Brazil

Missionaries are incredible people. I just spent the last two days with Manuel and Lidia Lima who are missionaries from Sao Paulo Brazil who went to Manaus in the Amazon of Brazil to pioneer the work for the Church of the Nazarene about four years ago in an area where thousands of communities are scattered along the enormous Black River. Of the estimated 32,000 communities in that area, only 12,000 have any kind of church. This week, as I was meeting with the Limas to work out details for NTS students to live in Manaus and learn from them, I was impressed at their vision of doing the difficult work of building long term relationships and living into the missio Dei through incarnation mission in a complex and sensitive area.
On Thursday we took an 80 km boat trip up the Black River where we met with some people who live in remote areas who told us stories of God’s grace in their lives. Being directionally challenged, it is a good thing that I was not in charge of directions with all of the tributaries and possibilities of making wrong turns. Fortunately Manuel has a handheld GPS that gave us directions along the Black River through the Amazon.
It is always exciting to hear people tell about “hinge” moments in their life that change them from just existing to really living. On this trip I heard a story like this. I don’t even remember his name, but he was a father in a community along the Black River. Over 50 miles into the Amazon and 50 miles from the nearest hospital or medical care, this father of a young girl in the Amazon told us that a year ago, his daughter was running out of the house with a knife and fell, running the large knife deep into her small frame. In panic he picked up his bleeding daughter, carried her to his canoe and began making his way up the Black River. He said that he knew that it would take hours to make it up the river to Manaus, but he was a father and he had to try. Just three miles up the river, he said that he couldn’t believe his eyes. A large houseboat was there in front of a neighboring community with a group of volunteer doctors that the Church of Nazarene had brought. He pulled his canoe up to the large boat and asked for help. Incredibly, the doctors stopped the bleeding in his daughter and were able to operate and save her life. With great emotion, he told us that this changed his life forever. Just as he finished telling us this story, his daughter came running by on her way to school. The picture above is of this girl with Manuel Lima. This is just a reminder that we all need to enjoy the gift of life and appreciate the relationships that we have with those around us.
During my trip I enjoyed the company of Dr. Steve Hofferbert who, although he lives in Campinas which has had missionary influence for many years, is doing creative pioneer work in education as a part of team for the formation of a new university in Brazil. Steve will be the academic mentor for the NTS students who will be in Brazil for 365m.
This has been a fast and furious week in Brazil. I am excited about the learning experience students will have to learn about culture, language and ministry from some amazing people throughout Brazil.

The missio Dei at the City Dump

I have spent my second day in Rio de Janeiro in the city dump just outside the city observing a truly missional church. Approximately 70% of the congregation in Nilopolis which is in Rio de Janeiro are actively involved in ministry outside of the church. One of those ministries is to a community which has the name Esqueleto, which means skeleton in English. This is an entire community of approximately 40,000 people who live on what they can collect at the city dump. The “homes” that people live in are made from scraps of wood and other things that they have found in the dump. As we made our way through this area which had all of the sites and smells of a city dump with scavenger birds circling overhead, we came to a church building which was constructed with funds from the people of the Nilopolis church. As we went inside, the contrast between the piled garbage around the church and the impeccable cleanliness inside the church was incredible. This building is used for education programs for the children and families around the church as well as church services. The pastor who is from the Nilopolis church is well educated and articulate. I don’t know very many pastors who would strive to pastor a church in a city dump. This is a pastor who is definitely following in the footsteps of Christ. While we are walking around the “community”, an elderly woman who was wearing clothes that appeared to be from her findings pulled the pastor aside. As they were talking, she handed the pastor a handful of Brazilian Reales which were dirty, sweaty and crumpled. The pastor told us that this woman had just sold some trash that she had collected and that this was her offering to the church. The pastor himself was overwhelmed with this offering of about $7, and said that this was an enormous sacrifice for this woman.

There are several areas around Rio de Janeiro where students in 365m will be learning from and serving alongside the people of the Nilopolis church. Esqueleto will, undoubtedly, be one of those that is a life changing experience.

This afternoon, we will travel to Manaus where we will meet with missionaries about learning opportunities for 365m students there.

WHAT IS A TOMATO?

As little as ten years ago, one could say that there is an idea which is accepted as much by intellectuals as well as ordinary people who go about their daily business that everyone knows what mission is. The idea of mission is a self-evident “fact”, requiring no great thought. Today, that is not the case.
There is an interesting new television program called “Food Revolution” which you may have seen. In this series, a chef who is working toward healthy cooking and eating goes into a community which is reported to be the unhealthiest city in the U.S. with the objective to make a real impact. The following clip show how the chef held up various items such as tomatoes and potatoes which students could not identify. He then held up a chicken nugget and a pizza which they identified with loud screams and immediate recognition. http://www.hulu.com/watch/138202/jamie-olivers-food-revolution-test-moment
How is it that children in this community could actually get to the point where they recognize the processed form of chicken nuggets and pizza, but cannot recognize a tomato?
In a similar vein, when I am in churches as a mission speaker, I often teach a combined adult Sunday School class before the service. On many occasions I write the words “missionary, missions, mission and missional” up front and ask them to identify what these words mean. As little as ten years ago, there was a common understanding of what it meant to be a missionary, and what was meant by missions. I have found that in the past three years, however, the word “missions” is understood as anything the church does, in any location and for any reason. A missionary is understood as anyone who is a member of a church. (although I would agree that every member is involved in mission, membership does not make a person a missionary) There is another strand of thought that I often encounter which involves people who view missions in a colonialistic sense of “fixing” people with money and technology.
Although the word “mission” or “missional” are in vogue right now, with conferences using them in their titles and churches including them in their daily language, is it possible, that we are like the children who couldn’t recognize a tomato? Is it possible that we don’t recognize the essential nature of God’s mission in our globalized society?
In the video clip of Oscar Muriu which was my last post, Muriu gives us a framework to understand mission which is harsh to our consumeristic ears, but which is interestingly in harmony with a biblical understanding of mission.
Incarnation is a theological framework in which we realize that the message of the Gospel is housed in the messenger. We don’t give money to have the gospel delivered; neither do we devise programs that tell people about the gospel. In the words of Paul “we have this treasure in jars of clay”. That has enormous implications for those of us who are part of churches that believe more in “come and see” rather than “go and be”. We have come to believe that mission is dependent on money and strategy alone, and we have even come to the point where we even think that it is our money that can “buy the mission of God” by promising that every three dollars donated will result in one soul saved (see http://www.jfhp.org/about/index.cfm).
I am often asked why we send long term missionaries to other countries when the need is so great in the U.S. and when financial resources are limited (the same question could be asked of any country that sends missionaries). Wouldn’t it be more effective to rely on short-term missions or since we live in a “flat world” where technology is readily available, why don’t we just send the Jesus Film or send scripture over the internet instead of sending missionaries? To use Muriu’s words “if I were God”, perhaps I would do it that way. God, however, choose to embody (incarnate) His Mission in fragile clay jars such as us. Mission is not a program or a way to gain clients. Mission is who we are as the body of Christ, or to use the classic observation of Marshall McLuhan: "the medium is the message” and God is the scriptwriter who stamps His image on us so that we may “reflect His Glory”.
I don’t love my neighbor because the bible says so, I love my neighbor because I reflect God’s nature of love which has become part of who I am. In that sense, I can truly love. In the same sense, mission is not something we buy or something we do, mission is who we are as we reflect God’s nature of mission.