Protect the poor and the vulnerable

Well, it was rather discouraging in seeing how fragile our mental health system actually is. Last evening, en route to a friend's house, from Chinatown, a lady was casually lounging on the street in front of First Baptist, as if she was casually sunning herself. Loretta was her name. Asking if I had some time hang around and to pray for her (Why, of course I have time for those who ask!), she then proceeding to ask me for money, and also to call her family members.
Loretta was clearly mentally ill. Thinking she must be homeless, and needing some connection to get to a shelter, I'm calling around, finally reaching her sister-in-law that asked her to come home to them. Loretta refused, saying she wanted to stay downtown. Sister-in-law confesses on the phone (to a complete stranger!) that it's hard, she runs away often, and since they live in Scarborough and are trying to make ends meet, they can't be running around Toronto trying to find her. All they can do is ensure that she knows how to get home and how to contact them, but after that, they cannot do anything more.
The longer I'm talking to her, the more agitated Loretta gets, telling me I need to stop talking to her sister-in-law, that she doesn't want me to talk to her anymore. Offering a call to 411 also refused.
So, I unfortunately left Loretta on the sidewalk, somewhat assured that she had a family and a home, unsure how to make her move somewhere safer and protected. A bit of a tension in allowing freedom, and yet wanting to force safety.
This, combined with my bloody 'adventure' on the TTC last week with a gentleman with a medical emergency, who clearly could also use a family and a home as well, makes me wonder just how easy it is for us to let people just fall through the cracks. I wonder how to mobilize the Church to love the unlovely. My own experience demonstrates how easy it is for those in the Church to shun and marginalize those who are different in any way. We are called to better than that. The proof in our call to protect the poor and the vulnerable was also manifest in Washington as well, watching our neighbours calling upon their politicians for a circle of protection around the vulnerable...

Washington DC I

I must say that the Americans are fascinating people. I'm already back from there, as it was a jam-packed few days in their nation's capital, but there was much to learn. I realized I was more culture shocked from being in the USA than I was while I was in Turkey, to be honest.
I am convinced that the Americans can indeed still be a force for good, but in talking with many at the conference, it seems that there is a sense that their nation has lost their way. I fear also, for many aspects of their mythology that prevent them from being truly great, including that sense of American exceptionalism, and some of the assumptions of their worldview.
It was encouraging to speak to many these last few days who see what their nation could be and what holds it back. It's encouraging to know that there are still many brave and wonderful Americans. It moves one to pray for that nation as it teeters on, yet again, figuring out who defines what is American, and what aspects of its faith it will choose to suppress and show to the rest of the world...

Turkey V

I think there is something to be said about the self-indulgentness of vacationing. I understand that I happen to live in a country that allows a ridiculous amount of freedom to travel without restrictions, that I happen to be in circumstances that allow me to have the time and the money to travel, and that there are many of millions of people that will never stray far from their place of birth. I wonder if I may have passed some sort of threshold to 'see the world'.
This is doubtful. What I suspect is more likely is the 'purposefulness' of travel. It has been a very long time since I have travelled solely for the purpose of traveling alone. Not for conferences, or for edification of the saints, or for visiting friends who work in far-flung areas doing Very Important Work, or for participating in real, tangible work to help people - those have been the only reasons for my traveling over the past decade overseas to exotic locales.
And so, for 'just' traveling, I find it paradoxically not very satisfying. Ending up on the carousel of the tourist track, of going where everyone else is going, and seeing what everyone else is seeing, seems like a never-ending self-indulgent funfest. Spending so much time within the tourist infrastructure is stifling - you don't have a chance to develop culture shock, because you don't see many people who aren't other tourists, or nationals working for the tourism industry. You move within bubbles of ex-pats, all moving like sheep to the same destinations to gawk at the same things.
The only tangential interaction was staying with some Kurdish couchsurfers, and talking to them about their experiences of being Kurdish in Turkey. Having to struggle to understand their reality and their history was the only mentally challenging and demanding thing that I had to do the whole time. But with that came a slightly deeper understanding of the makeup of this country, of where it will go. It gave me context for the PKK bomb that went off in Istanbul, a few days after we left that city. It helps form what I understand of their upcoming elections next week. No tour guide, nor Lonely Planet, nor tourism travel board can ever give a glimpse of that side of a country's face...

Turkey IV

I have a very difficult time sleeping, as most of you know. It probably relates to my inability to truly relax. However, we have just arrived somewhere, that were it not for the fact we are just staying overnight, I might have actually been able to truly rest. I found myself, lying on a hammock under grapevines and orange trees, just barely, tinily, infintesimally, creepingly so, to begin to not think, not fret about the world, not ponder, not wonder about the church and her problems, not consider God's concern for the world, not do anything. I didn't even have the motivation to leave to see a bit of the regular tourist attractions.
However, a thunderstorm soon broke both of those choices anyways - had to scramble out of that hammock and head for dry docks.... perhaps one day I could try that again...

Turkey III

There are tons of "biblical" sites here, that I'm sure any Bible history junkie could get their fix here. Tarsus and Antioch. The seven churches of Revelation. Paul, John and multiple others have travelled through, or have come from, this region. It simply seeps with the history of the church, thanks to the Byzantine empire (even though it has been obscured, and sometimes a bit hidden from view, after both the Seljuk and Ottoman empires have been through).
Not that we're doing much in the 'bible tourist' category, but we have seen where St. John is said to have retired and written his gospel, and where he brought Mary to spend the rest of her days after he was commanded to take care of her. We have visited the city of Ephesus, and stood where Paul stood when he spoke to the Ephesians (and then got the silversmiths of Artemis really, really mad). We have seen the church where St. John is said to have been buried. We have stood where Constantine has been, creating the Holy Roman Empire in his time. We have been where Richard the Lion-Hearted has been (though sadly, it was because of the Crusades that he came through here). We have seen where the ancient church built entire cities and centres of worship, deep in the mountains and under the hills. We have seen how the Byzantine empire maintained the practice and memory of the church while Europe was in its Dark Ages.
Incidentally, I think we fail to give the Byzantine church (and for that matter, the ancient Celtic church) enough credit in the Protestant tradition for their holding fast to the faith - without them, Protestants/evangelicals/fundamentalists wouldn't even have had a faith legacy to be able to now look at those churches and call them heretical...
To consider the weight of history and to consider that our footsteps actually mirror, two thousand years later, the same places where others have stood and spoken, is quite a wonder.

Turkey II

The one fact about Turkey that I find fascinating is that it is a completely food sovereign nation. That is to say, Turkey is completely capable of feeding itself, and still have leftover for export. That is incredible. There is very little that Turkey actually requires to import for its own survival. Most of the items that it imports, it could surely survive without, if need be, such as coffee and bananas. Otherwise, it is able to produce all of its grain, meat, fruit and vegetables and dairy needs on its own. It even has its own capacity for growing tea and sugar, its own nuts and legumes and its own fishing industry to round out all of its dining needs.
Incredible. In addition, the food itself is incredible. Plenty of vegetables and fresh bread, completely delicious all the time. I have been hard pressed to find a bad meal here, even in the smallest of büfe shops.
Part of it, I think, is how they have been very focussed on using agricultural land. Very few yards or private greenspace lacks fruit or olive trees. Most vacant areas between buildings in smaller towns have greenhouses upon them. Efficient usage of terraces, stacked with greenhouses are noted, even by the sides of main thoroughfares, in order to ensure production of food. Simply amazing. Not knowing too much of their food industry, nor its ethics or economics, I still have to tip my hat to their ability to feed their own people.

Turkey I

So here we are in Istanbul - a city with a long, vibrant history, where two continents collide, the birthplace of Christianity and Sufism. Mosque and cathedral (and back again, as they were all converted to mosques during the Ottoman empire), both rising majestically along the skyline. Saw a few of the 'must see' sites here including the Blue Mosque. Now, not having seen an extensive number of famous mosques around the world, I do believe this is one of the 'famouser' ones. This is also quite evident just based on the throngs of people coming to see it. Also, as in all mosques, you are requested to remove your shoes before entering - the Blue Mosque is the first that I have seen that even has a dispenser roll of plastic bags at the visitors' entrance to put your shoes in (also an indication of just how popular this site is)!
Problem is, the first thing that you notice upon stepping into the Blue Mosque is the distinctive smell of feet. Not the burning incense of cathedrals, not the mustiness of old parchments, but of feet. Before you even notice the soaring dome, the intricacy of the tiling, the majesty of the building and its design, you smell feet. It is disconcerting, to say the least. Furthermore, I think the solemnity and majesty of the building is taken away by the numbers of children running wild in the male area of the mosque (the larger section of the ground space, and the more spacious, as fewer people are allowed in that area, causing great crushes of people in the unisex/visitors' area, which explains why so many children choose to run around the male prayer area). Of course, this could be rectified somewhat if all people, irrespective of their gender, were free to 'come before God', not having some being relegated to small areas in the posterior part of the building. It could, however, also just encourage more tourists, which wouldn't be a good thing either.

Calgary I

Sometimes one's impressions of a city are somewhat not entirely without merit. Calgary, to me, still represents unfettered greed and wealth at the expense of the environment and what is actually good for people. It still represents to me unending sprawl and abhorrent history of poor planning in the past. And yet, there is a mayor there who is the mayor Toronto should have had. There is currently a Calgary regional plan that makes sense within the parameters that it currently finds itself in. There is deep thought going into thinking about what kind of future that they see for themselves. These are all very encouraging things.
However, they are still left fighting against an overwhelming sense of a libertarian paranoia, of stalwarts who still want to do things for profit, raping the earth and refusing to think of future generations, those from some weird "Christian" point of view who say they are not moving with progress (though more likely, not moving with their own personal forms of gain). It's depressing that the stereotypical redneck avarice of the region may very well spell its own demise...