Where the Blacktop Ends

There is a country song that Keith Urban wrote that I like to sing along to, called “Where the Blacktop Ends.”  I thought of it today while driving through the bumpy, dusty dirt roads of Bamako after a long Sunday afternoon of lounging in the home of my World Vision colleague Pierre and his family.  The chorus says this:

“Gonna kick off my shoes and run in bare feet, where the grass and the dirt and the gravel all meet.  Goin’ back to the well, gonna visit old friends, and feed my soul where the blacktop ends.”

What Urban describes as an ideal weekend, is everyday life for Malians.  There is very little pavement to be seen, and this slows life down.  People are busy working, cleaning, constructing, but all of this is done with a simple, peace-filled kindness unlike anywhere I have experienced on earth; As one of the five poorest countries in the world, they may not have much to eat, but their way of life feeds the soul.

Yet pavement has its benefits.  It makes a rough road smooth and lays a foundation for progress.

Since arriving Tuesday night, I have spent my days here in the care and company of my World Vision colleagues Pierre and Peter, meeting World Vision staff, planning our schedule, and meeting with researchers and Ministry of Education staff to discuss the state of education development in Mali.  In case you ever doubted the importance of education for poor nations, Mali points clearly to the need.  With an official literacy rate of only 50% (and, in actuality it is much lower – closer to 30 or 40%), most Malians lack basic skills to read, write or do math in either their native or national language.  This means that they cannot ever make a living or provide for their families.  Mali’s history as an independent nation is very brief.  They are celebrating 50 years of independence in September.  What this means is that only 45 years ago, after France withdrew its colonial grip from the region, did Mali begin to write their tribal languages.  Prior to this they did not have an alphabet.  For many years, schools only taught in French – the national language – leaving the majority of children unable to access a basic education.  Now the ministry has created teaching materials in Bambara and 12 other tribal languages, and schools are bilingual, but many Malians lack schools in their villages, cannot afford the fees, do not have qualified teachers, or have over-crowded facilities (maybe three classrooms for 400 children).

In the Bamako Urban Area Development Program, I visited two functional literacy programs for village women this week.  These women, between the ages of 20 and 60 spend three to six months learning the alphabet and basic literacy, then put their new skills to use to start businesses making soap or textiles.  It’s a simple yet foundational element of development that we too easily take for granted in the West, where education is automatic.  When asked how the program has helped them, the women told us matter-of-factly, “Before the program I could not add or subtract numbers, and now I can do that so I can calculate costs, make a living and dial a phone.”  Imagine not being able to read numbers or add them together…or call a friend!

It’s a layer of pavement.

Saturday we attended a rally hosted by the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Families and Children to raise awareness of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and to stop its practice.  The minister, doctors, and Imams spoke out against it, children performed skits illustrating its horror, and a movie was shown portraying a village woman who courageously stood against cultural tradition.  As I mentioned in my last post, FGM scars upwards of 92% of Malian girls and women, an unhealthy cultural practice rooted in folkloric animism and oppressive in consequence.  The fight to stop it has been going for nearly a decade now, and no doubt it will take more time still, but it was so encouraging to see women, children, and even some men, taking a stand against this unnecessary cultural practice.

It’s a layer of pavement.

Today, after a lively African church service, Pierre invited us to his home, where his wife and children had been preparing a delicious traditional Malian meal of stewed cabbage, carrots, chicken and spices with cous cous.  Upon arriving, he immediately took off his bright green tunic and layed horizontal on his couch.  “You are family,” he said as he extended his arms across the room and invited us to relax.  And relax we did.  For five hours we ate “lunch” and talked about philosophy, politics, theology and development.  His wife slept in the chair next to us, and the cups were continually refilled with jus d’ananas (pineapple juice), water, and arabic sweet tea.

At one point in the afternoon, we talked about the long process of building his home – which he said he began doing back in 1994.  He saved enough money to buy the land, then bought the land.  Then he saved more money to lay the foundation, and laid the foundation.  Then little by little, he built the house.  “This is the way we do it here in Mali.”  And as you drive around the city of more than 2 million people, that is exactly what you see – half-built houses and buildings waiting to grow.

I suspect this will be how Mali develops in all ways.  Slowly, quietly, patiently, they are laying foundations of pavement that will become roads to progress.  They are adding infrastructure and capital one brick at a time and over time they will grow.

It’s still dusty land now, but they are laying the pavement little by little and soon we will look and find a house built strong and tall.

Safe in Mali!

Hello friends!  This is a short and overdue note to let you know that I arrived safely in Mali!  The weather is warm and so are the people – we have spent the last two days at the World Vision office meeting staff and making plans for the next week.  Today we met with the mother-tongue literacy director at the Ministry of Education and discussed the challenges and progress Mali is making to increase the literacy rate (officially at 46%, but actually much lower) – one of the main impedements to development in the country.  This afternoon we’ll travel to the Bamako Urban ADP (Area Development Program) to start photographing some of their education programs, which we’ll continue to do tomorrow.  Sunday we’ll head to the Bla ADP, a region east of Bamako, to photograph there;  we’ll be in those villages all next week until I return home next weekend.

I’ll try to post some more updates as we go along, to share Mali with you, but for now I’ll just say Bamako feels relatively calm compared to other developing cities I’ve seen.  We are staying in a very nice hotel and I am grateful to currently have a small trickle of warm water to shower with, a working toilet, and an air conditioner.  I suspect accomodations will change slightly next week in the villages.  Today we ate lunch at the Ministry of Education (MoE) “cafeteria” – three metal tables and benches outside in an uneven mix of dirt and concrete under a shredded tarp curved around a large Malian woman scooping cow-tongue, fried fish and rice into bowls.  I opted for an orange and rice only. 

Saturday we’ll participate in a city-wide campaign event that World Vision Mali has helped coordinate to raise awareness of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).  Currently upwards of about 92% of all females in Mali between the ages of 15 and 49 have been subjected to FGM – a cultural rite of passage with disturbing consequences.  I’ll try to write more about it later for those of you who haven’t heard much about it.

For now we are happy and healthy and can’t wait to get out to the communities and see the kids!

A Tithing Celebration

I’ve been thinking about tithing lately, for some unknown reason, and wanting my giving to bear the kind of fruit in my life and in God’s kingdom that he intended it to when he gave the command in the first place:

Deuteronomy 14:22-29:

²² “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. ²³ Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored—and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.

²⁴ “Now when the Lord your God blesses you with a good harvest, the place of worship he chooses for his name to be honored might be too far for you to bring the tithe. ²⁵ If so, you may sell the tithe portion of your crops and herds, put the money in a pouch, and go to the place the Lord your God has chosen. ²⁶ When you arrive, you may use the money to buy any kind of food you want—cattle, sheep, goats, wine, or other alcoholic drink. Then feast there in the presence of the Lord your God and celebrate with your household. ²⁷ And do not neglect the Levites in your town, for they will receive no allotment of land among you.

²⁸ “At the end of every third year, bring the entire tithe of that year’s harvest and store it in the nearest town. ²⁹ Give it to the Levites, who will receive no allotment of land among you, as well as to the foreigners living among you, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, so they can eat and be satisfied. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all your work.”

Tithing, according to Scripture, is to be a CELEBRATION – a feast in the presence of the Lord, where the clergy are taken care of and the orphans, immigrants and widows are invited to the table.  It is such a far cry from the way tithing so often happens in our churches today – where most of us grudgingly write a check out of duty and seldom see or experience where our money goes.  I was encouraged by the way the pastor at a new church I’ve started attending reminded the congregation today to be excited about giving and to give with joy.  It was a step in the right direction but we still have a long way to go.

What surprised me about these instructions was their very personal and celebratory nature – a tenth of the family’s harvest was to be enjoyed by the family itself, in the presence of God and the other Hebrews.  Seasonally, they were to actually eat their offering before the Lord.  If they lived too far from the meeting place they could buy an offering upon arrival, and notice what they were allowed to buy: Beer and wine!  While this might make some of my new Pacific Northwest pub-going friends excited, this (albeit Biblical) concept of tithing wouldn’t exactly fly in most of our churches today.  Squander your tithe on alcohol?  I’d be the most hesitant of all to indulge in this way.  But God makes a point – setting aside a tenth of what God gives us each season is meant to be a celebration, we’re meant to enjoy what he has given, and the feast is meant to keep us mindful to always fear the Lord.

In our current, much less agrarian society today, our tithing will demand a new manifestation; please don’t expect me to go buy chickens and bring them into the sanctuary – I don’t think it would do me or my pastors any good.  But I wonder, how can we make our tithes, in their appropriate modern form, still represent the essence of their intent?  Does the way you tithe remind you to always fear the Lord?  Is your tithe a celebration?  Does it feed the stomachs and souls of those who minister to us as well as orphans, immigrants and widows?

I’m wondering if you’ll brainstorm with me how we can make our tithing a God-fearing celebration that invites everyone to the table, where we can enjoy the fruit of what God has given us and yet also freely share it with those who are still looking and waiting for their harvest.  We have a rich inheritance.  How can we share it with others in a regular tithing celebration today?

…Any ideas?

Fast Facts About Mali

In case you want to journey with me, here’s a link to a brief introduction to the nation of Mali:

http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/sponsor/sponsor-mali

Happy learning!

Going to Mali…

Hi Friends!

Just a brief note to let you know that I will be heading to Mali on Monday for two weeks with the organization I work for, World Vision International.  As the Communication & Research Coordinator for the Education & Life Skills Department, I am managing the creation of a resource for our global education staff that will help facilitate community conversation to improve learning outcomes in children.  I am going with a consultant to capture some of education programs in Mali in photographs for the resource.

I will definitely try to post updates here as much as possible, and would like to ask that you would support me in prayer for safety, health, favor and protection in travel, and that I would do my job well.

Thank you!

Kenna

As an update to my recent post about personal interactions with the poor…

I’m so glad God gives us second, third and fourth chances.  Jesus showed up again to me on Saturday, in the Target parking lot, through a homeless woman named Kenna.

She was gutsy – asked me for bus money before I even got out of my car.  I asked her if she was hungry, and invited her into Target with me to get her some food.  While we walked, we talked – she surprised me with her openness.  And she was smart – well connected, with work experience and a giving heart, despite a struggle with mental illness.  We talked about her past battle with drugs and development work in Haiti.  She was up on current events and well-versed in news stories.

Kenna left Target with a sandwich, water, and some bus fare.  I left having a second chance to meet with Jesus.

Education for All 2010 Global Monitoring Report Released: Reaching the Marginalized

UNESCO’s Education for All coalition recently released their 2010 Global Monitoring Report, which focuses on educating the most marginalized populations.  Check it out here, and read a brief synopsis below posted by the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies:

 

Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, launched Reaching the Marginalized at UN headquarters in New York on 19 January 2010. This was followed on 20 January by a policy event in Washington, DC at the Brookings Institution. 

 

 

FIGHTING ‘EDUCATION POVERTY’ IS KEY TO BETTER PROGRESS:

Setbacks in education have wider consequences: lost opportunities for education will act as a brake on economic growth, poverty reduction, and progress in health and other areas. Therefore, as articulated by Kevin Watkins, Director of the Global Monitoring Report, “education should be placed at the center of the Millennium Development Goal agenda.

 

 

 

 

Falling Short of the EFA Goals

On current trends, 56 million primary school age children will still be out of school in 2015.

Another 71 million adolescents are currently not at school.

Gender disparities remain deeply engrained, with 28 countries across the developing world having nine or fewer girls in primary school for every ten boys.

Girls still account for 54 per cent of the children out of school- and girls not in primary school are far less likely than boys ever to attend school.

10.3 million additional teachers will be needed worldwide to achieve the goal of universal primary education by 2015.

There has been little progress towards the goal of halving adult illiteracy – a condition that affects 759 million people, two-thirds of them women.

Far too many young people emerge from primary school unable to read or write. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, young adults with five years of primary schooling have a 40 per cent chance of being illiterate.

A Collective Aid Failure

According to the 2010 GMR, there has been a collective failure by the donor community to act on the pledge made in 2000 that ‘no countries seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by lack of resources. An estimated financing gapof US$16 billion annually for 46 low-income countries reflect governments’ ongoing neglect of the need to address extreme inequalities; the world will only get all its children into school by putting the marginalised at the centre of education policy. The authors of the report call on the UN Secretary General to convene a high-level pledging conference in 2010 to address the financing shortfall. With 72 million children still out of school, the report cautions that a combination of slower economic growth, rising poverty and budget pressures, could erode the gains of the past decade:

“While rich countries nurture their economic recovery, many poor countries face the imminent prospect of education reversals. We cannot afford to create a lost generation of children deprived of their chance for an education that might lift them out of poverty,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.

 

The report also concludes that the

Fast Track Initiative (FTI), the centrepiece of multilateral aid for education, needs fundamental reform. Payout rates are very low, developing countries have a weak voice, the private sector’s role is minimal and countries affected by conflict are poorly served.

Conflict, Natural Disaster and Marginalisation

 

Discrimination and inequalities based on poverty, gender, location, ethnicity, disability, HIV/AIDS, language and exposure to conflict play a key role in marginalisation – and often combine to reinforce disadvantage – holding back progress in education, wasting human potential and undermining prosperity.

Chapter 3 of the GMR, Getting left behind, explores how the effects of external shocks such as droughts, floods or economic downturns on schooling tend to be more pronounced in low-income countries. The poorest households often find it impossible to shield their children’s schooling from these shocks, adding to the threat of poverty persisting across generations: when children are born in a drought year or experience malnutrition early in their lives, the effects can be seen a decade later in their health and nutritional status, and their education attainment.

The GMR identifies conflict as a potent source of marginalisation in education: over one-third of primary school age children who do not attend school – 25 million total – live in conflict-affected poor countries. Worldwide, around 14 million children aged 5 to 17 have been forcibly displaced by conflict within countries or across borders, into education systems lacking the most rudimentary education facilities. Less easy to measure than the impact on school attendance are the effects of trauma associated with armed conflict on learning.

The report states that the international donor community has not responded effectively to the problems of low-income countries affected by conflict. These countries account for one-third of out-of-school children, but receive less than one-fifth of aid to education. Moreover, aid flows are dominated by a small group of conflict-affected states – notably Afghanistan and Pakistan – while a far larger group is neglected. Overall, education receives less than 2% of humanitarian aid, and many countries have received insufficient support for education reconstruction.

The report calls for governments to adopt targeted policies and practices that combat exclusion and successfully counteract persistent inequalities in education, including:

Improving accessibility and affordability

Implementing accelerated learning opportunities

Strengthening the learning environment

Expanding entitlements and opportunities

A Simple Dream

Driving home tonight, after a wonderful dance class where I got to jump and giggle and stretch this body that God has given me, where I got to breathe and create, I turned on some worship music and sang along.  And wouldn’t you know, as soon as the chorus rang out with a harmony of “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…” I pulled up to a stoplight with a homeless man begging for money.  He was young – it caused me to look twice, to look him in the eye – and for some reason, though I have sat at many stoplights next to homeless men before, this time I wanted to reach into my wallet and pull out everything I had.

My logic, and selfishness no doubt, kept me from doing it – I try to give actual material things or food rather than money, and this night I didn’t have any of those things.  But in the few seconds before the light changed, I couldn’t help but clearly sense the presence of Jesus standing next to me, in this young man’s body.  My mind immediately contemplated Matthew 25, as it has many times in the past: “I was a stranger and you did not invite me in…to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”  As I drove away I couldn’t sing “Hallelujah Jesus” anymore because I knew I had just driven away from him.

And every time these instances happen, when I miss the moment to minister to Jesus, I usually pray for God to help me get it right the next time, and to change my heart so that I can know how to respond in the moment, and be willing to do whatever that response requires.  This time I thought, should I have given him my $10 bill?  Should I have dug for my spare change?

And then the dream came back to me – the one I’ve had for years – the dream to someday have a home and a family where we can truly take in the stranger, clothe the naked and feed the hungry.  Because you see, if that really was Jesus standing on the side of the road, I don’t think I would have given him my dollar or even 10 or 20.  I think I would have invited him into my home and prepared for him a meal and given him my own bed, with the finest sheets.  I would have asked him to tell me stories and I would have wanted, more than anything, for his life to change my own…for the intersection of our journeys to matter to me.

Giving to the poor is not just about dropping off clothes at Goodwill or serving at a food bank, or freely giving away your spare change, though those are all good things.  But I think what Jesus was trying to say was that the interaction should be personal.  We would never give to Jesus in any other way.

I’m going to bed tonight reminded of the simple dream to live a life that’s personal with the poor…with Jesus.  Think of the mutual transformation that would take place if we allowed our schedules and our spaces to be interrupted by the hungry and the homeless?  If we took them all into our lives as if they were our King?

If there’s anything my life is to be about, I want it to be about that.

A Rustle in the Bush

I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of this before, but it came to me as I was sitting today, looking at our Christmas tree, and wondering how, exactly, we have gotten so far off track.  I know that by saying this, I run the risk of being labeled a pessimistic, heartless Scrooge, but I will take my chances.  I’m just feeling a bit nauseous from all the commercial Christmas hoopla this year, is all.  I decorated my cubicle at work with garland and lights – and don’t get me wrong, it looks beautiful – but I hardly sit and think of any significant symbolism in it all while I type away.  The sugar is good, but party plates piled high among the privileged stand in stark contrast to empty stomachs near and far.  Commercials and sale ads only anger me – we’ve turned the Christ-like concept of generosity into an annually scheduled allowance for more things we don’t need, and we spend more time to acquire these things than we do at any other time in the year, an act I gather Jesus might have something to say about.  And the “sounds of the season” have just about done me in: Barry Manilow’s version of “Jingle Bells” might have been free on my iTunes Holiday Sampler, but I will pay them to take it back.

What am I trying to say, besides “bah-humbug?”  Quite the opposite, really.  Just, very simply, that I dare you to reject the secular version of Christmas, with all its glitter, and instead cling with all you’ve got to the real reason for the holy-day, hiding in the outskirts of town among the animals in a manger.  I thought of it in a new way today, this meaning that we miss.  It’s true: it’s when God became human, and when he came to be with us.  But more than this, Christ’s birth was the moment that God provided.  In celebrating his birth we take time (we stop our rhythms) to remember when God put an end to dutiful sacrifice and provided the sacrifice for us – the sacrifice that makes us both with God and right with God.

So for some reason today, I was thinking of this moment, how God provided the sacrifice, and my mind went to Genesis 22 – the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac.  God asked Abraham to give up the very thing God had already given as a gift, what was for him his promise and restoration and joy.  And in the moment of obedience there was a rustle in the bush.  God provided another sacrifice.

This is Christmas – when we look back to the bush year after year and we remember the rustling.  We remember that our God is a God who has provided the sacrifice for us (let us not neglect the intimacy this affords) and keeps providing for us as we sacrifice.  Just lay it down and look to the bush.  Christ has come and he is enough.  He is abundance.

At Christmas we’re reminded that alas, there is another way.  Even when we must lay down all that is so dear to us (because we hear a voice from heaven or not), God provides what we’ll need in its place.  This is the God we celebrate and serve: the kind of God who puts a baby in a manger and a ram in a bush.

“Abraham named the place ‘The Lord will provide.  This name has now become a proverb: On the mountain [of sacrifice] of the Lord it will be provided.’” – Genesis 22:14. [italics mine].

hope.

Today marks the first Sunday of Advent.  I’m not sure when I started getting excited about Advent, a season I never grew up celebrating, but somehow along the way it’s become my favorite time in the church calendar.  Because I don’t run in liturgical circles, few people I know really reflect on all that it means: a season of longing, hope and expectation for the coming of the light of the Christ child into the darkness of our souls and world.  Instead, this year it seemed that an abundance of my friends – more than normal – were fighting the urge to listen to joyous Christmas music before the Thanksgiving turkey was even in the oven.  It’s not difficult to understand why – I even found myself in the mood for harps and bells and boughs of holly abnormally early this year.  The addition of gold ornaments and twinkly lights seems to make even the darkest and coldest parts of our lives shine with a warm glow.

But I’d like to encourage all of us this Christ-birth season to not rush past the longing and waiting part only for the choirs of angels.  God’s to be found in the empty manger too.  I visited a church this morning that, to my surprise, made Advent a very central piece of the service.  They read scripture and lit the first of four candles to come: the candle of HOPE.  The pastor encouraged the congregation to live simply during this season, focused on the “holy day” rather than just another holiday.  We sat in silence pondering the meaning of Christ’s light in a dark world.

And then we sang “Joy to the World.”  Not much waiting.  In fact, the entire service was filled with Christmas classics.  And more are playing over price tags in every store.  And still more are streaming pleasantly on my Pandora Christmas station.

Don’t rush past the wait.  This week, sit in hope.  Let the hopes of your heart – the longings not yet fulfilled – rise to the surface in both quietness and violence, and let them fly to the light of Christ like a moth to a flame.  My spiritual director told me once, when I struggled (unsuccessfully) with all of my being to hear God’s voice, that our ache for God is often the strongest evidence of His work within us.  Before we numb our aches this spend-more season with gifts and gadgets we truly don’t need, listen to your inner aches.  Or perhaps, if you are brave, let Christ share some of his own with you.

If you want some help focusing, I’ve found Christine Sine’s morning and evening Advent prayers helpful.  And don’t worry.  Apparently those “12 Days of Christmas” are not just arbitrary days after all; they begin December 25th and are meant to celebrate the socks off of all that our True Love gave to us.