The Underground Railroad

Mr.Bean Evangelism

So I know that sharing about who Jesus Christ really is, what He's done and how much He loves us is of great spiritual significance, holy, and sacred, there are times when a lighthearted approach is needed to such incredible Truth. Especially in cross-cultural situations where language can be a barrier, you need something that both parties can connect with, share in common, and bond over.

Today, it was Mr.Bean. I sat in front of the TV for about a half hour with Filipino children ages 2-9 and we all laughed like stinkin' crazy at his silly antics! The olders ones obviously understood exactly what was going on. The younger ones... to make life funnier... were laughing over-dramatically to emuate the older ones!

I mean, when a silly looking man with a funny looking walk sits down on a park bench, and proceeds to wash the lettuce for his sandwich with his wet sock, no words are necessary. Ewwwww!! Gross! And when that crazy guy randomly pulls out a baby bottle, starts sucking on it, and spits the milk he gets out into a hot water bottle for his "tea", cross-cultural barriers = broken. Laughter ensues and conversations get started.

Thank you God for Mr.Bean!

 

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Epic Fail

Everyone loves Ty; everyone loves to yell "MOVE THAT BUS!!!!"; everyone loves the tears; everyone loves to see a worthy family helped out. But is Extreme Makeover actually doing any good?

I was at the Urban Promise headquarters today in Camden, New Jersey. UP has been around for quite some time now in one of the most impoverished communities in the United States. Its founder and president, Bruce Main, is my professor for Leadership Development in my Urban Studies program. How better to show leadership than by taking us to where it all began? Here's my class:

(This is us at Hope Works... a fellow organization in Camden. Do we look like we're going to change the world? Good! I think so too!)

On Urban Promise's main campus, there is a beautiful blue retreat centre. A while back, UP owned the land but there was no building. One of UP's families -- a single father of four -- was selected to be on Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. The only thing was, the family needed to have property or a house already to qualify. So UP donated this part of their land for the house. Cool!

2000 volunteers converged on the area and in 90 hours... there stood the home where once was empty space. In what has become a pop cultural mantra, thousands screamed with Ty Pennington: "MOVE THAT BUS!!!"... and the single father, who was mentoring other single fathers in Camden, had an amazing home.

Then the bills began to arrive.

Extreme Makeover was out of the picture. No phone calls. No follow up help. The family, with children growing up, needed more and more money but it was all being put towards the home.

Here's where community gets really good: Urban Promise continued to walk alongside this family all this time. It offered to buy the home (after 2 years, because I guess there are tax penalties if you sell an Extreme House before then), assist the father in downsizing to a home where he didn't have to unscrew lightbulbs to make ends meet, and renovated the Extreme Home into a retreat centre.

A reporter followed up with the story, but she wasn't with Extreme Makeover. Apparently, after doing some "Where Are They Now?" stories, she discovered this pattern of HUGE HELP... but only once. And the help and home are SO HUGE that the families they are supposed to be helping cannot afford to live in them.

The family I'm speaking of here had Urban Promise to create a sustainable future. What about the ones who don't have those supports? What happens to those Extreme Houses? Fall into disrepair? Get bought up by rich people who can afford them?

Sustainability is key here.

Having 2000 people converge on one spot over the course of 1 week to provide housing for a family is a GREAT IDEA!!!!! Extreme Makeover doesn't make the grade though in terms of true community building. There needs to be follow up, there needs to be true lasting connections, and... (this one's hard because we like bigger and better)... the homes themselves need to be scaled back to manageable places to dwell in. They can't be castles that draw millions to the TV, but in the end cause more harm then good.

So, Ty... you've taken some good first steps in community building and poverty alleviation. But you're not going far enough. If you're going to claim to provide "X and Y", you need to factor in "Z". Complete the picture.

That piece of the picture is sustainability.

Families might need a house built in a week, but they need more the assurance they can live in it for a lifetime.

God'll Get You

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," he said on Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club." "They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal."

Robertson said that "ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other" and he contrasted Haiti with its neighbor, the Dominican Republic."

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2010/01/13/televangelist-pat-robertson-blames-haiti-quake-on-pact-with-devil.aspx#ixzz0cqEI4dVm

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3 million dead... millions more homeless, displaced, injured, orphaned, dying, trafficked, and in mourning. And you, Pat Robertson, blame a supposed pact with the devil that took down a nation? Are you that arrogant in your American ideal as a wealthy Caucasian preacher in a suit that you don't think the US (and Canada) hasn't made its own share of devil pacts?

And of course because God hates the devil, He will have judgment and prove His power through the elimination of a nation devoted to Satan.

God needs to prove nothing to anyone.

God is not willing that any should perish but eagerly desires all to come to Him.

One side of the island is prosperous because rich people like us make it so. And the other side is impoverished because rich people like us make it so.

Take some responsibility for your humanity, Reverend Robertson. You are more at fault for the circumstance of the Haitian people than God is. He's there right now walking alongside every child who's lost parents, weeping for the lost and hurting, wrapping bandages, finding families.

What are you doing, Reverend?

Oh yes... you're blaming the people for their own disaster. How righteous of you.

If you cared so much for the plight of Haiti, you'd strip off your tie, turn off your TV cameras, go down there and start working side by side with your fellow human being.

The Girl Effect

It was on Oprah today. Now you know when the Queen of Daytime Talk unveils a topic or subject on her show, it MUST be newsworthy. Yes, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek as I do not have much faith in the Oprah craze. But I will hand it to her: she has brought attention to world issues that otherwise would go unnoticed. And a lonely girl married off at the age of 11 in Ethiopia is certainly one that would certainly go unnoticed.

The Girl Effect -- it starts with one girl. One girl who starts with one cow. One cow who starts producing healthy milk to be sold in that one girl's community. One day's profit turns to one week's profit, that turns into one month's, one year's. One girl returns to one school to receive one educaction. One cow turns into one herd and one girl with the one education has one business that sustains her family and her community.

It all starts with a girl.

Just one.

Never thought one girl could make such a big difference, huh?

Check it out:

 

 
 

"Journey" with Emma Thompson

     I've always loved Emma Thompson... from Sense and Sensibility to Much Ado About Nothing to Harry Potter to Stranger than Fiction to even yes... Nanny McPhee. Her screen presence has always been one of British poise crossed with untold depths plus a dubious impishness that threatens to squash that staunchy Brit propriety to smithereens.

In the past couple of years, Emma's been working on a new project: an art show titled "Journey". Upon discovering sex slavery happening in her own jolly ol' London towne, Emma worked to help launch this portrayal of modern-day slavery that would leave even the oldest abolitionist breathless. It is graphic, horrific, destructive, constructive, abstract and yet terrifyingly concrete. It begs many questions such as "Do we really need to see this to believe that slavery happens?" or "Do exhibits like this truly do justice and honour to the victims or perpetuate our own horror and need for catharsis?"... and so on.

It's getting people talking.

All I can say is... I hope it comes to the Royal Alberta Musuem (fat chance but fingers crossed).

 

 

"Boy Play" -- An Illegal but Long-Standing Tradition

Bacha Bazi -- also known as 'boy play' -- in Afghanistan is the practice of selling young boys to wealthy men for sexual purposes. The boys are made to dress as women, dance, sing and perform for their masters and masters' friends as well as be subjected to rape and other sexual demands. This has been a long standing tradition in the Afghan culture for hundreds of years. Yes it has been made illegal, but the act goes largely overlooked due to its deep cultural roots.

The more handsome the boy, the greater the status of the owner. Bacha Bazi brings to light many issues that cross dangerous lines -- whose culture is 'right'?; what harm is there really if the boys are well cared for and truly loved by their masters?; how many boys are being subject to this practice when so much attention is given to girls and women at their plight in the grand scheme of slavery?

In a country that has been declared 'homophobic', it is affrontingly ironic that such archaic methods of exploitation would still be employed. Does every Afghan citizen approve of Bacha Bazi? No. As stated earlier, the country overall has declared the custom illegal. So why is it still happening? The silence is keeping thousands of young boys in bondage to older men who not only abuse them, but determine their future sexual orientation and identity. How many 8 year old boys do you know would be able to have a healthy view of sexuality when all they've been forced to do is dance in women's clothing, wear women's makeup, and perform sexual acts on grown men? These boys become a class unto themselves -- bacha bereesh -- or "men without beards". It is a societal label that is impossible to erase.

Bacha Bazi brings to light the issue of CULTURE. Every single person is an organic part of an ever-changing culture through many different roots. We may think that this is an abhorrent act but for Afghans participating in an ancient tradition, there is pride, righteousness, and even love. How far can acts like this go under the guise of 'culture'? Child brides and arranged marriages would be other examples of such tender issues, just to give boy play some context.

The sad thing is (amongst the rest of this sadness) is that many boys will eventually become masters. Like many other examples in the modern-slave cycle, the abused become the abusers. How else would you know how to live?

Having said all this, Canadians really have no re-course in terms of condemnation. We have strict laws about protecting our children here at home and the children of other countries. Yet we seem rather complacent and contentedly lax in not prosecuting men who travel to foreign countries for the strict purpose of child sex tourism. If we are going to help the children of Afghanistan, we had better begin by taking responsibility for our own people.

Check out the CNN report below:

 

  

Dreams of the Dead

This is Martin Luther King's full length version of his history-making "I Have Dream" speech. I'll admit... I was moved to tears.

Let freedom reign.

Let freedom rain.

Let it reign... let it rain...

But pretty words don't make dreams come true. I have a dream. A big one. I dream to see captives... slaves... traffickers... walk out of their bondage and be set free by the loving power of Jesus Christ. North American... South American... Central American... African... Asian... European... Australian... all colours... all nations... all tribes...

"Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord..."

If dreams were made of but lovely words moving the heart to inspiration, then all men at one time or another have succeeded in achieving their dreams.

But pretty words are not the stuff dreams are made of.

True dreams thrum from the very heartbeat of God. And they do not always mesh with our lofty expectations of life. True dreams are realized in blood... tears... weeping... work... laments... small gains with huge losses. True dreams are realized long after the dreamers die.

We die. But it is not the dreams that live on. Dreams cannot live without a Source. It is the Source who lives on to germinate the seeds of our dreams. It is the Source who grants life -- to us, to dreams, to everything "on earth as it is in heaven".

Yes, I have a dream. My eyes see the Spirit of Christ and I am drawn to His character and Life more than oxygen. In this place of meeting, a dream is granted. Perhaps it is a gift. Perhaps it is a curse. Perhaps it is greater than what I can see or sense or feel. But if this is the heartbeat of God, then here I will remain and dream what the Spirit would paint in my soul. Do I expect to see my dream fully realized before I die?

No.

But there is no fear in saying that. My greatest hope is to see my Jesus face-to-face with as many emancipated souls as possible. Not through my work or my own will, but through the will of the One who sends us. However the tragedy of my dream plays out, it will be won. It will live.

Let freedom reign.