Tuesday, June 06, 2006
A CHANGE OF MIND AND HEART (repentance maybe...)
CHURCH DEFECATORS UNITE!! IAN MOBSBY LOVES YOU
So Karen, my boss, has been on me to blog about the goings on in the last week. It has been a whirlwind to say the least. This last week I have feared not knowing exactly what to say on one of these things. This is my wife's specialty, she is funny in print, me I am just obnoxious in person. So, I am afraid that my intellect and my loud, obnoxious, and most of the time inappropriate humor is lost when it comes to this medium. When the fourth e-mail from Karen came to Ian and myself, I realized that I must blog, or risk destruction when I return home. But what to write about? Do I let Karen in on the wonderful discussions with Andy, Fr. Peter, and Carrie, at the informal party at St. Matt's on the day of my arrival? Should I portray the creative deconstruction of Moot's legendary frontman Ian Mobsby, by Neil and myself before Mass on Sunday? Can I even bear witness to the amazing afternoon at James, and Flora's flat on Saturday? Should I write about the daunting task of reading the Gospel according to St. John with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the audience? All of these pale in comparison to what happened this evening.
Moot invited me to its monthly planning meeting to let me see the way they work together to keep this barely funded thing afloat. I have to say I was impressed to say the least at Mike's leadership, and Ian's servantship, at the meeting. It went really well, and I found myself feeling comfortable in contributing when does an American ever truly feel excluded anyway, we tend to barge into conversations, but this time I felt invited. By the end I realized that I had just witnessed twelve Christian people sit in a room together and make their way through an agenda without a hitch. They were kind, and actually listened to one another, and the amazing part is that everyone contributed. In America there are always those quiet people (I know I do not belong to this variety) who the leader has to prompt to contribute, but here the meeting went along quickly and they finished a ten part agenda in two hours. That is a record in my country.
Yet even this was not the highest point of the evening. The evening was topped off by meeting possibly the Church defecator otherwise known as Sylvester Stallone. He was not in any of the Rambo or Rocky pictures, nor was he as built as Sly in his movies but nonetheless Ian assured me that this man's ID really read Sylvester Stallone. No, it was not the actor but a homeless man with the same name who needed a place to say. We do not know if it was really the person who both urinated and defecated in the foyer on Sunday, but it could be, Ian tells me that he has come around a few times. Now of course this does not make him our masked pisser, but it has kept you reading up to this point so let me continue.
He gave the same sob story that every homeless man gives, and I was not really moved anymore than normal. What shocked me was that I witnessed someone truly listen to him. Ian listened to this man's story, called a few hostels, gave him money, and finally promised to call The Passage in the morning (that I will be doing after the children's Mass). For the last year I have struggled with the Christianity and political fiasco that occurs in my country. I have come to the conclusion that Christians tend to defer their mission to their government. I have seen liberal Christians in America focus on changing their government with an inherent belief that they are most capable to "handle" the problems that is poverty in the world. At the same time I have seen Conservative Christians push the poor away because our government has enough in place already to cure their "problems". In a nutshell I see Christians shirking their God given mandate to be present with the poor in their daily lives. I witnessed, in a country that has more policies in place to "handle" the "problems" of the poor, someone who really was present with this man. Possibly the same man whose excrement Ian had to clean up the day before.
So, my heart has been captured by you Mooters, and I am overjoyed to be here in the presence of people who know God. Jer. 22:16 states that those who plead the cause of the poor and the needy are those people who know YHWH. I am excited that all of you have invited me to be among you, and I look forward to the next four weeks to be as wonderful as this one.
Your Brother in Christ,
Travis K Smith
P.S. Karen I will tell you what is happening as it continues to happen, Transfigure will be up and running very soon.
So Karen, my boss, has been on me to blog about the goings on in the last week. It has been a whirlwind to say the least. This last week I have feared not knowing exactly what to say on one of these things. This is my wife's specialty, she is funny in print, me I am just obnoxious in person. So, I am afraid that my intellect and my loud, obnoxious, and most of the time inappropriate humor is lost when it comes to this medium. When the fourth e-mail from Karen came to Ian and myself, I realized that I must blog, or risk destruction when I return home. But what to write about? Do I let Karen in on the wonderful discussions with Andy, Fr. Peter, and Carrie, at the informal party at St. Matt's on the day of my arrival? Should I portray the creative deconstruction of Moot's legendary frontman Ian Mobsby, by Neil and myself before Mass on Sunday? Can I even bear witness to the amazing afternoon at James, and Flora's flat on Saturday? Should I write about the daunting task of reading the Gospel according to St. John with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the audience? All of these pale in comparison to what happened this evening.
Moot invited me to its monthly planning meeting to let me see the way they work together to keep this barely funded thing afloat. I have to say I was impressed to say the least at Mike's leadership, and Ian's servantship, at the meeting. It went really well, and I found myself feeling comfortable in contributing when does an American ever truly feel excluded anyway, we tend to barge into conversations, but this time I felt invited. By the end I realized that I had just witnessed twelve Christian people sit in a room together and make their way through an agenda without a hitch. They were kind, and actually listened to one another, and the amazing part is that everyone contributed. In America there are always those quiet people (I know I do not belong to this variety) who the leader has to prompt to contribute, but here the meeting went along quickly and they finished a ten part agenda in two hours. That is a record in my country.
Yet even this was not the highest point of the evening. The evening was topped off by meeting possibly the Church defecator otherwise known as Sylvester Stallone. He was not in any of the Rambo or Rocky pictures, nor was he as built as Sly in his movies but nonetheless Ian assured me that this man's ID really read Sylvester Stallone. No, it was not the actor but a homeless man with the same name who needed a place to say. We do not know if it was really the person who both urinated and defecated in the foyer on Sunday, but it could be, Ian tells me that he has come around a few times. Now of course this does not make him our masked pisser, but it has kept you reading up to this point so let me continue.
He gave the same sob story that every homeless man gives, and I was not really moved anymore than normal. What shocked me was that I witnessed someone truly listen to him. Ian listened to this man's story, called a few hostels, gave him money, and finally promised to call The Passage in the morning (that I will be doing after the children's Mass). For the last year I have struggled with the Christianity and political fiasco that occurs in my country. I have come to the conclusion that Christians tend to defer their mission to their government. I have seen liberal Christians in America focus on changing their government with an inherent belief that they are most capable to "handle" the problems that is poverty in the world. At the same time I have seen Conservative Christians push the poor away because our government has enough in place already to cure their "problems". In a nutshell I see Christians shirking their God given mandate to be present with the poor in their daily lives. I witnessed, in a country that has more policies in place to "handle" the "problems" of the poor, someone who really was present with this man. Possibly the same man whose excrement Ian had to clean up the day before.
So, my heart has been captured by you Mooters, and I am overjoyed to be here in the presence of people who know God. Jer. 22:16 states that those who plead the cause of the poor and the needy are those people who know YHWH. I am excited that all of you have invited me to be among you, and I look forward to the next four weeks to be as wonderful as this one.
Your Brother in Christ,
Travis K Smith
P.S. Karen I will tell you what is happening as it continues to happen, Transfigure will be up and running very soon.
