Something Different

I'm tired of whining about being tired. Need to talk about something else for a change.

American Photo magazine has a great feature right now on Heroes of Photography. At first I wondered what on earth it could mean, but looking through the bios of the people they chose, it's a mix of people who have shown personal courage in continuing their careers despite obstacles and those who have used their cameras to expose injustice in the world.

The one who caught my eye is Hazel Thompson, a British photojournalist who recently shot the conditions in Philippine children's prisons. The images are striking and heartbreaking. The picture at the top of this blog is hers (and yes, those are kids in prison).

What kept my attention longer was a set of photo essays she's done called "Modern Day Crusaders". This series includes Christian Bikers in the US, cowboy church, surfer outreach projects, hip hop church and the 24/7 prayer team doing outreach in the clubs in Ibiza, Spain.

How very cool to find someone who blends their faith with the passion for photography to expose injustice and to record some of the most interesting areas of missions in our world.

Definitely check out her pictures. She's now among my top 10 photographers.

Life in the Center

Growing up in Canada I always felt a little outside the center. It was always clear that the US was the center of Western culture. From a global view all of the US, Canada and Western Europe are the center.

I read a great article the other night. I was going through my old magazines as part of spring cleaning and stumbled on this article in a Christianity Today from last summer. It's exactly what I've been looking for.

Rt. Rev. Dr. David Zac Niringiye talks about the dangers of being at the center. He explains that throughout scripture God was always outside the center. Jesus came to earth far out of the center.

As North American Christians he says we are at a disadvantage in understanding Jesus because we don't have that experience of being at the margins. His suggestion is that all North American Christians spend time globally at the margins - not to "fix" the rest of the world or to "bring God" to the rest of the world, but to realize that the margin is where God is and if we want to be with God, that's where we need to be.

I've been trying to explain to my church that sending people to Africa isn't to try to evangelize Africa (the church there is growing much faster than the church in my area), it's to transform our people by stepping outside our comfortable world and seeing God working in other parts of the world.

"One of the gravest threats to the North American church is the deception of power - the deception of power - the deception of being at the center. Those at the center tend to think, 'The future belongs to us. We are the shapers of tomorrow. The process of gospel transmission, the process of mission - all of it is on our terms, because we are powerful, because we are established. We have a track record of success, after all.'"

How often do we the US as shaping the world? How often do we say things like "the future belongs to us"?

If God is working far from the center, let's go be with Him.

How We Help

Last year I took the Perspectives course, a intro to missions study. It was really good overall, but the week that stuck with me the most was the discussion of dependency. It was not something I had thought of before, but it makes a lot of sense. We, as North Americans, have a very messed up view of poverty. What? You do not have a new car and three televisions? How do you survive? We also tend to throw money at problems to try to solve them.

When you take that combo of issues and mix it with good intentions it can be very detrimental to other areas of the world. We may go into an African village and see them living in huts and feel moved to build something (new housing, etc) for them. But we can not tell them what they need. Nor should we rob them of the opportunity to build their own resources. We should not tell them they are too poor to build their own resources or try to transfer North American culture and values to other areas of the world. Dependency also becomes a problem when villages see a need and reach out a hand immediately to their rich American friends.

Lesson over.

I thought of the topic this morning while I was reading the Boston Globe. There is a great article on the school Oprah built in South Africa on how South African community leaders are angry that she moved in and built what SHE wanted to build and not what the community needs. Great points and nice to see it discussed in a mainstream publication. One of the organizations mentioned in the article is the Firelight Foundation and they mentioned their guide for faith based organizations who feel called to help children in sub-Saharan Africa. How awesome is that? In The Boston Globe?? I haven't read it all yet, but it looks great.