My life has always been about healing and compassion, from my career as a physical therapist to now being a United Methodist pastor and professional coach. I see myself as a kind of "Adventure Guide" that isn't solely worried about the end destination but is instead focused on passionately, powerfully and playfully leading people to pay attention to where they are on their journey.
Hello Friends,
This week, we are continuing our sermon series titled, "Questions for God." The question we are asking God this week is: Why Do Bad Things Happen?
Weekly Scripture Reading
Job 2:11-13*
Job 2 -11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home– Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort him. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. 13 They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. *The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
+ When have you heard someone ask the question, “Why did God allow that to happen?”
+ What is the underlying assumption (or assumptions, plural) that person had about God?
+ What is our role in relationship with people who have this question? What should we say or do?
Let me know. I look forward to hearing what you think...
Hello Friends,
This week, we are continuing our sermon series titled, "Questions for God." The question we are asking God this week is: Do you still speak to us?
We are specifically looking at the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives of faith. What questions or comments would you add to my sermon prep this week?
Let me know. I look forward to hearing what you think...
I wanted to let you know about the School of Congregational Development that I will be attending with Kirk Foo this week in Dallas, TX! It is an annual gathering of inspiring preachers, teachers and speakers. And new for 2011 they are including Live Webcasts of the Plenary and Worship Sessions at the School. Be sure to watch the live webcasts from this year’s School of Congregational Development which will webcast the worship and plenary sessions from the event in Dallas.
This year’s theme is Transforming Your Church Culture.
WEBCAST SCHEDULE: (all times Pacific)
Wednesday, July 27: 12:30 pm
From Crises to Christ Centered: Bishop Earl Bledsoe Thursday, July 28: 7:00 am From Attraction to Invitation: Fiona Maclead & Jim Ozier Friday, July 29: 7:00 am From Maintenance to Movement: Elaine A. Heath Saturday, July 30: 7:00 am From Ourselves to Others: Reuben Saenz, Jr., Danny A. Hernaez, & Andrew Forrest Sunday, July 31: 5:30 pm From Giving Up to Going Out: Tyrone Gordon
You can also check me out on Facebook (www.facebook.com/gregg.sealey) and/or Twitter (@RevGreggSealey). I hope to add some insights and info throughout the week!
This Summer, we are going to be delving into another SERMON SERIES and I need your input! I will base a series of sermons in July and August on your answer to the following question:
“What Question(s) would you like to ask God if you got the chance?”
I KNOW that I am not God (nor do I pretend to be), but I really want to address our deepest questions during these sermons. After thinking and praying about your questions, would you please submit them to me in one of the following ways?
You can submit your question online, via my blog (by commenting below) or on facebook.
You can call the office (466-1768), email Karen (info@covenantmethodist.org) or leave an anonymous note in the office for me. There is a slot outside my door.
I am eager to hear your questions, and we’ll see if we can come up with some of the answers together! I am looking forward to our time together.
For folks who worship at Covenant UMC in Spokane, WA, the worship team has designed a survey that will give us vital information about worship!
The previous survey (previous post) is related to our new worship service and is intended for the audience that we desire to reach with that service. This new survey will help us to design our worship!
Would you be willing to fill out a five question survey? We are especially looking for feedback from "young adults" or those with young children at home. It will probably take less than a minute of your time and it would help us greatly… We are in the discernment process about a new worship service that will likely begin this fall, and we would love to hear what you think! (note: it is completely anonymous)
Thank you SO MUCH for your time, and feel free to pass this link on to your friends.
Prayerfully,
Gregg
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.
Hello Friends,
I really appreciated all of the well wishes and prayers I received while I was gone and since I have returned. It helped me to feel connected with you even when I was a great distance away. I was asked to write about the impact this trip had on me, and what (if any) difference it will make in my ministry. I thought I would use those two questions to fuel this final reflection on my time in Arizona and Mexico.
IMPACT
I didn't have specific ideas about what we would be doing or how it would impact me before I went... this was a "learning" and "immersion/mission" trip in which I was traveling with other pastors I have gotten to know quite well over the past four or five years. I tried to be open to the encounter, and see what impact it would have on me as we traveled throughout the week, rather than having a preconceived notion about what we would see or what I believed about any particular situation. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. The issues of homelessness and immigration are simultaneously incredibly complicated and heartbreaking. There are so many interrelated, precipitating factors, my mind truly begins to spin. Any person that tries to say that either the cause or the solution is simple is (at best) misguided. We have a complicated history related to both topics, and things constantly shift and change with changing economic realities as well as political policies and procedures. The solutions are neither simple nor easy.
2. As we talked about in church yesterday (we addressed how Christians talk about 'hot-button issues'), issues are very different if we are talking about impersonal policies or hypothetical arguments instead of remembering that we are talking about real people and their lives! Perhaps the biggest impact from this trip comes from the encounters we had: homeless persons in Phoenix and the people in ministry with them, migrants from Mexico and Central America and the people in ministry with them, and the people of Arizona that are forced to confront this issue more than most people in our country. This is NOT a purely hypothetical issue, but lives and livelihoods are at stake among all of these folks.
3. I want to acknowledge the concerns people have about the different ministries we encountered. Perhaps none was as controversial (I have heard, both while on the trip and since I returned) as the ministries that provide water to migrants in the desert. Some people hold the view that providing water supports the system and encourages illegal crossings of our border. I have heard these concerns, but I have to disagree. After speaking with migrants (some had recently been deported to Mexico, while others were preparing to head north for the first time) and finding out about their stories, I don't believe there is anything that would deter them from risking their lives to go to the USA. For those that I talked with, it is a matter of survival for them and for their family. Part of the mission of the organizations that we engaged with is to deter people from crossing the desert by giving them accurate information about the treacherous conditions (Many of the "coyotes," or smugglers take advantage of the lack of education of the migrants and tell them things like, "Yes, Minnesota is just on the other side of the hill," when the truth is that they have to walk 3-5 days or more just to get to Tucson). In my conversations, telling them the truth didn't even matter. For them, their original decision to leave home was a matter of either sitting in their poor village down south and starving (or watching their family starve), or trying to do SOMETHING to make their lives better. Who is to say that if I was in their situation I wouldn't do the same thing? I don't know what I would do, but I doubt I would sit and do nothing. People may disagree, but I don't think giving water really factors into the decision of people to cross our border illegally. I also don't think it solves all of the immigration issues to drop water in the desert... It just keeps a few people from dying a terrible death.
Others were concerned that what we were doing is illegal when in fact, everything is done above board and is fully legal. No water is place without permission of the landowner or permits being obtained. In fact, many ranchers ask for the water containers to prevent water taps from being left on, and because it prevents other kinds of crimes. There is even a kind of peaceful coexistence between these ministries and the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol officers have a difficult job, and are by-and-large very professional. The people in ministry in the desert are trained about what is legal or illegal, and when to call the Border Patrol (if a migrant is in need of emergency medical attention, or asks to go home).
4. I have a few concerns that have arisen in my conversations about these challenging issues. Mainly, I have been taken aback at how some people refer to the migrants and undocumented persons as "those people." On this trip, I have been thinking a lot about the two things:
The story/sermon illustration about finding babies in the river and jumping in to save them. After a period of time, someone begins to wonder about why the babies are in the river and goes upstream to stop the babies from entering the river in the first place.
The Scripture passage from Matthew 25: 35 "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"
Our humanity is tied to the humanity of "those people," and we are all created in the image of God. In fact, throughout human history we have gotten into severe trouble when we have allowed ourselves to objectify a people and classify other human beings as "those people." "Those people" are us, and we are "those people." In our scriptures, we see over and over again the relationships between groups on the "inside" versus groups on the "outside." The Holocaust was allowed to happen in Europe, because even if good, faithful people weren't doing the killing, it was somehow alright for "those people" to die. It happened when the Native Americans were different enough to be "those people." Any attempts to distance "them" from "us" denies the spark of divinity within them and degrades the humanity of that other person, and that will NEVER be okay with me. In fact, I believe that every one of us has to guard our hearts and minds from such thoughts. If we can agree on the sacred worth of ALL of God's people, then we can have an honest discussion about how we help to begin to solve these difficult problems.
5. I still have SO MANY QUESTIONS: Who is profiting from this current system (guns and money going south, and drugs and people coming north) and how can we begin to address that? How can we provide opportunities for people to enter our country legally to decrease the illegal crossings, while still keeping out the people that should be kept out? How do we help the people of Arizona with these issues instead of just forcing them to take care of all of the people getting funneled through their state to the rest of the country? How can we prevent the poor from being victimized? Many poor migrants are taken advantage of in many places (by the smugglers who sell them into human trafficking, hold them for ransom from relatives until money is obtained, by certain citizens that take advantage of their undocumented status to oppress them). These are not simple questions with simple answers. In fact, sometimes they seem so big it is easier to just ignore the questions. Please don't ignore these issues. That would only make things worse.
WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL THIS TRIP MAKE IN MY MINISTRY
Just as there are not easy answers to the solutions to these huge issues, it is not easy to answer the question about the difference this trip will have on my ministry. I think the importance of truly encountering people is vital in any faithful discussion. That prevents us from generalizing about others.
"All liberals think ___________."
"All conservatives will just say ___________."
"All immigrants are lazy, freeloaders taking advantage of the system."
"All immigrants are carrying drugs." (In fact, statistics show that 90% are "economic refugees")
Instead of generalizing, it is incredibly important to listen more than we speak, and to strive to know the best of who someone is. In fact, we can't really love our neighbors until we do that, and it requires thoughtful, faithful conversation and relationship.
I think this trip (just as previous trips to El Salvador, Guatemala, China, South Korea, the Gulf Coast after Katrina, etc.) reminds me that our ministry and our faith has to MATTER. When we gather in a community of faith, it can't be something we do for an hour each week, but it really must help us be better followers of Christ in the world! If we forget that our faith is about the real world, then we would truly become irrelevant.
I also see opportunities to make a connection between our church's sister church relationship with Buenas Nuevas Iglesia in El Paisnal, El Salvador and Spokane by looking really intentionally at how people get from there to here. I don't know exactly what that connection might look like, but I am curious to have the conversation... Many people in our community, as well as many people from El Salvador have crossed the desert near where I was last week. We heard Pablo sing a song in the desert written about a 14 year old girl from El Salvador who died in the desert in order to save her 9 year old little brother so he could meet up with their parents in California (I would love to play that song for our sister church team). One man from Tucson who works with Humane Borders told me that he wants to come with our congregation to El Salvador in 2012. What an amazing connection that would be?!
If you made it all the way to the end, I am impressed! I really intend this reflection to be the beginning of a conversation, and not a one-way declaration. I pray for our understanding to deepen (of each other, of the plight of the migrants) and for God's grace to help us find the way forward.
Rev. Mary Huycke, District Superintendent of the Seven Rivers District in the central part of our state, accompanied our group to Arizona and Mexico. Check out the link to her blog as she describes her experience of El Comedor:
www.sevenriverspnw.blogspot.com
We visited the ministry located tucked in the hillside about 200 yards on the other side of the border. It was begun as a part of the Kino Border Initiative (check out www.kbi.org), and Aldo Michelis explained their ministry. It was begun as a once per month meal; but worked its' way up to serving meals twice daily now, serving those who have been deported and dropped off without any other possessions; only what they have on their back. They also distribute clothing, healthkits, and have a small medical clinic.
We had the opportunity to visit with some of the people, and their stories break my heart. Raul has lived in Tucson for 25 years, and was deported after a traffic ticket. He immediate said that he would go back in a few days. When we asked about the danger of the desert, he said simply, "I have no choice... my whole family (including kids), my whole life is there."
Another young woman from southern Mexico was waiting for her blistered feet to heal before trying to pass again. Every person we talked with was somewhat fatalistic... coming to the US is a matter of survival for them and their family.
Aldo is the younger man with the shaved head, and he has a HUGE heart! By the way, the stacks of bags you see were delivered a few days earlier. They will use this food whenever they need it to complete a meal. They said that this was over 7 tons of food! I didn't take any pictures of our new friends, as it seemed a little odd.
We safely headed back to the US and had lunch before driving back to Phoenix for dinner... I am exhausted and ready to come home in the morning. I feel like I still need to process, so check back over the next few days as I continue to reflect on the meaning of this experience! See you soon... Prayerfully, Gregg
After another IHOP breakfast, we met Rev. Harry Smith and other Samaritans to go into Mexico. Above you will see photos of us getting blankets and healthkits to take to El Comedor, a hovering helicopter, and our view over the walls back toward the US.
Pastor Gene is the pastor of this church, and his congregation welcomed us warmly. We even had the opportunity to sit down and share a meal following worship, which allowed us to get to know the people there even better!
We needed to stop by the store, so we decided to go to the site of the Tucson shooting and offer our prayers and presence. There wasn't really any memorial of any type, so this is pretty much what it looked like. My friend DJ (pastor of Lynden UMC) is in the lower right of the first picture.
The second picture is of a flyer posted near the entry where the shooting occurred.
This afternoon we went to court to watch the preliminary hearings for many persons from many different countries (mostly Mexico, but some from Central America. fairly impersonal proceedings...
Gene was born and raised in Arizona, and he shared his involvement in immigrant issues. It began in the 1980's with Central American immigrants (mainly from Guatemala and El Salvador) and the "Sanctuary Movement"started in response.
By 1990 this phase ended, but in 1998-9 people were dying "in our backyard" again. Multiple organizations were started to respond:
- Humane Borders
- The Samaritans
- No More Deaths
Of the hundreds of people that died this past year (253 confirmed deaths in 2010) estimates that actual deaths could be ten times that high. More people have died in the desert since 2001 than all of the men and women in the US armed services in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
These groups also talk to families in Mexico to try and convince them not to try and cross the desert, telling them about the distance involved, and the treacherous terrain. People are desperate and often say, "We have no choice." Many have no experience with the desert because they are from more tropical environments.
These groups interact with all the players (Border Patrol, Minutemen, "coyotes", migrants, etc.) and don't have any issues with incidents. "We train our people in nonviolence, and we operate that way."
This afternoon we went to a nearby community that is known as "artsy" and our visit coincided with a huge arts and crafts festival. We spent about 3 hrs. here.
We were about 30 miles outside of Tucson, AZ delivering water to huge jugs to be refilled. We also found some "migrant trash" near the water stations... things like shoes and empty gallon jugs.
Pablo Perigrina was our guide (PT Operations Manager) who also told us about getting dehydration and lost in the desert one time. He also brought his guitar and sang a song about a 14 head-old El Salvador girl who died trying to get her and her little brother to California. The little brother survived and made it.
I have video of those two parts of Pablo's story, but need to figure out how to rotate them 90 degrees before posting them. I don't want to be blamed for a rash of neck injuries from people watching with their head turned sideways!
Reflections: My heart absolutely breaks thinking about what my fellow human beings endure to find security and a better life here on this side of the border. There is something that I find vital to any immigration discussion and that is the maintaining the sense of human dignity. It is such a complicated issue, but I think that there are some foundational principles like human dignity that we might all agree on.
Here are some photos of the facility where they get the trucks ready to go out into the desert. Felipe is the Director, and there are a couple of shots of him speaking to our group.
