Orientation (17 – 21 June)

Orientation was a blast. We stayed at the First Presbyterian Church of Miami Springs, along with Trek teams heading to Mexico City, Lima, Tegucigalpa, and Sudanese refugees in Cairo. The daily schedule went something like this: we began with a group prayer liturgy, spent time in personal devotions, worshipped as a group, talks or workshops about poverty or cross-cultural ministry, had free time, time with our team, and a worship / speech session in the evening.

One of the first speeches was given by Scott Bessenecker, who heads the Global Urban Trek program and who wrote the book The New Friars, which describes the movement of incarnational ministry that we were going to get a taste of for the summer. There was one point he made that really stuck with me. He talked a bit about how we were heading to cities with high pollution and how we would encounter foul odors, and he encouraged us not to avoid these sensations and experiences and to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us in those unpleasant situations. Then he flipped the idea on its head: He encouraged us to be grateful for our chance to breathe clean air in a spiritual sense on the trip. In our modern, wealthy society there are so many things to distract us from seeking God’s best for us, and it’s easy for his truth to get watered down in our self-centeredness and materialism. Rather than thinking about the physical air problems, Scott focused us on our need to get away from the noxious fumes that paralyze us spiritually in the West and have a time of detoxification for our souls. This thought has stayed with me because I have seen its truth. Never have I needed to rely on God so constantly and never have I sought to serve him so consistently as in Mokattam.

Besides learning and being prepared in lots of ways, we also had a lot of fun. One of the nights our worship session spilled outside of the building as we sang and danced to a Haitian Creole praise song. In some free times I got to warm up my long dormant soccer muscles. Our team was also great: several guys quickly discovered their common love of rhythm and often broke into spontaneous beatboxing sessions. There was a lot of camaraderie and playful energy even right at the start. Stephen, a Korean, taught us some SKGs (stupid Korean games) which could be played in large groups, and these brought us together so much that Chloe, our director, started calling our group Sam Yuk Gu, the name of one of the games. By the time we left the church for the airport at the end of orientation, we were really excited to be working together.

Wow. It's over. But keep reading!

Here I am sitting in my bedroom in New York. After a few days of being home, my bedroom is about how I left it (cluttered). The rest of my family has had an enjoyable but relatively uneventful summer. It is tempting to think that I left just yesterday, and that the six weeks I spent away are just a blip in my schedule. That's not true, though.

Between June 17th and July 31st I heard talks and took part in discussions on the gospel, the poor, and what they mean to each other; I went places and did things that were outside of my comfort zone; and I met and befriended people whose entire lives and destinies are bound up in one neighborhood on the edge of Cairo. My view of the world has changed as I encountered theirs, and I don't want it to just change back. There are things that I have learned on this Trek that I want to carry with me my whole life.

Because of this, and because you, my readers, want to hear more about my summer, I am continuing this blog. I am sorry that I could not update it during the Trek, there just never was enough internet time. Beginning now, I am reading through my journal, and as I do so I will post to this blog with summaries of what happened and reflections on things that were important. I don't know when I will finish this, as I am simultaneously trying to get my things together and move out to Boulder, CO for grad school. There will be more details coming soon, though, so please stay tuned!