"I Have Business to Attend to in Remallah..."

If it wasn't for your constant prayers, and the near-constant supply of falaffel and rice with lentils and schwarma and pita...I'd be dead. Exhausted. Helps with the sleep, I must admit (which has been fab-u-lous by the way). The heat does to, but our past few days have been packed.

I fully anticipate that eventually the frequency of these posts will subside, but it's all fresh and new still!

Finally, after nearly a week, my mind and heart have become set in this place. After walking the city, "talking" with the people, hearing Arabic conversationally and musically all day long... I'm here. I'm in Bethlehem and I'll be here for two months. Well, closer to 7 weeks at this point, but still.

Oh, and another fact of life that reminds me I'm in a very far away land:

From Deputation

I've seen several of these around at this point. Makes me wonder if they're actually doing anything useful in these parts...


The other day, Me and Trey and the rest of our team spent the entire day traveling, building relationships, and getting baked by the sun...but it was awesome. Really got to know some of the folks on the team owing something to the hours of bus riding and bus-breaking-down-ing (see Image below).

From Deputation

On a more serious note, however, the point of the trip was to expose us to some of the tragedy happening here in Palestine. Besides the ever present wall one experiences where-ever one travels around this land, the first thing we saw as we traveled North was one of the so-called Illegal Israeli Settlements . Honestly, it was rather disgusting. Surrounded by the poverty of Palestinians and the water-starved landscape there this settlement stood among the desert like a green gem, perched on a hill (like every other city around this part of the world). Locals of the West Bank are not permitted to enter the settlements or use some of the surrounding roads. As I've heard, the idea is to cut the West Bank in half with these towns, tearing apart the Palestinians even more. (I have photos, they don't seem inclined to upload themselves. >.< ). As one of the more... opinionated... team members stated, Israel's goal is to kill all the Palestinians and that Israel is a terrorist state that will be wiped from the planet. Needless to say, I don't exactly share these views. Don't worry. But it was weird to encounter such a blatant perspective

We continued on, through the various sectors until we reached Sector A, which is completely under the legislative and military control of Palestine, toward one of the Refugee "Camps." (Built in '48, they're just as permanent as anything else around). As we were being shown the bullet holes Israeli soldiers left in 2002, I couldn't help but notice the children playing in the street...

From Deputation

such a confusing contrast...

We also visited a Woman's center, and a Media Center which had a really great mission. They aim at educating children in visual arts to allow them to express the horrors that they've experienced in the society and through the wars... to start a cultural revolution that will eventually repel the Western and Israeli cultural influences and re-establish an identity of their own. In the middle of a refugee camp. In a place where they are constantly confronted with pain and hurt established by generations of violence.

We saw the houses that were bulldozed to build another section of wall:

From Deputation

Or the houses that were torn in half, just as many families of this town were similarly cut in half... for the life of me, I can't remember his name, but we also had the chance to hear from a renown ex-Freedom-Fighter that now strongly advocates non-violence. Very wise were many of his words and answers.... heavily confident in the next generation, although I fear the next generation may have already have been tainted by the scars of their fathers...


After that day, all I wanted to do was process. To sit... and figure out what I'd just seen. I suppose I had plenty of that time on the bus, but that wasn't all that alone, all that focused of a mental space. (Taylor Swift's You Belong with Me may or may not have been sung on the bus-mike by me... ;)

The only thing I could seem to grasp after the end of the day, was that the world is a place that is full of suffering. The evil contained within the human heart is not something that knows geographical boundaries...it is ever present. It is in America, it is in Great Brittan, it is in the Sudan, it is everywhere. And regardless of how many "good people" a society may contain, that somehow doesn't seem to make all that much of a difference. People need something more in addition to social service and volunteerism.

They need Christ.

And so, I push on, explaining myself and attempting to articulate this love I've been given to others as the time arises... and also as I do computer tech-support and web-development for a small music academy in Bethlehem! (My official task!) I may also be visiting Remallah where the family of one of the team members lives, along with Trey. Should be pretty stellar. 8)   <--- *Stunna Shades*

Sorry if the post seems... abrupt in many subjects. So much has happened... maybe I should start focusing on individual events, yes? I feel it'd seem less disjointed. Hmm... but the whole time has seemed strangely disjointed for myself aswell. Pray for my brain and heart!

God's Peace to each of you! Your thoughts, prayers, and Google Voicemails have been hugely appreciated!!! =D

Mas Salaam!

Some Photos!!

From Deputation

Me and Trey in Beit Sehoor (House of Waking) just south of Bethlehem where we're staying. We're on top of one of the more significant buildings in the area, because it's owned by a related member of our household (as is just about everyone on the block! Things are like that around here...huge families that cluster together.

From Deputation

Looking north toward Bethlehem

From Deputation

Me and the other Beit Sehoor-ers outside The Shepherds Field (Like, where the shepherds saw the angels! Or at least the traditionally believed location. Probably close enough )

From Deputation

The "Peace Wall." An ever-present reminder of the crazy prejudice going on here... from inside looking toward Israel, you'll see all the graffiti. Some it it is pretty powerful stuff...more to come. Not to sound like the political agenda is sinking in, it's just that the local politics are ever present and the grim reality of the situation inescapable.






I've got more pics from the other day too I'll be getting up here. We got Trey's bag from Jerusalem (Thank the Lord!) and spent some time exploring with one of our friends along with more of Bethlehem. Today we're doing some traveling also, I'll keep ya'll posted. ;)

Mas Salaam!

Day 1.5 -- The Journey Ends, the Adventure Begins

Note: Interested in leaving me a voicemail while I'm unable to use my cellphone? Use the GoogleVoice button at the bottom of any BoundlessChrist page and follow the instructions. I'll be able to check them from my email. =) (But not respond). Your warm wishes from home are much appreciated!

Someone once said, to live would be an awfully big adventure.

I can certainly say that we have lived life in a big way these past few days.

Getting here amounted to what was probably the most stressful 24 hours of either me or Trey's life. Getting everything gathered and packed the night before leaving (with time for zero sleep) only compounded the problems later in the day: in Dallas, about an hour before our plane was scheduled to leave, Trey discovered that his bag had been misdirected to be dropped of in Texas. He had to run down, grab his bag, take it back through security... etc... terrible. In all, about an hour long process, all the while, I had no idea what was going on (no cell phones. O_o ). Got back in time to find out that he got booted from the flight, and had to make it on another, leaving us with no time to coordinate what we were doing once we were in London.

All I knew was I'd get there two hours before he did, and that he was now flying American Airlines, not Brittish. Along the way, I ended up sitting next to two Mormon gals who were heading out for their year-and-a-half long missions trip and were very interesting to talk with. Spent quite a long time talking about God and what we believe "Oh, I just love learning about what other people's beliefs are!" I think were "Sister Alexander"'s words. Mm... they were pretty cool though, left me with a couple things to think about. One of them was talking about how after she had prayed, God had given her a verse and how it was exactly what she needed to hear and how great having relationship with God is and etc. How this book has really changed her life... made me wonder what was really going on. When we departed ways at the airport, they gave me their only extra copy of the Book of Mormon (I tried to refuse... *sigh*... I have no idea what to do with it! At least it's not going to someone else, I suppose).



In London, I and Trey were met with another nightmare. Essentially, we spent the entire 14 hour layover not having a clue where the other person was and trying to wait in various places hoping against hope of finding the other. Trey did venture into the city, whereas I chickened out at the last second. Thought it'd be lame to visit all by myself, and from the sounds of what Trey said, it was pretty lame. Crazy stressful.

I figured that if all else fails, we were to meet at a terminal for our flight out at 1030pm. I woke up from a nap at 9:40, headed over there, and I'm telling you, there are few other faces that could make me feel so suddenly good as Trey's as we ran into eachother in the bathroom....

The flight to Tel Aviv was wonderfully uneventful. I will say that the food on these flights was absolutely incredible. I mean, I haven't had anything besides peanuts or pretzels to eat on a plane in goodness knows how long. Curried Chicken, rolls, salad, dessert, drinks, milk... so good! =D

Tel Aviv: turns out Trey's luggage didn't make it from London. -_-  HOWEVER, we made it in the country without a hitch, which was such a blessing! We made it! Met at the exit by a man (not to be confused with this who took us to Bethlehem from the airport...where we met our host family (who are going to be pretty sweet, especially the food!!!! and the couple of kids that are totally awesome! I was playing with one of the kids and his mom told him that I don't actually speak Arabic... the kid disagreed, a fact I found quite amusing).

Trey is still trying to track down his Luggage and may have to visit the airport to get it all figured out... something that's just killing him. I don't blame him =/  . Be praying for his situation! That he get's his stuff! Otherwise, we're alive and well, thinking of home much... it's just starting to set in how far and away both in space and time we really are from Seattle...

[IMAGES TO COME SOON]

[Also, If you're inters

Almost Gone

Almost gone!
My last several hours in america, being spent here in Dallas, TX. So surreal. So glad to have my teammate Trey with me... I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that...I'm not coming back any time soon. What I packed is what I have, and considering I finshed packed at 330am, I hope to God I didn't forget anything!

T-Minus 4 Days: Is This Really Happening?

As another quarter comes to a close, as friends leave and graduate, as yet again I find all my belongings making their way into boxes and Trader Joes bags, I'm left in a very confused state.

This is really happening. -- I keep telling myself. Over and over... In four days, I'll be in Bethlehem!   It's like my brain just doesn't have the never centers to process that. Like a computer without a floppy drive, I cannot read this type of data...this "magnetic tape" of experience yet. I have to be there before I can know what to expect...

My mother called me the other day, feeling that God was speaking to me about the upcoming trip and cited Acts chapter 13 (excerpt below)

²While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Separate now for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

³Then after fasting and praying, they put their hands on them and sent them away.

⁴So then, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from [that port] they sailed away to Cyprus.

The whole chapter in general has to do with the journeys of Paul (Saul) and Barnabas, but it's this intro part that really concerns itself with the setting out of the trip. What an awesome example of community! Supporting, commissioning, and praying over these men...but beyond that, and most significantly, was the work of the Holy Spirit in orchestrating the whole venture. Everything else was merely a result of His prompting, of His action within at directly to the people.

Have I felt this prompting? Maybe. I know beyond anything else that this is something I need to do, regardless of dangers both physical and...erm... financial. Maybe that's the Spirit's prompting, those strong feelings.

And now, I have packing to attend to....and cleaning.... the stuff of life is so clingy! Just like an ecosystem, every possible niche and perceived "need" becomes occupied and rooted with memory and sentiment until the days come when you must transplant it all elseplace... messy messy messy!

Christological Variation -- The Problem of Continuity

In mathematics, there's a distinction to be made between numbers that are discrete which can be /counted/ in indivisible portions (i.e., the number of protons in a nucleus or the number of party hats at a birthday, how many times you've sneezed) with no space between "whole numbers" (essentially true)... and those that are continuous which represent quantities that can take on an infinite number of possibilities between those "whole numbers." (i.e. Your weight, the length of a string, the velocity of a Space Shuttle).

Even areas of life not dictated by numbers can be described by these two classifications. One could say based on common generalizations that men tend to think of color in a very discrete way. The primary rainbow colors + a couple. There's a huge range of things he might call red. On the other hand, one may similarly conjecture that women seem to recognize  some the true continuous nature of color. The shades. All the in-between bits that aren't quite Fuchsia or Lavender.

Even here, though, one can start to see the problem with continuity. It leaves massive room for interpretation and quibbling. At what point in the spectrum is the light definitively Red? Is that shirt red? That stoplight? That sunset? That guy's sunburn (no, that's burnt-pink!). Goodness knows how many times I have ended up arguing (briefly. I'm psychologically stable. I can let go) about the color of some inane object with a girl that's definitely orange not burnt-umber.  *sigh*

This problem propagates itself into all areas of life. Every "grey-area" we encounter is the result of continuous data, particularly when we're attempting the systematic categorization of a continuous series. When making a discrete approximation. 
We do this sort of approximation all the time, because discreteness is generally easier to deal with than infinite possibility (something to do with finite capacity to understand, I'd gander).

However, when doing this and drawing these lines, there's always going to be something left in the middle from which arrises ambiguity and uncertainty. The whole question of  when does a twig become a stick? A stream become a river? Or a hill become a mountain? (along the lines of This Movie) People end up sketching together seemingly arbitrary rules for these classifications, then forgetting at some point down the line that they were the ones drawing the lines.

I've seen examples of this in my Archaeology class and my Human Evolution class this quarter, but it also seems to crop up in many other areas of my life. It frustrates me because it doen't tend to lend itself to answers per se, or theorems/generalizations. It doesn't lend itself to simple answers or a lessening in complexity, in fact, quite the opposite.

What frustrates me the most is when I see it in Christianity. My faith, the foundation upon which I construct my life, has places that cannot be pinned down. For example:

Phillippians 4:8
^"8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

Which thoughts are bad? When do my errant thoughts stray from daydream to...sin. At which point does entertainment become "not-pure." When does something become unworthy of a good-report? Upon this basis, my parents (and even myself for many years) discouraged the play of First-Person-Shooters. Did not watch R-rated movies (another arbitrary scale: movie ratings.
What do you think, Continuous or Discrete?). We however lived upon the right side of a sliding scale of another continuous metric known as: Conservative.


Makes me wonder about a few other things about Christianity:

• Is salvation itself continuous (happening over a period of time) or discrete (at a particular moment)?
• When does striving after the ways of Christ and turning entirely away from evil render your incapable of associating with the very people we're to be a witness to? (That is, at which point do we become so concerned with following Christ that we become labeled a Prude? A Monk? Sequestered from society?
• When does Fearing God and the Rightness of His ways turn into Legalism?

And, most relevant to what's currently on my mind, is a question stemming from a Human Evolution class I'm currently enrolled in. Now, forgive me, but I suppose there's an abundance of "if"s here, so please bear with me.

If I'm to believe that God was responsible for the creation of the universe (though whichever means He decided to choose, which I do believe), and if He so chose evolution as His means of creation (for which there seems to be a certain amount of evidence either way), at which point would He have decided along the sliding scale of genetics that we were.... human. Imbued with a soul, and His existence revealed to us? At which point did H. erectus really become H. sapian ?

*sigh*

Evolution is weird. There seems to be just as much evidence to support as there is to contradict, but the support seems so compelling.

Alright, here's another. A friend brought this to my attention this last spring break, upon a canoe, amid beautiful snow-capped mountains and fresh pine-laden air... the question once more: when is life? Where does it start?

When did I get my soul? (some would argue this never took place for me *cough cough* my roommate)

Is it at inception? If so, my friend said, then he is very very sad, because during the normal course of a woman's cycle, fertilized eggs regularly pass out of her system if she's been with a man. Regularly. Granted, I never double checked on this (has anyone else heard this?) but if it's true, than thousand of babies die all the time...without ever being made known. If false, then all is well... granted we know where life begins. Another continuous scale. Something to think about, at least.



As always... plenty to think about... but not get too intellectual about. God is about relationship and faith, not our trivial ponderings...

Completion

Church is an interesting place. That is, "church" with a lower-case "c." As in, the physical space worshipers generally occupy on Sunday mornings.

It's an intersting space, because it is a space rife with expectations and standards you rarely find elsewere dictating posture (sitting, standing, kneeling, and potientially bowing), etiquette (when to speak, refrain from speaking), and emotional expression (yelling, shouting, crying, dancing, displays of affection). Every church contains it's own subset of these expectations for good or bad. Generally, I prescribe to the notion that it's good for churches to have some latitude because people can't be put in boxes. Room for individuality is key... but I digress.

One expectation I feel is generally affixed to most churches is the idea that all attendees must pay attention to the speaker. (although really, this is merely an extention to what we've all learned about any gathering of people with a leader) To the paster/reverend/priest/what-have-you at the pulpit/dais/music-stand/coffee table/whatever, you may not display anything less than intent listening with maybe the occasional yawn without risking people thinking you don't really care.

This is wrong, In my view. Maybe I'm saying this to assuage my own suppressed guilt from the dozens of sermons that have made that journey between ears while managing only a brief stop to say hello somewhere inbetween. Regardless, I feel the words of whoever's up front are really only optional at best to listen to. 

The physical space, church, is really just a meeting place. A safe place to meditate and to set the lens off our own life for but an hour and half and critically think about the implications of Christ. Sometimes a sermon will help. Sometimes following along with the fill-in-the-blank cut-and-dry sermon-notes will be of use. But I've found that as long as I'm not thinking about what groceries I need to buy or where I'd like to go on a date, church can be most beneficial when I'm thinking and praying my own thoughts and prayers.

That's where I found myself this last Tuesday at a ministry I attend. I could feel that my brain had shut down many hours previous... I needed my journal to keep my mind and heart busy. This is what I fond myself jotting down. [PS, this is actually how many of these posts are born in their earliest of stages]

Christ doesn't simply complete us,

without Him, we would be nothing.

Christ doens't simply complete us, 

Christ is our Sum-total.

We exist in the darkenss and He is the Light.

We are but vapor while He is The Rock, our Fortress

Solid and True.

I think about completeness from time to time, particularly the number 7, which is one of several numbers that is consistently used in the Bible and almost entirely in reference to some kind of completion. 7 days of creation. 7 years of "tribulation," many of the feasts on the Jewish calendar cycle by increments of 7, etc. (comment if you come across any others that I'm sure I'm forgetting) ANYwho, I think about it. It's an important concept, there being a beginning and an end and the fact that God transcends all of that...

I found myself wondering at the idea of God completing my life.... making me whole. How offhand of a thought that is, and how at surface, it seems good and true. And when taken to the full extent, it is. We wouldn't even /exist/ if there had been no God! Our lives, even when not in harmony with the One who made this whole thing, still are fulfilling some important role. We are inseparable from Him, however distant we may lead ourselves to believe we are...    I think I at least can easily forget this, and there are times the idea of Him completing my life has as much weight as knowing that the final check mark on a list of to-dos completes my day.