Moments of Clarity at the United Nations

What follows is a cross-post I recently wrote for Voices for Change, the advocacy ministries blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  I highly encourage you to check out Voices for Change frequently, as its one of the best places to find out about the amazing advocacy work Lutherans are doing across the country.

Having interned here at the United Nations with the Lutheran Office for World Community for almost six months, my friends frequently ask what an average day is like. I usually respond that I am engaged in exciting advocacy work: planning for the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women with ecumenical partners, meeting with amazing people from faraway countries (including speaking with two Nobel Peace Prize winners) and covering the planning process for a new set of global development goals, among other things. Upon hearing about this work, my friends sometimes say it all sounds romantic in a certain way, if not glamorous, to be around global leaders at the United Nations, or that it must feel great to have a job helping people.

What does not always find its way into these conversations is that although I do occasionally meet important leaders and I sometimes feel like I am helping people, that is certainly not always the case. Sure, I get to sit in on all sorts of meetings, but they often involve lower-level diplomats reading a technical report verbatim. I might get to help plan some really powerful events, but that usually looks like waiting for email, updating a website or stuffing folders. Even when it does feel like I am actively working toward creating positive change at the United Nations, that change often seems many years and many obstacles away. In the midst of all these everyday tasks and difficulties, it’s easy to get frustrated and the people we are trying to accompany and empower can seem quite remote.

Luckily, in this advocacy work I have been blessed by moments of clarity, moments where it felt like I knew exactly why I was at the United Nations and exactly what I could do to make a positive impact, even if small. One such moment took place a few weeks ago while taking part in a grassroots advocacy event around recent event. For months I had been learning about the situation in Mali, a landlocked country in West Africa, much of which is covered by the Sahara Desert. In Jan. 2012 an armed conflict broke out in the north, only to be complicated by a military coup the following March. Once the rebels, backed by a number of armed groups, took over a large portion of the country including the ancient city of Timbuktu, French forces, along with troops from elsewhere in Africa, intervened to support the Malian army in recapturing the lost territory. Currently, the international community is dealing with allegations of human rights violations, promoting inclusion of the politically marginalized, humanitarian concerns such as food security and how to keep the peace once the territorial integrity of the country is fully restored.

Given the devastation around this conflict, you can imagine my apprehension when I was asked to accompany a young man to his deportation hearing after the event. This hearing would decide whether he would immediately be sent back to his home country, Mali. After speaking with the man about his persecution and later escape to the United States as teenager, I sat behind him throughout the hearing, an action I was told would encourage his better treatment by the court. I doubt it had much to do with me, but his ruling ended up being postponed a number of months, we formed a relationship, and he will work with my congregation on additional advocacy actions in the future.

I have spent numerous meetings taking notes on violence in Mali, feeling like there was little I could to help. Educating ourselves and working to influence decision makers at the United Nations can help build a more peaceful world; This experience with the young man from Mali reminded me to connect all of the dots between this work in public policy and accompaniment of our struggling neighbor. In this moment of clarity, I realized that simply accompanying a person through a very difficult circumstance could at least provide temporary support and hopefully make a very big difference.
Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

The World We Want

What follows is cross-post of a piece I recently wrote for Voices for Change, a blog run by the advocacy ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The blog is an absolutely amazing resource that lifts up the voices of Lutheran advocates around the country, so I highly encourage you to check out additional posts here.

Nearly halfway into my yearlong internship with the Lutheran Office for World Community at the United Nations, I have certainly been blessed with a wide variety of powerful experiences. I’ve sat in on meetings with ambassadors, planned for the upcoming Fifty-Seventh Commission on the Status of Women with an ecumenical group of colleagues from other advocacy offices and even met two Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Through such experiences however, I’ve been burdened with one central question, “How can ELCA members throughout the country participate in the global conversation I experience everyday in New York?”

On the local, state and federal levels of democratic government, grassroots advocacy is an often difficult but fairly straightforward process. Organizers identify a legislative issue that lines up with the stated values of their organization and then urge others to contact government officials about either voting for or against related pieces of legislation. This process is straightforward because we, of course, elect government officials to represent us in decision-making; we are their constituents and we can hold them accountable by voting them out of office.

On the global level at the United Nations, things work a bit differently. Our Permanent Representative to the United Nations is not elected but appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Because of this indirect system of representative democracy, our grassroots impact on global decision-making can often seem minimal.

Luckily, there is an exciting new way for Lutherans around the world to directly participate in global-decision making: The World We Want platform. In the year 2000, world leaders gathered to set specific global development goals to be reached by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals. Today the deadline is less than three years away, and we’ve made progress: access to clean drinking water has increased, fewer people live in unhealthy urban slums, and most importantly, the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide has been cut in half. This success shows us that change is possible, but more must be done: inequality is growing, 950 million people still go hungry each night and climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions more.

When world leaders first met to create the Millennium Development Goals, they left something out, something important: your voice. Without your voice gathered together with others from around the world, without people-power, shaping the world we want is not possible.

This time, you have a seat at the table. Through the World We Want platform, you can participate in a survey on your priorities for the world and your community called MyWorld. Maybe you want to contribute on a deeper level? After creating a profile you can submit directly to consultations sponsored by a United Nations panel of experts. Perhaps you want to share your own story? You can post pictures or even a YouTube video, and then be sure to share your posts with the Lutheran Office for World Community (lowc@elca.org).

A new world is being created. Whether it’s the world we want is up to us. Participate, contribute and share on the website — the World We Want.

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Calumet Yellows Reunion Sermon: Rowdy Faith in A Rowdy God

What follow's is a rough manuscript of a sermon I preached this past Sunday at Camp Calumet Lutheran during a reunion retreat weekend for the previous summer's teenage campers.  There's a few inside jokes throughout the text, but hopefully they won't be too distracting.  For a full Twitterfeed from the event, click here.  For more info about our curriculum for the weekend, click here.  I'd love to here what you think!

So, you may have heard at some point that we’ve been live tweeting throughout the Yellows 2012 Reunion. There were some pretty good tweets out on the tweetosphere this weekend… on one end of the spectrum we had some about exploring our faith. On the other, we had some about the smellyness of our farts… all of these were good tweets. That said, my favorite tweet of the weekend was one of the first… it was written by Rachael. She was probably heading back to her cabin Friday night when she wrote something along the lines of “that was a rowdy devos.” A rowdy devos… a rowdy devotionals… who would have thought! Those two words don’t usually go together, but Rachael was definitely right… while we were learning about each other’s faith and playing people bingo and singing a bunch of camp songs, things got pretty rowdy.

[ROWDY SONG INTERRUPTION]

Ya know, sitting by the fire last night, thinking about the weekend and going over the Bible texts for today, I eventually realized why I liked Rachael’s tweet so much… it was filled with really, really good news. And that good news is that we have a faith that can make things get a little rowdy… we have a rowdy faith. In fact, God Herself was getting a little rowdy in today’s gospel story. It’s a pretty well known one… three wise men, or sometimes we call them the three kings, came from the east, or from basically really far away, and told King Herod they came to worship the baby Jesus because they were led by a star in the sky. Herod wasn’t a big fan of baby Jesus, so he tried to use the wise men to find Jesus and kill him, but luckily, Herod’s plan didn’t work… Instead, the wise men followed the star all to Bethlehem; they knelt down and worshiped Jesus, and eventually, they went back home by a different road.

Now, I imagine you’re wondering, how was God getting so rowdy in the story? The answer begins with the fact that God didn’t put that star in the sky for some priests in Jerusalem or for King Herod… She put that star in the sky for three wise men from far away, which means three folks that were far outside God’s old covenant with Israel. By putting that star in the sky for the three wise men, God proclaimed the good news that all are welcomed, that all are saved and that all are loved through Christ. You see, for all the religious authorities and King Herod, this news would have been completely unexpected… they thought the Messiah was only coming for Israel… by shaking things up, God was getting pretty rowdy.

[ROWDY SONG INTERRUPTION]

You see my friends, we have a rowdy God, and we have a rowdy faith, and that is amazingly good news. And you know what, we learned a bit this weekend that at least in some ways, we have a rowdy church too… As Lutherans we have the largest charitable organization in the United States, Lutheran Social Services, shaking things up and helping folks out… that’s pretty rowdy. Through it's Young Adults in Global Mission Program, the ELCA is sending about fifty young adults, some just a couple years older than you all, abroad ever year to shake things up and help folks out… that’s pretty rowdy too.  We also have offices at the international, national and state levels advocating for a more just society.  Of course, our church needs to do more… the world is changing really, really fast, and as faith communities we’ve got to change too. In our world, in this time and place, the church can’t look like it used to. We talked a lot this weekend about what Calumet means to us as well, and for me at least, by providing such a powerful model of serving others, of loving others and of worshiping God in fun and life giving ways, Camp Calumet is one place that represents the change we need to make as a church… it’s a place shaking things up with a rowdy faith in a rowdy God.

The good news of the rowdy things God is doing through Christ… that’s what today’s gospel message is all about and it’s the same good news that Christians all over the world are celebrating today. You see, today’s a very special church holiday called Epiphany… in many Spanish-speaking congregations it’s actually a bigger celebration than Christmas. On Epiphany, the reason we read the story of the wise men is that when God put that star up in the sky, guiding folks from far away to the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem, the good news that through Christ, God loves, accepts and cares for all us was proclaimed. So my friends, as you go home on this Epiphany Sunday, celebrate and share the good news of our rowdy faith in a rowdy God… a God that loves you and you and you… a rowdy God that loves all of us, whether we’re young or old, gay or straight, black or white, rich or poor, whether we’re outgoing or shy or even a weird kid that loves cats, fireworks and margarine. In short my friends, celebrate God’s good news, and get rowdy.

[LOUD, ROWDY ENDING SONG ABOUT GOD’S LOVE]

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin really likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Calumet Youth Retreat Plan: Faith, Identity and the World We Live In

Friends, as part of my internship this year I have the honor of chaplaining a retreat up at Camp Calumet this coming weekend in New Hampshire.  It'll be for sixty youth between ages 13 - 15 who were Yellows campers at Calumet last summer.  I haven't done one of these in a while (and never one this big), so I'd love to hear your thoughts:

Looking back on the past year, it’s pretty easy to get discouraged.  Amidst continued economic problems, superstorms, long elections and the tragic school shooting in Connecticut, not to mention what might be going on in our own personal lives, it’s easy for all of us to wonder where God is in everything we’re facing.  For young adults coming of age in such challenging and changing times, figuring out what it means to be a person of faith can often be particularly difficult.

Luckily, our Lutheran tradition offers the world the precious insight that God is gracious God who loves all Her children.  In a world where we’re hungry for acceptance, love, community and meaning, whether they’re a person of faith or not, the central Lutheran insight that God loves us is indeed very good news.  But the question then becomes, how do we respond to the good news that God loves us in the actually world we live in?  Perhaps putting it even more fundamentally, how does God’s good news affect who we are?

Throughout our weekend at Calumet, we’ll be exploring that very question through four steps, with 1 John 4: 7 – 12 as our guiding framework:

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Our first step during devotions on Friday night will be to think about how we live out our faith in everyday life.  We’ll be doing this through a fun bingo activity where participants can sign off on squares about what types of service, etc. they participate in.

Our second step during the Saturday morning session will be to think about issues facing our world and how Lutherans are responding to such issues.  Participants will break into groups and answer quiz questions about various facts (multiple choice, true/ false, etc.)  They’ll then break into small groups and discuss what they’ve heard.  If there’s leftover time, they’ll report back some of their responses to the larger group.

Here are just a few of the facts about the world we live in that we’ll touch on:

-       Lutheranism is no longer a Western tradition.  Roughly 5% of the US population is Lutheran, while roughly 50% of the Namibian population is Lutheran.  There are more Lutherans in Lutheran World Federation member churches in Ethiopia and Tanzania than in the United States.

-       Despite nearly eliminating hunger in the US back in the 1970s, nearly one in four American children live in a household facing food insecurity.  One quarter of children below the age of five are stunted worldwide due to lack of proper nutrition.

-       In 2011, Lutheran World Relief helped nearly 5 million people in forty countries.  Lutheran Social Services is the largest single charitable organization in the United States, based on revenue.

-       One third of US teens report being bullied in school, while 8% of students report being injured or hurt with a weapon at school.

-       ELCA Lutherans advocate for social justice through a national office in Washington, twelve state public policy offices and the Lutheran Office for World Community in New York.

-       Nearly a quarter of American young adults have no religious affiliation.  New England is the least religious area of the country.

-       Average global temperature increased by about one degree Celsius over the 20^th century.  The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets lost 36 to 60 cubic miles of ice per year between 2002 and 2006.

-       The ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program sends roughly fifty young adult volunteers to serve abroad each year.

-       In developing countries, women tend to work far longer hours than men. In Asia and Africa, studies have shown that women work as much as 13 hours more per week.

-       After a strong effort since 1990, nearly 90% of primary-school aged children are now enrolled in school worldwide.  Most countries have achieved relatively equity in primary school enrollment between girls and boys.

Our third step will be to reflect on what it means to be a person of faith in the world we live in.  We’ll do this by discussing how what we learned in the morning session relates to what the 1 John passage reads in our small groups.  We’ll then take some time to think about what it means for us to be a person of faith and then break into different stations where we can express our identity.  This can be done through writing, taping of YouTube videos, art, and perhaps even a skit performance.  What we come up with will be shared with the wider world through a variety of avenues (LWF Youth Blog, NE Synod blog, etc. are possibilities)

Our final step will be to gather around Word and Sacrament during Sunday worship to showcase and discuss what we’ve experienced over the weekend.

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Ecumenical Worship, Congolese Religious Leaders and the Politics of Nutrition: First Impressions at the United Nations

Boy, I've had an absolutely amazing first couple days interning at the Lutheran Office for World Community, the office that connects Lutherans worldwide with government missions, non-governmental organizations and other church bodies at the United Nations in New York.  Working on behalf of both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran World Federation, the office gathers information that guides churches in implementing humanitarian responses, discerning public policy responses and other activities.  Outside of typical "first day at work stuff" like setting up emails, getting ID cards and going on a tour of the place, most of my first day was dominating by a visit to the UN by a delegation of religious leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The delegation brought with them heartbreaking stories about ongoing violence in the eastern Kivu provinces of the DRC at the hands of the newly formed militia M23, a group the religious leaders alleged to be armed by neighboring Rwanda's government.  While their message decidedly oversimplified the issue, neglecting to recognize the DRC government's own failings to foster security in North and South Kivu for instance, I did find it extremely empowering to see pastors and other religious taking a leading role in bringing global awareness to horrible situation that gets little press attention, especially in the US.  For a more nuanced treatment of the subject, check out this article.

Yesterday I attended a Working Group on Food and Hunger meeting.  While I definitely realized I have a lot of catching up to do on food and hunger issues, especially in their global manifestations, there was one particular part of the discussion that greatly humbled me.  As an American, I of course think of the concept of "nutrition" as good thing... it means folks not only getting enough calories to eat but the getting the right type of calories.  From the perspective of some folks from developing countries however, we gain the insight that trying to insert more "nutrition" language into this year's upcoming UN General Assembly resolution on food security might look like a code word for Western companies to cash in on things like increased vitamin exports.  According to some in the Global South, using terminology such as "diet-diversification" would make more sense.  While it might seem like a minute detail, it was really interesting for me to hear how at a place like the UN, folks really are working together to foster greater understanding across languages and cultures.

I've also realized how important of an ecumenical function the Lutheran Office for World Community plays... this morning I had a chance to help lead worship for a group that included folks from the Methodist Church, the Mennonite Church, the United Church of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church and the Salvation Army (I may have missed some others).  I was pretty nervous not to offend anyone, but we ended up having a great discussion on Romans 2, singing and worshipping our Creator together.  I definitely had never led such a diverse service before, and thus it was a great learning opportunity for me.  Even more importantly though, I can't help but think worshiping together in such a manner each week could greatly contribute to greater ecumencal understanding at all of our respective churches.

Well there you have it... my first impressions at the UN.  Now I'm off to hear deliberations on a small arms treaty and later today I'll attend a meeting on human trafficking... I'm very, very blessed to have such an amazing opportunity for learning at the Lutheran Office for World Community.

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin really likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

A Summer Full of Stories

Near Arapaho Pass, Colorado

Throughout my first month or so this summer, I made a bunch of attempts to write this post.  Eventually, I realized that being constantly on the road, constantly in new places and constantly submersed in the stories of old and new friends alike had made me pretty scatterbrained... outside of a few journal entries, writing at all was going to be nearly impossible.  Instead, it made more sense to sit back and ride through what promised to be an amazing summer, take some notes and pictures along the way, and let things gel until a time when I'd have a little more ground to stand still while.

It's now mid-August, I'm sitting in my brand new (and awesome) little apartment in Queens' Sunnyside neighborhood, I'm starting the process of once again growing some roots and I therefore figure it's about the time to start sharing a general narrative of what I've been up to all summer, with more details to follow.  It's an overly self-important notion for sure, the idea that stories from my own journey are good enough to write down and share with the world.  So in a vain attempt to help me feel better about such vanity, I figured throw in a couple other great sources of stories I've been enjoying all summer as well.

After finishing up a rewarding but difficult second year of school at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, my fiancee Molly and I headed out to Colorado for a month of relaxing, hiking and frankly just to be tourists for a while.  We were blessed in meeting some of each other's friends on the way to our homebase in Boulder and found a great match for our journey in Steinbeck's Travels with Charley on audiobook.  Our other epic audio discovery from the trip was the The Dirtbag Diaries, a free podcast of outdoor stories and meditations produced by Fitz Cahall.  While I'll go into more detail in future posts, some highlights from Colorado included camping at Diamond Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness with our friend Nika, visiting the Celestial Seasonings factory and our ascent up Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado and the second highest in the lower 48 states.  The following video is from the top of Mt. Elbert, and outside of how high my voice oddly sounded, it's pretty awesome.

After an amazing time in Colorado, we decided to make a multi-day pit stop on our return drive... in Yellowstone National Park.  We'd been watching Ken Burns' series on the national parks while in Colorado, so we figured checking out one of the best was pretty necessary.  While we went in especially excited to see bears (which we did), it turned out the highlight for both Molly and I was the humble buffalo (bison is the more scientific term), who supposedly are attracted to the yellow lines in the middle of the road and thus create some pretty interested traffic jams.  On a less silly note, seeing the whole herd (it's the largest wild bison herd left in the world) grazing across Hayden Valley is alone absolutely worth the trip out to Wyoming.  The other highlight was the daily ranger talks, where we learned a great deal more about the park's varied wildlife... those darn Lake Trout are destroying Yellowstone Lake's indigenous Cutthroat Trout population, for instance.

Carter Notch, New Hampshire

Following the return to New England, I've had bunch of awesome hiking opportunities in New Hampshire, all interspersed with other great times back in the real world.  Molly and I got to spend a week representing Project Connect at Camp Calumet and helping the staff there discern what God is calling them to do in life.  I also was privileged to lead Calumet counselors in running a Vacation Bible School a few weeks later.  There were even a few awesome beach days in Maine relaxing, playing in the waves and even building some Adirondack chairs with close friends I hadn't seen in quite a long while.

Toward Mount Isolation, New Hampshire

One thing that struck me after hiking a while in Colorado was how absolutely lush the New Hampshire forests are... someone once told me the state gets as much rain as a rainforest, and it's definitely a possibility.  The lushness makes these forests feel somehow more inviting than their thinner, dryer cousins in the Rockies, although I'm certainly a bit partial.  Ever since I hiked Mount Pierce in 2005 though as a counselor at Camp Calumet, I've been on a bit of quest to hike every four thousand foot mountain in the state... there's forty-eight of 'em total, and after a great deal of work and early alpine starts, I only have ten remaining.  That might seem like a lot, but they're pretty much all grouped together on the northern rim of the Pemigewasset Wilderness, so with a little luck I'll be able to finish them all up in a week's time, as I'm leaving on one final trip for the summer starting tomorrow.  There's a bunch to think about on the trip... predominately how to best transition into my new internship at the Lutheran Office for World Community at the United Nations and St. Peter's Church which starts on September 4th, but also a bunch of other things... how to keep myself connected to the outdoors in amidst the concrete of NYC (it seems like it'll be easier than I expected) yet also how to satisfy my craving for time in the mountains without getting too selfish about it (more on than dilemma in my next post).  Most importantly though, it'll be a chance to connect with a few more  friends and follow my passion one last time before the season ends.  Expect some detailed stories and more pictures from the summer soon!

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin is a Masters of Divinity candidate in his second year of study at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin really likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.