The people you meet: New friends from Croatia

If you saw our newsletter in April (hint, join our Facebook group), you saw that I started writing about the people that we meet through our life and ministry in the UK and Eurasia Region.

This week, we met two wonderful women from Croatia.

Our good friend Betsy Scott (left), a Nazarene missionary in Croatia with her husband Dave, and two children, J.J. and Emma, brought two of her good friends and fellow church planters to Nazarene Theological College this week for what NTC calls an "intensive class."

Background: Intensive classes meet four or five days in one week, all day, and squeeze a semester worth of material into that week. Then a follow-up essay is due later, which is the entirety of the grade in the class. Some of the students from this past year have stayed in town for the intensive classes, and other people, like our Croatian friends, have traveled in specifically for this educational opportunity.


I had the unexpected pleasure of being able to spend some time with these women -- Sanja and Dalia -- and hear more about their stories over meals and an interview.

Sanja (right in photo) is an entrepreneur, selling natural food cakes in Croatia, and is passionate about holistic health and clean eating. She met Christ about 20 years ago and, as a natural extrovert, she is also passionate about sharing Jesus with others, but has struggled to know how to do this appropriately in the Croatian context. Early on, she and others would go door to door and knock, or stand on street corners preaching. When this did not work, she became discouraged.

About a year or two ago, Sanja met Betsy because their sons were in the same class. She learned that Betsy was starting a Bible study for women, and Sanja enthusiastically joined. She fell in love with the doctrines and biblical beliefs of the Church of the Nazarene, which is a new church in Croatia. Although Sanja had been a committed Christian for many years, she felt that she was simply floating in her faith, without a firm foundation, and didn't know how to grow deeper than she had already grown. But what she was learning in the Bible study took her deeper while giving her a more firm foundation in her faith

Sanja joined the Scotts' church planting team, and is one of the leaders of The Valuing Life ministry, which the group created to meet once a month, giving women from Zagreb a place where they can share about their crafts and creations and sell them to others. As Croatia is struggling economically, and women don't always have work opportunities, Valuing Life allows them to showcase their creative work and also earn some income. It is also a time to discuss faith and get to know other women, whether they're Christian or non Christian.

When Sanja learned that there was the opportunity for her to study theology in a deeper and more focused way through two of our Nazarene educational institutions in Europe, she leapt at the chance to study. She took the evangelism intensive this week, which gave her many new ideas about how she could share her faith in more culturally appropriate ways for Croatia.

Dalia is completing her PhD in environmental management, and is passionate about science and creation and how this intersects with theology and Christian practice. She learned about the Nazarene Bible study from Sanja. Dalia had been feeling a deep need to understand God more and to grow deeper in her faith, so she felt the Bible study was the answer to her need.

Dalia has become captivated by Wesleyan theology, which is the source of the distinctive doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene, particularly the understanding of holiness in Christian living and relationship with God. She has read numerous books on Wesley and translated a booklet called Nazarene Essentials into Croatian. Dalia is very interested in pursuing a master's degree in theology.

Sanja and Dalia are part of the core team which is planting the Church of the Nazarene in Croatia. Dave and Betsy have been working there with a variety of volunteers for about five years, and after all the team's hard work in networking, developing relationships, and creating spaces for informal spiritual discussion, there is now the first Nazarene church in Zagreb -- a God-thing in a culture where Protestants make up less than 1 percent of the population.

Riding a double decker bus for the first time.

Selfies with Mexican food.

I had a great time showing the three women around Didsbury where we live. Andrew and I took Betsy to the Curry Mile for dinner and conversation one evening. On Thursday evening, I took all three on our standard double-decker buses (their first time to ride in a bus with a second level) into the city center for Mexican food (think Chipotle knock-off) and a bit of shopping.

These beautiful ladies are smart, ambitious, and loads of fun, and it brought some unexpected pleasure into the week to have them here and to be able to share our current home with new people and talk about how God has been working in all our lives.

Margin

Andrew and I both woke up this morning very stressed. We are both in deadline-driven work, with other requirements and commitments thrown in. Add that to being part of a non-profit ministry that is perpetually understaffed, you can feel like the whole world is riding on your shoulders.

The world is heavy.

Throughout the past six years of my work in a cross-cultural setting, the waves of stress have ebbed and flowed. I learned the hard way (through stress-related illness) early on, that God is not asking me to carry the whole world on my shoulders. That's His job. Yet, so often, I forget.

I forget when the news becomes a rapid-fire sequence of disasters, acts of violence and war updates that we need to report on without delay. I forget when I am happily flooded with story after story of God's redeeming work in broken lives, broken relationships and broken communities. I want to tell those stories RIGHT NOW, because I'm excited, and I want the whole world to know how great and wonderful is our God. And maybe I'm wanting to erase the bad taste of all those bad stories, too.

But there are only so many hours in a day.

I've lamented frequently that I even have to sleep. Or cook. Or clean. Why did God make it just a 24-hour day? Why not 36 or 48? Couldn't He send a housekeeper and cook and personal assistant to run my errands so I can keep on working?

I also pray that God would send more workers into the harvest to labor alongside me in this really exciting ministry of communications. And He is answering. People are turning up, ready and willing to help. It's great. And it's more encouraging to me than I can say. But we're still not there. There are more stories to tell than people to tell them, more deadlines to meet than hours in the day. More projects that need worked on. More meetings to be had. More proposals that need written. More budgets to be drawn up. More trips than space between them. More desktop to be cleared off, more emails to be answered and archived. More, more, more...

It's not just missionary life. It's simply life in the Western world, whether or not you're a missionary. If you're a stay-at-home mom, or a mom who balances child care with working outside the home; a husband working during the day and trying to finish a degree at night; or a retiree who suspects you're busier than when you had a full-time job; or a single woman working two jobs to make ends meet, to give just a few examples, chances are you know what I'm talking about. Maybe it's like this globally, now, I don't know.

Margins. As I texted a bit with my dad (retired Nazarene pastor) this morning, he reminded me of the principle of blocking out "margins" in one's life. This is the white area around the text in a book or document that gives your eyes space to "breathe." We need this in our lives, too: blocks of time in our daily schedule or weekly calendar when we have space in which we can just take a breath. Say a prayer. Think. Reflect. Be at peace.

I haven't had that for a while. Not everything in my calendar has been a demand. Sometimes it's been good things, like dinners with friends, or a weekly Bible study, or a day trip to explore some new area of where we live.

But it still hasn't left me any breathing room. Thus, we wake up to a beautifully sunny day arced over by a cobalt sky and just simply feel grumpy and irritable. What a waste of a rare sunny day in England.

Again, God is telling me that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He's not asking me to kill myself in His work. In fact, there is a major theme in the Bible of entering into God's rest. I dearly need that promise of His rest right now. I don't think He means sleeping in late or getting a solid 9-hour night of uninterrupted sleep (although I would happily accept either of those blessings). I think He means peacefulness, trust in Him in the midst of a storm, knowing that in the end it's all up to Him, not me.

I hope we can all enter into His rest today as we allow Him to help us draw out boundaries, or margins, in our lives and in our service to Him and others.

And if you want to pray for us (for Andrew's balancing of research, serving the college, preaching, etc., for more people to join me in the work), we won't turn that down, either.

War, peace and Hope

December 22 - 24, 1940, is known as the Christmas Blitz here in Manchester. For 17 hours, Nazi planes flew over the industrial city, dropping 443 bombs in commercial and residential areas alike, killing more than 650 people, many of whom were with family, having Christmas parties. More than 50,000 homes were destroyed -- just two days before Christmas (which seems especially cruel).

It must have seemed like the darkest, grimmest, most hopeless Christmas ever. So much for peace on earth.



The Imperial War Museum of the North today released this rare propaganda video of the destruction of Manchester, and how the city was beginning to defiantly rebuild: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/manchester-christmas-blitz-video-aftermath-10622423

I am reflecting this morning how strange it is for me, as an American, to have spent five years living in Germany, and now more than a year in England -- two fiercely opposed enemies who, just 70 years ago, slaughtered each other wholesale, one side to establish dominance over all of Europe; the other, to prevent that from happening. 

It's hard for me to comprehend, because we haven't seen all-out war on our own soil since the Civil War in the 1800s. We've had violence and terrorism, and the attack on Pearl Harbor. But not this kind of war. To stand in places in Germany, England, France, and even other nations in Europe, where major battles took place in modern times, is quite surreal.

St. Ann's Square, where I just explored a Christmas Market on Sunday.

Today, these nations live at relative peace together as part of the same European Union. They may snipe at one another in politics, but they are at peace. I dare to say they are even friends.

What a difference a few decades can make.

As I watched the footage in the above video, it was hard to imagine that where I live today, the second largest city in the UK, which is vibrant and busy and productive, was the scene of such carnage and destruction. I really don't recognize anything in the video. But the place names are familiar to me. I stroll regularly in the city center, particularly Piccadilly, and I've visited Manchester Cathedral. I can't even imagine walking among the smoking ruins of those places today.

Mancunians celebrating Christmas on the eve of the anniversary of the Christmas Blitz.

Probably inevitably, this video made me think of the pictures I've seen of Syria. Of major metropolitan areas that have been turned into skeletal, desolate ghost towns. I have thought more than once that no city could ever recover from such an onslaught.



Now, after viewing the destruction in the Manchester video, and comparing it to the lively place where I live today, I am seeing those ruined Syrian cities with a bit more hope. There is really only one Hope for such places.

Maybe someday, the war there really will end. Maybe peace really will come. Maybe people really will be able to bulldoze away the heaps of concrete and steel and start again. Maybe new, beautiful, vibrant cities really can spring up from the ashes.

Maybe. Someday.

 

All Is Well

By Michael W. Smith

All is well, all is well
Angels and men rejoice
For tonight darkness fell
Into the dawn of love's light
Sing A-le
Sing Alleluia

All is well, all is well
Let there be peace on earth
Christ is come; go and tell
That He is in the manger
Sing A-le
Sing Alleluia

All is well, all is well
Lift up your voice and sing
Born is now Emmanuel
Born is our Lord and Savior
Sing Alleluia
Sing Alleluia
All is well

Songwriters: SMITH, MICHAEL W. / KIRKPATRICK, WAYNE

© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

Love and fear

I have been to Paris. I have been to Beirut. I have been to Istanbul. I have shared German language classes with Syrian and Turkish immigrants. I have visited the tiny, unfurnished apartments of refugees from Syria. I have listened to stories of persecution, kidnapping and ultimately, flight.

After four all too brief trips to the Middle East (which of course makes me no expert) and living in Western Europe for nearly six years, I have fallen in love with people from some of the most war-ravaged parts of the world. I have had coffee, tea, breakfast, dinner and even spent the night at the home of new friends from a very different religion than mine. I prayed with one of them in the hospital.

The people of the Middle East and her refugees, not to mention my Christian brothers and sisters there, have become very dear to me. To tell the truth, they have changed my life, upset my worldview, washed the black and white of my politics to include a bit of grey.

I love them.

But as I reflect on yet another international political earthquake set off by terrorism that struck Beirut, Paris and Baghdad in the last week, I feel conflicted.

I am filled with compassion for my fellow humans -- Muslim, Christian and everything else in between -- who are suffering from shock, trauma, loss and mourning in Paris and across France, Lebanon and Iraq.

At the same time, I am also filled with fear -- fear for the future of Europe, the Middle East and the whole world, as Satan and his spiritual forces, in partnership with willing human agents, are bringing chaos, destruction, death, hate and darkness to my world of order, life, love, light and ordinary daily joy.

I am afraid of what the future holds for all of us. I am afraid of how sometimes hate begets hate, and acts of violence beget vengeance -- a snowball that seems to just build and grow rather than melt and dissipate.

I will admit that the fear I feel also extends to the swelling river of refugees -- most of whom are of another religion than mine -- who are flooding into Western Europe where I now live. How many of those running for their lives, trying to protect their families, fleeing war for peace, might be inadvertently trailing terrorists in their wake, wolves among sheep?

I have many questions. I had all those same questions earlier this summer. It would have been naive of all of us -- even then -- not to imagine the very scenarios that unfolded this week. But because of these events, those theoretical questions are now reality.

Will I allow my fear to overtake my love? Will I turn away from the people I fear -- now and in the future -- rather than reach out my hands in love?

A statement by Jesus in Matthew 10:16 has been hovering in my thoughts for many months. It seems especially pertinent now: "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

Here, Jesus acknowledges that we are peaceful, like sheep, and yet all around us there are wolves -- creatures that tear apart unwary and unprotected sheep with sharp teeth full of death. 

Jesus admits that HE SENDS US OUT AMONG THE WOLVES. He does not promise to remove us from the danger. We are sent directly into it.

Yet, in probably the only part of scripture that gives us a positive image of serpents, Jesus urges us to be shrewd, which means to be astute, sharp, discerning, aware. To keep our wits about us. At the same time, He calls us not to become cynical, but to remain innocent. Innocence is not the same thing as naivety. Naivety is akin to ignorance: to be unaware, blind. Innocence means to be pure, untainted by evil or immorality.

I find it interesting that both sheep and doves were common animals of sacrifice in the time before Jesus' ultimate sacrifice. Food for thought.

As Nazarenes across the Eurasia Region have been working among refugees from war-torn areas in the Middle East for more than five years, our people have been like sheep sent out among other sheep -- lost sheep in need of protection and compassion and care. Yet, it has always been true that perhaps hidden among these wandering flocks have been wolves. That is why our people have needed to be shrewd as snakes, to assess those who requested help, to ask thoughtful questions, to make repeated visits, sometimes unpredictably varying the times of their visits. In spite of these very real dangers, they have never stopped reaching out in love. Our church members have been innocent, but not naive. They have been pure, but not ignorant. 

They have loved, at risk to themselves. They have not allowed fear to swallow up their love.

I pray that our governments, militaries and law enforcement agencies across the West and the Middle East will have the resources, discernment, wisdom, cunning, collaboration and goodness to protect all innocent people from those who plan evil of all kinds, and to carry out godly justice by identifying, and fairly prosecuting and punishing those who break the laws of God and man.

While justice and protection of the peace is their calling, my calling as an individual follower of Christ is love -- a love that takes risks.

While both love and fear co-exist within me, I pray that love will far outshine my fear. I ask Jesus to grant me shrewdness, in tandem with innocence. But most of all, love.

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." 1 John 4:18

-- Gina

Fall 2015 update

Andrew and I returned from our two-month U.S. home assignment at the beginning of September. It was a SUPER BUSY summer, as we presented in churches every Sunday morning, a number of Sunday nights, and a variety of weeknights. But we had a wonderful time with all the churches and groups that we spent time with. We felt so encouraged and blessed by the positive and affirming comments, the gifts, the meals together, and the prayers for us and our ministry. Thank you so much for inviting us into your church families! We really look forward to staying in touch.

Since we've been back, we took a badly needed week-long vacation on the coast here in the U.K.

Then, Andrew started up his year-long job at Nazarene Theological College as the resident assistant, a supportive position serving students living on campus. He participated in a three-day emergency training last week, where he was certified in CPR and other emergency capabilities. He has also conducted several meetings with the students. He is revising his first chapter of his thesis in the area of church history, and has been asked to teach 3-4 classes this fall, one of them in Belfast and another in Glasgow.

I've been kept very busy with the growing refugee crisis here in Europe, as hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Middle East are entering countries in southeast Europe where we have missionaries and churches. Our people  instantly mobilized to deliver emergency aid to the refugees, and join other organizations and groups who are setting up shelters and providing assistance to those on their way to Germany and Austria. I've been trying to stay in contact with our people in order to write or coordinate communications with our regional and global church family about what is happening and how we can support our people on the ground in this rapidly changing situation.

Keep up with our reporting on our regional website, www.eurasiaregion.org, and our Facebook page, by searching "Church of the Nazarene Eurasia."

Next Sunday, I have the privilege of sharing my home assignment presentation with a church here in Manchester. They are facing the possibility that Middle East refugees will soon be locating to their community, and they want to understand the need and find out how our brothers and sisters in the Middle East have already been ministering to these hurting people displaced by civil war in Syria and Iraq.

In mid-October, I'll be flying to Chicago to spend a couple of days sharing with media and communications students at Olivet Nazarene University about how God can use their skills and passion to support and expand the work of our church globally, and here in the Eurasia Region. My hope is to be the catalyst for God to call young people to join our media and journalism efforts, especially in the Eurasia Region. We are badly in need of more people to help in this area. Please pray with me that God will call students at Olivet (and from anywhere else!), for now and in the future, to serve with our church in communications.

Afterward, I'll head to Colorado to submit my application for my next year's visa to live in the UK as a volunteer with NTC. While I'm waiting for my visa to be issued, I'll fly to the Eurasia Regional conference, where I'll meet up with Andrew, and spend 10 days coordinating a team of people who are joining me in doing communications work at the conference. I'm so thankful for these people who are helping me there.

When the conference is over in early November, I'll fly back to Colorado to pick up my visa and then return to Manchester just in time for our 9th wedding anniversary. :-)

It's going to be a very busy 5 weeks. I'm looking forward to all these great travels, and I'm also looking forward to mid November when my traveling is over for the year and we can just focus on the holidays and our life in the NTC community in Manchester.
 

On Home Assignment

We apologize that we have been MIA for a couple of months from our blog. This is because we are on what our church calls "home assignment." It used to be called "furlough" or "deputation." Basically, home assignment is when missionaries return to their home country, usually for 2-3 months, and they travel around wherever they are invited, visiting churches and groups to share about how God is at work in their ministry and in the country where they are working.

Home assignment is sometimes a very difficult time for missionaries because in many instances (including ours) we must keep up with our entire normal workload, while adding in visits to churches and long distance travel virtually every weekend. We meet up with anyone who asks, so we can have opportunities to start or continue relationships and partnerships and to share about our lives and how God is at work in His world through our church, as well as learning about how God is at work in your churches and communities.

We are particularly blessed because this year we are spending our two-month home assignment on our home district of Colorado, where both of our families live in the same city. This means that we can stay with my parents in their basement whenever we're in town, and that is very comfortable. We can also drive one of my parents' cars, since they are retired and it's not too disruptive for them that we have their car most of the time. And when we're done with work for the day we can enjoy meals with our families and relaxing time just talking and catching up.

We are also really excited that Colorado is our LINKS district. LINKS is an initiative that matches a missionary family to a district for two years, so that the churches on the district can really get to know the missionary family, that they can each pray for the other, and many times the districts will send gifts, packages, letters and cards. It's really fun for us to be able to visit many of the churches who have been caring for us in the past year, with fun letters and cards in the mail, newsy email greetings, care packages and gifts for anniversaries and birthdays. It adds something special to be able to meet everyone in person after we've been communicating in writing for about a year.

While home assignment can be very draining and tiring with all the travel, and trying to squeeze in time on the computer and Skype to keep up with projects, articles and publications for me, and time reading and writing for Andrew's PhD research so he can meet a September deadline, at the same time it is also very encouraging and energizing to spend time with our churches at home. We love hearing from people "I've been praying for you" or "We will be praying for you." We love whenever it's convenient for a church to plan a potluck or a dinner so that we can have time over a meal sharing informally and getting to know you. We have deeply appreciated the positive feedback after our presentation, as many of you have said you've been challenged by the stories from the Middle East, gained a new perspective on your own lives and faith, and felt moved to give financially or to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Middle East who are bravely continuing to minister to refugees in the midst of a time of instability and crisis. We've been humbled and blessed by the gifts given to support and continue our ministry in Eurasia.

The Colorado churches have been particularly thoughtful in asking about our comfort and needs while we are on the road, in taking special care regarding my food allergies whenever there is a meal provided, in giving us a very restful experience when we stay in your homes or in a hotel so we can have time alone together to re-energize and recharge for the next day's long drive. It was so fun to arrive in our hotel room last night and find a homemade snack basket with fresh banana bread, fruit and water and juice. What a nice and thoughtful touch! Another family sent us on our way a few weeks ago with locally grown plums and homemade banana bread, as well. And one church, who knew our love for good coffee, sent us out with a care package of locally roasted coffee beans, and travel coffee cups. These gifts symbolize a desire to know us and to support us in small ways that have big meaning!

We also really love to hear about your lives, how God has blessed you, how your churches are at work in innovative ways to meet the unique needs in each of your communities. We love to share our lives, but we love when you share yours with us, as well!

We have about 3 weeks left of our home assignment. We are starting to think about our friends and our life in Manchester. Yet we are still enjoying our time in our home country and culture, with new and old friends, and time with our parents and siblings and my brother's two children. We look forward to a few days in Texas. And then all too soon it will be time to say goodbye.

Thank you, Colorado, for being an AWESOME LINKS district, for sharing your lives and hearts with us and opening yourself up to our lives and hearts as well.

Survivors

I have now been back from Nepal for almost a week. As I sit in my small, but comfortable flat in the UK, with refrigerated food, in a city with working banks, public transportation, electricity, Internet and running water, as well as numerous shops selling anything I could want to eat, my thoughts return to the people I met in Nepal. The now homeless family who are sharing a tent with 75 others who are also homeless; a tent they built by removing the plastic sheeting over their greenhouse and repurposing it with items they had at hand -- rope, poles, and who knows what other tools they found.

I remember the other shelters I saw, constructed from sheets of metal tied to branches, pushed up against dirt embankments to steady them. In my mind I see the fields of ripening crops that they grow themselves, teaching each new generation how to plant seeds, nurture the tiny seedlings and harvest when the grain and vegetables are ready. I recall the streams of clear, mountain water channeled through carefully shaped rocks. I see the goats and the cows penned up in quickly constructed shelters to protect them from the hot sun.

I think about how in the midst of a disaster not of their own making, these people immediately found ways to survive.

I wonder to myself, if this massive earthquake had happened where I live, to us, how would we have made it?

I am clueless about growing my own food. Every time I try to nurture an herb, I kill it. My one attempt at growing potted tomatoes was an utter failure. I don't know how to milk an animal or find the eggs that a hen hides so cunningly. I can barely put up a flimsy camping tent, let alone salvage random objects from a mound of debris and construct a shelter. When I go camping, I leave the tent in the evening and eat at a restaurant before going back to the wilderness to sleep because I can't figure out how to cook on a camping stove. At my best, I can tighten a screw on my kitchen cabinets.


Basically, as a city dweller in the developed world, I would be helpless in a natural disaster. Utterly vulnerable. For all our electricity and internet and indoor plumbing, I wouldn't know the first thing to do to support myself if all the infrastructure and resources were suddenly gone.

To me, the Nepali people are like McGuyver.

In spite of what they don't have, and regardless of the trauma they might have been experiencing, they immediately did what they could to survive. The Nepali people didn't wait around for the government or foreign aid groups to come and do things for them. They pulled each other from the rubble, even if it took hours or days. They built temporary shelters for themselves and their animals. And when someone was hurt, the people of the village assisted or carried the injured person to the nearest hospital or clinic or mobile health center.

One Humedica doctor I talked to said she observed that the Nepali people take care of one another. I heard that from the family who told me they shared their rice with others in the village, even when thieves tried to steal what little they had left. And I heard that from the woman who said the village was sharing 10 bags of rice they'd bought together on credit from the nearest functional shop.

As people who live much closer to the land than we do, who have built their own houses with their own bare hands, and on a daily basis must solve problems with their own ingenuity using what they have, the Nepali people seem impressively resilient in the face of a catastrophe.

Not to say that they are just fine on their own and don't need -- or want -- help. The people I talked to were so grateful that the church would come to assist them in getting back on their feet.

Many of them lost their existing food supplies when their two- and three-story homes collapsed. One family told me they had taken nothing but boiled water for 10 days before our team arrived with emergency food.

Some lost livestock, which they depended on for milk and eggs and meat. A man told me that his house collapsed on his cow and chickens which were housed on the bottom floor.

And when the monsoon rains come soon, these inventive temporary shelters will not shield them. They need rain-proof structures, and fast.

The people of Nepal need, and want, help. With the right help, they will not only survive, but rebuild their lives and thrive once again.

If you would like to be part of the story in sending your support and love to the people of Nepal, consider a donation through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, at www.ncm.org/nepal.