Fighting modern slavery

I recently had the cool opportunity to interview a woman who has escaped modern day slavery, and write her story for the pages of Today's Christian Woman magazine. Sexual trafficking is a huge problem, not just overseas but here in the states.
My article, which tells the amazing story of Ruth Ada Kamara, a woman trafficked into prostitution against her will, is currently on the Christianity Today website. The very cool part of Ruth's story is that she is now speaking out to educate others, to fight this terrible problem.
click here to read the full story on-line.
I've heard from several readers who were moved by Ruth's story, and want to do something to help. Read the story, tell me what you think. And let's talk about ways that we could all help.

Living as a Missional suburbanite

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Why I am a Missional Suburbanite

God has been messing with me lately. That’s the only way to describe it. The “God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3) has been making me uncomfortable, and while I trust that this is for my own good in the long run (and the good of the world around me) it still creates an uneasiness in my soul.
There’s a saying that God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. And it is the comfort of my life that God has been challenging me about.
Six months ago, I took a class on urban development and leadership, trying to learn about the problems of the inner city and familiarizing myself with the work of various urban ministries. It was a part of a justice journey that perhaps some of you have seen evidence of in my writing lately.
In recent weeks, God’s invited me to take a few more steps on that journey, and on that journey, I keep coming to forks in the path where I feel I must make choices. As usual for me, God is speaking through books: His Book, of course, but also a few others.
In the past two weeks, I read Will and Lisa Samson’s new book, Justice in the Burbs, and also Shane Claiborne’s book The Irresistible Revolution. Both confirmed what I’ve been learning for the past year or two, that faith in Jesus and caring for the poor are inextricably bound. And now, I can’t claim ignorance anymore.
You can see my reviews of both books below, but I wanted to tell you a bit about how these two works have come at just the right time in my journey.
I grew up in a church that valued the Bible, and that church instilled that value in me, by various means (raise your hand if you did “Bible drills”). The most prevalent was memorization, a gift I’m grateful for. One verse I memorized was Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Christian singer Ken Medema had a song based on that verse, which I heard not only when he came to do a concert at our church but at home when we listened to his albums. And I was so glad that Jesus took my sins away, that I was saved, that God’s love went beyond reason, to amazing grace. To me, that was what the words meant—forgiveness of sin, halleluiah. I’m not being flippant, that really is a thing to rejoice in. And that is what the verse is about. But it’s not all that verse is about. My reading is missing some of the context.
I’ve been reading Isaiah again lately, because I’ve noticed so many of the verses I didn’t read in my childhood are in that book.
For example, the verse directly preceding God’s invitation to “reason.” Reason about what? “Let’s reason together” sounds like an invitation to a thoughtful discussion. But about what? My need for forgiveness? My need for personal salvation? God’s willingness to forgive me, which goes beyond normal reasoning? That’s what I’d always assumed, in fact, been taught. Because it is about that, but it’s also about so much more. The previous verse, Isaiah 1:17 says, “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
So “do right” doesn’t just mean not drinking, dancing, smoking or running around with boys who do? (the behavior my tradition labeled as the worst sins) Doing right also includes seeking justice, fighting oppression, helping orphans and widows? Huh. I mean, who knew?
It is still true that God’s grace washes us all clean, makes us white as snow. And that we ought to spurn sinful activities. His forgiveness of course, makes us grateful. That is so obvious that the text doesn’t even mention that. But the next verse says God expects our response to be obedience. How? By doing what it says in verse 17—to do what is right: seek justice, encourage the oppressed (my Bible’s footnote on this phrase says another translation of the phrase might be “rebuke the oppressor”). It seems that God is asking us to fight for justice so that those who are oppressed or orphaned can experience grace. No offense to my church, but how come I didn’t hear this part of the story? I thought that I was supposed to tell other people about Jesus. But this text, which is clearly about amazing grace, doesn’t say anything about telling, except with our actions of justice.
If the Bible says we should seek justice and rebuke the oppressor, then the actions that Shane Claiborne describes in his book—protesting mistreatment of tomato pickers, feeding the homeless and fighting for laws that protect the poor—don’t seem so radical anymore. His term for himself, an ordinary radical, makes more sense.
So, how is God messing with me? He’s poking around in my privileged little life, challenging me to seek justice and help widows and orphans, right here in my neighborhood. As Will and Lisa Samson write compellingly about what they call “theology of place,” which basically means that “God has placed us where we are for a reason. …Wherever you are, that is where the kingdom of God is at work. There is no neutral place. That is good news. So doing missions means doing the work of the kingdom wherever you are sent. And the best place to think about where you have been sent is to see where you are…. If you find yourself in the suburbs, welcome to your mission field.”
Since I do happen to find myself in the suburbs, where the regional pastime is shopping, I’m really wrestling with what it means to be missional. To be counter-cultural. To be a light in a place that presents a well-manicured façade is in some ways difficult. To fight my own tendencies to run after comfort and possessions, instead of seeking God. After all, they say that a light shines brightest in the darkness. In my comfortable suburb, just convincing people they are in the dark is half the battle.
One step on my journey was to decide to let God do the convincing, but do my best to act in a way that will give evidence of my faith. That doesn’t mean speaking in Christian jargon, it means admitting your struggles but pointing to God. It means, I think, loving people even when they are difficult.
In order to love someone, you need to get to know them. Do you know your neighbors, no matter where you live? Does your circle of friends include any people who have a different set of beliefs than you do?
Join the PTA at your child’s school, be one of the parents who volunteers to help with your kid’s soccer team—but do it with a missional mindset. Get to know people—seek out those who are different than you. Is there an elderly person in your neighborhood who could use some help with maintaining her home or yard? Offer to help. If there is a single mom in your neighborhood, get to know her. It’s quite possible that she will have a messy life, she will be needy. Get to know her anyway. Help her out in practical ways. That’s what love is.
You don’t have to move to the inner city to work for social justice. The way we live, the choices we make about lifestyle, consumption, etc. are all a part of justice. But the best place to begin is where you are, and the best time to do it is now.

Revolutionary living

I just finished reading Shane Claiborne's book The Irresistible Revolution. Wow. I highly recommend it, although I have to warn you that the book will challenge you. It might make you mad, if you are a little conservative. But I'd love to hear what you think.

Claiborne is a controversial figure in Christian circles, mostly because he has decided to follow Jesus to the inner city, where he and a group of friends live among the poor, in fact are poor themselves, and to actually fight for justice. (http://www.thesimpleway.org/)
This book is partly a memoir, with stories of how Claiborne went to Calcutta to spend time working with Mother Teresa, and his trip to Iraq as a “peacemaker.” Claiborne has been arrested numerous times for protesting various forms of injustice, including local laws targeting the homeless that made it illegal to feed people, or to sleep outside.
But the book is more than a memoir, it is a challenge to the church and to every Christian to live their faith in a radical way. To live as if Jesus words about when we clothe the naked and feed the hungry, we’re doing it to him, were literally true.
What I'm trying to figure out is how to live out my faith when I live in a comfortable suburb. God's using Shane's book, as well as my reading of Justice in the Burbs by Will and Lisa Samson, to challenge me. My neighbors need God's love--so how do I really show that to them? I'm insulated from the poor, so Claiborne's words really made me think:
“We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.”

My monthly visits to a women's shelter have enabled me to get to know the poor a little, but I would say that it's only a start. I don't really know them.

This book will rock you, because Claiborne claims that while he’s a radical, he’s an ordinary radical, and following Jesus is a radical calling.
The point of the book is to call Christians to actually live out their faith. figuring out what that means for you will require prayer, but then action. He writes:
“If you ask most people what Christians believe, they can tell you, ‘Christians believe that Jesus is God’s son and that Jesus rose from the dead.’ But if you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way. And doctrine is not very attractive, even if it’s true. Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say to the world and offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death.”
I challenge each of you to read this book and take just one small step toward living your faith. And to offer suggestions to all of us about how to live justly no matter where we live.

Burger King and fair wages

"Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts." (James 5:4)

Our fast-moving society allows us to be blind to the injustices all around us. We don't realize that the workers who pick the coffee beans for our morning brew, or a the tomatoes for our fast-food burgers, are toiling in near slavery. Who knew that pulling through the drive-through to grab a burger could be such a significant decision?

I received an e-mail from Sojourners today, about Burger King and the wages paid to workers who pick tomatoes for this company. Here are some of the highlights of what they said:

Farm workers who pick tomatoes for Burger King's sandwiches earn 40 to 50 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, a rate that has not risen significantly in nearly 30 years. Workers who toil from dawn to dusk must pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50 in one day.

Worse yet, modern-day slavery has reemerged in Florida's fields; since 1997, the U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted five slavery rings, freeing more than 1,000 workers. As a major buyer of Florida tomatoes, Burger King's purchasing practices place downward pressure on farm worker wages and put corporate profits before human dignity.

Read more at http://go.sojo.net/campaign/burgerking/iu373ibrodnd6i8?

I hope you'll forward the info to others. Ignorance of how our buying habits affect others is no excuse. We have an obligation to be intelligent. And to not eat at Burger King.

World Vision made me cry

I sat at in my kitchen this morning, crying in my coffee. And for once, it wasn’t about me. Well, not directly about me.

As Frederick Buechner wrote, "When you find yourself with tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention."

Before me I spread out a handful of pictures of little girls from Third World countries: Loveness in Zambia, Kidest in Ethiopia, Machilu in Malawi.
The photos of their sweet faces were included in a request from World Vision to sponsor girls. Because in many cultures, especially people living in poverty, girls get a lot less medicine, food and education than boys.
We’ve sponsored children through World Vision for several years now. For a while, we sponsored Edna Blanc in Haiti. Then, as often happens, her family moved away from the area where World Vision provides services. When I got the letter saying she’d no longer be my sponsored child, I cried. We’d only exchanged a few letters and birthday cards but I had her photo on my fridge and I prayed for her all the time.
The same thing has happened with a boy that I’ve sponsored this year. Yothin Sarinon and his family are moving away from the area in Thailand where they could receive sponsorship.
I read the appeal letter to my thirteen year old daughter. And we had a great talk about how women and girls are often mistreated. “Compared to boys, they’re less likely to receive adequate medical care or food,” the letter said. That means if there is a brother and a sister who are sick, the family will give medicine to the boy but not the girl, I explained. I looked at the precious children’s faces on my table, and I longed to gather them all into my arms and bring them home.
Sponorship is costs about $30 per month—about one dollar per day. I spend that on coffee, easily. You could even downsize your coffee from a Venti to a Grande or Tall, and use the difference to change a child’s life. I decided to sponsor two girls. But there are still more girls—on my kitchen table and around the world. Won’t you join me in sponsoring a little girl? Go to www.worldvision.org/sponsorGirls In changing a life, you just might change your own.

Sabbath column

Correction: the following more clearly states the nature of my column, which I write for www.Todayschildrensministry.com . It's a part of www.christianitytoday.com, but I am not a columnist for the magazine of the same name. Just to clarify.

My monthly web column for kids ministry leaders, For Your Soul, was featured front and center on the ChristianityToday.com website today. Usually it's tucked away on the Today's Children's Ministry page. That's the good news.

The bad news is that said column contained an error--a glaring one. I wrote about Sabbath, and said it was the sixth commandment. Nope. It's the fourth. And I knew that. I really did. But I was hurrying to write my column (which was about slowing down and taking a day of rest, ironically) and somehow that got in there. Ugg.

As my kids would say, "my bad!"

Since it was featured so prominently, I've been getting e-mails today (mostly from pastors) helpfully pointing out my error.

Not to put to fine a point on it, these readers have not been kind.

Here's one comment that someone left anonymously on my website:


"I am astounded that you would write an article about Sabbath keeping, have it published online in Christianity Today, and not bother to get the number of the commandment right. Remember the Sabbath is the fourth commandment.


The sixth commandment is Do not Kill."


Ouch. I feel like such a fool.


Ok, Mr. Anonymous Bible Expert, speaking of the SIXTH commandment, here's a verse for you: Matthew 5:21-22. Where Jesus says that anyone who says "You fool!" will be in danger of the fire of hell. In other words, that unkind words can wound like a knife.


Now, I admit, I got the number wrong. And I hate any kind of inaccuracy in my writing. And again, to clarify, it wasn't in Christianity Today (the magazine) but on a website run by the same company. But the number of the commandment wasn't the point of the article--it was about how to practice Sabbath, to take a rest, and how we often don't do that. Still, the majority of the e-mails have been about my mistake, and only a few have asked for help with actually practicing Sabbath, or offered insights about it. And if we know the number, or the letter of the law, but don't live by the Spirit of the law, what good is that?


I wrote about Sabbath in my book Breathe. And I'm currently working on another book on this topic. Because Sabbath is more than commandment number, and even more than just a day. And I do know it is the fourth commandment. but, as the response to my article shows, we tend to focus on the wrong things when it comes to Sabbath.

The Sabbath and Jubilee commandments of the Bible reflect God's heart for justice, generosity. they are commands to trust, to rest, to share. You can learn more about this side of the Sabbath from my friends at Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries.

I'll post more later about some more thoughtful responses to my column. A few people asked me about further details on how to actually practice Sabbath, and I'd love to hear from some of you about that!

A Missional community

I've had the privilege of getting to know Allison Hosack over the last two months, as we experienced Breakthrough Ministries BUILD class together. Allison is an intern at Willow and is heading up a team of 20-somethings who have decided to move into an under-resourced neighborhoood in Elgin to live in a "missional community." Her blog tells more about this "Elgin Experiment."

The idea is basically this: a group of Christian folks move into an apartment complex, and simply love their neighbors and build community with each other. Rather than go on "mission trips" to the city, they move in and become a part of a missional community. It's social justice activism at its finest.
While I'm way beyond my 20's, I'm excited about supporting Allison, in prayer, financially and by being what Allison and I call "an old person," --which, since I'm over 40, this team thinks I am. Allison told me she needed a few "old people" to stop by and visit, talk with and pray for her team, etc. But seriously, I want to encourage and cheer on this amazing group of young people. I have great hope for the church if this is the kind of radical faith this generation has.

thinking positively

I blogged at www.boomerbabesrock.com/blog about my recent experience meeting Mary Nelson, founder of Bethel New Life ministry in West Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago. Mary has a been a social activist and an incredible community organizer. Read more at Boomer Babes Rock!