Generally...

Hi!

We've just been through Thanksgiving, and a wonderful three days with my sister. I'm soon going to be finished with my MPH, and I want to write more here, and keep in touch better. Also write a bit deeper stuff-- which is sometimes hard to do, not?

But in the meantime, a small update:
Recently, I've discovered libraries outside. They have amazing DVDs, books and eresources. The major eresource I'm hoping to use is the RosettaStone language software. Online access allows you to study any of about 12 different major language, so I'm hoping to go through the Arabic course after school ends.

One library DVD: We watched "God grew tired of us." It's the story of a few Sudanese "lost boys" who were resettled from a refugee camp to different cities in the USA. The title is from a line in the movie, one of the stars said, "I felt that God had grown tired of us, grown tired of all the bad things we were doing and decided to finish us. God grew tired of us." It was a tragic notion. Watch it if you get the chance-- few documentaries invest the time that this one did, following people all the way from the Kenyan refugee camp to the USA.

Love, Jo

El Greco

I've not been very good at updating this blog-- it's hard to get the energy I guess! We went with Ummanim and James to two museums today: the Worcester Art museum (a small museum we happened to pass), and the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Central Mass (where we had a tour).

Above is on of the greatest paintings in the Worcester Museum, a painting by el Greco, Penitent Magdalene. El Greco is known for having weird perspective-- almost as though the canvas is curved.

The Museum of Russian icons is very interesting: a wealthy businessmen from Clinton collected so many Russian icons that he decided to create his own museum to display them. In a regular museum, such icons would be in storage most of the time. Icons are venerated (but not worshipped) in the Russian Orthodox church-- they're becoming really popular again since, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russian churches need icons one again.

I'm really enjoying my Women and Health Policy class-- I have found something I enjoy and am good at in that class, and am trying to think of how to use it well and learn more. It's been a long time since I was happy with a paper/essay I wrote, so I am really excited. I am so glad I'm graduating, but I do wish I could continue to study with the people I am studying with right now.

Brain Drain and Leaving Home to Study

Jo Hunter Adams

I want to challenge the notion that getting excellent training is the best way to contribute to one's home country. If my objective is to get skills to return home with, those skills should be concrete and readily translatable. There is something important to be learned by being invested in your home. Being away quickly became an investment in myself, and not in the purpose I left with. It quickly becomes grounds for arrogance.

I don't believe I am unique in this. Preparing, and working hard involves a tremendous amount of adaptation to a new environment. The skills you get are not the skills you want. You begin to think globally, but the way you thought before was important too, and you can't go back to that. Most important, work and study overseas is life, and you are changed by it. You are not only learning new things, you are putting down new roots and becoming a different person.

Studying about the whole world, as one does in the US, separates you from the colleagues you want to work with later in your career. And you are, in a very real way, closely tied to another community: a community that has no geographical roots, and no sense of investments in problems that you know well. You look outwards and analyze, rather than inwards, to think in a down-to-earth way.

We have forgotten that the right to critique a society in a valid and helpful way depends on our participation and investment in that society.

Autumn in NE, Rugby and Red Sox season...

I've been gone for a while. In the interim, South African won the World Cup Rugby, my brother and his girlfriend Julie got engaged, and the Red Sox won the first two games in the World (US) Series Baseball.

I'm enjoying my work and school this semester. Each work day is very full, which is good for me. I'm doing more at my jobs. Our Green card app is in. I have one really fantastic class this semester, called Women's Health Policy. It's a great class to end the MPH, as it brings together many different things and has excellent professors.

I'd like to write down a part of Ephesians from the Message version. (Eph 2). "Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.... Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and us insiders. he treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access through the Father... You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country."

It is remarkable that God coming to earth not only dealt with our human-God division, but also our human inter-relational problems. That's not to say these problems disappear, but that, as a Christian, I'm called to go with what Christ did for us and recognize that we are all given equal access to God. It's a difficult notion because sometimes it feels as though some people have been given so much more than others-- in talents, love, the ability to make good choices, resources, etc-- and that deeply affects how we look at the world, but I want to see those things as very temporary and secondary to access to God. Maybe that decreases condescension and also jealousy. At the same time, given how much those external blessings do affect our perspective, it's important to keep thinking of how to show God's heart and justice by blessing other people.

I'd be really grateful for your prayers for us in the next few months. I'm applying for jobs (real jobs), mainly at large NGOs. I've been getting a clearer idea of what I'd like to do, if the doors open and it seems right for our family. I'm hoping to teach public health (with history right in there, as it's everywhere!) in the long term.

Glory's memorial service

Here's a picture of Glory from Eugene and my wedding. I was so grateful she could be there (Theresa is on the left, Wonhee on the right).

Although the funeral was heartbreaking, it also showed a life that was already complete and beautiful. Her transplant doctor seemed broken that the second transplant had caused her so much pain and yet been unsuccessful. Her second umbilical cord transplant was a very new treatment. Many people said how she had thought of them and their wellbeing even in her most difficult times. I can also testify to that. Although I wasn't there at all the past 3 months so I can't know, but I thought that she could think of other people because she had already worked through her own stuff, and she was already living as she would even if it were last day here on earth.

One person, who had known Glory since before she first had bonecancer at age 14, said that she was a small, quiet, good little girl. She said, how could it be that this little girl became an incredibly powerful woman? She said it must be that Glory allowed things to happen as they happened, and allowed God to shape her in the midst of everything she went through. She was an ordinary person made extraordinary by the way that she dealt with difficult circumstances. She inspired many many people. One person who had also had cancer, and had also relapsed in the past, said that he had tried to deal with things through theology and logic-- working through difficult times through knowledge and faith that God is sovereign. He said, not that that isn't true, but Glory helped him to realise that he could also get through his treatment in a very human way, knowing that God had given him enjoyment in some moments-- spending time with Glory waiting for treatment, laughing together. I am not sure I'm explaining it very well, but I thought that what he said was a profound truth, that God does not expect us to be more than human, but only expects hopes for us to be humans who are living first of all in relation to God.

http://www.jgospel.net/list.aspx?subid=35

Glory

Our friend Glory passed away this morning during her fourth fight against cancer, as a result of complications with kidney dialysis. She was so strong and lived a really beautiful life, without trying to stand out too much. She was so Godly in a very genuine way. She was a really amazing student at Wellesley. She managed to never make her cancer the focus of any situation-- even one time I was visiting specifically because she was sick she was concerned about my well-being as much as her own. I'm so grateful for the brief time I had to know her.

http://www.jgospel.net/glory/

Greetings!

See what no eye can see, go where no foot can go, choose that which is no choice–then you may hear what makes no sound–God’s voice.

- Angelus Silsius (Quoted in How Shall We Live by Joan Chittister, OSB)

Classes started yesterday. Yeah!

At my work we're thinking about how to reach out to Somali parents to tell them about how they can get help for their children, if their children are struggling. Some children are not coping well because of their experiences in refugee camps, experiences of the civil war, etc. What's interesting is that a lot of parents believe that problems are related to not being obedient and in touch with God. As a result, they may not want to look for other kinds of help because they feel like they should just struggle through.

I thought this was interesting because it was so similar to a lot of Christians. God is with us, God has healed us of all our pain before we even ask, but I strongly believe we also have to work through things-- deaths, relationships, work, study-- in a healthy way. We can't just expect things to go away if we pray about them. Rather, we have to have faith in the end result, but really have to work hard at the things in the middle, so that we can retain or regain the joy that we're promised. I would like to have this approach with the things I go through, and also with other people who need support. Empathy is a powerful thing.

Thank you for praying for me, and for Eugene and I. Please continue to lift us up in prayer, as we lift you up, too. It's an awesome way to have fellowship together.

Yesterday I went over Day 5 of Purpose Driven Life. It has a lot more meaning trying to go through the book a second time, I highly recommend trying it out twice. Anyway, it emphasizes that Christians should approach life as a test. From this perspective, events are meant as a training time. Two verses (Using the Message translation) stood out:
God keeps his promise, and he will not test you beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.
and
Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness.

Have an great Wednesday!