The Magic of Forgiveness

She was only four years old! But her daddy loved her and when he heard that some boy knocked her down at school resulting in a scratch over her eye, he went ballistic. The school happened to be one of three Classical Schools of the Meads in northern Iraq that Partners International has helped to fund during the last several years. But for this Muslim background father, that just made it all the more reason to rant and curse everyone associated with a school that could allow such a thing to happen to his little girl.

Until, she came to her father and asked, “Why are you cursing, Daddy? When the boy helped me back up again, he said he was sorry. So I forgave him. Everything is OK now. There’s no reason to be angry.”

It was Yousif and Alia Matty, our ministry partner leaders from Iraq that told me this story last Sunday at the dinner table. They said that they have been stressing the Biblical principle of asking forgiveness with the children in their schools precisely because it is so absent in typical Islamic and therefore Iraqi culture.

They went on to explain that when the girl’s dad, a local magazine writer, heard her say this, he was stunned—not expecting to learn such a lesson from his daughter. In fact, he was so impacted, he decided to write an entire article in the Kurdish magazine about the concept saying you're sorry. He entitled it: The Magic of Forgiveness.

This was just one of several similar stories from the Mattys telling how the values on which their Christian schools are based are touching the lives of their 1800 students. Even though 96% of them are from Muslim homes, the ripple effect is reaching many other family members as well, several of which have come to the Mattys for spiritual counsel.

Reflections on the Sailboat—Powerboat Metaphor

After a recent visit by Alex Araujo here at our Partners International office, and a subsequent stimulating discussion about the famous Sailboat-Powerboat metaphor, I came away with a troubled feeling about how this illustration is being understood. My sense was that different people are interpreting the metaphor from different contexts leading to misunderstanding of each other’s points of view.

This became clear to me when Alex was arguing that the Sailboat paradigm was clearly the “right” perspective and the Powerboat paradigm the “wrong” one. I had always maintained that there were good and bad qualities on each side.  Upon further discussion, however, I realized that Alex was thinking of the metaphor primarily in terms of a spiritual context relating to how we should work out our dependence vs. independence in our personal relationship with God. I, on the other hand, had been viewing the metaphor purely from a cultural context and attributed the two different paradigms as relating to the contrasting worldviews of the Global North (the West) and the Global South (non-West.)

In looking back over the various blogs and discussions on this metaphor, it appears to me that many others have been mixing these two different contexts in the discussion. The result is that there has been an overall “muddiness” to the metaphor discussion that has even led some to question if the metaphor is useful at all.

I would like to propose a new way of thinking about both of these two contexts with the metaphor by adding them BOTH to a two-dimensional chart.  My proposition is that both the spiritual and the cultural aspects of the metaphor have validity, but they must somehow be separated out in order to gain pragmatic value to any application that might be attempted.

This two-dimensional chart would look like this:

Having defined two different continuums according to the X and Y axis, it now allows us to discuss some practical implications. Here is my attempt at that—with the caveat that these are extremely broad generalizations.

Assumptions:

1.      The Global North has a tendency toward a worldview that is somewhere in Quadrant II. Not only does our “rugged individualism” keep us from living in dependence on God’s Spirit day-by-day, but our industrial/technology heritage pushes us toward a “goal-oriented” approach of problem solving. I will label this typical starting position on the chart for the Global North = N1.

2.      The Global South has much more of a relational worldview and understands flexibility due to dependence on circumstances and situations usually out of a person’s control. Therefore, their relational approach to life and problem solving puts them in the lower half of the chart. However, Global South people can also tend toward independence from God too, though probably differently and not to the same extent as those of us in the Global North. I’ll call this starting point in Quadrant IV for the Global South = S1.

3.      The Global North has a need to learn greater dependence on God’s Spirit as opposed to using self or secular management approaches to determining Truth. Therefore, in general, it has a need of moving leftwards on the chart. It also has a need to be much more sensitive to relationships and not always so intensely goal oriented in worldview. So it also could use moving downward on the chart as well. However, the Global North has a huge and rich heritage of learning how to get things done, so I think it would be wrong for it to totally give up its understanding of strategic planning, etc., and demand that it live only in a Quadrant III worldview. I suggest a good ending point for the Global North would be the lower part of Quadrant I = N2.

4.      The Global South also has need of learning greater dependence on God’s Spirit as a primary guiding force. it too, can use movement to the left on the chart. It could also benefit greatly from learning something about the Global North’s experience in management practices and goal orientation.  Therefore some upward movement is also appropriate. Its ending point could then be in the upper part of Quadrant III = S2.

My conclusion is that the new positions of N2 and S2 now give a place for truly healthy partnership to work well.  By both being sensitive to God’s Spirit (the same Spirit for each!) and both bringing to the table the value of their heritage worldviews (goal and relational orientation), there is the potential for new synergy that can produce great effectiveness. It is my hope that though real partnership, Partners International continues to move toward position N2 and that our ministry partners from the Global South continue to move toward position S2.

Hopefully by combining these two different interpretations of the Sailboat—Powerboat metaphor in this manner, we not only clarify the dialog about its interpretation, but also have the potential of extracting an even deeper and richer understanding from it and thus inform and configure our global partnership endeavors for even greater impact for God’s Kingdom.

New Dimensions in Sailboating!

For the past year or two, we have been kicking around a really neat metaphor offered by one of our Partners' veteran staff, Alex Araujo called the Sailboat--Powerboat illustration. It was originally offered as a creative way to think about the different worldviews involved in working cross-culturally between the Global North (West) and Global South (non-West). You can read Alex's paper here: To Catch The Wind. There also is a whole blogsite Alex and others have set up called Sailing Friends.

In my own thinking about this metaphor, however, I've seen that it can be taken in both a cultural and a spiritual context. With that in mind, I've written a short paper today (also a blog post) that presents these contexts on a two dimensional graph. Let me know what you think--I'd love to hear some feedback.

What I'm excited about is that by thinking of both the spiritual and cultural dimensions in this way, we can actually begin to think about how to more effectively position the Resource Rich from the West with the Opportunity Rich from the non-Western part of the world for even greater ministry impact for God's Kingdom!

Haiti - Now an Opportunity for Partnership

As the first wave of emergency relief activity in Haiti begins to wane, the even bigger job of helping an entire nation rebuild itself from this incredible disaster now becomes the critical need for the months and even years ahead. And, just like other world-class crises such as this one, it also offers a great opportunity for God's people to demonstrate partnership and a deep and meaningful level.

That is what we here at Partners International US are already engaged in doing as we connect and coordinate our efforts with our affiliate colleagues around the world. As I write this blog post, my counterpart, John Rose, the CEO of World Share UK is meeting with Luckner Simphil, leader of the Haitian Calvary International Ministries (HCIM.) After surveying the devastation that impacted his ministry including the destruction of three churches and the total flattening of one school, brother Luckner made it back to Florida to begin marshaling resources needed in responding to the needs of his people.  We hope to have a full report from him a another day or two.

Thanks to a generous response from many Partner's friends here in the US, we have been able to gather a sizeable fund that we are ready to mobilize in response to HCIM's needs. The same is true of our affiliates in Australia, Canada, Singapore and the UK.

What makes partnership particularly important at a time like this is the ability to laser our resources right to where they can make the best and longest impact for individual people in Haiti. Obviously, our funds do not have the impressive million-dollar size of other global relief organizations. But sometimes they can do things those huge funds cannot. That is because we work directly with a proven national, indigenous ministry like HCIM where we can know what each dollar is going to do and hear first hand reports from the men, women and children who are assisted by our help. And, because our partnership with these national brothers and sisters is not a short term, flash-in-the-pan kind of help, we can continue providing assistance in ways that will truly help them rebuild their homes, churches and lives for long-term sustainability.

Stay tuned over the next few days as we hope to have much more to share on just how that help can make a difference.

Once again. . . a devastating disaster!

Once again the world has been rocked with the news of another devastating disaster. As the reports come rolling in this morning from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, we all hold our breath in anticipation of horrendous statistics cataloging the injuries and loss of life from this massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

And once again, so many of us stand by on the sidelines listening and watching and wondering what we could possibly do to help. It is at times like this that I wonder just how we can live out Paul's commendation to the Philippians for sharing the "same struggles" he was experiencing.

As I write this, we are awaiting more news of a local church-planting organization called Haitian Calvary International Ministries (HCIM) that has been a Ministry Partner of our UK affiliate, World Share.  Telephone contact was possible this morning with Luckner Simphil, the director of HCIM, who happened to be in Tampa, FL, and already he has reported "a lot of church people are dead."  Unfortunately, the main phone lines are down with La Gonave island where much of the ministry work is located. We do know that all of HCIM's ministry work is within a close radius of the epicenter of the earthquake and its aftershocks (see map.) We will try to have more updates about HCIM on our Partners International website as they become available.

One thing is for sure, this will be another disaster that will leave thousands of people in desperate need. For that reason, we have already initiated a relief fund for those who want to begin contibuting toward relieving that need. (Click here for more information.) We will coordinate our relief efforts with our World Share colleagues and do all that is possible to help HCIM and our devastated brothers and sisters in Haiti.

A Blessing for Nightwatchmen

Yesterday, in my personal time of worship, I read Psalm 134 and was impressed with focus on the night watchmen of the temple.  This is the last of the "songs of ascent" that begin with Psalm 120 and end with 134. Apparently, they were songs sung by pilgrims who traveled from afar on their way to Jerusalem and the temple. But unlike the rest of the psalms in the series, this little, three-verse psalm is a special encouragement to those who are probably least remembered: the night watchmen. They had to be the ones who had the most boring job, who missed out on all the excitement of worship and celebration during the day, who most people didn't even remeber they were working there at the temple.

Yet, this special group of Levites get their own special "song of ascent" just for them. The psalmist says: Oh bless the Lord...you who serve as night watchmen in the house of the Lord. Lift your hands in holiness and bless the Lord.

What a great reminder that no matter how insignficant we might think our job is, it is still important to God. In fact, our work should be done with a sense of reverence toward the One we serve, so that when we lift our hands in accomplishing that job, it is done with holiness, as an act of worship to Him.

This made me think of all the "night watchmen" that are a part of our Ministry Partners around the world. These are brothers and sisters that are "out of sight" to most of us, whose jobs may seem mundane and commonplace.  But ultimately they are just as much a part of the Body of Christ as the rest of us. And their labor is also a means of praising and blessing our God.

Ps 134 ends with this thought: May the LORD, who made heaven and earth bless you from Jerusalem. Even the night watchmen deserve a blessing from the ultimate Creator of the universe. So do all those who labor unseen in the advancement of God's Kingdom around the world!

The Story Behind the Card

This year, Partners International sent out a beautiful Christmas card that was made from a picture taken by our graphic designer and photographer, Robert Huggins, during a visit to the country of Ghana last summer.

But, what many don’t know is the beautiful story behind this woman.

In the northern part of Ghana, there are still many tribal villages that believe if a person gets sick or dies, it has to be the result of “black magic” by a witch. The village then literally goes on a witch hunt to try and determine which of the old women was the one responsible. When one is implicated (falsely), they are ostracized for life and relegated to living in a remote community with other so-called “witches.”

Last summer, a team from Whitworth Presbyterian Church visited Ghana including Robert, his wife, Megan, as well as Nancy Fritz, wife of our VP Greg Fritz. Our partners brought them to one of the “witch villages” where they had a wonderful opportunity to minister to these women. At one point, Nancy was asked to speak and she shared the Gospel clearly and openly with the women. Amazingly, 45 have since asked to receive Christ as their Savior including the woman you see on this Christmas card!

So, the smile you see on this woman’s face is the smile of one who has truly learned the meaning of Christmas!