My own two hands - who can make this world a better place? (and an update)

(Two months' worth of thoughts from Jeff, and a general update, plus some nice pictures!)

I've had a song in my head over the past few days, perhaps ironically.  It is a song we received as a gift on a CD made by our good friend Brandi Bates, a musical and literary genius who lives a life close to the earth, and close to the question of what can be done with her own two hands, in the shadow of the beautiful Carpathian mountains in Romania.  The song, "With My Own Two Hands," goes like this:

"With My Own Two Hands"
(Jack Johnson, featuring Ben Harper - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlLchBxn0pw)

I can change the world
With my own two hands
Make it a better place
With my own two hands
Make it a kinder place
With my own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands
I can make peace on earth
With my own two hands
I can clean up the earth
With my own two hands
I can reach out to you
With my own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands
I'm going to make it a brighter place
With my own two hands
I'm going to make it a safer place
With my own two hands
I'm going to help the human race
With my own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands
I can hold you
With my own two hands
I can comfort you
With my own two hands
But you've got to use
Use your own two hands
Use your own
Use your own two hands
With our own
With our own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands

My, your, our - own two hands.  Can we change the world, make it a better place?

I say this song is in my head "perhaps ironically" because of the content of many discussions that have arisen in the courses I am teaching in Budapest this fall.  Reading tough books, deep books, books that ask big questions about the brokenness of humanity, of the natural world, and of each of our own hearts - these can leave one wondering about the actual potential of one's weak and broken "own two hands."  (* see below for a brief and incomplete list of the books we have read together) 

With a group of 16 students, we have explored limits, our limits in terms of bringing the world closer to God's Shalom, but also limits in the depth to which we can each get to know each other, this city, this country, this continent for all of the wonders of each of these places.  And the truth we all keep bumping up against in this discussion is the ancient human truth that we, all of us, are severely limited in what we can do to make the world a better place.

In mid-September in Sarajevo, I went with Abi to a gallery exhibition remembering the July, 1995 mass execution of 8,000 + men and boys in Srebrenica, in the northeast of Bosnia. This was three months before my first child was born, and while I remember reading about it at the time, I don't remember any associated feelings.  We have talked this semester a lot about numbness in the face of evil.  What can I do with my own two hands?

In October in Romania, on a visit to our good friends the Bates as well as Jack and Kelly Organ, and the staff of the New Horizons Foundation, we learned about the effects of what Dana Bates called the largest social science experiment ever carried out in the history of the world, known as Communism, on Romanian culture and people - an inability to trust, a frayed social fabric, rampant corruption...  And we learned about a counter-effort, a thriving NGO, the New Horizons Foundation, and its efforts to come alongside the Romanian Orthodox church, to strengthen civil society through service-learning activity, leadership and youth development, trust-building camps and clubs, and employability efforts for youth.  Our group spent a gorgeous day out in the woods climbing on ropes and learning to trust each other a bit more.  We later broke bread at the Bates home, an experience in the warmth of community that never fails to provide me with images of what Shalom might one day look like.  It was inspiring.  At least for a weekend, it seemed like perhaps our hands can make a difference.  But even in the presence of such a dynamic and growing effort, there were still clear images in the Romanian cityscapes and countryside reminding us of the limits of even the best efforts.

Abi, Julie, Jeff, Brandi, Briana, Dana and Gabriel

Moving forward, we had a brief weekend respite for "fall break," a trip with seven students, two alumnae, and our family - back to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  It was every bit as beautiful as we remembered it, and we toured the city, rested, and even spent a morning kayaking around a secluded bay nearby.  It was nice.

Julie in Dubrovnik

More recently, we have spent a fair amount of time contemplating death.  Morbid, I know.  On October 31, we took a tour at the New Public Cemetery in Budapest, visiting the gravesite of many of the martyrs of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and pondering the Catholic tradition of visiting the grave sites of parents and relatives on this All Saints weekend.  

Then last weekend we went with the group on an excursion to Krakow, Poland, and we toured the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.  It rained, adding an appropriate layer of discomfort to an already difficult place to be.  The questions of what we can do with our own two hands, in the face of the realities of the history of this grim place, are overwhelming.  It is simply impossible to fathom the numbers, the pain, the memories of those who survived, the magnitude of a tragedy that has defined evil now for nearly a century.  And yet, it matters to witness, to learn, and to remember. Hearts are heavy as we all process the depth of human evil, and process the fact that we are all human beings, and human beings committed these atrocities, and suffered under them.  

Birkenau

These are the places we've gone outside of Hungary.  In the spirit of a full update, a treat for those of you who've read this far, below is a list of other places we've gone and things we've seen, and people we've met this fall:

- the amazing Budapest Zoo (over a million visitors a year!)

- a birthday party at the home of Lena Vida, a student at Károli Gáspár Reformed University, and a most excellent Hungarian guide and friend to us and our students

- we saw the film, Boyhood, at one of the most beautiful theaters we have ever been in, the Uránia

- the musical fountain on Margaret Island (incredible at night!)

the fountain at night

- I ran the Budapest Half-Marathon with two students, and all three of us finished in under two hours

- we welcomed the Bovens, Greg and Ruth, to Budapest for a lovely weekend in September

- the Szechenyi Baths

- multiple trips to the top of Gellert Hill, and to the Castle district, from which you can see the majesty of the city of Budapest

- The nearby cities/towns of Vac, Szentendre, Visegrad, Esztergom, Balatonfuhred, Tihany, Siofok, and Balaton-Vilagos

- We welcomed Betsy and Aaron Winkle, and Jeffrey and Lisa Schra, with their families, from Klaipeda, Lithuania and Vienna, Austria for a fun week in October

- We hosted a visit from Calvin colleague Don DeGraaf this past week

- Together Don and I attended part of a conference on "Calvinism Today" hosted by the Hungarian Reformed Church, and Károli Gáspár Reformed University 

- We have enjoyed worshipping, attending Bible Study, and rekindling friendships at St. Columba's Church

- I have met nearly weekly with Zoltan, a good friend, and our source of insight into all things Hungarian

- nearly every day we walk, bike, or run past the Hungarian Parliament building, one of Europe's architectural treasures, literally a few steps outside our front door

Parliament at night

- this past week for our church's "pub group," we met and talked with Dawid Kulyer, South African pastor, and a contributor to the writing of the Belhar Confession

- We toured the Museum of Fine Arts for an afternoon

- We toured the Hungarian National Museum

- As a class we took a socio-cultural tour of the historic eighth district of Budapest, discovering hidden treasures, in the city and in each other

- We returned for a morning to the Ecseri Flea Market, looking for treasure

- We met the niece of our friend Peggy Goetz, Lizzy DePew, visiting from a semester in Rome, and were impressed with the features of the Rome Semester at the University of Dallas

- I have had the privilege of partnering with 8 organizations, mostly schools, who are hosting our students for weekly service-learning activity, mostly centered around helping students practice speaking English

- I've run about 200 miles, and biked about 200 miles since arriving - getting to see the city in its morning beauty and trying to stay in decent shape

- and much much more.  

As the days get dark earlier and earlier, we are reminded of lots of things.  Advent is coming.  Our time here is limited.  We actually live life somewhere else.  Being somewhere other than your 'home' for longer than a couple of weeks, in our case five months, can play tricks on your sense of place, and your thoughts of home.  In some ways we long for our home, our friends, our language, our church, familiar things, every day.  In other ways we imagine what life might be like if this became our home.  And we remember that home is a relative term - signifying a feeling, people, place/s, a geographic location, and many places in our hearts and minds.  We're trying, as always, to live "every every minute."  

And in the midst of the darkness, we see light, and we hope for a light that drives out darkness.  Meanwhile we "kick at the darkness," and we keep on working, worshiping, living, and failing, "with our own two hands."

Peace, friends.


*Patty Lane, Crossing Cultures: Making Friends in a Multi-Cultural World; Peter Maass, Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War; Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo; Slavenka Drakulić, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed; Julian Rubinstein, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber ; Otto Friedrich, The Kingdom of Auschwitz; Art Spiegelman, Maus; Imre Kertész, Kaddish for an Unborn Child; Magda Denes, Castles Burning: A Child’s Life in War; James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World; Charles Marsh, The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today; Charles Marsh and John Perkins, Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement toward Beloved Community; Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell, What Can One Person Do?: Faith to Heal a Broken World; David Bornstein, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas; Vincent Harding, Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement; Steven Garber, Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good; Michael Himes, Doing the Truth in Love: Conversations about God, Relationships, and Service; Bill McKibben, Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist (Oh, does that seem like a long list to you?  It does to my students too.)