Season after Pentecost

This last Sunday marked Pentecost - the celebration of the coming (to stay) of the Holy Spirit. We, as those who are marked by God's story within the Christian calendar, now are entering a long season of growth, discipleship and service. Because the Spirit prompts and guides us, the church has been gifted with all that she needs to proclaim and participate in God's mission to and for the world.

WildFire

He comes
a gentle breeze
making music through the tree branches
loosening the feeble grip of the folliage

He comes
a small flicker
bringing light and warmth within His flame
consuming each wick He finds

He comes
a mighty wind current
raising dust from the dead into a swirling funnel
lifting and dropping the soaring bird

He comes
a wide-hearthed fire
frolicking upon logs and scorching stone
crackling with whispers of untamed flame

He comes
wind and fire
combining into unstoppable Force
crossing the landscape in a dance un-containable

He comes
a rushing wind, a tongue of fire
covering the planet in searing wildfire
gathering a people who play among the Flames

He is here
Spirit
Bold, tender, dangerous, unpredictable
The wildest member of the Trinity

One of My Favorite Days

One of my favorite days in China was the day we went to visit The Philip Hayden Foundation (www.chinaorphans.org). It is a orphanage for kids with special needs - many of which are quite "treatable" in the US. It was a place of incredible warmth, love, and beautiful children! It is a place I would love to return to - to spend an extended amount of time there, holding babies or helping with whatever other projects they may need. Anybody else want to join me????

-sign from outside the Philip Hayden Foundation/Chinese flag in focus

While in China, we got to walk along the Great Wall, which I will blog about in the next post, but at Shepherd's Village (the name of the orphanage) I got to visit an even greater wall, in my opinion. There in the middle of the compound is a wall of handprints. Families can design a tile to celebrate a child's adoption. I was glad that it was God and I walking along the wall together. I was brought to tears as I thought about the word "home" for the kids represented on the wall. But it was bittersweet as I pondered all the ones who have no home yet. I think the tiles speak for themselves....





The highlight of the day was getting to go into the houses where the kids live, get on the floor and play with them. Their smiles and giggles were infectious! In fact, after this trip, I believe that laughter is the universal language and we all need to follow the lead of our children on this. The kids I was with played, shared, giggled, rolled, and hugged along with all the other children despite the language barrier. Somehow words didn't matter, but playing did!!

When we got back to our hotel in Beijing, I skyped my family to tell them about the experience. The first thing my daughter asked was, "Well, are you going to bring some home??" I chuckled at her question, but on a deeper level it is an unsettling one. What does God want us to do with orphans? If called to do so, will we be courageous enough to open our homes and hearts to these special children?

Initial Reflections on China

As I begin to post thoughts, reflections and images about China, I want to make two small disclaimers: first, I loved the trip - so anything seemingly negative I seem to write is not really negative, it is simply a darker color. Two, the reason we all traveled - the adoption - is something I cannot show pictures of. I want to respect the privacy of all the families that were with us. However, I am sure that in my more than 2000 pictures, I can find something to show and I'm sure I can find some words to put with them!

We arrived in Beijing first to an enormous and amazing airport! It has been newly built for the Olympic games and it is pretty impressive. We also arrived to a thick blanket of air pollution (which never fully left us our whole time in China) and a definite smell. Yes, China has a smell. Not bad, not great...but a smell.


My next impression was the amount of people! Everywhere we went in China there were people, people, people. I am not sure how many live in Beijing, but in Chongqing (the second city we were in), there are 30 million people! The country I was born in only has about 33 million for the WHOLE country!

The sense I got was that of being in an ant hill. If you've ever been digging in the dirt and you've dug up an ant hill, you'll understand what I'm talking about. The ants start to scurry and spread and seem to multiply on the spot, until you are sitting in a full mound of ants. That was what China was like - a constant anthill of activity, movement, busyness, and tons of people!


Along with the people come the bikes. There are thousands (actually probably millions) of them - except in Chongqing, which evidently is one of the only Chinese cities with no bicycles. They line the street, people load them down with goods, stack boxes on them and ride them everywhere. (Of course , there were a lot of cars too - and if you were lucky enough to have played Frogger (the video game) during your younger years, you had a small chance of avoiding being hit. (Evidently, the person with the biggest vehicle has the right of way in China!)




My last "first impression" of China I'll share with you from a journal entry I wrote (although I wish I had a better picture to share):

I am struck by the constant buzz and busyness here in China. Traffic is always moving, bikes are always peddling, vendors always selling. The consumerism here is appalling!! Everything can be bought in the markets for almost any price. There is stuff...stuff....stuff...

What makes a society run like this? Has communism so annihilated any spirituality that the new "religion" is materialism? Is there such a void that only more stuff - such fine and rare trumpery - can fill it? (Although perhaps we are on our way to the same "religion" in America!)