| However, as I listen to the women
speak, I realize that these are not the only hands God is using.
The canvas of their experience is full of willing hands: UCCP
members who have invited these young women into their families
and prepared their meals, neighbors who drive them by motorcycle
to the nearest town or a neighboring village, people who share
stories on front porches and around kitchen tables, and local
churches for whom passing the peace includes a handshake with
a foreign young woman—these are also willing hands.
These young women with their Filipino colleagues teach art classes
in a preschool, shuttle legal documents between human rights victims
and lawyers, organize and participate in Christian youth fellowship
activities, visit the sick, have Bible studies, and much more.
God is using willing hands, but what strikes me most deeply is
the importance of these willing hands working in service with
and to each other.
The other part of my assignment—with the Union Theological
Seminary in Dasmarinas, Cavite—has been extremely challenging.
The seminary has been embroiled in complex conflict. A seminary
is almost always a place of diverse views, but it has been a disheartening
and confusing journey and seems to still be far from resolution.
Much has to do with operating styles, leadership, and the relationship
between the UCCP and the United Methodist Church, which sponsor
the seminary. God uses willing hands, but is it possible that
groups of people in the same place can all be God’s and
not take each other’s hands? It is an interesting question.
In one of the seminary chapel worships, a group reflecting on
the story of Jonah did a short skit. Someone answer a cellular
phone in the back of the chapel. “Ah, good news,”
she said. Another from across the hall asked, “What’s
the good news?” Other group members chimed in with all kinds
of responses as the second person repeated his question. Some
said they were not sure what the good news is and got interested
too. Some said that he would not understand, some said they know
but they don’t have time, and some just smiled knowingly
and said, “ah, the good news.” One woman across the
way told him coldly that she knew and sat disinterested. As the
clamor continued, the cold woman rose to her feet with great tension,
and proclaimed, “I know the good news, but I am not going
to tell you because I don’t even like you!”
It is hard to be in a place and time in seminary history where
all these hands are not so sure they are willing to work together.
I’ve been challenged to wonder if my own hands are really
“willing hands.” It’s so easy to get caught
up in the work of getting things done or just get lost in the
controversy. The only way through it for me is to concentrate
on experiences in the wider-UCCP that affirm that we are God’s
willing hands. For instance, the UCCP national offices are in
the process of going through a downsizing where about 50 percent
of the staff will lose their jobs because of financial constraints
and, somehow, people are still holding on together. Equally, I
grasped hands in an interfaith peace rally calling for justice
for the poor and liberation for the oppressed. I joined a Christmas
party in the prison for political detainees and their families.
And I played and sang with children and youth at a UCCP local
church outreach until 1:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
The story of Jonah surely challenges me these days about what
it means to try to be “God’s willing hands.”
In this time in world history of the “war on terror,”
I wonder if our international relationships don’t mirror
the seminarians’ skit. As I listen to some of my Filipino
colleagues’ frustration with the bullying of the United
States and as I listen to some U.S. friends and church people
assert the necessity of war and U.S. actions, I ask myself again:
is it possible that groups of people on the same earth can all
be God’s and not take each other’s hands?
For now, I find hope in the promise of God’s shalom. I
am not sure how we can resolve all of our conflicts. Glimmers
of authentic bridge-building between people, such as those modeled
by the UCCP and their ecumenical interns, bolster my spirits,
but there is so much work to be done if we are offering ourselves
to God as willing hands. Please pray for God’s guidance
for us all and please offer your own hands in your own place for
the building of peace based on justice.
Yours in Christ,
Rebecca K. Lawson
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
94 |
