ECHO Revisited

How good it feels to be back in San Diego. I just returned from ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) in Ft. Myers, Florida. I spent a week there in much the same fashion as I did almost exactly one year ago: clinging for dear life amidst a torrent of presentations, tours and discussions about agricultural development in the tropics. I came into last year’s course armed with much more book knowledge than many of my classmates, yet still ended up with that . . . that feeling. You know, an intellectual version of the one where you eat too much, maybe on Thanksgiving or at a sushi bar. I know I’ve done so when I take this certain deep breath, employing my diaphragm as a tamp to condense my meal like so much trash in a compactor.

So yes – I imagine I wasn’t alone in my feeling this August or last as we gorged ourselves (and occasionally allowed ourselves to be force fed) fact after theory after case study of agricultural, Biblical and community development wisdom. There were perhaps a few shy of 25 in our class, half having field experience and half eagerly desiring it. One woman had lived in Africa the vast majority of her life and, judging by the quantity and quality of her input, could have handily taught the course herself. Much appreciated by myself and surely the whole class, she offered what she did with grace, humility and patience.

Reader, what have you heard about development in the “third world” (bonus: did you know the term "third world" is now considered antiquated and politically incorrect?), or about “food justice”? The term “sustainable” was placed in front of “agricultural development” many times during our course; what have you heard, or personal thoughts do you hold, about that word? In my opinion, beyond the lectures about soils, water harvesting through sand dams and micro catchments (?), System of Rice Intensification (!?) and Farmer Managed Agroforestry Systems (!?!?), the most stirring and compelling lectures and discussions were on “Biblical Holism”, and “What Is Sustainability?”

We were all invited to weigh in on what our perspectives were on these subjects, and I’m convinced that all present felt they gained much from the conversation. I, for one, left the session quite encouraged to witness my fellow Christians thinking and speaking in such a way. There are many dogs barking up the sustainability tree in the media spotlight these days; it seems we mostly hear from those who get the most airtime due to brutish and inflammatory tactics, speaking mostly from the skeptics’ corner. Then there are the ones who have the next “green” product to sell and thereby save us from ourselves; I find neither party to be particularly encouraging.

In any case, amidst all the technical knowledge imparted to us over the week, I found our (likely/hopefully) God-inspired philosophizing regarding sustainability at its truest to be of great worth. The idea of what is sustainable, i.e. capable of sustaining what matters most, is one that will surely continue to garner my attention. And, perhaps, yours?

Wild Goose Festival

Well, I must start off with a wee bit of frustration. I told myself I was going to blog at least once a month, and here I am having missed June, if only by a day. Still . . . dangit! Oh well - take it easy, me. Moving on, I just got back from the first annual Wild Goose (a Celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit) Festival, held in Shakori Hills, North Carolina. I can scarce gather the words to describe it . . .

I heard about it a few months ago and can't quite remember how, but once I got the gist of what it was about I was sold. A handful of my favorite authors/thinkers were going to be there, as well as one or two I had little knowledge of but was fascinated by nonetheless. I consulted the folks at Plant With Purpose and set up a plan similar to the one employed for the Inhabit Conference (being one where I would attend as a rep for PWP), and was looking forward very much to going. This time was different, however, in that I would be traveling solo to a place where, unless I made a friend or two, my solitude would continue. I had none but the vaguest of acquaintances scheduled to attend.

Even so, I knew the crowd that would be attending would gather like moths to a flame around Plant With Purpose’s mission, and that they might also take interest in an idea that I’d had on my heart for a while now: the Missional Permaculture Network International (MPNI). I learned about permaculture about two yeas ago now, and it struck me deep when I did. Having been an impassioned, if somewhat frustrated, environmentalist (as most of them are, especially Christian ones) for years, who also happened to care deeply about social and humanitarian issues, permaculture was a figurative and I’d say literal Godsend. It’s essentially a comprehensive sustainable design system and philosophy, applicable to all aspects of the development and maintenance of human settlements. Wikipedia, the great fallback, has a great entry describing what it is.

Anyhow, after knowing about Plant With Purpose’s work for years and realizing that it is, at some times officially and at other times not, referred to as permaculture, and also recognizing the growing fervor within the church to ‘care for Creation’, I saw a direct connection between what we as Christians understand as our (joyful!) mandate to care for the earth and each other and what permaculture had to offer. Other Christian development organizations, including high profile ones like World Vision, use the term permaculture in the field to describe some of their programs (especially agricultural ones), yet the term rarely (if ever) makes it back from the field to the church. Add to this the fact that appropriate technologies in the developing world (sustainable agriculture, rainwater harvesting, small – scale animal husbandry, natural building) look an awful lot like the sustainability trends sweeping the nation and you’ve got a strong case for trying to make permaculture a house(of God)hold word.

Cutting to the chase, a delightful young lady I met soon after getting to the site turned out to have received her Permaculture Design Course certificate through taking a class I’m actually watching on iTunes U. Crazy!! Ariel and I became fast friends and hung out the whole time – she’s great. Plenty of people came by the Plant With Purpose/MPNI booth; we were sandwiched between The Simple Way and Christian Peacemaker Teams, two organizations I have a lot of respect for. Come to think of it, anyone who doesn’t is just plain mean.

Some of the highlights were getting to listen to Richard Rohr of the Center for Action and Contemplation and Frank Schaeffer speak, the latter being the son Francis Schaeffer and having led a somewhat turbulent life of grappling with faith. I was able to meet heroes of mine Brian McLaren and Jim Wallis, and was even interviewed regarding Plant With Purpose by Tony Campolo, a man who will go down as one of my life’s great sages. Musical highlights included Derek Webb, Vince Anderson and the spirited and supremely unique Psalters. Now THAT is a lot of hyperlinks.

The whole time I was at the event, I was already dreaming of next year’s. And the next. And the one after that! I know I wasn’t alone – the vibe of many people enjoying simply being with each other and sharing their joys, sorrows and struggles was undeniable. And with that, I’ll leave you with one final link here for those of you that want to have a retrospective look at what it was all about. The Wild Goose was definitely at the festival, and is everywhere; I’m still not sure who is chasing who.

Inhabit Conference

It feels like February for the nth time this month here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Things have been unusually cool and damp for this time of year; rumor has it there is yet another layer of powdery white up in the Sierras. Come to think of it, the weather reminds me of Seattle, where several friends and I had the opportunity to visit at the end of last month. Matt and the rest of the Chapman family happened to be home visiting their families up in the land of grunge and java, and Jon Hall made it up as well to give Nieucommunities a solid showing for the centerpiece of our tour: the Inhabit Conference. Also along was Rebeca Elliott, a friend and former teamster of Plant With Purpose.

I’d met a kindred spirit on the TransForm Network (www.transformnetwork.org) a couple months before who shares my interest in permaculture and so on, and he informed me that he was going to be a presenter at Inhabit. A mere glance at the website (I mean, it said “calling all . . . permaculturists . . .”!) convinced me that this was the place to be, so I set a grand scheme in motion. In all humility, and surely with plenty of Divine assistance, it came together seamlessly.

Delegates from CRM, being Matt and Jon, were appointed and I was thus available to represent Plant With Purpose for the event. My heart brimmed with joy, save for the fact that I’d caught a cold right before my embarkation. Even so, Ricola and the will to live held up my head and I made it through.

The days that followed were a flurry of lectures, discussions, lunch dates and naps on the numerous couches so warmly provided by Mars Hill Graduate School, where the event was held. The funny thing was being around so many Christians that were so down on church – church the expensive building/bureaucratic institution, that is. Such counterintuition led me to laugh to myself a time or two and brought me great comfort; it was very satisfying to be around so many who took the faith so seriously and sought to live it with such integrity. One flyer promoting a book went so far as to print in large script the book’s title, “Don’t Invite Them To Church: Moving From a Come and See Church to a Go and Be Church.” “Don’t” was in red. There is a strong point to be made in this: if most of what church is about happens for an hour and a half on Sunday morning in the context of a choreographed (or not, even) event, what good is it? Not much, is the prevailing opinion, as made evident by the increasing atrophy of Christendom.

One of the things that inspired Rebeca and me to attend the conference was the event’s keynote speaker, Majora Carter (see one of her excellent TED Talks here). Ms. Carter is known worldwide for her profound understanding of and work in sustainable urban development, and her headlining the event demonstrated a certain philosophy held by the conference organizers that I found to be very meaningful. So imagine my thrill when, piggybacking off of Rebeca’s drawing of Majora’s attention after a lecture on ecovillages as a model for missional community, she (Majora) and I had a somewhat lengthy conversation about Plant With Purpose’s international, and aspiring domestic, programs! I was even able to give her a copy of Scott Sabin’s book, Tending to Eden. I’m, uh, sure she’ll email me soon.

After the conference, Rebeca and I headed up to Vancouver to visit the A Rocha Brooksdale Environmental Center, a place I’d wanted to see for a while. All seemed well as we boarded the northbound bus, but a harrowing interrogation at the Canadian border, rainstorms and missed connections awaited us. Undaunted, I led our band of two forth into the unknown and we were warmly received by the A Rocha crew. Did I mention that I neglected to announce that we would be visiting? Bah, it all worked splendidly in the end. It’d been a while since I had a good ol’ seat of the pants adventure, though I did feel for poor Rebeca once or twice. Maybe thrice.

But a great time . . . made tons of new friends that I look forward to keeping in touch with. It felt so good to be able to share Plant With Purpose’s work with so many people who had never heard of them before, and I even got to meet a great guy named Nathan who works with a kindred organization called Agros International. The hour or so we spent over coffee was a highlight of the trip for sure. Made it home without incident.

‘Tis all for now friends – be well and blessings!

Better Late Than Never

So, I moved. You should already know that – it’s all over Facebook. Even this – the fact that I have posted to my blog – will be posted to Facebook. Social media has increased the velocity of the world to the point that even profound questions like “Are we as a world better off having all this instant communication with hundreds of people (who we call “friends”), or is the quantity and constancy of it actually degrading the quality of our relationships?” become cliché in a matter of hours. Such questions are posed (or should I say “posted”) then spread everywhere via online media, only fade away unanswered. Is there an answer? Is it purely subjective, as quality so often is?

Or is there an answer, but none of us want to hear it? If the answer is indeed “yes, we are better off without it”, then of course I myself don’t want to hear it. I love the possibilities that social media, and the Internet in general, offers. If I want to know something, I can Google it. If there is indeed a Mrs. Right out there somewhere, she could very well be Facebook stalking me right now! That widget I’ve always wanted might be offered at an absurd bargain on eBay right now; a similar bargain might be offered on Travelzoo for a plane ticket to one of the many places I’d love to go, where there would surely be people I’d love to meet. Of course, it’d be tough to actually befriend said people, being that we would likely only have a bit of time to spend together. But then again, I could (and would) “friend” them on Facebook, which seems to be a significant stride toward intimacy in today’s terms.

Maybe I should change. Ditch Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn . . . all of it. After all, I doubt I’ll look back, old and grey, at my time spent on any of these sites (or even my blog, for that matter) as time well spent. And yet, as I think of how much networking, how many social events, how much I upkeep with friends and so on is facilitated on these sites, the thought becomes unfathomable. Especially now, as I go through what I’d consider to be a significant life change.

So maybe one day I will do it. I could look at it like I’m looking at my life now: better late than never! 2010 was a year dark and steep for me; one that I am in many ways glad is over (see previous posts and/or ask me personally). It was after much agonizing that I decided that it would be wise for me to move to Northern California for a spell – yes, to my parents’ house – and pursue some of the work and school opportunities that were available up here. And as of yet, loneliness aside, I’m very glad I did. My classes in horticulture and integrated pest management and like dreams come true, teaching me things that I was killing myself trying to learn on my own. As I look forward to the classes themselves, I also look forward to how they will serve to enable my pursuit of sustainable development – orient career goals.

After some wayward years in my late teens and through my twenties, I feel like I have returned to the passions of my childhood, nature being number one, and found a way to approach them with direction and significance. And as I learn to incorporate other themes that have found their way to my center – social justice, community building and more, all in the name of missional living – I look forward to what I hope will result.

I knew these things were deeply held values of mine, but until the last year and a half or so I couldn’t figure out how to synthesize them into a living, breathing existence. And, truth be told, I still haven’t completely. But I’m on my way, and I’m not letting the old demons of regret and despair get in the way. It’s too late, I would say to myself. I don’t want to do it alone. But now, I have faced both of these. “It’s only too late if you don’t start today” the old saying goes. And as far as doing it alone goes? This fear still gnaws at me, yet I go on. Another little saying I saw recently, framed on my friend Shaun’s wall in his house is Mexico, said something to this effect: “A joy shared is doubled; a sorrow shared is halved.” Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

I’m getting ready to go up to a conference in Seattle with some friends from NieuCommunities, and I am excited – no two ways about it. It looks like it’s going to be a gathering of thoughtful, inspirational, reverent people . . . people I want to be like. People who, against much opposition from many sides, strive to be more like Jesus as they hold deeply to him having revealed himself to them.

I want to keep on going through this challenging season because, for some reason, I don’t think this heaviness should have the final word. I haven’t always though this way; I didn’t when I was young, and I don’t always now, but I try to commit to doing so day by day . . . by the hour . . . by the minute. Did I not today or a minute ago? No problem. Better late than never.

A Vision of a Dream

Well, we have a wet, wet winter upon us. As I type, the rain continues to drum down outside . . . it gives me the same snug feeling it always has ever since I was a kid. This year there are so many low pressure systems barging their way into the West Coast that it seems like, before the ground dries from last one, a new one comes to take its place. The Sierra, where I get to spend quite a bit of time these days, has somewhere around 200% the snowpack that this time of year averages; I think San Diego can claim a similar stat in the rainfall department.

If you know me then you have heard the gripes in person, or you can read back a little ways and see it there (you don't have to go far - I'm not the most consistent or voracious blogger), but this season's weather smacks of my overall life theme for the last year. As soon as one storm blew through, another one seemed upon me. Mind, body and spirit were (are?) being tested to their very breaking point, or so it seemed. I felt like I lost many a good thing in that time . . . like, if that was a time of testing, many things that I held dear did not pass.

But then, perhaps it was time for me to open the hatch and eat my words. I had often (and now looking back, smugly at times) said that, until the honeymoon is over, you can't really know if what you think is all that good actually is. It doesn't matter what the situation is - it could be anything. A relationship, a job . . . name your station in life, and the rule will likely apply. Maybe if you took a couple sayings, like "Ignorance is bliss" and "The unexamined life isn't worth living" and a few others, and really gnawed on 'em for a while you'd get a taste of what I mean. Reality, bittersweet.

So some dreams died in this past year. Or maybe have just been put to bed, and will wake up someday. I guess, as I look back on some of them, and to play on the death metaphor a little bit, many of them are resting in peace. They were small, selfish dreams that were working with such limited experience and narrow vision. Kinda slipshod ones that were borne out of my twenties, an adventurous but mystifying and frustrating decade. One where I was very genuine, but in more instances than one, and frankly more than I really care to admit to most people and even one omniscient Deity, genuinely wrong about a great many things. I have particularly disliked admitting it to myself, my worst critic.

I have been encouraged by a mentor or two for a while now to reflect, to pray, to dig down deep inside, and to dream. And in response to what I find, to make a vision board, known also as a dream board, and surely by other names as well. Really, it was kind of a turnoff because the concept seemed somewhat infantile: get out a stack of magazines, a glue stick and a piece of posterboard or something to glue it to, and get to create a verbo-pictorial representation of what came to mind during reflection, prayer and digging. Now do I sound cynical or what?

I'm sure that if certain people are to read this, they may be surprised. I was once seen - and really, once saw myself - as someone who abounded in "vision". But, as I and my fellow adults will attest to, and as I wrote about above, there comes a time when the honeymoon does indeed end. Our life is examined, we are no longer ignorant, and yes, no longer blissful. Adam, Eve and the Emperor all realize they wear no clothes. Colin? Feeling like he's lacking in vision? What is this world coming to?

So God makes his children clothes and the life they thought they were to know and enjoy is obscured by a flaming sword. I don't remember what happened to the Emperor, but I'm sure he blushed. Adam and Eve were innocent, and the Emperor was swollen with pride - each had their presumptions, and each had to, eventually, face reality and move on with their lives. But move on to where? How?

Life can feel so much more mystical and meaningful when we are blissful. When we feel chosen by passions so strong and certain that they dominate us and leave us with no choice but to submit to them. If only the feeling could last! But as we are tested, that feeling may escape us, to be left only with our will (or at least it may seem that way) to be the determinant of our fate. At such a time, can one dream?

Only with courage. At times it feels like I'm coasting on momentum I gained in years past, with only inertia on my side. Like I'm living off the savings I put away for this rainy day I suspected would one day come (I, of course, speak in metaphor - comfortable wealth has yet to be mine). And yet, I and each one of us, whether we choose to believe it or not, has the freedom to choose. To choose to hope. To choose to create a vision, even if the one we once held dear has grown faint and dim. We will need the love and support of others to help us make these choices that can seem impossibly hard to make, as anyone who has had to confront such challenges will attest to, but make them we can, and make them we must.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he." Proverbs 29:18

All of us at NieuCommunities went through a process of developing personal vision statements. I struggled deeply with mine in this stormy sea of life I am passing through; several revisions yielded this version: "I continue to search, missing and finding, and pray gratitude for both. I fall, but rise again, and hope for Heaven’s Mercy and Guidance to be upon me and my fellow man. May we know it deeply, and share it as we go forth together."

I know - it's vague, gender exclusive and all sorts of gloomy. But it is what I had, and I'm glad for it. And I'm glad that I have my life, with which to continue to write my vision statement, and the primary vehicle with which I will perform a most important aspect of it: living it out. Below is my vision board, which somehow came together after months of procrastination.


Maybe I'll describe it later. But now, it being 12:30 in the morning, bed.

May I . . . dream.

A visit to ECHO

Here's a post that actually ran in Plant With Purpose's blog a little while ago:

ECHO: Cultivating Relationships

I recently had the opportunity to go to a demonstration farm called ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) for a week to take a course on tropical agriculture development. Having been a big fan of Plant With Purpose for a good while, it was an amazing experience; ECHO has been a helpful resource for Plant With Purpose over the years, and many of the techniques and concepts in use at ECHO are being implemented in Plant With Purpose’s programs abroad.

The first stirrings of ECHO began in the early 1970’s and continued to develop in the form of projects in Haiti until 1981, when Dr. Martin Price (who continues to live just around the corner from ECHO, remaining active there and now also at the Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies) joined the organization and helped refocus ECHO’s role as a supportive agency for other overseas agricultural development organizations. Dr. Price warmly invited our class of 19 over to his home for dinner, and it was great to have the opportunity to connect and converse with him. He shared with me some his sometimes bewildering personal journey with God from a promising career in academia to a less certain life path as liaison to agricultural missionaries. His powerful story can be found here.

Our week was a busy one, with our class staying on the ECHO campus and meeting daily from 8am to 5pm, spending most of our time listening to lectures and the rest on the farm or in ECHO’s densely stocked library. Class participants had come from various backgrounds and locales, some being expatriates living abroad at home on furlough, and others being foreign nationals who came just for the class. Still others were just getting their very first real exposure to agriculture and development. We shared meals, got to know each other, and had the opportunity to encourage each other as we exchanged ideas of what we’d love to see happen with the knowledge we were gaining in the class.

One thing I really valued was the emphasis on how to relate to people living in challenging life circumstances that are likely to be very different to those we as Westerners are used to, especially in regard to material poverty. To be able to do this gives these people the dignity and respect they deserve and acknowledges that they, despite their apparently humble existence, have plenty to teach us. Approaches such as these are crucial in setting the stage to form authentic and enduring relationships. Cultivating crops is certainly important, but will only have the chance to produce the desired outcomes if relationships are cultivated first.

I hope to post a series of blogs about my experience at ECHO, so thanks for reading, keep an eye out for future posts about my visit, and feel free to check out ECHO’s website at www.echonet.org.

Renewal (and CRM Worldwide Conference II)

Well, here I am. To describe the last month and a half of my life as busy would be an understatement. I have been to Southeast Asia (CRM conference), Northern California (work), Florida (class in tropical agricultural development), and am now back in Northern California (again to work) for a week before going back to San Diego. Love travel as I do, I’m looking forward to catching some Zs in my own bed for a little while.

The conference was amazing . . . perhaps the most amazing part was that Rebecca and I survived our voyage to Malaysia from San Diego. We tallied up the hours of travel time, door to door, and with the three flights and lengthy layovers we racked up a whopping 60! To estimate that I got 12 hours of sleep would be generous. So though I went without crucial things like sleep for extended periods of time, no bags were lost, no flights were missed (ok, one was canceled, but it all came together), and I think the biggest thing I forgot to pack was duct tape. How embarrassing for a self-proclaimed travel veteran.

The conference itself was amazing: +/- 500 people from 25 countries around the world, all together in Southeast Asia to join their fellows with whom they seek to develop churches through developing people. CRM's vision (as snagged directly from their website) is of . . .

"movements of fresh, authentic churches, pioneered by godly leaders, fired by a passion for their world, compelled to multiply their lives and ministry…so that the name of God is renowned among the nations"

. . . and it was made clear to me that this group of very dedicated people had received a commission from God to make it a reality. My dad uses a fun saying in situations where one is presented with much more than they can take in - "drinking from the fire hose" - and this seemed to be one of those situations for me. I’ve been involved in several ministries of varying natures over the years, and each, as shown by their foci, have their callings and convictions. It was simultaneously invigorating and humbling to experience to get to know so many people offering themselves to the bottom-up building of churches, an often challenging and thankless labor of love.

Though this could be said of just about any situation one comes across in life (likened to the Butterfly Effect), even the briefest meeting I’d have with a new person seemed to open up a world of new possibilities, and it occurred to me that I'll likely be able to appreciate God’s work through this conference for years to come. It was a busy time, full of sessions with other NieuCommunities folks and various presenters with powerful stories of ministry from around the world, but amid all the activity I did find rest here and there. I found renewal as well, and gained some perspective and recognition of context regarding some of the lows of the past year. Hopefully some of what I gained will continue to show up in pixilated form here.

But there is more . . .

I feel like the conference came at just the right time in my life - as I mentioned before, this has been a challenging year. Walking through the peaks and valleys of faith, it is so easy to look at others and have my faith feel so small and insignificant . . . even weak or downright absent at times. I find myself wondering what exactly or, yea, if even if, I believe at times. This can be discouraging.

Back in April, I was in a particular valley. A ball of health and personal issues had begun rolling the previous November or so, and had continued on with only faint and unconvincing signs of slowing down. I have a nasty habit of following the ad infinitum rabbit holes presented by Google, Wikipedia and Amazon without relenting (OCD? perhaps), to sometimes frustrating ends, and a movie I’d received from Netflix had presented me with one of epic proportions. It led me to a number of debates by those Christians and atheists who like to engage in them, and though they seem to me to be poor venues for building the kinds of relationships that seem most representative of the love of Christ, I for some reason am drawn to them as moth is to flame. Could it be like the way people from schoolchildren to those filling barrooms (and now living rooms, sadly) cannot resist watching two men fight? Could be. I used to watch UFC when I was younger, I admit with some shame.

In any case, I ended up reading a book or two and watching some films that dealt with faith and the crises or lack thereof. Whether or not this process reassured me all that much I cannot say, but it did remind me that I’m not alone in my search for meaning in today’s complex world.

And after it all, I can say with certainty that I believe in and have been saved from a life of suffering, in some ways now and in all ways eternally, by Jesus Christ. I want to model my life after His, I sense the Holy Spirit guiding me and empowering me to do so, and I believe the world was created, somehow, by an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God. These are the things that (I hope) guide my life, both willfully and in ways beyond my will. My linear and analytical mind struggle to simultaneously engage and surrender to these things, but onward I go.

The conference was a glorious time. I received much help from many loved ones in order to get there, and indeed needed every bit of it. It was one of those weeks that will take years for me to absorb the full measure of, if I ever do at all. In fact, so much of life is like that, it’s occurring to me. As I (we!) interact with such a grand world as we have, filled with such an expanse of creation as it is, isn’t it a bit presumptuous to think that we could?