Adrienne Is Right.

God is Love.

My next-door neighbor and good friend Adrienne Mickler has been on a crazy journey with God this year, culminating in the raw and powerful thoughts below following a profound experience with God through her boyfriend Ryan this past weekend…I thought her words were too impactful to not post in their entirety. (P.S. If you visit her site, I took the epic profile photo of her!).

God is infinite. I am finite.

Keep that in mind and try to stay with me through this next bit…

Love exists. It is an invisible, intangible force that is undeniably present, manifesting itself differently all over the world. If I can believe in love, than I can also believe in God; for they are inseparable: God is love.

In one week, I experience moments of love given and received more times than I can remember. Things like: an understanding smile from a close friend who can see straight through my mask, a note left for a friend who needs to know she is cared and appreciated for, an anonymous act of service done for another, a meal shared with friends, etc. These are all seemingly normal moments, but they are moments where real love is exchanged.

If I believe that God is love, and I experience indisputable acts of love in a week, than wouldn’t it make sense to say that I experience God? If I am seeking to experience an infinite God in a tangible, finite way, I must look at my human context; for it is there that the tangible reigns supreme. God’s love is manifested for each of us in our everyday. God loves you and God loves me. Just look around.

4 Cities… or 4 Different Countries?

(originally posted here)

We just got back from holiday in Cape Town.  This marks the 4th major South African city I’ve spent significant time in, though I’ve also been in some pretty small towns and what not as well.  All this to say, I have a few thoughts on mission here in South Africa that may seem a bit obvious, but I think need to be said.

When we were first getting ready to come to SA over a year ago, I had some conversations with people about what mission in South Africa would look like.  When I got here, it didn’t look like that exactly.  Then I visited some other sections (like the Cape Flats where the black and coloured communities were forced to move during Apartheid) and I understood what they meant.  Pretoria just doesn’t role the same way Cape Town, Durban, or Johannesburg role.  Things look, feel, smell, etc… way different EVERYWHERE.  There’s just not a cookie cutter approach to mission here (is there really one for any town on the globe?).

This post goes along with another one I posted a while back on focus.  Look, there’s a LOT of need in South Africa.  AIDS is killing a generation.  Poverty rules the lives of millions.  Rape is a common place headline in every major city’s newspaper.  It’s hard reality.  But how we address each need is neighborhood specific, and we need to get strategic in how we’re addressing specific community needs.  On top of that, I’m not convinced that every organization can really do all things to end all problems in a neighborhood.  We’re going to get stronger when we do those things we’re set up to do… really well.

So networking becomes pretty important then.  We’ve met a lot of people that are much better at addressing human trafficking that we are.  So we’re working with them on how to support what they’re doing without sacrificing what God’s called us here for specifically.  Same thing with the AIDS crisis.  We have a sister ministry in one of the townships doing incredible work dealing with the AIDS crisis.  And they’re licensed and qualified to do what they do!

It’s time to pull together the business people, the medical people, the social service people, and the local church people to collectively develop communities of hope here.  I think there’s a lot of that going on now… So how do we multiply those kinds of things all throughout our area and our country?

Simplicity Is Not Simple.

Simplicity Month's Big Challenge: Living on 1/2 of our Disposable (Could be everything!) Income.

August 2009 marked the beginning of a significant challenge for our community at Pangani.  Corporately, we decided to practice the discipline of simplicity, as described in Richard Foster’s classic work, Celebration of Discipline. NCSA first had practiced this discipline in July 2008 with our previous Apprentice crew, and had found itself walking through a month of financial challenge, hardship, stripping of excess in our (already simple?) lives, and yet increased emphasis on community, relationship, being present in the moment, and gratitude provoking outward expressions of generosity.

Our process of prayerful discernment & conversation about where to simplify.

In this same spirit of expectation and anxiety, we gathered together the last Tuesday of July 2009 to explore where the Spirit may be leading our community to embrace simplifying our lives, both in corporate sacrifice and individual expression.  Through a wonderful process of several hours spent in conversation, personal sharing about where this point in the apprenticeship year found us, as well as where we sensed God leading us to move forward in simplification, we brainstormed this process on the whiteboard that you see in the photos accompanying this post.  It was a powerful time of reflection on one of the more transformative disciplines Foster describes in his book. Especially powerful were these quotes, as shown in the photos:

• “Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you”
• “To conform to a rich world is to be sick”
• “Enjoy things without owning them”

Great quote from Foster's classic 'Celebration of Discipline.'

After a few days spent contemplating where we were to sacrifice, we settled on two corporate practices that would shape our month:

• Seeking to live on 1/2 of our disposable income (which could be defined as anything from the entirety of our monthly paychecks, to the amount left over after ‘critical’ bills).
• Ruthlessly seeking to simplify our possessions by establishing a communal ‘Chest of Give & Take’ where we would place unused items for others to enjoy.

Individually, I (Chris Kamalski) decided to seek to practice the following Rhythms:

• Weekly slowing through engaging the discipline of Sabbath Rest in a more ‘focused’ manner than I normally do, using Sundays as a day to disengage, slow down, and seek to ‘not achieve’ anything productive.  Very, very hard, but incredibly needed.
• Cutting my own internet usage by 1/2 throughout the month.  Given the fact that most of us use the internet as the primary means of communication with our worlds ‘back home,’ this is surprisingly difficult.  Yet powerfully needed to break the addiction of thinking I must remain in communication ‘online’ at all times.

Powerfully restorative idea from Foster.

Almost immediately upon the  calendar turning the page to August 1, simplicity became incredibly difficult.  Most of our community experienced a deep flu/cold/cough virus that lasted at minimum 2 weeks for each person, and simply took us out at various times. Cars broke down.  Visitors came through and needed to be hosted with graciousness, not frugality.  To a person in our community, we realized that ’simplicity is definitely not simple.’  And yet our desire to strip ourselves of what truly mattered remained.  We banded together, sharing food and seeking to go without what we needed (and especially what we wanted) throughout this month.  We began to realize that even attempting the corporate practice of this discipline was powerful and shaping in our failed attempts at it.  Again, I came away with the understanding that engaging a shared practice with an openness of spirit is key towards a true allowing of the Spirit to transform our lives.

Our Grand Total: R7,456.40! (Not too shabby for a hard month of bills!)

And what do you know?  By the end of a difficult month, we pooled our shared Rand together, and found that we collectively had raised R7,456.40! Half of that money we used to immediately purchase almost 100 blankets and packages of food to distribute to the local homeless population of Pretoria North, which turned into a great experience one Friday night at the end of our month.  The 2nd half of that money will be given away to a local project of justice and compassion during our current learning posture of Imagining.  And so, we celebrate what God has done with our combination of whole and half-hearted attempts to be used by Him.

Melanie’s Psalm

Several weeks ago I did a personal spiritual retreat. The goal of which was just to cuddle up with God and not worry about all the cool ways he’s been transforming me, but to just enjoy each other.

I spent the first evening journalling about my past year, and praising God for what he had already done.

After I finished I realized it sounded like something a Psalmist would write… so I edited it a bit to make it more Psalmish…

I learned lessons of you, that You never taught

Contentment became long suffering misery

Obedience became denial of anything I was

In Your name I sacrificed myself

You grieved

You waited

You carefully picked up the pieces of Your creation, the pieces I had cast off

You saved them for me

Many years, a broken heart, and heavy baggage later, I sat in a coffee shop

My dreams were in view, and yet I experienced crushing anxiety

Anxiety that caused an inability to eat, and eventually an inability to breathe or walk normally

You were there

I would not let you in

So you came in the arms of my mother, the voice of my father, two weeks off of work, and the generosity of friends

And at just the right time, you brought me here

You are so good God, so patient, and understanding

You gave me the freedom to be honest, and people to be honest with

I was loved through them, because I could not recognize love from You

In Your grace and gentleness, you drew me out

With no harsh rebuke You opened my eyes to the errors of my thoughts

You revealed Your love to

and it was Good

Thank you God… love you.

Sms/text etiquette: How rude are you?

This post has been re-posted from my blog ’cause I thought you might find it interesting. Since I posted this blog I have noticed a sharp increase in politeness in texts which has left me with a warm sensation in my belly.

In the past couple of weeks I have found myself (rather amusingly) growing indignant at the way in which people send what seem to me rather impolite sms’s/texts. The problem is not that the sms’s are impolite but rather that the people who send them are not impolite people. In their day to day dealings they are pleasant, considerate and caring people yet (it seems to me) that their pleasantness or politeness doesn’t translate into their sms etiquette! Is to too much to ask for a greeting at the beginning of the text (heya) , an enquiry into ones well being (you well?), a little encouragement (hope the day is/was good) and any appropriate ending (peace…cheers…thanks)? Am i just being a friendliness glutton, wanting more from a simple text message than what it can give. Whatever the case is, there is one detail that I haven’t mentioned so far which could shed some much needed light on the dark, sordid world of poor sms etiquette.

As many of you know I live mainly with Americans and many of the said messages in question have been received from ‘them’ This begs the question, ‘are Americans texto-rudae, or worse so cheap that they want to make sure the text is trimmed of all relational excess to ensure the demanding 144 character quota is met? My heart and experience of my friends tells me that neither of these things are true. What alternative explanations are there? A few things began to emerge on my fact finding mission.

1. South Africa has an sms/text culture: According to my rigorous research, which included a few casual conversations and a concentrated time of reflection,we send texts far more frequently than Americans. I even encountered Americans who themselves or someone they knew had deactivated their ability to receive texts. Can you imagine a South African who is unable to receive texts? Woe to you, blasphemer! Part of Americans aversion to text messaging is because their service providers charge them to receive sms’s. Because of this, my friends told me they were much more likely to make a phone call than to send a text.
2. Text’s are a functional form of communication: It would seem that this is the assumption of some of the people who sent me those ‘trimmed’ messages. A text is simply functional: to get information, make a request,confirm an arrangement or arrange a time to make a phone call. If it achieves that end the text is ’successful’ and any other communication in the text is unnecessary. This is of course very different from my own usage of texts. For example about 70% of my communication with my girlfriend in JHB throughout the week is through text’s. Text’s in my world (South Africa in general?) go beyond a functional form of communication.

Armed with these two insights I am beginning to understand why I would perceive an sms as being impolite while my friends would see it as completely normal. I feel much better after taking the time to share these thoughts with you and let you into the complex world of sms/text etiquette. All that’s left to ask is what do you think? Should an sms include things like a greeting and an ending or is it only a functional form of communication? Is my indignation culturally conditioned or down right misguided? Is there something I haven’t seen?