Magzania

I am combining my blog for the past two days of CWME because honestly, I've just been exhausted. Yesterday we focused on "missional formation" and today was "embracing the cross". This year was the largest WCC mission conference since Edinburgh 1910, with 1024 delegates. It was also the first conference held in Africa since 1958 in Ghana.  Today in small groups, we reflected on three questions..  1) how was the GETI2018 experience for you? It was a great opportunity to meet new people from all over the world, experience ecumenism firsthand, and have respectful dialogue.  2) what would you have liked to see included? More exposure to Tanzanian culture and nature, more free time and rest, more practical learning (rather than theological) 3) what concrete projects will you work on as a result of this experience? It will definitely influence academic papers. It also gave me lots of resources from a non-western perspective. And made me reflect on theological educatio

We started this morning at 630am. We got on buses to local churches. I went a parish of the evangelical Lutheran church of Tanzania in Patandi. We met with the pastors and worship began at 730 (ended around 10). There were a couple hundred people. It was in Kiswahili but we had some Tanzanians in our group who translated for us. The sermon was about creation, talking about our value as human beings and our responsibility to care for the environment. We had the chance to introduce ourselves. After worship, there was some sort of banana auction. Then we went upstairs and ate breakfast - soup, sweet potato, bread. Then We went back to the second worship service to introduce ourselves. After, we went to Nguruama village to visit a project of the parish. The greater Milwaukee synod sponsored 20 goats in this village to provide milk for families. I encourage folks to look into things like Hefer project because it makes a difference in villages such as this. We then were warmly greeted by a g

At bible study today (pictured), we had again the Catholic archbishop of Tanzania and a united Methodist bishop from Africa, two sisters, a seminary professor from Canada, and me!  The focus of plenary today was mission from the margins. The keynote address was from an indigenous young woman from Fiji. Her experience of wholesale condemnation of her indigenous culture was convicting and saddening. She ended that she is "poor, bound, unfavoured, oppressed, but is a precious child made in the Image of God. She has agency, is worthy, has a voice, and is free! She is free because she lives and walks in the Spirit! She is free and joyfully bears God’s Good News and hope as Christ’s disciple from the margins transforming the world". In my small group, today was my turn to present an article - about the church's role in reconciliation in South Africa. I connected it to my study focus area - youth and young adults in America. The article cited that national catastrophes also shak

I volunteered to be one of the bible study round table facilitators for the conference. The materials come prepared but today, I facilitated conversation with an archbishop, a bishop, and a theology professor at my table. Eek!  Today was youth day at CWME! A group from GETI provided noon worship. The spoke their native languages and presented mustard seeds of hope. Another GETI group led youth sokoni - sokoni is a kiswahili term for a community marketplace to exchange commodomities and products. At the mission conference, it's a marketplace of ideas, stories, and activities as a prospective from the margins. It values prophetic mission thinking and practice. The youth theme is faith, hope and love with categories of on the streets (unique places of the Church today), in the fire (nurturing warmth and ravaging heat), under the shells (security, belonging, protection, home), up with the kites (inspiration and renewal) .  And my group led the evening program. I helped introduce by say

This is not what I planned to blog but ... I was in a large group of GETI participants yesterday afternoon that had 30 minutes to plan an hour and a half interpretive presentation for the whole conference tonight. It was very frustrating yet revealing. It worked out to all the Europeans and Americans sitting around the table with everyone else around the periphery. The conversation mostly stayed around the table. There was no leadership and too many abstract  ideas. We quickly realized we weren't going to complete the task in the time. Emotions were high and agreement, low. Finally someone organically stepped up as the "stage manager", giving some cohesion to the ideas. Then, we had too many Americans and Europeans participating so they started to ask for only Asians and Africans. In some of these cultures, speaking up and out is not the norm. I wanted to participate but I was eventually edged out because I'm white (although I was replaced by a german). There is also

One of the interesting things about my program is that not only are we immersed in Tanzanian language and culture, but there are also 40 other countries represented too. At any time, you'll hear multiple languages spoken, and see different customs and attire. I am now friends with people from places that I knew nothing about. Today we learned about sustainability and justice. Students of GETI 2018 planted trees as part of a Service Learning day in our study program. The trees mark a symbol of unity, and of working together for a greener planet, and a sustainable future. Our little guy "sprout" was planted in a swamp though. While planting these 12 trees may not be a big deal for the planet as a whole, this event helps make us aware that we are caretakers of the world that God has given us. We also had three more lectures on mission and evangelism. My favorite was a feminist interpretation of the Women at the Well. Then we went on an exposure visit to the dioses. We vis

That is our theme for GETI2018. I had an interesting night sleep but felt more energized today. I forgot to include this yesterday but we learned about the Talanoa method from the Pacific. The basic idea is that you create space to create a connection with another, taking time to understand their story of who they are and where they come from. We had three presentations today - each with three presenters. We covered African theologies, world Christianity, and interreligious dialogue. The highlights were hearing from John Mbiti - "the grandfather of Africa theology"; and a presentation on trauma and healing from Indonesia. It starting pouring on our walk to lunch, and myself, my books, and my phone are all soaked! I am highly impressed by everyone attending, and presenting at this conference, whom are non-native English speakers! Each morning and afternoon, we have prayer. It is really powerful to hear everyone praying the Lord's prayer in their own languages. We ended

Let's go to Arusha and learn together! Sunday night, we had supper and then settled in. We are sharing accommodations, two bunk beds to a room. I decided to break off from my travel group (americans and Germans) when picking rooms to see who came later - and I'm glad that I did. I have three roommates, one from Lebanon and two from India! The next morning, we had opening worship/celebration. My favorite part was the offering of gifts from each region we represent.. pictured are African and North American continents. We had two times today for community building as well as a campus tour and an introduction to the program. The weather is so beautiful here!! In small groups, we met each other. My group comes from US, Brazil, Lebanon, Norway, Hong Kong, Fiji, Jamaica, Switzerland, Finland, Japan, Cameroon. We shared about ourselves, our study focus area, and a "holy ground" rule. I shared the oops-ouch rule and we had an interesting conversation on the meaning of thos