December 13, 2006

Why don’t we say “Thank you, God”?

It was “Caribbean Sunday” at Sydenham United Church (of Canada). The bulletin announced that, “God gathers us to give thanks specifically for our connection with churches in the Reformed tradition in the Caribbean.” The praise music was set to a lively calypso rhythm, and the preacher was a minister visiting from the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

However, the focus was not so much on the Caribbean as on Canada. The preacher had just completed a one-month assignment as chaplain in a community of Jamaican migrant workers. A poem written by a migrant worker in the United States was shared:

In Jamaica, we are poor.
Sometimes I wake up in the morning,
And there is only tea in the house.
I get down on my knees and say,
“Thank you, God, for the tea.”
In America, you have so many things.
Yet I am confused:
I see so much around me, in your country.
But I don’t see your people saying,
“Thank you, God.”

I don’t know why we, who have so much, are not constantly overflowing with praise. I do know that I am regularly humbled—and inspired—by the great joy and gratitude of Christians in Jamaica and other Caribbean countries. On days when I join them in prayer and worship, I find that my heart grows at least two sizes (as in Dr. Seuss’ “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”)!

Is it possible to be a Christian and have tattoos?

This question was asked by an incredulous teenager after meeting a tattooed peer. It was one of many questions that arose in the community of 37 youth and young adults from North America, the Caribbean, and beyond at the 2006 Youth and Young Adults in Mission Work Camp (YAM) held in Grenada. Ryan Pappen, a student at Austin Theological Seminary, and Thomas Zerebny, a student at Northern Illinois University, were the PC(USA) participants in the YAM. The Rev. Karen Herbst Kim, associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in DeKalb, Illinois, served as chaplain during the three-week event.

YAM participants worked together to lead vacation Bible school in one congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Grenada and to restore a hurricane-damaged building of another congregation. They prayed, studied the Bible, and wrestled with their different understandings of what constitutes a Christian lifestyle. They combined their talents and presented an evening of inspirational music in a mall in Grenada’s capital city, St. George’s.

A wonderful CD of photographs produced by the young people expresses the joy of being part of a close-knit international Christian community. They returned home inspired and motivated to participate in God’s mission in their respective countries.

Sponsoring events for youth and young adults is a top priority for the member churches of CANACOM (Caribbean and North American Council for Mission), all of which are very concerned about the impact of materialism, violence, sexual pressure, and economic instability on young people.

Why do we need missionaries here?

Chelsea Masterson was part of a CANACOM mission team that worked for six months in Toronto. As Chelsea tells Canadian churches about the team’s ministry, she is asked why the Caribbean and North American Council for Mission sent a team of three Caribbean Christians and one Canadian to Canada. Aren’t there more pressing needs in the Caribbean?

Without trying to compare the regions, she explains that churches in the Caribbean care deeply for their Christian brothers and sisters in North America, just as we care for them. They want to help U.S. and Canadian churches strengthen our witness to Christ, just as we want to assist them. The four dynamic young Christians brought an infusion of hope to a community where violence has become increasingly prevalent.

Chelsea shows pictures of children learning to play drums and new immigrants learning to speak English. She tells of broad ecumenical outreach ministries and peace-building efforts, such as the “Peace Walk,” which showed the community and the rest of Toronto that Jane-Finch is not a “bad” neighborhood and that there are good people who love it, have peaceful lives, and wish the same for everyone in the community.

Chelsea says “there were a variety of churches that worked together in Jane-Finch—two Pentecostal churches, a Baptist church, a Christian Reformed church, and a Salvation Army church worked with the United Church of Canada. Ecumenism like this doesn’t happen every day. All God’s people are used for Divine purposes!” Chelsea’s colleagues from Jamaica and Trinidad were particularly helpful in bridging differences between mainline and Pentecostal churches in their joint efforts to make Christ’s peace known.

What will happen when Fidel Castro dies?

As Elder Xiomara Arenas, executive of El Centro Presbytery of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba, prepared to visit the United States in October, I told her she would hear this question frequently. She laughed and answered the question with a familiar Cuban joke: “What will happen when he dies? He’ll be buried, of course!”

A joke, yes, but it points to a reality. Cubans in Cuba do not expect Fidel Castro’s death to spark dramatic changes. The group of retired PC(USA) pastors traveling in Cuba in November was told, “Some Cubans are on the extreme right, and would like our island annexed to the United States. Others on the left would like to revive communism. Our preference is for participatory socialism.”

No matter what their political opinions, Cubans are proud of the social achievements made over the 47 years since Fidel Castro assumed power. Free, accessible education and health care are the two always mentioned. The 2006 Human Development Index, which measures well-being using indices of life-expectancy, education, and purchasing power, places Cuba 50th out of 177 countries. This is the highest in the region (Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America), with the exception of Costa Rica (48th).

This helps me understand why even a woman like Ana (not her real name), who is very critical of the Cuban government, chokes up as she tells me about the school for special-needs children that her daughter attends and says: “This is one of the things that makes me proud of Cuba.”

Tricia

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 55