Reflections after a Short Term Missions Trip

(Our team with the IFES workers in Sienna, Italy)

Got some of my pictures from my trip to Italy up now:

   Check em out on FlickR

Thought I'd share some reflections after the trip:

Synposis:
We visited two cities (Siena and Perugia) and worked with the local IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) chapter there, known as GBU (Gruppi Bibblici Universitari). We helped with doing questionnaires to evangelise, gave handouts to let people know about the group, and hosted 2 International Student nights, with games/food/testimony. We were also there to encourage and bless the workers there, so time was spent to pray and Bible study together. We spent 6 days in these 2 cities, and then took a day and a half to sightsee and we went to Assisi (home of St. Francis) and Florence (went to the Uffizi there).

Setting:
As we know, Italy is the home of the Vatican, so there is an extremely strong Catholic ethos about the society. There's cathedrals all over the place, and often even in the main city piazza where everyone hangs out. The Protestant evangelical church however is quite weak, and also quite divided. There is no longer a native Italian financial support for IFES. What is happening now is that other countries are supporting people as missionaries to work in Italy. The team working in Siena and Perugia were made up of a Korean family, and two gals from England and the States. Almost all the native Italians I met had some experience with the Catholic church when they were young, but all stopped going for some reason or another. Italy also has a lot of foreign students, our International Student Night in Perugia included students form Isreal, Palestine, Tunisia, Japan, Korea, China, Netherlands, Albania, and others I can no longer remember.

1. Who's changed?
For a short term mission, I think it started to sink in that the one who is mosted change would likely be me, not the people I was reaching out to. Short term missions don't allow much time for creating real relationships. Rather I think how I was stretched in terms of culture, comfort zone, boldness, etc. That is not to say that I don't think God could use the things we did there, but really I think a large part of the experience was how it changed me, us as a team that went.

2. Linguistics
Language matters. It was a struggle for us as a lot of the people we encountered spoke very limited English, or didn't want to make the effort to try to communicate with us. Fortunately we were able to get in touch with a good number of internationals who spoke english. I am motivated again, if I want to work more in the Chinese church in Canada, I gotta get a move on learning Cantonese, and hopefully down the road, Mandarin (with this as my main help right now). So ditiching German lessons to accomodate this.

3. Approaches to Evangelism
We quickly realized we were all comfortable (or uncomfortable) with different styles of evangelism. The native Italians there were very much into random evangelism, very public things such as setting up in the main piazza (with dozens of people around), doing a skit, and then preaching the gospel right then and there, as far as their voice would project. It would seem that relational evangelism is the current trend in North America, so it was good for me to see something different. It was stretching for me, I kinda think I could get comfortable with being willing to go up to strangers - hmm but "could" and "will" are 2 very different things.

4. Heart for the Lost
Its too easy to totally immerse oneself in Christian circles. I consider myself guilty of this.

5. Hospitality
Finding places for 9 people to sleep is not easy. It was so heartwarming to see the Christians simply open their homes and fridges to us. I don't think we do hospitality particularly well in North America. I'd love to offer my couch my day (when I have my own place). Its neat to see other people with grand visions of hospitality (check out couchsurfing.com)

6. Time Alone
Spending a week of constantly being shoulder to shoulder with your teammates, whilst stretching yourself to talk and interact with strangers takes it toll - my introverted side was starved by the end of it of the week. I pretty much didn't want to be around anyone. Heh, funny thing is some suggest for my personality type (INTP), one way to love me is to encourage me to spend time alone. Its important, and it keeps me healthy.

Final Thoughts:
-Short term missions are very good in expanding one's vision, but I think the better work is done by those there longterm. Similiarly then we need to understand our homes as a mission field. But then on, perhaps we shouldn't label a place as a "mission field", everywhere is a mission field.
-The countryside of Italy with its rolling hills is really beautiful. Vineyards, olive trees, quiet homes, trees blossoming... it was really beautiful.
-I've been reminded of the Great Commission, I think I've become too Christianized in terms of living almost solely in Christian circles, I'm convicted to find a balance of knowing what it means to live within and bless believers, yet to be reaching out to those who do not yet know God.

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Awhile...

It's been awhile since I wanted to post something. Just in terms of updating, it's been a busy month of April!

Cole's notes of my doings of the last month:

-finished my 3rd course - Old Testament Theology. Had the pleasure of learning under Carl Armerding, who's expertise in Biblical knowledge is pretty evident as he's one of the OT contributors to the NIV translation. Amazing to learn more about how it all fits together - from what God was doing with Adam to what he did with Jesus Christ.
-got a month before the next course, so time to work on all my papers for the 3 classes I've taken (lectures done, papers not started)
-went to Italy for a week mission trip to work with the 8 other students here to the local IFES student ministries in Siena and Perugia, a fuller report will be coming. Also had a chance to swing by Assisi and Florence
-Experienced my first houseparty (happened to be the Easter one) here at the Schloss. It was a great time, observed my first Passover (Seder) meal, the students put on an excellent Passion walk, a series of dramas in various parts of the castle/garden to reenact the Passion week.
-considering http://euroleadership.org
-don't think I'll ever do a masters in theology, I like theology in small doses, not to the same extent as the theology students here, perhaps I'm just too pragmatic.
-been trying to figure out what IS me. Thinking more about where I want to go in the future more precisely, hopefully more to come on this too.

What a weak post - I do not at all hold that I am merely a sequence of unfortunate and fortunate events, but I just don't have the energy to expound on any of my experiences recently. Oh yeah, I think I really tired myself out this month too, going to slow it down a bit.

So hey, actually there is my high reflection: If you stress yourself out, you just dry up and really don't have the energy or joy that allows for a more meaningful, reflective existence. Yup.

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I could try...

Things have been busy, haven't updated my blog in awhile.

Started my 2nd course for credit here - History of Christianity. Quite an interesting course, tracing Christianity from around the 2nd century up to current times. All sorts of interesting topics - mostly on the various foul-ups and corruption of the church throughout the ages. I suppose we shouldn't be so presumptuous as to suppose we the modern church has got it all together. The bulk of my mark is a research paper - I'm planning to do mine on tracing early Protestantism in China.

This coming Wednesday I leave on a week long mission trip to Italy - where we could be coming along aside and working with 2 IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, of which IVCF is part of) groups in the cities of Perugia and Sienna. We'll be working the booktable, hoping randomly meeting with students, and hosting 2 international student nights. I'll be taking care of the music side of things, as well as helping plan the international student nights. I'm quite excited, myself and 8 other people from the Schloss are going. 9 people - with 7 different nationalities, just to keep things challenging ^_^

I'd like to share more about some of the stuff I've been thinking/learning about, I suppose I simply haven't had to energy to put anything like this together... oh well, soon.

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Food for thought

Today's email from Christian Quotation of the Day was:

On the one hand, in matters of the spirit, nothing fails like success. On the other hand, in matters of the spirit, nothing succeeds like failure.
Os Guinness (b.1941), Dining with the Devil: the Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity [1993], p.89

Worth thinking about...

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Lest we forget...

The topic on my mind has been history, looking specifically at the instance of World War II, but really history in general.

Life is a story. History an even bigger story. If you want to understand me, you need to understand my story. Why am I so afraid of being embarrassed? Know my story and know the answer. And if I want to know myself better, my parents, my upbringing, then there's some stories I need to know too.

Want to know some of the most important lessons about life and who we are as humans beings? Know the story and know the answer.

For Christians so much of our understanding of God through history in the OT and NT is about understanding story. Not just that X and Y happened - you need to read into a story to understand the characters and were the story is going.

Upon completing a history course here, after visiting an actual WWII concentration camp, reflecting on my complete lack of knowledge of my family background - I have really been deeply changed. History - the big story - is something to be learned, loved, learned from, and what helps us write the next page of the story.

Consider WWII - I think most of us born after WWII simply cannot understand it. How could such a thing happen? Estimates for total casualties lies between 50 and 60 million. The number is really too hard to understand. Try doubling Canada's population and then killing everyone. Still the question begs, how did it happen?

As with most stories, nothing is a complete surprise. Take centuries of antisemitism, add economic anxiety, nations scared of war because of WWI, add some propaganda, some extremist beliefs and rulers, and there it came. Accepting that WWII happened as a progression of events and decisions makes it worse - because good people (and I think Christians as well) could have acted in ways to prevent the horrors that unfolded.

Those involved in atrocities - many of the soldiers from different nations - were they just incredibly evil people? Again I don't think so - the tales of how on Christmas during WWII, the American soldiers could hear the Germans singing Silent Night.

We need to start to see - the story of history is so vital in learning about who we are as humankind. Likewise our smaller individual stories that we have written and are still writing - these are forming who we will become. The events leading to WWII began a very ugly story... The challenging question is this - what story are we writing? One historian writes a great statement, this is from when he explains how the stage for WWII came into being:

"Each of us is shaping the background history of tomorrow" (Chaim Schatzker

I could go on, about the horrors, heroics and heartwrenching parts of WWII. I just finished watching a 10 part HBO series called Band of Brothers, based on the experiences of Easy Company, a paratrooper company that was dropped behind enemy lines on D-day. The brotherhood, the suffering they endured, the men who were broken by war, those who persevered... All these stories tug at my heart...

Life is a battle. We need brothers, and I am thankful for mine. Corporal Carl Lipton of Easy Company, during an interview of his experiences in World War II, quoted Shakespeare's St. Crispen's Day Speech:

From this day to the ending of the world we in it shall be remembered. We lucky few, we band of brothers. For he who today sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. (Shakespeare)

Here's to our stories, and the brothers who shed blood in the unglorious trenches of life by my side.

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Maybe this time I'll finish it...

Why the change in color? To make it fit better onto my new website.

Yah I purchased www.alllantan.net awhile back and started working on it. I have a lot of ideas, but hopefully I'll actually be finishing it more than my former website.

I don't have much done yet, you can check out my pictures and sign the guestbook if it so pleases you tho :)

I'm currently taking a course on the importance of studying history, last couple days have been looking at World War II. I have to admit, I'm quite ignorant of the events and the world situation. It blows my mind to consider the things that happened, but today's class reminded me of the scarier part - the holocaust was not some farfetched surprise. We reaped what was sown. Antisemitism did not magically spring up when Hitler was appointed chancellor... no things had been in motion for centuries. What that also means is that things could have been changed long before the extermination of around 6 million Jews.

Tomorrow we take a field trip out to the Dachau concentration camp, just north of Munich. Its crazy to think of the horrors committed just a few hours drive from where I am. Or even the place I am now... part of the Schloss's history was that it was used by the German SS during WWII, and Himmler himself had some operations here.

I think I'd like to write something about history soon, but need to reflect and think somemore first... perhaps this Lord of the Rings quote sums and warns us well:

The world is changed: I feel it in the
water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it
in the air...Much that once was is lost,
for none now live who remember it...

...and some things that should not have been forgotten...were lost


"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (Santayana)

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A new page

Hm has factors of 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12. Must be a flexible year? :P

I always longed to sing this song on the right occasion, funny how fitting it is for how I actually feel right now. I find it such an honest song - yet uplifting, ah to not cop out on life! I am the second man now...

Click to listen: http://www.allantan.net/Switchfoot_TwentyFour.wma

Twenty Four by Switchfoot

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I'm not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I'm not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now

And You're raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I wan to be one today
Centered and true

I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now
And You're raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You're raising the dead in me
Twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts.
I'm not copping out. Not copping out. Not copping out.

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Swing of things...

I've almost been here at the Schloss for one month now. Its been good so far, although I have my moments of homesickness for sure... So what have I been up to? I find the list getting long, one thing is I don't want to be overambitious, yet the Schloss is a place where lot of opportunity comes a knockin'

Coursework - Just finished a course on marriage/family/sexuality, and starting Biblical Exegesis tomorrow. The prof teaching is an amazing jazz pianist who I'm working with for music/worship stuff. Going to feel weird, haven't been in school for a long time.

Worship Stuff - Got a chance to work with a really cool program called mediashout.com which basically replaces using Powerpoint for song lyrics, scriptures, songs/pictures etc. Also since my arrival we're starting up having 2 worship teams to rotate for Sunday services. Its cool, my team has a Bulgarian dude who's doing some lead guitar, I'm doing rhythm guitar and vocals, a Brazillian gal is playing piano and a Vancouver gal is singing with me. Also we're switching to daily chapel this week, so we'll have 20 mins of scripture/prayer/singing every morning now.

IT - Since coming here theres been enough tech support stuff to do around here. There hasn't been anyone to fix up stuff in awhile, so a lot of little things, so-and-so can't print, some MS Active Directory user admin, hoping to do some work with revamping the Schloss' online registration and setting up MS Exchange server here.

Extracurricular - Hmm well I have about 6-7 books I'm reading right now... yeah I'm one of those who can't stick to one book, rather its like food, I like to choose what I'm in the mood to 'eat' each day. Notably, reading Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan), The Christian Imagination (GK Chesterton), Life Together(Bonhoffer), Emotional Intelligence(Goleman), and Hind's Feet on High Places(Hurnard). Also started German classes today - I figure it'd be cool since I'm here longer to actually learn some German. Wanna learn? Found a good tutorial site by BBC here. Hmm hoping yeah to learn some jazz piano, improve guitar, read more, eh my usual list of hobbies.

Fun Stuff - All work and no play makes Allan a dull boy. Hoping to go skating/sledding (attn Canadians, we're the only ones who call it 'tobogganing', which frankly is just a pain to spell :P) soon. Its too warm right now, but they have a 14km sled run here! Man that blows my mind. Also got a chance to take a day trip out to Venice, Italy just two days ago, I'll have some pics up soon. But yah just getting to know people here, which is much of the fun.

So that was sorta s brief summary of what I'm up to... I miss you all lots! I feel very far away.. so maybe knowing what I'm up to makes me feel like I'm more connected or something... or something... take care everyone!

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To think about it...

Wandering through the library here at the Schloss you come across all sorts of interesting books (this one happened to be signed by author and originally gifted to one of our OT profs here), randomly picked one up and came across this quote:

A human being's highest achievement is to let God be able to help him.
-Søren Kierkegaard

Yeah I really like it. I tend to fall into a mindset of thinking I have to do this and this, I need to change myself in this and this way, etc. When really after one becomes a Christian, the highest achievement may be making ourself available for God's help. This may include not having a hard heart, willingness to change, openness to God's sovereignty, etc.

Really interesting wording though, "let God be able". "Let" to me means some level of consent. Now "be able" means to suggest that we have some say in what God can do in us. Consider in Mark 6 (link), it is that our amount of faith can limit what God can do in our lives.

Consider the Isrealites during the exodus and the quote rings even more true. What did the Isrealites need to do? Part the Red sea themselves? Make their own manna? No - they needed to let God be able to help them, and to this end they often failed.

I hope I aim for the highest achievement

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Imagine

A quote that has always impacted me is:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

We all find ourselves in different circumstances, and being human we believe certain things are possible and certain things aren't, given our circumstances. Herein lies the power of imagination. For God, what is impossible? So why is it that we only perceive reality with such limitations?

Imagination

noun 1. The faculty or action of forming ideas or images in the mind. 2. The ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful. (Oxford Compact)

We've been given the gift of imagination - the ability to conceive of a reality unlike our own. There are those dreamers and visionaries who are able to imagine great things that could be - and even sometimes those things once imagined come true.

I still struggle with understanding how much stock we should put into the things we can imagine. The struggle being:
a) If humans are sinful, then our imagination are sinful as well. We consider that the human heart is deceitful - thus we should be very cautious in our imaginings?
b) If God has redeemed us and given us a new heart and Spirit - well then perhaps its about time we started really exploring our imagination. In Genesis 2:19-20(link) we are seen that part of God's job was to use his own creativity and to name the animals - that we were included as part of God's creating process (throughout the Bible we see that God was keen on doing things, and then naming them). So if we really submit ourselves and give our imagination over to God - it may be our strongest ally.

Lately I've been leaning towards b) more. Been reading up on some G.K. Chesterton (this book) who's a Christian author, musician, etc you name it. He is a strong supporter of using our imagination, and the important of stories and fantasy.

I get a feeling that modern Christianity seems to suppress imagination, or is at least quite wary of dreaming/fantasy. I'm inclined to think that creativity cannot exist without imagination. I'm also inclined to think we were created to reflect God's creativity - hence why humans pursue arts/music/other types of expression really.

Hm just thinking of this now - if our perception of the world is very limited, then how else would God expand our perception other than through expanding our imagination? So what I mean is suppose you observe some situation - isn't our perception affected by our belief in God, what God can do, what we can do, what hope is there, etc etc? Isn't this some sort of spiritual vision/imagination?

Maybe the great visionaries of the past and present simply imagined more...

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