Activism

Learning how to love mercy, seek justice and walk humbly. (Micah 6:8)

June 15, 2010

On the Jesus? posst last week, I talked about a little girl who I adore and her family. Yesterday their mom brought them to the center and it looks like they are going to return to our daily program today! I'm so glad about this.

The down side is that when their mom works, their dad, who doesn't work, usually makes M stay home to take care of the younger kids. Which means she can't come to the center on those days. I also learned that her twin brother passed on to the next grade level while she was held back. This could be a good thing for her, but I'm also afraid that it's an omen of her life to come: always being left behind.

Please pray I'm wrong. Pray that BIG things will happen in this family. Pray that the dad would go to work and their little worn out mama would be able to rest. Pray that M will come to the center every day. Pray that they'll get to go to school. Pray that the Spirit would move in hearts and that lives would be changed.



June 14, 2010

I thought this was a really great article and a good point.



IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.
Yet if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater. “Women hold up half the sky,” in the words of a Chinese saying, yet that’s mostly an aspiration: in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos. There’s a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. That’s why foreign aid is increasingly directed to women. The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem; they’re the solution.
One place to observe this alchemy of gender is in the muddy back alleys of Pakistan. In a slum outside the grand old city of Lahore, a woman named Saima Muhammad used to dissolve into tears every evening. A round-faced woman with thick black hair tucked into a head scarf, Saima had barely a rupee, and her deadbeat husband was unemployed and not particularly employable. He was frustrated and angry, and he coped by beating Saima each afternoon. Their house was falling apart, and Saima had to send her young daughter to live with an aunt, because there wasn’t enough food to go around.
“My sister-in-law made fun of me, saying, ‘You can’t even feed your children,’ ” recalled Saima when Nick met her two years ago on a trip to Pakistan. “My husband beat me up. My brother-in-law beat me up. I had an awful life.” Saima’s husband accumulated a debt of more than $3,000, and it seemed that these loans would hang over the family for generations. Then when Saima’s second child was born and turned out to be a girl as well, her mother-in-law, a harsh, blunt woman named Sharifa Bibi, raised the stakes.
“She’s not going to have a son,” Sharifa told Saima’s husband, in front of her. “So you should marry again. Take a second wife.” Saima was shattered and ran off sobbing. Another wife would leave even less money to feed and educate the children. And Saima herself would be marginalized in the household, cast off like an old sock. For days Saima walked around in a daze, her eyes red; the slightest incident would send her collapsing into hysterical tears.
It was at that point that Saima signed up with the Kashf Foundation, a Pakistani microfinance organization that lends tiny amounts of money to poor women to start businesses. Kashf is typical of microfinance institutions, in that it lends almost exclusively to women, in groups of 25. The women guarantee one another’s debts and meet every two weeks to make payments and discuss a social issue, like family planning or schooling for girls. A Pakistani woman is often forbidden to leave the house without her husband’s permission, but husbands tolerate these meetings because the women return with cash and investment ideas.
Saima took out a $65 loan and used the money to buy beads and cloth, which she transformed into beautiful embroidery that she then sold to merchants in the markets of Lahore. She used the profit to buy more beads and cloth, and soon she had an embroidery business and was earning a solid income — the only one in her household to do so. Saima took her elder daughter back from the aunt and began paying off her husband’s debt.
When merchants requested more embroidery than Saima could produce, she paid neighbors to assist her. Eventually 30 families were working for her, and she put her husband to work as well — “under my direction,” she explained with a twinkle in her eye. Saima became the tycoon of the neighborhood, and she was able to pay off her husband’s entire debt, keep her daughters in school, renovate the house, connect running water and buy a television.
“Now everyone comes to me to borrow money, the same ones who used to criticize me,” Saima said, beaming in satisfaction. “And the children of those who used to criticize me now come to my house to watch TV.”
Today, Saima is a bit plump and displays a gold nose ring as well as several other rings and bracelets on each wrist. She exudes self-confidence as she offers a grand tour of her home and work area, ostentatiously showing off the television and the new plumbing. She doesn’t even pretend to be subordinate to her husband. He spends his days mostly loafing around, occasionally helping with the work but always having to accept orders from his wife. He has become more impressed with females in general: Saima had a third child, also a girl, but now that’s not a problem. “Girls are just as good as boys,” he explained.



June 11, 2010



I wrote this post in 2006, and thought I'd share it again today:

I'm in the process of joining a church, something I don't think I'd ever thought I'd do, but I'm excited about. I'm eager to covenant with other Believers and live a life of gratitude with them. There's just one thing I've been struggling with, and that is their position about women in the church. Now, I wouldn't call myself this die hard feminist, but I do believe that being a woman has made me more aware of those who are marginalized in the world, and therefore has shaped my calling. I'm also aware that I'm theologically conservative, for the most part, that is. That is why I feel comfortable becoming a member at my church, because it, too, is theologically conservative. I have also almost completely dedicated my life to social justice, which conservative groups are only just now beginning to awaken to. The church I've been going to, however, feels strongly about social justice and serving the poor, which is another reason I feel comfortable becoming a member.

But. The age old debate, the role of women in the church and, I guess, therefore in life, comes up and I'm faced with old ghosts. I haven't studied this issue extensively, but from what I can tell some of the hard and fast scriptures which support a male only clergy, are mostly cultural. Like headcoverings and holy kisses. Or slaves and scrubbing mildew off of walls. Additionally, I know Adam was made first and as a result of the Fall he would rule over Eve. But, it also seems that Eve was the crown of God's creation, created last as the final touch. Created to 'be as one who saves,' as that passage should most closely be translated (instead of helpmeet. The Hebrew word used here is used about 20 other times in the OT and each time it is in reference to God when we really need Him. And so it would seem, Eve appeared when Adam really needed her.) These thoughts are not my own, I read them in Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. Finally, because of Jesus we are living in a redemptive Kingdom, one that should try to see outside of the curse of the fall, and therefore past Adam's rule over Eve.

And. We are both created in the image of God. Male and Female, He made them. To silence one is to hide, even betray, part of that image and therefore keep us all from knowing more fully who God is and what He has to say to us.

So. Because of the area in which I work, I'm often thinking about the exploitation of women. My dad sent me this article the other day that mentioned some of the atrocities that are occuring to women all over the world. One of them is breast ironing where a young girls breast are ironed and beaten down when she begins to develop so that she is not atractive to any marauding men. This practice can so harm a woman that she is unable to breastfeed after she gives birth and her child may starve to death. There is also female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, which is supposed to keep a woman from enjoying sex and therefore keep her faithful to her husband. It can also cause her or her child to die during childbirth. As a result of childbirth, she may not heal correctly, leaking urine and feces, being shunned by her community and left to die. (I'm just trying to remember what I read, the article isn't in front of me...)

These practices don't occur here in the United States....mostly in Africa and Middle-Eastern countries. What do they have to do with the role of women in the church?

I think they may have everything to do with it. Since the beginning of time, women and children have been the most vulnerable creatures in creation. When devastation, war, or poverty hits, it is the women and children who suffer. As long as the majority of the church views women's roles as being different and in many ways less important, not equal to that of men's, then we are unable to truly fight any battle against the exploitation and marginalization of women elsewhere in the world. I know men, fathers and brothers, who after watching a special on Dateline about brothels in Thailand selling little girls for sex, were ready to jump on a plane and do their own raid Rambo style in order to liberate these little ones. Why is the same not true here in the United States? When many women who are hugely talented, immensely intelligent, and marvelously gifted are relegated to secretarial jobs and children's ministries, is the atrocity any less horrifying? (edited to say: In my opinion, children's ministries are the most important ministry of a church and church secretaries pretty much run a church....but both these positions are given little value).

I believe the conservative, Evangelical American church will have little voice in the world of social justice if these matters regarding women are not settled. How can we tell a little girl in Cambodia she has worth, was created in the image of God, and therefore should not have to be a sex slave, when we also define that worth as something less than a man's. Does it not appall you to think that a mother irons away a young girl's breasts so she is not appealing to a man? It should also appall us when a young American woman irons away who she is in order to remain appealing to a man, in order to save her place in the conservative Evangelical church. This has happened, hundreds of thousands of times. And in so doing, we are missing part of the image of God.

These are my ramblings....but I think they are becoming convictions. I think I believe that the church has to change if we want to see change, if we believe in justice, if we believe in the redemptive Kingdom of God, if we believe in the gospel.

My dad had 4 daughters and no sons. He has 3 granddaughters with a fourth on the way. (Acutally there's 2 on the way, but one we're certain about and the other we won't know forsure until she's born.) We have all been born into privilege, and we were all born women. Once, years ago, the statistic for a woman being raped was 1 in 4...my dad told me that. It meant that statisically speaking, one of his daughters could be raped. The same could be true for his granddaughters. This kills me. The thought of one of my neices being mutilated or violated in any way, brings out the warrior in me...as it would for my dad also.

As a woman, I want to stand in my church, I want to stand in my community, I want to stand for my sisters, my neices, my girlfriends, and for ones far off who cannot stand. I also want to stand for my four nephews, who have yet to grow into men. And while I may stand rather quietly, I will stand all the same, as an equal, both in value and in role. I will stand as a woman of prayer, who believes that as the men who lead the church truly seek God, they will come to see that that which was far off has come close, and women are their equals as much as they are their partners. This will be social justice, this will be the voice of the church saying loudly and clearly, "We will not stand for the marginalization or exploitation of any human being."

Hopefully this sparks some conversation...



June 11, 2010



I wrote this post in 2006, and thought I'd share it again today:

I'm in the process of joining a church, something I don't think I'd ever thought I'd do, but I'm excited about. I'm eager to covenant with other Believers and live a life of gratitude with them. There's just one thing I've been struggling with, and that is their position about women in the church. Now, I wouldn't call myself this die hard feminist, but I do believe that being a woman has made me more aware of those who are marginalized in the world, and therefore has shaped my calling. I'm also aware that I'm theologically conservative, for the most part, that is. That is why I feel comfortable becoming a member at my church, because it, too, is theologically conservative. I have also almost completely dedicated my life to social justice, which conservative groups are only just now beginning to awaken to. The church I've been going to, however, feels strongly about social justice and serving the poor, which is another reason I feel comfortable becoming a member.

But. The age old debate, the role of women in the church and, I guess, therefore in life, comes up and I'm faced with old ghosts. I haven't studied this issue extensively, but from what I can tell some of the hard and fast scriptures which support a male only clergy, are mostly cultural. Like headcoverings and holy kisses. Or slaves and scrubbing mildew off of walls. Additionally, I know Adam was made first and as a result of the Fall he would rule over Eve. But, it also seems that Eve was the crown of God's creation, created last as the final touch. Created to 'be as one who saves,' as that passage should most closely be translated (instead of helpmeet. The Hebrew word used here is used about 20 other times in the OT and each time it is in reference to God when we really need Him. And so it would seem, Eve appeared when Adam really needed her.) These thoughts are not my own, I read them in Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. Finally, because of Jesus we are living in a redemptive Kingdom, one that should try to see outside of the curse of the fall, and therefore past Adam's rule over Eve.

And. We are both created in the image of God. Male and Female, He made them. To silence one is to hide, even betray, part of that image and therefore keep us all from knowing more fully who God is and what He has to say to us.

So. Because of the area in which I work, I'm often thinking about the exploitation of women. My dad sent me this article the other day that mentioned some of the atrocities that are occuring to women all over the world. One of them is breast ironing where a young girls breast are ironed and beaten down when she begins to develop so that she is not atractive to any marauding men. This practice can so harm a woman that she is unable to breastfeed after she gives birth and her child may starve to death. There is also female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, which is supposed to keep a woman from enjoying sex and therefore keep her faithful to her husband. It can also cause her or her child to die during childbirth. As a result of childbirth, she may not heal correctly, leaking urine and feces, being shunned by her community and left to die. (I'm just trying to remember what I read, the article isn't in front of me...)

These practices don't occur here in the United States....mostly in Africa and Middle-Eastern countries. What do they have to do with the role of women in the church?

I think they may have everything to do with it. Since the beginning of time, women and children have been the most vulnerable creatures in creation. When devastation, war, or poverty hits, it is the women and children who suffer. As long as the majority of the church views women's roles as being different and in many ways less important, not equal to that of men's, then we are unable to truly fight any battle against the exploitation and marginalization of women elsewhere in the world. I know men, fathers and brothers, who after watching a special on Dateline about brothels in Thailand selling little girls for sex, were ready to jump on a plane and do their own raid Rambo style in order to liberate these little ones. Why is the same not true here in the United States? When many women who are hugely talented, immensely intelligent, and marvelously gifted are relegated to secretarial jobs and children's ministries, is the atrocity any less horrifying? (edited to say: In my opinion, children's ministries are the most important ministry of a church and church secretaries pretty much run a church....but both these positions are given little value).

I believe the conservative, Evangelical American church will have little voice in the world of social justice if these matters regarding women are not settled. How can we tell a little girl in Cambodia she has worth, was created in the image of God, and therefore should not have to be a sex slave, when we also define that worth as something less than a man's. Does it not appall you to think that a mother irons away a young girl's breasts so she is not appealing to a man? It should also appall us when a young American woman irons away who she is in order to remain appealing to a man, in order to save her place in the conservative Evangelical church. This has happened, hundreds of thousands of times. And in so doing, we are missing part of the image of God.

These are my ramblings....but I think they are becoming convictions. I think I believe that the church has to change if we want to see change, if we believe in justice, if we believe in the redemptive Kingdom of God, if we believe in the gospel.

My dad had 4 daughters and no sons. He has 3 granddaughters with a fourth on the way. (Acutally there's 2 on the way, but one we're certain about and the other we won't know forsure until she's born.) We have all been born into privilege, and we were all born women. Once, years ago, the statistic for a woman being raped was 1 in 4...my dad told me that. It meant that statisically speaking, one of his daughters could be raped. The same could be true for his granddaughters. This kills me. The thought of one of my neices being mutilated or violated in any way, brings out the warrior in me...as it would for my dad also.

As a woman, I want to stand in my church, I want to stand in my community, I want to stand for my sisters, my neices, my girlfriends, and for ones far off who cannot stand. I also want to stand for my four nephews, who have yet to grow into men. And while I may stand rather quietly, I will stand all the same, as an equal, both in value and in role. I will stand as a woman of prayer, who believes that as the men who lead the church truly seek God, they will come to see that that which was far off has come close, and women are their equals as much as they are their partners. This will be social justice, this will be the voice of the church saying loudly and clearly, "We will not stand for the marginalization or exploitation of any human being."

Hopefully this sparks some conversation...



June 07, 2010

Last Tuesday, June 1, was Children's Day here in Romania. We celebrated our kids by writing them special notes and giving them a bag of candy which we then secretly tucked away into their lockers for them to find. We also eased up on the homework this day, just letting them enjoy some play time, and we in turn enjoying them.

What a gift they are, to all of us, whether you know them personally or not, these kids, they are a treasure.








Written in chalk are the messages: Happy Children's Day, the date, and some of their names.




June 2, 2010

Dear Friends and Family:

On Monday, my birthday, Bela and I were on our way to do some grocery shopping. We were in his dad’s little old Oltcet, encrusted with the grime of both birds and tree sap after sitting in the parking lot for a couple of weeks.

We were waiting at a stop light when we saw a little boy begging. He was going from car window to car window, holding out his hand, asking for money. He came to ours and I smiled big while Bela said brightly: Cum te cheama? (What’s your name?)

The boy didn’t stay long. His lips murmured something I couldn’t understand and he walked away.

He haunted me, because, for being so little, there was no life in his eyes. Maybe he was 10, but when I smiled at him and looked him in the eye, and he looked back, nothing was there. It was as if he’d already lived a million empty hours and days. It was as if he was hiding behind emptiness so we wouldn’t see what was really there, else we expose it.

I’m certain he gets yelled at and hit by those same people he is asking to mercifully give. I’m sure I would hide, too, so that when he is denied, no one can see defeat in his eyes, or shame, or hurt.

And in those same eyes that are hiding so much, joy and hope and love are hiding, too.

I tell you about this little boy because many of our kids are in the same place. We don’t allow them to beg and come to the center, but many used to beg. And many still spend countless hours on the streets, learning to hide.

Please pray for Victor and Adi and Alin and Robert. These four especially are used to life on the street.

Also, we will be in the states this summer visiting Portland, Seattle, Redlands, Omaha, and Houston. We’ll be in touch about getting together! We continue to be so thankful for you and your support.

Much love,
Bela and April Ispas



May 28, 2010

I met this little girl on the street the other day when I was walking with 'C' (I'll be posting more of the pictures I took with him next week.)
What first caught our eye that day, were the puppies...and this little girl running down the street and taking them into her arms. There were lots of them, the puppies, and most had tawny fur and light eyes. They were pretty.
She talked to us, and was trying to take 3 of them in her arms. Which, she did. And then she walked down the street with them, juggling them, choking them, until she arrived at her gate. She left us then, taking the puppies. She said she had milk for them.
Not sure that there is anything special in this little picture, or in this story. Maybe there is. I'd love to hear what it is you see.
I mostly just see this little cute girl wanting to care for little puppies. And it doesn't get much sweeter than that.




May 24, 2010
From the book Caretakers of Our Common House by Carol Lakey Hess, pg.38:
We need to recognize the complexity of sin and, most important, we need to acknowledge the way in which the pride of the powerful depends upon and is fueled by the self-sacrifice of others. We will never overcome pride simply by denouncing the proud; we must also empower those who would be victims - or inadvertent accomplices - of selfish pride.

May 18, 2010
Attention Whole Foods Shoppers!
A friend sent me an article about organic farming that I thought raised some really going points. You should take a look at it...click HERE.

Make sure to leave a comment...I'd love to hear what you have to say about this article!

May 12, 2010

Whispers
In my bed
I wake to the whisper of
a name
the ghost of her face
passing through my soul
lingering, before evaporating.
I stay
for a drowsy moment
and whisper the same name,
try to reach the mist filled face,
before I sleep.

But You-
Who know no rest
Who needs no time to sleep-
Are you always whispering their names?
While they play futbol in dusty allies
Are you murmuring the names chisled from days ancient?
As they sit forgotten in the backs of classrooms,
and walk steep dark stairs
to single room apartments
are you reciting their names like beads of a rosary?

Are their vanishing lives
fading with the strong economy?
But are more easily unnoticed
than the downward dollar
as they slip slip slip
out of my grasp
and I fear
that I simply tried to hold a ghost.

Do you whisper their names?

May 11, 2010

The Better World Shopping Guide by Ellis Jones
(click on title for link to book on Amazon)

Our friend Mary Margaret sent the community in Galati this little book a few months back. It's filled with great information about companies and corporations that are working to be ethically minded (or not) in the ways they produce and manufacture their products. The subtitle of the book is: Every dollar you spend is a vote for the world you want to live in. Whether it's environmental issues or worker's rights in developing nations, this book will help you make more informed decisions regarding anything from soda drinks to cosmetics to electronics. It's small size makes it easy to take with you when you're shopping and it's sold for a great price.

In the opening of the book, the author says this:
Because you may never hear it from anyone else, on behalf of all the people on this planet whom you will never meet and all the natural places you will never see...thank you.

Also, check out these websites:
New Society
Better World Shopper