Mourning Baby Mirari

I woke up yesterday (Sunday) starting to write a post about a week that just came to an end as a Tri-S group of students left on Saturday following a strong, positive week of service during their Spring Break.  Unexpectedly, Jenny received a phone call at 7:30, with the quick, wailing explanation that baby Mirari passed away.

We are shocked.  This is a baby that our families have been involved with since her birth when they found out she has a rare genetic disease and requires extreme dietary measures to stay alive.  The group that visited last week delivered the next load of milk formula for her (allowing us to skip the 'shipping costs'), so she had plenty of it to last for more than a month.  We've always known the risk as she grows older, and the statistics that she's not likely to reach adulthood, but she seemed so healthy, so beautiful just a mere one week ago.

Please pray for this family to be released of their anger and to be comforted and held lovingly.  This mother had previously lost 3 babies, unknowingly to this same genetic disease (MSUD), then they were finally able to diagnose Mirari to help prolong her life.  She would have been 2 years old in July.

So our day yesterday was filled with grieving and a trip to Parramos, to show our love and support to the family.

Windows and Mirrors - a reflection on war

On Friday, David and I went to a traveling mural project based on the war in Afghanistan. It's called Windows and Mirrors and it's been created by the American Friends Service Committee. I had prepared myself ahead of time...I don't like war. I don't like movies based on war. I don't like seeing images of war. It's all very difficult for me and unsettling. In my opinion, war is a terrible thing. It separates loved ones, it divides countries, it makes people powerless over their own lives, it somehow justifies the taking of life, and it easily creates enemies. This war is now the longest in US history, taking the lives of more than 1,500 American troops and over 8,000 Afghan civilians, and costing the US nearly $2 billion every week. I think one of the most difficult things about going to Windows and Mirrors was accepting my role in this war. I'm an American. I pay taxes. I contribute. Like it or not.

If you've got the time and heart, I encourage you to look at some of these pictures that were drawn by high school students in Kabul. They were asked to draw pictures of their experience with war. What's the old saying? A picture is worth a thousand words...
There was one mural in particular that struck me. It was a web of homes and people and smoke. And the caption read:

"First world, third world - we seem to float on different planes - but, really, it's just this one world. Here we are, sheltered in our intact homes, caught up in the bustle of our lives. Little by little, we have covered it up - that web running through us all...it's abstract - a war happening in another country foreign and distant, but it's up to us to make it realistic - tangible. We must imagine our homes in piles of rubble - our cities up in smoke."

I think this speaks to me on many levels. We can so easily live on a different plane, distant and distracted from the plight of our brothers and sisters all over the world. Our first world status can become a crutch, disabling us from seeing the pain that we are connected to. Disabling us from working to create a change, a better way.

1985 Witness

Imagine being raised with the goal of causing no harm to others, and better yet no knowledge of violence. But then, all of a sudden, you catch wind of a society where guns exist, violence occurs daily, and everyone pursues to benefit themselves. That is the portrayal of the Amish boy in the film "Witness", with Harrison Ford, who acts as a police officer. Yes, it is an older movie.

An Amish community is caring for an injured and endangered Harrison Ford, and the young boy stumbles into holding Ford's hand gun, until he gets scolded by Ford who says "don't ever, ever touch a loaded gun".  Ford, the police officer, ultimately does respect the Amish way of life by handing over his gun, but it's as if he's trying to keep the boy from venturing out into the "world" where the danger lingers.  Don't we all attempt to keep our families and loved ones safe?  Yet do we still advocate for the law to provide us with freedom, the same freedom to which some may choose to cause harm?  I am not seeking to stretch to the point that guns should not exist, but I am seeking for an alternative to our common answer that the best way to protect our loved ones is to hurt someone else's loved one, if need be to our own justification.

The boy sits with his grandfather, who begins teaching the boy a lesson, "We believe it is wrong to take the life; that is only for God. Many times wars have come and people have said to us "you must fight, you must kill. It is the only way to preserve the good."  There is never only one way, remember that," he says. So questions are raised...would you kill another man?  The boy answers "Only the bad man," he would kill ...You know a man is bad by your sight?  "I can see what they do," replies the boy.  Grandfather responds, implying it is a choice, "And having seen [a bad man], you become one of them?  What you take into your hands, you take into your heart."

"Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." 2 Corinthians 6:17

-> "The person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him" - 1 Corinthians 6:17

Q of D and Breaking News

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." -- Martin Luther King, Jr

Osama bin Laden was killed by US force yesterday in Pakistan...you know the story.  After nearly 10 years since the tragic terrorist attacks, bin Laden was finally successfully located and raided at his compound.  I share the quote above not to condemn those who rejoice or celebrate the occasion of his death, but to present an alternative perspective that is often not given thought through media or mainstream society.  What does the death of bin Laden mean, other than bin Laden will no longer be able to conduct terror?  I am very thankful for those whose innocent lives were spared by this event (ie future terror attacks that may not be able to be implemented because of his death, etc), but I struggle to accept my right to celebrate at the death of a man who breathed life on this Earth, though severely sinful.

Have we as a nation done all we need to do to prevent future terrorist attacks?  What is the "all things considered" perspective as to why we were attacked in the first place?

I urge you to move from this point forward in such a way that presents peace.  Surely it is not the fighting that will improve our standing in this world.