Sunday Wrap Up 10/21/2012

Yesterday, while driving along and without apparent provocation, I realized that I didn't adequately cover some of what I've heard from others weighing in on the subject of healing.  In the previous post on healing I had simply eliminated some of the more distressed and distressing comments.  In the interest of fuller disclosure, I'm adding to the list here.

--"That view [promoted at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry and by people associated with that place] is heresy.  Even the people in the Vineyard movement (Charismatic) call it that."  This came from someone who has encountered Vineyard missionaries abroad.

--"It feels like a divorce."  (Family member dealing with the fallout of shifting loyalties--away from the local church, toward the distant school, etc.)

--"I wonder now if I ever knew ____________ [name of person involved omitted].  This doesn't seem like the person I thought I knew."  Others have also expressed a sense of deep betrayal.

--Comment at the meeting at church:  "Miracles can come from Satan as well as from God."  (Another person commented then that it's wrong to attribute to Satan what is a revelation of the power of God.)

--Doctrinal error, especially about the nature of Jesus' divinity.

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This morning I sat in the row of chairs at the very back of the sanctuary.  Mailbox stuffing duties delayed my entrance somewhat, and  my usual spot was already filled.  In the row in front of me sat Julia, with her mother next to her.  Julia has liver cancer, and, of late, her condition is worsening, but she was there for the communion service.  She has not sought treatment, and this will almost certainly be her last communion service.

Just before we began partaking of the emblems Lyle (Julia's brother) led us in singing "Just As I Am."  Julia sat there singing this song with her eyes closed, her upturned hands right next to each other raised to the height of her chin.  I'll never hear that song the same way again.

"Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bid'st me come to Thee.
Oh Lamb of God, I come. I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot.
To Thee Whose blood can cleanse each spot
Oh Lamb of God, I come. I come."

Inner healing is clearly underway, and ultimate redemption is near.  This is a hard time, but I see a triumph of faith--not a failure to exercise faith.

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Wess Stafford gave the closing address at the ACSI conference last week.  He leads the Compassion International ministry, and has written several books I'd like to read.  He is perhaps the consummate child advocate, believing that much more of our mission emphasis should be directed toward children.  He cited statistics that show that most people who come to Christ do so at a fairly young age.  He also emphasized the significance of one minute in a child's life.  He said something like this:  "If God puts a child in front of you for one minute, you're responsible to use that minute to bless the child."

He shared the story of a very difficult part of his own childhood and told how it awakened in him a passion for reaching children.  He was a missionary child who was sent to a boarding school at the age of six.  He and the other children there suffered terrible abuse.  I had heard some references to an investigation of that school, but had never read the story as it was printed in Christianity Today.  I read it after I got home.  It's very similar to what we heard at the conference.  You can read this compelling story here.

One part of the story we heard, and that is missing in the CT article is how Wess was able to avoid the most common responses to a deeply scarred childhood.  Some people buried the memories and reaped a lifelong harvest of pain.  Others spent a lifetime apparently trying to recover a sense of purpose--by becoming over-achievers in various jobs.  Wess found a third way around a campfire in his late teens.  He chose the way of forgiveness.  He recognized that, although his childhood had been stolen and nothing could change that, he could keep his future from being devoured as well if he chose to forgive.

Beginning in about 2007, the conditions at the boarding school were investigated and the people responsible were censored.  In addition, the mission policy changed to allow schooling to happen in other ways.  Also, a reunion of the children who were at that school took place.  For some adults, this was the first time they felt free to speak of their harrowing childhood experiences.

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I'm curious whether the boarding school model is still being used by any  mission organizations for the children of missionaries.  If you know of any, would you tell me?

I'm familiar with the boarding schools in operation for many years in Ontario, where First Nations children were offered an education that was unavailable in the remote areas in which their families lived.  I have no reason to believe that children suffered abuse in this setting, and believe that the education they received there was a benefit to them.  I do feel some caution, however, about the boarding school model for other reasons, chiefly because of how it separates children from their family, culture, and community.

In Beachy missions, a teacher often is sent by the mission board to teach school for the children of missionaries.  In some cases, homeschooling happens.  In other places community schools are opened, and missionary children can attend there.  Any of these are better options than the boarding school one, in my opinion.

Community schools seem like a wonderful thing for missionaries to offer a community.  I'm wistful though about how doing so sometimes leaves illiterate parents out of the loop.  I idealize adult literacy programs where there are illiterate adults, with a followup program that equips parents to be teachers to their own children, at least in the early grades.  Providing curriculum materials to individual families would be much cheaper than staffing and running a community school, and the bond between parent and child would be fostered in such a program.  Also, parents would be empowered to take responsibility for their own children's education, relieving the mission of some of the "burden," and enhancing the ability of adults to contribute to the ministry of the local church.

Given the fact that we've not even begun working out such systems in many of our stateside communities, however, the prospects for doing so abroad look dismal.  Here, the difficulty of the task would be far less than half as great because we do no deal with illiteracy.

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The poetry contest at the annual Partridge celebration resulted in a number of winners from our school and from homeschoolers associated with Pilgrim.  Here's what I posted on Facebook about that:  Here's a shoutout to my comp students on the Partridge Pedal Party Poetry contest. In the 12-18 age group, here were the winners: Kristi Mast--1st, Nathan Yutzy--2nd, Marsha Ropp, Jonny Yoder, and Andrew Shenk, Honorable Mention. Congratulations also to adults and homeschoolers who were winners: Karen Miller in two categories, Derek Schumucker and Kristina Miller. Please add the names of anyone I'm forgetting. Congratulations to all.  I hope they publish their poems on their own Facebook accounts.