Day 8: Beautiful Friends (12 Days of Beauty)

I'm writing this on a boat after a wonderful evening out with friends who are stationed elsewhere in Asia and were passing through.

It's amazing to know that we have friends and colleagues who are partners with us in the work we're doing all over the world. Sitting around a table and sharing our experiences is such an encouragement and inspiration.

We are thankful today for the beauty of these encounters.

Evan

Day 7: Art (12 Days of Beauty)

The Beauty of art. In this case, I don't just mean classic fine art. There is something about public art that is also important. As much as I adore meandering through art galleries to gaze at Van Goghs and Rembrandts, public art is so much more accessible and often meant to provoke thought or at least make you smile.

One of our favourite outdoor dinner spots is littered with art. (Don't worry, I won't write about food again.) It's big and weird and creative. I love it! There are so many pieces that I keep noticing ones I hadn't seen before. Here are some:

Episode 6: The Beauty Awakens (12 Days of Beauty)

One of the adjustments we needed to make when we left our "old life" behind was a drastic change in income. There have been a lot of times we have looked wistfully at things and thought "yeah, that was another life". Don't imagine this to be a complaint - our quality of life is the best it has ever been and we are incredibly happy with our decision, we don't lack for anything. I am only pointing out that it is different.

The difference is a little more pronounced living in a bigger city than it was in our previous assignment; there are a lot of luxuries available here if you have the money. That's why today was really quite special. Some family members gave us a gift to be used to take ourselves out, so out we went!

There is a movie theatre here that is more than just "going to a movie", but more of a complete experience. For about an hour before the movie you can sit in the lounge and enjoy complimentary gourmet snacks, juice and tea before going in and taking your place. Our "seat" in this case, was a large "day bed", where Bonnie and I could cuddle up under the blankets to watch the new Star Wars.

The movie was fantastic, the food was incredible and the theatre was luxurious; but the real beauty today was our family members back home who were thinking of us and decided we needed this.

Evan

Day 5: In Pursuit of the Perfect Puff (12 Days of Beauty)

Sometime in the last week, we wandered past a shop that had signs for delicious looking giant cream puffs. We were on our way somewhere and couldn't get them at the time but we knew we wanted to try them soon.

Yesterday we were back at the same mall that we had seen them. Or so we thought. We scoured the floor with all the little bake shops where we had been but to no avail. Store directories and Google couldn't help us. We had failed in our quest.

After more in-depth searching, we found reference to the shop online! It is a chain and has more than one shop in Bangkok. Tonight we found them.

It was was totally worth it! These aren't your normal little profiteroles. These are huge Japanese style flavoured cream or custard filled pastries. Absolutely beautiful. I chose the chocolate filled one this time and the first bite brought me memories of going to the malt shop in KP mall with my folks when I was a kid. By the end the light chocolate cream tasted more like a frothy mousse.

Evan went with the salted caramel. Meh. I'm looking forward to trying the matcha next. I think Evan might go with the macadamia one.

Hopefully I'll write about something other than food soon.

Day 4: A Night at the Embassy (12 Days of Beauty)

One of the things Bonnie and I are very thankful for is our small group from our church out here. We meet in the group leaders' home which happens to be on the grounds of the British Embassy, as they are stationed here with the embassy.

The evening usually involves a certain amount of snacking (tea and scones, anyone?) as well as a Bible study, fellowship and a chance to pray for each other. Tonight was no different and we had a great time studying some seasonally appropriate prophecies about the coming of the Messiah.

Regardless of the setting, we are still a pretty international group and it is beautiful to be able to sit down with people from all different backgrounds, cultures and walks of life and just enjoy being the Body. You can go in and out of any nation or embassy you'd like, but when you're meeting together like this you know you're in the Kingdom.

Evan

Day 3: Homemade Cheese (12 Days of Beauty)

It's Monday. It's been busy and stressful. Didn't really feel very beautiful...

But...

Evan made ricotta for dinner.

He's discovered how easy it is to make homemade ricotta so we have it every once in a while. Today it was featured with "nachos". I made beans (from dry pintos to spiced mash!), guacamole, fresh cilantro tomatoes and we found some lovely corn tortilla chips. I am sometimes impressed with what we can do with local ingredients and limited cooking options to come up with comfort food. 

So, at least our dinner was beautiful! And delicious.

Day 2: The Light Shines in the Darkness (12 Days of Beauty)

It was not difficult to find beauty today; the challenge was finding the time to step back and appreciate it. Our church out here held its annual carol service tonight and we really enjoyed it. Before the final song everyone's candle was lit and we filed out of the church to stand in the courtyard to sing "Silent Night".

One of the readings from the service was (naturally) 1 John, and I am always captivated by the imagery: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." (Sometimes that is rendered "understand", rather than "overcome", depending on your translation.) Standing out in the night, holding our candles, that verse seemed so very true. At Christmas we hold out our lights, lit from a flame that has been passed on from generation to generation since the events of John 1.

This light has never been extinguished, never been overcome. Sometimes it is a lone candle in a sea of darkness and sometimes there are countless little flames joined together to fill the sky. Tonight we were able to join with a couple hundred fellow believers from all over the world to hold our candles together in the night. It was humbling, moving and above all, beautiful.

Evan

Day 1: International Pie Day (12 Days of Beauty)

This morning, Evan and I helped to make approximately 500 mincemeat pies. I've never even eaten a mincemeat pie before. Which is not even meat, by the way, it's a mix of dried fruit and nuts. But my mom did teach us how to make pie. Thanks mom!

That's me in the blue apron.

That was one of the really cool things; you didn't have to be a British Pro Baker to be a part of today's pie extravaganza, as we were led by a wonderful lady whose ministry is teaching baking to former sex workers to give them a chance at a new life. She is really great at this kind of thing. Very patient, giving clear instructions and praising our efforts despite our imperfections.

There were well over a dozen folks working in that hot little church kitchen and I counted at least 8 different countries of origin. It was wonderful to meet and work (and sweat) with so many interesting people. It was beautiful. We were the UN of baking! (Actually, one of the ladies works with the World Food Federation that is a part of the United Nations. No joke.)

Almost done for the day!

Oh, perhaps you are wondering why we were making 500 mincemeat pies! They are a Christmas tradition in the UK and our church is having a Christmas Carol service tomorrow night that includes the pies as well as another long-standing British Christmas tradition, mulled wine. 

Tune in again tomorrow to read more about the carol service! Probably.

~ Bonnie

12 Days of Beauty

This Christmas we are taking up a challenge and we would encourage you to do the same!

Christmas looks so different in varying parts of the world. In Manitoba Christmas always came with cold weather, short days and glistening white snow. In the Philippines Christmas started in September and, though distinctly lacking in snow, was celebrated with a fervor that would make even Hallmark executives blush.

Where we are now, though, Christmas feels very far away. Oh, we can step into any department store and see extravagant holiday displays, but among the palm trees, shrines, high-rises and smog it's hard to imagine either a quiet manger or a fat old man climbing down a chimney.

Whether we're overwhelmed by "Christmas cheer" or desperately looking for any signs of the season, we're a far cry from that mundane night of quiet shepherding that was interrupted by a terrifying messenger bringing "good news of great joy that will be for all the people".

And so, the challenge:

For 12 days, from December 12th - 23rd, Bonnie and I will be watching for signs of beauty, for echoes of the divine authorship of this universe we live in. Each day we will find one beautiful thing to blog about right here. By spending the days leading up to Christmas on a quest for beauty we hope to focus ourselves on the incredible good news that was announced that first Christmas.

Our challenge to you is to join us and do your own "12 Days of Beauty". You'll be done by Christmas Eve so you can enjoy everything that Christmas has to offer, but in the crazy, mad, hectic lead up, keep your eyes open for beauty - whether it's a kind act, a moving piece of art, something in nature, or anything at all - and then spend a few minutes each day to take note of something about that day's beauty.

We're blogging ours, but you could scrawl it on a post-it note, put it in your Facebook status, tweet it (hey, you can write 140 characters each day, right?) or even just spend a few quiet minutes contemplating it. Our hope is that as we approach Christmas together our hearts and eyes would be tuned to really experience the beauty of what that angel announced so many years ago: the incredible, unimaginably good news of God entering into our world.

Evan

Worship and Mission

“Missions exists because worship doesn’t” is an oft-repeated quote from John Piper (and right now my Calvinist friends are both excited and apprehensive that I have quoted Piper). With apologies to those friends, I must say that this quote has perplexed and confused me. In fairness, I think the fault does not truly lie at Dr. Piper’s feet.

“Missions” and “worship” are both terms that come to us heavy with meaning; 140 characters or less will never be enough to clearly say what we mean by them. So let me craft my own soundbite: “Mission is not only worship; it is the ultimate act of worship.” 63 characters! Marvel at the strength of my Twitter-Fu. Alas, my would-be viral tweet suffers from the same affliction as Dr. Piper’s. These words simply cannot convey adequate meaning in such a short soundbite. When we speak of “worship” the image that most comes to mind is the “Praise and Worship” portion of a Christian gathering. We have come to conflate the two ideas almost entirely: praise = worship. This is not so much untrue as it is incomplete; our English word “worship” does triple-duty as the translation for three different Greek words. The “worship” part of “Praise and Worship” represents one of those - an absolutely necessary piece - but without any consideration of the other two. Having done some digging to pull some context for Dr. Piper’s quote I found that, while it did not explicitly affirm this limited definition of “worship”, it also did nothing to point the reader toward a more comprehensive understanding of the term. I’m fairly certain that Dr. Piper does, in fact, have a much larger theology behind his use of this term; I merely point out that it is not unpacked within the soundbite or the larger context from which it was pulled. Obviously, I’m not qualified to speak in depth about Greek translations, for that I refer you to Dr. Alan Kreider’s excellent book, “Worship and Mission after Christendom”. I have only very recently cracked the spine on that volume myself but even a few pages in it does a better job of exploring those ideas than I could in a thousand blog posts (which I doubt even our most loyal readers would be willing to slog through). Thankfully, I can sum up my position with one passage of Scripture: Isaiah 58. It’s a familiar passage; Jesus himself quoted from it (along with Isaiah 61) when proclaiming his mission in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4). Essentially God says to Israel through the prophet, “You go through all the right motions and say all the right things but that is not what I am asking from you, nor does it please me. I want you to worship me by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and freeing the oppressed. You worship me by joining in my mission.” The apostle Paul says as much when he asks us in Romans 12 to offer ourselves as “living sacrifices” as our act of worship. Throughout the Scriptures we see a God who loves mercy, who hates injustice and who is on the side of the oppressed. What truer expression of worship could there be than to live as reflections of Him and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so we can know what kind of people He asks us to be? In the intervening years this aspect of worship has become more and more the realm of “extraordinary” people of faith. We marvel at the love of Mother Teresa and we thrill ourselves with stories of great daring by our heroes in the faith, but instead of joining wholeheartedly in the mission of God we delegate our call - a call to radical lives of Christlike sacrifice - to a subcategory we call “missions”. In doing so, I fear we have lost much of what it means to worship with our whole selves - and, to be clear, being a "missionary" doesn't put me any further ahead in that regard. I propose that if we truly worshiped the way the early church did, there wouldn’t be anything left to call “missions” because it would be as natural to us as breathing. Huh. I guess “missions exists because worship doesn’t” after all. Evan

The Beautiful City: A Retrospective

We're back in Canada now, recovering from jet lag and lack of sleep. After 46 consecutive posts we're finally off the "blog-a-day" treadmill, but that doesn't mean we're going to stop writing! So for today, here are some thoughts and photos from the places we visited.

For much of my life I didn't really care for cities. Although my family travelled a great deal and I had the chance to see much of the world, I always preferred to be "closer to nature". I liked small towns like the ones I had grown up in.

So I was a bit surprised at one point on this last trip to hear myself say to those around me as we drove through Manila, "I love cities." I do? Since when? Along with everyone else in the car I was all ears to hear my explanation on this one. It went a little bit like this...

Natural beauty is incredible. Majestic mountains, rushing streams, trees reaching heavenward... how can concrete, glass and steel compete with that? They don't; a city's beauty is another sort of thing entirely.

A city cannot help but be a reflection of the people who inhabit it. Cities take aspects of culture, of values, of the best of us and the worst of us, and they magnify these things and carve them into stone and concrete. Whatever else a city might be, it is a product of the people who live in it. If there are beautiful spaces in that city, it is because someone took the time and effort to make them beautiful. If the city struggles, it reflects the very human struggles of those who inhabit it.

We had the opportunity to spend time in three cities on this trip: Davao, Manila and Bangkok. Each of these cities has many stories to tell; each has its own character, its own feel. A city is more than its buildings, its parks, its traffic; a city is the people who live there. A city is a celebration of the everyday; smells of food wafting from stalls and restaurants along the street, public transit that runs on time (or doesn't), vendors hawking their wares... a city is all of this and more. To find beauty in the city is to find beauty in God's greatest masterpiece, His most treasured creation, that fragile creature made in His image.

I guess I really do love cities. Huh. Who knew?

Evan

 

(Click "Read more" to view additional photos) 

Day Forty-Six: The Long, Long Way Home

The alarm went off at 2:30 AM today. We packed up the last few things, checked out and got in a taxi to the airport. By the time we get to bed again, we'll have been up for somewhere around 34 hours; thanks to the time changes, it will all be on May 4.

As I write this, we are somewhere over the Pacific, taking advantage of the in flight wifi. I need things like that on long trips like this. Airplane seats aren't comfortable for anyone, let alone tall people, and with my fractured tailbone still mending this is not going to be an easy day. 

But this is "Beauty in Mission", not Lamentations :), so where's the beauty?

For that, I direct you to the previous 45 posts and pose the question: was it worth it? 

For us, it doesn't even need a second thought. These 34 hours are nothing compared to the beauty we have observed and been invited to participate in. As always, the invitation is open to all - join us in beauty, join us in mission, join us in any way you want to, you are welcome!

Evan