Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)

Friends Men Retreats are set for February 20-22, 2009 at Quaker Hill and Twin Rocks.

Information and an online registration form are available. Discounted early registration ends on February 15.

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Download the December 08-February 09 issue

In this issue:

• Chapmans in Rwandan Internship
• Giving Thanks in Russia
• Nancy Thomas’ Rwandan Reflection
• 2008 Retreat photos
• Columns from our Presidents
• Mid-America Women’s Retreat Report

Jeanine Selix and her children share about the unique foods they ate while living in North Africa.

Also in this issue:

• Strange animals in strange places
• North Africa word search puzzle

DOWNLOAD a copy of the December 2008 G.O.! newsletter (a PDF file)

The Spotlight, a monthly bulletin insert featuring one of our 67 churches each month. Is now available. The DECEMBER ISSUE features Eugene Friends Church of Oregon. It is a PDF document.

The Spotlight, a monthly bulletin insert featuring one of our 67 churches each month. Is now available. The NOVEMBER ISSUE features Meridian Friends Church of southern Idaho. It is a PDF document.

12. 11 “Loving God with the Mind”                                    November  2008

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus’ scribal interrogator quibbled about how to fulfill the Law in loving one’s neighbor. Like Pilate, people also hedge about truth—about loving God with one’s mind. “Test me, LORD. . .examine my heart and my mind” is a insightful proverb (Prov. 26: 2 TNIV) Hear what the Apostle Paul says to us on this subject:

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. . . . And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4: 7-9 TNIV)

Ancient philosophy named human goals the good, the true, and the beautiful. These still define areas of study. Ethics delineates the moral good, logic the tests for truth, and aesthetics the norms of beauty (“whatever is lovely”, to use Paul’s term). In subtle ways the tempter stirs people perversely to seek out or promote the bad, the false, and the ugly. Ponder Paul’s admonition: to let God’s peace guard our minds and guide them toward praiseworthy goals.

Loving God with my mind means discerning truth about myself. I am cautioned to esteem self “not more highly than I ought. . .” neither wallowing in self-pity nor swaggering in self-adulation. What’s a pitfall for educated minds? Skillful self-deception! We’re warned: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor. 10: 12TNIV). We are called to rise beyond an egoistic self, beyond a social self, to become a God-filled self.

Loving God with my mind means discerning truth about others. How strong are social pressures to treat my group as superior! And equally strong to exercise no moral judgments of any kind, blinding ourselves to offenses against the true, the good, and the beautiful. We need God’s help to make compassionate and rational judgments about others, so truth is honored as well as love. Let the Spirit quicken our minds to recognize how much we depend upon the knowledge and skills of others, and how important God-touched minds are for sustaining human community. Let’s be grateful for how much the Gospel has leavened and enlightened it.

Loving God with my mind means discerning truth about the material world. Abiding in God’s peace enables us better to see and understand God’s creation as it is, and what through God-directed stewardship it may become. Ignorance and sin cause suffering. Christians are called rationally to interrogate the material world—its stuff, its creatures, its energy, using sense, reason, and intuition rightly to interpret it, and to release its bounty for all humanity and to God’s glory. As bearers of the divine image let’s use our minds to understand, plan, adapt, reconfigure, and utilize the material world for the good of all.  For Christians everyday is Earth Day. Whether it’s planting meringa trees in Africa or windmills in America, or dispensing health care, may Christians lead the world in appropriate technology. Loving God with the mind also includes intuitive wonder at the world itself.  As Walt Whitman wrote:  “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. . . . And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.” (“Song of Myself”, in Leaves of Grass, Signet Classic, 1958, pp, 72-73)

Loving God with my mind means discerning truth about God. We love God because He first loved us, and demonstrated that love through Jesus Christ. Nestled in God’s peace we’re enabled to see and to rightly understand divine revelations in history and within the heart. A danger looms in doing theology, in reasoning about God. The danger is idolatry: reducing God to a professional specialty, a resource, or another art or musical genre. But another danger looms in not crafting rational constructs for spiritual experience.  The danger is idolatry: reducing God to a useful social myth.

Truly “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Friends, never lose a sense of awe before the Lord!   “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!”

May the peace of God guard your minds!

Joy Lujan is a wife and mother of six children. She is just beginning to get serious about slowing down, simplifying her life and resting in Jesus. She hopes to share with others a more peaceful and simpler way of living. She enjoys canning and gardening, and finding resources that help her raise her family in an environmentally friendly way. Check out her blog.

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I try to incorporate my “green” thoughts into my walk with Christ because, for me, they go hand in hand. To assist me with faith-to-lifestyle integration, I often use the Friends Queries. Northwest Yearly Meeting and Spokane Friends Meeting showcase them well.

On this topic, it is helpful for me to look at Query 13.

“Is your life marked by simplicity? Are you free from the burden of unnecessary possessions? Do you avoid waste? Do you refuse to let the prevailing culture and media dictate your needs and values?”

These are four large questions to ponder and live by! This is where I find being green goes hand-in-hand with my faith.

A) “Is my life marked by simplicity?” I try. I don’t feel I’m extravagant in my dress, outward appearance, home decor, children’s lives, etc. There are many ways this could be lived out. But for those who know me, I have to ask them if they see this value being expressed in my life. If it is not being lived in a way that can be seen from the outside, it means very little and loses its ability to be a testimony that points to God’s primacy and provision in our lives.

B) “Are you free from the burden of unnecessary possessions?” Goodness no! I have more stuff than I know what to do with! But I am making progress… I think. As a family we are discussing purchases and evaluating the “need value”
versus “want value” of those things we are considering. For example: Do I need another pair of shoes? No. Do I want them? Yes. So if I get them, perhaps I will give some of my older ones to Goodwill I’ve just started this with the girls. If they get a new (read “newer”) item of clothing, they must get rid of an article of clothing. This makes them really think about how bad they want something, knowing something else is going to have to go.

C) “Do you avoid waste?” Boy, I sure think so! From leftover meals to finding a use for things beyond their intended purpose. My daughter Sky is heavily involved in recycling. Here is a picture of her taken Monday at the recycle place. This was her second trip this month. As you can see, there are MANY bags in the trailer we had to use since there were too many for my Suburban. She has 65 pounds here. Plus the 30 pounds she had before. That’s 95 pounds of cans, peoples!!! And, it’s a whopping $51.30 for Mexico! She actually made $57 but after her tithe, it’s the $51.30 and really, she only had quarters so decided to make it $5.75 so that left her with $51.25 for her fund. I’m so proud. It’s one thing for me to do this stuff but when my kids start doing it, on their own, it’s a big mommy moment.

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Back to the query: Do I avoid waste? I say, “yes, I do.” But more importantly, would you see that in my life? I need feedback to
really challenge my own perspective. It is easy to miss bad habits that are integrated into my lifestyle.
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. D) “Do you refuse to let the prevailing culture and media dictate your needs and values?” Eww, this one is tough. Aside from the Guitar Hero addiction – it really has created MANY family nights of fun and that is important, right? I know I let it dictate some of my needs – my new Pearl Blackberry for example is SO utterly awesome. But I didn’t need it. But I like it. See my quandry? I don’t believe I am adjusting my values to what media and culture are doing. We’re very modest on dress, strict on music and movies our kids see, we don’t allow the TV to just be “on.” All media must be approved, etc. But I know that I could definitely strengthen this area. Technology is grand, but it does add an element of need-versus-want to one’s life. And apart from acquiring things, there are other ways that the culture dictates my values and assumptions and self-image.

But what do you think? Respond below and let’s create some dialogue around the issue of “simple living” in the family.

Questions for Discussion:

1) In what ways is your life “marked by simplicity?” Either as an individual, or in your family situation, how do you pursue this?

2) What are some of the toughest areas to refuse to let “prevailing culture and media dictate your values?”

3) What questions regarding this query would you have for Joy or other readers of this dialogue?

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by Gene Christian, consultant for the Yearly Meeting Foundation

Monthly budgeting. Retirement planning. Stewardship. If you’re like me, you probably have spent many hours during your lifetime thinking about how to most effectively earn, save, and then give all that has been entrusted to you. It’s not an easy process and it’s certainly different for everyone!

God created this world—and everything in it—for his own pleasure. The Bible says that we are merely caretakers of the gifts and talents we have been given. So God has endowed us with certain abilities in order that we can earn and save money—and then ultimately return what we have accumulated to the one who owns the “cattle on a thousand hills.”
But how can we do that most effectively? We need the money we have saved to support us during our retirement years. We also may have educational expenses for loved ones, or costs associated with operating a business, and myriad other financial commitments we know God has called us to support.

So how can we be maximally effective stewards for the kingdom while at the same time honoring the commitments we may have to support our families as well?

For me, one of the best ways to think about stewardship is through estate planning. In fact, your estate plan will be your final act of stewardship on this earth—taking all that God has entrusted to you during life and distributing it to the people and causes you care about at death.

For those who are stewardship minded and have always wished they could do more for kingdom-building causes, one of the strategies we find most effective is what we call the “Give It Twice” estate plan. The concept is really quite simple. It works like this:
When you pass away, a trust account receives a portion, or all, of the value of your assets (your estate). Then, for a period of years, your loved ones receive an income stream from the trust. As a result, their inheritance is received in smaller amounts of money over several years, rather than a large, one-time sum all at once.

After the pre-determined number of years, the trust discontinues, and whatever remains is given outright to charitable causes. Often these “Give It Twice” trusts are set up to pay out to your loved ones about as much money as they earn each year. Therefore, when the trust’s term expires, roughly the same amount of money remains as when your estate funded it several years earlier.

So, if you’re willing to have your loved ones receive their inheritance in smaller amounts over several years (give it first to family), then you will be able to also support your favorite charitable causes when the trust expires (give it second to charity).

This is one example that has certainly gained popularity in recent years—particularly with those who are Christians. It’s just one strategy to consider as you think about taking all that God has entrusted to you during life, and ultimately turning it all back to him in death.

The Yearly Meeting Foundation has resource material and people to help you along the way. The free Estate Planning Resource Guide and the Estate Inventory Form are available here. For more information or to set up a no cost, no obligation consultation with Gene Christian, contact the yearly meeting office at (503) 538-9419.

SPOTLIGHT

We appreciated the broad guidance and helpful principles Gene gave us as we were preparing an update of our wills.  We had an idea how to help future Christian ministry and we wondered if it was practical and if it could be achieved.  He helped us think through our options of how to share our resources both with family and organizations we want to support. He helped us with details we had not known even to ask. Rather than feeling directed to pursue anyone else’s agenda, we felt enabled. We left our session ready to take the next step with our lawyer, with the confidence we had a plan that would accomplish our goals to be faithful with our estate.

Ron and Carolyn Stansell

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By Colin Saxton, NWYM Superintendent

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Mercy, mercy, mercy!

I don’t know which of God’s character traits most grabs your attention. Maybe it is God’s holiness, Light, love, or grace. Maybe it is God’s majesty, sovereignty, justice or power. For me, it is without a doubt mercy. Mercy, mercy me…

Mercy, in my experience, has been like a powerful ocean wave that knocks me off my feet and turns my life upside down. I mentioned this during this year’s annual sessions and several of you later said you knew exactly what I meant. The mercy of God is overwhelming! It swamps you and upends you with a compassion, forgiveness and acceptance that will leave you reeling…if you don’t resist it.

What I note most about God’s mercy, I suppose, is how generously God supplies it. It doesn’t come to us in a trickle but rather like a tidal wave.

But then, again, nearly my whole experience of God is one of lavish generosity. Grace is given freely—not frugally. Love flows in extravagant surplus—not stingy scarcity. Power radiates mightily—not meagerly. Especially in the self-giving of Jesus, we find One who not only gives his best…he gives his all.

I am struck these days by the abundant generosity of God, especially in contrast to my own tight-fistedness and hard-heartedness. I used to think I was pretty generous…but then I met people of real generosity. And not simply folks who were free with their wealth, but free with their forgiveness, unsparing with their acceptance, liberal in laying down their lives for the sake of others. In them I saw something more closely akin to the generosity of God and something about my own miserly nature.
Like all of the great Christian virtues, generosity is both a gift and a discipline. Past the warped nature of our human condition and beyond the barrier of our own sinful ways, the infusing presence and power of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to be transformed into the image of Christ. At the same time, God provides ample opportunities to choose and practice generous living.

Becoming a generous person is both a grace we are given and a lesson we learn.

Maybe the greater challenge for me is to move beyond the outward show of generosity to a truly generous heart. In my dealings with others, can I become a person who genuinely blesses others in a self-forgetful, abundant, open-handed and open-hearted way?

Over the years, I have had opportunity to do a bit of fundraising for organizations. When I do, I am always challenged by Paul’s words in II Corinthians 9—

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

That is the kind of heart I want—a cheerful one. Better yet, in the original language the word cheerful comes from “hilaron” by which we gain the word hilarious. We are to be hilarious givers!

This doesn’t mean, of course, in a laughing, goofy way—but rather with exuberance, with gracious generosity, and from a deep knowing that all we have and are belongs to God already.

I appreciate the generosity of people in NWYM. You’ve tutored me over the years in this art. I see it in your faithful, sacrificial support of local church and Yearly Meeting ministries. It is heartening, as well, to see your generosity being extended to your neighbors—in the food you distribute, as you open your buildings to support groups, by the way you care for the children in your communities, in the way you accept people who show up at worship—broken, desperate, and lost. I see you loving people with the generous love and hilarious grace of God—and it is good.

I wonder if the greater challenge to our generosity comes with those we are most familiar with? More than likely, we have been generous in the past when they have been in need, been wrong, or have let us down. We’ve had to show them patience, grace and forbearance before when they have ranted and raved about pet concerns, insisted upon their preferences, or acted in the same annoying way that pushes our particularly sensitive button.

Maybe a good year-end gift for 2008 would be to extend our generosity, once again, to those people we may have grown less cheerful toward. Maybe through prayer and the disciplined practice of hilarious self-giving acts, we can open our hearts and hands toward those individuals in our families and churches that we have unintentionally closed off.

Does anyone come to mind? Would it be possible for you to free them from familiar expectations? Instead, pray that they might continue to grow and change (just as you are growing and changing). Might you be generous with them again—as you continue to negotiate differences of opinion about the direction of the church, the style of worship, and other matters of community? Is there some gift you might give to a person or your local church that might rekindle your cheerful heart toward them and open up a renewed relationship?

Thanks for your generosity toward me! It is more than I deserve! 

Colin

But what do you think? Respond below and let’s create some dialogue around this issue.

Questions for Discussion:

1) What examples of generosity have inspired you to greater Christ-likeness?
2) What barriers to generosity do you face?
3) How can a local church better encourage generosity in their community?

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A goal of the Global Outreach Board is to highlight NWYM folks who serve with other mission or relief agencies.

Since 2002, Kim and Andrew Stave (North Valley & Eugene Friends) have been serving at LCC International University (formerly Lithuania Christian College).  LCC is an English-speaking Christian liberal arts university that educates nearly 600 students from 21 different countries with the goal of sending out moral leaders into Eastern Europe/Central Asia to be change-agents in their countries.
Like the majority of the expatriate staff and faculty at LCC, Kim and Andrew serve in their roles as volunteers—raising all funds through a variety of individuals and church partnerships.  Both serve on the Student Life staff: Kim as the Director of Community Life and Andrew as the Athletic Director. Their daughter Ieva was born in 2005 and has just entered Lithuanian preschool this fall.

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~ LCC’s website: www.lcc.lt.

~ Stave’s blog: www.kimandrewstave.blogspot.com

~ To donate toward the Stave’s ministry, you may send a check to LCC International Fund: 39 Southgate Court Suite 202, Harrisonburg, VA, 22801 and please note that it is designated to them.

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