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This month’s Update is a supportive summons to act with integrity and courage in our lives. We encourage us all to take the time to review these resources—they are meant to support us as we “count the cost” of doing what is right and helping vulnerable people.
The first set of resources features three thought-provoking items: a) a TEDx presentation by a humanitarian journalist on her experiences covering war and the courage of ordinary people; b) a compelling exegesis on Christ’s parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25; and c) the millennial homily by John Paul II honoring Christian martyrs in the 20th century. The second set of resources feature three items that point us towards the personal qualities needed to do member care and mission/aid well: a) the recent Global Integration webinar on healing/mental health in our violent world; b) the compilation of articles in b) the compilation of articles in Sorrow and Blood and in c) Serving Jesus with Integrity. We finish this Update by taking the call for integrity and courage to the macro level: the final video lecture from Jeffery Sach’s online course on The Age of Sustainable Development. This summary on safeguarding the world’s future—people and the planet— is not to be missed!
Warm greetings from Geneva,
Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell
Courage is the most important of all the virtues,
because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
Maya Angelou
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Part One
Counting the Cost
Image courtesy IRIN; Central Africa Republic
What I Saw in War. This TEDx presentation features Janine di Giovanni, a war correspondent with Newsweek. (12 minutes, subtitles available in 32 languages, recorded in 2013. Janine candidly shares about some her experiences covering war and highlights the courage of ordinary people. Sobering and inspiring! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2hQL9Zrokk) Listen also to the interview with Janine on the TED Radio Hour (National Public Radio, USA) as part of an excellent hour-long program on "Courage” (12 December 2014). See the excerpt below. http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=3&islist=true&id=57&d=12-12-2014
--Moderator: “Janine's probably covered every major war for the past 25 years—so obviously, an incredibly courageous person, right? But the thing is, she'd say that all of that pales in comparison to the kind of courage she's seen in others.
--Janine: “And it usually comes down to ordinary people, when confronted with great evil, taking and making choices that would, for me, give the real explanation of courage. I mean, to me, I always thought the most courageous people I knew were people that faced insurmountable challenges in their lives. And that could be someone with cancer who battles it out and gets through the day, or children who walk to school in Africa because they really want to be educated, or someone who survives a genocide by hiding or hiding other people."
Humanitarianism with a Point, John Amstutz, Doing Member Care Well (2002). “To whom was Christ referring when He spoke about “the least of all my brothers” in Matthew 25? The answer to this question has profound implications for the church’s approach to mission—and member care.” (click on the link below and go to chapter 4, pages 37-40) http://www.worldevangelicals.org/resources/source.htm?id=61
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Part Two
Counting the Cost
Image courtesy IRIN; unidentified bodies, Lebanon.
Healing a Violent World—Reflections on Global Mental Health, Dr. Richard Mollica, Harvard Program in Refugee Studies. This was the third Global Integration webinar (12 December 2014, organized by GMH-Map, a special project of Member Care Associates). Dr Mollica, a pioneer in global mental health and trauma care, shared about Project One Billion (emphasizing recovery in conflict and post-conflict countries) along with his recent manifesto Healing a Violent World. You can access the audio/power point here: http://membercareassociates.org/?page_id=865One
Sorrow and Blood: Christian Mission in Contexts of Suffering, Persecution, and Martyrdom, edited by William Taylor, Antonia van der Meer, and Reg Reimer (2013). https://missionbooks.org/products/detail/sorrow-blood Click this link to preview chapters in the Kindle ebook (60+ authors from over 20 countries): http://www.amazon.com/Sorrow-And-Blood-Persecution-Globalization/dp/087808472X#reader_B00F9BPNHK
 Serving Jesus with Integrity: Ethics and Accountability in Mission, edited by Dwight Baker and Doug Hayward (2010). “…as the chapters in this volume attest, evangelical mission’s ethical engagement extends far beyond simply avoiding compromising sexual situations and not absconding with the finances. How should we talk about others’ beliefs and practices to ourselves? To them? How should we represent ourselves to others? What role does tolerance for ambiguity play in missionaries’ mental preparation? How should accountability be structured in intercultural partnerships? Are there ways to enable organizational justice to flourish in mission institutions? What might integrity in short-term mission outreach look like? How does care for creation relate to mission? What role can a code of ethics for missionary practice play?...we need both guidance and admonition—and deep reflection on the conduct of evangelical mission such as is provided in this volume—so that we may serve Jesus with true integrity.”
https://missionbooks.org/products/detail/serving-jesus-with-integrity-ems-18
Going further--current challenges for member care and mission/aid: Watch and reflect on he IRIN brief video report on Bangui’s ghettos, CAR—violence, poverty, fear….http://www.irinnews.org/Film/4982/Bangui-s-ghettos
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Final Thoughts
Sustainable Development
Counting the Cost to Heal Humanity
I (Kelly) just finished watching the 70 video lectures by Dr. Jeffery Sachs in his online course on sustainable development (Earth Institute, Columbia University). It is frankly one of the most important and influential courses that I have ever taken. “This course provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of sustainable development, drawing on the most recent developments in the social, policy, and physical sciences. Sustainable development is the most urgent challenge facing humanity. The fundamental question is how the world economy can continue to develop in a way that is socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. The course describes the complex interactions between the world economy and the Earth's physical environment.”
You can get a good feel for the crucial issues raised in this course by watching the concluding lecture by Dr. Sachs. It is on the feasibility of sustainable development for safeguarding the world’s future—people and the planet. Click the following link to access this lecture on the Corsera web platform (note that you will need to first create an account via your email and a password): https://class.coursera.org/susdev-002/lecture/149 For more on sustainable development, see the UN Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, especially the Synthesis Report from December 2014: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
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More MCA Resources
Global Portal for Good Practice (website)
Reflections, Research, and Resources for Good Practice (weblog)
Global Mental Health: A Global Map for a Global Movement (website)
Global Integration: Connecting and Contributing (updates, materials, webinars)
Global Member Care: (volume one): The Pearls and Perils of Good Practice (2011)
Our latest book! Global Member Care (volume two): Crossing Sectors for Serving Humanity (November 2013) The e-book version is available on Amazon
Global Integration
Actively integrating our lives (connecting and contributing) with global realities (addressing the major issues facing humanity and promoting wellbeing) in light of our core values (e.g., ethical imperatives, commitment to humanity, God’s glory).
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