Young Anabaptist Radicals

children

Three Cups of Tea

OK, I’m not a real book reviewer, but this one might interest you in case you haven’t already read it. “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Relin.

It’s about an American mountain climber who doesn’t quite make it to the summit of K2 and wanders off and almost dies trying to find his way back and stumbles across a remote mountain village in backwoods Pakistan. He sees that the children in the town don’t have a school building (or a teacher), so he vows to build one, even though he doesn’t have any money and lives out of a car.

It was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Inspiring. It’s interesting that even though his parents were Lutheran missionairies, he doesn’ have strong religious beliefs and doesn’t seem all that idealistic. However, like many climbers who live to climb, he lives a very frugal lifestyle- simple lifestyle and because of this and his childhood in Africa, he doesn’t feel the least bit deprived in living in third world conditions and adapts easily and picks up languages and friends with equal ease.

He gets kidnapped by drug smugglers-Taliban types. Somehow his disarming manner and his goodwill see him through his adventures and he eventually gets many schools built (with the promise that they will also educate girls) in areas where the schools are either very poor, non-existent, or terrorist-training schools (madrasas).

It’s an excellent example of overcoming evil with good. Inspiring book.

December 13, 2014 Books, children, Education Read more >

I once was raised a Feminist, but now I’ve found Feminism

This post was originally featured on The Jesus Event, and is part of a series entitled “I once was raised… but now I’ve found…” where some of the author’s favorite writers, bloggers, scholars, and theologians explain the transitions they have encountered along their own faith journey.

Below is an interview with The Jesus Event’s Tyler Tully and the Femonite’s Hannah Heinzekehr

Tyler- There are a lot of misconceptions out there about being a Mennonite and being raised as a Mennonite. You seemed to have been raised by parents who made room for good theological frameworks. How would you explain what it is like being raised as a Mennonite?

Hannah- Well, for me, being raised as a Mennonite didn’t mean looking “outwardly different” at all. For me, what it meant to grow up Mennonite was that there was always an emphasis on Jesus’ story and what that meant for how we lived. And some of the ways that this got expressed were through baptism later in life — baptism occurred when you were old enough to make a conscious choice that you have to make on your own to follow Jesus. It also included an emphasis on peace and nonviolence as part of the way that we were meant to live in the world. For my family, being Mennonite also meant being pacifist and resisting violence in all its many forms. This doesn’t mean that we are passive — I think we also strongly believed that we were meant to protest against injustice in the world — but we weren’t going to use violence to do this work. And the third thing that I often think of is that being Mennonite, for my family, meant being part of a church community that was active in each other’s lives and not just on Sundays.
I think there was a strong emphasis on communal decision making and being willing to give and receive counsel to one another.

(more…)

August 10, 2013 Anabaptism, Biographical, Blog, children, Church, Discipleship, Family, Mennonite Church USA, Theology, Writing, Young Folks, , , , , , , , Read more >

Book Review of “A Map and a Mule: A Peace Story of Queen Isabel of Portugal.”

I am a frequent reader of children’s books. I can’t help it. I have two small children of my own who have voracious appetites for books, so reading and reviewing this book seemed a welcomed challenge.

As many adults can attest there is no lack of books for children and most of it just doesn’t keep you coming back for more — even though such sentiment may not be shared by your child. I dove straight into this book with a willful giddiness because it explored the largely forgotten topic of peace. Not the typical child peace story that takes place during recess, but an actual story of someone engaging in nonviolent action to thwart bloodshed. These are the stories that I want my children to be versed in, exposed to, and ultimately to possess in their own right.

(more…)

January 28, 2013 Books, children Read more >

Toothbrush Revolution

Yesterday I was at the dentist‘s and they gave me a toothbrush. Now I hear in the States that‘s not an usual thing, but in Germany it‘s actually really strange and so after the dentist thought she had put her fingers in my mouth long enough and I was allowed to go, I was carrying a toothbrush in the pocket of my jeans and somehow the toothbrush kept coming up in my mind and with it the chorus of a song.
A song my father always sang with us when I was a little boy. It‘s about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he said to kids who also wanted to participate in the demonstrations. He told them they could participate, if they had a toothbrush with them. Because if you get arrested you have to empty your pockets and all is taken away from you. Only your toothbrush you can keep. So keep your toothbrush as a sign of your willingness to go to jail for freedom. The song was written in Eastern Germany and was a famous song amongst Christian youth in the protest movement against the state-socialist regime.

In my head, I heard my eight year old self singing the chorus over and over again, the rough translation would be:”Do you have your toothbrush with you? You will need still need it. Still today people are put in jail who are against oppression.”

I was really amazed by this, on the one hand because I rarely remember anything from my childhood, but on the other hand because of the radical message this song was giving.

It‘s paraphrasing Jesus, “Take your cross upon you and follow me” into words children can understand and that I still remember ten years after I last sang the song…

To me, taking up my cross or carrying my toothbrush around is a daily struggle because although it feels good to be really critical of the state and school and be the radical guy in school who challenges basically every opinion, my radical activity is usually done there (sometimes I also translate stuff for the German CPT branch…). How can I live a life where it makes sense to carry my toothbrush with me all the time, because I challenge the world so much, that it can’t stand me, it wants to put me in prison?

I sometimes lead Sunday school classes in my congregation at home, and I’d love to sing that song with the kids, but I feel like I have to carry my toothbrush with me for some time, till I can do that.

The last line is:”I have my tooth brush with me and I will still need it. Still today people are put in jail who are against oppression.” – this I will try to do…

June 18, 2010 activism, Awesome Stuff, children, Nonviolence, Police Brutality, Young Folks, , , , , Read more >

Welcome to Grand Central Station

Like an episode of C.O.P.S. the names here have been changed to protect the innocent.

Hamilton is in N.E. Baltimore, which is in Maryland, which is in the Eastern United States located in North America. I’ve lived here for two years. I never thought I’d be an urbanite but it’s come to suit me just fine. I like the ice cream trucks, the mixed culture, a plethora of restaurants, the ease of commuting all over the city and burbs in minutes.

I wouldn’t say Hamilton is “The Hood”. It’s one zip code south of the county, the next town south is one of the better places to live in Baltimore, Lauraville, which insulates us. But like all urban areas there are very little guarantees. Some nights it’s quiet, other nights I can hear teenagers swearing loudly at 2am and there’s usually empty beer containers on my lawn in the morning. It’s easy to see that our relative peace hangs by a thread, whether it be the bloods graffiti or the drunks stumbling through our backyards at 11 pm, our quiet community is quietly at war.

But this isn’t a post about Hamilton. Or about urban warfare. Or about gangs. It’s about kids and watching them grow up in a weird ecclectic neighborhood. (more…)

July 27, 2008 Bigotry, children, City, Community, Contemplation, culture, Dumb Stuff., Education, Race, Uncategorized, Urban Ministry Read more >