Angel in us - Jeju Island - between heaven and Earth

'Angel in us'  is the name of a global brand of coffee, from I've no idea where,  but I have only encountered it in Korea. It claims to be the best coffee in the world, but I've tasted better. I like the name though, but what on earth it has to do with coffee, again I've no idea..... (maybe someone can enlighten me)
   

Jeju Island 

 

Jeju Island is a famous Tourist resort off the coast of South Korea, loads of Chinese tourists and very few westerners. Many take the trail up to the extinct volcanoe Seonggsan llchulbong or Sunrise Peak, a world heritage site. 

  

I was visiting Jeju island with Bishop Jospeh.  He was preaching at All Souls Anglican Church, Episcopal Church of Korea. It was on the feast of St Michael and All Angels.

St Michaels and All Angels 

The church was a  simple,converted store, unadorned, unpretentious, seating about 100 or so. It was extablished a few years ago.  It has a corrugated roof. Loud when it pours.   It had been raining but fortunately not during the sermon.  Bishop Joseph is a softly spoken man of great integrity. He has a bit of an angel in him... 

He spoke on the supremacy of preaching good news to the poor, over just doing good works or justice. The church in Korea is famous for its House of Sharing programme, which is good but not first priority. Nor are demonstration against government, even though they about justice and peace, they are not priority one. The most important and basic responsibility of the church is to make people know what Jesus, who taught us of God's desire to save humanity.
An angel is fundamentally a messenger of God and a message of hope is what the world so sorely needs. 
 

Mind you the sermon was in Korean and I had no interpreter.  I did have a copy of the service in English to follow the structure.  And also the Bible Readings: 

• Genesis 28:10-17. Stairway to heaven 
• Psalm 103 
• Rev 12:7-12.  War in Heaven 
• John 1:47-51  Angels descending and ascending on Son of Man 

I found myself thinking about the Revelation passage and 'War in heaven' and a sermon I had preached (many times) on the War on Drugs and how to overcome addiction (Rev 12:11&12a) 

• Work of Christ on Calvary (blood of the lamb)- salvation and deliverance
• Word of confession (the word of their testimony)
• Way of cross   (they loved not their lives, even unto death) A call to serve (Green Martyrdom)
• Worship of church.  (rejoice O heavens and you who dwell in them)

Entertaining angels unawares 

The Kindness of Strangers is a book by Kate Aide. She like many of us, has been on the receiving end of overwhelmingly gracious hospitality. It is very humbling.   Barnabas and his wife picking us up and taking us for a meal as we arrived on Jeju Island. An 'angel' from Seoul who let us use her house during our stay.  The Priest, Jeoug Sung driving us to sites of around Jeju Island on the Sunday afternoon and Monday.  Paul and his wife Sarah (he runs and English academy) hosting meals......    One thing I have learned is the great missionary principle (Luke 10:8) : Eat what is set before you.......   #someonehastdoit  :-) 


 

Where heaven and earth meet

 

The Cheonjiyeon Falls  The 'Pond of the heavenly Emperor' is  a22 metre waterfall, where heaven meets earth.  Bishop Joseph and I are not quite angels, but the scene is heavenly  It is one of what the Celts called thin places.   
Angels are also meant to be creatures that ascend and descend between heaven and earth like of Jacobs ladder. 





 

We also went to visit Oedolgae Rock , with its Column apparanetly looking like a huge general looking out to sea who frightened off Mongolian invaders.   Leaving Jeju, as we broke though the clouds, entering the heavenly realms, flying Asiana bound for Gimpo airport, I was left reflecting....................  

........on the lousy airline instant coffee... hardly heavenly and certainly no angels in sight.

 
 

Dude with wings

I came across this picture which had been commissioned by Christian Night Initiatives  CNI  @cninet

little brother:  Q   'What's an Angel'   bigger Brother: A  'It's like a dude with wings..'

We were attending a conference called SHINE  #ShineConference  for Street Angels (SA) and Street Pastors (SP) at St Saviour's Church Guildford (Sat 28/6/13). Their Mission Pastor, Andy Wheeler was compere for the day (he is also ex CMS) There were about 100 present from all over Surrey, some in uniform.

Les isaacs, one of the founders of Street Pastors talks of the Urban Trinity of Police, Council and SA/SP and the conference had a key note speaker in the Chief Constable of Surrey.

 

Lynne Owens (twitter:  @CCLynneOwens) mentioned how, when the police had been established in 1829, by Sir Robert Peel,  one of the Principles was. 'Police are the public and the public are the police' This applies to day with  the policing with consent model. And the Street Angles and Pastors have an important role to play. The Chief Constable was certain of it.
  
some highlights from the talk 
There are one million residents in Surrey and 4000 staff in the Police Force.     Overall 43 forces in England & Wales   And Surrey has a budget of £200m.    A number of services are shared with Sussex, notibly rape response, firearms, forensics and dogs. The back office deals with procurement, Insurance, HR, finance and ICT   This all operates behind the more visible Community Police - Beat officers and Rapid Response Units.  They operate a policing with consent model -   

Street angels bring a lot of the mix.  Offering to be prayed for can be scarey. But faith in action is very meaningful. She described Street Angels  as  'Modern Good Samaritans'  who speak with people in their times of crisis. 
 
Morality and policing 

• Custody not right for mental health issues. need sensitive handling.

• Grooming  and Sex trafficking.   More attentive since it has such a  big potential in town centres in a largely white middle class, affluent county.  There are  a  growing number of young women meeting older men Protection issues.  do not to hesitate to contact the police if there are any concerns

• Multiple ethnicity aspects   Other faiths Gaps in towns  Woking Guildford is quieter, less tensions. the question is   ' Are we pushing problem elsewhere or confronting problems' 

Last year was the 4th year of continued crime reduction of street violent offences. Domestic violence is under reported. Those Dudes with Wings are making a massive difference 

Outside Lights:  glow in the dark  

Pioneering @ CMS

Some of you maybe aware that we are exploring a merger of sacred:space (@ Christchurch Woking) and HolyGround  ( @ Trinity Methodists) and creating a new FX -  Fresh Expression of Church 


So I was looking at the CMS Pioneer website to get some inspiration and found a few things  which might be of  interest to others.    

PIONEER HUB -   This supported by  and South Central Regional Training
Partnership  RTP  which includes our own Guildford Diocese

As part of the Pioneer Hub they are creating a  Community of Practice  and meet locally for informal conversations (typically in coffee shops around the country)  Coming to a starbucks near you.....!

Have  a look at the brochure - It is all about what has already happened  but gives you an idea   This look like just what we need to support our new FX venture!    You can also read about Chrissie Lacey's involvement   She did a Pioneer Witness about ScAT, Woking. I took a picture of her preaching from a bath at Christchurch one Sunday evening service - I think it was about soaking prayer but I can't really remember - but it was nonetheless very pioneering!

There is also a regular Pioneer blog.  For example here's one about Jonny Baker's  trip to Seoul, Korea a place I know well.   You quickly learn the biblical imperative to 'eat what is set before you'

I noticed an OPEN DAY on TUES 12 NOV:  Conversations on Pioneering: Research and Reflections   costing £15 at CMS, Oxford. Looks like some very good content. Anyone interested in attending?   I am..... Maybe we could go together ?

There is also a PIONEER OPEN DAY  on Tuesday 26 Nov 2013   (Also Tuesday 11 Feb 2014  Tuesday 13 May 2014) You can download the flyer here  By the way it seems that most things happen on a Tuesday with CMS pioneers.

Nasruddin: Your way move forward

I am grateful to Seth at CMS for photo-shopping this picture of me, like Mulla Nasruddin riding a donkey backwards. He did it for my leaving card. The problem is that it looks far too authentic! Maybe its the shape of things to come!

I like the picture because of the plodding donkey carrying its heavy load with the speeding car in the background, blurred as it travels into the future (off to the right? or is the future the other way round in the East, to the left? Like the writing? )   Nasruddin has an eye on the future but is inextricably plodding back into the past at a much slower pace, leaving the bright lights of the shops behind.  And of course he doesn't know where he is going. He trusts his donkey to take him home..... 

  

Your Way Move Forward

I have been asked a number of times where I get my Nusruddin stories from. Well I bought my favourite book ‘Nasreddin Hodja’ in Turkey for about $10. This particular book has wonderful images.  An Amazon search will come up with the goods. click  HERE 

    

But I have also collected a number of other books In Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, Persian as well as English. I can’t read them all, but I do collect them (I’ve heard there is a video cartoon in Russian which I’m on the lookout for). And he goes under many names including Gohar, Hodja, Joha, Effengi, Mullana &/or Mullah Nusruddin. His stories have been related and embellished for centuries, from North Africa to China, from Siberia to Samarkand, in Caravanserai all along the Silk Route. There is something timeless about them.      

And if you can’t get hold of the book this website - seems to have electronic images of every page. Nasruddin would approve!

So why does he sit on his Donkey backwards?

Well I have heard at least four different explanations: 

One day, Nasruddin Hoca was riding home from the mosque on his donkey, and there was a large crowd behind him. Suddenly, he got off, and got on again backwards, facing the animal’s tail. The people naturally asked him what he was doing. 

He replied: ‘I thought about it, and decided to ride my donkey like this, because I have no time for disrespect. If you move ahead of me, then you will be turning your back on me. That would be terrible disrespect. If I go on ahead, I will be turning my back on you, and that is also quite unacceptable. This way, I can go on ahead of you and you can follow behind, and we can still keep looking at each other!  That is the logical way!’

Being respectful, is one of the essentials of entering another culture. facing people, being careful where we point our feet, not turning our back... Not wanting to be disrespectful in any way.

But there are other explanations …….
 

One day Nasruddin was riding his donkey backwards.
- Nasruddin  the people said, you are sitting on your donkey  backwards!
- No, he replied. It's not that I am sitting on the donkey backwards, the donkey is facing the wrong way.

I suppose it is easy to blame others and I certainly have a very stubborn streak in me that insists I am right even when the evidence might suggest otherwise .....

Or alternatively another version of the story 

- Nasruddin  the people said, you are sitting on your donkey  backwards!

- No, Nasruddin replied. My friend here wanted to go one way and I wanted to go the other, so we are compromising.

Compromise is after all, quintessentially English? Well maybe Turkish as well. Whatever culture it represents, compromise is necessary when more than one will is involved... 

Or perhaps my favourite response

 

- No, said Mulla Nasruddin. It's not that I am sitting on the donkey backwards, It's just that I'm more interested in where I am coming from more than where I am going, my friends.

I suppose I have always had an eye for the past, whether dabbling in a little genealogy, or watching a good historical movie (where people dress up in costumes and then kill each other!)

I also believe that 'meaning making' is retrospective. We only really work out what has been happening when we look behind and see the patterns ....  The rest of the time we are in the present, in the moment, trying to work out what is going on. 

 

The picture of yours truely standing in front of a poster of Ahmad Shah Masoud on at Kabul Airport, which is there to inspire people. ‘Your way move forward’ he suggests. 

The Maoris of New Zealand talk of the past being visible and therefore in front of us, whilst the future is hidden and therefore behind. So we should walk backwards into the future with the past in front of us…………… 

That, as Nasruddin would say, is the logical way!

Addiction: Afghanistan's secret shame

I was sent a link to this 2013 production 'Addiction: Afghanistan's Secret Shame'
by BBC Persian journalist Tahir Qadiry - filmed and directed by Darius Bazargan
It is an excellent 45 min documentary, which looks at the contemporary addiction problem in Afghanistan with over a million heroin addicts (2009 figures). Afghanistan is not just a producer and exporter of drugs, but a major consumer. It's one way to deal with all the trauma of over 3 decades of war and current 40% unemployment.

addicts by the Kabul River

You can watch an interview on Weekend World with Tahir about his programme  And see the full 45 minute documentary here Addiction: Afghanistan's secret shame. It's is well worth it......

The documentary focuses on addicts in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sherif (and Balkh).  And it features the NEJAT centre, which is the organisation I used to work for in Peshawar, as Drug Advisor, back in the 1990s. I am still on their advisory board. They come over well in the documentary and I felt proud to be associated with them.  But I also felt somewhat disillusioned in that in spite of all our efforts the drug problem has been relentlessly increasing.  Nejat may indeed be one of the most established treatment programmes in the country, yet they still couldn't help Jawed the young 18 year old addict from Badakhshan, who is the storyline focus of the documentary.  He is seen leaving, having gone back on drugs, wandering the street of Kabul alone, as the snow falls around him, with the 'Velvet Underground'  Heroin song as background music (lyrics by Micheal O'suilleabhain) :

'I don't know just where I'm going....   but I gonna try for the kingdom if I can' 

Nasruddin: a fool and his money

Nasruddin used to stand in the street on market-days, to be pointed out as an idiot. No matter how often people offered him a large and a small coin, he always chose the smaller piece.

One day a kindly man said to him:
"Nasruddin, you should take the bigger coin. Then you will have more money and people will no longer be able to make a laughing stock of you."

"That may be true", said Nasruddin, "but if I always take the larger, people will stop offering me money to prove that I am more idiotic than they are. Then I would have no money at all."

 

I've been thinking quite a bit about fundraising recently, and I'm no expert, but I think this story highlights a few helpful points:

1. fundraising is for idiots
 
there is something about asking for money that makes you look foolish - idiotic even.   In the bible it talks about how the foolishness of this world confounds the wise (1 Cor 1:25)  Nasruddin is prepared to be the idiot, since he has found a good income stream.  He is not afraid of being a 'laughing stock' and as always there is wisdom in his foolishness .   a little and often is better than a lot occasionally. 
  
2. small coins are easier to give than bigger coins
 
'small is beautiful' which seems to be the conclusion of the famous story of the 'widow's mite' (Luke 21:2) or maybe it should be 'widow's might' !  There is power in a good story to inspire others  - we think 'If she can give something like that and be praised, so can I'.   Giving a little - 'a small coin'  is achievable  for everybody    'Big coins' are only for big people. This little parable of the large and the small coins suggests that small repetitive acts can achieve big results  ...

3. It's all about going public. 

visibility, standing on the streets on market day  people wanted to give   to prove he was more foolish than they are ....  he was on to a winner.  
it was counter intuitive   bigger is better  or small is beautiful   crowd sourcing

4. people give to people. 

'people offered him'  -  some say it's not about fundraising but friend-raising  -  people give to people.  And as it says in the story they were 'offering him money'   but they had their own needs and needed to keep the bigger coin for themselves .....

5  don't always listen to the advice of kindly old men.

experience and wisdom of the past is not always the best guide. as has been often quoted  'If you do what you always did you'll get what you always got'. Sometime you just need to try something different.  And Nasruddin discovered a winner.   

Stewardship - 'transforming generosity'

here are 4 of the things I am involved in:
Global Teams -  as Partnership Facilitator (UK and Europe) I love their strapline 'the heart of Christ in the skin of every culture'

Mahabba - currently in a voluntary capacity helping  to mobilise ordinary Christians to befriend ordinary Muslims. They have  a very simple  strapline: 'loving all Muslims'

Faith2share   -   a network of mission organisations, new and old, who support each other and collaborate in global mission - their slogan is 'we believe faith needs to be shared'
  
AsiaCMS - a new mission agency in Asia (that I helped to set up), part of the CMS family  which is focused on 'advancing God's Mission through training and resourcing leaders'


I have been involved in setting up a small cooperative, so we can work with such groups - Paraklesis is a group of experienced consultants who 'come alongside to help'.


If you would like to, then you can give to any of them via Stewardship - transforming generosity'   Just log on the site and search for any of the above mentioned organisation. (you need a Stewardship  account)  If you would like to give to my personal support and ministry fund click here.  Or you can check on their individual website to find other ways of giving (feel free to mention me!)

Finally if none of that works for you, we can meet on a street corner somewhere and go through the 'Nasruddin routine'   ........  I'll take the small coin and you keep the bigger one - I promise!  And, by the way, I've no problems with being a laughing stock...... 

Woking Street Angels: All's well that Ends well

We have a fascinating time each time we are out with Woking Street Angels.  This report I did gives you a flavour of the evening (from 10pm til 4am) and what we get up to.  NB names have been changed to protect individuals) and the pictures are 'lifted' from the the WSA website. 

Saturday night was a routinely active night, with nothing exceptional. Bed Bar had a full house as usual. There were a couple of fights outside Yates and BED.......which the police responded to.

We were 3 teams (7 in total). We devised a new rota at request of team members, to enable us all to be out for the last hour. We changed the rest times to one of half hour and one of an hour (normally we do 2 hours on and one hour off) 

A number of incidents:

·    Grace was distressed and feeling unwell and cold. She was with a girl friend who was really helpful (and not drunk). We used a fleece blanket to get her warm, gave her flipflops and water. One of the female angels escorted her to loo at Woking Hotel, who were really helpful... (‘Spoons would let her in). She phoned her boyfriend who came to pick her up in his car from Twickenham. We gave her a space blanket to keep warm for the journey home.

·    Spoke to young couple outside Yates who seemed genuinely interested in becoming street Angels. 

·    The Town Marshalls also explained what they do, whihc is basically keeping an eye on licensing arrangements - taxis and bars.  

·    I had spoken to someone from church who pre-warned us about a homeless man called Alan (Greenish army jacket, close cropped grey hair, with an army camouflaged rucksack) who she met at LarkinthePark @ GoldsworthPark. He is epileptic and has to take medicine and thinks YorkRoad can't look after the medicine. Team 1 met him and John reported they put him on a train to Guildford cos he wanted to go for the soup kitchen there to take his medicine with food.  The Railway staff really helpful and let him on train free.

·    Raymond just out from a Drug Rehab and wants to volunteer as a WSA..... 

·    Team 2 helped a guy retrieve his jacket from Yates.

At end of shift there was a girl under canopy on her own who said she was going to walk home. Carol (team 3)  felt she was very vulnerable (young, pretty, tipsey, alone) so we negotiated a taxi for her, using some of the money from WSA kitty... 

Positives: Lots of friendly banter with doormen, taxidrivers, Fastfood staff and Town Marshalls

I had a very helpful conversation with the Pakistani taxi Driver, Mohammad, who had helped with difficult incident on Sat 9^th Feb (which was used as a case discussion in Team Leaders meeting on 26Mar)  He explained how on the way home the man had wanted a wee and had fallen in the bushes. It was very hard to get him back in the cab and back home.  The taxi driver explained how he knew the couple, who were ‘travellers’ and were very ‘difficult’ …  He had tried to ring me but had written down the number wrong.

I also met Mickey (who was out celebrating his 31st b/day) who had been assaulted last time I was on duty near to the Galaxy cabs stand. (May18)  A Paramedic had been called by a passing bouncer and was on the scene quickly. He had been excellent. And Mickey had later gone to hospital for check up with potential concussion, but was OK. He said it happens to him often, although he does not go looking for trouble. There was one  bad assault in S’ampton – when some youths bad-mouthed his girlfriend and he stood up to them and ended up with kicks in the head and needing a pin in a broken elbow. He was a sensitive chat and talked openly about his own depression and how he helps with IT at a club for mentally ill. It was the most significant conversation of the evening for me.

I felt these 2 stories had a sense of (partial) completion, which you don’t often get......

Almost a case of all's well that ends well 

You can watch more about Woking Street Angels in this video