The institute is going well! This is day three and we'll be leaving for the airport around this time tomorrow. Here are the students.
What have we been up to, you ask? We've been engaging with scholars and practitioners such as Gary VanderPol (The Good of Mission), Vince Bantu (The Bad of Mission), and Lauren Vitrano-Wilson (Mission as a Journey of Self-Discovery). While not in the classroom, we have been talking together as a team, engaging scripture, and worshipping God. Last night, we did a multi-lingual dance party with French, Spanish, Hatian Creole, Swahili, Luganda, and English. Petek even taught us some awesome Ugandan dance moves. No pictures or videos of that though. :)
Our time of dancing came after a difficult morning where we focused on what has gone wrong with missions. From colonialism to a celebration of empire as opposed to Jesus, missions hasn't simply been a positive or easy story to tell. Even though it'd be great to see that season as one that is exclusively in the past, we do not own Jesus' "pure" mission and are not perfect as we try to follow His mission as we understand it. We have to leave room to repent, to mourn, and to be honest about where we and the church have hurt instead of blessed our neighbors.
We got a chance to process all of this through some art and symbolism. We used a paper tree to symbolize our desire to drink from the wells of Jesus (using the imagery of Psalm 1), but we also wrote sins of the church, personal or corporate, on paper leaves to acknowledge that we, as a church, are often known for our faults, rightly or wrongly. Lastly, we looked to scripture to see how God still uses us, individually and as a body, to bring healing despite our faults. Here's an image of the final product.
"The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." Revelations 22:2
Please pray for us as we prepare to leave, as we begin medication, and as we hear more specifically about ChildVoice International, the non-profit we'll be working with in Northern Uganda. Also, please pray thanksgiving and provision for all the wonderful people who are speaking at the institute, preparing our meals, and hosting us in Boston.
In His Care, IV in Uganda
Good luck to everyone on your mission to Uganda. This is Miki's uncle, and she probably wont admit it but she is a huge Red Sox fan, so I will try to keep her updated on their progress while she is in Uganda. June 2: Red Sox 3 Yankees 0.
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