escapingbabylon.com

So sadly, this update contains my first (and hopefully my only) missed day of project 365. I’m still going to continue though. So here are my photos, and I’ll talk about Breakaway too. As usual, click the pictures to enlarge and then click on the little icon to go to it’s Flickr page. Or you can follow my Project365 set on Flickr

So I’ve been meaning to do a year in review post, and even though it’s almost a month into 2009, I should still talk about 2008. And, as Chris requested, I should talk about seminary.

Truth be told, I’d probably be talking about Seminary anyway, it was a pretty huge life change for me that was a very long buildup to a very rapid change. It’s a story that spans several years, so I might as well settle down to tell  you about it.

Why Seminary

The short answer is that I wanted to learn how to do ministry better.

I did my undergrad at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN. Macalester is known for many things, and among those things is a culture of activism and community service. Something it is less known for is the amazing community of Christians that gather as a chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship there. On the surface, this seeems like a strange statement to make seeing as during my time there Macalester became ranked as the #1 school where students ignore God. But that ranking, did not reflect the depth or strength of the Christian community there, a community I was deeply involved in.

At the same time, the community service office there had a program where one can earn the work-study part of your financial aid by working with local non-profit organizations. Through this program I worked for three out of my four years at Admission Possible (a time that deserves an entry of it’s own). It was sometime in my Junior or Senior year that I realized how important working towards making the world a better place  was to me.

Fast forward a couple of years, I’m working in a tech company that works specifically with non-profits, volunteering with InterVarsity and heavily involved in my church. One evening I was hanging out at Mac and listening to my roommate at the time talking about a particular tech problem he was trying to figure out. Now if you know my former roommate, he’s someone who is called to be a computer geek. So I listen to him and realize that while I enjoyed computers, I’ll never talk about coding the way he does. Instead I recognized that sort of passion when I talked about the small group I was leading at Macalester, or the 3rd and 4th graders I was teaching at Pilgrim.  That was the turning point that got me on the road to seminary.

Patrick Awuah on educating leaders | Video on TED.com.

One of the reasons, from a ministry perspective, why I think the work that we’re doing on campus is so important is that these are the students who will determine what the world looks like over the next 20, 30 or 50 years. It is important for our world that students graduate committed to serving humanity, to impeccable integrity and, although this is not what Patrick Awuah talks about, to serving God.

I think that Awuah is on the right path, and I wish that more schools in Jamaica would follow his lead.

Stuffed Kermit Toy

I just gave a mini-talk on the vision of our InterVarsity chapter, and I was able to use a Muppet Babies stuffed toy to introduce it.

I’m a huge fan of the Jim Henson company, muppets and Kermit so it was fun to do. Here’s the quote that I used

Yeah, well, I’ve got a dream too. But it’s about singing and dancing and making people happy. That’s the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with. And, well, I’ve found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream. And it kind of makes us like a family.

-Kermit

I keep remembering why I do this every time I step in front of the students. This dream of people reconciled to God and a world living in shalom is the kind of dream that gets better the more people I share it with. That’s why I keep writing these posts, and why I keep doing the ministry thing.

Edit: For more Kermit shenanigans, check out this link: Kermit Bale

In a couple of weeks, I will effectively have survived year two with InterVarsity at Hamline. As I’m sure some of the related links will tell you, I’ve posted my belief that year two of any ministry is often particularly hard, and that there are things that I have definitely transitioned myself out of after two years. Well, I’m about to finish my 2nd year with InterVarsity being the closest thing to full time staff that my visa status allows and I feel great.

This is not to say that there hasn’t been problems, nor is it to say that it hasn’t been a bumpy ride. All I’m saying right now is that it’s the end of year two, and I want to go on to Year 3. Bring it on!

At some point soon, I’ll write a more in depth review of my time with InterVarsity, but for now I just wanted to revel in the approaching milestone.

This past Halloween, Hamline University was shook up by a group of students from the football team assisted by certain members of its student government who had decided that it would be a good idea to dress in black spandex tights, faces painted black, grass skirts and fake bones and attend a party.

If you think that the description of the costumes sounds like blackface, you would be right. It looks a lot like blackface as well.

Apparently it was not intended to be dressing up in blackface, the students say that they meant to dress up as the tribespeople in King Kong (more on that later).

This raises a couple of issues in my mind, but first I must confess. I have to confess that my first reaction is anger. My first reaction is to almost take it personally, that the actions of these students are at worst malicious towards me and others of African descent, or at best completely callous towards the past injustices done towards those of African descent, and to current social and relational wounds in the United States between people of different ethnicities.

And there are wounds. One of the things that can be hard to grasp is the fact that past group sins still have repercussions in individual lives. The sins of the father are visited upon his children. By dressing up in what looks like blackface, these students reopen the wounds. The president of the black student group at Hamline asked the question “Is this what you think of us?” I cannot speak for her, but I suspect that underneath that question is encapsulated several other questions.

“I thought that we at Hamline were trying to heal those wounds, is that a lie?”

“In the past, those who endorsed blackface actively sought to deny African Americans their rights, now that you’ve worn blackface, how can I trust you to ensure my rights?”

“Blackface is part of a history of discrimination and violence against African Americans, am I safe around you?”

“You know that blackface is offensive to me, are you trying to offend me or is it that you just don’t care?”

“Your words say that you respect me, by dressing up as you did, your actions say that you think my ethnicity is one of savages and one to be made fun of. Which can I believe? Can I trust you?”

I will admit that it is possible that the students who dressed up never meant to imply hate, never meant to break trust, never meant to make other students feel threatened, but it has happened, and it has caused a gaping relational wound on campus. That wound needs to be addressed. I think I may talk a little bit more about how this wound should be addressed, but my thought runs possibly towards my look at Philemon from a while back (use the search feature, or it may show up in the related searches). In short, we need an appeal to both justice and mercy for reconciliation to happen here. What that looks like is another question

So September, thus far, has been insane to the highest degree, and I’m glad I finally get a little time to breathe. I have to write a newsletter (and maybe post the one I wrote at the end of the summer too) but here are some of the highlights.

1. A New Student Outreach that involved us extending our borders:-
   Thus far we’ve had a barbecue, we’ve partnered with another org (we provided Ice Cream for their root beer), and we’ve had a Video game party. I think in most of these events, InterVarsity students were outnumbered about 3 to 1. I’ve gotten some new insight on Hamline too from the Video game party that may be useful.
2. We are launching three non-”Core Leadership” small group bible studies and a small-group bible study for our student Core Leadership Team .
3. There are some very interesting opportunities for growing our ministry emerging. I’m very excited about them and am looking forward to seeing how they develop.

It’s been really great, and really tiring as I adjust to being the point staff at Hamline for logistics and organizing and the like. I’m still growing into my role, there are some things that went well, and some things that I can see that I may have misjudged. I do love my student leaders though. They have been very resourceful and very willing to stretch themselves, even in those cases where I haven’t provided enough/timely support.

I’m glad for a mini-breather this weekend. I may attempt to purchase (or to arrange for the purchase of) some furniture this weekend. Or I may just hang out in a local coffee shop. I honestly don’t know, and sort of like it that way.

I realize I haven’t posted in a while, but it’s been a mind-draining month. I’m going to try to post something more soon(if people have ideas for topics/posts, let me know).

Anyway, I just got word that my rental application was approved, which means I will be moving to a new apartment within spitting distance of Hamline (for those who know the area, it’s the second apartment building behind Ginko’s) soon.

It’s partially a ministry decision, I wanted to have a place close to campus where students could show up at my apartment pretty easily if necessary, and someplace that I could easily host stuff/people.

There are a lot of other thoughts that go along with that, mostly around moving into an apartment by myself, but we’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, if anyone has thoughts, questions or suggestions on where to get cool cheap furniture (besides ikea) that’s good for hospitality, let me know.

What’s the InterVarsity (or other para church ministry targeted at college students) equivalent of meeting at a bar?

Is there a physical place on campuses in general (or on a particular campus that you know of) where we could meet that is like a bar in three specific ways :-

1. It’s a community gathering place
2. It’s a place where Christianity usually isn’t
3. We will be able to serve the community and its culture instead of going in there to try to “civilize” them.

I don’t know if anyone will understand this. But earlier this week, I got a call from the InterVarsity regional office. Apparently they had to do a report for the national office, and so they called me to ask me what my ethnicity was.

You see, I am obviously of African descent, and as this woman knows me and knows who I am, she could easily have taken the shortcut of putting me down as African-American. She didn’t, she chose to ask. It’s sort of a little thing, but I chafe a little bit when I’m called African-American, or put into a group that talks specifically about African-American issues because of the color of my skin. This isn’t because of any dislike, or disdain for African-Americans, but it’s often hard for people to realize that being African-American is as much about being American (and being a part of that history) as it is about being African.  I am not American.

Everytime I’m grouped in this way, instead of making me feel included, it somehow makes me feel excluded. The message is conveyed that there isn’t a place or that there isn’t space for my background, history, and ancestry – for my Afro-Caribbean-ness. This is why I would prefer to use the word black or, if I’m in a particularly pc crowd, of African descent. The former describes (though one may argue the accuracy of the descriptor) my appearance, the latter, my ancestry and neither assumes anything more than the obvious. I may be alone in feeling this way, but I do. And so it made me happy when she asked. She gave me the space to say who/what I was, and didn’t try to force me into an ill-fitting category. And for that I am grateful.