My Ghana Days, by Suzanne

View from my house to Ashesi campus, on the second hill just
to the right of the middle of the picture - photo taken 5pm-ish

Sane view,photo taken around 6:45am

People (well, o.k., my Mom and my husband) have been asking about my days here this visit.  I’m here about 6 weeks, staying at the faculty house about a 10 minute drive from Ashesi, outside the village of Berekuso 60+ minutes north of Accra (it’s actually not very far at all, but the road is bad so you can’t go very fast).  So here’s one of my typical days: wake at 6am with the sun (and sometimes my phone alarm), make my tea (in an electric kettle if there’s power, more often the old fashioned way on the stove), take my shower (if no power, then it’s kind of like standing under a trickle, but it’s surprisingly effective), get dressed, get picked by Nina the Ashesi Chief Librarian around 7am, into work by about 7:10.  Most mornings Ashesi’s campus, which is on the top of a hill, is within a cloud, so it’s pretty cool (literally and figuratively) to drive into the cloud each morning.  My class is at 8:30 so I have just enough time to finalize what I will do that day without stressing too much, drop readings off at the library for scanning, etc. I either eat at home with my tea or if I’m running late bring a cliff bar and eat at my desk while prepping. Class runs 8:30 to 11:40 (1/2 lecture, then a break, then lab), then I head back to my office for a few minutes, sort myself out, post the powerpoint I just used and links, etc., then maybe check email briefly before I head to lunch.  Trying to keep up with my first-world email here is tough, the quantity is tremendous – another thing I hadn’t noticed so much in the always-connected fast internet world of the States.  Since I really only have about 5 hours a day of internet and I spend 1 hour of it eating lunch, and at least 3 hours prepping for the next day, getting through email often doesn’t happen in any given day.  So, very sorry if I haven’t responded to an email you sent – I haven’t been on Facebook either L.   Hopefully I’ll catch up.

Lunch is a wonderful spot in my day.  Ashesi is such a close-knit community that mostly people don’t “go to lunch” with each other – you just wander over to the canteen when you’re hungry and free, order and pick up your food, and then sit with whoever is there and visit with them.  Or if no one else is there or if their table is already full, you just start a new table and someone will be along to join you soon enough.  I really like it because I get to chat with just about everybody without having to make “appointments”.  The food at the canteen is great, also – good Ghanaian cooking, usually three choices and two sizes each.  The Ghanaian diet it heavy on the starch (rice or yam or fufu or banku or kenke or plantain), the full portion is too much for me of the starch especially, so I have started doing what many of the American or Europeans do at the Ashesi canteen – order the smaller portion and then pay for an extra order of meat – meat is more of a condiment here, so even with the extra portion of meat you get, for example, about one small chicken drumstick.  But it works well for me, so I am somewhat hungry but not very for dinner. 

My office is the leftmost you can see on the top -
maybe you can tell my door is open

Ashesi courtyard view from my office, looking towards other
offices to the right and classrooms & labs straight across

The afternoon is mostly spent doing whatever absolutely needs to be done for the next day, then if I am catching a ride with Nina again I need to leave at 4:45, which means that at about 4:30 I start logging out of the courseware (Moodle) system, closing my files, shutting down my laptop, packing my backpack, running to the Ashesi convenience store to buy the water I need for the night, etc., to be in the parking lot around 4:45.   I can usually see Nina walk by so I know when I need to dash out.  This week I have stayed late a few nights and caught a ride with someone else, to have another 30-60 min or so of light and internet.  But if I ride with Nina then I get home in time to accompany Nana on her nightly walk.  Nana stays at the faculty house most days during the week, but returns to her house outside of Accra for the weekends.  At home, Nana and I (and maybe others if they’re around) mostly cut up some fruit (mango, pineapple, banana) for dinner and supplement with a little something else – she made a pudding dessert one night, we got some leftovers from a friend from work one night, we have had cheese and crackers a few nights, or even just avocado and crackers.  We have a nice leisurely dinner, we chat for awhile, then we do the dishes and wander off to work some, then go to bed.  That’s about it! 

Most weekends I’ll travel at least some – the first weekend to the beach one night then with the Jackson’s in Accra one night.  The next weekend I’ll go into Accra Saturday night – it’s Ken’s graduation from Lincoln (where my kids went to school and where Fox graduated from).  And of course, church on Sunday!  It was FANTASTIC being back at Asbury-Dunwell last week, I can’t wait to go again!

Suzanne at Anomabo, one of our favorite beaches

The Light is Off… A Lot, by Suzanne

I think it’s official, the light has been off more than it’s been on this trip (ps – since I wrote this yesterday, the light has been largely ON!  So I re-estimate that it’s been 50-50%).  At Ashesi they have generators (and the associated fumes and noise), only once that I’ve been there has the power been out more than a few seconds – the one time was when the generator overheated.  People say the frequency and long durations of light outs is unusual – up until the big rainstorm on Saturday light outs had been much less frequent, so the assumption is that this is a “blip”.  Power out is really not so bad, although it has definitely cut into my productiveness.  What laptop power I have in the evenings I have had to use for work, so even though I have several seasons of Will & Grace (thanks Mary!) and some movies too, I can’t watch them.  Also, I don’t have internet at home, but typically I could at least type out blog posts and emails at home and then copy and paste them during work the next day – not so much of that happening either, although this blog post is being written at my house – in light, but without the laptop battery charging – there is an odd thing in Ghana that sometimes only some of the house has power – they say something like ‘one phase’ is out.  I still don’t quite get it, but in a bit I will go search the house for an outlet that works so I can plug in to recharge.  I plan to watch a movie tonight – tomorrow is a holiday (African Unity Day), so this is my Friday, even though it’s Thursday (and this will get posted some time later). No one else is at the faculty house with me tonight, so a movie sounds good.  I did work hard this week and am ready for a whole evening of not working!  Maybe in the light, maybe in the dark, doesn’t much matter, but hopefully with enough power on my laptop battery.  Or if not, then I’ll start reading The Hunger Games – I hear it’s good! 

My bedroom (in the daylight, of course) - very spacious!

View towards the dressing area and bathroom

Ghana Makes Me Smile, by Suzanne

I am too serious in the U.S.  I knew it before, but coming here makes me realize that I don’t laugh near enough.  Already, 9 days in, I have had several belly laughs, and lots and lots of smiling.  Including this morning – but first a little background.

When we were in Ghana 2006-2008, we had two Fulbright “daughters”, Sarah the first year and Ana S. the second year.  She was “Ana S” because our daughter Anna was just “Anna”, although at that point she began to be called "Anna B", which I still call her some to this day.  The two Annas were close.  At one point, Ana S had really mastered the Ghanaian way of saying “why” which I can’t really do justice to phonetically, but for those of you not familiar with Ghana, trust me when I say it’s different than how it is said in the US.  Anyway, Ana S was teaching Anna B how to say it, they had multiple “why” tutorial sessions.  At one point they decided to play a prank on me and recorded one of their sessions on my phone and set it as my alarm, so the next morning I woke up to:

Ana S: why   Anna B: why (attempting to repeat the sound she just heard Ana S make)

Ana S: why   Anna B: why

Ana S: why   Anna B: why

Ana S: why   Anna B: why  (then the two of them giggling)

I actually thought the recording was was quite fun and have kept it as my alarm (not ringtone) ever since.  The first few years when I returned to Ghana I would be surprised by it the first time I woke up (and smile), now I come to look forward to that first morning in Ghana being awakened by my two Annas practicing their “why”s.

So, this morning, I woke up to why why why why why why why.  That alone does make me smile.  But just then, a bird flew by my window and I could have sworn it said “WHY” (in a very Ghanaian fashion, by the way).  Ghana makes me smile!

View from the window where the bird asked, "why?"

Back in Ghana - Summer 2012, by Suzanne

In retrospect, it was probably a little ambitious to arrive in Ghana after a 23 hour flight and be ready to teach a 3-hour a day everyday course that still needed some prep work within 36 hours of arriving.  Even though I have lived and worked here before.  Even though I have taught this class before (although not exactly this configuration of class).  A bit ambitious, in retrospect.

So, I was off and running.  No time for jetlag, no time for errands, no time (well, not much time) for visiting with friends and colleagues I haven’t seen in a year.  No time for pleasure reading, blogging, or stopping to smell the roses.  I haven’t even had any mangos yet!!! I did decide to forgo some sleep tonight to get the first blog post written (I’ll post tomorrow), since I do know that my friends and family back home want to know how things are going.

Probably also a bit ambitious to say, “YES!!!” to an offer to tag along on a beach trip this weekend – which means we need to leave campus Friday (tomorrow) by 2pm, which means, since I teach all morning, that any prepping I need to do for Monday must be done either before or at home (with no internet) on Sunday.  But, it’s the BEACH.  A west coast of Africa beach!  With transportation and hotel already arranged (thanks, Mary Kay!).  There was NO WAY I was going to say no to that!  I’m trying to find lodging for my me and my student for Saturday night in Accra but so far am having trouble finding availability at our price and comfort point.  I’ll have a few more hours to try tomorrow, otherwise we’ll need to head back to Berekuso Saturday evening which is not ideal since there isn’t meal service on campus on Sundays.  But we can shop in Accra and bring in some prepared foods, so it can work.

So anyway, today was the first class day and it went very well.  15 Ashesi students plus the student I brought from Southwestern.  Some technology hiccups to start, but I was up and lecturing at twenty past the hour (the class was to start on the hour).  Class included the fun (and sometimes inappropriate by American standards) class interactions that I love about Ashesi.  Got the Moodle courseware populated that afternoon so maybe the students will have done their readings for tomorrow - somehow.  One more lecture-only day then we start ½ lecture, ½ lab 3 hour blocks next week.  Most of the labs are largely prepped, so hopefully it will all go pretty smoothly.

Two stumbling blocks to being as efficient as I might be: no internet (and sometimes no power) at the faculty house where I’m staying, and, it’s not walking distance to the campus which means I hitch a ride with someone driving past, which means I can’t work late.  Aeh!  I bring my laptop back and forth each day and can work at home, but not having access to the internet or the Moodle courseware is a hindrance.  But, I’m a good adapter, I can make it work.  The house is huge and lovely (although with oddities like the tub for which there is not near enough water, and the details that don’t work well – but, can be typical of Ghana).

Anyway, that’s it so far.  Safe travels, uneventful flights, a blessed homestay with our friends the Jacksons the first night (plus they picked us from the airport and took us up to Ashesi the next day!!!).  No illnesses, no worries except for getting everything ready for class each day and wishing I had more time for visiting.  But so far, so good in Ghana, West Africa!

Nana and Suzanne in front of the Faculty House

Side view of Faculty House, I have this whole side (upstairs)!

Mission to Haiti, part 2

Mission to Haiti, part 2


Here is a video of our Vacation Bible Camp in Haiti:  

Over the years I have observed that successful mission trips can be evaluated by the degree that each person on the team

Connects with God (covered in part 1)

Connects with the people they came with

Connect with the people they came to serve

Connecting to the people we came with

We were a team of nine people from different churches, two medium sized, and one so large that much of the host team only met at the team orientation. Some were experienced missioners, for others this was their first time out, and I wondered how this team would “gel.” 


Not all Mission Teams jell, but those that do, have a  predictable pattern to how quickly they    become as one (or jell). Ideally it happens between day two or three, but teams can also jell too fast. It is a false bond that is not strong enough to last the entirety of the trip. Some teams never jell, or jell so late that people just get a taste of that team feeling and then it’s over. 

Our team gelled (or jelled) fast and well, in ways I’ve never seen a team come together before. There was no drama or strife, and we worked alongside each other and the Haitians we had come to serve as equals. There is a Haitian Proverb that says “For a table to stand well, all legs must be of equal length”. We learned the proverb’s meaning by example:  for a group to work together well, all must work as equals - different abilities, but a same spirit of dedication.

You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless 

Connecting with the people we came to Serve

Volunteers in Mission (VIM) is attempting a new organizational model for its Haiti effort. In this effort, the work is being guided by the Haitian Methodist Church, using missioners working alongside local people, using local     materials, appropriate technology and construction techniques to the culture (read: we did it by hand). 

For the time a missioner is in the country, four Haitian locals are to be employed in their support. For our team of nine, we had three cooks (who also hauled water for the toilets and bucket showers), two interpreters, a driver (when one was needed), and ten workers whom we worked alongside on the worksite. 

The food was amazing - mostly local dishes and locally grown foods, though one day we had Wonderbread and Spam sandwiches for lunch - which was delicious (really!) Vacation Bible Camp (think VBS) was held for the children of the village in the mornings. The first day there were about 80 kids with an equal mix of boys and girls, but by day three it was closer to a more manageable 40, and mostly boys. We learned that the girls could not come because they were needed to haul water for their families. We slept open air in cots inside the temporary school house, going to sleep and waking to the same sounds as the village, mostly barking dogs and chickens, and the ever present sound of the hand pump being used.

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

(God of the City, by Bluetree)

Why Mission is not just about the Money

I am often asked why we believers go on mission trips, when sending the money the trips cost would be so much more efficient. It’s a fair question, given the cost of transportation and the lack of most North Americans (myself included) to work the distance and abilities of the local work force. And yet I believe in short term mission teams because of the work they do accomplish, on site, and the continuing influence of the work as people resume their lives. Thus far in 2011, 97 UMVIM teams, representing over 800 volunteers, have served in Haiti. 

John Wesley believed that through prayer, God changes us so that we can change the world. I make no illusions about the work we did in Haiti; at best we added about six feet to the height of the walls that will become the foundation of the church building. Even though most of these walls will be buried when it’s back filled, I believe that we made a difference, not only in the continuing work on the church building (which will be complete in six months), but also made a difference in the lives of the children (ask me about a young man named Cladell), and put Wesley’s understanding of prayer into action, changing each of us so that we can go out to change the world. 

Mission to Haiti, part 1

Twisted Re-bar from destroyed church building 

In July 2011 I accompanied United Methodist Volunteers in Mission to Haiti to help rebuild the Methodist Church in Mellier, which was near the epicenter of the recent earthquake. The earthquake came on a Tuesday, which was my second day at St. Philip’s. The reports started coming in that there had been one, and then about the devastation, and      collectively we wondered how best to respond. It was decided a special offering would be taken and to channel those funds through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). That Sunday, I was so proud of my new church, that it would ask it’s people to respond by giving what was needed most, prayer and backing up those prayers with financial gifts.

  

I didn't know much about Haiti before the January 12, 2010 earthquake. I remembered a hurricane had hit the island nation in the Fall of 2008, mainly because the church I was serving at the time was not one that had a culture of receiving special offerings for aid in natural disaster relief. This time would be different.

In the weeks and months following the January 12, 2010 earthquake, there was a large outpouring of support from around the world, and Haiti was in the news as teams began to trickle down there to provide the initial physical relief. As the efforts turned to rebuilding, the   stories were not so dramatic, and soon the news and our lives moved on to other stories. 

Our Team, Chuck is third from the left. 

Our Team Leader was Chuck Newmann, who had watched many of the same news reports that we had after the quake. If you remember back to those days when we were just beginning to understand the extent of the damage, there was a great need for potable water. Chuck remembers seeing pallets of bottled water  unloaded from a plane from Sams, and thinking “now how long is that bottled water going to last, a day or so?” Chuck has served in the Army, and thought of the large water processing trucks he had worked on and wondered why we were not sending aid of that kind.      It was enough to stir his heart toward Haiti. He had to help. Ten months later, Chuck was in Haiti with a Volunteers in Mission (VIM) team helping to rebuild an orphanage. Eight months later, Chuck would be leading our team, Team #24, at the Mellier site.

I saw the announcement in our conference email last December, inviting applications for a team organizing from First United Methodist Church, Mansfield, Texas. They were leaving a few spots open for people from other churches. I spoke with Suzanne and Dr. Dale, and both seemed to think it a good idea that I apply to the team. 

We left early July 5 and arrived in Haiti after dark. I was not prepared for how much, at least on the surface, Haiti would remind me of Ghana. Sure, the humidity, but also the smells, sounds, and food, even the way the vendors stacked their mangos to sell beside the road. I felt like I was back home in my adopted country of Ghana. I would see situations develop and instantly understand what was happening. I also felt an immediate connection to the people of Haiti, which is the answered prayer that missionaries make, praying God would break their hearts for these people they have come to serve. It reminds me of the bridge of that Reuben Morgan song, Hosanna-

Break my heart from what breaks yours
 Everything I am for your kingdoms cause

I have observed that successful mission trips can be evaluated by the degree that each person on the team:

Connects with God

Connects with the people they came with

Connect with the people they came to serve

Connecting with God

Each night our team gathered for devotions, initially thought to last 10 - 20 minutes long, but each night the singing and sharing lasted longer and people from the village joined us, sitting outside our circle to listen and sing. These devotions allowed the missioners to process their day and tell where they saw God working among them. Our theme song became God of the City, and we sang it nightly as the lyrics became a heart song, or breath prayer, that guided our work. Over the next nine days, these lyrics became flesh; they took on physical meaning to us as walls of the church were built, block by block, and the walls that separate our cultures came down. 

You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

Here is a video of some of the work we did there: 

Handfasting - Care for the Rope that holds you together.

This fall I was honored to officiate at a Wedding in Colorado in which a Handfasting was used.  Handfasting is a Celtic tradition in which the hands of both bride and groom are symbolically tied together.  At this wedding some of the grooms old climbing ropes used.  I liked how the couple introduced the idea as a how they would use a blend of some of his rock-climbing rope to bind their hands together.  This is meaningful because just as the rope had supported and preserved his life in the past, so will the marriage to this woman, his bride, support and preserve his life - and hers - in the future." 

There is a saying that “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken”, and I told the couple that about those ropes that would be used, and how they could be a metaphor for this new life they begin together, and spoke to the about what I thought these three strands would represent.

One stand would be the bride, another the groom, and the third the vows they are taking and that we have gathered to witness and bless. 

From an engineer’s perspective, ropes like these are highly overdesigned in that the safe working load is determined to be one fifth of the rope’s breaking strength.  So really you could by  on just one of these strands…right?  Then I asked the groom if he had ever trusted a climbing rope like that? 

The strength of a rope depends on its thickness, the thickness of the rope depends on it components and the components of this rope of marriage are the bride, the groom, and the vows they make to each other.

So what is the care and feeding of this rope?

According to REI, here are some simple guidelines:

Don’t step on your rope.  REI says that there is nothing that wears out your rope faster than stepping on it.  Besides possibly cutting the sheath on the rocks underfoot, stepping on the rope also grinds dirt and dust into the sheath and core, which increases unseen internal damage to the rope.

The same is true for marriage, I told them.  Don’t step on your marriage, don’t grind dirt into it; don’t walk all over your marriage and then expect it to protect you.  So don’t step on your rope.

Use a rope bag – a good rope bag keeps dust and dirt fro finding its way inside your rope.   Dirt impairs the strength, safety  and performance of your rope.

The same is true for marriage ­– You need to protect it, to have a place it can rest, away from work, away from the pressures of life, away from friends, and yes family.  Make time for just the two of you, doing something you both enjoy, and do it just because you enjoy doing it.  It doesn’t have to lead to anything, enjoying it is a good enough reason.   God knows you both in professions that are difficult and stressful enough on their own, protect your marriage.  So use a rope bag. 

Run your rope freely – Make sure your rope runs freely whenever possible.  There is nothing that will trash a rope like sharp edges or rough corners.  Let it hand free and encourage the twist to unwind with your hand.  

The same is true for marriage – Let your spouse be themselves, the person you fell in love with.  Give them permission to try new things, change, learn a new skill, and run free.  Don’t be overly controlling, allow them the freedom to be the person they are becoming.  Be patient and kind with them, support them in their successes. Some of which may eclipse yours, but don’t be envious, nor jealous but be supportive.  Let your home be a safe place to unwind. So let your rope run freely.

Avoid poor rappelling and belaying – Fast or jerky  rappelling, lowering and belaying can cause rope damage due to burning the sheath, as well as loss of control.   

The same is true for marriage – Avoid drama for drama’s sake.  Don’t intentionally jerk each other around.  In our house we try to follow the “no strife” rule, meaning we do not invite strife into our lives.  Imagine a door that is shut, and then imagine everything that is wrong with the world, or could go wrong, every type of evil is behind that door, and when you open that door, you are inviting strife it into your home,  and the worst part is knowing that you did it yourself, and once open, it doesn’t go back easily.

Mark the Middle, NOT – UIAA tests a few years ago showed that marking ropes with sharpies or felt-tipped pens can damage the rope; this even includes those markers sold specially for marking ropes. 

The same is true for marriage – Don’t mark up your marriage, don’t keep score, keep no record of wrongs.  You will have opportunity to practice this rule.  And each time you get to make decision..do I forgive,  do I learn to trust again, do I hope for a better tomorrow or long for a past that never was?  The decision is yours each time, and each time you keep score, or mark your rope, you weaken it.  Sometimes climbers mark the middle of their rope, and in marriage that leads to a 50:50 portioning of its responsibilities.  A friend of mine warned against that, explaining that every good marriages is based on the 60:40 rule.  That if you each contribute 60% to marriage, there will always be extra in times of need; and in your case, if you mark not the middle, but always make sure that you’ve let out 60%, your rope will never run out.  

Now…here is where the metaphor breaks down.  REI suggest that ropes must be replaced when damaged or when old.  And they give general guidelines, like after repeated falls, or every two years in traditional use, or 2-4 years in weekend use, or when damaged (by anything I mentioned earlier).

But unlike rope, your marriage has the ability to regenerate, to recover, to repair damage and to be made new.  All you have to do is care for it, keep the vows you made, and protect the love you have for each other. 

Your rope can climb mountains, it can move mountains, it can do all things and through it, all things are possible.

Today you both are putting your hands to this rope called marriage and being here today you are putting your faith in love of the person who holds the other end of the rope for you. 

Being here today you are giving hope to your shared future, so if you care for this rope, and it will take care of you both, and never run out.

Lebh Shomea: Lessons Learned.

Lebh Shomea: Lessons Learned.

So maybe lessons learned is too definitive. Lessons in the process of being learned might fit better because I seem to come back around to these lessons like seasons of the year. Again I learn or relearn is that I am doing too much that doesn’t matter, last or make a difference.

Inside the Sacred Heart Chapel

One day in community silent prayers I was convicted by something I read in the Gospel of John. Each day at 5pm people gather in the Sacred Heart Chapel and sit in silence until the dinner bell rings. Hunger leads to more effective prayer. I was meditating on what Jesus said about being bread of life, he cautions me not to work for food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life. This hits home because I like to cook so much, even knowing that this effort is just for this meal; I like to play music with other musicians, knowing the songs do end, concerts do conclude; and so much of the weekly work I do for the church goes in the recycling bin because we done with it, its all food that spoils.

The Dinner Bell

Except for the relationships – the people at the dinner table, the musicians in the band, those who gather to worship, these are the relationships nurtured. It seems to me that it can’t all be food that endures to eternal life, there must also be some food that spoils, that is the tyranny of the urgent.

We have some coffee mugs from my first church, ones so old that now there is just faint reminder of their design. We were so proud of these mugs when they came out, and we worked so hard to get the design right. Those were the early days of that church when we really didn’t know who we were, or what we were becoming, and so much effort went into coffee mugs, webpages, bulletins, publications, none of which survive to this day.

What survived are the relationships, and yet what I spend the majority of my time on was the stuff that didn’t; didn’t last, matter, or make a difference.

It is like I have placed the importance on the coffee mug, but what really matters is what goes in it… the coffee. We need both, without the coffee its just a mug, and without mug, we don’t get the coffee. There is a balance between the mug, how it feels in the hand, and against the lips, together they complements the experience of drinking coffee, but in the end, it is the coffee, not the mug that is its reason for being. At Lebh Shomea instant is the only coffee available, so maybe I’m just jonesing for a real cup o’ joe.

Dining Room

I think this coffee-mug metaphor fits well with what I have come to understand this time as the mission of the church (that is why we do what we do):

Make Disciples
Disciple Believers
Wash more Feet

Understanding that to …
Make Disciples means to introduce Jesus to people in a positive way by who we are, and what we do with the end goal being of God becoming real to those whom we have introduced to Jesus to. But it does not end with the making disciples.

Disciple Believers means that we provide opportunities and the expectation that people will grow in their faith and understanding of the faith practices by connecting them to other believers. Together, communities are formed that gather for prayer and to study the Bible. I struggle with using the word believers, as if I am limiting it, confessionally, to professing Christians. I guess what I mean is that the leaders of the community would be believers, so that its focus always remains God-centered. Churches and Small Groups have a tendency to become self absorbed, inwardly focused and so the third component and so they need opportunities to look outside themselves.

Wooden Cross at the Cowboy Cemetery

Wash Feet or Wash More Feet means that there are opportunities and an expectation that the church will to serve others inside and outside its community, in either service or mission. Defining mission as something we do for non-believers (as the hands and feet of Christ), and service as something we do for believers (as their community of faith). I’m not sure if the word more is needed, but it does place the expectation that the church will ever increase its efforts in serving others.

By attending to all three (Make Disciples, Disciple Believers, Wash more Feet) God’s church helps people work out their own salvation. Salvation, I’ve seen in my readings this week, means more than just a single salvific or justifying moment that awakens our faith (and “saves” us). Salvation means becoming whole, and sanctification is that process or journey to which all believers are called to, one that leads toward their wholeness. Faith is but one component that journey, and seeking wholeness includes a faith that seeks understanding, that connects to a community, that putting their faith into action, that lives to make a difference, a difference that matters, and whose efforts ultimately last beyond themselves.

Sunset from the Tower of The Big House