Thank you for your support

My mom told me a really astonishing story while I've been home in Colorado waiting on my new visa for the UK. She has always been involved in our local churches' support for our denomination's mission endeavors. Part of her work for decades has been to encourage local church members to partner with God in His mission to the world through sacrificial offerings that are pooled with other local churches globally to expand the mission. Much of these offerings go to support missionaries so they can focus more time and energy on actually doing the work and less on fundraising.

My mom said that she recently recalled a time, more than 30 years ago, when she promoted this offering at a district gathering. She told them: "My hope is that someday, if my daughter were to hear God calling her to international missions, that this fund will be there to support her so she can obey God's call and go. I want to know that our church will be there to support her in her ministry."

Mom couldn't have known then that I would indeed be drawn toward cross-cultural ministry off and on throughout my life, and that God would eventually send Andrew and me to cultures outside our own for the past 7 years.

We are so grateful to be part of a church that believes so much in God's mission to reach the world with his transformative love that this same church has made it possible for us to answer God's call. We are grateful that we can spend so much more of our time in ministry than we could if we went independently and needed to raise ALL of our support each year. We are grateful for a church that raises funds specifically for our health care.

We are grateful for a church that believes in us, prays for us, and continually shows us its love in many more intangible ways.

Thank you for your faithfulness in supporting God's mission, and missionaries and workers like Andrew and me.

Meeting refugees

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Andrew and I had the privilege to meet two young men who are asylum seekers in the United Kingdom. Many people fleeing war and violence, or religious persecution and threats against their lives, have left their countries in the Middle East and parts of Africa to seek safety in the United Kingdom.

As a result of complex laws here concerning asylum seekers, some of these people are legally prevented from working or even having a permanent address. Thus there are hundreds of homeless refugees in Manchester who live on the streets while waiting for their cases to proceed through the quagmire of the legal system. In many cases, they wait years.

At our local Nazarene church there are a number of these asylum seekers who come every Sunday and have become part of our church family. Some are Christian and some are still members of other faiths, but enjoy the warm, welcoming atmosphere of our worship services, and being able to have relationships with people who care about them.

Sunday we met two asylum seekers, homeless men from the Middle East, who are still part of another faith, but are attracted to the love and care they have found among us. It was their second Sunday. One of the men has actually been an asylum seeker for 8 years. I'm not sure about the other. In spite of their difficult situation, they are both cheerful, friendly and positive, and we enjoyed laughing and talking around a meal together.

Our local church is part of a network of churches in Manchester that partner with Boaz Trust, an organization that provides food and shelter for these homeless asylum seekers. Every night of the week a different church opens its doors so the men can sleep inside the building where it is dry and warm. The church members provide a hot meal, and volunteers eat with the men and spend the evening with them, also sleeping in the building overnight for security and companionship.

Besides these two men, there are other asylum seekers in our church who have fared better. One woman from Zimbabwe shares an apartment with another woman and rides the bus to church every week. She is a sweet older lady who loves to worship God and is thankful for how He has provided for her needs in spite of her being forced to leave her country and family to live in a foreign land. Another young man came to the UK to study, but encountered Christ through members of our church while he was here. After he decided to follow Christ, too, his family back home threatened his life and he could not return. He had to file for religious asylum seeker status with the UK government, and has been proceeding through the complicated legal system to gain permanent residency here. Thankfully he has gotten far enough that he has been granted permission to have a job, to drive and to have a home. He is growing deeply in his faith and was recently elected to our church board.

For us, refugees are not faceless, nameless groups suffering far away. They are in our city and we meet them face to face and hear their stories. Allowing refugees into one's country is a complicated issue with many different perspectives, with uncertainties and risk. However, we believe that when we encounter refugees among us, whether or not they are Christian, God calls His people to love them and come alongside them. Through these interactions, many refugees are actually deciding to follow Christ, too.

We heard in church on Sunday that 300 refugees who have been living in the "jungle" camp in Calais, France, just across the English Channel, are being accepted into the UK and will be resettled in Stockport, a community just 10-15 minutes from the college. Many of these refugees are teenagers who traveled alone to Europe or somewhere along the way became separated from their families.

Please pray for these new refugees, for the many asylum seekers still living on the streets as they wait for the government to review their cases, and for the millions of displaced people this winter, as cold temperatures descend and families and individuals face the daily desperate search for the means to survive until the next day. Pray that God protects them from trafficking and new forms of violence. Ask God to help them encounter Christians who will show them true love and journey with them in their suffering.

About 50 people from across Eurasia met for a refugee conference in October, in Greece, to learn how our church can come alongside refugees at every point in their journey and serve them in the love of God. Read the story in our November newsletter: www.eurasiaregion.org/where-worlds-meet-november-2016

Critical thinking when listening to the news media

Note: I recently posted an edited version of the below on my Facebook feed, and a lot of people said it was really helpful, so I am reposting it here on our blog so that it can be shared more widely.

Many Christians are concerned with social justice, but seem to have a serious blind spot where the news media is concerned. Yet, the news shapes our awareness and understanding (or lack thereof) and attitudes toward many serious issues, and our trust or lack thereof in our world leaders.

If power corrupts, consider the massive power (and money) that the media hold and ask yourself why we don't consider that members of the media can be corrupted or pressured or manipulated, or, being that journalists are as human as the rest of us, at least mess up sometimes.

While one part of me this year was watching U.S. news shows which repeatedly stated that the refugees coming out of the Middle East were all "single young men of fighting age," another part of me was listening to people I know personally working in refugee camps who said that most people they met were families, the elderly, or women with children. Any single men they met said they were going ahead of family to secure refugee status and housing in safe places so they could bring vulnerable family members to join them later. For many people who didn't know someone working in the camps, what they heard in the U.S. media would have wholly shaped their understanding of the refugee situation in a way that I believe did not reflect the complete reality.

One day I watched a morning BBC news program here in the UK for several hours, and at least 5 different times in the span of the program, a single 5-second clip of Donald Trump was played in which he said something that sounded alarmingly extreme. But never then or anytime since have I seen, when casually watching BBC like most people, any reporting on the serious corruption and injustice charges and alleged criminal actions plaguing his presidential candidate opponent Hillary Clinton.

While it is certainly right for the first clip to be shared (although I would argue a longer clip would be more helpful), it is against journalistic ethics regarding balanced reporting for similarly alarming information about the opponent to be ignored in the same broadcasts. In doing so, they deliberately or inadvertently shape public opinion in the UK about the US candidates.
 
These are just two of many examples I can point to where sometimes what is reported in the media -- or not reported -- causes me to question whether I can trust those who claim to be objectively reporting the news.

Having served as a reporter at two different newspapers myself, I know firsthand how easy it is for us imperfect humans to make mistakes or even be coerced or convinced to omit some information while highlighting others in an unfair way.

As Christians, it's important that we use our God-given critical thinking when we consume news media so we are not deceived or uninformed. Yet, I don't think many of us realize we need to. Busy people put a lot of unwarranted trust in what they hear in news broadcasts, and don't spend time following up with more reading and research. We run the danger of being complicit in social injustices.

In my view, the media perpetrate some of the great social injustices (while also successfully battling others, so it's a complex issue), by:

1. failing to make the public aware of countless great injustices occurring around the world on a daily or weekly basis (when you regularly spend time with people from around the world and they inform you of things happening in their country THAT WEEK or over many years and you realize you have never heard a thing about it, you recognize the media have seriously failed);

2. disrespecting the intellectual capacity and critical thinking of the public by presenting complex and multi-layered controversial issues as overly simplified with only one or two possible viewpoints, reinforced by featuring the most extreme views in interviews and soundbites, robbing viewers of the opportunity to employ critical thinking and to recognize there are many different possible views on an issue, not just one or two, many of them more moderate or reasonable than those that have been presented (i.e. the recent Brexit vote in the UK;)

3. exaggerating issues in order to whip up public frenzy and manipulate opinions and reactions to the news, which directly translates into increased ratings, which means more advertising, which means more money;

4. allowing themselves to be pressured by powerful forces (i.e. advertisers, politicians, mobs, corporate owners) to leave out key facts and information the public need to understand the news, ignoring important stories about corruption, injustice, slavery, abuse of power, war and many other wrongs in our world (read CBS reporter Sharyl Atkisson's book for more on how this happens);

5. being complicit in slander and character assassination, destroying reputations in order to achieve certain ends such as increased access to certain groups or individuals, to boost ratings or revenue and to mislead the public about certain public figures due to editorial bias.

To be a responsible Christian member of the public and to fight social injustice effectively (and to avoid participating in injustice), one should never take all the information presented in the media at face value, but employ critical thinking and investigate the stories and issues for oneself by examining various different opinions and sources for information.

Ask yourself:
1. What is the possible agenda behind the way this news was reported?
2. What have they not told me that could possibly change the way I feel or view this?
3. Is this issue more nuanced and with more angles than the media have led me to believe?
4. What stories have not made it into my local or national media today that are important and I need to know about?
5. Who might have been hurt by this story or by the lack of reporting of a story?
6. If you have noticed that the media has spent a lot of time reporting and analyzing a situation or current event, then suddenly stops, pay attention and ask yourself why. Has the political leadership changed? Does silence on this matter benefit anyone?

This is not a "hate media" rant, as I have been a member of the media, some of my best friends are journalists, and I know that journalists are human and many do their best and many times simply make mistakes despite their best efforts (I made my fair share). However, I also have seen the many times the media have not only failed to examine injustices, but have also perpetrated injustices through unconscious bias, sloppy and lazy or deliberate actions. This is simply an appeal to think for yourself where the news is concerned and question what you hear.

Employ your own critical thinking, and don't just accept what you hear or read as the whole story and the only stories worth your attention. Watch many different news stations. Read many different newspapers and websites. Don't participate in injustice by being deceived or misled or uninformed. Speak out when the media ignore injustices -- or perpetrate them. Write polite letters/emails. Make polite phone calls.

It's not just politicians who need to be held to account.

'Hermits United' in Edinburgh

As part of my doctoral program, I am strongly encouraged to participate in a 'community of scholars' directly engaged in my particular field of study. Not only does this present an important opportunity for professional networking, but also contributes to a healthy balance in the otherwise rather isolated life of a full-time scholar.

'Hermits United', though, would be a good way of describing it. This week, I attended the Ecclesiastical History Society conference on 'Church and Empire' in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a highly enjoyable time of meeting other scholars studying various aspects of Christian history. I presented a paper that formed part of a recent chapter in my thesis, and got a positive response from the eighteen or so experts and research students in the room. Timothy Barnes, whom I consider the top person in the field of study related to the Roman emperor Constantine, sat in as a guest and listened to my presentation. I had earlier learned that, although retired, he held an honorary professorship at the University of Edinburgh, so I leapt at the opportunity to invite him to hear my presentation. Meeting someone whose work I admire a great deal was easily the highlight for me.

I also unexpectedly had the opportunity to represent and explain the Church of the Nazarene to several others attending the conference. I had the pleasure of seeing a couple guys I had connected with earlier this year in Cambridge: one of them an Anglican priest, and the other an atheist studying Welsh poetry who is nevertheless friendly toward Christianity. I also met a Roman Catholic priest from Washington, DC, an evangelical youth-worker from Australia, and a pair of Russian Orthodox scholars, an Italian from Milan who is doing a Ph.D. in a second language at the University of Nottingham, and a self-described 'radical political theologian' whose worldview, except for our shared Christian faith, is almost completely different than my own. Finally, I met another high-calibre historian of late antiquity, Gillian Clark, whose grandmotherly demeanor and smooth aristocratic accent immediately won my heart.

I intended to advertise myself as connected with the University of Manchester, thinking it quite likely no one knew or cared about Nazarene Theological College. However, my name-tag said 'Nazarene Theological College' anyway. It was actually quite the conversation starter! Quite a number of people -- including the above individuals -- asked about the college and the Church of the Nazarene. Most had already heard either of the college or the denomination, and had very positive things to say. This was also a top highlight, explaining briefly and simply our denomination's 'place' in the body of Christ as related to our history and our emphasis on holiness.

Our travels often present us with opportunities to explain some aspect of our faith to people we happen to meet. In the UK, it is most often our American accents that start conversations: 'You're not from around here, are you?' is often followed by 'What are you doing in the UK?' We go on to explain her job, my research, and the church connection immediately gets inserted with those. People are almost always interested in hearing a bit more. Gina also had a similar conversation with the young lady who hosted us in her home for the week: she's a rather talented visual and performance artist, and has a general interest in and respect for all religions but self-identifies with none in particular. These personal conversations do not immediately result in any conversions: however, we do believe that, in such moments, we are part of perhaps a long 'chain' of people in someone's life through whom God reveals his love to people. We believe that if someone is having a positive interaction with us on any subject relating to Christ, the chances are high that their hearts will be drawn closer to him in the process.

Many of these people we have met, we may never see again. But we crossed paths once. We pray we will be able to do so again in God's kingdom.

Squirrel War of 2016

While other friends were relocating to Africa as missionaries, where they would post photos on social media of monkeys or other undomesticated creatures that managed to sneak inside their homes, we didn't think we had to worry about such things when we moved to England.

We were wrong.

The squirrels in Didsbury are quite aggressive. We have been told they're actually American grey squirrels that somehow got to England, bred out of control and dominated the native red squirrels to near extinction.

Anyway, we have a top floor, one-room studio apartment on the campus of Nazarene Theological College. We're actually in the undergraduate dormitory, where Andrew serves as the resident assistant for all the students living on campus. When we first arrived, there were warning signs posted throughout the building about invasive squirrels. We thought it was a joke.

Each summer we battle the invasions of the squirrels, competing with us for the food in our own kitchen. I feel truly sorry for those little red squirrels.

In Europe, most residents do not have screens on their windows. If it's hot or you want fresh air, you open your window wide and there's nothing standing between you and whatever is out there, waiting to come in. My biggest concerns is usually about mosquitoes and spiders. There have been few of those. But the squirrels are another thing entirely.

If we open our windows in the summer, because it can get pretty stifling on the top floor on a warm, sunny day, these cunning critters will just come right in. Sometimes they poke their head through to watch and see what we're doing. Once I was exercising vigorously to a video on my computer just a couple of feet from the window and a squirrel peered in and watched me, and even tentatively started putting its paws inside the frame as if testing the boundaries to see what I would do. If we're not looking or we happen to leave for a few minutes, or even go into the bathroom and the squirrels think we're not there, they waltz right in and start finding treats and then hiding them in other places in our flat.

Just last week, we had already been raided 3 times when we accidentally left a window open while we were out. But we thought that it would be OK to have them open overnight to make it more comfortable for sleeping.

At 6:15 a.m., we were violently started awake by a loud noise. We bolted upright and looked around, but could see nothing that had tipped over or was out of place. So, we tried to go back to sleep for a little while longer. Then, Andrew heard something and looked over to see a squirrel standing on our kitchen table. He leaped up to shoo it away, but in the blink of an eye, it had vanished. We looked around for a while, and then finally peered behind a large piece of furniture and saw a bushy tail in the shadows. We opened a kitchen window and then moved the furniture to prompt the squirrel out. The squirrel leaped on the table again and then jumped out the window.

Other incidents involve squirrels finding my hidden bag of chocolate under my side of the bed and hiding truffles and other pieces of chocolate around our apartment, I guess to come back and get later. I've found an unwrapped truffle underneath my laundry basket, a small chocolate bar inside a shoe, and strangest, a truffle tucked underneath the corner of the fitted sheet on our bed when I changed the sheets. They also like to eat hamburger buns.

I did try to put up mosquito netting on one window to see what would happen. The squirrel pushed right through it to raid our kitchen once again while Andrew was blissfully unaware, studying on the bed with headphones in, listening to his music. I came back to find crumbs all over the kitchen floor.

Cheeky!

Suffice it to say, this is an unexpected aspect of "missionary life" in England.

The Lamb

Animal sacrifice is all through the Bible. It was the practice laid out by God for His people in the Old Testament to atone for their sins and seek God's forgiveness. For people whose livelihood depended on raising livestock for food, milk, offspring, pelts, etc., to give up one of their animals for this ritual -- in fact, the most perfect ones -- was really a sacrifice for them in terms of losing all that the animal provided them to live. It wasn't just a symbolic act.

Yet, when Jesus came -- God Himself in the form of a man -- and walked among us, He made the ultimate sacrifice of His very life for us so that never again would humankind need to kill animals to repent of our sins. Jesus' sacrifice was for all of us, for all time.  That is why throughout the New Testament, He is often referred to as The Lamb.

For those of us in the West who mostly eat meat that we've purchased pre-cut and packaged at a grocery store, it's hard to understand what it really means that we consume living creatures for our own well-being.

In this culture, it is still a common practice at special occasions for someone to give up one of his lambs for a family or village feast. Often the men will gather around the animal and pray over it before the slaughter. All are expected to stand and watch the moment of the animal's death, in respect for its sacrifice. Then, the men and women participate in skinning the animal, removing its organs and cooking the meat slowly for several hours in a wood-fired covered bowl or pit. When it is finished, everyone sits on the floor and eats the meat and broth mixed with rice, along with other special foods.

The eldest or most honored man takes the head of the lamb and removes parts of the head and gifts them to people, explaining how this part of the animal symbolizes a character trait and wishing for that person to experience this trait. For instance, if the man gives the ear to a boy, he might say that he wishes the boy to have good ears to hear the wisdom of others and to learn and grow from this wisdom. Or if he gives the lip of the lamb to a young woman, he might say that he wishes all her words to be gentle and kind.

"Anna", the national leader of our people in this country, explained to me that many people here believe that Jesus is an American or a Russian god. They view our faith as something foreign that doesn't belong in their culture and traditions. So, Anna has found ways to see the Christian meanings within her people's cultural practices, and to incorporate those cultural practices into the life of the believers. The feast of the lamb is one of those practices.

Our team had the honor to witness this sacrifice of the lamb and to spend time with other believers during a feast ceremony here in Central Asia this week. It was interesting to see how the group related the slaughter of the animal to the death of Jesus for our sins, and used the feast as an opportunity to celebrate and remember what Jesus has done for us. It was also interesting to see how they related the gifting of the parts of the head in terms of fruits of the Spirit that they wished for the young people and children present.

Although it was hard to witness the death of a living animal, our group felt incredibly honored and privileged that the believers here would share their cultural practice with us, and that together, although we speak different languages, we could all celebrate the sacrifice of the Lamb and the freedom we now know in Jesus.

Report from Central Asia

Greetings from Central Asia!

I am about halfway through a two-week media mission trip with four Olivet Nazarene University media students, on a story-gathering trip in two neighboring countries.

The trip is partially the result of my visit to Olivet last fall, when I was given the opportunity to speak in four different communications classes about how to use journalism, PR and media in missions. Heather Attig McLaughlin, who grew up in the youth group at church with my husband Andrew, is a professor in media there now. She had previously wanted to put together a mission trip to the Eurasia Region, so we talked about that before I visited the school. Missionary Scott Rainey, who leads the CIS Field, of which Central Asia District is a part, asked if we would come to these two countries to gather video and written testimonies, to encourage the believers and also lead a young adult media camp. His idea was that we could teach young adults how to use their smart phones to film and edit short videos that they could use to share their faith with their friends. It was the perfect idea for this small team! Also joining us are Nancy, a leader from Olivet, and Natasha, a Ukrainian who is serving as our tranlastor.

We spent the first four days in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, where we have a church. We filmed two testimonies, and I also interviewed two additional people for written articles. We also have done a lot of videography for our archives for future videos, and photography.

It’s been a great experience so far. The church people were amazing in hosting us. They put us in a very good hostel and two women from the church prepared our meals each day. They were delicious and allowed us to try a very different kind of Russian-influenced cuisine from what we are used to. Nick, a member of the worship team at church, who is also a freelance media professional, hung out with us each day, showed us around the city, took us out for late night shooting, taught us Russian words, and explained the culture and what it is like to be a Christian in Kazakhstan. We have learned a lot!

The students have great attitudes, have been incredibly flexible, and know what they’re doing with videography. I can’t wait to see how these finished videos turn out! They even edited together a one-minute preview of Nick’s story, which we were asked to share in church on Sunday morning. It was fun to see a bit of what the students have learned in their program at Olivet.

We also enjoyed being part of worship with our brothers and sisters on Sunday morning. It was a small but faithful group.

We have learned that in Kazakhstan there have traditionally been three ethnic or “national” groups – Korean ancestry, Russian ancestry and native Kazakhs. In this culture, your ethnicity determines your religion. If you are Korean, you might be Protestant Christian. Russians are Orthodox Christian if they are religious. Kazakhs are nominally Muslim. It is not acceptable to change your religion. It is also illegal to proselytize, particularly if you’re Christian.

Astana is a beautiful, new, clean city with a lot of advanced technology and beautiful, creative architecture. The capital was established just 20 years ago, so all the buildings are brand new, funded by revenue for the sale of oil. It is one of the world’s few planned cities. The population is about 1 million.

Monday, we flew from Astana to another country on the district. We will move around a bit here, traveling to a couple locations to spend time with Nazarene believers and hear their stories. We have gotten to hear a bit from Scott about their backgrounds and how God has worked in their lives. I can’t wait to hear the full stories with all the details! We’ll also worship with them on Sunday, and run the two-day media camp here. The Olivet students have already prepared training materials and a sample video so they can teach them what they have been learning at university, using their smart phones.

I am really grateful for all those who have been praying for us. Several team members have had slight stomach or sinus problems, but overall everyone has been healthy, despite a continuing lack of sleep as we have kept tight schedules with late nights or early mornings. We have had smooth travels and all our equipment has worked flawlessly, and we’ve had good group cohesion and unity with lots of laughter and fun conversation.