love people. deeply and truly and beautifully. if you look, really look, the saints are all around us.

workin'-it.

So this is me at work. In case you wanted to see what I do all day. Basically, I play with our web-site (try not to pull my hair out in the process) and work on the Eurasia newsletter: Where Worlds Meet. I like what I do. And I like the people I work with. And hey, did I mention I like where I work... as in Switzerland? Or Germany? Depending on which answer I feel like giving... I kinda' live in both places, both countries at the same time. Which is weird, I know. I'll post another blog about the complexities of Büsingen sometime.

If you want to check out our web-site (don't judge, 'cause it's a continual work-in-progress), click here: www.eurasianazarene.org

Let me know what you think...

hands open to the world

“Prayer is first and foremost listening.... People who pray stand with their hands open to the world. They know that God will show [God's self] in the nature that surrounds them, in the people they meet, in the situations they run into. They trust that the world holds God’s secret within it, and they expect that secret to be shown to them.”

-- Henri Nouwen

-- (Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings, "Prayer", p. 34-35)

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

As we pray...
we stand with our hands open to the world.
Trusting that You will show Yourself
in the nature that surrounds us,
in the people that we meet,
and in the situations we encounter.

We come with the expectation
to hear from You, and
we come with the desire
to be shaped in this season.
Help us to listen to Your voice
in new ways today and
throughout this season of Lent.

It is through You that
we learn to listen with
hands open to the world.

And it is through the One who
was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days,
the One who remained faithful to You,
the One whose life, death, and resurrection
marks this Lenten journey towards the cross,
...it is in this name, Jesus Christ, that we pray.

amen.

puts it in perspective

While signing an on-line petition (Obama: End the Occupation of Iraq) today, I ran across the above statistic, and sadly, it was not at all hard to believe.  While we are in an economic crises, with global ramifications, it's impossible for me to ignore how much money has been spent on the war in Iraq.  It's actually disgusting.

Here's what the site had to say:

The first four years of the Iraq war cost American tax payers $1 trillion dollars -- the equivalent of $720 million each day or $500,000 per minute! At the same time, over half a million American and Iraqi lives were lost, and the education, health and economic infrastructure of the country was destroyed.

What Iraq needs is sustained peace-building and sustainable solutions to deal with the war's aftermath. For less than 1/5th of what the U.S. spends in one day in Iraq, we could be providing teachers and better education for over 150,000 school and college-age Iraqi refugees!

Not to mention all the other good that could be done with the money: affordable health care, green energy, helping those struggling in these harsh economic times and more.

Please sign this petition (as well as many more) by becoming a member of Care2.  It's one of my new favorite web-sites.  Take action; you never know what a petition, a peaceful means of engagement, could do.

women: educated but still no job?

Here's a NYTimes article that describes the latest statistics of women in leadership in various countries. The US is definitely lagging behind most of Europe as well as behind other notable nations throughout the world. Get with the program, yo! The article states that women are just as educated as men, but there is not an equal share of leadership that would reflect this shared level of education. It does mention that Norway is one of the leaders when it comes to equality of the sexes - what up home roots. Here are two noteworthy quotes from the article:

“The world’s women are nearly as educated and as healthy as men, but are nowhere to be found in terms of decision-making,” said Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum.

&:

“A nation’s competitiveness depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilizes its female talent. To maximize its competitiveness and development potential, each country should strive for gender equality.”

I don't know if competitiveness should be our final goal, but I guess that's capitalism for you. Nonetheless, the quote still raises a good point - we must ask, first of all, whether we are offering true and equal education for women (in many world areas, education is not even an option for women), and second of all, whether we are then utilizing this female talent. Even in the US, we still have a long ways to go with this second one.

Specifically looking at the Church, how many women are currently being educated and supposedly "prepared" for a vocation that would serve the Church (say as a Pastor), and yet we find virtually no women in positions of leadership in the Church? Are we utilizing our female talent? I can't say with confidence that we are. Because in looking at the Church, and looking at very the education that prepares one for life and service to the Church, I think we're failing in both arenas: more often then not, girls and young women don't even grow up with the slightest notion that they too could serve the Church in leadership (we're talking more than just organizing the craft fairs and bake sales); we don't make space for exploration, where young girls could even dream about the possibility of serving as a pastor someday. So for the second account, it goes without saying that we aren't utilizing our female talent; if women haven't been able to simply consider pursuing vocational ministry in their education, then how can we even utilize them, even if we have the best of intentions? This ought not be! The Church must first show, in truth, to both boys and girls, young men and young women, that BOTH genders get to dream and consider a life of 'ministry' - with equal opportunity to serve as a Pastor. Then after that, we must follow through to Educate AND Utilize; the two must go hand in hand. [But then we're left with a little bit of a chicken-egg scenario... how can we show this truth to kids and youth if we aren't educating and utilizing our female potential in the immediate sense...?]

Homes, villages, cities, and countries are often carried on the backs of women... almost always in all of the behind-the-scenes work. Gender equality means a sharing of both the 'behind the scenes' work as well as positions of leadership and influence.

You can read the rest of the article here:

WORLD

Women Gain in Education but Not Power, Study Finds

By REUTERS

Published: November 13, 2008

A study found that women still lag far behind men in top political and decision-making roles, though their access to education and health care is nearly equal.