*So much has been happening lately that I have been very
regular in updates, thoughts, or just about anything. Hopefully I will start
catching up soon. At least I will get this one in, even if nothing else follows*
When I first heard about the Jewish understanding of sacred
time and space in college I have to admit that it grabbed my attention…but
probably not for the right reasons. I have always been a little bit of a nerd
and internal romantic (which I believe all nerds are) and am captivated by
almost anything that is larger than life for the simple fact that it is larger
than life. The realm of myth, legend, and the sacred have always held a
fascination for me. So the idea of sacred space and time was captivating to my
internal senses. As I left college and entered work in the church world,
specifically youth work, I became captivated by something else. A lack of
constraint on our time and/or space with God. The idea of communion with
crackers and soda, having church in a warehouse or a person’s home, and that
the most spiritual hours were between 1 am and 4 am, and the pizza and donut
binges of lock-ins. However, I still had the long-standing (some would call it
institutional church) to fall back on.
space. But eventually I started to miss something and it was my brothers and sisters in Christ here in Tanzania that helped me start to figure it out. They were the ones that wanted church space, a concept I was at first against because I had seen church buildings in the US becomes idols, and, well, it is more expensive than worshiping under a mango tree.
It was with all of this in mind that we finally agreed to
start helping in the construction of churches and the creation of a homes, not
for an individual family, but a common, sacred relationship that connects
people around a central Creator, first-born brother, and counselor/teacher.
We have been able to buy or receive donated land for five
churches and have reached different stages of construction for four of them. We
have prayed, celebrated, and given of our time and labor to see these spaces
created and they are being used for baptisms, weddings, the dedication of
babies, and community meeting space. We have blessed the foundation stone for
one church with several more to go.
It is an exciting thing to see these spaces created, used,
and start to layer on prayers, community celebrations, and the heaviness of
time that will in the future make them pillars for the community and the
church, a piece in others own sacred journeys just as other places have been
for me.
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