A beacon of hope

We went and saw the new Nelson Mandela statue in Parliament Square last week, which the man himself came to unveil. The bronze sculpture is full of passion- in contrast to most of the others around the square with their elegant stature. It was really moving standing in front of the imploring figure, arms open, face appealing and knowing what Mandela has acheived. At the unveling he said "Though this statue is of one man, it should in actual fact symbolise all of those who have resisted oppression, especially in my country." Good old Gordon Brown finished up the ceremony with some truth when he said “This statue is a beacon of hope. It sends around the world the most powerful of messages: that no injustice can last for ever, that suffering in the cause of freedom will never be in vain.”

Spanners

I think it was Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis who said if someone was to create a religion as opposite as possible to the thing Jesus set out to do it would look remarkably like the pop christianity most nations have got going on at the moment. It's scarily true. The words and antics of Jesus in the Bible mess with the Sundayish, soundbitey, rigid religion most people see in the Church.... (This is the latest from Jon Birches cartoon blog, Asbo Jesus, and I think he does a cool job getting these anomolies across!)

G R E E N B E L T

We are looking for a ride there, can you help us?!

bringing home the bacon and breaking up the bike

This week I started a new job at Oxfam GB co-ordinating their Outreach programme, part of the mobilising-youth-to-act-on-global-poverty strand of the organisation. I love it. It is, however, in Oxford. A 4 hour a day commute. I could knock it down to 3 hours with a bike, so yesterday we invested in a 30 year old green folder which is rather retrotastic and goes like the wind (or at least a breezey whisper.)
So don't ask me why at this very moment Tim is out the back taking it apart with his pocket knife and a teaspoon under the guise of "adding new inner tubes".

and more on that...

crazy, was just abroowsing and came across a rad article by Geoff Ryan on church and buildings too... on the rubicon.

brring brring

We were down in the gardens a couple of weeks ago hanging with my grandparents when one of their friends from church came along and told a story about the antics of his grandson that afternoon. All the family had been standing around in the driveway chatting when the little 7 year old lad came round the corner on his bike, ringing his bell and yelling on the top of his voice "Watch Out! Holy Spirit coming through!"
I Love It!
The wee chap has grasped something the rest of us just want to keep forgetting.
There are so many places to go with this, but I am going to delve quickly into bricks and mortar with Shane Clairborne....
"There is something precious about corporate worship, but corporate is whenever two or three of us gather with God. We must resist the ancient temptation to centralise worship, especially at the expense of justice for the poor. The human made temples will be split open, and no stone will be left on another, jesus says. Acts 17.24 reminds us that God "does not live in temples built by hands." The scriptures remind us that we are God's temples, that the spirit lives in us. And in a very special way, as Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, in the least of these we find Jesus in disguise. Perhaps we are just as likely to encounter God over the dinner table or in the slums or in the streets as in a giant auditorium."

Lost Identity

I don't know how it happened. I just forgot I was a blogger. Totally forgot till today. So thats why I havene blogged for a wee while. Really weird. In blogging theres definatley a period where things of the day are divided into "bloggable" and "notbloggable" but then that passes and you become more harmoniously comfortable with your blogging status. And then it seems that after that you one day wake up and are not a blogger as such any more. You simply forget you own a blog and should feed it. (Like what usually happens with my plants but hopefully not my future womb fruit.) And here I have arrived at this third stage.
So.... maybe this signifies my blogging end. Or maybe not the end just yet but more a.... retirement. A graceful meander towards the nursing home.

life through the little things

I am reading Miroslav Volf's "Free of charge"(not just because of his name or the fact that he doesn't give God a gender although both of those things are very cool.)
This is a rad bit. He has just been talking about Gods life flowing through us through "sacred" things (singing/praying/stufflikethat)....
"Notice what happens to the flow of God's life if we think of it as limited to such sacred events. It is streaming into us, but for the most part it is not flowing through us on to others.... It is as we serve our neighbours- our family, friends and acquaintances- that the damn holding the flow of gifts is lifted and the life of God continues its intended flow. Every word and every deed, every thought and every gesture, even the simplest act of paying attention can be a gift and therefore an echo of Gods life in us.
You sit on your couch, beer or soda in hand and junk food by your side watching t.v for hours- that's ordinary. You work around the clock not because you have to feed your family, but for no other reason than to park a better car in your garage than your neighbours have- thats ordinary. You get up from the couch to play with your kids or give your time and energy to help educate a prisoner or lend an ear to an elderley person- thats extraordinary. Why? Because you are giving. Every gift breaks the barrier between the sacred and the mundane and floods the mundane with the sacred. When a gift is given life becomes extraordinary because Gods own gift of giving flows through the giver."
Awesome eh.

a challenge from Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant"
from Hope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches. (1984)
it is sad that this is so true. That evil can continue because the caring and compassionate people are forgetful, distracted and lazy in the fight for justice.

agricultural update

only one tomato plant has died in the whole 2 weeks of owning them! what a wonderful success. 5 of the other plants all now have little bubbles of green nutrition ready to grow big and red any time soon.
I planted some lettuce seeds not realising that each seed became a whole lettuce so put a scattering of 20-40 seeds in each whole (you get millions in a packet) so now have a big trayful of HUNDREDS of lettuce sprouts which will all be ready to eat at the same time. Hmm. So again, let me know if you like salad ;)
We visited our family in Weymouth last week and had an awesome time looking at pirates graves and neolithic land bumps. My fabulous cousin sarah works in the quaintest bean and tea shop in the world (baskets piled high with lentils and strange stuff) and one day brought me home 4 aubergine plants and 3 pepper plants which made it back to London safe and sound. This veggie garden thing is well and truly gathering momentum. Hurray!

aviation hesitation

There has been some debate over here lately about the Live Earth Concerts - gigs to create awareness of climate change. You know, how does flying crowds of stars around the planet justify the awareness raised? etc etc. And fair enough too. I remember being rather disillusioned at the U2 concert standing before so many crates worth of equipment with Bono perched on top casting a vision of poverty eradication knowing full well the impact of his tour on climate change, and knowing full well that climate change hits the words poor the hardest and the first.
I thought it so sucked. And then I jumped on a plane across the world with several short hauls imbetween!
It is like, we are prepared to do the easy (sorting through our rubbish) and even the fasionable (the Anna Hindmarch bag, the bike with a basket (man, I want one))but not the things that are really hard.

Video from Plane Stupid a group and site worth checking out.

dreaming of freedom

Wonderful news! British journalist Alan Johnson set free after 114 days of captivity! "I am immensely grateful. It's just the most fantastic thing to be free."

Now, I don't mean to highjack the good news. A positive headline is such a rare thing. But, perhaps just because of the emotional intensity of the situation, his freedom is so starkly highlighting to me the millions in unjust captivity around the world. People who have such a faint, faint, hardly there faint glimmer of hope for freedom.

600,000 women slaves trafficked around the globe
1.2 million child slaves trafficked around the globe
12.3 million men, women and children currently in forced labour around the globe
23 million men, women and children in forced labour AND other forms of enslavement around the globe

Alan Johnson said this morning, "I literally dreamt many times of being free, and always woke up back in that room. And now it really is over, and it really is indescribably good."

God for those who dream of freedom around the world, make it a reality. And I pray WE will be prepared to work for the freedom of others. Some ideas are here but I am sure there is SO much more we can do to bring freedom for the those in captivity.

Greeenfingers

Last year I tried to grow two plants. It wasn't too great a success (see post I Kill Things)However I am giving it another crack and can proudly say I have owned 5 wonderful herbs for over 4 days now and they are all still alive.
I also ordered 5 tomato plants from ebay which when they turned up were a bit too tiny to expect anything on my plate any time soon (like 2 cm tall, I was gutted) so I asked Tim to pick me up a couple of bigger ones from the garden centre yesterday. He bought home another 6. So, er, now I have 11 tomato plants. (Give me a ring if you are making a salad in a month or so...)
And I just put some garlic in some soil to see what happens.
I have plans for an adventurous roof top garden with all sorts of edible delights and I have been dreaming about beds of potatos and stawberries and juicy carrots and designing greenhouses from recycled materials. I was greatly encouraged in my scheme when I wandered past a flash block of flats down the road the other day that had 5 ginourmous posh pots outside with nothing in that came to belong to my tomato plants (I asked a builder.)
So, I will let you know from time to time how the second furrow into botanics goes, and of course, do let me know a hot tip if you have one as I don't want to kill things this time.

6 wonderful little things in posh pot from down the road

Number 10

Well, Gordon Brown is officially in. A refreshing perspective on the UK's new leader is offered here by Jim Wallis, renowned politically involved evangelical. (Props to the Illuminate Blog for highlighting it.) Wallis replaces the common description of "dour" with "passionate" and believes Brown could be the man needed to help in the fight for global economic justice.
It's easy to swing from skeptical to excited and I don't think we have enough to go on to have our hopes fly to high, but it is a relief that there is one very on to it person out there who has faith in Mr Brown, eh?!!
Here is a bit of a Gordon speech, quoted in Jims article:
Because we all want to address the roots of injustice, I can tell you today that we will strengthen and enhance the work of the department of international development and align aid, debt relief and trade policies to wage an unremitting battle against the poverty, illiteracy, disease and environmental degradation that it has fallen to our generation to eradicate.
That is a ripper promise, and lets pray he's not just talk.

To drink or not to drink

Bummer, that last question of that last post was meant to stir debate between the Starbucks Moccachino lovers and the staunch "Starbucks still sucks completly because such a tiny percentage of their coffee is Fair Trade and they take away from organic community life" crowd (thats me.)
I think our family has decided that we will have one Starbucks coffee in order to celebrate and encourage them in this step towards justice, but then after that continue to boycott them on the premise that they can do a whole lot more (or maybe just shouldn't exist!) Hehe.
More on Coffee and Injustice: Last year Blackgold was released in NZ. It is an awesome film and I implored every kiwi to see it! Well, it has finally been released here in the UK. It is not just about fair trade but about the whole coffee industry so interests a wide variety of people. See here for screenings.

Campaigning does work!

Do you remember last year me ranting and raving about Starbucks screwing over Ethiopia? Well, Starbucks have finally come to the party, here's the official blurb: "Starbucks and Ethiopia have finally signed a licensing agreement securing Ethiopia's ownership over its speciality coffee names Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. This comes after about 8 months of campaigning, more than 96,000 people across the globe calling on Starbucks - through emails, faxes, phone calls, postcards, and in-store visits - to honour their committment to Ethiopian farmers." Awesome eh? Justice bought about through the humble actions of passionate individuals and the brave voice of organisations like the Salvation Army.
So do we start drinking Starbucks?!

bit late but never mind...

World Refugee Week has just finished! This time last year when I was blogging about refugee week I was just begining my journey of friendship with a wonderful refugee family from Myanmar who I helped settle into New Zealand life. It was such a privilege to become part of their life and I them and was so hard to say bye when we left Aotearoa. Since then they have had a gorgeus new addition to the family, little Daniel, and have just got a car and a license and their English is improving everyday. Praise the Lord.
I have just been reading about refugees here in the UK - there are 2 and half thousand unaccompanied refugee children in London alone, and an estimated 200 asylum seekers arriving every week through my local bus station. It is heart breaking to imagine how hard it is for them, and even sadder to think of the unwelcoming response they recieve from locals- "They sponge of the government"- that is common here in UK and NZ.
If you don't already, I encourage you to make a place in your life for the refugees and migrants in your neighbourhood. (Maybe you want to explore doing this through volunteering with an organisation. This is what I and a few friends have done. One fabulous friend told me last week that she went to visit her family and they had broken down a massive branch from their neighbours tree and it was stuck in their fire place and protruded out across the whole lounge- trying to keep warm in the frosty kiwi winter!! Anyway, if you are interested in that, kiwis check out RMS and those in UK check out Refugee Council)
So, anyway will finish this post with some of the one and only Dave Dobbyns poetry from the song "Welcome Home" which proved to be a powerful statement in New Zealand at a time when a few people were being very vocal about the influx of people from outside the borders....
tonight I am feeling for you
under the state of a strange land
you have sacrificed much to be here
‘there but for grace…’ as I offer my hand
welcome home, i bid you welcome, i bid you welcome
welcome home from the bottom of my heart
out here on the edge
the empire is fading by the day
and the world is so weary in war
maybe we’ll find that new way

so welcome home, see i made a space for you now
welcome home from the bottom of our hearts

there’s a woman with her hands trembling - haere mai
and she sings with a mountain’s memory - haere mai

there’s a cloud the full length of these isles
just playing chase with the sun
and it’s black and it’s white and it’s wild
all the colours are one

Salut again

Have been in France for 10 days with the whanau. Absolutley gorgeous, up in the Alps, swimming and croissants everyday: wonderful! I read a host of books while over there, mostly fantastical novels (ooh espionage is thrilling) with a couple of serious ones thrown in to help keep my mind anchored to reality. One of which was Irrestible Revolution by Shane Clairborne of the Simple Way. It was wicked eh, especially the second half. A bundle of great stories and quotes to articulate the thoughts of an increasing bunch of people. Thoughts about Jesus, church, love, political and social involvement. There are Christians in America who beleive that following Jesus involves activism other than outside abortion clinics, hurray for that. Well worth a read. Ask Steve if you can borrow his and Jo's copy. Or if you see it on someones bookshelf do try and pinch it.
I should maybe quote a bit but I think I am a bit lazy at the moment and anyway I feel a blogging spree coming on so some excerpts might fuel that a bit.

little kites and death (!)

I love kites. Up in the Lakes we wiled time away by soaring, diving and spinning Steves stunt kite. One time I climbed up a hill and watched the others play in the stormy weather. The little kite dashing about seemed like a rip or a tear in the fabric of the landscape- a dash of daring red. A kite up there high in the sky can be a picture for heaps of stuff I guess, but I love the thought that it is like the triumph over death that is ours because of Jesus. Who would think that a frail whisp of silk could dance about on the hinges of a massive weather diaster? Surely the wind would conquer it. But however mad the wind is the kite can always soar (if you have good kiting skills that is, otherwise you just get in a tangle.) Good for us that we don't have to have death fighting skills- that the victory over death is already won. Thank God, eh.

Winnifred Read

Early on Tuesday morning my Grandma passed away. Winnifred Read was one of the most beautiful, graceful, strong, prayerful, funny and vibrant people I knew (know?) As I was going to bed that night thinking of a world without my Grandma Nelson Mandella's words from the momentous occasion when he became president of South Africa were tripping through my mind-
The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement. A bit out of context I know but I couldn't shake the phrase. For that was Grandmas life- a glorious achievement in light, life and love. Grandma was a walking extravagance in loving God and loving others. I miss her like mad already and I know my Grandad, Dad and Aunty will be missing her even more, as well as the thousands others she has shone upon all around the world. It is that tangle of feelings- sadness and shock and peace and happiness that we know absolutley that right now she is hanging with her Creator and all the other Saints. The Salvation Army has a curious phrase for dieing - "promoted to glory". It is used so often that I forget it's meaning, but there is no better phrase for people like Grandma. I thank God for my beautiful Grandma and her new residence.