Complexicated. Peace Building

Tempe, Arizona, USA

A wise and free man recently coined the term "complexicated". What is it? I'll define it in a simile.

The meaning of shalom is to the word peace as the meaning of complexicated is to the words complex and complicated.

Peace building is not tidy and it does not follow a straight path. It is rarely quick and never painless. To pursue peace building, reconciliation, forgiveness, and/or shalom is to purposefully place yourself in a state of unconditional surrender to the will and nature of Christ, it is to have a "yes" in your heart, and a tender confidence about your acts of love. It is to respond to the heart of the Father and the thoughts He has of you, so you might lead an uncanny life of love and grace, repentance and compassion, of faith in action.

I am writing on this because my time in South Africa continues to impact the way I think and act, especially in moments like these.

Currently, I have the opportunity to practice what was demonstrated to me in South Africa about coming to the table, the posturing of our hearts and humility of our minds when honorably engaging confrontation, the ways and foundation of facilitation, how salient and healing the truth is, the importance of being quick to listen and seek understanding, why/how to creatively approach concepts, etc. These were some of the concepts we dove into and got stuck in while I was in South Africa and they continue to impact my thinking and actions. So much of my heart and character have been revealed and refined over the past nine months, especially the past 5ish, and I am forever grateful that my journey intertwined with such remarkable and compassionate people.

I am deeply grateful for the example Teri & Gordon displayed by showing me what healthy communication can look like and making space for all views, those lessons have been so helpful... as many things have come very fast and as a giant surprise the past few days. There is much to say and many details I have not mentioned, but re-hashing details is not why I'm writing, I am writing to encourage and express my gratitude for my Directors' lives and sacrifices, and to openly express my admiration of their personalities, uncommon lives, and creative giftings. To give real life testimony to the impact they had on me and the way God has used them in my life to encourage, challenge, and spur me on.

The spurring and transformation of my mind have finally arrived at a place where those lessons can be carried out in a significant manner. This opportunity has come as a result of the trouble I am having in processing some community leaders behaviors and what they show value for. My heart is tender and broken right now. So much is happening and it all seems so unjust and broken. I am deeply grieved, saddened, & hurt. Yet hopeful and certain of the goodness of God. This is a place of such wretched tension and glorious demand, of shalom for the beloved. I believe humans are my family and my opposition is in the spiritual realm, so grace is abounding. I am praying to discern God's voice, receive His love, repent completely, and stand dressed and ready in the full armor Knowing His love for me & delight in me. God is shalom and chesed, may I know Him as such.

Please watch the following clip and consider this perspective prior to continuing:

I watched that clip about 5 minutes ago and wanted to share it with you ;]

In light of the lessons that have settled deep in my heart from South Africa and my desire to honor and demonstrate Abba's heart in my conduct, especially when attempting to engage in confrontation from a Kingdom perspective, I would like to share some of my first thoughts about entering conflict.

My Preliminary

Thoughts on Personal Preparation for Mediation & Conflict Facilitation:

1. Know yourself and your core values

2. Examine and weigh the true motive behind your anticipated/desired actions

3. Seek to add value to, edify, exhort, and empower people. Treat everyone in-line with how God views them (remember, Christ already took our punishment)

4. Be process oriented. Extend an invitation to dialogue and reach understanding

5. ALWAYS conduct yourself in a way that is consistent with #1

6. Be 100% yourself and accept the others as well

7. Recognize the origin of the "problem" and approach with tenderness and confidence

8. Engage fully, be transparent, seek truth and reconciliation

9. "Set the table" by creating an atmosphere of GRACE where safety (and, if possible, trust) is the priority

10. Align your heart with God's and soak it all in prayer

Ideally, all of those would be worked though PRIOR to engaging with conflict, but we act out of the overflow of our hearts, so hopefully we are becoming a people with pure hearts and overwhelming love.

I truly desire to be a peace-maker as empowered by the Holy Spirit, to call forth the greatness in people and glorify God through it, to kneel with grace, rise among the saints, and be a conduit for healing to touch earth from our holistic Lord. I know this process must soaked in prayer and saturated with the goodness and mercy of God, so keep that in mind, as I have assumed that to be understood. This perspective is relatively new to me, but as my value for wholeness and shalom increase, I am trying to navigate my way through life in such a way that I become my message.

OFFER WISDOM:

I am young and an idealist, but there is an innocence about youth that is beautiful and blinding, so what are you thoughts on how to approach conflict? In your opinion, what is the desired posturing of a heart when in the hea(r)t of a moment? Why?

There are zillion scriptures that come to mind with this topic (conflict, shalom, forgiveness, justice, personal ownership, etc), but which one(s) do you draw from?

Thoughts on the video clip?

I would like to hear and weigh any advice you might have for me as I make a life of truth seeking, facilitation, healing, and next steps. If you have advice from your experiences, would you please share some with me/us?

Words are powerful, but actions are revealing.

Ubuntu Documentary: part 3

Last night the team got together for a Documentary Screening party and it was so much fun! For the most part, this was the first time I'd seen everyone since I was a little ball of tears at the Joburg airport in July, so it was so much fun to see people, hang out, catch up, and watch the short documentaries we recently completed.

Originally, we had "three days" (aka 1.5) to brainstorm, storyboard, interview, shoot, edit, polish, and complete the documentary while in Cape Town. This is an insane request, especially when each group of five students only had one camera and one computer for editing! Needless to say, we were all on edge and INCREDIBLY STRESSED. Honestly, those 2 days were more stressful than all three years of finals combined. We knew the documentaries had to be quality because we received grants and funding from national sources, our directors reputations would be affected by what we produced, from a content standpoint they had amazing potential, and because these would be plastered all over different parts of Arizona State's website. But, in our ridiculously stressed attempts to create something worthwhile we were running around with our heads cut off, forsaking the very essence of Ubuntu, the topic of our documentaries. Luckily, our directors realized this, called a meeting the night before they're due (which was our 2nd to last night in South Africa), and we all listened to each other's concerns.

I had been all over the Western Cape shooting footage that day, didn't even make it back in time for dinner, and was not happy they called a meeting because it was stealing precious time I desperately needed if we were going to start and finish this film in the next 16 hours.

to complete our documentary I was not happy they were cutting into my time. Out of no where I started crying because I saw myself putting the completion of this task over maintaining great relationships and saying goodbye to South Africa in a meaningful way. ...

Our directors ended up extending our deadline, at the expense of their professional reputation with the foundations that sponsored the projects. This was merely another show of their great compassion and belief in living a whole hearted, connected life above all else.

A (singular) result of our time focusing on understanding, dialogues, transitional justice, ubuntu, and the beauty of South Africa were a series of three documentaries, each with a slightly different slant:

Creative- looked to use symbolic and artistic elements to portray ubuntu
Educational- looked to summarize and explain ubuntu

Difficult Dialogues- looked to capture and showcase the charged and sensative discussions between races, ethnic groups, sexes, cultures, and ages in Cape Town

Below you will find the one I helped create:

This is a short documentary that looks into the meaning of Ubuntu.

Created by five undergraduate students during a summer program in South Africa and funded by grants from the Ford Foundation and Arizona State University's The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, this is one clip from a three part series.

feel it, you are here

Hello from the land of infinite toilet paper in public restrooms and buildings with indoor temperature control! lol, I have safely returned to the US and am trying to "be where I am" like I did in SA, but I'm not so certain that this is where I want to be right now. Oh well, I'll chalk it up to the re-entry process.

Okay, so I have a whole bunch of entries I want to post on here, but I can't decide if there is an order with which I should proceed (like chronological, or topically, or by style) or if should do a random smattering since they will all be 100% raw entries anyway. As of right now, I'm going to use the random smattering idea, but use chronology as a dim guide. Then, once I revisit them, I'll work them into a larger, cohesive unit.

Unfortunately I don't have pictures from the exact places/moments that I tell stories, but hopefully this will give you a snapshot of the places I reference.

Our Chariot

held building anticipation & really funny stories for 18 hours

Welcome World

mural near Green Market in Cape Town, next to it was the World Cup bracket

Found Object Homes drawing

Some days I wasn't able to write, so I jumped back into my 5th grade self and took up doodling stories that words wouldn't meet, yet

Site B Homes

I took this picture through the back window of Dada's car before he dropped me off @ EduCare for one of my internships. note the sticker

I'd been in the country for no more than 90 minutes and I'd already plummeted from my initial state of giddy anticipation. We'd de-planed, ceremoniously took our first big breath of South African air, collected our baggage (minus 1), met out directors, and loaded the van when it happened. I was riding on the left hand side as we zoomed toward Hillcrest, the bed and breakfast we'd call home for our first 5 days, when I saw informal my first "informal settlement". It went my window, road, grassy patch with cows grazing + boy with stick, graffitied concrete wall, then what seemed like a zillion unfit, shanty structures that I wouldn't call houses, but that I knew were homes. A titled pole would prick the flat-roofed horizon and from it a web of tangled, electric nightmare would droop down to the homes.

It seemed like this scene had been put on "loop" outside my window because it went on kilometer after kilometer. The only reason I knew it was real was when I would catch a goal celebration from a boy playing soccer in a small patch of space between the highway and the graffitied wall, or when I'd see a lanky black dude or thick Mamma walking alongside the highway on a narrow, well beaten path.

My eyes and heart had nearly reached their max when this scene was abruptly interrupted by a squad of blue flashing police lights escorting a FIFA tour bus on the other side of the median. "Ja, we tried to get you guys one of those!" our crazy haired, mysterious co-director laughed. The radio was faintly audible in the background and I heard the announcer proclaim, "FEEL IT! IT IS HERE!!!" with regards to the much anticipated World Cup the country was hosting.

My head returned left and made my eyes look again... "Feel it," my heart said, "we are here..." as if it knew something I didn't.

commitment

Wow. the past three weeks have been CRAZY. INTENSE.

Each person has a story and when traveling to/in/through/around so many of them it makes for a marvelously rich and vibrant engagement of the heart and head. Since I last wrote I have been in the Townships to Diep River to Swellendam with the youth to Port Elizabeth and finally back to Cape Town.

Narrative has been written on my heart and I will continue the process of putting it through a pen so it can be shared and lived. I commit to writing and creatively exploring and expressing as God gives me inspiration and grace to unveil the extraordinary things that have happened here and those that will continue to happen. (in my mind that is a big, possibly semi-scary, commitment to make, so please read that with the weightiness of such a task... to honor people and their hearts, my audience, myself, & God, in giving voice...)



This is my last day in Cape Town, then to Joburg for a week, then back to the US.
Sorry this is so short, but must go to our final meeting and then pack into a kombi and sort through all the conflicting emotions that are trying to share space in my heart right now.

Thank you for your prayers, they have been answered! More to come...
keep praying though, the work is not done.

Description

I was made for this trip.

This was, once again, confirmed after I read the "Course Description" this Sunday. I would like to share it with you because I think this information will be crucial as you begin to read my writings and reflections of the Intensive over the next few months!

DESCRIPTION

"Religion often serves as a precise tool to foment violence. It can function as a rallying point to both justify and mandate the hostile engagement of others in the pursuit of sacred ends. And yet, in contrast, religion often serves as a moral guide for principled peace building efforts in the face of grave danger. Courage and selflessness are called forth in faithfulness to the sacred texts.

The ambiguous, and at times confounding, role of religion in local and global conflict will be the focus of this course. By analyzing the South African historical narrative, students will gain an introductory understanding of how religion can be an actor in both the creation of violent conflict and in the pursuit of peace.

In 1990, South Africa's future perched on a fragile negotiated settlement between the out-going Apartheid regime and in-coming ANC leadership. Religious actors, indigenous spirituality, and Christian theology helped shape a vision and pave the way for a different future. In exchange for a peaceful transition, the National Party (Apartheid) government demanded amnesty. Liberation fighters wanted nothing less than a full retributive repsonse to the decades of crimes against humanity. Moral and spiritual leaders (including Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu) sought a compromise be developing a model of justice rooted in ubuntu (an African understanding of humanity) and restorative justice. Born out of compromise, while pursuing restorative justice under the full scrutiny of truth.

In this course, we will compare the fundamental philosophy of western or retributive notion of justice with an indigenous or restorative approach. We will explore the needs of key stakeholders including victims, perpetrators, civil society and the justice system with specific focus on trauma and the need for healing in a post-conflict society. Finally, students will explore the notion of ubuntu in order to grasp an African idea of what it means to have a moral agency, to be human."

What I will be experiencing and learning in South Africa is unavailable to me in the United States (for many reasons, but also) because we are so entrenched in our own cruel, cold, and retributive system of "justice". Thus, exposure to different perspectives, systems, and cultures will be refreshing and engaging; but, more importantly, I am most passionate and excited about embracing the delicateness of life through the pursuit of reconciliation, healing, justice, and restoration!

Seeking and bringing the Kingdom in humility and compassion.

Love. Truth and grace. Reconciliation and restoration.

Stay tuned, or read the first post, for much more to come