Meaningful Things

This past week was filled with richness in relationships, prayer, struggles at work, difficult decisions, and generally feeling very alive.  It's a little hard to decide what pieces to extract for a closer look.

Worship at 8th Day, my church, this morning was particularly good.  Every once in a while the person giving the message includes time for discussion groups and today was one of those days.  My group consisted of me and 3 white people and one Latino man, named Alfonso, who always attends but doesn't speak or understand English.  (He also makes awesome tamales for the monthly potluck.)  I was kinda timid, but I thought it was important to include Alfonso in the discussion so I started talking with him in Spanish.  It was like a wall came down.  He was very appreciative and I felt an immediate connection with him that was more than language.

When it came time for one person from each group to share with the whole, our group encouraged Alfonso to share.  I asked another Latino man, Cruz, to translate for him because I wanted to make sure his words were interpreted correctly (better than I can do).

After the service, I got to talk to Lily, who came to the US as a Rwandan refugee.  She doesn't come to 8th Day that often, so it was good to get to see her.  As we chatted I remembered that she loves to sing and I told her that I think it would be really great if she led the music one Sunday.  She seemed encouraged and actually talked with the music coordinator as he was meeting with people to organize for the coming months.

The reason that I tell these stories is not because they are revolutionary, but because they are signs of the life of the church that I have been looking for, and, frankly, have been feeling like are lacking.  8th Day does a very good job of welcoming other races and cultures, and several members have political refugees and torture survivors living in their homes while they're getting their situations sorted out.  But aside from the presence of racial and cultural diversity, the culture of worship is a white dominated style and tone.  To me it seems that it's not enough for people to just be there if their voice isn't being heard in the whole church.

So I love that Alfonso found a way to share.  And I will be delighted when Lily feels empowered enough to lead the group in song.

It's a fine line, though, between encouraging multiculturalism through empowerment and just using my white privilege to push my own trendy agenda.  But I know through prayer, attention, and discernment of my actions and motivations that I can let God do a good work in me.  The point is, I was very encouraged by how much I felt the presence of the Spirit in the worship, community, and relationships today.  I needed to see that and feel it palpably - to find the redeeming story of God in a specific area that has been frustrating me.