New movie: Fambul Tok (Family Talk)

Good news tends to get buried.  It has trouble competing with  head-line grabbers promoting the bizarre and frightening.

Fambul Tok is good news worth sharing.  It's the story of forgiveness and reconciliation quietly bringing Sierra Leone together after the horrors of a wretched civil war.

In Africa, before the colonial powers arrived, the people in a village would get together in the evening to discuss the events of the day, and to solve any problems that had arisen.  It was fambul tok, or family talk.

The first video is a trailer for the movie.  The second explains the concept of fambul tok, and the hopes for healing.

It's a logic of restoration -- helping perpetrators become useful community members again, rather than imprisonment.  See what you think.

Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself. 

~Harriet Nelson

Is it our nature to do good?

I believe it is man's nature to be and do good.

Sometimes that goodness has to be sought and nurtured for it to find its expression.

I just read a first-hand account written by one who, as a young man, served in the Air Force during the Vietnam and Cold War years. His post was in Japan at an understaffed air defense missile site and, as a lowly Specialist, he was also the senior enlisted person in the missile section.

Distressed by the troubled state of his world, he had begun reading the Bible and Science and Health, trying to make some sense out of his life in relation to these conflicts. A military chaplain and his wife befriended the young man, and he began to feel a quiet and gentle sense of love and support. He was finding meaning for his life and growing spiritually.

In his military assignment, he and his crew responded to many alerts each day, prepared to shoot down unauthorized aircraft. Usually the planes triggering these alerts were identified within a couple of minutes, and the alert was cancelled. However one day his crew was startled to have progressed to the final seconds of the final countdown. The aircraft had not identified itself as either “friend or foe.”

To add to the confusion, the command center that would give the final orders - was unexplainably silent. While his fellow crewmen were shouting at him to fire the missile, he prayed to God to know what to do, and it came to him very clearly to not fire. So he aborted the missile. In violation of all his orders, he went to find out what was going on in the command center about a mile away.

There he discovered the soldier managing the alert had physically collapsed, and no one knew he was not fulfilling his job. The plane in question was a troop carrier full of GIs who, had they known, would have been very grateful they had not been shot down. The young man was praised for his unusual actions that day which saved many lives.

So yes, each of us matters. Each of us has wonderful potential to make a difference for good - although perhaps not as dramatically as that airman. Even so we each have the ability to be and do good things in our lives that bless not only us, but those around us.

What counts most is an honest desire to do right. What shapes and moves that desire involves discovering something of our relationship to God, Father-Mother Mind, the creator of the universe who knows and loves each of us, trusting that relationship, and letting it move us forward.

____________________________

The account referred to can be found in a newly published book,
The Christian Science Military Ministry: 1917-2004,
by Kim M. Schuette, starting on page 127.

Brockton Publishing Company, Indianpolis, IN
1-317-487-6868
brocktonpublishing@sbcglobal.net

Sweet celebration --Veteran’s Day

Alan introduces himself

and his shy "patriot"

At Jefferson grade school, all the kids were urged to bring a vet to school at 1 pm last Friday. The kids who invited their vets were called “patriots.” Patriots is also the name of the school mascot. About 60 veterans showed up for the program in the school library, including my friend Alan with his granddaughter.

The principal warmly welcomed the vets, and invited everyone to sing the National Anthem. The sixth grade chorus in bright red polo shirts sang “Grateful to be American.” Two kids read a neat patriotic poem of gratitude to those who have fought for our freedoms.

Then came the best – and longest – part. Each vet accompanied by his “patriot(s)” went to the microphone, and read from a little sheet they’d filled out when they came in. They told their name, branch of service and years they served, their highest rank attained, and their “patriot’s” name and grade.

The whole room was totally attentive! Vets of all ages, every branch of service, were each honored with a great round of applause. Some had served 8 or 9 years or more; some were career guys; some on active duty – one just back from Iraq, another re-deploying in February. One harked back to WW II. Some were in uniform, some not – from all walks of life.

Group photos of the men (no women this time) with their military branches followed these individual introductions. Then began a great parade through flag-decked school halls, lined on both sides with 800 clapping, cheering, children and their teachers.

Think 6, 9, 12 years old. And you and your brother/uncle/dad/grandpa are being cheered by your classmates, because of their service to their country. What a special memory!

Gratitude is always appropriate. Appreciation for another's sacrifice is never out of fashion. And honoring those who have put their lives on the line for their country speaks of generosity and caring.

Thanks NF for the photo!

Joyeux Noël, Merry Christmas

Christmas eve truce 1914

I know, it's July, and it's hot. But this is a happening with heart, and it cannot wait.

Joyeux Noël. Merry Christmas. True story.

A miracle works its way gently into the hearts and minds of troops shooting at each other from WW I trenches in France.

Three lieutenants – Scottish, German, and French – agree to a Christmas eve truce. Some 600 soldiers leave their rifles behind and tentatively cross the war-scarred frozen earth to exchange pieces of chocolate, share photos of loved ones, play soccer, and –- discover they do not hate each other.

By mutual agreement, they extend the truce to Christmas day -- so that each side can bury their dead.

When the Germans get word that the Scottish and French lines will be shelled in ten minutes, they invite their former enemies to take shelter in the German trenches. The allied troops reciprocate, and the Germans shelter in the allied trenches when the bombardment is returned.

The big brass arrive at the front and order firing to resume, but the soldiers will not fire at one another. Their Christmas truce is exposed, and they are all punished for fraternizing with the enemy by being sent to different and more dangerous fronts.

This story strikes home because my maternal grandfather was there. My mom’s father, Walter, was with those Scottish troops on December 24, 1914, and he told his children about that amazing Christmas Eve truce.

It’s hard to relate that war to Iraq and Afghanistan today – where there is no front, and the enemy is not obvious; where the danger is unseen ambushes and hidden Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

Yet the constant is universal humanity. The constant is one universal God who is Love. The constant is Christ, the divine goodness expressed in each of us. The constant is a universal yearning for peace and good-will.

Peace begins in the hearts and minds of individuals – you and me. We have it within our ability to bring peace to our own sphere – our families, friends, neighbors, colleagues. It's a place to start.

The Christian apostle Paul wrote, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

The more our lives are defined by our relationship to this God of Love, the more stable and grounded will be our inner peace, the more others will feel this calm. Inner peace allows intelligent, thoughtful, out-of-the-box solutions to emerge and influence the world scene.

One review of the DVD

Praying for those in danger

Holly's a generous and gracious friend. She hosted a fun and different kind of party the other day, for a few moms, their kids, a couple of grandmas. We brought food snacks and home baked cookies. Holly supplied toiletries and “flat rate” boxes from the post office.

She sat the children at a long dining room table with paper, pencils, and crayons, and a list of the names of a dozen soldiers. They selected a name and began writing: “Dear Fred” or “Dear Victoria” (yes, there are women serving) telling who they were, what school grade they were in, and thanking the soldiers for serving.

The youngest drew crayon pictures. Maybe they’ll decorate a soldier’s barracks somewhere.

While the kids wrote, we packed the treat boxes, which we hoped would help the soldiers feel loved and cared for.

Some moms at the party support the war, some do not. But we all care about the men and women so far from home, so distant from the sanity of life without ambushes and hidden explosives.

A couple of days later, Holly took a dozen filled boxes to the post office. She sent each one with a prayer for the protection, good judgment, peace of mind, and safe return of the soldier whose name was on the box.

The 91st Psalm, that wonderful song of safety and protection and trust in God’s care includes this promise – that God will deliver us from the snare of the fowler.

3,000 years ago trappers of birds set snares and carefully hid them under dust to capture unwary fowls. Even though that song-writer could not know about the hidden snares of the 21st century, the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs ), the same God can be leaned on to deliver from harm today.

As those care boxes fly across the Atlantic, I too pray for the safety of these men and women. That they hear the angel voices that warn them of danger and guide them on safe routes; that even in the chaos of war they find comfort and peace of mind.

I pray for the people of Iraq and Afgahnistan too, that they find the same comfort, the same care and protection from a loving God who is impartial in his goodness.

-----------------------------------------
I will say of the Lord,
He is my refuge and my fortress, my God
on Him I lean and rely,
and in Him I confidently trust.

For then He will deliver you
from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
-----------------------------------------

Do you have any loved ones in harms' way? How do you pray for them?

mysoldier.com

anysoldier.com

God's protection isn't flimsy

exquisite work of art

Someone sent this story about a Marine on a Pacific Island in WW II.

Separated from his unit during intense fighting, he took refuge on a high ridge in one of several small caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized that as the enemy swept up the hill, they would search the caves and he would be killed.

While he waited, he prayed, “Dear Lord, if it be your will, please protect me. Whatever your will, though, I love you and trust you. Amen.”

As he listened to the enemy searching for him, a little spider began her work on a web – right across the cave door. Strand after strand the spider weaved.

It struck the Marine as funny that while he had hoped for a brick wall, the Lord had sent him a spider. He figured God had a sense of humor.

The enemy drew closer. From the darkness of his hiding place, he could see them approach, and he got ready to make his last stand. After a glance in his direction, though, the patrol moved on. He realized that the spider web across the cave opening indicated that the cave was empty.

Humbly, the soldier prayed, “Lord forgive me, I had forgotten that in your eyes a spider’s web is as good as a brick wall.”

Whether this exact story is true or not, the point is a good one - as many WW II GIs, and today's soldiers as well, can affirm - that God's protection isn't flimsy, and it can come in surprising ways.

Whoever goes to the Lord for safety, remains under His protection. (Psalm 91)