Models of Radical Hospitality

   In the West, Hospitality has become an industry rather than a a trait of home owners.  Even though North American homes have many rooms, they are rarely made available to someone from outside. The recent trend of airbnb, by which people can share space in their homes for a fee, may be more of a manifestation of disruptive capitalism than hospitality.
   To find models of radical hospitality, opening your home to someone lacking shelter in a way that does not seek kickbacks, we must go back.  In the contexts that I share, radical hospitality was not offered by scattered individuals, but it was a community ethic, a way of life.

Abraham and three guests

   This story is told in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis chapter 18.  Three guests come to Abraham, a nomad living apart from any settlement.  The location given refers to the landmark of "great trees of Mamre."  If you read this narrative carefully, you will notice that the word "hurried" is used to describe Abraham's activity in greeting them, selecting a choice calf for dinner and instructing others to prepare meat and bread for the guests.  Whatever this elderly man had on his agenda that day was displaced by the visitors who came to him.  Caring for them with the best of what he had to offer preceded small talk; Abraham stood nearby while they ate and waited politely for them to finish before finding out the purpose of their visit.

   The welcome and hospitality he showed to these visitors was typical of the Ancient Near East. Travelers relied on residents to assist them with basics of food, water and shelter for survival;  it was understood that everyone will sometimes be in a position to receive as well as to give.  This was reciprocity extended to a wide community, paid forward because it was the right thing to do.

John Calvin's Geneva 

   At a hymn festival I attended this week in honour of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, various historical anecdotes were shared between songs.  One item mentioned that I found striking was that John Calvin fostered radical hospitality in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. For those unaware of details of Calvin's life, he was forced to flee his native France and found refuge in Geneva.  It was his adopted home, but as he found himself a religious and civic leader there, he encouraged the care and reception of refugees from all over Europe.  When single and also when married he allowed people to board in his home.  When members of his congregation were expanding their homes (often by adding another story on top of the house), it is said that Calvin encouraged them to include a bit more room for refugees to be housed.  Geneva in the 1500's was truly a haven to those displaced by religious persecution because its citizens en masse practiced radical hospitality.

Netherlands and Denmark during World War II

   Radical hospitality was apparently in the DNA of many Christian people in the Netherlands and Denmark who shielded Jewish people in their homes to protect them from enemies in the Third Reich. The acts of Corrie Ten Boom and her family, popularized by the book and film The Hiding Place, were not exceptional in their minds.  Great networks existed of those willing to risk their lives to provide hospitality to the oppressed.  In Denmark, likewise, a resistance movement enabled hundreds of Jewish people to be hidden and then successfully smuggled in fishing boats to neutral Sweden until the war ended [1].  The crisis of the time required courageous hospitality, and many in these nations rose to this challenge.

Today

   There are some people who still practice radical hospitality in our day.  My parents come immediately to mind.  Even though they have now downsized to a bungalow, they still have two rooms for guests. Since their home is just steps away from a large high school, they were approached by parents of a young man wondering if their shy 9th grader could eat lunch at their home once a week for the year. Those weekly visits filled a need for the boy and eased his transition to secondary school.
   A man in my city who has been an advocate for the poor and giving them tools to better their lives was recently featured in the newspaper for suggesting "tiny houses" might be a solution to homelessness.  One of the outreaches he oversees is a lunch cafe in which at risk individuals are trained to prepare and serve food, where the tasty vegetarian fare is affordable even to street people and where there is ample space for people to socialize, read or play a piano.  This is a way to offer radical hospitality. Learn more about it at https://www.theworkingcentre.org/
   During the refugee crisis (which continues even when the news media have moved on to other stories), Pope Francis urged every Catholic parish in Europe to host a family of four as a realistic solution.  If they did this, the needs of refugees would be well provided for.  That his suggestion (and his own example of receiving displaced persons at the Vatican) was considered remarkable, shows that believers have room to grow in this area.
   May these examples inspire you to do what you can to show that you care more for others than for your own comforts. After all, that's what the Gospel's radical message entails.
 

[1] A fictionalized account of this Danish resistance can be found in Lois Lowry's novel Number the Stars (1989).

The "Imagine" Reality Check: Health Care Infrastructure, Part 4: Hospice

   The hospice, a specialized home for those with a terminal illness and their families, is a relatively new part of Western health care infrastructure.  The first hospice was established in 1967 in London, England, but it built itself upon the foundations outlined in my last three posts. 

   Without hospitals, the idea of a hospice as a specialized institution would not have arisen.  The founder of the first hospice and the hospice movement itself, Dame Cicely Saunders, began her medical training during World War II.  She trained to become a Red Cross war nurse at, notably, the Nightingale Training School!  She subsequently added to her education, becoming a medical doctor in 1957.

   Ms. Saunders, according to the Encyclopedia of world biography, was “[a] devout Christian.” When planning the concept of a hospice, she “incorporated opportunities for spiritual reflection into her plan, including a chapel, staff theologians, and prayer time. Yet she remained adamant that religion not be forced on anyone” [1].  She believed that the atmosphere of well-lit and home-like rooms would bring comfort to patients and their families.  More consistent pain control and other palliative treatments would not try to artificially extend life but make the end more bearable.  Due in part to Saunders’ research, palliative care has become a specialized area of medicine.

   Hospice care, according to Saunders’ model is diametrically opposed to physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia since her beliefs were based on the sanctity of human life and the sovereignty of God over one’s lifespan.  It is worth noting that despite its faith-filled beginnings, not all hospice care today continues in that life-affirming tradition [2]. 

[1] Encyclopedia of World Biography | 2005  : Saunders, Cicely.

[2] American hospice pioneer Florence Wald was open to euthanasia, and that has trickled down to some US hospices, according to Kelleigh Nelson’s March 6, 2013 article “Killing us Softly” found at freedomoutpost.com 

Not a Waste: the Short Life of Arthur Gullidge

Freerange stock photo

   When we hear about massive loss of life, we are often affected.  However, it can quickly become just a statistic for us.  A character in a 1932 essay by pacific Kurt Tucholsky says, "The war? I cannot find it to be so bad! The death of one man: this is a catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of deaths: that is a statistic!"  Tucholsky himself was a pacifist, but he put these words in the mouth of a French diplomat to show the irony of human response to mass deaths. (This quotation is often attributed to Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, but he was probably just repeating or rephrasing the above.) [1] 
   The South Pacific portion of World War II is less known to me as a Canadian with European ties, but I recently learned how a Japanese ship called the Montevideo Maru was torpedoed by an American submarine in July, 1942 killing 1,053 prisoners of war being transported.  This is surely a sad statistic; those being held in the cargo hold of this ship were allies of the Americans, yet they perished at their hands.  However, every one of those who died in that ship had a story.  I'd like to share just one of them with you.
   Arthur Gullidge was an Australian man with a gift for music.  At a young age he joined the Salvation Army in the city of Brunswick and became part of the music ministry that this Christian denomination is known for: its brass band.  Not only did he play music, but he also conducted and composed band music.  His first work was published when he was just seventeen years of age.  He won awards and published music under his own name and a pen name of Greendale.  When the war broke out Gullidge struggled with the feeling that he ought to contribute in some way that befit his Christian faith.  He became the leader of the 2/22nd military band, which formed when 26 Salvation Army band members enlisted together with intents to serve as stretcher bearers when the need would arise.
   Gullidge and the others were deployed to a military post called Rabaul on the tip of one of New Guinea's islands.  After Pearl Harbour was attacked in 1941 and the Japanese advanced forcefully, it was only a matter of time before Rabaul would be taken.  The soldiers who had been sent there were told to stay.  After they were captured, these soldiers and civilians were taken by the Japanese ship in order to become slave labourers in Korea, Japan or one of its territories.  The sinking of the Montevideo Maru was not reported to the people of Australia until after the war had ended.  The outpouring of grief was immense, especially for the Salvation Army presence there.
   One of Gullidge's best known band pieces called "Divine Communion" was played at a concert I recently attended in Guelph, Ontario.  The conductor Al Hicks had not planned to come up and introduce the piece, but in doing so he told the audience the story of its composer.  Without his lead-in, I would never have written this post. When the words to the band music were projected on the screens, these ones were all the more poignant:

All there is of me, Lord

All there is of me, Lord 

Time and talents, day by day,

All I bring to Thee;

All there is of me, Lord

All there is of me, Lord

On thine altar here I lay

All there is of me.

   It is clear from these lyrics that Gullidge's life was built upon submission to God's will.  This testimony speaks to us today and show that even though he died young it was not in vain.

  [1] Eoin O'Carroll explains this in the Christian Science Monitor article entitled "Political Misquotes: the 10 most famous things never actually said" dated June 3, 2011.

Not a Waste: Parallel Lives of Eric Liddell and Dietrich Bonhoeffer

   I'm probably not the first person to notice some striking similiarities between two men of honour born just after the turn of the century who also passed  away within two months of each other in the year 1945.  These men are Eric Liddell and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I will begin with a short summary of each man's life and then point out the common strands I observed while reading about them.
   Eric Liddell was born on January 16, 1902 to Scottish missionaries living in China.  His education from a young age took place with his brother at British boarding schools far away from his parents and sister, who continued to live and minister to the Chinese people.  Family visits took place infrequently during furloughs. Young Eric was not terribly academic, but he enjoyed the sport of rugby and running races.  In 1924, the eighth modern Olympic games were held in Paris, France, and Liddell was one of the members of the British team.  His best event would have been the 100 metre sprint, but when it became known six months before the event that the qualifying races would take place on Sunday, Liddell determined not to run. Instead he trained for the 200 metre and the 400 metre events, which would not require competing on the Lord's Day. After all of the celebrity that came through his gold medal performance in the 400 metre race, Eric Liddell remained humble.  He desired to use his athletic ability to connect people with spiritual truths.  He eventually went to various towns and regions in China to teach, preach, and provide basic medical care to its people. When World War II broke out,  Liddell made sure his wife and three young daughters were sent to safety in the West.  As the Japanese took over portions of China, they began to intern all Westerners.  Even in a concentration camp, Eric Liddell acted as a leader in organizing the internees and keeping up morale through sports, performing arts (plays were put on) and worship services.  With minimal food rations he kept up an incredible pace of service until it became apparent that he was burnt out.  He apparently had a brain tumour, which led to a fatal stroke on February 21, 1945.  He was 43 years old. [1]
   Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4, 1906 in Breslau, Germany.  Even though his family was not overly religious, young Dietrich (who was educated through home schooling and grammar school) decided to become a theologian at the age of 14.  He was gifted academically and attended different universities in Germany, writing two dissertations to become qualified as a professor.  When Adolf Hitler rose to power, Bonhoeffer was one of few German Lutherans to raise objections.  As early as 1933 he spoke out publicly against the tactics of the Fuhrer and had his radio broadcast suddenly cut in mid-stream.  Bonhoeffer continued to stand up for Jews and others persecuted by the Nazi regime, and his movements were being monitored.  When he was given the opportunity to live safely in the United States, he thought better of it and returned to his homeland.  He was arrested in 1943. After a time in prison, he was moved to various concentration camps (Buchenwald, two others and finally Flossenburg).  Here he was executed by hanging on April 9, 1945, at the age of 39. [2]
  

    In which ways did these men live parallel lives?

• They were both men of principle and integrity, even when it was costly to their worldly successes.
• They both wrote books about a life devoted to Jesus Christ.  Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship in 1937, while Eric Liddell's Disciplines of the Christian Life was published after his death.
• Each of these men had tremendous gifts, which were developed and harnessed for the furthering of God's Kingdom in the places where they lived.  Their gifts were not used to gain status in the eyes of the world but to draw people to the Truth.
• Both of them endured suffering for righteousness' sake and both spent time in concentration camps half a world apart.

   I wonder if these two men ever had the opportunity to meet each other during their brief lives on this earth. They certainly would have understood each other as brothers in Christ.  I can imagine each one of them saying, like Saint Paul, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1, NIV).

[1] An easy-to-read biography of Eric Liddell with the same title was written by Ellen Caughey in 2000.
[2] An exhaustive biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas, 2010.

Review of Journey Through the Night

   The classic Dutch book Journey Through the Night (Reis door de Nacht) was commissioned after World War II.  The male author, whose name is Anne DeVries, was already known as a writer of children's literature, including two story Bibles for different ages of children.
   It has been available in translation since 1960, but I never picked it up until this year.  I read one disparaging review on the reading website "goodreads" and would like to answer some of the criticisms:

• "The characters were non-realistic and too good to be true."

When the book was written in the 1950's, it employed a style that was perhaps more interested in showing virtuous people than novels are today.  However, the types of things that John DeBoer, his father and other members of the resistance do in the novel have been attested by many sources.  This type of heroism is not too good to be true.

• "They also had too much luck."

The author is writing from a point of view that presupposes the sovereignty and providence of God.  When characters have a narrow escape, they recognize that God was with them, not luck.  When a reader does not share this outlook, it can appear that such things could not really happen.  As well, this book will befuddle the reader who does not believe in moral absolutes or divine justice. 

• "Moreover the writing style was too abrupt."

Perhaps some of the criticism of writing style lies with the translation.  Mr. der Nederlanden translated it over 50 years ago; as such some of the language and style may be dated.  Being a translator is not easy, especially with creative writing, so I am willing to overlook some of these shortcomings.

• "Anyone could have written this book."

I strongly disagree.  The author shows a thorough understanding of the Dutch people, according to its various regions, the variations between cityfolk and farmers, the tension between those who collaborated with the Nazis and those who resisted.  One town mentioned frequently in the book is "Assen," which is also the author's home town.  The setting is authentic as are the accounts.

   What I appreciated most about the novel was the coverage of the first several days of occupation.  In history books it receives just a few sentences, as if the Dutch surrendered immediately.  The novel describes how everyday people had to cope with desperate times and the types of measures used to try to stop or slow the progress of the German occupation.  

   When the novel described the liberation of the northern provinces and pointed out that North and South Holland had to wait until May 5th, it had a personal connection.  My relatives lived in South Holland, near Rotterdam.  One of my uncles was born nine days after the liberation, so my grandmother did not have access to all the healthy food needed for the baby's development.  He was slow to develop and could not walk until he was two years old. When I think about that, I am truly amazed that my uncle later did well in a Canadian schools, started his own business and is now the father of three adult children.  Where we start does not need to dictate where we will finish.  Thanks be to God!

Clerical Errors, Part 1

Freerange stock photo

 A clerical error is one made by an office worker, which comes from an older word for this occupation, a "clerk."  The clerk in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (circa 1400) is a literate and literary person because to do this job one needed to be able to read and write, an ability not widely possessed in Medieval Europe.
   Because even literate people are prone to mistakes, clerical errors through record keeping and lack thereof abound.  Usually errors have negative results, but could a clerical error ever be providential?

Corrie ten Boom

   Consider the Dutch resistance worker, Corrie Ten Boom, who hid Jews in her home during World War II. She and her family were arrested in the late winter of 1944 for their anti-Nazi activities; Corrie, her sister Betsie and their father were eventually sent to a Concentration Camp known as Ravensbruck.  There they faced many trials, ranging from hunger and fleas to harsh labour and the deaths of Mr. ten Boom and Betsie. However, at the very end of that gruelling year, Corrie was suddenly discharged from Ravensbruck.  She discovered, after the war's end in 1945, that it was a clerical error that allowed her to be set free from this inhumane prison camp.  One week after her mysterious release, all the female prisoners in Corrie's age demographic were executed.  [Read more in the book The Hiding Place, 1971.]
   After a time of healing, Corrie was raised up to testify of God's presence amid the horrors she experienced and of the power and necessity of forgiveness in order to move on from war.  She took this message around the world and helped establish homes for the emotional rehabilitation of trauma victims.

Mike Anderson

   A more recent example of a clerical error involves a Missouri man, Mike Anderson.  While out on bail for an armed robbery he committed in 1999, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.  However, due to a clerical error, the authorities never picked him up to serve his time.  Meanwhile Mike used his freedom to start a business, raise a family, coach sports and become involved in his local church.  Last summer, paperwork came before the state telling them Mike's sentence was finished.  Only then did they realize he had never been incarcerated in the first place.  As a result, eight marshals came to his home to arrest him and placed him in prison, presumably for 13 years.  However, the situation received a great deal of attention with petitions and an appeal asking that Mike's case be re-examined.  Earlier this month, a judge looked over the evidence of Mike Anderson's life and set him free after just ten months in jail. [For more on this story, click on this link:  USA Today version. ]
   Mr. Anderson seized the opportunity of freedom by learning from his error and building a solid life to benefit his community.  The ten months in prison that he nevertheless had to serve became a path to even fuller freedom, by no longer having to look over his shoulder, along with gratitude to the mercy of both God and the state authorities.

Response to Skeptics

   I realized that these two examples are not enough to convince anyone that God can use human errors to serve his greater purposes.  The skeptic may point to the fact that Corrie's sister and father perished, not to mention the numerous victims of Ravensbruck's gas chambers.  Why were they not recipients of freedom? As well, critics may point to all those imprisoned unjustly around the world.  What about them?  When I share stories of God's providence, I am always rooted in the understanding of God's sovereignty.  He has purposes that we cannot fully understand.  Sure, we may wish to cross-examine God and ask him why injustices take place even as the Old Testament saint Job longed: 

   "I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.  I would find out what he would   answer me, and consider what he would say" (Job 23: 4-5)

   Despite our perplexity, God had/has a particular purpose for the lives of the individuals named above.  In order for them to testify of His goodness and His power, he used clerical errors to put them in the right place at the right time.  If you look at your own life through eyes of faith, you may find your own examples.

   

"Friendly Fire" Close to Home

One of my uncles in the Netherlands has asked me to work on translating his testimony from Dutch to English.  In it he refers to a pivotal event in his childhood.  He was not quite five years when on March 18, 1943 the house he was living in was destroyed by a bomb dropped by the Allies who had been aiming for a German military target.

   This incident, which occurred about one year before my mother’s birth, has been part of a story of providence carried by the family since World War II.  Every one of the family members was guarded from the catastrophe. 

   Both of my grandparents were at home at the time, since my grandfather was dealing with an illness.  Shortly after my grandmother had taken their eight month-old daughter out of her crib to sit her with “Papa” on the couch, the bomb fell on the house and pieces of debris landed in her crib.  The family, including my uncle, fled the house without injury. 

   One older brother had been sent to the store with a ration coupon for cookies, but he heard a plane overhead and was afraid to go inside.  That store was leveled and all inside perished. 

   Two other children were at school, which was untouched.  Arriving home at the end of the day, they found the ruined remains of their house and were sure they had become orphans.  Bystanders were able to tell them where the family had fled and they were again reunited.

   Why were some spared and not others?  This is a question that cannot be answered except that God does not play favourites.  His purposes for the individuals who were spared was not finished yet.

Give or Receive, Part 2

How did my grandmother manage when the war reached its height of deprivation?

     When the war was almost over, in the winter of 1945, things got much worse.  They had six children now, and six of my grandmother’s adult relatives moved in with them too.  Slowly her store of food began to shrink with more mouths to feed, and people continued to knock on the door as well.  Her husband had a business where he would often be able to swap goods and add to the food supply, but that last winter he was too ill to work.  So the food stocks could not be built up again.

     Yet the Lord always provided.   There was a kind of soup kitchen set up at the butcher shop, and each family could get cabbage soup from there according to the size of your family.  There was also an underground movement where they secretly slaughtered cows and then cooked them into a nourishing soup for the school children.  Twice a week her children were allowed to go there for a hot meal.  Her eldest son also helped a dairy farmer after school, and that farmer allowed him to pour a bit of milk into the lid of the milk can for him to drink.  In these ways they made it through that difficult winter before the liberation.

     Even in difficult times there were blessings we could give thanks for.  In her life she tried to live generously even if she didn't have much and was never put to shame.  Jesus words were real to her!

Give or Receive, Part 1

Jesus’ words are recorded in the book of Acts:  “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  My grandmother was aware of such blessing.

     She was born in 1907 in a fishing village in the Netherlands, and there were 10 children in her family growing up.  Her own mother was good at stretching her father's small weekly salary.  There was food on the table, and they were able to stay out of debt.

     She shared with me the days of the Second World War.  She was married and had children of her own.  She kept a large pantry of supplies to look after her family, non-perishable things like dried beans, oats, barley, flour, and so on.  Because of the war, sometimes people walked from the city and knocked on strangers' doors asking for food.  When they knocked on her door, she would give them a package of oats or a bag of barley to help them out.  As the war went on, they received ration cards in order to get groceries.  She had five children at that point, so always had plenty of these cards.  Each card allowed her to get a certain food item, such as potatoes or rice.

     One time she met a woman on the train.  Her husband was in the hospital with a serious stomach problem.  The hospital food during the war was even worse than usual!  This lady said, “If only I could get some rice for him; this is just what he needs to recover.” 

     “Well,” she replied, “I have vouchers for rice, and I would like to help you with that.”  Taking them from her purse, she handed them over.  She never expected that later on her eldest son would receive a bicycle from this family.  It turns out the man who was ill owned a bike shop!

     She was sometimes more generous than her husband would have liked.  At one point he said, “Pretty soon we won't have anything for ourselves,” but she was never worried about that.

Cultivating Integrity

My paternal grandfather was a market gardener for many years in the Netherlands up until the time he and his wife and eight children immigrated to Canada.  He harvested abundantly from a garden about an acre and a half in size, with a small greenhouse for cultivating grapes and growing early seedlings.  People used to remark that there was a special blessing upon that garden.

   Then came the German occupation in 1940.  My grandfather was not held back from his business, but the market for vegetables changed drastically.  All top quality produce would be sent directly to Germany, while second quality vegetables remained in the Netherlands.  Somehow my grandfather hatched a subtle plan to help his fellow citizens.

   With the exception of cucumbers, my grandfather ensured that all his crates of vegetables would be labeled “second quality.”  Cucumbers, he reasoned, were not highly nutritious, so sending cucumbers to Germany would bring little benefit to them. 

   The way he made sure his other lots of vegetables would be considered inferior was by filling each crate nearly to the brim with the best his garden produced and then placing an obviously misshapen head of cauliflower, an off-colour tomato, or a bunch of freakish carrots at the very top.  Those grading the crates could quickly classify his goods as second quality, which destined them for families within Holland.  And as the war dragged on, food for Dutch families became increasingly scarce.

   But Opa bore a cost.  His fellow gardeners poked fun at him, and his reputation for quality slipped.  At the produce auction his crates also brought a lower price.

   His example inspires me to remember that caring for your neighbour trumps prestige or profits, no matter what your vocation is.