The
Leaving Eden Series: The One
I really do like Brandon Heath – his music,
that is. He's cute too, but that's not the point. He comes across as a real
person and doesn't sugarcoat following God while living in a broken world.
After hearing this song however, I asked
myself: does it really just take one to turn this all around? I am
skeptical. I do believe we need The One (Jesus) to help us, but thinking of
ourselves as single people who can change this world I think is slightly
unrealistic. Let me try to explain.
I recently came back from Colombia, serving
with the first 'round' of MCC's SEED program. SEED focuses on education,
service and advocacy in a 2 year MCC term (http://seed.mcc.org).
This program is unique in many ways. I
was part of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and theologically diverse team from
5 different countries and had a unique 3-month orientation to Colombia – its
politics, economics, the state of the churches there, and the social situation
and ongoing armed conflict. After the 3 months, we divided up and each went to
a different church or community across the country. We served individually with
a local community or congregation, then met every 3 months to reflect on these
experiences and deepen our understanding of community development, peacebuilding
and advocacy in Colombia and in our home countries.
All this sounds pretty neat? I think so. It
was a very grounding experience, but throughout the 2 years, my expectations
didn't match up with the reality 'on the ground'. Perhaps a few examples would
help:
1. I arrived in Colombia with a team of
people from different countries, theological backgrounds and life experiences.
I was excited to meet my fellow SEEDers, knowing it wouldn't always be easy to
work as a team, but was nonetheless still excited.
Reality: We were all different, which is
great. But it was also hard to find common ground with some team members and I
felt I couldn't openly express my faith. We all found good friends in the
group, but it took us the better part of the 2 years to understand and support
each other like a team should.
2. I went to serve with a local church community. I wanted to build
relationships with people in the church and understood this was key to doing
any meaningful work. I see myself as an
'accessible' person and hoped people could trust me.
Reality:
Several teens did not seem to relate easily to me and some of the adults were
distant and sometimes harsh in
expressing themselves. I had to learn to not take their mistrust personally. After 1 ½ years, I realized I had
finally gained many peoples' trust – but not all of them.
3. I understood that addressing large
social problems was part of SEED (work towards peace in Colombia, less family
violence, equal access to education, etc). I was excited about working around
these issues with people in the church.
Reality: I learned about these issues,
but not how I had hoped or expected. Many people in the church struggled to
provide for their basic needs and think of life in the short-term. In a sense,
I felt powerless to help people break out of vicious cycles. I had to be
patient and understand that I couldn't force my wishes on others and realize
that people had to meet their basic needs before thinking about big-pictures
issues (working for peace in Colombia; reducing family violence; equal access
to education, etc).
These experiences (and others) in Colombia
reminded me that I am not the one, but one among many. Working with
people, or 'doing development', is not a sexy job. There are times it's hard to
understand peoples' actions or attitudes. Other times they can't understand
ours. But what evolves from this process will hopefully transform everyone
involved and we will recognize how we can give and receive from others as
equals, thanking The One for the chance to do so.
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