Day Nine: Mission Trip Concludes in Lilongwe

Mission accomplished in Mzuzu! (details to follow when time and access allow. We are now here in Lilongwe, capital of Malawi, safe and sound. We enjoyed a great feast at the 4 star Four Seasons restaurant/resort last night. Really good food, festive setting, koi ponds, gardens, etc to help us process the nine day mission and celebrate our activities and accomplishments, lessons and gifts received from the faithful, loving people of the 'warm heart of Africa.' I do love this kind of work, and all the fun, debriefing and process times, personal transformations, and contributions to God's work in the world I witness on these missions.

No one got too sick (me not at all) on the trip. Those most physically fit got off their health and diet routine a bit, but its all good. Claire and Christian, who we left behind to continue the work as shalom interns, plan to move out of their new digs because they can't close their windows to the bugs. Back to Katoto Guest House which comparatively works better for them. Claire preaches in the UMC today and Christian will preach next week (his first sermon). Both seem comfortable and confident in their surroundings, and eager to serve and make a difference.

Three of us will continue on to JoBurg later today. The rest of the team is eager to return home (but not too eager because it really was a good and important mission trip, with significant contributions made and lasting gifts received). We all wonder how well we will re-adjust to our nomal life and routines.

I'll upload photos and details when I return home, and ask each member of the team to add a post to this mission trip blog.

Mother Shalom

South Central, Los Angeles, was the neighborhood in the city where Communities of Shalom began in 1992. I met Marx Gutierrez from El Salvador who was there attending High School at the time. He remembers what happened at the corner of Florence and Normandy Streets in South Central, LA, when Reginald Denny was pulled out of his truck and beaten while the crowd looked on and the police did nothing; and how the Rodney King beating resulted in a not-guilty verdict for the police and resulted in a major, 3-day uprising in the neighborhood, until the National Guard came in and finally imposed law and order. He can still remember the fires, the bright orange night sky, the mass looting, 45 unsolved killings, the social chaos...And how the United Methodist Churches responded by creating a zone of shalom in 7 neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Today, Marx is a community organizer, and married to Jennifer Gutierrez, Conference Shalom Coordinator in the Calif-Pacific Annual Conference, and Rev. Vilma

First Generation Lambs Club Reunion

Fifteen of us gathered Saturday night at the Lambs Club for a 35 th year reunion of those who helped start the Lamb’s Church in Times Square in the mid to late 1970’s, including: Rev. Paul S. Moore , Founder of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, and his wife, Tamara Dr. Michael J. Christensen , charter member and former associate pastor, and his wife Dr. Rebecca Laird Fr. William (BJ) Webe r, former Associate Pastor and Director of the Lamb’s Residency, and his wife Sheila who lived at the Lamb’s Jim and Dustee Hullinger, who were on staff together and made the Lamb’s their home for over 25 years Effie Canepa , who was the church pianist under 3 pastors, and her husband Peter Shirley Close, who attended the Lamb’s in the late 1970’s while studying, performing and teaching music and voice Carl "Chappy" Valente , former associate pastor Rev. Bob DiQuatto , lead singer of the Church’s “Manhattan Project” and staff member of the Lamb’s, and his son Jason Rev. Gabriel

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry, Drew University; and International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book. In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives. Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth. When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A Theology of Liberation (Henri Nouwen

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