Enjoying a little Java House break (minus Annerika's smile)

The first time you take an idea or a resource into another culture, it’s always an adventure…and a lot of work. Every concept, word, and expression needs to be looked at through the lens of the new culture; through its behaviors, its values, its beliefs, and ultimately through its worldview. So in the weeks leading up to the workshop, Maria (a teammate of ours who was born and raised in Tijuana) and I (Rob) labored over the translation of the Life Compass workbook. Okay, it might be more accurate to say that Maria labored over the translation. What we labored over were the ideas, concepts, metaphors, and examples that filled the 25-page workbook and at least twice that many pages of teaching notes. We wrestled with questions like: How do you create an environment of personal discovery when “doing what my pastor says” is often all they have been asked to do? How do you help people dream when they haven’t been invited to dream before? Or how in the world do you get through a time-sensitive, time-intensive schedule in a culture that views time pretty differently than we do!?

Well, by God’s grace, (and Maria’s incredible skills), it all came together and it worked powerfully. Maria and I did most of the teaching while Laurie and Shaun–Maria’s husband–loved on the group, served them, and helped coach them through lots of new and challenging concepts. It was a team effort that left a deep impact on all our lives, and the fruit of that effort will soon be spreading throughout the region. Let me tell you about Oscar as an example:

Oscar served as our host for the Life Compass training and he’s a powerful leader in Mexico. For many years he was the YMCA Director overseeing all of Latin America. Before we started, he pulled us aside and said, “I hope this isn’t going to be one of those “change your life in 2 hours” kind of workshops…we don’t really need more of those here.” Oscar put us on notice…don’t play with us and don’t blow this. Fair enough. As we dove into the training I could feel Oscar testing our assumptions and pushing back on some of the concepts, but always in a good-natured, playful, albeit watchful way. But I also sensed he was enjoying it.

In the last hour of the last day, as we were wrapping up the workshop, Oscar took the floor and said to the whole group, “I need to say something.” I immediately thought, oh boy, this could be really good or this could really go sideways! Oscar continued, “I’m 60 years old and I have travelled all over the world. I’ve been to hundreds of workshops, listened to countless sermons, and have sat on many boards. Honestly, I didn’t think you guys would have anything new for me to learn. I was hoping it would be good for the rest of the group, but I didn’t think I would get much out of this.” After a pregnant pause, he continued. “Well, I was wrong. You guys surprised me. I discovered things these last two weeks about myself that I never knew. I’ve never looked at my life as a whole story before, as a puzzle that has lots of pieces that God has designed and desires to put together to form a beautiful picture. But now I see it, I like what I see, and it makes me want to spend the last days of my life doing only the things God has made me to do.” He then asked, “If you guys do this again in Mexico, can I be part of it? I feel like there’s more I’d like to learn and I would be interested in helping to teach part of it…would that be possible? This has been a powerful experience and I would like to help others experience it too.”

Yeah, we’ll be doing it again, and it would be an honor to have Oscar in the mix.

You can get the book on Amazon, by clicking here.

Just because we are back in Santa Cruz doesn’t mean we have stopped processing our time in Israel and Palestine. In fact, our time shattered and expanded our worldview is such a way that will force us to continue processing and wrestling through the experiences and stories for along time to come. Our time in Israel concluded with two especially insightful experiences in Samaria and in the West Bank cities of Bethany and Bethlehem.

Samaria has been off limits for most tourist in recent years due to extended unrest. Much of the unrest stems from a region that is isolated politically, religiously and socially from Israel and much of the surrounding region. The Samaritans history of being the “black sheep” goes back all the way to the 8th century B.C. when Assyria captured Israel’s Northern Kingdom and intermarried with some of the existing Samaritan population. Israel then viewed Samaritans as “half breeds,” which makes Jesus special attention towards them that much more revolutionary. After standing on Mt. Gerizim (where Samaritans believe God tested Abraham) we were welcomed with a huge smile by one of their current priests. He proceeded to share with us the story of the Samaritans and their role within the Biblical Story. It was fascinating as he spoke with conviction and respect of the varying religious beliefs represented. There are currently around 750 practicing Samaritans worldwide, which is a huge increase after numerous violent attempts to drive them to extinction. While they only hold the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) as authoritative, he assured us that they are on Facebook…brilliant!

Finally, Jan and I(and a few of our friends from Jerusalem Univ.) were invited to spend the day with our friends Milad and Minar in their home towns of Bethany and Bethlehem in the West Bank. They are Arab Palestinian Christians who have chosen to offer the hope of Jesus to their community under the weight of political, social and religious oppression. With the course being focused on the historical and geographical settings of the Bible, I came in expecting to be awed by sites that were/are central to the Biblical Story that I have studied for so long. While there were certainly times when that was the case, the times I was most in awe was in seeing the Biblical Story alive in the people today…It was in the hearts and lives of Milad and Minar that we most clearly experienced the Kingdom of God on earth. Whether in singing with 80+ Palestinian kids in the couple’s non-profit(focused on Peace and Reconciliation in Palestine), eating a huge home cooked meal at their parents home in Bethlehem, using their last portion of clean water after 12 days of Israeli withheld rations or watching Milad harassed at “the Wall” (which is twice as tall and exponentially longer than the Berlin Wall) while we waltzed on by, it was an experience that cut to the very fabric of our souls. It was living in the tension of hope and internal(at times external) tears that we stepped into a story that we can’t help but tell over and over and over. It is a story I will explore(and be sure to share) more thoroughly in an article that will be published next month on youthspecialties.com.

For now, we are so grateful to all of our new friends who remain in the Middle East and chose to adopted a posture of invitation so that we may be made more whole in our quest to be fully enlivened by the living Mission of God that stretches to all corners of Creation.

Shalom Haverim (companions)

In making this shift, we felt like another move would be both imminent and critical.  We would need to move closer to where younger and more progressive people live in Pretoria.  Somewhere downtown.  Somewhere closer to the University.  Somewhere where blacks and whites live side-by-side and are engaging the significant challenges that face them and their country.  Somewhere beyond Pangani.

Pangani has been a wonderful home for us these past 7 years, but as we focus on South African leaders, we think it would be better utilized as an off-site training venue; a place we occasionally use for workshops, seminars, intensives, and retreats rather than as a home-away-from-home for staff and apprentices.  We also think it could be a valuable source of revenue to help fund the development of young local leaders.  To help make that happen we are in discussions with Enterprise International to lease Pangani from NieuCommunities and run it as a for-profit guesthouse and conference centre. Our staff—when they all get back from their furloughs in February–will begin the hunt for a new neighborhood and begin setting up home in downtown Pretoria.