charles in flux

All children are beautiful and sacred and worthy of all good things

2011-04-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to Boston to go to a meeting on immigration issues and how they relate to family homelessness. During the meeting, the Massachusetts state legislature debated this year’s budget just half a block away under the golden dome of the state house. I brought two participants of our shelter program with me. They are wonderful people.

One of the women brought her one-year-old son, and on the train ride home I helped him stand up on my knees and we watched the other trains as we left North Station. He smiles and giggles a lot, especially when his mother brings her hand close to his face and then pulls it away just before she touches him. I’m not sure how long she has been in this country, but she has had a difficult journey. She used to live in poverty in a very dangerous city in Latin America. Her family was in constant threat of violence.

The other woman has two teenage daughters. She searches everyday for jobs and housing. There aren’t any, but she keeps looking. She takes pride in how clean she keeps her shelter apartment, in her appearance, in her graduation from a recent self-advocacy class, and in her daughters. One is going to graduate from high school this spring, and has been accepted into a local college. Her daughters came to America before she did. They got visas through their father. She needed to be with her daughters. So, she found a way.

I work with a lot of mothers. Mothers whose sons are being deployed to Afghanistan. Mothers whose kids are away at college. Mothers whose children have passed away. Mothers whose kids are at home with them. Single mothers who take care of their families on their own (there is a special kind of strength in a single mother that exists in no other creature).

I never understood, on a personal level, the reality of our wars until I saw my coworkers cry as their sons were being deployed. One jokes about flying to Afghanistan with him to keep him safe. He’s in his 40s. I’m not sure she was joking.

Mothers do anything for their children. To be with them, to feed them, to protect them, to nurture them, to help them grow.

I can’t look at the world and separate out the kinds of lives people should live based on borders. I can’t. Mothers whose children are at risk of starvation, murder, rape, drugs, and war can’t either.

I am really close with my own mother. When I need proof that love exists in the world I think about her. I am convinced that if Wisconsin during the 1990s had been a place ravaged by violence and poverty and there was some other place that was reported to be a safe haven—a place where her kids could be safe and go to school and grow and live in peace—that she would have uprooted our whole family and gone there, whether or not she had permission from anybody else’s laws—or even if she understood them or was aware of them. As if a government could legislate a mother’s need to take care of her children, a mother’s instinct.

At the meeting we talked about the budget discussions and what that means for emergency assistance for the poor. If the budget passes as it is now, immigrants without documentation will no longer be eligible for shelter, even if their children are citizens or legal residents.

Punish a mother for being a mother? Punish children? If families with an “illegal” head of household don’t have safe housing, their children will be taken from them.

This is not worth lower taxes for the rest of us.

I was sitting in my living room a few minutes ago, with a still smoldering anger and desire and passion to change things, and it struck me that if every person in the country had been on the trip to Boston with me today, with those two mothers, that no one would think it that large of a sacrifice to keep funding affordable housing, food stamps, and WIC. If only you all knew these two women! And watched the little boy laugh!

There are other ways to cut the deficit. I’m not claiming to be a politician or an economist or a sociologist. I’m just claiming that these people are worth it. Every penny. If I'm ever a father I pray that I will have the an ounce of the courage and strength and love of an immigrant mother.

I am in contact with the organization that ran the meeting today, and they are going to let me know when and who to call at the State House to advocate for these people. I hope you'll help.

If this doesn’t change, some beautiful people will be on the streets on July 1^st.

Celebrate Dr. King!

2011-01-16T22:12:00.000-08:00

In honor of the greatest American holiday (tied for first with Thanksgiving), here is a quote from a sermon by the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967 called "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam."

"As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964. And I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize was not just something taking place, but it was a commission--a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of Man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances. But even if it were not present, I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me, the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News was meant for all men, for communists and capitalists, for their children and ours, for black and white, for revolutionary and conservative. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved His enemies so fully that he died for them? What, then, can I say to the Vietcong, or to Castro, or to Mao, as a faithful minister to Jesus Christ? Can I threaten them with death, or must I not share with them my life? Finally, I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be the son of the Living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood. And because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned, especially for His suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come today to speak for them. And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak not now of the soldiers of each side, not of the military government of Saigon, but simply of the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries."

Now, go on and celebrate Dr. King by seeking to bring peace to your corner of the world. Amen.

New Years Resolution

2011-01-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

My New Years Resolution is either to make someone's day once a week, or make someone's week once a day. The latter depends on how well the former goes. I'll keep you (whoever you are) posted.

Peace.

Kingdom of Heaven in 2011

Bandera

2010-12-22T18:43:00.000-08:00

In Peru:

"Y los colores de tu bandera? Son rojo, azul, y blanco, no?"
My flag? I have a flag?

Love! Love! Love!

2010-03-14T11:56:00.001-07:00

Dear friends, love each other! Love beyond all reason! Love until death and love until death is defeated! Love with everything you are! Love people even as they seek to destroy you! Let them destroy you even, just show them love while you go down! Find people to love! Look near and far, small needs and large, physical or otherwise. You have been freed to love by a cross, now love even as you are carrying your own!

A line of thought inspired by Invictus

2009-12-27T23:18:00.001-08:00

I went to see Invictus a couple days ago, and it was a really good movie. You should go see it. It's about Nelson Mandela and rugby!

The movie portrays South Africa during and immediately after apartheid. I was thinking how South Africa is one of, if not the most, developed country in Africa, and how the white parts of South Africa were (and still are) really developed. It reminded me of how Dr. George would always say in her Social Change and Development class at Gordon that "the Third World is to be found in the First, and the First in the Third."

In the movie, it is painfully obvious that it doesn't matter how developed a country is if that development is limited to a certain portion of the population, i.e. whites in South Africa. Another thing Dr. George always said, along the same lines as the quote above, is that the term "developed nation" is not an accurate term, and it is even misleading. It implies that America has made it, and has no where to go, and is what all nations should strive to be. What Americans have is what they should want.

But, what good is development in America if it is restricted to certain economic classes? What good is it to have good hospitals and medicine if millions can't afford it? Apartheid is a comfortable enough subject for movies because the injustice is obvious. Institutionalized racism is wrong. Everyone agrees. But what about institutionalized classism? [Disclaimer: I'm not saying America is as bad as apartheid SA, don't get carried away...]

Where Invictus causes the right questions, movies like Pursuit of Happyness give the wrong answers. Pursuit tells the story of a statistical outlier, but it pervades the consciousness of American cultural expectations for what the poor "should" be able to achieve if only they "work hard enough." The bad news is, poor people in America work hard and stay poor.

So, should health care be only for those who can afford it? Should the benefits of America's development go only to America's rich?

I don't pretend to know how to "fix" America's health care. I'm just saying that conservatives should understand that health and justice are linked. And justice for the poor matters a whole lot to a certain 1st century rabbi that seems to get people elected a lot...

And remember, its always the children of the poor that suffer anyway. Even if kids get health care, imagine what happens to the kids in a family that is already poor and a parent gets sick and can't work.

To end, some exhortations:
1. Christians in America, think eternally for a second. Christ endures, America dies. Think about the ethical/political implications of that!
2. Think about who really benefits from your political views: the rich or the poor? Then think, between those two groups, who does Jesus want justice for? (Open your Bibles to Luke 6:24-27, underline it like a good evangelical, and just stare at it for a while. If you're a Christian and you're going to defend the rights of an economic class, it has to be the poor.)
3. Figure out what the presuppositions of your political views are! Then, examine your presuppositions!
4. Seek truth in politics, not victory!

"Justice is what love looks like in public." -Dr. Cornell West

Grace and peace (and apologies if I'm not graceful or peaceful enough),
Charles

Things keeping me awake until 5:48 (at least) in the morning.

2009-12-10T02:51:00.000-08:00

Prednisone (I had an allergic reaction, and they gave me steroids with numerous side effects)
My massive complaints about Biblical Studies (I got downgraded on a paper because it wasn't irrelevant enough)
An excerpt from Kierkegaard about despair (I really related to it two hours ago, at 3:48 am (and I'll probably relate to it when I'm well rested too...))
Wanting to move to Peru (To do/learn/teach sustainable agriculture)
Thinking about moving into the community house next week (aka Mat Schnetne's commune)
Wondering if I could take down my college's bookstore by getting everyone to give their books to each other (Maybe watch Facebook to see if that materializes into anything once I'm thinking more clearly)
Getting excited about almost being done with college and having an idea of what I want/should/need to do next (see number 4)
Wondering how I am going to survive finals on Prednisone (and a presentation in a couple hours, and Winter Ball tonight, etc etc etc)
Thinking about philosophical absurdities (I don't exactly know what other people mean by that, but I basically mean "things that don't have any worthwhile reason for existing" (that I can think of, or deem worthwhile) i.e. rubber chickens, gourmet dog food, caring about who wrote the Gospel of John, etc etc etc)
Wanting to live in a country where people love it for the reasons I love Wisconsin, because it is home and because of its people, culture, food, nature, etc (and not because of a fanatical, uncritical, religious devotion to its history, politics, or economic system!)
Writing! (and ranting, see numbers 2, 9, 10)

Goodnight/good morning!

A brief bit of NT Wright's thoughts on truth claims

2009-10-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

"It is an interesting observation on today's religious climate that many people now get every bit as steamed up about insisting that 'all religions are just the same' as older dogmaticians did about insisting on particular formulations and interpretations. The dogma that all dogmas are wrong, the monolithic insistence that all monolithic systems are to be rejected, has taken hold of the popular imagination at a level far beyond rational or logical discourse. The 'remote god' view encourages it: if god is, or the gods are, far away and largely unknowable, all human religions must be vague approximations, different paths up the same mountain (and all paths get lost in the mist quite soon anyway). Equally, the pantheism that sees 'god' as the divine or sacred aspect within the present world leads ultimately in the same direction: if all religions are responding the to 'the sacred' in this sense, they are simply different languages expressing the same concept.

Few who embrace one or the other of these beliefs (or in some cases, it seems, both) stop to consider how remarkably arrogant and imperialistic these rejections of the supposedly arrogant and imperialistic religions actually are. They are saying with all the authority of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment behind them that they have discovered the hidden truth that all the great religions (especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) had missed: all religions are 'really' variations on the Enlightenment's idea of 'religion.' Well, of course: if you start with that idea, it would look like that, would it not?

But why should we believe the Enlightenment's arrogant claim any more than anyone else's? Some Christians, thinking to be generous-spirited toward those who embrace different faiths, have spoken of such people as 'anonymous Christians'; this is now generally accepted as hopelessly arrogant. Why should a Buddhist want to be an 'anonymous Christian?' But by that same token it is just as arrogant, if not more so, to claim that the adherents of all religions are really 'anonymous Enlightenment religious persons.'

We cannot, obviously, settle this huge debate here..."

-N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus, pages 100-101

Please pray

2009-09-11T11:06:00.001-07:00

Hello,

There is a lot of rioting going on right now in Kampala, and even in Mukono town, where UCU is and where a lot of people I love dearly live. Around a dozen protesters/rioters have been shot dead by police, and live bullets have at least been fired in Mukono. I don't have a lot of information right now. It seems that friends of mine there cannot leave their homes, though, and the situation is tense. I have emailed my host family but have not heard back yet. Please keep the people of Uganda in your prayers, and check the news.

Peace,

Chuck

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/10_feared_dead_in_city_riots12_91137.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8251431.stm

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Gunfire_rocks_Bulange_as_Besigye_blames_Museveni_91152.shtml

My friend Rose

2009-08-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I have a very dear friend named Rose. She was my host family's "house girl" in Uganda. She is probably the sweetest person I have ever met. She lives a good six hour drive away from her four children and sends the money she earns to them. Her youngest kid is around 6 or 7 I think. I love her dearly. I can't imagine how painful her life is, but she has so much grace and love for everyone anyway. Wonderful.

When I left Uganda, I was going to give Rose a picture of me and my family. I let her choose from the small album I had brought with. The pictures didn't really mean anything to me. I could have just printed new ones out on a whim once I returned. She picked out three pictures. She especially wanted a picture of my father.

A while after she had picked out her pictures from my album she brought me a picture from 1999 of her and her family. She told me who they were, and noted the ones who have since passed away.

Rose does not have the option of reprinting this picture. She barely has any pictures of her family, and she gave one to me.

This may seem insignificant to many, but it was extremely significant to me. One, obviously, because of how wonderful Rose is. The second, is that it made me realize something. I gave Rose something that I can easily replace. Rose gave me something she can't replace.

I realized that I have never given anyone anything that I could not replace.

This woman has given more by giving me one photograph than I did by giving her three. She gave me more than the total of what I have ever given anyone. In the kingdom of God, there will be no plaques honoring rich folks who give millions from their millions. There will be no honor or special social standing for the "socially aware" rich folks who take comfort in their "giving." Giving in the kingdom of God does not mean that money changes hands!

I have never given. I might give it a shot one day.

Mark 12:41-44 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

Food

2009-06-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

http://fud.smugmug.com/gallery/4665232_qUp2L#275574459_Xs57b

Further reflection on HIV/AIDS

2009-06-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

This is my final project for a class I had in Uganda. I couldn't just post the audio, so I added a picture to it and made it into a video. The picture is of the health center. The building on the left is where the AIDS treatment was mostly done, and the building on the right is the main hospital building. The picture zooms to where the conversations in the audio take place. If you're a faithful reader, some of the stories will be reruns, but much of it is new. It is about 15 minutes long. Thanks for listening.

Dogs

2009-06-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

I have a few stories I'd like to share. They all relate to dogs. And America. Let me explain.

During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people were murdered in 100 days. It's pretty complicated, and if you'd like a good idea of what happened and why, watch "Ghosts of Rwanda" on youtube. It is a documentary about the genocide in 10 minute segments. It might change your life (if you let it).

After our trip, we were in southwestern Uganda at a hotel debriefing our trip. We spent a lot of time just hanging out, but also a lot of time intentionally discussing the things we had just seen and the people we met in Rwanda. One of our small group discussion questions was "what was the most emotionally impacting experience of your time in Rwanda?" My answer was a section of Kigali Memorial Center dedicated to children who had been killed during the genocide. There were several pictures of individual children and under each picture was information like this:

Name: Mukamesi Laurence
Age: 7
Favorite food: chips
Favorite sport: football
Best friend: mom
Cause of death: shot in the head

Eseza's answer (a friend of mine and a Ugandan student at UCU) needs a bit of background. Of the Americans (aid workers, diplomats, missionaries, etc.) in Rwanda in early 1994, only one stayed during the genocide. All white people were quickly evacuated by their countries. There were enough foreign soldiers in Rwanda to evacuate white folk that they could have stopped about half of the murders. On the documentary mentioned above, there is a part where some Americans are shown getting into a military transport plane. The most emotionally impacting thing for Eseza was seeing these aid worker missionary folk evacuate their dogs. They did not take a single Rwandan, but they had space for their dogs. While she was talking she started crying and couldn't go on.

While I was in Kapchorwa, Uganda for a week, my host mom (who works for Compassion International) mentioned how kids' sponsors send letters to their kids and let them know how their lives are going, and sometimes people write about how much they love their dogs. My host mom couldn't understand how people could love a dog so much, and spend so much money on a dog, when these children that she loves, beautiful children, don't have food, basic health care, or clothes.

Last night I was watching TV with my parents and a luxury dog food commercial came on. I had just finished eating dinner and reading a World Vision mailing informing about the food crisis in northern Uganda. I left the room.

All this is to say, I waste so much love, so much money, so much time, so much of my life on so many stupid things when there are so many people--beautiful people with names and faces, best friends and family, favorite foods and sports--who are dying in genocides (Darfur), dying of hunger and thirst (northern Uganda), dying because they don't have access to clean water or simple medicines. I want to always question what I'm spending myself on.

I want to invite you to join your reality with my host mom's, with Eseza's. I want to gain an understanding that certain things about American culture are deeply absurb, and to gain the self-awareness to think critically about the way we live. I want to see things as they are. I want to value the truly valuable, I want to find beautiful that which is truly beautiful, I want to live for things worth living for. I don't want to waste myself. I don't want you to either.

The dog thing is just an example. I'm not condemning folks with dogs, I'm just trying to say that just because something goes unquestioned in our culture doesn't mean we shouldn't question it. Maybe dogs aren't worth having as pets when we could provide for children instead. Maybe a lot of what we do makes sense if nothing existed beyond our own homes.

Maybe there are a million things that we do that aren't worth doing.

Home again

2009-05-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for reading this blog while I was away. It really means so much to me that you would spend your time reading it, thinking about these things with me, and showing me your love through that. I really appreciate it more than I can say.

I am now back in the United States of America. I am spending my time for now at Gordon, hanging out with friends and trying to to get them to hang out with me instead of with books.

Our trip to Rwanda was challenging in a lot of different ways. Soon I will write out some of the people's stories, and reflections from them.

If you'd like a copy of my final thoughts and reflections on HIV/AIDS, I can give you a copy of it. Just let me know.

I also have some (about 100) pretty freaking sweet necklaces that women at the clinic made to sell to folks and to send the money back to them. They are $7. $7 can pay for three months of school fees and lunch for a kid in Uganda. Let me know if you'd like one.

Love,

Charles

Rwanda

2009-04-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hello,

A brief update:

I moved out of my house today, and said farewell to my host family that I've lived with for the past four months. Sad day.
I have finished the semester's work. I made a podcast about my experiences with HIV/AIDS, if you'd like, when I get back I could give you a copy (it's 15 minutes long... of me talking. Consider yourself warned).
We leave for Rwanda tomorrow morning at 5 am. We will study the 1994 genocide, the aftermath, reconciliation, the church's role in the genocide and in reconciliation, and more. I will be out of touch until May 1st, when we return to Uganda.
I leave Uganda on May 5th, and will arrive in Boston on May 6th. I will eventually make it back to Wisconsin in May sometime, then back to the Gordon area for the summer.

I love you all, hope to hear from you all soon.

Love,

Chuck

Prayer for Persons with HIV/AIDS

2009-04-07T01:42:00.002-07:00

May this prayer help you and me in our journey towards solidarity with the sufferings of all people in all the world:

Lord Jesus, I pray for those who have shared my life in so many ways, and who have helped me to cope better with my HIV/AIDS. I grieve over the missed opportunities of my past life, the accomplishments which I thought would be part of my life, but which I never achieved.

Let me speak words of forgiveness to those who need to hear them. Let me speak words of gratitude to those who try to ease the pains in my body and to comfort my spirit.

I pray for those I will leave in grief when the time comes for me to pass over into your Kingdom; those who will experience guilt and anger because of my leaving, those who will experience deprivation and poverty due to my absence. Help them build strong and loving memories now that will sustain them in their loss.

I want to pray for those who die alone, or with strangers in hospitals and clinics; for those who die in prisons and other institutions; for those who die forgotten by others, and missed by no one.

I join my pain with yours. I ask that good may come out of my HIV/AIDS, just as God brought good out of your own experiences of pain and rejection.

Jesus, you comforted the sorrowful, you mourned with those who were sad. Welcome me into your Kingdom where there will be no grief, no more tears, no more sadness.

Amen.

On football

2009-04-01T06:46:00.006-07:00

Hello.

I have been playing football with the UCU team while here and I would like to fill you in on some stuff about it.

They use the numbered position system i.e. right winger is 7, left winger 11, attacking center mid 8, etc. My Gordon coach, Jake Declute, just taught us this last semester, and I would have looked like an idiot if I hadn't of known. Thanks Jake!
My coach here at UCU is a former Ugandan national team player. He's old now, but he's still a stud.
The African players I have come across are very athletic and strong, some are strong technically (others aren't because there is usually only one ball around, if that), and they aren't as advanced tactically.
I play for a team called Free Stars United. I have played in three matches, and scored the winner in my debut.
I have played a bit of #10 while here and I enjoyed it quite a lot.
My ankle has been doing just fine (I injured it last fall).
Playing here makes me want to come back for grad school just so that my playing days don't end this November...
A guy I play with has an old Gordon College jersey that had been donated. It was very strange to play with a dude wearing a Gordon kit all the way over here.
The guys on the team are some of the nicest people I have ever met.
I have practice right now, so this post must end.

Peace to y'all. See you all very soon (I only have three weeks left in Uganda and a couple weeks in Rwanda, then I'm home).

Love,

Chuck

This post is in obedience to my mother and Lisa.

2009-03-26T04:14:00.001-07:00

I have been hesitant to write about this, because it is so beyond my understanding and ability to communicate that I don't want to either trivialize it or make it seem over dramatic. I feel like many times people (and probably me on this blog) either romanticize Africa or make it seem like all it is can be summed up by watching Hotel Rwanda or Blood Diamond. As I share some stories with you about my continued experience visiting the Mukono Health Centre for their AIDS treatment day, I'm going to try my best to tell the truth about what I've experienced without hitting either of those two harmful extremes. There is an element of it, however, that cannot be expressed.

The past three Tuesday afternoons I have gone to the health center. I don't ever really want to go, because it's always both awkward and difficult. It's awkward because many times I sit down and try to start a conversation, and the person doesn't speak any English and I know five words in Luganda. I eventually just stand up and try to talk to someone else, and it's awkward. Reasons why it is difficult are to follow. One of the things I'm learning here though, is that being obedient to God and following Jesus often makes you do things you don't want to do, go places where you don't want to go, and face realities you'd rather didn't exist (or not know existed). The health center, for me, is that place, and HIV/AIDS is that reality. So I go. Reluctantly.

So, generally, when I go, the people I end up talking to speak decent English but aren't fluent. Three weeks ago I met a woman whose name was something like Vainob-- at least that's how it sounded. She had been in the hospital for a week, since when she had been diagnosed HIV+. She was a self-described "old woman" of 45 years with four children, the youngest of which is about done with high school. I sat and talked with her for an hour or so. She kept coughing really deep coughs. They sounds like bronchitis coughs if you've ever heard those. She hadn't told her kids about her diagnosis yet. She didn't want to. I don't blame her. Sometimes during the conversation I prayed with her. Then, later in the conversation she told me she was Muslim, which makes her willingness to pray with me very interesting. I have never had a patient there refuse to pray with me, despite their religion. When I left, she asked me a couple of times to remember to pray for her. I ask, now, the same of you.

The next week, March 17th, I talked with a woman who was there with her three year old daughter Gloria. Gloria was a beautiful little girl with braided hair who kept hiding from me. Her mother has been HIV+ for two of her daughter's three year. Thankfully, Gloria is not HIV+ (it is not always transmitted mother to child, thank God). While I was with her, during one of the silent moments of the conversation, I realized that she doesn't have much chance for living more than ten more years-- leaving her daughter, at best, at the age of 13. She also didn't speak English that well, but one thing she asked me, with an air of desperation I've only heard from other AIDS patients, was something like: "When are they going to find an antidote for HIV?" I had no idea how to respond. I told her I didn't know. I tried to tell her there was hope, and that she could live a positive life with HIV, but I couldn't find words that she could understand. I don't what I'm supposed to learn from all this, but literally all I had for her was my presence and my prayers. No doubt the driving force behind her fear and desperation is her daughter. The most heartbreaking thing though, the most heartbreaking question I have ever been asked, was when she asked me to take her daughter with me to America when I left. What could make a mother want to give up such a beautiful child? I can't even imagine. I can't really think of any suitable words to describe the essence of my hour with her. I was trying to show faith, hope, and love to a situation that seems to only grow fear and despair, a situation that caused a mother, out of love for her child, to want to send her child with me, a stranger, to America, the promised land. Before she left I prayed with her. Again, people are always willing to be prayed with and for.

On Tuesday, I went again. I had the privilege of praying with three women and one baby. I was talking with one woman for a while who was there with her baby girl, one year and two months old. She was a beautiful bald little baby in a pink dress. Both mother and child are HIV+. I didn't get to speak with the mother for very long, because she went to get treated, but she was really eager to have me pray for her. When I asked to pray with her, she reacted as if I had surprised her with a gift. Her face brightened up in a way that I've never seen anyone's in response to an offer of prayer. Perhaps I don't go with "nothing to give, nothing to offer" to the people I meet there, but instead perhaps prayer is the best thing I could offer someone. Her view of prayer, her response, gave me a whole different look at it that I'm not sure I've thought of before.

After talking with her, I spoke with one woman who is not a patient, but had come with a friend who is HIV+. It was really encouraging to see an HIV+ person there who had been brought by a friend, which doesn't happen often. A huge problem with AIDS is the stigma attached with it. It is often said that many people don't die from AIDS, they die from stigma. The woman with HIV's name is Jacqueline. She was very weak and frail. I sat between the two of them on a wooden bench just inside a doorway to the courtyard in between the health center's two buildings. Just outside, there was an old woman and a toddler waiting by the window to receive medicine. From the child's skin, it was obvious that she has HIV. From the woman's age it was obvious that she isn't the child's mother, perhaps the grandmother. Piecing all that together, the child is mostly likely HIV+ and has been orphaned by AIDS and is being taken care of by the old woman. One striking thing about it, was that all three of us inside, Jacqueline, her friend, and I were all turned towards the door watching the child. All three of us, with differing amounts of ability to know what that child's life is and will be like, were all seemingly taken aback by her condition. This is one of those things that I can't express. It was almost overwhelming, just to be in her presence, just to see her, just to be aware of her reality. I can't begin to describe the sorrow that comes by fully recognizing the lot of an HIV+ AIDS orphan. There's a sort of posture of sorrow that will always leave words seeming inadequate. I feel like every time I'm faced with these realities there is a sort of tug-of-war, a battle within me, between hope and despair. The joy in the sorrow fights on the side of hope. What the mother taught me about prayer fights on the side of hope and "hope does not disappoint us." Perhaps the only way life can be devoid of hope is if it is devoid of prayer.

A strange, but wonderful, thing about this experience, is that despite how incredibly sorrowful I am when I leave, the rest of my interactions with people for the rest of the day are more joyful and loving. It has nothing to do anything with me, but says everything about the truth of the scriptures that say when you share in Christ's sufferings you share in his resurrection. You want to experience resurrection in your life, go seek out people who are suffering and suffer with them, show them that love exists and heals and transforms. Share your life with suffering people and your life will be life abundant indeed.

So pray, find those who are suffering in your midst, and be with them. As Henri Nouwen says in Compassion, find those who are suffering and build a home there. That is the way of Christ. That is the way of hope.

Kapchorwa

2009-03-03T04:19:00.000-08:00

We just got back from our week long rural home stay on Sunday. It was an incredible experience. Here's some highlights:

My host dad, Rev. Bushendich Moses, is an Anglican priest who works in the development of the diocese. I got to see his work with HIV/AIDS, water, sanitation, and some micro-finance stuff as well.
My host mom, Caroline, works for Compassion International. She's great. She loves people a lot. I went to her office (a church) and saw her work with the children there. They respond to the social, economic, intellectual, and spiritual needs of children in their area. If you'd like to sponsor a child from the area that these wonderful people work, let me know. I can help you out. It's an amazing way to be connected to people's lives here and have a direct impact on the life of a child.
Both my parents have been spending their entire lives working for the good of others. It was beautiful. There were times while talking to them that I thought, "This is a Christian."
It reflected in their daughters, Peace (age 10), Joanna (age 8), and Ester (age 2). They were very cute, and probably the sweetest children I have ever met. Ester, when given candy, rather than keep it all, gave it out piece by piece to all the adults standing around. Wonderful
I took care of the cow. And milked it. One thing that makes sense but surprised me for some reason is that cow's milk is hot when it comes out.
Disclaimer: If you're a vegan move to the next bullet point. I slaughtered a hen. I literally sawed its head off with a dull knife. After the head came off, I didn't want to get the blood on me so I stepped of the feet and the wings (how I was holding it down) and it flopped half way down the hill... The funny thing is, that seems way more normal to me right now than going to a store and having slabs of chicken frozen in plastic waiting for you...
America seems very strange to me now.
My host family gave me a sweater vest when I left.
We hiked Sipi Falls, which was absolutely gorgeous. There are three falls. The tallest is 300 feet. I'll try to add pictures later.

A few photographs

2009-02-18T21:50:00.000-08:00

Washing machine.

Tim's baby Emmanuel.

Tim and Ema.

Martin and I at the motocross/rally car race.

My brothers Tim and Martin at the races.

A journal entry

2009-02-17T01:37:00.002-08:00

I haven't done this before, but I am just going to copy down a journal entry of mine from last night. Keep in mind that I, and my writing, is a work in progress. Also, keep in mind that the "you" in this is me. I wrote this attacking my own way of life and world view. I post this with the intention that I will be held accountable to my words. Thanks.

---

Monday Feb 16

Today I realized how much my perception of reality is a lie I tell to comfort myself. I am refusing to learn what the culture of poverty means so that I don't have to radically change. Observe, copy, understand [this is the process given to us during orientation for cross cultural interaction. It basically means that first you have to observe a culture, then copy what you see being done, and then gradually you will come to understand why it is the way it is. I've come to see its usefulness in a lot of different spheres, or just to see different things as "cultures"]. Am I really willing to understand the pains of this world? I have to share in the sufferings of Christ. I will never understand them until then. Today I learned that a dear friend's dad has cancer, I thought a lot about a story a friend here told me about his Rwandan friend who lost his entire family in the 1994 genocide, and I read an account of a lost boy of the Dinka of southern Sudan. All this pain confronting me doesn't just make me hurt, but challenges the very core of the way I see the world. It's so surprising to me every time I hear about another everyday, commonplace thing in my life with is a distant dream of the average Ugandan, indeed the average human being. And it's so surprising to me to find out what is commonplace and everyday in its stead. Injustice. Starvation. War. Disease. But it is always surprising. Just like someone who comes to a different culture and deep down continues to expect the people to act as they're used to, I cannot understand poverty. Every day it is surprising. I came to Uganda with a large amount of arrogance about my understanding of poverty. "I've seen it before. I've come to terms with it. I've learned to deal with it." Lies. True love doesn't let you "deal with it." True understanding of poverty is not something you can "come to terms with." It's something that makes you want to cry, want it all to end, every day. Otherwise you are lying to yourself. Sure, your head can understand it all just fine, even understand it well, in that sense. But your heart is another story, isn't it? Truth be told, I'm a bit disgusted with myself right now, and how little I understand, how little I love, and how great I think my understanding and love are. Jesus understands injustice, that's for sure. What's more unjust that a sinless man being crucified? Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, the hungry, the hated, the persecuted. Woe to the rich, the well fed, those who laugh now, those who are spoken well of. It all makes sense. How could the rich ever understand the story of the God of all becoming man and suffering the greatest injustice of all time? I wonder why I don't care about the poor! I don't understand the gospel because if I did I would follow it.

---

After I turned out the lights (what a blessing is electricity by the way!), I tossed and turned in bed for a long time. I realized that my luxury is more important to me than others' survival. I began to think that maybe if I understood poverty (which can basically be swapped for human existence for the vast majority of the world) I would live much, much differently. I wanted to throw the computer I'm writing on out the window. Then I thought, well, I must not really understand the gospel that much either. Luke 6:24-26 all made sense. Woe to the rich, because, perhaps, their entire existence is a lie.

This may be offensive to some. It's offensive to me. I want to run from it, but at the same time I know that the only hope that exists comes from running towards it. If we just go ahead and follow Jesus' words that right now don't make any sense to us, (all of Mt 5-7, especially don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth), maybe we'll understand it some day. Maybe if we live the way Jesus tells us to we'll one day realize that he was right!

I, and my broken thoughts, are all a work in progress. Forgive me.

Love,

Charles

Afri-facts

2009-02-13T00:05:00.000-08:00

Here are some brief facts that you may or may not have known about Uganda and Africa in general:

In Uganda, it's very rude to eat while walking. There are probably a million examples of things like this that you would never think of. Politeness is definitely culturally defined.
Child sacrifice occurs on average once a week in Uganda as part of traditional religious ceremonies, and is especially prevalent in Mukono, the district I am in. I think five occurred over Christmas time.
80% of Uganda is subsistence farmers
It's not that Africans don't have the concept of the individual, but the default is to think of the community/family/tribe/clan first.
African worldview asks "why?" which leads to understanding which leads to fitting in. The west asks "how?" which leads to understanding which leads to control.
Canada and Uganda have roughly equivalent populations, but in Canada 8 mothers die in childbirth per year, whereas 6,000-7,000 mothers die in Uganda per year.
My host brother actually says, "this is Africa" a lot sort of to punctuate conversations about common problems, like poor education, children dying of malaria, or government corruption or something. It's not just from Blood Diamond.
Uganda has over 40 people groups, each with its own language and culture. The most numerous is the Baganda of the Buganda Kingdom (about 18%, I think, of the population). The Baganda speak Luganda.
In Luganda, there is no word for "hello." The greeting instead means "how are you?" which is pretty indicative of the culture I think (emphasis on relationships over schedules or tasks). It also explains why so often when you say "hello" in English to people on the street they say "fine" in response.
"Americans have watches. Africans have time." -The Rev. Dr. Samuel Opol, my professor for my class on African Traditional Religions.
Uganda gained independence from Great Britain in 1962. The national anthem was written in the same year, and the composer is still trying to get his money from it. This is Africa.
Because of English influence, cars drive on the left side of the road, soccer is football, a field is a pitch, the trunk is the boot, and so on.
There is a bird here that makes the exact same noise as the game Catch Phrase. We call it the Catch Phrase bird.
In traditional African worldview and religion (which has a large influence on current African worldview, even of Christians or Muslims), dead people aren't really seen as dead in the same way as in the west. People still talk to their dead ancestors the same way they would have if they were alive. It can't really be called "spirit worship" in that sense, more ancestor veneration.
The English Premier League is the league of choice. Most people are fans of either Man U, Arsenal, or Liverpool. My brothers are both Arsenal supporters.
Apparently, 4% of Uganda's population has electricity. Fewer have running water.
Tribalism is a major problem in Africa. Even things like playing for football clubs are affected. If the coach is from your tribe, you are much more likely to play or even get signed. On a more serious note, something like 90% of government officials are the same tribe as the President, Museveni, who appointed them. Hiring is often done on basis of tribe in all sectors.
African traditional worldview doesn't compartmentalize religion, politics, ecomonic, social issues, etc. the way we do in the west. Religious life is not, and cannot be, a separate life from economic or political life.

That's enough for now. If I think of anything else to fill you all in on I'll let you know. If you have any questions, please ask.

Love,

Chuck

A brief, simplistic thought on truth

2009-02-06T00:48:00.001-08:00

Ok, I don't know exactly what sparked this, but I was thinking about truth this morning during class.

So, the postmodern critique of modernity basically says that "truth" is in the hands of whoever is in power, and "truth" itself is manipulated by those in power to stay in power. That wasn't said very well, but basically what's "true" is whatever the person with the best weapons or most money says. This has lead some to believe that there is no truth, or no absolute truth. It seems like the prevailing attitude towards truth of my generation. I have been told many times to "believe what you want to believe" or "that's true for you."

Most Christians have tended to freak out whenever the suggestion is made that there is no absolute truth, and have fallen back to modernism to prove it. How can you call a line crooked unless you know what a straight line is?

But, I think that argument misses the point. What's the point of a straight line if someone makes it into a sword and enslaves you with it?

I'm dissatisfied with both.

My point is this: Truth exists, but if something that in fact is true is used for manipulation, power, and control it ceases to be true. Truth and love are so deeply intertwined with each other that I believe they can never be separated.

That's why the truth of the cross of Jesus Christ is quite possibly the only true thing ever. That's why I could care less about American ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. None of that means anything! It's all just rhetoric. That's why killing someone for something you believe, to me, proves that what you believe isn't true!

How would it change the face of Christianity in politics and in history if the truth we live and die for is truth like the cross is truth? How would it deeply shake the foundation of our lives?

So, truth is dying to yourself and living for Christ. Truth is sacrificial love. Truth is laying down your life for your friends and your enemies. Nothing true can ever be used for earthly gain. There could never be two things farther apart that truth and manipulation.

I'll leave you with something N.T. Wright said at the lecture he gave last semester at Gordon-Conwell:

"Truth does not come out of a checkbook or a gun."

I'm sure my argument is full of holes. Please help me find them. Especially all my philosopher and theologian friends out there. This thought is a work in progress, and very new to me. But I have to go now, but I wanted to share it before I left for the weekend. I'm going to a place called Rakai that is right near Rwanda and is in the southern hemisphere. PEACE!

I want to be a monk

2009-02-04T07:02:00.001-08:00

"I talk about love, forgiveness, social justice; I rage against American materialism in the name of altruism, but have I even controlled my own heart? The overwhelming majority of time I spend thinking about myself, pleasing myself, reassuring myself, and when I am done there is nothing to spare for the needy. Six billion people live in this world, and I can only muster thoughts for one. Me."

-Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz pg. 22

This morning all my toothpaste was gone. The horror, the horror.

I had put it in the bathroom that my host family and I share. My host mom said I should keep it in my room. I said, "No, that's alright. I'll share." Then, the inevitable happened: the toothpaste ran out. So, I thought to myself, maybe when I buy toothpaste I'll keep the next one to myself. Then, I thought, why is my breathe smelling fresh and clean more important than my family's breathe smelling fresh and clean?!? Why should my teeth matter more than theirs?

Obviously this is a silly example, but this quote of Don Miller's that I read a few days ago popped into my head right away. This is just a tiny example, but how many more things in life are like this? Then, this afternoon, I was sitting in the shade in my favorite spot in the grass behind Bishop Tucker Hall, and I read this:

"A hermit that was very holy lived near to a community of monks. Some visitors to the community happened to go to see him and made him eat, though it was not the proper time. Later the monks of the community said to him, 'Weren't you upset, abba?' He answered, 'I am upset when I do my own will.'"

-The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

What a concept! I was going to try to add some thoughts on here too, and maybe I will later, but for now I would just like to say that this idea really draws me in. So, dear friends, let us love each other like this. Let us die to ourselves, and all be 2nd century desert monks now, where ever we happen to be.

Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

1 Cor 10:24

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Matthew 16:24-25

P.S. I love Jesus. You should to. That's it.

A day in the life

2009-02-03T02:43:00.000-08:00

So, I was thinking you might want to know what a typical day consists of for an American student at Uganda Christian University who lives with a Ugandan family. It's a bit long, so if you don't really care that much, I understand. But, here it is:

I usually wake up at 7:15 a.m.- (or 8:15 depending on the day). I share a room with my host brother Martin who is 25 and a school teacher. He takes me to watch English Premiership football matches at a restaurant on the weekends. I have a mosquito net over my bed, he does not. Africans are used to malaria, apparently.

After I wake up I put on khakis or other dress pants (strange I know, but I can't really wear athletic shorts around the house) and walk out and greet my mother, Mama Margaret. This is how you ask a Ugandan how they slept:

"How was the night?"

"The night was fine, how was the night for you?"

"The night was fine."

Then I bathe. I pour water that was collected from rain on the roof, into gutters, into a giant basin thing. The water is held in plastic containers called jerrycans, of which there are all different sizes. I pour the rain water into a small plastic basin that I set in the bath tub (I am lucky to have an indoor bath room to do this in by the way). I cup my hands and splash water on myself, lather up, then splash water onto myself again. The water is not hot, just to note. It's not quite as simple as jumping in the shower.

After I bathe, I get dressed in my nice school clothes. There is a different academic culture here in which "smartness" is valued a lot, but smartness doesn't mean intelligence, it means that you're well dressed. So I wear much nicer clothes here than I do at home. Strange.

Breakfast for me is morning tea. "African tea" is half hot milk, half hot water, with a tea bag (or just loose leaves). Tea is taken in the morning and in the evening before dinner. Usually we have bread and butter to dip in the tea, and sometimes we have chipote, which is a tortilla-like food that is sweeter and greasier... and better to have with tea.

My walk to school takes about 15 minutes. I walk on the main road which goes through Mukono. It is the road that takes you from Kampala, the capital, to Jinja, another main town in Uganda. Then I walk on a dirt road past a few school compounds and I arrive on campus.

Most days I start class at 8:30 a.m. In New England that is 11:30 p.m., midwest 10:30 p.m., and Arizona 9:30 p.m. Other days I have class at 9:30 a.m. These are my classes:

Faith and Action

Missions

African Traditional Religions, Christianity, and Islam in Uganda

East African History 1800 to Independence

Reading the New Testament in Africa

Lunch is starts at 12:45. There isn't much variety, and it is usually rice, beans, matooke (think mashed potatoes but instead of potatoes, mashed bananas) and posho, which I'm not even going to try to explain more than just a white, soft block of... food.

Sometime in the day I use the internet and hang out with other USP students in our little building. Today, since it is raining super hard, I'm inside now online at 2 p.m. It varies, but I use the internet every school day (so send me emails!).

After lunch, on sunny days I sit in a chair behind Bishop Tucker Hall and read in the shade. It's so nice. It's probably the nicest place in all of Africa. And my favorite part of everyday.

Football (soccer, duh) with the UCU team starts at 5 p.m. It's been great so far. It's a pretty high level of play. Sometimes we just play 11-a-side, sometimes we have more organized training sessions with fitness and things. Ugandans, reflecting the African culture of not being individualistic, pass a lot. It's not really about making yourself look sweet, which is refreshing.

I walk home, and usually get there about 7 or 7:15 p.m. I bathe once I get home, even if I don't play football. Ugandans are clean. I'm not, but I have to be here.

Evenings are either spent reading, watching the news with my family, watching old kung fu movies (check out Game of Death where Bruce Lee fights Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Snake in Eagles Shadow with a very young Jackie Chan), watching terrible Nigerian movies that are dubber into Luganda, or just sitting around. Evening tea is somewhere in the mix before dinner.

Dinner is usually around 10 p.m. It is usually rice, beans, matooke, and maybe some beef in soup that you pour onto everything. Again, not much variety, but more than lunch at school. Then I go to sleep.

Hope that gave you a decent picture of what life is like here. Not that it really went into what I'm learning, but hopefully that provides a framework for my other posts in the past and in the future. Hope you are all well! Send me an email, I miss a ton of people at home!

Love,

Chuck

I don't belong here

2009-01-30T01:15:00.000-08:00

I am reminded of this every day by little children insisting on reporting the color of my skin to all within earshot: "Mzungu, mzungu," they yell. "White person, white person."

Double consciousness is a sociological term that means that minorities see themselves in two ways: the way you see yourself, and the way the majority sees you. That means in America, when black Americans look in the mirror, they see who they really are, and they see the stereotypes that white people project on them. This is something white people can never understand fully. I am getting the closest to understanding it than I ever will, but part of understanding double consciousness is being the oppressed minority, not just the minority. If the minority is in power, as whites in Africa have typically been, the full effect of double consciousness is not felt. So, when I look in the mirror, I see myself, and I see the colonialist, the missionary, and the aid worker. I am none of these, I am a student, but that's what everyone around me sees. That is the baggage my white skin carries along with me.

This morning I felt the sharp pangs of the full realization that I will never really belong here. My host brother said something like this:

"Even if you move back here and live here for 10, 20 years, you will always be mzungu. You will never really belong. Unless staying here will change the color of your skin"

Ouch. He didn't mean to be hurtful, but I guess that's just the reality of my situation. I am foreign, I am strange, I am other, I am, to some, unwanted.

What I represent is sometimes bad, sometimes good, based on the person who sees me and is surprised by my whiteness. But, I never just represent me.

So, an exhortation: Be aware of what you are projecting on "the other."

Sermon

2009-01-27T01:47:00.000-08:00

So, when churches in Africa have visitors, especially groups of visitors, they have them preach and share in leading the service. So, last weekend we went to Jinja, Uganda, the source of the River Nile, and we visited New Life Missionary Baptist Church. No one else volunteered to preach during class last week, so I did. Things in brackets are added for the benefit of those reading after the fact in the states. Also, I didn’t say exactly what is written here, but I followed it pretty closely. More about Jinja to follow. The prayers are from the Book of Common Prayer, the last one specifically from St. Francis of Assisi. Let me know what you think, especially if you disagree with anything. Here's the sermon:

Thank you very much for welcoming us into your church this morning. Let us pray:

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please turn with me to the book of Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

But God demonstrated his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Hallelujah!

Jesus loves us as we are, and we are to love others as they are.

I have a lot of trouble with this. I notice it all the time in my life. I am drawn to people that will affirm what I already think, or even if I want people to challenge me in my faith, I want them to challenge me in a way I want to be challenged. I feel like a lot of times I don't really put much worth in other people's opinions, advice, or ways of life. Sometimes, I feel like “If only this person could be the way I want them to be, then I would love them.” It is so important though, to love people as they are. If Jesus hadn’t done that we’d all still be stuck in our sins. But Jesus loved us when we were enemies of God. Jesus died for his enemies. That's really crazy stuff. I mean, I don't care much about people who disagree with me, I want them to become like me, I want others to affirm me and to agree with me, rather than realizing that I am called to die for my enemies. Strange faith we have isn't it? Everything about following Jesus seems so counter to what we would naturally do. The first will be last, rejoice in persecution, then pray for those who persecute you, love your enemies, have joy in suffering, die so you can live.

But, I am so grateful to be here in Uganda, because I think being here will help me grow in this. I must learn to love people as they are, and not as I want them to be here, because I am not going to convince Africans to not be Africans, nor will I convince my fellow American college students to become more like me—and that's not what I should do at all. And if things in people's lives do need to change, it's my job to love them, and God's job to show them how to change and what to change into. Instead, we must seek to make every decision for the good of others rather than for ourselves. And that is not too ambitious. It may feel like it but it’s not, because the God of all creation has given us his Holy Spirit to guide us and convict us, and comfort us in the sufferings that are promised throughout the New Testament. He will be with us as we take up our cross—the cross of such sacrificial love that we die to ourselves. That's what I want, and I know it is too ambitious if I exclude God from the process—More than that, if God is not everything that the process is, I will fail. I think I've tried in the past to tack God onto my ambitions, which doesn’t work, even if my ambitions are unselfish. I want to love deeply because of how Christ loved me, and because of his love that I've experienced first hand in my own life, but I think I haven't surrender to God that he is starting point, the path, and the endpoint of this journey. Any point along the way on our own and we fall into sin and death. So, by the power of the Holy Spirit and by fellowship with each other in the church, loving and encouraging each other, we can love as Christ loved us. And we must remember that it is not our job to change others—it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Let us take a look at John 21:15-18.

15When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"

"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."

Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."

16Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"   He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."   Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."

17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"   Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."

Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.

[The following was from an NT Wright lecture I attended and blogged on in the fall] One crucial point of this passage that is not very heavily emphasized in the English translation is that in the Greek, Jesus asks Peter, “do you truly love me unconditionally?” and Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you like a friend.” Jesus asks Peter again, “Do you truly love me unconditionally?” Again, Peter responds, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you like a friend.” But the third time, Jesus asks, “Peter, do you love me like a friend?” and Peter was hurt that Jesus said “friend” instead of “unconditionally.” Jesus knows the state of Peter’s heart and says, “ok, I want you to love me unconditionally, but we will start where you are.” And Peter went on to be a great man of faith, leading the early church, and being the rock upon which it is built. In this same way, Christ deals with us. He knows the conditions of our hearts, and he starts with us where we are. In the same way, we must love others, knowing that God is at work in their lives the same way he is in ours.

This does not mean we are to let our fellow Christians go on living lives of sin. We have died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? Instead, we are to rebuke each other, speaking the truth in love. For if we truly love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot let them go on living lives of sin. The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis once said:

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal."

Indeed love must forgive all sins, and it must not cease to wish their removal. My own culture has trivialized love into simply “fuzzy feeling” for someone else, and that is a lie. An English bishop once said [Again, NT Wright is that bishop, but I didn’t say his name] “love is what you decide to do, and your feelings will come as they come.” That’s why it makes so much sense that two of the primary images of God’s love show us as God’s children, and the church as God’s bride. I myself am not married, but I know that marriages that are based on feelings do not last. And I know very well that if my parents love for me was based on feelings, I would have been thrown out as soon as I learned the word “no,” if not earlier. So, love is what you decide to do for someone else. So, I encourage you brothers and sisters, love one another as Christ loves us, love despite faults and sin, speak the truth in love, and seek to live out John 3:30: He must become great, I must become less.”

Let us pray:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in forgiving that we are forgiven; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Obama, for real, true African hero

2009-01-19T04:45:00.000-08:00

Those are words from the chorus of a song I heard yesterday. Other lines refer to Obama as the "African saviour" and "African redeemer." People ask about him all the time. What do you think of Obama, did you vote for Obama? My host mom has a poster of him in her room. To be sure, Africa loves Barack Obama.

I'm really excited to watch the inauguration.

The Desert Fathers

2009-01-15T03:21:00.000-08:00

Sayings of the early Christian monks:

Antony was confused as he meditated upon the depths of God's judgments, and he asked God, 'Lord, how is it that some die young and others grow old and sick? Why are there some poor and some rich? Why are there those who are bad and rich and oppress the good poor?' He heard a voice saying to him, 'Antony, worry about yourself; these other matters are up to God, and it will not do you any good to know them.'

Despair?

2009-01-14T02:12:00.000-08:00

I know it is a common problem of Americans to feel overwhelmed by news: war, AIDS, poverty, disease. As sons and daughters of the Enlightenment, we view these as issues to be solved, progress to be made. If you look at the world this way, you will die. Spiritually, emotionally, socially, you will die. I can relate to this on many levels-- I want to change things. I don't want to see people go on suffering. But what am I to do, not just to do about things, but to do with things? Does joy in suffering exist, as Paul promises?

Well, things changed for me yesterday. I went to the Mukono Health Clinic with my host brother Stephen, who is a medical therapist/counselor. Tuesday is the day when AIDS patients come to be counseled, tested, and treated. Before yesterday I had had hardly any experience with HIV/AIDS. I cared about it in a sort of nebulous sense that comes from unfamiliarity, but enough familiarity to care. Stephen's first words as we arrived on the compound to see people in lines waiting even to get into the clinic: "Everyone you see here is HIV positive."

He showed me his work as he interviewed patients to prepare a report to give doctors a preliminary understanding of how to treat patients. AIDS, as Stephen told me many times, affects every person differently, and each person reacts differently to ARVs, making it all the more difficult to treat. He introduced me to people that have been affected in different ways.

Now, when I think of AIDS, for the rest of my life, I will think of the orphan I met yesterday, whose giant eyes stared up at me as I held his hand. His parents dead, leaving him only HIV as an inheritance. I will think of the woman who had an Opportunistic Infection that caused large growths on her ears that were so painful she could hardly speak or interact with us.

So I will return to the Mukono Health Clinic on Tuesdays for the next semester. I will pray with people, talk to people, help out with whatever they need done. For this, I know, I am woefully inadequate. How could I possibly be any comfort to people whose pain I cannot begin to grasp? I know, however, that I owe something to them now. I can never go back to who I was before yesterday. That is simply not an option. I know, also, that there is not despair in AIDS because AIDS is not an issue to be solved, progress to be made. People live with AIDS, and people can love and be loved, can serve and be served. So I will love and serve those living with AIDS in Mukono, Uganda. I don't know how I will do this, but I will not go alone, knowing there is joy in suffering. And, there is nothing if there is not hope.

Ok, any questions?

Love,

Charles

First few tentative steps

2009-01-12T02:41:00.000-08:00

Hello from Mukono, Uganda!

I am at the university right now, waiting for my next class, and I have just eaten a delicious, and fast becoming familiar) meal of rice, beans, and matoke (it means banana in Luganda, its a sort of paste). My family is wonderful. When my mother was telling me about her family she included my name in the list of her children. She told me many times to feel free and know that I am one of their family. Her name is Mama Margaret, and she is a woman of immense dignity and honor. I have many sisters and brothers and even some of my mother's grandkids live with us.

It has been a tentative few days. I say tentative because everything I do is done that way. I step cautiously. I wait and watch to see the proper way things are done. I feel (and must seem) like a small child, but my family is very understanding of me and my faux pas. I have had to learn how to do everything over again. How to dress, how to bathe, how to flush the toilet (you add water to the top of the toilet), how to eat, how to greet people, etc. The first night in my home I bathed from a bucket by candle light.

Everything is new.

More to follow later.

Peace,

Charles

In two days...

2009-01-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

In two days time I will be well on my way to Uganda. The semester promises to be a challenge in many ways-- to my presuppositions, to my faith as is, to my worldview, culturally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. I expect and hope to be shaken by things I see and experience and by people I meet in such a way that I will never stop moving.

It is hard to be excited because there is so much unknown ahead. I'm trying not to have many expectations because they will inevitably end up being misguided stereotypes or just flat out wrong. The Uganda I discover will be one no one could have prepared me for before hand, nor will I be able to fully explain my experience to anyone who was not alongside me. But, I will do my best to do just that, right here. Stay tuned for updates, hopefully there will be many. For now, I prepare myself for something I don't feel I could ever be prepared for. Pray for me.

Love,
Charles

and oh yes, please do write.
email: chuck.anderas@gmail.com
address:
Charles Anderas
Uganda Studies Programme
Uganda Christian University
P.O. Box 4
Mukono, UGANDA

Family!

2008-11-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is my family! The man with the turkey is my grandfather Roland, the baby's name is Paige, and Phil and Lisa won't tell us their child-to-be's name yet!

NT Wright at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

2008-11-18T20:21:00.001-08:00

Hello,

Many of you may know who NT Wright is, but in case you don't, he is one of the best and most well known New Testament scholars in the world, and is the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England. Today, I got to go to a lecture series of his on the Gospel of John, and it was one of the most incredible lectures I have ever heard. He is quite possibly the most brilliant person I have ever heard speak, and I got to hear him from 9:30 this morning until 4 in the afternoon! Here are a few noteworthy things he said or I learned from today's lecture. The direct quotes (as best I could) are in quotations, and the stuff with much less exact note taking are not:

"Love is what you decide to do, and your feelings will come as they come."

"If you're following Jesus you must watch what he does, then do it. Some people say they don't have the strength for that. Whoever said anything about your own strength? He has given us the Holy Spirit!"

"Love is willing and doing." Along the same lines he said something like that "love is not warm, fuzzy feelings." Paul did not write in the epistles for his audiences to have more warm and fuzzy feelings for each other, but rather to sacrificially care for each other more.

We can never be "Gospels Christians" separate from "Epistles Christians." They can never be separated. We cannot just care about our relationship to God and we cannot just care about building the kingdom of God (that is, often, social things). We must hold them together. This ties in perfectly with what he says later (and is a big theme in John): "Not only are we part of the new creation, we are to be agents of new creation."

"Refusing to engage in political discourse is attempting to quench the Spirit."

The powers of this world see truth as what comes "out of a checkbook or a gun," but that is not what truth is! Truth is that "greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

And I leave you with a verse that has been really important to me in times of great trouble in my life, John 16:33:

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

If you don't know this peace or you don't know what that means, let me know. I'll do my best to show it to you. I know that lots of people have lots of misconceptions about Jesus because of the church, but the church is not God. Please don't confuse them.

Love,

Charles

P.S. I turn 21 next Sunday, so mail me a bottle of wine or your favorite brew to:

Charles Anderas

Gordon College

255 Grapevine Rd

Wenham, MA 01984

I got accepted!

2008-10-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

For those of you who haven't heard, I recently got accepted to the Uganda Studies Program at Uganda Christian University in Kampala, Uganda. I will be leaving January 9 and return May 5. While there, I will take classes at the University, travel around Uganda with the program on the weekends, travel to Rwanda for ten days, and live with a Ugandan family the whole time. I will have pretty limited ability to communicate with y'all, seeing as I'll be living in a home probably without running water and spotty electricity, much less internet, but I'll try my best to journal and write down whatever useful reflection or information when I can. I was going to try to do the whole blog thing while here at college... not working, so check back here in January and maybe there will be interesting stuff. If you have any questions about my upcoming semester or anything, let me know.

Chuck

An apology

2008-09-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

There is a very funny comedian by the name of Demetri Martin who sings a song called "Sames and Opposites." In the song there is a line that goes: "Saying I apologize is the same as saying I'm sorry... unless you're at a funeral."

That being said, I was a bit of a Johnny Raincloud in that last post, and I am sorry for all the complaining.

Here's something much better than reading what I have to say:

Therefore since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand; and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Romans 5:1-5

To conclude:

"A musical is the same as a burlap sack. I wouldn't want to be in either."

-Demetri Martin

A small update on the last 3 months of frustration

2008-09-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

Review of the summer: The Cascade Surge was a giant disappointment. They promised that we would be involved with rescue missions, prison ministries, and work with at-risk youth. I was even told that I wouldn't have time to do an internship at a church because we would be too busy. Instead, soccer was at 8 pm every night, and my days were completely free. For the first month, this means I sat alone in my host family's house all day. It was terrible. The second month, after Austria, we did fun things like go cliff jumping and swim in rivers. It was fun, but it wasn't at all why I went to Oregon. Soccer was quite frustrating as well, more or less because I am not a PDL caliber player... yet.

Gordon soccer: I sprained my ankle on the first day of training, and I still can't play. It might be another week or two still before I can play. It gets more frustrating every day. Our team is very young, with 12 freshman, and 4 or 5 of them starting. We've played 3 games so far, winning the first, losing the next 2. Our first conference game is Saturday, and it will be difficult to watch, being it was the game that I had made a goal to return by.

School: I have a very difficult semester, with two of the hardest classes of my major. Constant work, piling and piling up. On a (seemingly rare) positive note, I absolutely love the kids I live with this year. I live in a 4 person on-campus apartment with 3 awesome dudes, two of which are named Dan.

I was going to try to start a fundraiser for the Not For Sale campaign (read about it... http://notforsalecampaign.org/) , but because Gordon is corrupt (...maybe, don't quote me on that) campus organizations can't raise funds for non-Gordon charities or organizations. They shouldn't have people speak at chapel calling us to act, and then not allow us to act. Anyway, we might be able to do it for an on-campus ministry or something. We'll see.

Next semester: I am applying to go to the Uganda Christian University in Kampala, Uganda in eastern Africa to do the Uganda Studies Program. Basically I will take classes at UCU, live with a Ugandan family, travel around the country and to Rwanda, and have my entire way of viewing the world shattered and rebuilt. I'm excited.

Maybe there will be some updates soon, to recap: my summer was terrible, my ankle is busted, school is impossible, my fundraiser has hit major roadblocks, and I'm excited about next semester.

Parting words from 1 John 3:16 (the other John 3:16):

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Peace y'all, keep the faith.

Pets

2008-06-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

My host family has four pets: a dog, two cats, and a hamster. They have all attacked me in their own unique ways. I was holding out hope for Max, the Cocker Spaniel. I even went so far as to tell him last night that he was by far their best pet.

I mean, Emily, Cat #1 is waging war against me. She has pooped and peed outside my room several times. I think she's trying to get me to leave.

Nellie, Cat #2, is alright. She's usually ok, but two nights ago I was petting her for about an hour, and then, out of nowhere, she latched on to my arm with her killer cat claws.

The hamster, who I have only held twice, pooped on my hand last night.

The dog, Max, who is usually awesome, puked ON MY FOOT this morning. My bare, shoeless, sockless foot.

Are the pets conspiring against me? There is no other explanation. I am not surprised that Nellie is in on it, but Max? I expected more from him. That one hurts. Blondie never would have done this to me.

If you're in Wisconsin, see you in three weeks. If you're in Massachusetts see you in mid August. If you're not in either of those places, I'll see you... soon!

Love,

Chuck

My trip to Vienna, and why I went.

2008-06-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Sorry I wasn't able to blog in Austria. I only went to the internet cafe once while I was there for about 15 minutes. I would like to tell you all about in person, which would be much better, but I'll do my best to give a good account of what happened.

---

First, I would like to tell you why we went, and more specifically why I went. The main purpose of our trip was to tell people about Jesus Christ. Let me explain why I think it is necessary to do so. When I was 17 or 18, I was in pretty rough shape. I was alone and bitter and full of hatred. I hated people for very little reason and was very judgmental. Looking back, I'm pretty ashamed of what I was, because I was a "Christian" at that point in my life, and so I'm pretty sure that's what people I knew then thought of Christians-- judgmental and hateful. I hit a low point sometime in September or October of my senior year of high school and one night in room before I went to bed I prayed to God and told Him I needed Him and that I was giving my life to Him. He responded in a way I had never experienced before. In the next few days and weeks I stopped hating people. My bitterness was gone because I saw the love of Jesus Christ, who I realized for the first time is alive and loves me. I learned to not be so judgmental and learned to love them instead. That it what being a Christian is. Loving people. I think people who know me best can see the difference in my life after that point. Some things about me are completely different now than how I was before Jesus Christ changed my life. This in no way means I haven't screwed up. I have done terrible things and messed up time and time again since then. I have hurt people I love, but He loves me no matter what I do (which is how I strive to love all of you, no matter what). This is why I wanted to go to Austria to tell people about Him. There is so much hatred and bitterness in the world, and I am convinced the answer to it all is love. The love Jesus Christ has for us, and showed us by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, is the only way to turn us from our sin to lives of love, joy, mercy, forgiveness, and hope. Of this I am convinced.

Telling people about Jesus is not about being right either, by the way. Nor is it about proving others wrong. It is simply that I want to share what I have experienced for myself because it so wonderfully changed me. Having a relationship with Jesus Christ is wonderful, absolutely wonderful, and that is why I want others to have one too, not because I think I have all the answers to all of lives problems (which is certainly not true). I can't empirically prove to you that God exists (and I have little interest in trying to do so), but I can tell you how He has worked in my life, so that is what I've done. In short, God is love. If any of you reading this have any questions, please contact me. My email is chuck.anderas@gmail.com.

Because of all this, my career is going to be to love people. Sound good?

---

So about the trip. We played two games while we were there against two lower division Austrian professional clubs. The first was in the six division (I think), and we won 6-1 (and I scored the fourth of fifth goal of the game in the second half). The club was in a really cool setting. We don't have anything like it in the states. They have a building with locker rooms and also a cantina with a bar for the fans, players, and coaches to hang out in after the game. They have a little grill shack outside too, where they gave our whole team free schnitzel and Austrian beer after the game (it was really good!). We watched the (heartbreaking) Sweden-Spain game afterwards in the cantina with the players, coaches, and fans from the club. At half time, Grant, who used to play for the Surge but know plays for the club we played against explained why we were there (and lives in Vienna as a soccer missionary) and shared the gospel with everyone there in German. Us being there opened the door for Grant to tell his team openly about Jesus Christ, and only time will tell how it turns out. Afterwards, I talked with the president of our club about the possibility of me doing the same sort of ministry as a professional player in Sweden or Peru, and it is a legitimate possibility! We played another club in the third division who were much better, and we tied 1-1. Again, after the game, we were able to share the gospel with them, and they were surprisingly accepting of what we had to say. Good news!

We also played a lot of cage soccer, which is my absolute favorite way to play soccer. They have five-a-side or six-a-side cages with walls and ceilings there that are where the immigrant communities of Turks and Croatians typically play. Again, our being there opened the door for the people already doing ministry there to share the gospel with the people we played with and against.

We also went to the Fan Mile in Vienna where people without tickets to the games (...us!) congregate to watch the games together. For the Germany-Austria game there were 75,000 people there! We walked around and talked to people and handed out little pieces of paper that had the basic message of Jesus written on them in German. Sometimes people were interested, sometimes they laughed at us, or looked a bit disgusted, but we had some really good conversations with people about all kinds of things, and we'll probably never know what sort of impact our presence there will have on people, but we can hope and pray that some day the people we met there will come to know Christ.

We also did a bit of sightseeing around Vienna while we were there, and it is a beautiful city! We saw Schoenbrun Palace and St. Stephan's Cathedral and the Danube River among other things, and it is one of the best cities I've been too. Very beautiful, and I hope to go back some day. I will put some pictures on Facebook if you have an account, or if you want to see some pictures, let me know and I'll email you some or something. We'll work it out.

Well, if any of you are still reading after all this, I hope it was an encouragement to you. Again, if you have any questions about my trip, my life, or about Jesus Christ, let me know. I wish I could be with all of you right now, and hopefully we will be together again soon!

Love,

Chuck

Here are some pictures from the trip. Click on the slideshow to see the pictures in a bigger window:

Settling in

2008-06-02T23:57:00.000-07:00

Hello,

So I've been here for two weeks, and I'm starting to settle in a bit. Soccer is going pretty well. I made the first team last weekend for the two games. We tied the first 1-1 and lost the second 1-0. I got in the first game for officially 3 minutes, check the match stats out: http://www.uslsoccer.com/stats/2008/657345.html

Yep, right there, Anderas, Charles (Chuck) #6, 3 minutes. Oh yeah, and I got put in at defensive center mid... I basically just ran around a lot and tried to not loose my mark and give up a goal. I tried to do no harm, basically. I sat the bench the next game, and tomorrow I have a reserve team game. Hopefully I'll do well and continue to improve. One strange thing about it is that afterwards we go over by the fans and little kids all want our autographs...

Life has been a bit difficult beyond soccer. It's been a bit lonely, as I am basically by myself at the house all day until about 4 in the afternoon when my host family comes home. I do a bit of yard work and read and try to keep busy during the day. At night I go to training. I guess I was expecting more of a community with the team, but it's more or less show up at training, play, and go home. Hopefully that will change after our trip to Austria. We'll see.

My mom, dad, brother, and sister are coming out to visit me this weekend, and I'm really excited to see them. We're going to go to the ocean, maybe the mountains, and we're going to see our good friends the Kallbergs, who live in Washington a few hours away. Hopefully I'll get to play a bit in our two home games Friday and Saturday, because I think it's been since high school that any of them have seen me play. I'm really looking forward to being around my family again, and to seeing more of Oregon, so this weekend should be sweet.

Ok, thanks for reading. Keep me posted on your lives all of you, ok? Oh, and sorry I don't have this formatted any better, I've seen some other kids blogs and they put mine to shame...

Chuck

One week down

2008-05-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

So the first week here is all but up, and it has been pretty crazy, so I thought I would update all y'all as to how things are going. I'll split it up so if you're less interested in one part you can skim it more or less.

Soccer wise things have been pretty good. The reserve team match went pretty well. I started the game at center mid and played about 60 minutes, 3o each half. I don't normally play center mid so it was difficult to get used to playing a new position with new people in a new place on the second day I was there. I did well enough to be invited to the PDL training, where not all the reserve team got invited. The level of training is probably higher than actual games for Gordon, so I will probably get a lot better this summer. I am working hard, doing extra running and work outs, so hopefully it will pay off with some first team appearances, and eventually with Gordon. We had our home opener on Friday. We lost 1-0 to the Vancouver Whitecaps, the only professional team in the PDL. For games we only dress 18, and I didn't make the first team. Today we had an exhibition game against Chivas Guadalajara's reserve team, and I was supposed to dress, but then they changed the rules on us (since it was an exhibition game) and we were allowed to suit up less players than we thought, so I got the axe. I was disappointed, but I think I'll get my shot with the first team soon enough. We haven't been getting the best results, especially today (5-0 loss to Chivas), but it's been fun.

Oh yeah, and the Champions League final? John Terry slipping was part sad part funny. I was holding out for both teams to lose, being a Liverpool fan, but I suppose it's better that Man U won. I very much do not like Chelsea.

Five of my teammates and I have been going to an elementary school and participating in class for an hour, and then doing after school soccer clinics for an hour Tuesday through Thursday. We're going to do the same this week, too. It's pretty fun for us, but the kids have the most fun with it. Overall, it's a good way to spend an afternoon.

Life with the host family is good. The two girls are the least bratty kids ever. They are a lot of fun, and the six year old, Allison, always wants to play catch with anything that's around. We play Wii sometimes, and it's a real self esteem boost to destroy a nine year old girl in Wii Tennis... haha, just kidding. She drew the picture posted above while we were at a Surge dessert event. She drew me, what was on my name tag, and some cake. Cute kid.

Ok, hope I wasn't too long winded and irrelevant. Miss you all.

Chuck

I have arrived!

2008-05-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

After a whole semester's training, support letter sending, and waiting, I'm finally in Oregon. I left Gordon on Friday afternoon after finishing my last final the day before and flew home to Green Bay. On Saturday my mom, Lars, Corrine, and I drove down to Milwaukee to hang out with Phil and Lisa, who are going to go to the Nashotah House next fall, an Anglican seminary outside Milwaukee. Sunday was spent packing and getting ready for my trip to Oregon the next day.

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day. I woke up at 4 am (Central time) and got to the airport around 5. I flew to Chicago, then Las Vegas, and I finally arrived in Portland, Oregon around 2:30 pm (Pacific time). The host family director's husband was waiting at the baggage claim with a sign reading "Charles Anderas" and we drove an hour south to Salem.

It was clear that I was expected to practice that night, even though I had been up since 2 am Pacific time. I was feeling alright so I went ahead and trained with the team at 8 pm. It was a fun, active training session. I think I'll be able to make it into the first team soon, but it is hard to tell after only one training session. I will get a better idea of where I stand tonight at our reserve team match against a local Hispanic men's league team. The team and coaches all seem like good guys, and I am looking forward to spending the summer with them.

After training, I met my host. His name is Mike, and he is a really great guy. This morning I met his wife Trina and their two daughters, Allison (6) and Haley (9). They have made me feel very welcome here, and I think it will be a great summer.

Later today I am going to a local school to read with a kid for an hour and then do an after school soccer clinic for a hour. After that is dinner, then our reserve team match. It should be an interesting day. I don't really know how each day will work itself out, but I don't think I'm going to be bored often. We have two soccer goals behind our house, wireless internet, and Fox Soccer Channel, so there will always be something to do.

If want to chat, give me a call. Keep in mind the two or three hour time difference though! I'll try to keep this blog up to date, but we'll see.

Chuck

Almost there!

2008-05-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

I've got just a few more weeks before I go out to Oregon for the summer! I'm a bit nervous about it, but mostly just excited about the opportunity I have in front of me. I'll be leaving Gordon on May 16th, the day after my last final, and flying home to Green Bay for the weekend. It will be great to see my family and friends before I go, especially my little sister, who has been in Peru since January! (I'm also excited because she brought me 100 bags of Peruvian tea and an Inca Kola...)

The main reason why I'm posting now though is to quickly thank all of you so much who have prayed for me, have written me notes of encouragement, or have given financially to my this experience. I'm so very thankful for everything you've all done for me! Especially the notes I've gotten in the mail from friends and family have been great. I have several of them posted on the wall next to my desk to remind me that I'm not in any of this alone. Also, I'd like to ask that you please continue to pray for me and the team as we live, play soccer, and do ministry together in Oregon, and especially as we travel to Austria on June 10th.

In a few hours I'll be going to see the New England Revolution play the Chicago Fire, and I'm very excited! After that last bit of fun, I'll be in the library for the next two weeks or so, so wish me luck!

Also, if anyone would like Swedish pancakes as a thank you for your help, let me know and if I'm around your part of the country I'll make you a delicious batch. Thanks for reading, I hope you are all well and enjoying the spring time!

-Chuck

A few details

2008-02-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,

Send me to Austria! Click here:

I've been given the opportunity to play for the Cascade Surge in the Premier Development League (PDL) this summer. The team is based in Salem, Oregon, and I will be living there from mid May (as soon as finals are over) until late July or early August. In Salem, we are going to work with at-risk youth in the city throughout the summer, and we will be going on a missions trip to Austria in mid June during the European Championships to play lower level Austrian professional clubs and higher level amateur clubs, have soccer clinics, bring soccer equipment to bring to Kosovo (which we are not actually visiting), and talk to people in the streets of Vienna about the love of Jesus. For this to happen, I have to raise $3,200 by the end of the semester. I'd appreciate any help you can spare, either by way of prayer, encouragement, helpful ideas, or donations.

I love you all, thanks so much,

Chuck

for more info:

Cascade Surge

Cascade Surge's USL page

Special thanks to Mike Tishel for helping me figure out the online donations!