Monday, August 18, 2014

Prayer Like HOPE Rises! Amen

Finally, the day has come!
      To give space for the larger story experienced
            To give thanks and praise!

I begin with saying thank you! Thank you that from the beginning I received so much encouragement from so many people.  Encouragement that came in the form of kind words, shared economics and shared stories of how and why addressing Human Trafficking matters. Encouragement came through learning of the thousands of people I was simply joining effort with around the globe to bring our suffering into transformative HOPE RISING Amongst us!

My first flight was from Portland to Los Angeles, where my dear Friend and Pastoral Colleague Floredelia Gratoral whisked me from the airport with joy to meet everyone at CHET(The Center for Hispanic Theological Studies).  Together everyone at this school joined the effort to be involved in Nepal for the sake of healing and hope born from sharing stories and artistic expressions of suffering.  I am thankful to everyone at CHET for their prayers rising on my behalf.

The next two legs of my journey brought me to Bahrain, through the windows of the Philippines.  From LA to Hong Kong my seat mate was a lovely grandmother living in the US.  She was originally from the Philippines and headed back for a five week vacation.  She spoke of many things, including how impossible life would be in the Philippines with out the servants.  My seat mate on the second plane from Hong Kong to Bahrain was a young woman from the Philippines, so silent at first, finally revealing amidst shared food offerings, she had signed a contract to be a house servant for two years in Bahrain.  She didn't know if she would be assigned to a good family or someone who would be unkind, abusive or worse.  We prayed as she wept silently over her three sons she left behind.

In Bahrain, after being detained by security for over an hour, I was set free into the beautiful space filled with Emily!  For 24 hrs in Bahrain, we walked and talked of experiencing life in this place where women, aren't sometimes even seen.  Men ran the hotel, made our food, dealt with all financial exchanges, and spoke to us, everywhere we went.  Hope Rose Unbelievably in the Museum that night, where Women"s artwork stating their case of disenfranchisement, disembodiment and imprisonment were on DISPLAY!!!! And the sculptures made by men from around the world reflecting the LIFE embodied in women surrounded us! The Museum, so surreal!!!  a safe haven, where little girls were running between the works of art,  in wonderment. And there was time for prayer through movement and dance in the sculpture garden. Timeless, endless ripples of dancing, standing, singing prayers for peace amongst all people.  The beautiful, courageous atmosphere os sharing in Emily's presence, hope Rising Amidst!

From Bahrain to Dubai, and then a plane of 80 men and 5 women to Nepal.  The men, all workers returning from Qatar to Nepal for a couple weeks of rest.  One explained, we are all working to build the soccer stadiums for world cup.  We are being killed by lack of protection from heat, lack of water, lack of rest, and lack of safety on site.  We are falling to our deaths!  I will not go back!  I will find what ever work I can in Nepal and Live!  And the plane landed us in Kathmandu.

A cacophony of experiences, of silent warm spaces, crowded loud places and excruciating honesty of the human joys and perils awaits the one who visits Kathmandu.  Nothing is really hidden.  No buffer zones exist.  The narrow streets are filled with everyone, including those on scooters and motorcycles who just don't care that the walkers are there!  Everything shares the same place, animals, people, feces and food vendors. Generousity and greed co-mingle. And always there is prayer.  Prayer wheels are turned, prayer hours kept, prayer songs sung, prayer offerings given. Prayers for healing burst forth as you walk by the sick, the crippled, the aging, the dying. Prayers of gratitude flow like streams of living water, as people share their food, their funds, their music, their talents, their hearts for peace. Prayers desperately leap from the eyes of womanly wombs, please lets birth a new day, for women and children in Nepal, in New York, in Bahrain, in Philippines, in, in , in ... all the world.  For in Nepal denial of the usury of human beings is no longer possible.  Prayer amongst us rose and rose and rose in thanksgiving, in despair, in rejoicing and anguish, in gratefulness and in pleading.  Prayer that sets us in the embrace of love.  All of us in the embrace of Love of God!

And through the illness that struck my body hard, people were praying.  Thank you.  It was a long journey home on the wings of your prayers.  Thank you!  As a woman on the planes from the middle east I experienced reminders of who I was not!  I am not a person of equal value, as the male steward ignored me or spoke to me with disdain.  I was not as a women, someone with intelligence who could speak to the varieties of ice we were flying over, until the indignation of the man next to me,  was overcome by his desire to understand what he was seeing.  I am also NOT a woman who will stand and watch a man treat a stewardess disrespectfully just because he thinks he can! Hmmm, I guess you can imagine the rest of that story...  Prayers from me, prayers for me to respond to life in ways that increase peace.

And finally Seattle! Where utter exhaustion overcame me, and the kindness of strangers carried me.  The border agent who walked me through the computer prompts I could not comprehend.  The Security Guard who stayed beside me through regaining my luggage and sense of place, as my glasses were broke along with my sense of time and space. And into the arms of my Beloved again. As my JOE, gathered me, and my belongings and my longings to be held, into his capable loving arms.

And nothing is new under the sun today, and I see everything anew in each day.
Human beings everywhere use other human beings!  The constant circular, spiraling effect of greed, self importance, selfishness, and blindness is killing us and the land that gives us life, everywhere!  The seeds and stance of Patriarchy which devalues even unto death, women, children and men demeaned because of their ethnicity, embodied presence and economic privilege ascribed by birth are everywhere!  I flew over so much desert.  Dry and thirsty humanity everywhere, being sucked dry like the land, of all richness through enslavement and extraction and extortion.

And nothing is new under the sun today in Oregon, as migrant workers pick fruit, sometimes for farmers whose hearts have been touched by grace and moved by the artistry and beauty of justice, and sometimes NOT!  In Oregon today there is a new home for women rescued from human trafficking, yes United States women who have suffered enslavement, and yes there is only 1 such place in the midst of a need for many.  In Oregon this week, there has been much talk and protesting and walking with our brothers and sisters of color enraged by events in Ferguson this week, by  only SOME!  And Jews and Arabs in Palestine and Israel and all over the world, are VISIONING peace for the politicians, for their children, for a future filled with HOPE! Praying for Peace, many everywhere are praying for PEACE.

And nothing new is under the sun today.  Humanity is born with the gift of BEAUTY residing inside! Yes!  Each and EVERY ONE of US, within us Beauty resides!  Look at Creation in all its magnificence and see the hands that have too, fashioned US!  We are everyone one of us, flowers in the Garden of a great Creator, of God who holds us all in a great embrace of love.  Nothing is made that wasn't made by Creator God, all are beloved, all are formed with beauty desiring to be becoming a shining light of HOPE in a world of humanly created systems that also cause harm.

Nothing new under the sun today, we shall perish or flourish together, one garden, one land, one sky, one ocean, one lament, one day of rejoicing yet to come!  Yes, I have HOPE! Born from my time with all who have shared this journey.  And for all of you, I give thanks and praise! Amen





Soon, I will post on the next leg of the Journey!