Best. Birthday. Ever.

Today is our first day in Mozambique. It also happens to be my birthday. The bishop and local pastors here in Maputo had an opening welcome ceremony scheduled for our arrival and it doubled as just about the best birthday party I've ever had. Mozambicans love ceremony and they also completely rock at hospitality. They are overwhelmingly warm and friendly, and will bend over backwards to ensure that guests are taken care of. Somehow, the entire Mozambique Methodist Conference got wind of my birthday and it was game on. I was given a full hand-made Mozambican outfit, complete with a headdress. There was cake-cutting, the youth choir made a special appearance, toasts were made, the entire room joined in singing (over and over again), and there were all kinds of celebratory vocalizations made after every speech. It was breathtakingly, eye-popingly, heart-meltingly beautiful. Not only was this a celebration of my physical birth - a pastor in attendance tonight said it so lovingly - this is a celebration of my birth, my first day as an official, honorary Mozambican. Today I was grafted in.
















In addition to the lovely birthday party, Carol's 13 years of service were honored and celebrated, and her retirement was acknowledged. The torch was official passed as she explained their reasons for choosing me to continue the mission. The Bishop gave her blessing and reminisced about all of the wonderful things that Carol has done for their country, for Missouri, and for her personally. It was truly a moving experience, and I grateful now, more than ever for these partners, this new family into which I have been born.

Apprenticeship

It is not often in this day and age that one learns a job through apprenticeship. A new hire attends a few job trainings, reads the policies and procedures manual, and then jumps in. The training for this new job of mine is quite different. What I began in January and continues until Carol retires is what I might classify as an old-school model of apprenticeship. For me, part of this apprenticeship comes in the form of a 3 week journey to Mozambique, which started yesterday. Apprenticeship happens during back to back to back to back flights where long hours are spent listening to stories and hearing about the tricks of the trade. Apprenticeship happens over long birthday dinners with dear friends in South Africa. Carol has 13 years worth of information about this job to share with me and it's something that is shared slowly and with great intention. It's fortunate then that we've just landed from a 16 hour plan ride, with more to come. This is uninterupted training time.








Carol is a fascinating woman, and if you haven't met her yet, I encourage you to fly to Africa with her (or perhaps just grab a coffee sometime). She's tough as nails, but tender of heart. She keeps lists and spreadsheets and detailed agendas, but is as fluid as water and flexible as playdoh. She always gets the job done, but never to the detriment of relationships. And she talks your ear off, telling amazing stories about songs sung in far off villages and water flowing where the land had been dry. I have been soaking it all in, or as much of it as possible between fits and starts of restless plane sleep.




During dinner tonight in Johanesburgh, I met long time friends of Carol's who had pearls of wisdom to share. This insight could only be found among those who have walkd these paths and blazed the trail ahead of me. These types of individuals are few and far between, but so precious when they are discoverved. Tomorrow, training in Maputo where I will meet Bishop Nhanala (the Bishop of Mozambqiue). She will bless our trip and send us forth into the country. This is the best job training ever.

Like a Child

My mind is whirling like a carnival ride on this brisk and beautiful morning.  I can't say that this is a rare occurrence, but it has me antsy and in a writing mood, so here I am.  I spent the late night hours of yesterday gathering the necessities for African travel and making lists: Cipro for emergency diarrhea care, 100% DEET to ward off those nasty little blood-sucking malaria carriers, sun block, a Portuguese-English dictionary for my communication dysfunction...the list goes on.  I got to thinking about all that lies ahead on this trip. And then I thought about all of the preparations that still need to be made, and all that I'm leaving behind - my students, my dissertation project, my band.  As I thought about all that lies ahead and all that's staying behind, I began to feel overwhelmed, small, unprepared, unfit.  Who do I think I am, taking all of this on?  I can't carry it all.  I'm just a kid, I'm not professional enough, I'm not prepared enough, I don't know enough Portuguese...

But this is what I always forget: I don't have to carry it all.  I don't have to carry it all in my suitcase.  I don't have to carry it all on my shoulders.  All I can do is go into this with eyes and heart wide open, leaning heavily on the One who carries it all for us.  The One who carries me.  "Permit the children to come to me; do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."  In this, I find hope that my youth, my lack of professionalism, my idealism, and my child-like enthusiasm, placed in God's hands, will be enough.

I have a dear, soul-lovely friend who is like me in many ways.  We talk about feeling everything at an 11.5 when your average Joe feels at about a 4.  Perhaps this is narcissistic, but it's how we wrap our heads around our overflowing hearts.  This friend writes, "Suitcase is irrelevant.  Just take that perfect, beautiful heart".  It's about all I have.  I'm trusting that as I offer this perfect, beautiful, broken-winged, giggly, loud-mouthed heart, like an unhindered child running into the arms of her mother, it will indeed be enough.

Rich

If you have 12 minutes, this is worth it.  "This is about something much, much bigger than giving to the latest cause...this is about how we view the world."  Portuguese subtitles for my Mozambican friends.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

I am embarking on this journey to learn Portuguese...here's the thing, I really really suck at grammar and remembering rules.

These are my strengths: I'm a musician and an auditory learner.  When I hear a melody once, I can sing it back almost perfectly.  When I hear an accent, I soak it up like a sponge.  The moment I set foot back in NYC, I pick up that filthy Brooklyn accent, whether I want to or not.  It is very easy for me to experience, feel, and embody language - but remembering vocabulary and verb tense?  Yikes.  It's terrifying.  I can hardly remember English grammar rules, much less the ins and outs of a second language.  And so, I'm going at it with a sense of humor and I'm giving myself permission to sound like a complete ass for a good long while.

David Sedaris wrote this hilarious book entitled, "Me Talk Pretty One Day".  In the book, David and his partner move to Paris, and David suddenly finds himself forced to learn French.  The following excerpt comes from the chapter, "Jesus Shaves", which describes students in his French class attempting to explain the concept of Easter in this unfamiliar language.  This pretty much sums up my attempt to learn a new language:

The Italian nanny was attempting to answer the teacher's latest question,  when the Moroccan student interrupted, shouting, "Excuse me, but what's an Easter?"...

...The teacher called upon the rest of us to explain.

The Poles led the charge to the best of their ability. "It is," said one, "a party for the little boy of God who call his self Jesus...oh shit." She faltered and her fellow country-man came to her aid.

"He call his self Jesus and then he be die one day on two...morsels of...lumber."

The rest of the class jumped in, offering bits of information that would have given the pope an aneurysm.

"He die one day and then he go above of my head to live with your father."

"He weared of himself the long hair and after he die, the first day he come back here for to say hello to the peoples."

"He nice, the Jesus."

"He make the good things, and on the Easter we be sad because somebody makes him dead today."

Part of the problem had to do with vocabulary.  Simple nouns such as cross and  resurrection were beyond our grasp, let alone such complicated reflexive phrases as "to give of yourself your only begotten son".

Exactly - thank you, David Sedaris.  I'm just glad that God and my friends in Mozambique are gracious and full of patience.
He nice, the Jesus.  He nice, the Mozambicans. Wish me luck!

The Difference Between Lent and Lint

Lent is a time of preparation of our hearts for ministry and service.
Lint is what we find in our belly buttons when we are navel-gazing.

Pretty clear distinction.

The reason that I bring this up is because I think the two often get confused around this time of year.  As Christians set aside time for reflection and penance during the season of Lent, our practices run the risk of becoming more about navel-gazing and less about preparation for action.  Jesus spent 40 days in the desert preparing for his ministry on earth, which basically involved being with and among the poor, the downcast, the sinners, and the lonely; this was the beginning of Lent.  Lent these days gets boiled down to eating fish on Fridays and attending an extra worship service on Ash Wednesday.  It's so easy to miss the point.   

During the next 40 days, how are we preparing our hearts to be with the poor, the downcast, the sinners, and the lonely?  How are these times of reflection and prayer leading to the living ministry of Christ here on earth through us?  How will we prepare our hearts to love sacrificially, give generously, and live radically during this season? 

World Vision has a great way of bringing activists together this Lent in what they are calling Relentless Acts of Sacrifice.  This is just one opportunity.  This Lent, I am trying to conscientiously prepare my heart for service, solidarity, and action through these relentless acts of sacrifice, with the Mozambique Initiative at the forefront of my practice. Tell me about your practice.  How are you preparing for service during this Lenten season?