earthsedge

Hmm…I was hoping to do more blogging but haven’t felt very inspired lately. My days have been filled with reading and writing, and although it gets to be monotonous at times, I can’t complain. In fact, if I could figure out a way to make money doing this, well, that would be my kind of job! Being home in Illinois is always a restful time for us, and after five years, I think we finally figured out how much we need it. I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for returning to Amsterdam, where I’m sure we will once again be swept away by the speed of life.

Amsterdam. We leave January 8th, which is right around the corner. It’s both exciting and strange to imagine being back there. We arrive on a Saturday morning and the FIS starts the next Monday-just enough time to put air in our tires and hit the ground pedaling. I’m  really hoping it will get cold enough this year for the canals to freeze. Hypothetically, you could ice skate all over the city…or even the country.

We spent this weekend in Kentucky visiting some friends. I forgot to bring a camera, but when we got home it was snowing and Aidan was eager to play in it (pic below). We are all excited for his birthday…Becka is planning to make a tractor cake. And I’m looking forward to seeing his reaction when he opens his presents. Let’s just say there’s one or two things with wheels!

In the first chapter of his book Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture,  missionary statesmen Lesslie Newbigin explains the dramatic shift that Christianity has undergone in Western culture. He makes the following points:

1.) There is never a culture-free gospel or Christianity. Christianity is always embodied in a culture.

2.) During the Enlightenment, the plausibility structures of Western culture changed. Previously, religion was at the center of public life. As Western culture came into its ‘modern consciousness’ -and the scientific method rose to the forefront of the consciousness- this changed. Religious experience became privatized and individualized, and the gospel became just one of many ‘varieties of religious experience.’

3.) As a result, the exclusive claims of Christianity are by nature excluded by the plausibility structures of the Western consciousness, producing a dichotomy between ‘values’ and ‘facts, or ‘faith’ and ‘reason’.

4.) Newbigin argues that the Church’s response to the challenge of the Enlightenment was,

to accept the dichotomy and withdraw into the private sector. Having lost the battle to control education, and having been badly battered in its encounter with the modern science, Christianity in its Protestant form has largely accepted relegation to the private sector, where it can influence the choice of values by those who take this option.

5.) The consequence of this withdrawal, according to Newbigin, is that Christianity has,

secured for itself a continuing place, at the cost of surrendering the crucial field. As an option for the private field, Christianity can enjoy considerable success. People can be encouraged to… join the church of your own choice. And the claim, the awesome and winsome claim of Jesus Christ to be alone the Lord of all the world, the light that alone shows the whole reality as it really is, the life that alone endures forever-this claim is effectively silenced. It remains, for our culture, just one of the varieties of religious experience.”

I think Newbigin nails it. For better or for worse, this is what has happened to Christianity in Western culture. This shift is the reason why Christianity is thriving everywhere-everywhere except the Western world, where it’s suffocating. (It’s also the reason why ‘missionary’ is a dirty word in pluralist Western culture, which is one of my essay topics). And this, in essence, is why I find working in Western Europe to be so compelling.

Some of you might remember that when we first started out in missions, we talked a lot about frontier missions: taking the gospel to places it has never been. But back then, I mostly thought of frontier missions in terms of geographic locations, or the places and peoples that haven’t been ‘reached’ (although ‘reached’ and ‘Christian’ are far from easy concepts to define and measure, in my opinion). Much of our first few years in missions was focused on getting ourselves or others to these ‘unreached’ locations. And that is still our passion; to see the love of Christ proclaimed in places where it has not been, whether or not we go ourselves or continue to be involved in training others. But my understanding of frontier missions has grown, and it now includes ideological frontiers.

And Western Europe-Amsterdam in particular- is one of these ideological frontiers.

It is true that Christianity has been present in Western Europe for over a thousand years, although it is now in rapid decline. Western Europe is predominantly secular, and has become increasingly so since the Enlightenment. Still, you can hardly say that Europe is ‘unreached’. You can attend a church on Sunday if you want, and you can buy a Bible translated into any of the major European languages.  It is also true that it is very expensive to live there, and to support missionaries who live there is more expensive than it would be in other places in the world. Furthermore, the likelihood of seeing lots of the usual ‘fruit’ that churches like to hear about-decisions for Christ and churches planted-is very low.

Despite all of this, I absolutely think it is worthwhile to invest in Western Europe. It is an ideological frontier; a place where the gospel needs to go where it has never gone before: into the worldview, structures, and systems of postmodern Western culture.

This week, among other things, we’re trying to put together our trip out west (we leave early next week). We’ve made this trip more times than I can remember, but I never get tired of it. I love driving across the country. With the possible exception of Australia, just about every place we’ve lived has started to feel crowded after a while (which probably says more about me than the places). After a while I start missing the sheer vastness of America. Plains, mountains, wilderness…America has got it all. And the best way to see it, in my opinion, is still by car. (Not that we have one, but thanks to my folks for letting us borrow theirs…and it’s a little nicer than the one pictured above!)

This time around we’re trying to plan our trip a little better. Before Aidan was born we used to drive straight through, camp (the preferred option), or sleep for a few hours here or there. Now that Aidan is a very active almost-two-year-old, the driving straight through is probably not an option. We would camp, but all of our camping gear is in California, so we’ll save that for the return trip (if its not too cold). Hotels are sometimes fun, but they are usually sterile and outside of our budget.

So we’re going to try something new. It’s called Mennonite Your Way, which is a hospitality network through the Mennonite church (and others who volunteer to participate). You can stay with local families all over the world for a small donation, the idea being it’s a way of building relationships with new people and encouraging hospitality across cultures.  Some Dutch friends recommended it to us; they raved about it so much that we decided to give it a try. If it turns out to be worthwhile, we’ll share our experiences in another post.

Once we’re in California we’ll be moving around. We would love to catch up with as many friends and family out that way as we can. So drop us a line!

Bonjour!

Well, actually it’s “hello” now…we’re back in the United States after a wonderful six months in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Last time we sent out a newsletter, it was, well…it was a long time ago! We had just returned from Amsterdam after our visa problems and we had decided to take a break from YWAM to focus on some courses we needed to finish. Here’s an update about how that went, and our latest mission project….

Switzerland

The reason why we went to Switzerland was so that Chris could finish two final courses for his BA in Intercultural Studies. The courses were great, and we enjoyed the new experience of living in a French-speaking region. Switzerland is a stunningly beautiful country and the people are wonderful. It’s also a very expensive country, but fortunately the chocolate is cheap! Aidan has really thrived over the last six months. We lived in a rural part of the country outside of Geneva, and Aidan loved his daily encounters with tractors and cows. He is talking up a storm these days and can even say a few words in French. It was a very busy, rewarding six months. With these two courses behind him, Chris is hoping to write his final thesis sometime in the next four months and then he will be done with his degree. Becka has one final ESL (English as a Second Language) practicum and she will be done with hers. It’s been a long, rewarding journey, and it’s a relief for both of us to have the end in sight! Neither one of us really planned things to work out this way, but as we reflect on all our experiences over the past five years, it’s amazing to see how God has brought things together.

As some of you may remember, earlier in the year we had decided to step away from our responsibilities with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) while we focused on finishing our studies. We also felt strongly to discontinue our support base since we would be focusing exclusively on studying.

However, there have been a few people who have graciously continued to support us through this season by financial gifts and loans, and we are extremely grateful to you for this unexpected kindness! We have also appreciated the emails, prayers, and even visits of our friends and family. It’s been amazing for us to feel so connected to you, even as we are worlds apart.

Amsterdam

So what’s next, for the nomadic Warners? Well, we’ve decided to give Amsterdam another go. We are planning to return in January. Our main reason for returning is to reconnect with our team at YWAM Amsterdam (the Intercultural Resource Center) and resume one of the projects that we’ve been planning for some time. We’ll be helping to facilitate a six-month intercultural training program called Foundations in Intercultural Studies (FIS). It’s a program that we were closely involved with planning when we were in Amsterdam previously, and something that we believe can make a significant impact in the city and beyond.

Of course, we have mixed feelings about returning to Amsterdam. We are looking forward to working with ICRC again, catching up with friends, dusting off our Dutch, and eating more stroopwaffles than should be legally allowed! On the other hand, there are some significant challenges waiting for us. The difficult housing situation hasn’t changed, and another uncertain visa process is looming. We’ve accepted that these challenges make it difficult to plan on how long we will be able to stay once our tourist visa expires. Even though we are craving some more stability and a longer-term commitment, we are trusting that our Father will still be with us-even if we can’t see over the next hill. We are still passionate about seeing the nations come to know the love of Christ.

Autumn to Winter

Would you consider praying for us as we prepare to return to Amsterdam? The next few months will be a very busy time as Chris is writing his thesis and we are working toward raising the necessary support to live in Amsterdam. We need to raise at least 3000 USD per month, which admittedly seems like a daunting figure. (To be honest, support raising has never been our strong point.) We’ve been able to live on far less than this in the past, but this is the minimum requirement for a residency visa. We would also appreciate your prayers that some suitable housing would open up before we arrive, and for a smooth transition as we prepare and travel from Illinois to California in the next few months.

If you’re interested, you can continue to follow our journey at our website, www.earthsedge.org. It’s kind of been dormant amidst the busyness of the summer, but we’ll be posting more regularly in the coming months. We try and post some videos or pictures of Aidan every so often-you will be surprised at how much he has changed! You can also find more information about the Foundations in Intercultural Studies course that we will be running, and all of our financial support information is available there as well.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you in the coming months! If we haven’t heard from you in a while, please drop us a line and let us know how your summer went!

Love,

Chris, Becka, and Aidan

Two Sundays ago, I took the ferry across Lake Geneva to Yvoire, France. Yvoire is a medieval village, enclosed by a high wall and built on the hilly shore of Lac Leman (as Lake Geneva is known “on the other side”).

The houses are crumbling stone and mortar, crawling with vines and adorned with more flowers than you could find at your local nursery. There are more shops than actual residents and only a handful of streets to explore, but what it lacks in size, Yvoire compensates with charm.

Every detail of the décor of the town serves to make it one of the most eye-pleasing towns I’ve ever seen: flowering and broad-leafed vines spiral up the ancient walls;

artisan signs hang over every shop entrance;

and little antique embellishments are tucked-away, like the old grinding stone in a courtyard and a rusting bike leaning forlorn against a wine shop window.

But what’s a trip to France without eating a crepe? The highlight of the day for me was using what little French I knew to order crepes for myself and the three other girls I was traveling with: 4 lemon crepes with cream, from a street vendor. We sat down on a bench to try and eat them with our plastic forks (which is very nearly impossible, I have to say) when a man slowed down, smiled at us and said, “Bon Appetite!” By then, most of my unsubstantiated prejudice against the French had melted away and I was planning another trip to France. Hopefully Chris and Aidan will be able to come next time!