hope

5 experiences since my last post have prompted me to constant thinking on hope.

i haven't mentioned much about the large amount of reading that i have been doing since i have been here, but, as proof, i finished david wilkerson's "the cross and the switchblade" in a mere 40 hours. being quite sick and mostly inactive provided me just the opportunity i wanted to immerse myself in the lives of the boys and girls wilkerson encountered in nyc gangs. the book is about his "crusade...into the streets and slums of ny to preach the gospel of redemption..." (back cover) what a heartwrenching book to see how the lives of the children were changed. they were given hope in a world where their idea of hope was in brotherhood, drugs, and sex. the herion addictions were real, but the new life was real too. hope was given.

all the while i was reading that book, i had been doing reading in mark's gospel paying close attention to who, how, and why Christ loved the people He did. in mark 9 and 10 alone, i read about a demon possessed child, rich young ruler, blind man, and children all being shown love and hope. Jesus knew whether or not they were going to receive it, yet He still loved them. i want to share that love. i want to share that hope.

my old pastor, pastor tom, once said that he wouldn't be comfortable going to a church that wasn't multiethnic. to be honest with you, i had trouble with that statement. i had, after all, grown up in an all-white country church in rural missouri and, as far as i was concerned, i had turned out just fine. as i gave it more thought, though, my trouble with the statement went away. while at eastman, i was active at a korean church with other white, black, korean, chinese, and japanese people, and there was something to that time that made it very special; seeing that Jesus' love had no boundries. i was a white country boy who taught sunday school with a korean ex-gang member, but we were both shown and were showing Jesus' love. what i came to understand is that pastor tom didn't mean just multiethnic but instead meant multi-professioned, multi-classed, multi-educated, multi-aged, and multi-personalited just to name a few. what i have continued to experience after leaving rochester are, thankfully, more of the same. new haven has been wonderful. what i experienced on sunday, though, brought me joy that i couldn't hide and even now makes me nearly jump for joy as i begin to replay it in my mind. i attended sunday school and a service at st. andrew's presbyterian church, international church of kuala lumpur. initially i was nervous not knowing anyone, but was immediately welcomed by a chinese man and a couple 7 yr old malay girls. after i found the room at which we would study colossians 1, i was welcomed not only by the smiles and handshakes but by biblically sound discussions of Christ, our sinfullness, and the redemptive plan through Him which brings limitless thankfulness. while that alone is enough to make me smile until tomorrow, the service is where i was nearly brought to tears. it began with my seat between an irish lady, shirley, who's husband works for exxon and a malay man, definitely can't pronounce let alone remember his name, with his wife and two incredibly cute daughters in front of us. this old building that you would have thought was built in england in a beautiful green field before being delivered to kuala lumpur was completely packed with men, women, and children from all areas of the world. during singing, a single pew had chinese men lifting hands, malay girls with eyes closed, african men dancing while wearing traditional african clothes, and an american man with one hand raised and his other arm around his wife. the service was directed by an indian woman with the sermon preached by a man from new zealand. there is hope for a world where men, women, and childern of all nations can worship freely together regardless of anything. that is hope and love expressed freely. if only malaysia were a nation where men and women of muslim descent were allowed to leave that religion freely. i was denied prompt taxi service to the church and was mocked while holding a bible on the walk back to my hotel, but that isn't a cause for anger. it is a cause for sadness and a prompt to love.

just two nights later i was invited to celebrate a fellow orchestra member's birthday. after an amazing meal at a vegetarian indian place in little india, we walked through a part of town that showed me the two extremes of kuala lumpur juxtaposed on opposite sides of the street. on one side of the street there were amazing restaurants and bars while the other was the slums. i have lived in rochester and new haven and visited nyc, san fran, dc, macao, tokyo, taipei and many other large cities but never had i experienced the two extremes literally on the same street. it was simply a case of a wealthy contractor buying one side of the street. i didn't see anyone on the slum side of the street since it was night, but i would guess that in their eyes, looking at the wealthy side of the street, would either be a bit of hope for some wealth or a bit of fear that they would soon lose their homes to yet another hopeful contractor trying to make some more bucks.

the fifth experience occured just last night, and it was the viewing of "slumdog millionaire." if you know anything about the movie you can definitely see why i have lumped this experience into this blog. i am not going to provide commentary because it won 8 oscars and plenty of movie critics could do a much better job, but i will say that my viewing wasn't a happy ending. instead, i was left prompted to constant thinking on hope.