Growing Faith

When I first heard David U’s story, I was emotionally disarmed.  David, a church leader in Ethiopia, was attacked by a group of men brandishing guns and machetes one fateful morning in his home community.  Miraculously, David survived this violent attack and lives on to share his awe inspiring testimony of his love for Jesus Christ and the power of faith.  Although the dangers David faces are numerous and close-to-home, he continues to fight for his beliefs and to not be intimidated by those who choose to persecute him.  As David so courageously asserts, “The Lord has given me another chance to serve Him. The bullets didn’t get me. I have seen the darkest night, bullets flying past me. There were more than 30 attackers. It is by the prayers and support of other believers we survived so far. I can only say God wants me to continue His work here. I have some unfinished business here.”  In my work with Open Doors, a charity group who helps persecuted Christians around the world, I have heard a number of other, similarly inspiring testimonies of Christians who face horrific persecution in religiously suppressed countries.  These brave people often live in environments of dire poverty with dangerously rampant crime rates and a complete lack of religious freedom.  In spite of the hellacious conditions they have to endure, these people clutch firmly onto their faith and rise above the darkness that surrounds them.  What they all have in common is not just faith; that is an essential component of their plight, but what they also share is something of equal importance: Hope.  In the words of Orison Swett Marden, “There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.”

When I first started looking into which course I wanted to take for my Senior Capstone at PSU, I was unsure exactly what I wanted to do.  I found myself drawn into a long episode of self-questioning: What am I passionate about?  What kind of project can I do that best utilizes the skills that I have acquired in my college career?   What Capstone can I take that can realistically be completed in a term?  Finally and perhaps, most importantly: Is there a project I can do that has relevance to my Christian faith?  All of these questions were dancing through my mind when I began sifting through the list of available Capstone courses that appeared on the fall term schedule of classes for PSU.  As I was scanning through the list, one course title jumped right off the page at me; it was called Mobilizing Hope.  I was a bit surprised to see a course with that kind of name because I really wasn’t expecting to find anything faith-related in the schedule of classes at a school like PSU (with all due respect).  But the word hope always makes me think of faith and the power of belief; not just because the name of the church I attend is called Hope Community Church, although I consider that to be a rather happy coincidence.  When I looked further into the details of the course, I was very pleased to see that it was a perfect fit for me and for my goal of basing my Capstone project around both utilizing and growing in my faith.  It was with all of these things in mind that I chose to participate in a letter writing campaign with the Christian charity group Open Doors.

When I first began my project I was a little unsure where to start.  I had been given a list of people to write letters to by Open Doors, but I knew that I would need to do a lot of research before delving into my letter writing.  I really didn’t want to commit the blunder of commenting on situations in places in the world that are very foreign to me without fully understanding the social, political and spiritual climates of the countries where my letters would ultimately be sent.  So, off I went, researching places like Ethiopia and Kenya, trying to understand what it is like to live in those parts of the world and what words of encouragement could I offer to the people living there.  When the time came to start drafting my letters, I found it to be less intimidating than I had initially thought.  Although I struggled at first to find the right words, I quickly discovered that all I really needed to do was speak from the heart.  From then on, the words came much quicker and I feel that I was able to express my words of encouragement in the right way.  The message I was relaying was simple, but nonetheless important: To keep trusting God no matter what life throws at you.  What I discovered in the process of writing these letters was that the things I wrote didn’t just have the effect of helping the intended audience, they also had a profound effect on me at a time in my life when I have faced a number of personal crisis’s and have had my faith tested. 

A major lesson taught in Mobilizing Hope was that there is a great benefit and value in dealing with those that live in the margins.  Through the essays and articles that I bared witness to throughout this term as well as in my experiences with Open Doors, I have seen how true this is.  The benefits are numerous, but for me personally, the most profound realization I came to after engaging with those in the margins is how truly lucky I am to have the luxuries and freedoms that I am afforded in my life and also, with the right kind of mindset, I have the power to make the world a better place, even if just in a small way.  In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “There remains an experience of incomparable value.  We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled—in short, from the perspective of those who suffer.” 

I went into the process of choosing a Senior Capstone with only the slight hope of finding something that would relate to my faith, let alone enhance it.  In the end, I found something that caused my faith to be challenged and grow on a number of levels and gave me a much fuller understanding of the impact that faith, hope and the fight for social justice have on the world.  I learned that these three things are closely intertwined and really can’t exist without each other.  Therefore, I now understand that I have a great responsibility and opportunity to help make the world a better place through my faith and newly enlightened philosophy that hope is the driving force to all positive change in this world.  It is a light that God shines down into our darkness that gives us the strength to fight for what matters; for what is true, for what is good, for what is fair and for what is right.    

--Daniel Pribyl

Chicken Project!

Hope is...

Please watch this wonderful video, by Chris Chesbro of our Mobilizing Hope Capstone. Powerful!

Three Keys to Social Activism

HOPE. Hope is undoubtedly where it all begins. It is most certainly our motivator. Hope recognizes the truth in a worthy cause, eats away at the human heart, and forces those bold enough to hope to do something about it. Thus, hope is out starting point in social activism. If we have nothing to strive towards, nothing to gain, if we see nothing in need of change or reconciliation we simply will remain idol enablers of injustice ignorant of a suffering world before us.

            False Hope. While hope is the heartbeat to activism, and perhaps even life as a whole, there exists an even greater enemy to mankind than a hopeless heart and that would be false hope. I have come to find in life that there are two kinds of people: the hopeful and the despairing. Of those who hope I have further noticed their hope comes from one of three things: hope in man, hope in self, or hope in God. Hope in man gives power over to humans we often deem more capable than ourselves to do what we believe as right. Sometimes this can work. However, we are often left disappointed because no one can live up to our idolized expectations. Furthermore, hope in others diminishes both our cause and our self as it neglects to join with others revealing both our laziness and lack of passion. Secondly, hope in self states that if I work hard enough I can achieve anything. This method is dangerous as it both leaves much of the cause up to chance and endangers the self of becoming burnt out and beaten down. In addition, it also tempts man, when success is granted, into becoming prideful in the victories of what he sees as his own doing and leads him to despair when his efforts are being stifled. Ultimately, both types of hope can often lead a once hopeful man into becoming a man of despair.

            Hope in God. It is, then, that the only hope surpassing all others, the only true hope for a despairing humanity is hope in God. This idea is articulated by the great theologian Jürgen Moltmann: “Without faith’s knowledge of Christ, hope becomes a utopia and remains hanging in the air... it is that hope in Christ gives hope its assurance.” This Christian hope is often seen as irrelevant to our modern world. However, it is that this hope in Christ is actually the only hope that both determines and unites all moral and just causes. It determines them because it is this God who himself is the very definition of justice and righteousness. It unites because he is a God present and active in all things good in this world, therefore, they all relate back to him. This Christian hope is all surpassing because, first and foremost, it recognizes the victory is already won. Christ on the cross conquered the demanded payment for the sins of all humanity and saved the world from a devastating life separated from God. Secondly, this victory relates to today's issues not only because humanity continues to need the payment of Jesus’ blood, but also because it reveals to a despairing humanity that God is still present and active in the world. The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing-- the second component of Christian hope. That an all powerful, all loving, all merciful, just and omnipotent God is still involved in a world of pain, despair, murder, oppression, immorality and injustice is certainly reason for hope. This hope is based on followers of Christ joining with God in the mission of reconciling the world to himself in order to reestablish his intended order on earth. However, because he is loving he has never forced man into relationship with himself, but rather has granted man the liberty to choose. This means man is able to choose evil, and unfortunately, to inflict that evil upon others. Here is where the third and equally powerful aspect of hope comes in: the hope of future glory. This future glory means that one day Christ will reappear to mankind on earth and “wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). Everything will be restored, all justice will be established and enforced, and God will forever by fully present with his people. This future glory will be so great that Paul boldly declares, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:8). It is that great, impenetrable hope that endures through all things and all circumstance. And so it is that we can summarize by saying not only is the centrality of social activism hope, but center to hope is Christ.

            RELATIONSHIP. DAILY LIFE. With hope now defined we move on to the means by which we establish justice and peace in our world. Contrary to what many may think it is not necessarily done by protests, rallies or fancy speeches to the masses, though those certainly have their effect. The single most effective way in which we change the world is by changing the world around us.  This is done through our often mundane daily lives and already established relationships to other people. As is wisely stated by Thich Nhat Hanh, “Our daily lives have the most to do with the situation of the world. If we can change our daily lives, we can change our governments, and we can change the world.” This is because our daily lives are what “win the respect of outsiders” (1 Thes. 4:12). This exaltation of the daily life does not diminish the power in the great works, but rather reckons upon the even more powerful effects of a mundane life lived out nobly. Allowing love to seep through our relationships to those unworthy of it, our willingness to consistently work hard under any circumstance or any person, our desire to serve others asking nothing in return all speak louder than any words can and eliminate the possibility of accusations of hypocrisy when we finally open our mouths to speak. The truth is, with true hope and a worthy cause on our hearts, we should be compelled to speak. However, we should speak first by the consistencies of our daily lives, letting the words come later to prove us true, our hope pure and our cause noble.

            RECONCILIATION. The third and final component of social justice is reconciliation. It is, essentially, what hope seeks in the grander sense and what relationships should strive for. My community partner this term has been Colossae Church in Tigard, OR. This church seeks to be active in the community often by providing for basic needs in the schools throughout the district, primarily the high school. The mission statement, the hope behind this church’s movement is “to see the church join in God’s mission of reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus.” Not only does there exist a desire to see man reconciled to God, but from that stems a desire to also see man reconciled to man and man reconciled to truth. Reconciliation does not discriminate. It strives to see men reckon upon truth, even the oppressor. It seeks to see man reconcile to man even when forgiveness seems impossible. Reconciliation recognizes all humanity as purely, wholly, equally human, strips man of individual pride, need for revenge, and removes personal vendetta or vanity. The desire for reconciliation as a goal in social activism removes self form the equation and declares the cause worthy in and of itself. It doesn’t seek to see others brought to their deserved justice, but rather saves them from it altogether as they join the side of truth.

~Michaela Loewer

And the winner is... Team Blow Out!

Rose Haven is a resource center for abused and homeless women in Portland.  The facility serves over 2,000 women and their children every year.  Through my studies leading up to my degree, I have become passionate about women issues, so Rose Haven was a perfect fit for me as a community partner for my Capstone class.  Each week, averages of 20 to 30 women with children are helped by Rose Haven providing them with diapers for age’s infant through toddler.  Rose Haven recently lost their diaper source, and asked me to help find one for them.  Their current source has gone out of business.  When taking on this task I thought, well that should be easy, and I will be on to another project in no time.  Little did I know, finding a diaper supplier who is willing to donate to this worthy cause would be a challenge my entire Capstone class.

I started by reaching out to all the standard manufacturers such as Pampers, Huggies, and etc...  I also reached out to all the retail stores I could think of, such as Costco, Walmart, and more.    If I heard anything back from these types of companies at all, it was thanks, but no thanks.  I started to get frustrated as the list of options started to dwindle. I began to feel as if there was no one left to ask.  I started to lose hope as my frustration built.  I figured if I cannot get someone to give diapers continuously, then I had to come up with another idea.  I decided to do a diaper drive.  I had no idea how to go about conducting this type of drive.  I thought, who I can ask to help sponsor a diaper drive?  I did some research on the internet, and thought about reaching out to Walmart, Freddy’s, or maybe even local churches, to see if someone would support me in my idea.   On a whim, I asked the receptionist from my office what she thought about doing a diaper drive, rather than adopting a family, as we usually do during the holidays.  She was excited about doing something different, and loved the idea.  Having that little bit of encouragement gave me the confidence to ask the big boss if he would support the idea.  He not only wanted to support it but he was excited to do something new as well. Here is the flier posted at my work.

 

I went to the office meeting the next week prepared to make the most of the diaper drive.  I work in an office of 20 people.  We are sales people so we are very competitive.  I decided to divide the office into three teams, and challenged them to compete to see which team could bring in the most diapers.  I named the teams, Droopy Drawers (The management and receptionist), Diaper Genies (My team which consists of the inside sales group), and team Blow Out (the field sales team).  Everyone embraced this idea, and started reaching out to their families, friends, customers, and representatives in the industry.  It was an extreme success.  I was so pleased I had decided to do the drive within my office, and it made me even happier to know I work with a company full of people who want to help with such a wonderful cause for Portland.  I am proud of Rose Haven and the work they do and also proud of my co-workers for getting behind me in this project.   This is not a solution for Rose Haven by any means.  I am happy with the success, of the drive but, I know this is just a stop gap to a bigger long term problem that we need to fix.

Below are the final numbers of the diaper drive.

Team Blow Out wins with 6,664

Team Droopy Drawers in second place with 5,594

Sorry Team Diaper Genies you came in last at 2,624

All together we collected 14,882 diapers and wipes for Rose Haven.

Needless to say, I am sad my team did not win the contest.  We did the count by the individual amount of diapers or wipes provided.  I am grateful that everyone was competitive, and got behind this worthy cause, so I lose graciously for the good of diapers.  If you knew how competitive I am you would understand that losing isn’t easy for me. This project has taught me to have faith in people, to never give up, and that even if you cannot fix the problem you might still be able to do something about it.  Although, I am disappointed with not finding the long term source for diapers, I do feel accomplished that we are able to supply diapers for at least a few months before we will need to do something again.  

~Heather Glass 

Acceptance

When I walked into The Salvation Army food pantry, inquiring about a volunteer position, I was immediately led into the warm and whimsical office of the manager, Tina. It almost felt like a job interview, and I started to panic as a thought rang out in my head: “What if I’m not accepted for a position?”

Acceptance is one theme that I have focused on throughout this online senior capstone project, in the course titled Mobilizing Hope at Portland State University.  This course asks students to reflect on personal faith traditions, beliefs, and wonderings, and to use these as a foundation for social justice activism. Without a solid faith tradition, I feared that I wouldn’t have enough of a foundation for the course requirement. As I have grown to find out, acceptance is quite a strong foundation to have. While “belief” and “acceptance” can be used interchangeably to define one another, there are cases where believing and accepting come to have different connotations.
Humans face possibilities of acceptance and rejection, whether it be trivial or life changing, but a challenge lies within a deeper acceptance of humanity. People have the tendency to become wrapped up in immediate personal needs, schedules, loved ones, jobs, careers, education, hobbies, dreams, desires, material possessions, finances, the past, present, future, and overall living to one’s full potential. It is common that one could forget; while this seems like a day in the life of an average member of society, this is not a comparative lifestyle for everyone living on the planet. There is war, suffering, starvation, and oppression worldwide. It becomes a matter of subjective value and necessity, but we are all human. That never changes. With the acceptance of another person’s condition and place in the world comes the willingness to reach out when necessary. This course has taught me to start small; one person cannot save the world, but collectively, each person can play a small part in making a difference. Instead of despairing about the rest of the world, I was given the opportunity to proactively take part in helping other human beings in the town that I reside in. This leads to another important theme: understanding.
Empathy is one of the most effective ways to reach an understanding of another human being. It aids in problem-solving and making meaningful connections. Through my experience, I was allowed to reach an understanding of people in need. Though empathy was involved, familiarity also played a big part. Each day, various people came into The Salvation Army in need of assistance in different ways. Whether it was for food, clothing, or help paying rent, to be part of a resource that provides relief and peace of mind to others, and to witness it in action, brings about a sense of hope in ourselves. I believe this was the goal of the course.
My mind welcomed my own relief as Tina gave me a tour of the office, the pantry, and the church, and welcomed me into the food bank family with a hug. I started out with a few hours a week, and found myself eager to shed the feeling of being a stranger among my new, mutually accepted family. At The Salvation Army, we do as much as we can to help by offering the resources that are available in Eugene. I learned about services in town that I can pass on to people I see when I’m walking downtown. Instead of continuing on with a meek apology when a donation is requested, I can offer a bit of my time to provide information of where they can go to ease their hunger, or to seek shelter from freezing temperatures. I can direct others who might need a few days of food before their next paycheck, or who have just received an eviction notice. I will be continuing my volunteer position through the holidays, as The Salvation Army will be providing Christmas boxes for families and individuals alike. Over 200 applications for Christmas boxes have been submitted. I could never have imagined helping this many people on my own. It has shown me that working together through acceptance and understanding provides the best solutions. To play a small part in something bigger and beyond myself has been a special experience for me.
~Megan McNeary

Compasses

Across all faiths and within all spirits lies a compass, a moral one of sorts.

When I look at the big picture, my compass can feel overwhelmed, off kilter even

But when the child of an incarcerated parent or the homeless on our streets come into my line of sight

My compass becomes strong and pointed in exactly the right direction.

Resistance turns to flow and impossibility becomes probability.

Faith turns into action and my soul feels alive.

This past term, I continued my internship into my Capstone. My internship was with Girl Scouts Beyond Bars and I was able to assist in connecting incarcerated mothers with their daughters, through Girl Scouts: meetings were held within prison walls and yet I watched freedom occur. I met an amazing mentor named Cassi whose heart is unmatched to any other I have ever known and I never imagined it could get any better.

Fall term came around and it was time to select a Capstone. I begged to be in one that worked with adjudicated youth and writing workshops: I wasn’t able to get in, so I prayed.

God led me to Mobilizing Hope (ironically taught by the same professor as the one who led the previous one I wanted). Throughout the term, I evaluated and re-evaluated my own faith. I was able to learn of different perspectives from my classmates and my professor (whose name is Deb).

What I learned is that even those who have been placed on a pedestal as heroes started as ordinary people. And what has been celebrated as outcome has not nearly been stated enough as journey.

Through this course, my faith has been restored and my trek towards social justice has been renewed. I have been re-ignited and I am so grateful for this past term.

Mobilizing Hope is a journey that I will never forget.

~Kristen Griffey