Global Church Conference Review

“A Different Set of Eyes”  by Dick Nelson

I do not look forward to work each day. I see hard working dairymen confronted with the fact that they are losing massive amounts of money. Rising feed prices squeeze non-existent margins, while lenders slowly circle like vultures. Dairy economists state that this cycle could be the second worst in 40 years. Dairy groups petition California Department of Agriculture for relief, others lobby Congress. The Secretary of Agriculture announced that the entire dairy industry needs to be restructured. In the meantime, milk prices fall, herds are liquidated, and some dairymen loose what they have worked their whole lives to build. Dairies drive many businesses in this area. When they cannot pay their bills, hay dealers don’t get paid, service companies don’t get paid for dairy supplies, feed companies lay off people because of falling demand, and fewer tractors or pick ups are bought.   Sometimes I feel flat, dry and overwhelmed by the economic mess which is widespread throughout the Valley. Whether this period is a recession or a depression makes little difference. For the thousands of people in the Valley who have lost their homes or are unemployed, it is a very difficult time.  Joy for many is not readily apparent

 Sometimes you have to leave the Valley, just to leave, take a break from the tedium, the harvest brown dust, and struggling dairies, and look at the ocean, ride a ferry, climb a mountain, see a play, or just drive.

 Against this backdrop, the 2009 Global Church Conference,”Overflowing Joy and Generosity” in a world of pain and scarcity, at First Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, was a much welcomed respite. An astute dairy manager once told me, “It’s good to have another set of eyes on a dairy.” He meant that people see things, which we sometimes take for granted and miss. For the past four years, I have had the opportunity to hear the perspective of dynamic Christians with vibrant testimonies from around the world.

 Rev.  Zac Niringiye, is the Assistant Bishop in Kampala whom I heard two years ago. As the Bishop sitting on a government council, he is able to call cabinet meetings of the Ugandan government. In 2007 he co-convened the Hiv/Aids symposium in Kampala, sponsored by Harvard University, and the Templeton Foundation. He is also the Chair of the Task Force for Northern Uganda. Northern Uganda is closely related to the problems of the Congo and Rwanda. The problem in Northern Uganda is compounded by a group called, the Lord’s Resistance Army which is notorious for the use of child soldiers which have been kidnapped. Thousands of people have been displaced and live in camps.

 Rev. Nirigiye titled his talk, “Meeting God in the Valley.”  He started by asking the question,”Are there places where God is not allowed?” Are there places too dismal for God? The Congo, where over 5.5 million people have died, and Northern Uganda are dismal in their suffering. Places racked by Aids or war would seem on the outward surface to have been abandoned by God.  Yet, this is not the case.

 Some men do not acknowledge the existence of God because they have been deceived. They do not worship God as creator; they do not reflect his image and hence worship and serve what they have created themselves. From Acts 17, Nirigiye reminded us that God is a creator not served with human hands. If a man worships what he has created, i.e., his bank account, home, wealth, wife, he will grieve when it disappears or is taken away. There is a correlation here between joy and generosity. He stated,” What ever giving does not proceed from gratitude is idolatrous.”  Note the example of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.  He walked away from Jesus rather than cut loose with his wealth.

 God has created us to worship him, to find our peace and contentment in him rather than in material things. Hence it is possible to have joy in spite of terrible loss. Ironically we are reminded,”In thy presence is the fullness of joy.”

 Some examples of joy:

•  A man with cancer told Zac, “I truly cried for the blessings God has brought me. Cancer has revealed something of God; I    would  never have had the opportunity to see.”
•  An Aids patient in Kampala, “I thank God for Aids, maybe I would not have known God the way I do.”
• A prisoner, who had been a Leading Security official, formerly sentenced to death for atrocities, upon receiving a presidential pardon, “I received a gift while in prison for the last 25 years that I would never exchange for anything.”

 Theodora Niringiye, wife of Rev Niringiye, is a social worker in Uganda. She spoke on “Generosity and Joy in Brokenness.”

 She stated,”Northern Uganda is a broken community.”  Numerous people have been displaced, families separated, children traumatized. There is a widespread incidence of sexual abuse of women and girls. Furthermore there is a problem of a lack of forgiveness towards child rebels who have fled or escaped the army and try to reintegrate back into civilian life.

 She responded to the question, “Is there anything God can do in the presence of so much pain?”   Mrs. Niringiye responded,  “Even in brokenness, God consoles. He gives the oil of gladness instead of mourning.” Isaiah. 61:3.  Further she believed that God will intervene and that God’s people need to pray for the people in camps. She noted that a people of compassion are a people of generosity.  She relayed the account of a woman she had spoken to who had lost a son. Upon her departure the woman offered her a cracker with a Ugandan version of peanut butter with the admonition, ”If you want to complete my joy, carry this.”

 The last speaker, Chamron Phal, was a Cambodian who pastured a church in Oakland.   His talk was titled, “Transformed through Tough Times.”

 Phal narrated some of the events of the Killing Fields which lasted three years, eight months and 20 days from April 17, 1975 to 1979. He centered his talk on Romans 8:28.   A believer who follows Jesus often refined, tempered like Jesus was in Isaiah 53.  He did not denigrate the horror of the times in which he lost 4 of his 15 brothers and sisters as well as numerous other members of his family.  He stated,  “A sword has to be put into the fire to become the best sword used by the Master.  Christians are not exempt from terrible things. But even in the midst of them, there is a profound joy even in the midst of numbing pain, a gratitude and joy in the Savior, a simple trust in His word and promise.”

 Phal reminded us of the depth of God’s plan and that we know that the promise of God stands against the nearness of pain.

 I am thankful for the brief glimpse I had, and the encouragement from these three people, each of whom gave a powerful reminder and simple testimony echoed in Romans 8:35:  ”Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword…:  37   No in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us.  :  36   For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”