Eleven years is a long time, don’t you think? Take a moment and think about it. The year was 1997. Where were you were ten years ago? Where were you living? Working? Who were you dating? Who were your friends? Are they still around? What have been the gains and losses during those eleven years?
I would have made it better in school if only I had a smarter seatmate!
Unfortunately, I did not learn everything I needed to learn in life in school. No matter how smart the folks I hung out with or sat beside back in the day, there are things I never really learned. I wish that seminaries and Bible colleges will include "Business Administration," "Accounting" and "Management" courses in their curriculum, because now I'm forced to do things related to such subjects in the context of ministry, and I feel so inadequate because I never had the slightest exposure to them. What can I do? All of them come with job description! Regardless of the fact that prior to my Theology and Ministry degrees, I majored in journalism- thus, my love for writing, and took a course in Worship/Liturgical Composition. It doesn't take a genious to figure out that those concentrations ever came under the shadow of business administration.
Everyone is a life-long learner, and I have no problems with learning new things. In fact, not very long ago I realized that I can open a print advertising firm with my five-year-old young knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. I've started making videos using a plain Windows Movie Maker program, as I am learning in the process of learning the more complex and professional-grade Adobe Premier Film/Video Editing system. Anyway, that's not really the issue.
In mid-June eleven years back.
I opened an envelop containing a letter from New York City informing me that I had been selected to participate in an international exchange program. It told me to pack my stuff, prepare my passport, and be ready to be received by the host university around this time of the year eleven years ago. Leaving a pretty girlfriend behind, a family that was just beginning to recover from a mother's death, and a church I so loved, I was in the dorm at 5AM, August 22, ready for a new school year, a new exchange program, unaware that much of what I have yet to learn would be some of the major stuff that God would want for me to learn for ministry and life.
The housemother coming out of my room excited to explore the unfamiliar university campus, meet new people and check out some churches I can visit while I was there. The Rev. Pearl, an Anglican priestess clearly told me to go to bed because I just had a long trip and needed a rest before the evening's welcome gala. I was like,"The Gala isn't happening til after 13 hours!?" I snuck out and explored.
There was an instance in the middle of the program when certain things that happened in the past began to sink in- homesickness, my mother's death from which I never really recovered til that time, a heart-wrenching break up followed by an almost whirlwind romance turned sour as quickly as it took form, questions concerning the validity of my faith and everything I've always believed to be true. I began to feel insecure in the middle of what may seem to many as otherwise- a scholarship, an exchange program, new friends, a bright future.
It was in a beautiful sanctuary of a church called "Knox" on Caroline Street where I felt that somehow, in the deep resources of my heart and mind, I believed that, God was taking me- one step at a time, one day at a time, with new horizons waiting for me and divine possibilities that I could not even imagine. I just knew that, one day, my life would be better.
How good it was to stand on that holy ground one more time! The experience was as life-giving – life-changing – as before. People started to walk into my life and our lives begin to interweave. Their struggle was my struggle. My pain, their pain. Their hope our hope. They were for me, God making Himself tangible for me.
One thing seems certain: Jesus is forever showing up in places and circumstances that seem dead and hopeless. He is forever bringing new life and new possibilities into the lives of people who cry out for him. And, I am convinced that God is in that place and God is where we are now - ushering us into something better. Making the world just a little more whole.
It would be good to think back once more over the past eleven years to where you were in 1997. Remember all those persons whose loving touch helped you on your way, helped you to arrive at this point: those friends, neighbors, siblings, parents, co-workers, children. And, remember those whose lives you touched. Perhaps more than you can count. More than you will ever know. Doesn’t it feel good? Doesn’t it feel good? My soul says, “Yes! it feels God's goodness.”
Thank God for amazing and smart seatmates who make this life journey better!
International Partnership Scholars 1997 Hosts: Trinity University (PH), University of Waterloo (CN), American College India (Madras), Central Philippine University (PH), Pacific Lutheran (WA), Drake University (IA), , Tokyo Women's (JP), Satya Wacana University (IN)
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