up in the mountains and drinking coffee

I am laying on a cot at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Baguio on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. It’s cold up here because we are in the mountains. But it’s good. It was fun to wake up last night cold and having to go further underneath the covers. That hasn’t happened too often here.

It’s been a good time so far. The problem is that I have these things that I want to blog about, but then I forget them by the time I get to the internet. So hopefully this will be something worth while since I am typing it out now instead of waiting til we get to the internet.

It has been interesting and challenging for us as we are here during the reconciliation talks of the Lutheran Church of the Philippines. Basically, it seems like it would be trying to reconcile the ELCA and the LCMS together. We find it a bit ironic that the ELCA and the LCMS seem to have been helping out various sides of the LCP and the ELCA and the LCMS cannot come to an agreement on things.

But this is what is floating around in my brain. The idea of being unified and reconciled together to form one body under Christ. It is a good concept, but how is it supposed to work. Take communion for instance. If there are two interpretations of communion, and these two sides need to come together to form one Lutheran church again, how is it that one side is supposed to compromise on their beliefs? It seems as though the belief in their way of communion has been strong enough to cause a split or contribute to a split, so why now would they decide to give that up?

It does seem that there are a new bunch of pastors that are leading the congregations here and they seem to have the idea to reconcile as they were not around when the initial split took place.

We have heard various things from various pastors. One of the things that seems to sum up the counter productivity of the whole thing is that if you ask side A who is LCP 1 and who is LCP 2. They will say that side A is LCP 1 and that side B is LCP 2. But if you ask someone from side B who is LCP 1, they will say that side B is LCP 1 and that side A is LCP 2. We have also heard things along the nature that one side is waiting for the other side to repent and come to their senses. But it seems to me that it usually takes two sides to have an argument or disagreement. It was disheartening and frustrating to hear these types of comments because the minute that people begin to think that they are blameless in the problem, they cease to be part of the solution.

This whole thing also seems rather silly to me that adults who are supposed to be continually seeking after the will of God, not man, are unable to look past themselves to discern what the will of God is. I think that in a nutshell, the will is to serve others and show God’s love and peace to all. I do not think that is being done when pastors will not even associate with each other or are unable to hold civil conversations with each other. If I were an outsider looking in, I would not want to be part of a denomination that cannot stand together.

I think one of the more disheartening things that has been going through my head is that sometimes it seems that people are unable to look past themselves. It is no different than two little boys arguing over who gets the last bite of a candy bar. They seemed to have forgotten that they were able to share the candy bar together and had that in common.

But who am I to sit here and look at the situation and think it is silly. I have graduated with a degree in music. These people are the ones who have the degree from the seminaries and bible schools. So obviously if they are unable to solve the problem, then nobody can! It seems to me that the congregations are waiting for the leaders to do something. But why cannot the congregations stand up and begin to work together as one body. Having fellowship with each other and supporting each other as God would want his communities to do. We are one community through Christ and we forget that quite often.

The good news is that the reconciliation talks seem to be going well and that hopefully sometime soon people from both sides will drop their guns armed with words and theologies and put away the barriers of resentment and distrust. They will take off their armor of self-righteousness and leave themselves exposed and vulnerable to each other. Only than will the two sides be able to be open and honest with each other. Working together and being united through Christ. Maybe not giving up their beliefs but finding again and clinging to the commonality of Jesus and letting that be enough because it is enough. We have the hope that God gives us and that is enough. We are not to despair! For the work has been done already! We are to go out and celebrate life with each other by serving and loving and making peace with all those we encounter. That is why there is hope for another day.

Peace,

davepeet

Some thoughts

Alright, so i said that I would try to write a real blog so here it is:

We've just finished up our first leg of the journey in the philippines. It was great. We were on the island of Mindinao and we were treated with great hospitality and love. which leads me to my first rant!
Isn't funny how we are so astounded with great hospitality? It's kind of funny to me because isn't that the way that we should always be treating each other? If we are truly trying to live our lives for Christ, we should be taking on that selfless attitude at all times. Now, naturally we will fail, but if we do as we are supposed to, we would always treat others with respect and hospitality. Instead, it seems that what is supposed to be the norm of our lives is now elevated to a pedestal and is seen as something that makes a person really good or really nice. I wonder when the standards changed and when the norm became the abnormal?

Don't get me wrong, we were treated incredibly the whole time we were in Mindanao. That's the reason for the questioning. It wasn't something they even thought twice about. They gave up their rooms, they let us eat first, they helped us out with whatever they could and they did not want us to do any work. they didn't even seem to think about it. That's just the way you treat guests in your home. It was their normal. So why can't that be our normal as well?

But it's been good. Living with the people and interacting with them has been good.

I am going to be an uncle soon! so that's exciting! gonna find out if it's a boy or girl tomorrow so that's also exciting! I am trying to figure out which way i can secretly undermind the parenting of my sister and bro in law. Maybe every time that I see my niece or nephew I will secretly call him/her the name that I wanted the child to be...that way the child will grow up thinking that he or she has two names!!! Either that or maybe I will teach the child that left is actually right and that right is actually left. Or this one may actually be useful. Everytime I am around the child, I wil make him or her use his non-dominant hand. so when he or she grows up, they'll be ambidexterous! Just kidding laura....i won't do any of those things.

We found this really good jam that we eat on bread. It's called coco jam and it consists of fresh coconut milk and sugar. The downside is there's a lot of sugar. In one tablespoon, there is 21 grams ofs ugar....but it's sooooo good!

I am sad that when we return home the fruits will not be nearly as sweet and fruity as they are here, but that's life I guess.

One of the things that I have appreciated the most is the energy from the young people in the church. They are very excited to be there and to be an active member. I think part of it is that they are not consumed with sports or music or other htings that will steal their time, so this is what they pour themselves into.

The theme that we are sharing in our programs is Unity and how we are one body through what Jesus did. It's a great message and is exemplified by when we are able to sing songs together and worship as one body of believers.

they fight spiders here. The boys will catch spiders and then fight them on a stick. The loser dies and gets wrapped up by the other spider. it's pretty intense and fun to watch. Though i will not touch one.

Ok, I guess I don't have many rants. So life is good. Hope everyone is staying warm. We have a date with some teachers from the school nearby to play volleyball. We beat them 3-1 yesterday and they want a rematch! so keep on keepin on!!
Peace
davepeet

this one is important!

Ok, this post is important....our contact down in Mindinao was great about taking lots of pictures and he has been kind enough to post them online for us!! So here's the link to the site!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/newdawn.philippines


Also this is an important post because I ripped my boxers again today..i was squatting down to hit a volleyball when we were playing volleyball against a group of teachers at the lutheran school. o well.

I'll write a more insightful and indepth post tomorrow. promise.
peace,
davepeet

good news

good news! my boxers are fixed so i am now running at full capacity of underwear!!!

We sing a song called Unify Us and the chorus goes like this Unify us, purify us, so that we will change the world, so that we will change the world....

And the thing is...it's not just a song that we sing, but it's something that i really believe. gross how cliche is that. But i have witnessed in communities here in the Philippines, Brazil, Malawi, and in the United States the spreading of the love of Christ. The quote from Mother Theresa keeps coming up that says something like it doesn't matter how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do. I am thoroughly convinced that the body of Christ has within its capacity to rise up together and to change things. If people didn't htink that, we wouldn't have had the end of slavery or the Civil Rights movement. The church was huge in those things. but why can the church not rise up together and change things in the world. Wouldn't it be great if churches were known for how many fresh water wells they were able to provide in the world instead of how many new church furnishings they were able to buy in the last year. If you go back and look at the history of the church, the money that was offered and tithed was supposed to go to the poor and the ones in need. If you were to look at the majority of churches budgets you would see that most of the budget is spent on itself...maybe not to unsimilar to how our nation's budget is spent on mostly defense and not on aide and helping others.... what if the churches began to spend their money on the poor. Now...i'm not advocating that we should ONLY be helping those in need. I thing as long as their are poor than that is a definite role of the church. But to also advocate for changes in the systems to prevent that poverty. it's a two headed thing. But the fact of the matter is that the church as a whole is not doing what it can. We are comfortable where we are. But Jesus is not a person that offered us comfort. He offered us a radical way to approach things, putting others before us and taking care of our needs last.

so that's what I've been thinking lately. It's been good being in the Philippines. Besides thought provoking thoughts we also have had some fun conversations taht dont have much to do with anything. the one this morning was why do we take pills with water. the argument was either that it was just to help get the pills down or that it was to help dissolve the pills and ease the pain on ur stomahc. i took my pills this morning with coffee..that's what stemmed this debate...so when i'm done typing this i'm going to google it to find out. we are going to cook a meal for the pastors tonight so we are trying to come up with something new for them. so far we've come up with mashed potatoes. ok, next time i will post some pictures. i think that carly is posting pictures that show the python we got to eat. That probably wins for most exotic thign that we've eaten! but life is good! prayers for Sharon Johnsrud and her continual recover, and for safety and good health for the team, and for discernment for things to come!! ok peace

davepeet

two quick stories from warm places

It's very warm here...we are abouit 7 degrees from the equator. i sweat a lot.
Yesterday was a busy day. I woke up and i discovered that my boxers were ripped all along the back side!! like from the top all the way to the bottom. now that was weird. and then i was playing frisbee and i bent to get the frisbee and i ripped another pair!!! that was two pairs in like 12 hrs!! that's half my stock of boxers!! Pastor Mercado's wife, Chai, is going to try to repair them. but what are the odds!!

things are going well. we ate this thing called Jack Fruit. because I don't have a lot of time, I"m going to post this link... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit u should check it out. they're probably the largest fruit I have ever seen!! one hting that i hope to see is that kid's catch spiders and then they fight each other! so i hoipe to see some of that and we may also get to try anaconda later!! like eating it! ok bye for now!!!

davpeeet

Hong Kong and food

We arrived safely in Hong Kong two nights ago. It's been busy busy busy since than. We visited the camp site that we will be back at in July and this morning we planned out the camp and all the activities that we will be doing. Between those things, it has been a lot of traveling around Hong Kong and eating lots of different foods. As Ua put it, we've tried more new foods in the last two days than probably in our life times. Just today I had chicken feet, octopus, crab eggs and white carrots. We've also eaten pig skin, squid, various new mushrooms, and had lots of tea. It's been great to be back with the Hong Kong camp people of the past. We are also looking forward to starting our overseas programs when we get to the Philippines. We will fly to Manila on Monday and will stay there until we fly to Mindinau on the 17th. Hope life is good back home! peace!

outta here and into the green pudding from the sun

Well, we're less than four hours away from heading to the Youth Encounter office to finish up stuff and then head to the airport! Our flight leaves at 6:30 and will head to Denver, than to San Francisco, and then to Hong Kong! It's exciting! I'll try to blog regularly so you know what's going on. But life's good and it's exciting to be out and about. Maybe someday I'll settle down and stay in one spot for a while. alright, catch ya from the other side of the world!

peace,
davepeet