putting thoughts to paper (sort of)

"In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth." (Gen 1:1) "Then God said, '"Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."' (Gen 1:26) Eventually, humanity got additional commandments: to love our neighbors as ourselves and to '"take care of Jesus' sheep"' (John 21:16).

But I ask you, how well do you think we have cared for His sheep and the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, the livestock and all the creatures that move along the ground? How well have we loved our neighbors? I will be the first to confess that I have not always done these well. And that it is very easy to get swept away by the world that Christianity has conformed to and to belong to it, instead of to Jesus. To be consumed by consumerism and by the things that we have instead of the things that we can do for one another. To forget that we are called to care for God's Creation in its entirety: to be stewards of what God has entrusted to us. The animals, the lands and seas, and more importantly than even those others, so important that it is second only to loving God, Himself: loving one another.

Yet every day we hear of some great new travesty in the news. We hear about sex-trafficking of young girls. We hear about drugs, and gangs, and guns and violence. We hear about starvation, and the rising cost of food. Greed. Waste. Selfishness. How poorly we have treated God's Creation. How poorly we treat each other.

It's almost enough to make one lose hope in humanity. But not me. I have hope. I know there are servants out there, stalwart servants and enduring laborers doing the work that God asked us to do. I know they exist, because I've heard of them. In some cases, I've even seen evidence. And now, I want to meet them. I want to work with them in whatever mission they have to change the world and I want to be inspired by their empowerment. I want to affirm the work that they are doing. I want to shake the hands of the toilers who seek justice, I want to break bread with them and bring stories of them back to a place that has also seemed to have lost hope. I seek to be a listener, learner, worker, and an affirmer. And then I seek to be a deliverer of hope, an inspirer to others, a story-teller and a mimic. And most of all, I seek to be changed.

So this is the beginning of a very long process for me. Very much of it will be in planning. Not until much, much later, will anyone be able to see the fruits of that planning. I've told you about my theology and motivation. Now let me tell you about my logic, my idea, and my means.

I am just finishing up my second semester of graduate coursework. I am a dual degree candidate at Wesley Theological Seminary and American University in Washington, D.C. I am earning masters degrees in Theological Studies and International Peace and Conflict Resolution. This trip is going to be a culminating experience, in a way, of those two academic disciplines in action: post-graduate fieldwork, if you will.

After two semesters of study, I began to feel that the debt I was incurring would soon exceed my capacity for repayment. So I began searching for a full-time job that would pay for tuition, and allow me to be a half-time student. I knew there had to be a better way to be financially responsible. So I looked around and applied for tons of positions, and after 5 months, my labor was rewarded. I landed a full time job (that is right up my alley and in a great community) that pays for tuition, and pays, too! So while I'm taking classes and working, I can also start repaying my student debts. While I'm doing that, however, I'm also going to be saving the money that will fund this trip. The hope is that at least 75% of my debts will be repaid by the time I finish both master's programs, and that I will have enough money saved to both continue my payments while I'm abroad, and be abroad for one and a half to two years. It's a steep goal. But I have a unique motivator.

The trip itself is going to be somewhat of a winding journey. From the U.S., I intend to head south first, traveling through Mexico and Central America. I have one friend in South America who may or may not accompany me on a portion of my trip. From there, I intend to travel east to South Africa and work my way north. I have very few connections on this continent, but hope to develop some in the next four years. I will then head east again from Egypt, through the Middle East, and into Asia. I currently have friends living in Thailand, Japan, and Indonesia. I'll work my way south to SEAsia and then skip over to Australia/New Zealand to end my trip.

I intend to backpack as much as I can, only taking brief time outs from this style of traveling to refuel and regroup, and package occasional things up to send back home to the states. Whenever possible, I want to be able to stay with the groups I will be working with, at the level of the community in which they work. I am specifically interested in organizations that deal with matters of ecojustice, women's empowerment, and the religiously oppressed (no matter what the religion). In the next four years while I am creating the means to live out this vision, I will be organizing, researching, and making contacts to sustain it. At this point, the vision for this journey is very broad: planting trees with the Green Belt Movement, working with an organization like Amani Ya Juu or Red Persimmon, learning about the Burmese monks. I welcome your ideas and suggestions. I can't wait to start learning more about the world through the planning process as well.

So I know the sketch is rough (very), and the ideas grand, but I feel very drawn in. My world has changed since I started graduate school; it sounds different, it looks different, it smells different. I know that if God can do all that in just a year, that he can open doors and when necessary, windows and hatches and crawl spaces to make this vision a reality. I'm excited about the future; the people I will meet and the work I will do-- I can't wait to get my hands in it!