Thoughts on returning to the "other-world"

I am utterly convinced now that the supposed airplane we disembarked on from Kabul was in actuality a time machine. It's as if we stumbled through some black-hole or dimensional field into another world, one utterly disconnected from the other. From "bible-times" to the Jetsons in a few short flights. From simplicity to chaos and complication. Yet BOTH worlds seem ever broken.

One is simply trying to survive in the most real sense of the word. Undeveloped, uneducated, war-torn & starving to death, the inhabitance are totally aware of the "other-world" and dream of it's beauty and vibrance. They even have portholes that allow them to lust for a life without gunfire, famine, or the lack of opportunity.

The other world however (this world-my old world) is lonely and lost. The inhabitance gouge themselves searching for happiness and belonging. Yet continually find themselves wanting and disconnected. They are uneasy, untrusting, lifeless and tense. They fear their worlds collapse and see its survival, in the most exaggerated sense of the word, as more important than their very own. They are totally unaware of the "other-world" and their "life" styles express this in grandeur.

It is very simple from this observation to render one world the Oppressor and the other the Oppressed. It is simpler still to draw a deep sympathy for said oppressed world. Yet, and I find this strangely peculiar, even simpler to draw a deep sympathy (as an oppressor) and do absolutely nothing to bring forth justice.

But here in lay the radical truth both Oppressor & Oppressed must be set free! The one world can not simply liberate the other. With this mentality we simply produce more violence and globalize the ever looming Empire of Loneliness. Visa versa, the simpler world has not the means to separate its beauty from its lust to breath life and reason into the other. It also has little voice to amplify and no receptive ears await unoccupied from the expansive world they might harken to. So to this I say, with every inch of me, we need a NEW WORLD.

One that will feed the hungry and comfort the lonely hearted. One offering GRACE to the ignorant and MERCY to the hopeless. For just as charity without JUSTICE is incomplete, so justice without FORGIVENESS is incomplete. We need a new salvation - a new Jerusalem. LET THE NEW WORLD COME...and it has..

It is here among us now, just waiting to be realized. In truth, it was for THIS very reason that Christ came; to establish this new world upon the earth herself. This world, HIS WORLD, is NOT for some distant cloud. It is for today that salvation sings, "equality now, liberation now, freedom now, and justice today."

So for those of us who have begun to abandon the old worlds a breath of life from God Himself is pushing us onward. We have new eyes to see, new ears to hear, and new hearts to give away. We are being restored to the intended design, echoing of Eden wherever we go. For us, there is no turning back...only the Kingdom. And as we grow we begin to join in salvation's song, "let all come...oppressor and oppressed...a NEW WORLD awaits."

love.

If love were a cancer we would stop seeking a cure & let it consume our whole bodies.

I'm sorry it's been so many weeks since I last wrote, but God has detained me with His constant moving, shaking, changing and directing. Diane & I have some really exciting things to share with everyone, both about our work here in Afghanistan as well as our plans for the coming years.

First, however, (I suppose this should come first in order to leave everyone feeling cheery upon completion of this update) I have been deathly sick this past week. I'm definitely on the road to recovery now, but still very weak and not able to eat much. Last Sunday I was invited to a banquet of some locals and seated as a guest of honor. Their poor family surprised me with an Afghan delicacy that probably cost them a couple weeks wages and I felt so humbled by their generosity that there was NO WAY I could refuse it. Boiled sheep butt fat in oil and spices along with these little meat dumpling thingies and fruit. Needless to say my westernized stomach never forgave me. I woke up that night with the worst pain in my life, vomited for two days straight, lost about 10lbs, got so dehydrated I needed to drink salt water to bring my muscles back under control and praised the Lord for this amazing families gift all the way through. I really am feeling much better today, but prayer for health is really needed. We have two weeks left here in Afghanistan and a slew of photo projects to get done before we go, so I'll need the energy.

One other note of prayer needed for our team is a rise in persecution coming our way. This week alone we've had rocks heaved and pelted over the walls of our courtyard, a threat that the police are going to come raid our guest house because of "rumors" that we are preaching the gospel (which we are, so, thus is life), and I was spat in the face during my conversation class by a radical who couldn't accept the fact that I have tattoos and am still such a nice guy (or really because he called me a sinner and Jesus a rapist and I said we are all sinners and that the rapist loves him very much).

So pray...but also please know that while there is persecution here (as there is anywhere when people genuinely live their faith) the people of Afghanistan are beautiful. The friendships we have made mean more to me than anything. And to watch the sparkle in the eyes of Afghans dreaming about a better world will break your heart. It has mine...

So on to all the euangelion (or good news). These past few weeks a lot of our team members have been working in a village project 4 hours south of Mazar in Shebragon. They have been leading an education workshop teaching teachers basic learning methods. Most of the village communities have little to no education programs and the schools are usually run by adults who themselves hold 5th or 6th grade proficiency in subjects. So what a blessing to provide more opportunity for future development of those communities. Here in Mazar our office work is wrapping up. My conversation class finished this week but has opened so many doors for me to speak plainly about social justice, non-violent resolution to violent oppression, grace, hope, love and even my faith. I can't do justice in words the feeling you get in your chest when a student comes to you after class and wants to speak in private about Jesus. You feel sneaky. You feel like the early church must have felt in many instances. You feel as much of the church today still feels watching the Kingdom practically break out, touch hearts, and be realized.

This coming week we are all scrambling to get out and shoot as much as physically possible capturing whatever we can of this incredible place. We'll be trucking out to a village north of here, as well as finishing up our work at the orphanage. This friday I'm also organizing what I'm calling HAPPY NAN DAY (Nan is Afghan bread by the way). Next friday is the beginning of the influx to Mazar because Ramadan (the Islamic month of prayer and fasting) starts the following week, so the Mosque will be flooded with people. As a sign of LOVE and RECONCILIATION we're going to buy as much bread as our broken Toyota Mini Van can hold and head down to the Mosque to give it all away, blessing and praying for people as much as we can before we either get kicked out or run out of bread. HAPPY NAN DAY - feel free to celebrate NAN DAY with us in your own towns!!!

*THIS CONCLUDES THE AFGHANISTAN PORTION OF THIS UPDATE*

Now onto the future. So Diane and I have been praying constantly the last couple months about what God has for us next. As some of you know we have planned to continue working with PhotogenX for the next few years, but the Lord has been shaking those plans, as He often does. There has been a lack of peace in our hearts for a while, but the Lamb has been speaking. Well after a lot of prayer, council, and confirmation we have decided to come back to States for a season. We believe this is the right thing for us, our new marriage, and beyond anything the will of God. Here is our main passion for coming to the west:

We have been dreaming together about a "social experiment" we want to start called Project Love 1.0. We have been excited about the idea for some time and believe God has finally said YES. Basically we want to help mobilize Congregations and Communities to socially/radically change their cities. The hope is for Project Love to be 100% practical (i.e. non-theoretical) in actions of Love throughout a community asking NOTHING in return from those the actions are helping. We don't want votes, church membership, or even conversion in return for the love we share (see the life of Jesus for more details). WE JUST WANT TO LOVE PEOPLE BECAUSE PEOPLE NEED IT. We don't want to start and organization, we want to birth the organism by simply living love in community. We don't want Project Love based in any certain city, instead we want it to be global and move from place to place. That’s why we call it "1.0" in hopes that there will be a 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and on and on...the ideas and actions can range in zealotry from organizing carpooling and free transportation to work/school for single parent homes to mobilizing finances to buy homes for the homeless (or maybe give some of ours away, who knows?)...we also finally want to make it a very ART based project by capturing and documenting LOVE in it's very nature as best we can and then making publications, websites, photo books, short films, and holding art galleries and exhibitions.

SHEEEESH (did everyone take a deep breath?) OK, SO THAT'S OUR HEART.

This is the primary reason we are coming home. We will be moving to MEMPHIS, TN this fall to live in community with my Brother & Sister in Law, with the hopes of helping bring life to that city. We are so excited to come along side other believers and change things. This is what God has been doing in us...We will also spend the next year while we are back in the states building relationships and speaking at different congregations about our work in PhotogenX and mobilizing more solid missions support for venturing out in the future. We are still hoping to be a part of this community and do the 'Round The World Track next year or the year after.

So there is much behind and much ahead. God brought us to an island to get married and to the desert to hear His voice. In two weeks we head to South Africa then back to the States. Through everything we know that God is faithful. He has provided for us time and time again and will continue to. Thank you all for your faith and love for us. For your constant prayers and financial support. Because of you people in Afghanistan who were hungry are being filled as the Kingdom of God invades this land with more force and power than any empire which has done so over the past 3000 years. Joy is here...

See you soon...

The Sickness From the Black Lagoon

{My wife and I south of Mazar having an Afghan Picnic}

I work up this past Saturday at 7am with a fever of 103 and convulsing muscles. Excess amounts of vomiting followed leaving me dehydrated in a way I think only Bear Grills [of Man vs. Wild] could possibly imagine. We called an American doctor friend who firmly insisted I drink more salty water than is humanly possible and posture myself before the maker of the universe. I’ve done both things and woke up this morning mutated into some kind of BLACK TONGUED MUTANT. Yes that’s right folks - I’m in Afghanistan and my tongue is black. In related news, I’m joining the X-Men…

{our friend TANK MAN}

I’m not gonna lie, these past couple weeks have been hard. Sure I haven’t eaten solid food in 48 hours and my mouth looks like I could personally solve the world oil crisis, but even emotionally it has just been really taxing. Living in a WAR torn country dose that to you I suppose. Poverty surrounds you. Violence surrounds you and you begin to feel helpless. Yet it’s the vary nature of our new creation that indeed makes helplessness expire and grace evolve. Perhaps we are just crazy enough to believe that what we are doing here is helping change things. I know I am…a little crazy that is.

The past weeks have seen further work in our NGO office as well as time spent in a local orphanage. We’ve all also been working on various projects for local NGO long-termers to help provide them with solid media & photography to raise funds and spread awareness. Diane photographed the local women’s prison {you can check out a bunch of her shots on her blog right now} which is in absolutely ludicrous conditions. Further, once you make the recollection that when a woman goes to prison in Afghanistan her children go with her, those conditions are even more mind numbing. Babies being raised in rubble – children playing in barbed wire. Yes I’m tired…but the Lamb is at work…

{Bread for Life - is a project I have been working on

which serves to support local Afghan believers in

opening bakeries, sustain community and freely 

feed the pour - i.e. Afghans Feeding Afghans}

The relationships I have built with local Afghans are the dearest things to me now. For while I feel at times I am taking more from this country {in photography} than I am giving back, these friendships are honest. On a personal level they have really toiled to close the gap between east & west, rich & pour, and muslim & christian. I have grown weary of the personification within my faith that pushes strictly for conversion. I find more often than not that this mentality negates the need to live out the established Kingdom. Francis of Assisi often said that "there is no point in walking anywhere to preach, unless ones walking is ones preaching." A sentiment I wholly agree with. These men (and women) I love are REAL people, with REAL problems, in a REALLY oppressive culture, living in a staggering disposition to half-truths, violence, and anger, and if we are REALLY honest with ourselves, we won't see much of a difference between their world and our own. We all must overcome and we all hold within us the beauty & truth of our maker. GRACE MUST BE LIVED, NOT PREACHED...

...After all, what mere words could possibly make manifest the fulness of His grace? 

Like Stucco in Bullet-Holes

"The Cross is not a detour on the way to the kingdom, nor is it even the way to the kingdom, the cross is the kingdom come." - John Howard Yoder

{doll face with a doll face}

I'm often asked because of my views if 1st century Christianity was (is) a religious movement with political overtones or a political movement with religious overtones? I respond in actuality that no one in the 1st century would have ever made such a distinction. They were one in the same and thus what the GOD MAN proclaimed was & is high-treason. Perhaps if we honesty contextualized the revolution we supposedly adhere ourselves to we would stop calling the Bible a "good-book." Perhaps we might even find ourselves terrified of the words in our MANIFESTO. Or perhaps our eyes might even be opened to a whole new world; a KINGDOM THAT HAS COME; not one of some distant future that offers nothing to the millions of people living in the hell of this world. Freedom is NOW! Heaven has FALLEN. The REVOLUTION has come. 

{on our drive from Kabul to Mazar}

True Story: an Afghan believer came to the Lord a few years ago and started giving away bread. Every morning he would go out and buy exceedingly more bread than he could ever eat & would give the excess bread to the needy in his community. He shared all that he could while making just under $300 a year working as a teacher. Last year the police came to arrest him for no specific purpose beyond his faith but the poor people living on his block came out to meet them. They yelled and defended him as a man of honor. Nonbelievers defending believers in a country where Christianity is the "root of all evil"...Jubilee...

{peace}

True Story: an Afghan believer came to the Lord many years ago and bought a megaphone. The week after his baptism he climbed the prayer tower of the largest masque in Afghanistan and preached the gospel. Needless to say he was martyred for his actions but he smiled as he took his last breath knowing the word had been proclaimed where never before...Jubilee...

{hope}

True Story: Last week our team wandered the streets of Mazar gathering trash in a land where the streets are basically paved with it. We were peculiar to say the least and crazy to say the worst. Constructing puppets from the rubbish and performed stories for street kids and orphans we brought laughter into the streets. For an hour no one remembered they were hungry, homeless, and fatherless...Jubilee...

{love}

True Story: I teach an english speaking conversation class three times a week here in Mazar to 20 some odd Afghan men. All of my fellowship has warned me not to talk about politics, but seeing as their lives consist primarily of war, oppression, and lack of opportunity I kindly ignore their suggestions. We spend the mornings telling stories and dreaming of futures. We talk about community development and not relying on governments to take care of the poor. Hope fills the walls like Stucco in bullet holes. We conceptually imagine what peace could be like & actually create it for the few hours we meet...Jubilee...

{on our drive from Kabul to Mazar}

These first two weeks in Afghanistan have been incredible. Difficult, but incredible. We are all sick with various inhuman viruses unknown to science causing us to heave all known bodily fluids from every known orifice. One of our Afgan brothers here actually had his appendix taken out this past week giving George and I a much desired insight into one of the local afghan hospitals. We played nurse because well they do surgeries here, not follow up care. The doctors write prescriptions for pain medication, saline, IV's, needles, etc. which we would go purchase and figure out how to administer. But he survived and is back with us so I think I should at least get a medical degree of some kind. His experience is encouraging us to rely on the Lord for healing because well the doctors LOVE to remove organs for just about anything. They get paid more for amputations and such things after all...there is 1 doctor to every 8,000 Afghans in Mazar!

*Sorry for the poor photo resolution - the internet can't handle better quality here*

The Other Side of Earth

[Delhi, India]

The four days we spent in Delhi were a compulsory brain shift for us all, blowing up our “world-view” and forcibly surfacing the ignorance we jointly share. While the excitement and optimisms remain they are now coupled with the reality that weather we want to admit it or not, WE LIVE IN A BROKEN WORLD.

The streets of Delhi are a circus of acrobatic disarray as cars, trucks, buses, rickshaws, bicycles, tractors, cows, pushcart vendors, stray dogs, horse-drawn thingies, and 25 million people from all walks of life jockey for position at 40 MPH. As our team left the airport we piled the 9 of us, plus our contact, plus the driver into a single taxi with our bags piled about 10 feet high on the roof. My lovely wife soon coined the phrase “Assume the Spoon” as we entered the “Big Top”. 

The extreme poverty of India is unavoidable. It doesn’t matter where you look because it pours into the streets from every direction. Street kids and beggars see our white skin from miles away & encompass our team, making me ponder what Jesus really meant when we said, “Give to those who ask”. The entire time we spent in India I couldn’t stop thinking about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It was almost prophetic how much my thoughts drifted continually back to this story…

Ok so a Jewish man is robed, beaten and left for dead on the road to Damascus. Members of the Religious Right pass on by ignoring his desperate cry for help. Only the Samaritan man stops, loves the man and gives selflessly of himself, not just saving the man’s life, but paying for his entire recovery. Thus we have yet another peculiar insight to what we believers are meant to live like. 

…but as we spent our days in Delhi wandering the streets I had some questions for Jesus. I want to radically love people. I want to be the Good Samaritan, but what if there is more than one man dying in the street? What if the entire road to Damascus is littered with bodies? What if the entire city were? Country? I realized how ignorant my idealism was in India, but regardless if you were to ask me where Jesus lives today…I would say He lives in Delhi. 

Probably the most notable instance from our time in India was being asked to join a gathering of all the various “M” workers throughout Delhi. There is nothing really comparable to fellowship with like-minded believers in a far away land, singing Hindi songs and breaking bread together. To pray for Delhi with local believers makes you realize how incredibly beautiful The Way really is.

We did have a few amazing opportunities to shoot photography. One afternoon we visited the largest Mosque in India and shot street kids playing on the steps. After a few minutes we had a hundred kids not begging for money but for their pictures to be taken, their faces glowing as we show them their pictures on the display. Joy in a joyless place. Jubilee erupts in the streets. Hallelujah.

So beyond anything spending 4 days in India got our heads on straight. We left Delhi full of questions, excitement, and hope for the months ahead. Honolulu, Tokyo, Delhi, Kabul, 20 plus hours of flights, 8 plus hours of cross desert driving, a few questionable mountain passes, various scary military check points & one suicide bomber later we are finally in Mazar-e Sharif…more to come…

careful words for seemingly reckless moments

{we love each other}

As most of you know by now (and if not, sheesh get with the program) Diane & I shared some vows, gave some rings, and did some kissing a little over a week ago. Yet I honestly think that a "wedding" must last much longer than the 20 minutes we shared in the sun; family and friends googling with anticipation; Diane and I recessing quirkishly down the aisle looking at each other in a "that was it?" kind of way. I was actually thinking about how anyone could spend so much time & money investing into such a minutiae-blur of a moment as I floated by all the posh faces...

It's so easy to say I love you, but it's another thing entirely to constantly demonstrate love through humility, selflessness, and grace; to walk a lifetime of patience with another, dying and dying again. It's also another thing entirely to extend the vows shared beyond one another to all of humanity, but so we are called by Christ to love. Last Saturday was not just another physical act, no, it was not just another foot washing. Rather, it shared more in common with baptism; an uprooting of the soul, a public declaration to literally be the hands and feet of Jesus in radical redemptive love to all people. To let the sand beneath our feet be an echo of His grace...

{grace}

All that said, we did have an incredible Wedding. I don't know how in the world it turned out so beautiful on our "missionary budget" (i.e. free) but what an awesome example of God's provision. We are so incredible thankful to everyone who flew across oceans to be apart of it and to everyone who took time to think of us and smile. We love you all, miss you all, and can't wait to see you whenever God brings us back home. There should be pictures and videos floating around soon enough (these things happen when 90% of your guest list comprise of photographers). If you have been praying DON'T STOP we feel them in our bones...

{SO ONWARD - WHAT'S NEXT?}

Well amazingly one week from today we are heading to the field. All the lectures and prep work have been incredible but I must say Diane & I are just aching to leave. July 1st we start the first leg of our ROUND THE WORLD TRACK, as we and the team make our journey to Afghanistan. It will take us three or four days to even get to Kabul (via Japan & India) then we will bus over the mountains to the north of the country where we will primarily be working out of Mazar-e-Sharif. Once in Afghanistan we will have a solid couple weeks of language courses before we start working in the tribal communities doing food drops and capturing the incredible beauty of these people. The famine in Northern Afghanistan is worse today than ever and we long to aid the work being done by capturing their stories and by sharing the hope we have within us!!! I've never been so exited in my whole life. We so need your prayers for travel, safety, cultural sensitivity, reconciliation, and Lord knows the list could go on and on...

...We have no idea how much communication we will have once on the ground but I will try to update the blog as much as physically possible as well as send out e-mails...I will try and call as many of you as possible before we leave in a week. If you want to talk by all means don't hesitate to call, we don't care that we are "on our honeymoon" we just want to be able to share with you and touch base before we leave...

PS - I totally love these people...

God & Politics

{Three Degrees of Separation from Speaking of Faith}

If you have some spare time take a listen to this conversation between Chuch Colson, Greg Boyd (one of my favorite authors), and Shane Claiborne (also one of my favorite authors). This is so important and my heart has been here the last couple months...