The Invisible Humanitarian: January 2012

"When you begin to think outside the box, you often become some other "leaders" lousy follower. That usually costs something" (Andy Rayner)

"Our guardian angels are bored." (Mike Foster)

It's where I feel I'm at these days. “In the second half of life, it is good just to be a part of the general dance. We do not have to stand out, make defining moves, or be better than anyone else on the dance floor. Life is more participatory than assertive, and there is no need for strong or further self-definition” (Falling Upward. Richard Rohr.120).

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Lost

"Christendom has done away with Christianity without quite being aware of it." Soren Kierkegaard

AJR lost in a West African Journey.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Caging God!

Truth in Strange Places

"Well, I may not know much about God, but I have to say, we built a pretty nice cage for him ." - Homer Simpson after helping some island natives build a chapel.

Frustrated

"May all your expectations be frustrated. May all your plans be thwarted. May all of your desires be withered into nothingness. That you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit." - A blessing prayed over Henri Nouwen by a friend

Sacred Cow!

"You should realize that the Bible neither describes nor promotes the local church as we know it today. The local church many have come to cherish - the services, offices, programs, buildings, ceremonies - is neither biblical or unbiblical. It is abiblical - that is, such an organization is not addressed in the Bible." - George Barna in Revolution

Check in With God!

"Generally, what I find is that the ordinary people who come to church are basically running their lives on their own, utilizing 'the arm of the flesh' - their natural abilities - to negotiate their way," he says. "They believe there is a God and they need to check in with him. But they don't have any sense that he is an active agent in their lives. As a result, they don't become disciples of Jesus." - Dallas Willard in Christianity Today

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sahara Desert has "Flip Flop" Trees in Niger

I got this note from the Dias family doing some research in West Africa in 2011. While out in Niger, a new friends spoke with a man, the only believer among his people group way out in the desert, who tried to describe what life was like where he grew up.....

"If you stick your flip flop in the sand, toes toward the sky, it will be the tallest thing (other than people) for MILES!"

Anyone feel called to preach the Gospel out here in the desert???

Friday, January 20, 2012

Mali Village Move!

Living and working in Mali has its days. We love the people. Village life is not for everyone, especially in hot and rainy season.
Our drought season gardening NGO project is now going. Helping curb malnutrition in one of the poorest and lest developed countries on earth.

This is our village home made of mud bricks.

Three rooms inside.

This is our water well.

This is the view from our front door.

Location:RN7,Sikasso,Mali

Monday, January 2, 2012

Something Must Happen, But Nothing Should Change?

"Many have this mindset, `Something must happen, but nothing should change.' And in that, we like a little bit of renewal, and a little bit of cosmetic change here, or there. A little new program, a little bit of excitement. But please, not too much. Please God, do not disturb the church too much.

But what is happening is God does not ask permission from people who asked these kinds of questions. He is doing it anyway."

Wolfgang Simpson Starfish Series video...

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Loving people.... "Not Like You"

Our problem is our definition of Neighbor..... When Jesus talked of Neighbors he was taking about a Jew loving a Samaritan. We have defined Neighbor, in America, as someone like us in our Neighborhood. (Eastern people hear it loud and clear that Jesus means people not like you) But when Jesus told that story..... it was someone you would actually hate, someone you would not want to be around....... you wouldn't want your son or daughter to marry them.
You want to know the genius and brilliance of the church, when it becomes the most luminous, and the brightest,. It is when you can love someone not like you. Is it any big deal when you have a church filled with people like you The world doesn't take notice. But they take notice when a Mother Teresa will give her whole life and love dieing people in India. The world takes notice when a Nelson Mandela has been imprisoned for thirty years on Robins island, in a small cell, moving rocks from one side to the other, the same rocks. But then he says we need to forgive, Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said Love God Love your neighbor. Love someone not like you." David Gibbons

J. R.R. Tolkien - Peace is Never Free

"………….. and there in that pleasant corner of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it."

J. R.R. Tolkien "The Fellowship of the Ring" , 1985, George & Allen & Urwin Pub LTD(Page 22-23 prologue)

Who Is This Dude?

West African humanitarian NGO - Canadian commercial fishing Captain (Yep with his own boat -SCARY). Who writes too much, too poorly, over analyzes human religious behavior (NOT ACCEPTABLE), probably loves Africa WAY too much, outgrew the church container and is finally living free from the busy western paradigm of "program driven" attractional institutional church management (You've got to be bitter, angry or hurt! NOPE!), But is still a Christian, active in service, and is part of a "church" family- just not one that looks like yours with an address, parking lot and shingle out front, is all (That's a bit crazy and REALLY Suspicious). Who keeps pointing to Jesus (Come on, there's got to be more to it than that), as no one needs to see me, just him. LOVES being lost in a conversation, a book, at sea, in the bush of West Africa, and especially on a motorcycle (I knew it - you're a freaking HIPPIE). Is happy knee deep in fish and friendship. Have an AMAZING WOMAN walking with me. "Every foreign land is to them as their native country and every country of their birth as a land of strangers." Diognetus

Challenging Life's Platitudes and Seeking Perspective!

"I have walked that long road to freedom. .....I have taken a moment here to rest........But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended." Nelson Mandela. “Long Walk to Freedom”, p625, 1994, Little, Brown & company.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime." - Mark Twain

"What is the point of all of this? To destroy a man who seeks the truth or to destroy the truth so no man can seek it. Either way, you loose"
Agent Rheas, X Files , "The Truth" Season 9, Episode 19, 20, 2003, Time 53.25

"Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid God might ask me the same question." Amy Campbell

"One meets his destiny often on the road he takes to avoid it." French Proverb

"When you pray, move your feet." African Proverb

"Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home." Jesus Luke 16:9

“Be afraid to die until you have won some small victory for humanity.” --Horace Mann

After the Genocide of 800.000 in Rwanda “………following my return from Rwanda, a Canadian Forces padre asked me how, after all I had seen and experienced, I could still believe in God. I answered that I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know there is a God."...... (LGen Romeo Dallaire “Shake hands with the Devil” pg xviii, 2003, Randon House Canada.)

Be Change Agents!

“Be afraid to die until you have won some small victory for humanity.” Horace Mann

"Privilege is being born on third base and thinking you hit a triple.” Ann Richards

“Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?” Robert F. Kennedy

“The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference.” Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Crisis is opportunity riding a dangerous wind.” Chinese proverb

“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” Mother Theresa

“To do good, you actually have to DO something.” Yvon Chouinard

“Every day is a new chance to choose.” Ishita Gupta

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.” Mother Theresa

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing, than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance” e.e. cummings

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela

The Invisible Humanitarian