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a christmas present for darfur To say that ministry at Mayflower church is one continuous series of surprises would be an understatement. These pilgrims are an extraordinary bunch, whether they are quietly delivering mobile meals, feeding and clothing the homeless, or healing sick children in Nicaragua -- it happens here with a kind of effortless grace. But once in a while something so extraordinary happens one is tempted to wonder whether Mayflower is a "thin place" in the cosmos, a place where what lies just on the other side of the sensible and the rational is the luminous realm of the possible and the lovingly "irrational." When the Bates family joined Mayflower several years ago, the daughter Christina was known to me as an exceptional former student at OCU whose wedding I'd had the privilege of officiating. The son John is someone I came to know when I entered into counseling with him, and then referred him to long-term counseling. John was involved in a serious car accident, was in a coma, and suffered various disabilities including post-traumatic schizophrenia. You know John if you're in the 363 group, or if you sit with the balcony crowd on Sunday morning. His long, straight hair, beard, and rather intense countenance make him look remarkably like Hollywood's idea of Jesus. He is, despite his disability, an exceptionally intelligent young man. One thing you need to know about John Bates is that he hates Wal-Mart. John would not want me to mince words here because he doesn't merely dislike the company he once worked for. He hates it. Their way of treating employees, paranoia about unions, their spying on employees and getting people to rat on one another led John to believe there is a Heart of Darkness in much of corporate America. For several years, John has told me he had a sum of money he wished to give to some good cause. When Barb Williams learned about a program that enlists churches to help raise consciousness about the genocide in Darfur, she ordered a banner, and installed in on the front lawn of the church. That was all John Bates needed to make his decision. On Sunday, December 17, just before I walked down the aisle behind the choir, John handed me a check, which he said was his contribution to the relief effort in Darfur. When I opened the check, it was in the amount of $13,878.12. It was all the Wal-Mart money he had saved for years but considered "tainted." Immediately I wondered if I should accept it. Immediately I questioned in my own mind whether he was doing what was in his and his family's best interest. Did he fully understand his own actions, or was it the result of his disability and its tendency to produce delusion? I called his mother, Francesca, and said, "Do you know what John has done?" "Oh, yes," she said, "He's been talking about it for some time, and we have no intention of telling him he can't do it. We will always take care of him and provide for all his needs. That money, because it comes from working at Wal-Mart for all these years, represents a burden to him." Only days before I wrote a column for the Gazette called "Who is Really Crazy?"-- questioning our ability to discern sanity from insanity these days. In the days ahead I will investigate the various ways one can give to the relief effort in Darfur and will report to both the Bates family and the congregation. In the meantime, I will tell the story -- the old, old story.
Grace and peace, Robin |
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