Stop buying unnecessary gifts

Let’s all try something different this holiday season. For this year, let’s not buy into our consumer society and spend large amounts of money in order to express our love for each other. Why don’t we instead just spend time with family and friends and share in the spirit of the season instead of spending more money on things none of us really need? The holiday season is meant to remember the birth of Christ, celebrate a festive season, or remember the Miracle of the Oil for our Jewish brothers and sisters. Regardless of how we observe the season, we can all agree it’s a time meant for family, friends, peace and love.

But for many, this time of year only increases hardship, sadness, and heartache. Many people in our communities and around the world see us rushing around buying all kind of unnecessary gifts when they struggle to feed and clothe themselves. This year, let us stop and consider if we actually need anything; if the answer is no, let’s take the money we would use to buy unnecessary gifts for each other and use it to help others.

You could donate money to a local food bank, Christmas Cheer Board, or Shelter. You could buy gifts for people around the world through the World Vision Gift Guide, or fill as many “shoe boxes” as you can. You could donate the money to a local or international agency that is trying to help people through this holiday season or you could use the money to help people you know personally. There are countless ways we can love people and put them ahead of ourselves.

Even if we choose to buy gifts for people in our lives, we can choose to give in more ethical, globally responsible ways. We can consider making something, buying at a thrift store, garage sale, or local farmer’s market. Ten Thousand Villages or other stores like it have great Fair Trade options for gift-giving as well.

My family and I are choosing to “adopt a family” through the local Christmas Cheer Board, and buy gifts for families in developing countries through the World Vision Gift Guide. I also hope to take some time and volunteer with the Christmas Cheer Board in the coming weeks. I would encourage you to take the time to do something to spread peace and love throughout the world during this holiday season.

Your thoughts?

Christianity, Emerging Church, Missional, Christmas, Social Justice

Inner thoughts of a Questioning Mind 2.0

Previous Post - World Food Day

Welcome to the official re-launch of my blog!

Over the past year, I let my blog slowly go quiet. My blogging dramatically slowed down as I found it increasingly difficult to find time to keep an active blog. As a result, I stopped blogging all together during the spring and summer. Now that I have more time to write, I look forward to return to blogging on a regular basis.

First, a little background and quick update on what’s going on in my life. Many of you started to read this blog when I was the Manager of a faith-based social service agency in Northwest Ontario. I deeply enjoyed working with the people and helping the agency through a major time of transition. I had planned on staying with the agency longer as they began to move into the next stage of their work. However, the death of my daughter changed everything. My wife and I made the decision to take a year away from our careers and moved to my wife’s hometown of Saskatoon to be near her family.

I enjoyed our year off as I got to known my in-laws better and as they helped us heal. During this time, I worked the night shift at a homeless hostel, which let me gain more front line experience. As the year wrapped up, we decided to move back to my hometown of Winnipeg, where we lived before we moved to Northwest Ontario.

We are reconnecting with family and friends, and are settling into our new lives here in Winnipeg. We have been back for about a month, and my wife is back to work in her field of work. I am in the beginning stages of doing something I am passionate about. I can’t really share any details at this time, but I will when the time is right.

Christianity, Emerging Church, Missional

World Food Day

Today is World Food Day, a day to bring attention to world poverty and food security issues. Yesterday was Blog Action Day, and I’m guessing it’s no mistake that the two are so close to each other. Bloggers around the world have been blogging to bring awareness to poverty issues and World Food Day. Since I am a blogger who used to run a food bank, and who cares deeply about social justice issues, I thought this would be a good time to restart my blog.

I sat at my computer this morning trying to figure what I wanted to say about poverty and the fact that millions of people, many of them children, are starving to death. I tried to think of personal stories from my humble upbringing, and of stories from my time at the food bank, and I actually started a decent post. However, as I was writing I realized there are many excellent posts out there on the issues, and there’s nothing I can say that hasn't already been said, so I thought I’d keep it simple. Here it goes…

There are millions of people that don’t have enough food to live, who live in man-made poverty.

Most of them live in second and third world counties; however, many also live in the first world.

They all need our help.

Without our help, many will die and many more suffer in countless ways.

We have the means to help so we have no excuse.

There are countless way you can help.

You can spread the message to people around you.

You can put pressure on your government to address the issue.

You can donate money to local and international agencies that are already addressing the issues.

You can donate your time to these agencies, which are often under-staffed.

Or you can donate both your money and time because both are in great need.

And best of all you can do this on a regular basis and not just on a day of action.

In the fire

Previous Post - World Vision cuts aid

I haven't had the motivation to write in some time, so I have been asking friends if they would like to contribute something to this blog in the meantime. This week, my friend "Emerging from the Fire" has been kind enough to write the following;

It has been over six months since I deleted my blog, Emerging From the Fire. I watched as the links to each of my posts were slowly deleted from Google searches, as friends removed my link from their blogs, as my FeedBurner subscribers slowly canceled their feeds, as my Technorati rating plummeted. All is not lost, though. My words linger on in the memory of those that remember them. I hope my thoughts were comforting to some, healing to others, thought-provoking and challenging to a few.

Kyle has generously and kindly offered me the chance to post one last time. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you for this humbling opportunity to post on the blog I have long read and admired.

A fellow blogger recently asked me, “So, why did you call your blog Emerging From the Fire, anyway?”

My simple answer: “Because I was a fool.”

You see, when I began the blog, I was suffering. I was going through some type of mid-life crises. I had been at the center of a community-wide drama involving my work. I found out I had cancer. I had nearly lost a pregnancy and spent months on bed rest. A life-long friend asked me to never talk to him again. Then, my husband of 10 years came out of the closet and asked for a divorce.

I felt as though I was tethered to the sun -- aflame, smoldering, and burning. I pulled at the end of the rope and struggled to free myself, staying as far from the heat as I could manage. Yet, I could not free myself. I thought of Hell-Fire, the Lake of Fire, Sodom and Gomorra. Like the sinners of Zion, I cried out, “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" (Isa. 33:14). I felt myself being burned alive and prayed for the day that God would release the rope from its place around my neck and permit me to return to peaceful pastures.

Somewhere in the depths of my mind, I thought that being close to God spared me from bad things happening in my life. I believed his armor would protect me from evil. I insisted that the closer I got to Him, the smoother the road would become. Soon, I thought, I would be close enough to the pearly gates that the rocky path I had traveled would be turned to bricks of gold… and maybe someone would even carry me the last few miles.

(I told you I was a fool).

When we first moved into our new house, my daughter frequently locked herself in the first floor bathroom with the light off. Sitting in the dark, she imagined monsters and ghosts were waiting to attack her. When she couldn’t find the light switch or the turn the door knob, she would scream bloody murder and throw herself against the door in absolute panic until someone came to release her.

She was never in danger. Nothing hurt her or was going to hurt her. She suffered not because something worthy of suffering was happening, but because she perceived that something worthy of suffering was happening.

The true “armor of God” does not change unfortunate circumstances that happen to us, it changes the way we perceive and deal with the unfortunate circumstances that happen to us. Instead of hiding from life’s hard experiences, I have learned to walk into them without fear. Instead of pushing away my pain, I have learned to feel it, experience it in its wholeness, resolve and transform it so that I do not suffer. Sometimes, I cannot change what happens to me, but I can always change the way I choose to deal with what happens to me.

I am still tethered to the sun, my friends, but I do pull at the end of the rope. Instead, I calmly sit on the surface, swirling in flames. I have been burned completely, changed into something new. The flames remain, but they do not consume me. God did not remove me from the fire; he taught me how to live in the fire. And I am happy.

Like John Donne once wrote:

BATTER my heart, three person'd God; for, you

As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend

Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.

I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due,

Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,

Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.

Yet dearely'I love you,'and would be loved faine,

But am betroth'd unto your enemie:

Divorce mee,'untie, or breake that knot againe;

Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I

Except you'enthrall mee, never shall be free,

Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.

No longer desiring to emerge from the fire, but instead, to live in the fire.

Namaste, my friends,

Emerging from the Fire

Christianity, Emerging Church, Missional

World Vision cuts aid

Previous Post - Christian (a registered trademark, all rights reserved)


This CTV News story is true heart breaking.

World Vision needs urgent help as millions starve

CTV.ca News Staff

World Vision says it's forced to cut back on the number of people it will be able to help in the coming months, blaming a "perfect storm" of drought, changing food patterns and rising fuel costs.

The international aid organization is cutting back on the vital flow of food it can provide to the world's most impoverished -- saying it can no longer afford to feed 1.5 million of the 7.5 million people that received aid last year.

A confluence of factors has led to the cutbacks, according to Dave Toycen, president of World Vision Canada.

Toycen told CTV Newsnet that the cost of oil, has driven up the price of fertilizer. Furthermore, the production of biofuels is using up wheat and corn that would normally be used to feed people.

"We have also had some climate issues," said Toycen.

"There's been a major drought in Australia. There's also changing food patterns in India and China, two countries with populations where they are now eating more meat and it takes more grain (to feed the animals) that would normally go to people."

Of the 1.5 million, 572,000 are children in urgent need of food to survive.

And the problem isn't expected to be short-lived. Toycen said he expects it will take two years for prices to stabilize and for World Vision to overcome the crisis.

The most profound result of the cutback, he said, is that hundreds of thousands of children under five, who rely on World Vision food to ensure their development, will not get the nutrition they need.

That can result in impaired brain development and stunted physical growth, which could have a devastating impact on economically challenged nations that desperately need a strong, healthy and educated future workforce, he said.

"The international community must ensure that preventing child hunger and malnutrition is the top priority in the search for a solution to the current food pricing crisis," Toycen said earlier in a news release.

World Vision is calling on countries and private donors to step up and fund the $500 million shortfall.

Toycen said that Canada has been a generous donor, but Canadians can urge their government to do more. He said tens of millions of people in refugee camps around the world are in dire need of emergency funding immediately. Toycen said it's in everyone's self interest to help.

"The more and more there's food instability and there's instability in the world, one way or another we seem to have repercussions," he said.

The organization is also asking countries that have pledged support, to make good on their promises.

World food shortage

The crisis faced by World Vision is one symptom of a global phenomenon that is being dubbed the "silent tsunami."

The United Nations World Food Programme warns that 20 million of the poorest children are at risk worldwide.

Josette Sheeran, the WFP's executive director, focused on the crisis Wednesday during a speech at a London summit dedicated to the subject.

She said the cost of rice has more than doubled in the last five weeks, and the World Bank estimates food prices have increased 83 per cent in three years.

Sheeran said the effects are being seen on all continents, and progress that has been made in the battle against poverty over the past five to 10 years could be lost if nations don't step up to meet the challenge.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is also involved in the summit. He said the effects of high food prices are being seen on all continents, and progress made in the battle against poverty over the past five to 10 years could be lost if nations don't step up to meet the challenge.

"Tackling hunger is a moral challenge to each of us and it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of nations," Brown said.

In the U.S., there are reports that Wal-Mart has limited the sale of rice to four bags per customer per day, over fears the supply will dry up.

In a world that spends enough money on war in a month to ride the world of hungry this shouldn't be happening.

Christianity, Emerging Church, Missional,
, Poverty, World Vision

Christian (a registered trademark, all rights reserved)

Previous Post - The Earth Hour is near!

The following article was originally posted on my friend's blog, he was kind enough to allow me to repost it here.

Christian (a registered trademark, all rights reserved)

The term "Christian," in North America, has become generic.

Just like if someone wants a cola, they order a Coke, or if they want a tissue, they ask for a Kleenex. Both words identify specific brands/products, but are used generically for anything of the same type.

In North America, when you ask someone their religion, if they believe in the existence of God, and do not specifically identify with any other religion, they will answer "Christian." Not because they necessarily have any idea what that word means, but because they are not anything else so they MUST be "Christian."

Western Christianity is the "Coke" of religions.

Many who identify themselves as "Christians" don't understand at all what being a Christian means. They have no personal ownership of their religious beliefs, and therefore do not live according to the beliefs of the religion they claim. Rarely could their behaviour be classified as "Christ-like." (example: just about every rapper, most pop, R&B and hip-hop artists)

Likewise, those that DO understand what Christianity means do not always live like Christ. For some, it is because they would rather just do whatever they want. But even among those who do strive to live a Christ-like life, few if any are able to maintain that all of the time, because of the simple fact of human nature. Does this make them any less of a Christian? I don't think so.

The difference between the 2 groups of people I have mentioned is intent. We are not, and will never be, perfect in this world. We will mess up. We will fail sometimes. The question is, where someone goes after that.

There will always be good and bad among Christians. It cannot be avoided. Few people are exclusively good or bad, and even good and bad actions can be somewhat subjective. How you perceive something is not necessarily the way it actually is.

So, am I a Christian? that depends on your definition.

If by "Christian," you mean someone who believes that all have sinned and require redemption, which can only be acquired through the blood of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and coming again, and who therefore attempts to live his life in accordance with the words of Christ, then yes, I am a Christian.

What I am not is perfect, or sinless. I do not have everything together. Nor do I subscribe to a "catch-all" Christianity that says if I'm nothing else, I must be "Christian." If that is what you believe a Christian to be, then do not call me a Christian.

Call me a believer, a Christ-follower, a lover of God. Know that my faith and beliefs have been worked out with fear and trembling, and that they do not always line up perfectly with what people expect a Christian to be. And knowing that, understand that it is not up to anyone to determine the faith or heart of another.

Written by Murray Soko

Christianity, Emerging Church, Missional

The Earth Hour is near!

Previous Post - Support groups and the Church

Just in case you haven't already heard March 29'08 8:00-9:00 PM is Earth Hour.

Earth Hour is a time when we are all encouraged to turn off our lights in the hope of reducing the strain on the world's energy's resources. It's only a small step but many small steps from hundreds of thousands people can make a world of difference.

For more information please check out: http://www.earthhour.org/

Christianity, Emerging Church, Missional, Earth Hour

Support groups and the Church

Previous Post - The Dusty Cover

This past week, my wife and I attended a support group for bereaved parents. We were nervous and somewhat apprehensive about going because we didn’t know what to expect. Despite our concerns, we were welcomed warmly, and people went out of their way to help us feel at ease. I don’t know if it is because everyone there shared a similar hurt, but I have never found any group anywhere more warm and inviting than this group of strangers. I almost instantly felt that we belonged there. We were embraced, and our experience was completely validated.

At the opening of the group, the facilitators laid out “ground rules” for the group session. There is something comforting about being explicitly told that it is okay to feel the things you feel, express your feelings any way you choose, and that you will be completely accepted exactly where you are at. It is freeing to know that there will be no judgment, no “shoulds,” and no easy answers that will try to make it all better. Everyone there understood that losing our children will never be “all better,” but we can choose to share our burdens and our journey with others who know our pain.

As a person who is called to ministry, and who is passionate about the responsibility of the church to reach out to people who are hurting, I left the meeting with renewed awareness. I could not help but connect the experience of this supportive community to the experience of a faith community.

Wouldn’t it be great if the church could be the kind of place where people could walk in raw and broken, not having to worry about how they present themselves or if they will be accepted? Can you imagine if we had that same enormous sense of belonging, simply because we know we all have wounds, and we need each other? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that everything we’re feeling is okay and that no one will give “easy answers” to hard struggles?

For the first time in my life, I am in the position of joining a church as an adult individual not in leadership. I am struck by how different this is from growing up in a church from childhood, or becoming involved in a church as a pastor. This current process has allowed me to view the Church from a completely different vantage point. In particular, it has given me the opportunity to experience how churches welcome new members, and how it feels to walk through the door with no prior claim to belonging except that I am a child of the Creator.

Having visited several churches in the pursuit of a church home, we have struggled with the challenge of feeling a sense of connectedness and seeing a place where we might fit in a Christian community.

The church, of all places on earth, must be a place that is about accepting people where they are at, that doesn’t try to give pat answers, which is filled with real people who are open about real struggles, and a place that is open and inviting. I am reminded that it is the Church’s responsibility to notice new people, to make people feel at ease. If a person has been brave enough to walk through the doors of a church, they should not be expected to initiate all contact and make themselves at home. I understand the delicate balance between being inviting, and yet not overwhelming people. Some people want to be anonymous initially; they may need the Church to be a place to hide and retreat. However, I do think it is important to make those initial efforts, and to be open to an individual’s desired level of connectedness


Christianity, Emerging Church, Missional, Bereavement