tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15421362799825029772024-03-14T00:09:03.394-07:00Pilgrim Hill NewsUpdates on Pilgrim Hill, an evangelistic ministry of Christian hospitality in Tasmania's Huon Valley. <br>For more information, visit: <a href="http://www.pilgrimhill.org">www.pilgrimhill.org</a>.tpbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13251602016227118690noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-15347985185859345892016-07-08T04:54:00.001-07:002016-07-08T04:54:30.020-07:00Pilgrim Artists Festival 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6T3Mur7PZOo/V3-HoK62WpI/AAAAAAAABs0/G21weTkc5hwjwj1R_M_n5d__eDb_jDCigCKgB/s1600/PAposter_text%2Bwhite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6T3Mur7PZOo/V3-HoK62WpI/AAAAAAAABs0/G21weTkc5hwjwj1R_M_n5d__eDb_jDCigCKgB/s640/PAposter_text%2Bwhite.jpg" width="452" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We put on an arts festival last weekend! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">My husband was so flat-out setting up the exhibition that he asked me to make some welcoming remarks to the guests at our opening night event. (All events were held in the Lucaston Apple Shed, and you can see what a richly atmospheric venue it was.) So here are some quotes from my speech, interspersed with some lovely photos of that event, from one of our exhibiting photographers, Jordan de Hoog: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pilgrim Artists is part of the ministry of Pilgrim Hill. It exists to encourage and promote Christian artists. To encourage them to glorify God through their artwork and to assist in promoting that artwork to the general public.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">Art has always been part of the long term vision of Pilgrim Hill, and we felt there was an opening culturally right now for promoting a Christ-centred, outward-reaching approach to art in Tasmania.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps at this stage you are asking “why?”</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ll give you two reasons. One, we believe with the Westminster Confession that man’s chief aim is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Like Bach, we see the best art as being primarily aimed at glorifying the original artist, our creator God. It’s also excellent practise at doing what we’ll do for eternity: enjoying God, as we do when we explore the artistic possibilities he’s made inherent in His creation and offer up the results to Him. And this is something we can all do as we enjoy art, even those of us who like to call ourselves “uncreative” (I’ll argue with you on that later!). </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Two, we believe that good art in God’s service “adorns the gospel” (as the Westminster Confession puts it about our good works) and is a powerful apologetic for the Christian faith. "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven.” As secular society gets uglier, true Christ-lit beauty becomes even more powerful.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We were very happy with the feedback we got from artists and visitors alike. Now we are full of ideas for how to build on what worked (and what didn't!) this year and do even better next year, God willing.</span></div>
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<br />Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-41901852697108535102016-04-22T03:56:00.001-07:002016-04-22T03:56:22.564-07:00Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Luca, Italy<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"I came in Tasmania because I knew this place was so wild...to be just inside the nature and to think a lot about my future. I think that I just found all what I needed. I think about a lot of things. I found really a new world with incredible people, starting with my farmer. The first day I came [to Tasmania] was December 3rd. It was a Thursday so I came directly to Pilgrim Dinners. So I was impressed! What you are doing is amazing. In this place - this little place - the people know the worth of the small things. That is the most beautiful thing that I can tell about this place. I saw this here, with my eyes. First I was completely not thinking about my Christian background. Week by week I keep thinking about every topic. I think that I grow a lot in this place. I am always writing in a diary so I can remember. Thanks for this -- but it is not enough, because what you did is too much for me. I didn't expect to arrive here and find something like this."</span></span></blockquote>
Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-54437652748331864812016-04-14T18:23:00.002-07:002016-04-14T18:23:55.136-07:00Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Tung from Germany<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"I've been working almost 4 months in Tasmania, working at a farm with blueberries, cherries, apples... I've met a lot of good people, good friends.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">The scientist who came and talked - that was really nice. It was a different point of view that he gave us. That was really, really good. Even science can't explain how we are created. I want to know how this is possible - how we can be so different from monkeys with only 2% DNA difference.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Most of the people are afraid of letting the Christianity get into their lives. Ok, I'm not so different -- because it's a little bit weird."</span></blockquote>
Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-6498121133499507372016-03-25T03:36:00.000-07:002016-03-25T03:38:28.203-07:00Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Gianluca from Italy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">"I heard Tasmania was one of the few places in Australia that was still wild. I thought, I have to do farm work anyway, so I'll go somewhere nice. It seems like an island no one cares about. I don't like [farm work], but I'm happy that I'm doing it. I am a personal trainer and I've been traveling more than 3 years already. Travelling to Australia to work as a personal trainer was my dream.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">[I come because] I like to learn. Learn is my mission, my life mission. If I see any occasion that gives me a chance to learn I'm going to grab it. I like to meet new people, see new faces, to get to an environment that seems peaceful and where I feel welcomed."</span></blockquote>
Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-61085873719424534682016-03-16T17:15:00.001-07:002016-03-17T03:00:28.345-07:00Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Caroline from France<div class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-size: large;">I came to Tasmania in November to do my farm job to extend my visa. Tassie is wonderful. The landscape and the people... I did a lot of hitchhiking and 80% of the people [who picked me up] were Tasmanians. I saw a man do a u-turn just to pick me up. In Hobart when I was lost, I didn't ask for anything and a lady came up and asked me if I needed help.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">[About Pilgrim Dinners:] At the beginning I was worried because I thought it would be a bit religious, but it's really open. I ask myself more questions about spiritual things. I was living with a family in Geelong and they did a Bible study every week. I come from the Catholic religion but I want to ask questions and believe for myself and not because of my family.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">If I can stay in Tassie I want to stay. I'm looking for a sponsor to extend my visa.</span></blockquote>
Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-34617904343125068922016-03-11T13:40:00.000-08:002016-03-16T17:16:30.538-07:00Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Inez from England<div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="7kbd3-0-0" style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">"I wanted to travel and see the world and life's too short to hang around in my small town and stay in a pointless job. I love to travel and this was the next big country I could disappear into. I've been here 3 months, mostly in Tassie. I've been working at Lucaston Park Orchards and they've been so good to us. They are such a great family. [I attend Pilgrim Dinners] because it's a good opportunity to socialise with people. I was really interested the other week by that video of the woman who converted. I can't imagine doing that. I would have to turn my back on everything in my life. I appreciate that we can discuss things respectfully here and have those probings to think about things we often don't think about. Because what's the point of sitting around and never thinking about anything?"</span></blockquote>
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Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-8947538407410048012016-03-10T17:55:00.000-08:002016-03-10T17:55:38.890-08:00Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Alex from the Netherlands<br />
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"Two years ago I was backpacking in Mexico and I thought, I've got to do something bigger. I found out about the opportunity in Australia and I left my house and job. I found a Facebook request of someone asking for help with a job in Tasmania, and I came over.<br />
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The untamed wilderness, that's the thing about Tasmania. The main reason [I come to Pilgrim Dinners] is to socialise with people. It's a nice way to get out of my share house. We had this morality discussion. It made me me think about where my values come from. My job is quite boring, especially because I have had the same playlist for months, so I think about things all week."Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-26796843357229598412016-02-28T15:57:00.000-08:002016-02-28T17:00:37.867-08:00The night I took my life in my hands<div style="color: #222222;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was a good night for everyone but me. The food was delicious and highly appreciated by the guests. Attendance was up. The travellers were very attentive to Peirce's talk on "New Life".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But for me it was a different kind of evening. It started so well. I was excited to snag a seat at a table with a young Frenchwoman who professed faith in Jesus last week, and a French couple who are very engaged and engaging. Also at the table were two new German guys and a lad from Yorkshire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As soon as the talk was over the young German guys monopolised my attention, and I never got back to my amiable French friends. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They started out by "politely" correcting me thus - it is inappropriate, they said, to refer to religious/spiritual claims as "facts". Perhaps it was a language problem, and my husband did not mean to make this embarrassing mistake of speaking of "facts".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A conversation followed in which every relativistic, naturalistic fallacy you can think of showed up in a sort of ghastly, unstoppable parade. There was barely any kind of recognisable train of thought to hold the fallacies together, and if I managed to reasonably confront one of them, they just tag-teamed on to the next one. It was like Cliff's Notes on the last 200 years of German philosophy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Do you know," one of them demanded gravely, "that it has been absolutely scientifically proven that God didn't create the world like the Bible says?" Actually, that was probably my favourite part of the conversation because it gave me a good, honest laugh. Neither of them could tell me <i>how</i> it had been scientifically proven, though they did seem concerned that after hearing this information my faith might instantly crumble, reducing me to quivering mess.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I could give you a blow-by-blow and tell you about the couple of moments that I think I might have actually lodged a tiny doubt in their minds. But that's not the point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the end of the evening, while I had not been actually rude or unfriendly to them, I knew that in my heart I had not been really acting out of love for these young men. I let their arrogance and condescension irk me. <b>I wanted to WIN the debate</b> -- for Jesus, yes, but also because I wanted to hang their rotten worldview out to dry. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While I was busy shadow-boxing a whole education system, I missed the thing. What was the thing? All the truly soul-destroying things they claimed to believe -- it was a smokescreen. The screen dropped for a moment and here's what was said in that moment:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I don't want it to be that way [i.e I don’t want there to be objective truth]. I want to make my own way. I don't want God to give me a purpose. I will make my own purpose."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that, my friends, is the reason. Not all that guff about religion being violent, and morality being a social construct, and love being made up of nothing but chemicals. <i>I want to be in charge. I'll give up on love, meaning, and rationality -- I'll give up everything -- if only I can be in charge.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,<span style="line-height: 22px; vertical-align: top;"></span> and worshiped and served created things<span style="line-height: 22px; vertical-align: top;"></span> rather than the Creator" Romans <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2054034803" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">1:25</span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you find yourself in a maddening debate with someone - whether it's because you are in over your head philosophically or because your opponent won't face facts - be patient. The Holy Spirit can show you what the real thing is. Not the smokescreen reasons for rejecting God, but the real heart reasons. If you are attentive, they will eventually show up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Francis Schaeffer, himself a very skilful debunker of rotten worldviews, said that "<b>love is the final apologetic</b>." And any Christian, even if he doesn't know much about German philosophy, should know a good bit about love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Getting home that night, feeling restless and dissatisfied, I picked up a book from my bedside table and was surprised and comforted by this from C.S. Lewis:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />"I have found that nothing is more dangerous to one's own faith than the work of an apologist. No doctrine of that Faith seems to me so spectral, so unreal as one that I have just successfully defended in a public debate. For a moment, you see, it has seemed to rest on oneself: as a result, when you go away from that debate, it seems no stronger than that weak pillar. That is why we apologists take our lives in our own hands and can be saved only by falling back continually from the web of our own arguments...from Christian apologetics into Christ Himself."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So my friends, I give you the story of the night I took my life in my own hands, and escaped to Christ.</span></div>
Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-6866289234041981662016-02-23T18:41:00.003-08:002016-02-28T15:51:13.358-08:00Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Nathan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We're starting a new series here, with a nod towards the hugely influential blog, <a href="http://www.humansofnewyork.com/">Humans of New York</a>. We'll be featuring photos and stories of people who attend our free dinners, with their permission (of course!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">First up is Nathan, from Yorkshire, England. Nathan has been sharing Thursday dinner with us since before Christmas.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Jordan de Hoog.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">"I just come here to keep my mind interested. I'm thinking a lot about God, science, philosophy. I've been writing about what I've been thinking. I think I've been thinking more than ever before. I've never been happier, really.</span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">I've had a lot of support coming out here [to Australia] -- not financial support but prayer support. Which I guess I appreciate. My brother is an evangelical. When he reads something in the Bible he doesn't like, he has to agree with it anyway. He'd be really happy that I'm coming here."</span></span></blockquote>
Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-61580397754296546932015-12-19T03:10:00.000-08:002015-12-19T03:10:21.607-08:00A Pilgrim World<div style="color: #222222; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 26px;">
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Last Thursday night at Pilgrim Dinners, Peirce gave the seventh instalment in his cycle of seven talks. This year Peirce has been telling the great Redemption narrative - or, as he's explained it to the travellers, "The Love Story of History."<br />
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The last talk was called "New Creation." It was quite thrilling to look around the room at over 40 young people from all over the world, listening intently to Peirce getting excited about the New Jerusalem.<br />
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Discussion afterwards was remarkably lively and joyous.<br />
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A young German woman who has come to every talk asked if she could take one of the Bibles to read ("Um, YES!").<br />
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Our regular trio of jokey UK blokes asked me "why is God nasty in the Old Testament and nice in the New". They listened with interest as I talked about the nature of the Covenants and the Atonement. In fact, I was given an excellent opportunity to point to the mercy of God in the OT when one of them asked why the story of Jonah is in the Bible.<br />
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It was an evening on which I felt very blessed to be walking in this good work that God has prepared.<br />
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Discussing the unseen joys of heaven with a room full of travellers is a good launching point for this quote I've been saving for a rainy day:<br />
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For all its greatness (trust me—I am the last man on earth to sell it short), the created order cries out for futher greatness still. The most splendid dinner, the most exquisite food, the most gratifying company, arouse more appetites than they satisfy. They do not slake man’s thirst for being; they whet it beyond all bounds. Dogs eat to give their bodies rest; man dines and sets his heart in motion. All tastes fade, of course, but not the taste for greatness they inspire; each love escapes us, but not the longing it provokes for a better <em>convivium</em>, a higher session. We embrace the world in all its glorious solidity, yet it struggles in our very arms, declares itself a pilgrim world, and, through the lattices and windows of its nature, discloses cities more desirable still.<br />You indict me, no doubt, as an incurable romantic. I plead guilty without contest. I see no other explanation of what we are about. Why do we marry, why take friends and lovers, why give ourselves to music, painting, chemistry, or cooking? Out of simple delight in the resident goodness of creation, of course; but out of more than that, too. Half of earth’s gorgeousness lies hidden in the glimpsed city it longs to become. For all its rooted loveliness, the world has no continuing city here; it is an <em>outlandish</em> place, a foreign home, a session <em>in via</em> to a better version of itself—and it is our glory to see it so and thirst until Jerusalem comes home at last. We were given appetittes, not to consume the world and forget it, but to taste its goodness and hunger to make it great.</blockquote>
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From "The Supper of the Lamb" by Robert Farrar Capon. </div>
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Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-40183559124907604252015-10-16T05:06:00.001-07:002015-10-16T05:06:24.547-07:00Culture Matters<div style="background-color: white;">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With Pilgrim Dinners only a fortnight away, Peirce is drafting his series of talks for the new season. This year's theme, in seven sessions, will be God's story of salvation, from creation to new creation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of the constant challenges with these talks is to write and speak simply. With over 25 nationalities represented, you can imagine the range of English-proficiency! It's no easy task to communicate the Gospel simply to so many.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">However, being simple is not an excuse for being simplistic. Below is a transcript of a talk on Culture from last year's dinners - one that provoked some of the most heartfelt questions and searching discussions among the travellers last season. As you can see, it may be simple, but it isn't simplistic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">Transcript from Dinner #17, February 19th, 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What do I mean by “culture”? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Someone once said, “Culture is religion" - or belief - "externalised.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Meaning that culture is the way we live out what we believe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cultures matter because they show the fruit of what we believe. Cultures are where our beliefs affect the real world and the real people in it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Tonight, we’re going to look at two problems that show up again and again in cultures, as the fruit of different beliefs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then, I’ll share with you the solution God gives to anyone who wants it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here’s the first problem: <i>unity without diversity</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Some beliefs say one culture must totally dominate. There are so many examples in history:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Imperialism, like in Ancient Rome.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Communism, like under Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Islam, like under the Islamic State in the Middle East today.</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">These beliefs say that one culture should dominate everything: there should be only one culture. When we look at the fruit of these cultures, we see bad fruit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, I need to be clear. I am discussing problems about cultures and beliefs right now, not individual people who are made in God’s image and whom we, as Christians, are called to love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On the most basic level, beliefs that say one culture must dominate produce bad fruit by stomping out diversity, creating an ugly sameness; a dull cultural grey.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Think of the ugly architecture Communism left everywhere. Or the cultural effect of Islam, which one former Muslim (the African academic Lamin Sanneh) has said recreates 7th century Arabia everywhere it conquers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So on a basic level, we see a dull cultural sameness. But the fruit gets much more rotten.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When one culture must completely dominate, we see things like:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Racism = hatred between races</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Sexism = hatred between women and men</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Classism = hatred between haves / have nots</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Religious persecution</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We see these leading to horrors like:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Enforced poverty</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Torture</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Slavery</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Genocide</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We have seen it under Communism, in the hundreds of millions of lives killed and even more still destroyed. We see it right now in the daily horrors of ISIS, which we read about in Middle East.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, we see in these cultures and others the fruit of what happens when a belief says: <i>one culture must dominate all others</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At this point, it would be easy to say, “But my culture doesn’t do those things. And <i>I don’t do those things</i>.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Don’t be so sure. It may not be obvious in our cultures. But in the First World, our popular culture values young independent adults. It says they should be dominant. This leads to an ugly cultural grey: people of all ages trying to look and act like young independent adults.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It also leads to much worse fruit:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Assisted suicide of the aged and disabled, because they don’t fit the dominate culture. They just get in the way.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">Abortion of the unborn. In the US alone, over 56,000,000 humans have died from abortion since it became legal. These killings are often </span><span style="color: black;">very gruesome indeed. </span><span style="color: #222222;">And all because they didn’t fit the dominate culture, they just got in the way of it.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To sum up these views, beliefs like Communism, Islam and even Secular Popular Culture say one culture should dominate. They produce rotten fruit: an ugly, grey cultural sameness, and violent horrors, leading to death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But there’s another view, that contrasts with this one. It’s the second problem: <i>diversity without unity.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Some beliefs say all cultures must be absolutely equal. This is the opposite. It’s very common now, under names like</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Egalitarianism</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Tolerance</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Relativism</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Multiculturalism</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This view says that no culture, no group is better than any other. All cultures must be absolutely equal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On the surface, this sounds loving. But looking deeper, the fruit is just as rotten. Here’s the big problem: it forces us, in the end, to pretend everything is OK.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When fully believed and practised, it robs us of the ability to say things like:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">“The caste system in India is harmful.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">“Aborting baby girls because they are girls is wrong.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">“Communism is wrong to kill millions of people.”</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If every culture is equal, how can we say that? How can we judge?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If we’re being consistent, we cannot. We have to pretend it’s all ok. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But it most definitely is NOT loving when horrible beliefs that harm millions of people can’t be judged, but rather get a free pass.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That’s not loving. In fact, it is the opposite of love. It makes it impossible to fix those things which are broken in cultures. And it allows horrible things to continue happening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To repeat - saying that all cultures are absolutely equal isn’t the loving answer it sounds like. It actually produces rotten fruit, forcing us to pretend everything is ok, making it impossible to fix things that go wrong, allowing horrible things to continue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And, this isn’t just something that happens with big issues. In every day life, it comes up all the time, when in the name of tolerance and absolute equality we pretend everything is ok, and let friends do things that hurt themselves and others. This makes for more rotten fruit. It is not actually loving to our friends. True love wants to see the best for a friend. Which means, it doesn’t tolerate brokenness, but cares enough to seek to see it resolved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To sum up this second problem, a belief that says all cultures must be absolutely equal sounds loving, but produces rotten fruit. It forces us to pretend everything is OK, making it impossible to fix things that go wrong, trapping real people in brokenness, preventing us from showing true love. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So now, I want to talk about the solution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The solution can’t be either</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">A belief that says <i>one culture must dominate.</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">A belief that says <i>all cultures must be absolutely equal.</i></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Or, put another way,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<ul>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">Unity without diversity.</span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">Diversity without unity.</span></i></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why? Because both of these lead to rotten fruit, and we’ve seen it over and over again in history and in our own lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We need a way to value both diversity <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">and</span> unity. The good news is, God gives us that way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For one, God shows us that cultures matter; our diversity matters. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You see, when God became a human being to save us, He came into a specific human culture. The only God in the universe, who made us all - He valued us so much that He came to us, to our level. In this way, he valued our human cultures because of His love for us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ever since, when Christians have told people about God’s love, just like God, they’ve cared about culture. They’ve said cultural diversity matters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not that Christians have been perfect in doing this. We have failed many times in history. We have needed to be called back to God’s way. But when Christians go out to share God’s love, living God’s way, they have cared about local cultures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let me give you an example from history. Did you know that the Bible is the first book written down in almost every language? It has formed the beginning of thousands of local literatures that have kept cultures strong which would otherwise have vanished with hardly a trace. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why is that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Christians have translated the Bible into thousands languages <i>because they care about local cultures</i>. When Christianity enters a new area, it develops local ways to worship God, with local music, art, story, architecture; all encouraging local culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This doesn’t have to be. It’s the opposite of a religion like Islam, which doesn’t like the idea of translation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Did you know that the Qu’ran is never meant to be translated? All good Muslims learn 7th century Arabic in order to recite it. And, there aren’t meant to be localised forms of worship; only one form of worship for everyone, globally. All good Muslims are supposed to worship this same way. And, there isn’t a value on local cultures; all good Muslims are meant to imitate Mohammed, even in his 7th century dress and behaviour. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This means that everywhere Islam goes, 7th century Arabia goes. You can see the difference in Africa. In Northern Africa, where Islam dominates, we see a cultural grey, a dull sameness. The more seriously Islamic, the more same it is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In Southern Africa, which is traditionally Christian, we see vibrant diversity. The more seriously Christian, the more diverse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Bible talks about it this way. Speaking of Jesus, it says: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The God of the Bible takes cultural diversity seriously and calls us to do the same. As Christians, we look forward to a day when people from every culture will worship Him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But God also cares about unity. Remember, the fruit of saying all cultures must be equal ends up being love without truth - which isn’t love because it leaves people broken. In the end, it’s as bad as saying one culture must dominate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">God cares about unity. He cares about truth <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">and</span> love. As Creator of everything, He’s the source of all truth. As He tells us and history shows, He is also the source of love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, the God of Bible does two things tolerance can’t:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. He shows love to people who are broken.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. He gives them a way out, healing people and calling people to repent and turn away from brokenness to truth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Tolerance cannot do those things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ever since, Christians have done the same: putting truth and love together. Christians have called brokenness, what it is: something bad. They have sought to help broken people, and to give them a new life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Which is why, as a Christian, I can say a belief system like Islam or Communism has very bad fruit, but the people behind these beliefs, even very ‘bad’ people, are made in God’s image and need our love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Again, Christians haven’t been perfect doing this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But did you know that Christians living God’s way invented:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Hospitals</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Hostels</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Orphanages</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Charities</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">All of these, to care for people rejected by ancient cultures. In Ancient Rome for example, the father (“pater familias”) had absolute power over the lives of any babies born in his house, including his servants' kids. The ancient Roman father could order any baby in his house left out to die. Christians saved those babies and started the first orphanages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Did you know also, that Christians were responsible for our modern system of Human Rights? The rights of women, babies, elderly, poor, blind, disabled, prisoners, slaves, and factory workers come from long centuries of Christian reform.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This system of equal Human Rights didn’t develop out of</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Ancient empires</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Buddhism</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Atheistic Communism</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Islam</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why? They didn’t because they couldn’t. Those beliefs can’t produce that fruit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For example, in 1948, the UN put forward their Declaration of Human Rights. Islamic countries stood against it and refused to sign it because they knew it was Christian.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Human Rights and hospitals are cultural fruit of a belief that:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Tolerance isn’t enough. We need both truth and love.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">All human lives matter. What is wrong can be called broken and changed</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There are many other examples I could share of good fruit, like </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Universities, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The scientific method</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Most national literatures</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Polyphonic music (like Bach)</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">God’s love of unity and diversity made these possible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Christians are responsible for the existence of all of these things, because <i>God cares about unity and diversity</i>. These things did not and could not exist as the fruit of beliefs that said either</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Only unity matters</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Only diversity matters</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To conclude, culture matters. It shows us the fruit of our beliefs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For a belief like Islam or Communism, which says one culture must dominate, the ultimate fruit is not unity but death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For a belief like modern secular tolerance, which says all cultures must be equal, the fruit is not love, but brokenness, ultimately also leading to death. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To have a life-giving culture, you need a way to value both unity and diversity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The good news is, God gives us the way. You don’t need to choose EITHER unity <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">OR</span> diversity. That false dichotomy leads to death. You can follow the God of this universe, who brings both together and gives us life.</span></div>
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Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-13656068123772136582015-09-11T05:14:00.001-07:002015-09-11T05:14:45.815-07:00You remembered my name<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">I'm not that good at names. So you would think it would be a disaster, me trying to connect with a room of 30-80 people on a weekly basis at Pilgrim Dinners, many of them new arrivals each week. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The surprise for me was how many names I actually could remember (and affix to the correct faces -- also potentially a problem for me). It turns out it is a lot easier to remember names when they are exotic and foreign and interesting. I'd never known people called Frederica, or Fabio, or Ainhe, or Irma, before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Around the second or third time our famed Angry Italian Atheists attended a dinner (some of you have heard our fond memories of them), I welcomed one of them by name. A surprised smile softened her usually stony face. "You remembered my name!" she exclaimed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We would never have expected it when they first showed up, but these guys ended up attending our dinners for four months. I really, really missed them when they left our community. Honestly, I still miss them. I can't be sure, but maybe, just maybe, the tiny kindness of remembering her name was a turning point in our interactions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At one of our prayer days we printed out the names of hundreds of dinner guests who signed up for email updates. Sitting there and scanning over column after column in tiny print of beautiful, quirky names from everywhere, I was filled with love and compassion for these people - irretrievably made in God's image - who I dined with, who heard the gospel, who are still somewhere in this world, having slung on a backpack and walked out of my life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So if I see you again, please forgive me if I don't remember your name. I'm so glad I serve a God who knows you down to every negligible detail, like the number of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I hope to dine with you again, at a much more wonderful feast than the one we shared at the Huonville Library. I guess we'll have new names (Revelation 2:17), and bodies that don't get tired and cold from picking fruit in changeable weather. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, I trust you to the care of the one who is familiar with all our ways, whose presence we - blessedly - cannot flee (Psalm 139), though we traverse the wide world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You have searched me, Lord,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> and you know me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You know when I sit and when I rise;</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> you perceive my thoughts from afar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You discern my going out and my lying down;</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> you are familiar with all my ways.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Before a word is on my tongue</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> you, Lord, know it completely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You hem me in behind and before,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> and you lay your hand upon me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> too lofty for me to attain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Where can I go from your Spirit?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Where can I flee from your presence?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If I go up to the heavens, you are there;</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If I rise on the wings of the dawn,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> if I settle on the far side of the sea,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">even there your hand will guide me,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> your right hand will hold me fast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> and the light become night around me,”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">even the darkness will not be dark to you;</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> the night will shine like the day,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> for darkness is as light to you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> you knit me together in my mother’s womb.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> your works are wonderful,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I know that full well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">My frame was not hidden from you</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> when I was made in the secret place,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Your eyes saw my unformed body;</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> all the days ordained for me were written in your book</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> before one of them came to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">How precious to me are your thoughts, God!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> How vast is the sum of them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Were I to count them,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> they would outnumber the grains of sand—</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> when I awake, I am still with you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> (Psalm 139:1-18)</span></div>
Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-31130868574277023042015-07-29T09:00:00.001-07:002015-07-29T09:04:37.448-07:00We're the travellers now<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;">
Things have been quiet on the blog lately, and if you haven’t been tracking with our Facebook page, you might even think we’ve been enjoying a lengthy holiday. On the contrary!</div>
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Yes, <b>that red line represents us</b>. We just drove across the United States of America.</div>
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All 7 of us, including 5 children aged 6 and under, in a large vehicle, from California to Pennsylvania, meeting with supporters of Pilgrim Hill new and old along the way, and now we are looping back to where we started.</div>
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Here's a glimpse of our trip, written to our supporters a week ago. (If you’d like to receive weekly updates like this direct to your inbox on the progress of Pilgrim Hill, please email thebaehrs[at]pilgrimhill.org)</div>
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July 19</div>
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Tomorrow will bring us to the end of our second week on the road. We are deep in the South, where the tea is sweet and cold, the swings are as big as beds, and our host this evening met my proffered handshake with “Honey, I’m a hugger”. </div>
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I’m writing this in the big van (“Gertie”) on the perimeter road around Atlanta. We’re on the way back to our accommodation after another event put on by kind Christians whom we just met in a foreign city which is Stop #10 on our trip across America and back.</div>
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Today I was struck by something which may seem obvious to you. <b>We’re the travellers now</b>. We’re the ones relying on others to pursue hospitality and to love strangers and sojourners.</div>
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I’m thinking about how much small gestures of kindness fortify and comfort us as we are on the road. I’m thinking about how I want to hold on to this so I remember to make those gestures to travellers myself, to not grow weary in well-doing, to pursue hospitality without grumbling. </div>
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So as you are reading this, <b>I want to encourage you to do the same</b>. Hospitality needn’t look the same for all of us. We’ve been richly nourished by hospitality of different flavours on this trip. I’ve been particularly touched by the unexpected ways that our hosts have sought to bless our road-weary children, whether it’s been by setting out colouring books or crafts, preparing special snacks, or inviting grandchildren to play with them. </div>
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<b>These glimpses of grace are nothing compared to the unmerited welcome that God gives us</b>, yet they are little reminders that while we were strangers, God reconciled us to Him through His son. The sweet times of fellowship we have had with Christians all over America are possible because we share one table, with one incomparable host.<br />
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Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-38215420479168202402015-05-15T04:21:00.003-07:002015-05-15T04:21:38.977-07:00The story in numbers<div style="color: #222222;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of our helpers writes up the evening's menu.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I can hardly believe that one week ago we said goodbye to this season's travellers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It's been 6.5 months of sitting down with strangers and making them our companions. Companion - literally someone who breaks bread with you (as Rachel Jankovic points out in <a href="http://www.feminagirls.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/2013%20Hot%20Providence%20-%20Rachel%20Jankovic.mp3" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">her talk</a> on the grace and grit of hospitality, which I recommend).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I know that in a blink of an eye it will be October again, and strawberries will be reddening, and there will be new people from all over the world finding out that picking them is a lot harder than they thought. They'll discover they didn't bring enough warm clothes and that food is expensive in Tasmania. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">God willing, lots of them will come to our dinners. They will find out that we are people who care about their needs, the ones they already know about - like being warm and fed - and the ones they don't - reconciliation with God through His Son.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But right now we want to rest in the blessings that God has showered on us over the last half-year. I want to share with you the story of Pilgrim Dinners in numbers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Numbers don't prove faithfulness, but numbers can be significant. After all, think of the many times the Bible is specific about numbers, always to the glory of God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Pilgrim Dinners in numbers</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Dinners: 27</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Topics covered: 26</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Guests who signed up for our weekly email reminders: 240</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Total number of new guests (estimate): 500</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Countries of origin of our guests, in descending order of frequency:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">UK, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Netherlands, Ireland, Chile, Sweden, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Fiji, Brazil, Belgium, Poland, Norway, Mauritius, Argentina, Albania, China.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5 rice cookers, taking up all of the small kitchen counter.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Dishes washed (not including cutlery) in a small town library's staff kitchen: more than 5,000</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Families who cooked and brought food: 21</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Helpers: over 50</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m8URFuDj5cA/VVXTasxH5pI/AAAAAAAABX8/AXBrjmjXEaM/s1600/photo%2B4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m8URFuDj5cA/VVXTasxH5pI/AAAAAAAABX8/AXBrjmjXEaM/s320/photo%2B4.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of our regular French tables.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">Rejoice in the God who created and knows all numbers, even to the hairs on the head of every backpacker, from Norway to Argentina. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">500+ of them broke bread with us this year, becoming our companions. Pray </span>that they might also become our companions on the path of life.</span></div>
Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-6299446581329267372015-03-26T20:21:00.002-07:002015-03-26T20:21:22.232-07:00The map on the wall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://en.18dao.net/images/b/bc/Map-Germany.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://en.18dao.net/images/b/bc/Map-Germany.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was once a little boy who put a map on his wall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was a map of Germany, and it represented his heart's desire: to bring good news to the people of Europe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He grew up and moved to the other side of the world. Nowhere near Germany. Nowhere near Europe. He still has a map on his wall, but it's a world map, and points out to his daughters the places he's been, the places he still wants to go. And every week he packs his van with an 80-piece dinner set, three rice cookers, dozens of chopsticks, and other things that make rattly breaking noises, and he drives to his local library.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There he unpacks it all again. With the help of others, he sets up tables and covers them with white cloths. And then he brings good news to the people of Europe and beyond.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Italy, France, Belgium, Sweden, England, Ireland, Scotland, and yes, Germany. Lots of Germans, asking him, "Who is Jesus? Why do you need God?" Every week. Sometimes so many that there are not enough dishes and chairs for them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rewind a minute. Put your finger on that boy's German map. Find a town that has an umlaut in its name, and neatly stacked woodpiles, and lots of other German things. Picture him holding evangelistic dinners every week there, trying to get villagers to come. Would they? I think not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Praise to the God who prepares good works for us beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 3:10). Praise to the God who satisfies our desires with good things (Psalm 103:5). Praise to the God who brings the people of Europe to the fluorescent-lit backroom of a rural library in far off Tasmania to hear His name praised.</span><br />
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<br />Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-4359875912141250902015-02-15T18:44:00.002-08:002015-02-15T18:44:20.821-08:00This is love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UvnzvclIDE0/VOE7PByoF5I/AAAAAAAABS4/pGjuQWM1w14/s1600/6a00d8341c85c753ef011168a5b059970c-pi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UvnzvclIDE0/VOE7PByoF5I/AAAAAAAABS4/pGjuQWM1w14/s1600/6a00d8341c85c753ef011168a5b059970c-pi.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Leading up to Valentine's Day, our theme for last Thursday's Pilgrim Dinner was Love. The discussion kicked off with the question: What is love?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"This is!" exclaimed a guest at the end of my table, a tousle-haired Italian woman named, appropriately, Valentina. She gestured to the basket of bread on the table with deep appreciation: "This is."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I wonder if she realised just how accurate her answer was.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We don't put on a dinner for between 40-80 strangers every Thursday night because it's fun. Rather, it is because we love them. We love, because Christ first loved us, when we ourselves were still enemies and strangers to Him. (Romans 5:6-10)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Love is basic to humanity. We are transfixed by it. We need it. Without it, children die, even when their primary physical needs are met.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A universe devoid of a loving, personal God can give us no satisfying answer to this. Because of the relational, infinite, Trinitarian God of the Bible, we can affirm, celebrate, pursue and practise love. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Pursue love," Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14. As Christians, we can do this with intellectual integrity, knowing that love is true to reality - real as atoms, real as supernovae, and not a trick played on us by chaos and chemicals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">God made the universe, and God is love. (1 John 4:8, 4:16) "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) Christ's body was broken for us like bread, and we remember it by breaking bread together as believers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">On Thursday nights, one group of Christians also remembers it by offering bread, and with it the news of Christ's broken and resurrected body, to strangers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, Valentina, this is love.</span><br />
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<br />Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-32690299447398740512015-01-22T19:36:00.001-08:002015-01-23T03:26:37.199-08:00A Glimpse of Beauty<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9Ub2Z7wr3C8/VLyyvFQ_zrI/AAAAAAAABSE/uFsPUzNm5tg/s1600/La%2BFleuriste.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9Ub2Z7wr3C8/VLyyvFQ_zrI/AAAAAAAABSE/uFsPUzNm5tg/s1600/La%2BFleuriste.jpg" height="400" width="235" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">La Fleuriste (work in progress) by Margaret Sonnemann</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The purpose of Pilgrim Hill is to make disciples for Jesus through hospitality and art. Last week Thursday, our topic for the evening was "Beauty". Rather than giving a talk, Peirce invited three Christian artists to visit us at Pilgrim Dinners and give the guests a glimpse of how artists who follow the Great Artist in life and work think about and depict beauty. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These three professional artists, <a href="http://bandicootbooks.com/">Steve & Marion Isham</a> and <a href="http://www.3margarets.com/">Margaret Sonnemann</a>, brought oil paintings, thoughtful words and good company to the dinner. Steve spoke about finding beauty in depicting relationships (Steve's poetry blog is <a href="http://isham-verse.blogspot.com.au/">here</a>). Marion showed us some pieces she is working on that celebrate the goodness and bravery of stories. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Margaret brought her painting-in-progress of a girl she spotted selling flowers on a Paris street last year. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Margaret has graciously given us permission to share her notes here.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><i>I haven't been painting very long but I soon knew that I wanted to show beauty. </i></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I don't I have the skill and experience I need to portray all the beauty I see when I look at people doing every day things. Many very old paintings show Beauty in life, and even death, which gives us hope and shows meaning and that life is worthwhile. I want my paintings to let people see that we have a spiritual nature. </i><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">We all have those moments where something you see or hear something, beauty, or a feeling like love causes you to realize that there is more to life and that makes it seem worthwhile. This beauty brings joy. We know the presence of another and higher world. It works against the ugliness we sometimes see around us. </i><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The Bible says that God's power and nature can be understood through what He has made. If creation is beautiful and even we can create beauty how beautiful is the Creator of everything? We are made to worship, to find joy in beauty, and if we don't worship the Creator then we will worship a creation like nature, ourselves or even beauty itself.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You can more of Margaret's thoughts on her <a href="http://www.3margarets.wordpress.com/">blog</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The conversation-starter afterward was "Why do we care about Beauty?" </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Some moments that followed:</span></span><br />
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Peirce had a good chat with one of our regulars, a very thoughtful Japanese guy, about the only possible reason for beauty being God.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An Englishman, struck by the beauty of fractals, sought out Steve to talk through the possibility God is real. </span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An American dinner-helper held two Israelis and a Frenchman in rapt attention with her story of the beauty of God’s forgiveness. She broke through their apathy and got them asking questions about connection to a personal God.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was undeniably a special evening, and we believe that the guests' hearts were touched by meeting these three Christians and seeing their love for God and His works in their art.</span>Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-84410510892592868752014-12-22T18:05:00.002-08:002014-12-22T20:10:42.659-08:00Love, the guest, is on the way. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It still brings me to tears that <b>God became man to redeem us ordinary folks</b> - that the Creator of the universe would be born in such humble circumstances and announce His coming to shepherds. The<b> incarnation changes everything</b>. Among them, it puts the lie to the Atheist claim that we need to be powerful, and Hollywood’s claim that we need to be popular, and the religious instinct that we must be perfect to reach God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>We are none of these</b>, and yet God became man out of love for us, be we poor widows, rich tax collectors, parents, children, businessmen, or backpackers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">And<b> that was just the beginning</b>. He is at work even now to restore the entire universe under <b>His rightful reign</b>. As our pastor put it, to bring peace on Earth by defeating or transforming all His enemies. And we, weak you and me, get to be part of that work as members of His body! Making disciples of the nations, bringing light into darkness in every corner of the Earth, using the gifts and talents God has given us for His Glory. Praise God! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">So in honour of the <b>God who loves a good celebration</b> (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deut+14:22-27&version=HCSB" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Deut 14:22-27</a>), indeed who made the very sun, moon and stars to remind us to feast (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gen+1:14&version=HCSB" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Gen 1:14</a>), may your Christmas be merry and your New Year exceedingly happy indeed as we remember and await our Lord. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Or, to quote one of my favourite Advent hymns: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">People, look east! The time is near</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of the crowning of the year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Make your house fair as you are able,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Trim the hearth and set the table.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">People, look east and sing today:</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">Love, the guest, is on the way</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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tpbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13251602016227118690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-71709946618288108012014-12-10T16:18:00.000-08:002014-12-10T16:18:24.766-08:00White fields<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”- John 4:34-38 ESV</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Whenever I have read this passage previously, I have thought, "Oh, how nice, the fields are white for the harvest - they just have to go out and reap."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This past week has been the week of realising what white fields really mean.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">When you look at them, and you are the one about to go a-reaping, you realise how big they are. You realise this is going to mean sweat and strained muscles and sunburns and very late nights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">More specifically in our case, we saw dozens of hungry, tired travellers pouring in to rest and be filled -- and we didn't know if there would be enough chairs, food and godly company to give them the welcome we hoped.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last Thursday at Pilgrim Dinners, we had 53 guests. That means that in just 2 weeks, we <i>doubled</i> the number of guests. Thankfully, we had extra helpers turn up on the night, and several of our helpers could run out to buy extra food. I </span>think we used every chair in the accessible part of the building (including those rolly office chairs) and we packed every one in like sardines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The question on everyone's minds as soon as we were packing up was, "What are we going to do next week? What if it just keeps getting bigger?" </span><span style="font-size: large;">(Peirce gave a rather hard-hitting talk on "Good" and how it is impossible in a world without God, and how we can never qualify ourselves for salvation by being "good", so now we've been joking that he needs to start preaching hellfire-sermons to stop so many people from coming.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We've been thinking about what Jesus said:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22.464000701904297px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” - Matthew 9:37-38 ESV</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So we do pray earnestly: Lord of the H</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">arvest, send out more labourers. </span>Please<span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span>enable<span style="font-family: inherit;"> us to gather fruit for eternal life.</span></span>Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-19576218536866655992014-11-15T18:57:00.000-08:002014-11-16T15:13:42.963-08:00Highways, Byways, and Bus Stops<div class="" dir="ltr">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Kcv__x81_E/VGFpQpnWhRI/AAAAAAAABD0/_m_Yb72j1cw/s1600/IMG_0379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Kcv__x81_E/VGFpQpnWhRI/AAAAAAAABD0/_m_Yb72j1cw/s1600/IMG_0379.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="" style="background-color: white;"><span class="" style="line-height: 21px;">'Master,' the slave said, 'what you ordered has been done, and there's still room.'</span></span><span class="" style="background-color: white;"><span class="" style="line-height: 21px;">Then the master told the slave, 'Go out into the highways and lanes and make them come in, so that my house may be filled.' - <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=lk+14%3A22-23&version=HCSB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Luke 14:22-23</a></span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The second week at Pilgrim Dinners was an instance of <b>God’s sovereign grace</b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>At 7</b> of the clock, when dinner was meant to start, we had <b>zero guests</b>. Seven happy team members doing last minute prep, one happy team member playing lovely live music, but zero guests. ‘It’s ok, it’s only 7,’ thought I. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Fast-forward all of five minutes, to <b>7:05</b>, and we had… zero guests. At this point, hope flagged. “Praise God we had people last week,” I thought, “maybe God gave us those folks to encourage us to endure a week with no one?” <b>Not much of a pump up</b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Jump with me forward another five minutes, to <b>7:10</b> on the clock, and... zero guests. We had some very tasty food plated and ready, a great vibe to the room, and I’d prepped a talk on Faith which (rarely for me) I was feeling I’d really nailed in the writing, but… we had no guests. We had our posters up across the valley, we’d fliered backpackers, and sent cars to shuttle guests from the two hostels, but… no guests. <b>None, zip, zero</b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Ok,” thought I, “let’s sit down, and <b>I’ll give the talk to the team</b>. It’ll be good for us too."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">And <b>then, out of the nowhere</b>, praise to God, 12 people appeared: 8 <b>Japanese</b> travellers, a couple from <b>Korea</b>, a guy from the <b>Netherlands</b>, and an <b>Aussie</b> youth. And the twenty of us + kids sat down and did Pilgrim Dinners, with a great discussion after. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Now <b>where did these folks come from</b>? Very much God’s sovereign grace through <b>one tenacious team member,</b> who did not lose hope but like the slave in Luke 14 kept going out asking folks to join us, long after we were meant to start. She even braved the local bus stop and asked some hoodied youths to join us (hence our lone Aussie, who was more scared of us than we of him, considering his friends had to dare him to come, and they kept checking on him to see that he was still alive). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a great night, for which we praise God and have learned a good lesson - keep asking. And so we p</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">ray and ask again for guests to come each Thursday to Pilgrim Dinners, so that one day </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">they would fill our Father's house at </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">the Great Banquet</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></div>
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tpbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13251602016227118690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-82751951984595936832014-11-11T16:46:00.000-08:002014-11-16T15:09:35.173-08:00At the Gates<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LsLhnok_HlM/VGKpKzX7kxI/AAAAAAAABQM/hE9FDxU2Kxw/s1600/IMG_8650.JPG" height="400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Enjoy the community artwork on the walls! <br />
Did they have this in OT times?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Fellowship is having your church friends over, and that's great, but hospitality is inviting the stranger in. ... Hospitality by definition means meeting the stranger at the gates...and bringing the stranger in."<br />- Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, in <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/hospitality-on-mission-an-interview-with-rosaria-champagne-butterfield">this interview</a></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the world of the Old Testament, the community gathered at the city gates. Elders and judges sat and heard cases. News and current events were shared. Strangers arrived here, looking for hospitality. (In Genesis 19 and Judges 19 you can read two stories of strangers arriving at the gates and being offered hospitality. Things don't go so well from there on, but the horrifying developments of these stories are partly why they were included - hospitality was a very solemn duty and violating it was serious.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So where or what are the city gates in Huonville, Tasmania? I suppose you might make a case for a local pub, or perhaps the visitor information centre. But for us, it is the public library, where many travellers come to read the newspaper, check email, and glance over community notice boards.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On October 30th, we took ourselves and our hospitality to "the gates". We laid tables, heated up pots of curry and chili con carne, prayed, and waited for the strangers to come.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And they came. </span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-tXs4uUyWI/VGKo7VjHDMI/AAAAAAAABQE/BMdcoFhyYMU/s1600/IMG_8647.JPG" height="300" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, those are baby legs on my lap.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">On the first night, five of them came, from Taiwan and Hong Kong. They shared a meal with us, they listened attentively to Peirce's talk on God, and they discussed it with us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">They asked questions. They listened. We asked questions. We listened. I talked with "A" about her fear of the supernatural world and the fact that she hasn't carried on her family's traditional ancestor worship. I shared with her that as Christians we are free to both acknowledge the reality of the spiritual world, and not live in fear of it. Another guest, "M", claimed his only belief was in naturalism, but admitted during our discussion that naturalism offers no explanation for the origin of all things.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">So please pray for us every Thursday, as we go to the gates, and welcome the strangers in Jesus' name.</span><br />
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Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-34165478793017681882014-09-18T01:23:00.000-07:002014-09-24T19:50:19.800-07:00Announcing Pilgrim Dinners<span id="goog_1608295885"></span><span id="goog_1608295886"></span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lv8GCNuSPyU/VBqV8cQ5zgI/AAAAAAAABBQ/BlU6i23lZrw/s1600/baehrs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lv8GCNuSPyU/VBqV8cQ5zgI/AAAAAAAABBQ/BlU6i23lZrw/s1600/baehrs.png" height="216" width="400" /></a></div>
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In blogging, the best is the enemy of the good. The year has been a full one, but you wouldn't know it from our blog.<br />
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For example, you wouldn't know that we are nearly a month out from starting weekly Pilgrim Dinners (30 October). Many of you readers were encouraged by our Huon Mission at the beginning of the year. Well, keep reading, because it turns out that was only the beginning of something much bigger.</div>
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A little after the Huon Mission, we had an epiphany: why not “do Pilgrim Hill now” in a permanent sense? We don’t have our building yet, but there is so much we can do already. So we settled on a strategy that we believe with God’s blessing will be effective in reaching backpackers in the Huon: a plan for Pilgrim Hill now - in part, if not in full.</div>
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Now, Pilgrim Hill's mission is to make disciples for Jesus by showing and telling the Gospel through hospitality. But how can we do hospitality without having a building or beds to offer? Answer, by offering free dinners from a hired venue in the centre of Huonville for the backpackers who flock to the Huon for about 7 months of every year.</div>
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It’s a way to begin offering kindness, community, practical love and Gospel truth to travellers - many of the same travellers who will be hosted overnight when the hostel opens.</div>
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The project is called Pilgrim Dinners, and the plan is an evening meal with a discipleship component. Our team will run the free dinners with the support of volunteers (like you), who prepare and assist in the meals and evangelism. </div>
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The evangelistic component will usually be a short talk, but will occasionally be another event (film night, bush dance, etc) with the express purpose of disciple-making through showing and telling the fullness of the Gospel.</div>
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God willing, we start 30 October, in the lead up to the next picking season, and finish at the end of the season in the Autumn, with time for development in the Winter. We’ll start with one dinner a week, plus Bible studies and special events. Seeing how things take off, there are plenty of opportunities to expand.</div>
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Naturally, we are very excited about the months ahead. Excited enough we may just start blogging again. </div>
tpbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13251602016227118690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-62768513956263920492014-02-20T01:54:00.000-08:002014-03-11T17:56:31.717-07:00The other side of the boat<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k2xfQYPZ7Ec/UwSJo3Ji4WI/AAAAAAAABIA/KUvK6FVzrJg/s1600/photo-14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k2xfQYPZ7Ec/UwSJo3Ji4WI/AAAAAAAABIA/KUvK6FVzrJg/s1600/photo-14.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Serving an Australia Day meal to over 100 seasonal workers in the Huon Valley. <br />
Peirce is giving his talk on "Redemption" from the top of an apple crate.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We were hours away from putting on our 4th and final outreach dinner for international fruit pickers and seasonal workers at Lucaston Park Orchards. The previous dinners had gone smoothly. We'd set up in a covered outdoor venue with nicely laid trestle tables with table cloths and simple flowers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The aim was to show love and care to the workers in the form of a meal, a conversation, and a short talk about Christianity. In return, we received warm thanks and sincere questions. We felt we'd been doing pretty well. Depending on the evening, we'd had anywhere from 50 to just 5 workers, and that was fine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We were organised. We were ready.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Go fish on the other side of the boat," Jesus said once, and the disciples broke their nets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Just hours before our final dinner, on January 26th, otherwise known as Australia Day, we learned that a conflicting event had been organised for the workers (I should say, very kindly organised, without knowing there was a conflict).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">While hardly the end of the world, this did feel like a very disappointing end to our Huon summer mission. We had a crew of no less than 7 Pilgrim Hill volunteers coming along, whom we'd have to call right away and ask to stay home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">After taking a moment to pray together, Peirce and I discussed our options. There was just one more possibility - the two events could be combined? We could bring our food and people and help make the Aussie barbecue even more of a hit with the workers. The answer was yes! Even better, we got the all-clear for Peirce to give his planned final talk, on "Redemption".</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, a few hours later, our plan for a sit-down meal summarily abandoned, we showed up at the Orchards with a lot of meat pies, sausage rolls, and pavlova (Australian traditional fare, for those not in the know) to go with the sausages ("snags") already provided.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Lest I sound too chirpy, I want to be honest - the whole event necessitated an attitude change on our part. We couldn't be organised. We couldn't do things "our way".</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We were setting up a trestle table among farm equipment and an impromptu rivulet at the same time that the workers were pouring out of the packing shed, hungry and curious. We were trying to keep an eye on our 3 children (5 and under), who showed a marked fondness for disappearing into tractors and running off into the apple orchards (understandable).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Peirce adjusted quickly to giving his talk on top of an apple crate (see photo) to over 100 people, when he'd been expecting to give it sitting down in a sedate dinner setting with less than half that number. The guests at our previous dinners had all been Asian seasonal workers, mostly from Taiwan and Hong Kong, who listened politely and attentively to something that was very new to them. Now he was springing an overt Gospel message on a large group of people, many of whom were from post-Christian cultures like Sweden, France, Belgium, England, Scotland, the US and Canada, and might not be expected to be quite so polite or interested.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So how did it go? One worker walked away, but the rest stayed and listened while they ate, though they had no obligation to (we gave them their meal first). Surprisingly, there was even applause at the end of Peirce's talk. Several people came up and thanked us warmly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We had the opportunity to talk with them afterwards about Christianity. I talked at length with a Russian woman, whom you can see in the photo (short blonde hair) leaning against the apple crate to Peirce's right. She had investigated and rejected Russian Orthodoxy, then converted to Islam, and now finally rejected strict religious legalism for a more permissive unitarian theism. She asked me a lot of questions and I had the privilege of sharing with her about the Trinity and salvation by grace, the latter of which seemed to be completely new to her. Upon leaving I asked her if she would like me to continue praying for her. She broke into a smile and said, "I would like that very much."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">On January 26th, 2014, we had a glimpse of Pilgrim Hill. We tasted God's providence, which shatters our organised little schemes and messes them up, leaving us with broken nets, and hearts full of His goodness.</span><br />
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<br />Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-84747848542037621472013-12-19T02:55:00.000-08:002013-12-19T02:55:06.701-08:00Thanks<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><i>The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. </i>Proverbs 16:33</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">We'd filled out all the forms, consulted the experts, attached the required reports, but we knew in the end that the result was with God alone. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Praise, praise be to God.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">In His providence, the Huon Council has given us development approval to go ahead with our plans for the complex of buildings that comprise Pilgrim Hill.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">In fact, the Councillors not only approved it, they voted unanimously to do so!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">I'm not sure I can overstate the importance of this step, which means we now have the permission of </span></span><span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Australia's southernmost local government body to pursue our plans for a hostel and artist's residency on the beautiful 25 acres that God in His graciousness created and has given us to tend.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Four years ago, we committed to pray regularly for favour with local government and for wisdom in successfully navigating the complex application process. We are humbled and awed that we've been answered so kindly.</span></span></div>
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<br />Christina Baehrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13324795718291893464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542136279982502977.post-6459227173646826972013-10-15T03:47:00.003-07:002013-10-15T15:04:41.470-07:00Interview with a Very Young Team Member<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">An interview with a key member of our team, Evelyn Baehr. As the oldest Baehr child, Eve (aged 4.5) will have a significant role in the work of Pilgrim Hill, practising hospitality with her family.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Please enjoy this audio interview given by Eve about Pilgrim Hill, conducted by Papa (Peirce Baehr) and edited by Suzannah Rowntree.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Note: Use a Flash-friendly device to play this interview. That means no iOS (iPhones, iPods, iPads). </span><br />
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tpbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13251602016227118690noreply@blogger.com1