Practicing Sabbath—Striving to Rest

Let us, therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. –Hebrews 4:11

We have been learning to apply a very old discipline to our lives this fall. It is the discipline of Sabbath. We have chosen to take our Sabbath on Mondays—more than a day off, we are attempting to let go of our obsession with work. For me this has meant turning off my cell phone and computer for the entire day and finding ways to cultivate my awareness of God’s presence and what He is saying to us. We are finding it to be a challenging discipline—harder than you might think.

So when I had my Sabbath a couple Mondays ago and I “happened” to be reading Hebrews 4 it really grabbed my attention. It is a fascinating chapter about how Israel failed to enter God’s intended rest but how through Jesus we are now able to fully enter that rest. Verse 11 is particularly striking—it left me asking how do we make every effort to rest?

For me the picture of “every effort” and “rest” are a contradiction. It pushes me to dig deeper—what does this rest look like in my life here and now? Perhaps it is not so much the amount of effort as it is the attitude with which the work is done—the rest from this perspective is a quality of trust in God, so that my work is not a frenzy built on the belief that if I don’t get this done everything will fall apart. God’s rest can only be entered if I give over the results to Him. The role of Sabbath then is to help me learn to let go of my tendency to see my work as more crucial than it in fact is. It declares to me and others that I believe God is capable of working out what is needed. It cuts against my idolatrous belief in my own efforts.

This connects with some of what we have been reading in a book entitled

Sabbath Keeping—Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest

. In one section the author, Lynn Baab writes, “The Sabbath teaches us grace because it connects us experientially to the basic truth that nothing we do will earn God’s love…Only in stopping, really stopping, do we teach our hearts and souls that we are loved apart from what we do.”

At the same time the writer of Hebrews calls us to “make every effort” to enter this rest which alerts us to the dangers of a passive idleness such as Paul warns the Thessalonians against (2 Th 3). So Sabbath is intended to be an integral part of an active energetic way of life, one that works hard, trusting God to do what he will with the work being offered to him. It takes effort to step away from the “rat race.”

Please pray for us as we work at living out these rhythms of rest. We will let you know what we discover as we do.

Mentorship on the Move

One of the exciting aspects about my trip to Rwanda is the opportunity to be on the same team with two friends. One is a long-time friend and the other is a relatively new friendship, but both have their roots in mentorship. It is something our team will teach on while we are doing the leadership training sessions, and so the opportunity to live out the reality of mentoring is all the more poignant.

Back when I was in high school I joined a Young Life group that was led by Dale and Pete Cowley. They have been a part of my life as mentors and friends ever since. It started with early morning weekly prayer and study times at their apartment and continued with me getting involved as a junior leader while I was at university. We stayed in regular contact over the years that both of us were living away from this area and then started connecting again when we both ended up back here again. A couple years ago Pete made his first trip to Africa. When I learned of the training work that IT is doing with pastors in Rwanda I thought about how well-suited Pete would be for this team and I suggested he consider it. Six months later it was Pete who suggested to the team leader that he contact me when one of the women going had to drop off the team. It is great to have the chance to work again with someone who mentored me and has played such a significant role in my life.

More recently I have begun to connect with a young woman named Catherine Cranna who is working at Forrestview Church in Oakville doing suburban outreach. We first met while doing volunteer work together at Micah House. Earlier this year Catherine asked if I would play the role of a mentor in her life. As we met through the summer she heard about my upcoming trip to Rwanda. In September she shared how she felt a deep desire to be part of such a trip and asked if it would be possible for her to join our team. I saw how her teaching gifts would be a great asset to the team and so I talked it through with our team leader, Ron Johnston and he readily agreed for Catherine to join us. This decision was confirmed, first by how quickly she was able to raise the funds to go on the trip and secondly when another woman who was planning to be part of the team had to drop off because of health concerns.

There is nothing like a mission trip to open up the opportunity to go deeper in relationship with those on your team. It can be challenging, but also very rich. One of the areas of leadership that we want to emphasize with the women we will do the training with is the importance of investing in the next generation of leaders—recognizing their gifts and passions and spurring them on to join in the work God has called us to. It is fun to have the opportunity to once again work side by side with Pete and to have this focused time to work together with Catherine. Please pray for us as we invest in each other and the leaders being gathered for these training times in Rwanda.

Rwanda Bound

A couple months ago I was talking to a good friend of mine about his plans to be part of the Rwanda training team. As we talked he shared that the trip would include some special training for women. My heart immediately leaped with excitement Could I be part of that, I wondered? But within a few minutes my brain kicked in and I thought this doesn’t seem very realistic- and it sounds like they have all the spots filled anyways. On the drive home I realized I was feeling pulled to go- but made a conscious decision not to talk about it with anyone (not even Dave), but rather to pray about it. I began praying, asking God to show me if this was something he wanted me to do or not. And if it was, that He was going to have to do something clear to show me. I decided I would not take any initiative in pursuing this, but if God wanted me to go someone else would have to take the initiative. In my heart, I was pretty sure that that wouldn’t happen.

But then a few weeks ago, out of the blue, I got an email from the team leader asking me if I would consider being a part of this team! My heart again leaped with excitement. It turns out that one of the women who was supposed go was no longer able and they really needed another women to join the team. Wow. I felt sure this was from God.

Let me tell you a bit about this team. The organization Dave and I work with, International Teams, has made a commitment to provide biblical, theological and practical training for a group of over 50 pastors and lay church leaders in Rwanda. They are all hungry for teaching and most have not had the privilege of attending Bile school, or any kind of training. So twice a year IT is organizing and hosting a week long intensive training. Last year they also initiated a parallel training for pastor’s wives and women in ministry. It was a huge success! So much so that they felt they could not return to Rwanda without including more training for the women.

I will work with 2 other Canadian women to facilitate the training for the women. This will include one week in north east Rwanda in a place called Nyagatare where the Rwandan church leaders will gather. Then we will travel to the Kiziba refugee camp to do a similar training among the Congolese Christians who are living there.

I visited this camp briefly in 2004 and am very much looking forward to being able to spend more time there. It’s a camp of 25,000 Congolese refugees placed high up in the hills, a two hour walk to the nearest town. IT is helping the seven known churches at this camp by providing Bible training and teaching. Two years ago there were only three bibles in this camp! That has changed dramatically as teams have been able to bring boxes of Bibles- and other useful things like clothes, medical supplies etc.

It is my deep desire to be an encouragement to these sisters in Christ who carry with them so much pain from the suffering they have experienced. We want to get to know them as sisters in Christ so that we can spur one another on in our faith. We have much to learn from one another. They need to know that they are not forgotten. That they are valued and they have much to contribute to the Body of Christ. We need to know how they have seen God in the midst of their suffering and to help them share their stories with the world.

The details:

· Leave for Rwanda Oct 20 and return to Canada Nov 12th.

· Need to raise $4000 to cover travel and on-ground costs.

· If you would like to be a part of this exciting project I would welcome any financial contributions. All gifts are tax deductible and should be CLEARLY MARKED:

“For ALISON WITT: RWANDA TRAINING TEAM”.

You can give online at IT Canada website (www.iteams.ca) or you can send contributions to any of the IT offices:
International Teams Canada, 1 Union St, Elmira, ON, Canada, N3B 2Z6
International Teams USA, 411 West River Rd, Elgin, IL, USA 60123-1570
International Teams UK, PO Box 11, Brecon, Powys, UK, LD3 9WJ

Thanks so much considering your involvement. I am also asking for your prayers. There are a quite a few challenges involved in a trip like this especially when you get started preparing as late as I have. In many ways it is pushing me out of my comfort zone…but I think that is a good thing. As the time gets closer I will send you some more specific prayer requests. In the mean time please pray for the necessary finances to come in, and for God to give us direction as we prepare for this unique time with the African women.

Philippine Reflections–the joy of learning from those you taught

To read these reflections from the start of our trip to the end–and see a few additional pictures click here.

click here to see a web album of pictures from our trip

Sunday, May 11th

We leave for home tomorrow. We spent our last evening with our good friends Robert and Pot Albarico. Listening to their heart for the poor and their vision for the ministry they lead to see transformation come to urban poor communities. I was struck once again by how much they have grown towards maturity as believers and as leaders. It is a huge blessing to have people who we poured ourselves into while working here, now teaching us so much about life and faith.

We leave filled with gratefulness for all the evidence of God’s on-going work that we have experienced!

Philippine Reflections–Rest and Renewal in Eden

Friday, May 9th

We have spent the last two days in Quezon province just outside Lucena (About 4 hours drive from Manila) with our good friend Sonia Berena and her husband Arnel. They have created a beautiful retreat centre and home for victims of abuse, and planted a church in the process! Surrounded by orchids, and coconut trees, and mango trees it feels a bit like what the Garden of Eden might have been like. It is wonderful to experience the joyful, slower-paced beauty of the rural Philippines. There is no green quite like rice fields and I always marvel at the rustic engineering feat of irrigation and farming.

Philippine Reflections–Renewing Friendship

Thursday, May 8th

I spent the morning with my good friend Raineer Chu. As always I marvelled at his discernment and creativity as he shared about the challenges they face in reaching out to the urban poor and their new initiatives to overcome the barriers. The progress they have made in dealing with land rights, livelihood, church sustainability, and mobilizing urban poor believers for work among the poor thrills me. The depth of their spirituality and the disciplines of prayer and community that they are practicing to go deeper with Jesus speak deeply to me. There is much here to learn from.

The time to renew our friendship with Raineer and his wife Mila over the past week has been a highlight.

Philippine Reflections–Mission Ministries Philippines

Wednesday, May 7th

We spent the morning at the worship gathering of Mission Ministries Philippines (MMP). They asked us to speak about our work and what God has been teaching us. We chose to focus on all of the ways that God used our experience in the Philippines to lay a foundation for the work he has called us to now.

Alison shared about how she learned about hospitality in the Philippines, and how that prepared her for the ministry she now has with refugees in Hamilton. How the people here in the Philippines have taught her to be hospitable and welcoming, learning she is now putting into practice in Hamilton as she helps churches welcome refugees and new immigrants who arrive .

I shared about how God used Filipino culture and our experience of church and community here to expose the excessive individualism of my home culture and teach me about the communal reality of our life in Christ. I shared how this learning is some of the seed from which TrueCity grew.

I shared the story of TrueCity and the joy of seeing churches awakened to their call to engage mission, and how they are learning to do this together with other churches. As in most places we share, they found this encouraging and challenging—there is so much competition between churches that it is hard to believe it possible for them to tangibly work together. I am glad that God’s work in Hamilton can come as an encouragement to leaders here on the other side of the world. To me that is the beauty of the global reality of Church—there is so much to be shared back and forth.

Philippine Reflections–International Teams Leadership Forum

Sunday, May 4th

The International Leadership Forum keeps us going pretty much non-stop. It is great to connect with people from around the world—to hear stories and compare notes with others over meals. It is fun to watch people experience Metro-Manila and Philippine realities. They find it overwhelming and yet there is so much life in the midst of it all.

Pastor Gani Sison shared this morning about how God continues to work through International Teams Philippines to send Filipinos across Asia and around the world. There are well over a hundred Filipinos working long-term outside the country and many more involved here in the Philippines encouraging churches to get involved in missions. Wow. There has been so much growth—they have done an amazing job of building towards the vision of the Philippines being a blessing to the whole world.

Philippine Reflections–Sitio Lambak

Thursday, May 1st

Today we went back to visit Sitio Lambak, the urban poor community that we lived in for two years from 1991-93. It will take time for me to unpack all I saw and felt there. It was fun to watch looks of suspicion turn to smiles and laughter as people remembered us. It’s gratifying to know our time there had relational impact, and yet the sense of spiritual hardness in this community is still tangible for me. It is not an easy place for the gospel to take root. Hearing how a couple of the teens who came to faith during our time working here are now thriving in their chosen professions gives me hope, and yet the on-going weight of poverty feels crushing.

Philippine Reflections–Missions Tour

Tuesday—29 April

We spent the day visiting 3 different urban poor communities where our friends from Mission Ministries Philippines are working to plant churches as a means to the end of community transformation. It was incredibly fulfilling to see and hear how these friends of ours and their co-workers are living out the urban poor outreach we dreamed of seeing happen back in the 90s.

It took us two hours of slow, grinding, bumper to bumper driving to get to the first community we visited in Cavite. It was a great time of conversation, but it also reminded me of how the daily grind of life is so hard here and why when we arrived back in Hamilton ten years ago I used to laugh at people who complained about how bad Toronto traffic is.

Walking into the Talaba community you are immediately aware of the environmental degradation that steals quality from life for those living here. The team is contemplating responding to this situation with a program where they will give a kilo of rice for each kilo of plastics people gather. I love their creativity—with the current rice shortage, offering rice will catch everyone’s attention. They have a short-term team coming in June that they are hoping will help them run this program.

The team is nearly done with their work in this area. They have been working here for a bit more than two years. They have established a pre-school started and simultaneously started the church. They were able to purchase the rights to a piece of property in the community and have put up a building that provides space for both the preschool at the church.

The next community we visited was in Taytay right next to Laguna de Bay. This too is a community built on land that floods. Many of the homes are built on stilts over heavily polluted water. Navigating the plank walkways was the most adventurous part of the day. The team has only been working here for just four months. They already have a very simple church building where they are gathering people on Sundays.

One of the exciting things for me in going to this area was meeting up with Sally. She was one of the members of the church in the squatter area of Balik Balik where our teams worked during the 90s. Hearing how she and others are now sent out by urban poor churches as missionaries is the realization of a dream. Very cool.

The last community we visited is on the very outskirts of Metro-Manila in Montalbon. This is the area where the city is growing outward the fastest. Right now this feels like being in the province, but new homes are being added to the area monthly and it won’t be long before this place shifts to an urban reality.