Return of the blog

As promised to my new best friends at Great Plains UMC licensing school this morning, here's the start of a group of posts related to my assigned topic (I've abbreviated the topic for your convenience): mission and justice in the UMC.

What follows are book reviews I wrote while at United Methodist Ministries; I've cut and pasted them from the resource tab on their website, the home page for which can be found at www.bigmuddyumc.org  From this home page one can also move to the website for the Big Garden - where basic resources, contact information and photos are posted related to community gardening.

Here goes with the book reviews:


Exodus from Hunger, by David Beckmann
Westminster John Knox Press
reviewed by Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede

This 2010 book, written by the President of Bread for the World, address global hunger from a faith perspective. Chapters include such topics as a review of the current hunger realities, scriptural references to hunger, reflections on how congregations can combat hunger, and suggestions for advocacy on both a personal and public level.
While the material included can be very intense, the chapters themselves are quite readable, and would be suitable for a group book study either as whole or one chapter at a time. This is one of the more clearly written books we have found that addresses hunger from a faith-based perspective, with the added bonus of information about advocacy and public policy. Beckmann is a Lutheran pastor and an economist, a native Nebraskan and winner of the 2010 World Food Prize for his work.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
Harper Perennial
reviewed by Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede

Who knew a memoir about eating locally and seasonally could read so much like a novel? This book has been on the required reading list for United Methodist Ministries staff since it came out in 2007 because of its accessibility to people with a broad range of interests, the author’s clarity that her family’s choice to eat locally for a year might not be an option or preference for other families, and because we find that people who read this book seem better able to articulate the advantages and challenges of eating locally while having a better sense of what questions they would like to ask about their own food systems. A reader’s guide is available at the HarperCollins website.

Food for Life: The Spirituality and Ethics of Eating (2004, Fortress)
Sharing Food: Christian Practices for Enjoyment (2006, Fortress)
Hunger & Happiness: Feeding the Hungry, Nourishing Our Souls (2009, Augsburg)
by Shannon Jung
reviewed by Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede

Jung serves as Professor of Town and Country Ministry at St Paul School of Theology, which means not only that he has taught a number of pastors in the Nebraska Annual Conference, but that there’s a good chance that his books are on a shelf in a pastor’s office near you with other seminary textbooks, ready to be borrowed. In addition to being regional talent, Jung’s writing is significant for its emphasis on scripture and theology as a context for thinking about hunger and food. Both books have excellent indexes, endnotes and resource lists. Sharing Food includes discussion questions at the end of each Chapter and is a 2009 UMW Reading Program book in the Spiritual Growth category. Hunger and Happiness includes discussion questions and includes a rich discussion throughout the book on justice issues related to both hunger and poverty.


Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne
Beacon Press
reviewed by Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede

This book provides a framing of our national food system that may be surprising to some and challenging for others. A 2010 UMW Reading Program selection, Winne’s book is also well-regarded in the food justice community for its analysis of the intersections of food systems, poverty, and justice as well as information regarding advocacy, current programs, and possibilities for the future.

Chapter Four, entitled “Community Gardens: Growing our Own” is a particular favorite of Big Garden, while Chapter Six’s discussion of food deserts might be particularly eye-opening for Midwesterners.


Hunger for the Word: Lectionary Reflections on Food and Justice
Years A, B and C (three volumes) Larry Hollar, ed.
Liturgical Press
reviewed by Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede

Written with support from Bread for the World and edited by a senior BTW staff member, these books offer hunger-related exegesis, vignettes, children’s sermon prompts, and hymns for each Sunday of the liturgical year. Some selections will be weighted more towards the particulars of a text, while others will focus more on a hunger-related connection to the day’s scripture, but thanks to careful editing, the flow from week to week works well both for developing sermon series and for individual use.

I'll conclude with a photo from my front yard in Omaha.  There's tomatoes, peppers, basil, and some crabgrass in with there with all the flowers.

steph goes to blog class

It's now an annual event, because it's happened two years in a row. I attend the United Methodist Association of Communictors (UMAC) meeting and take a class taught by the blog-o-rific Mary Beth Coudal. Last year it was Albuquerque, this year in DC, and at this very moment people are introducing their new friends and answering the questions, "what is your experience of blogging?" and "what would your theme be?" I tried to escape but Bill from Virginia made eye contact before I could get past him so I had to admit I had answers for the questions.

What is my experience of blogging? I have maybe three blogs, somewhere out there. I keep forgetting their passwords, and I think they are tied to two different google accounts for some reason that at the time seemed sensible. I have writer's/bloggers block.  My themes? There's one on mission and justice, I think one is on gardening, and I think one is for general thoughts. I used to have one I actually kept up with that featured photos of odd signage, but it died off when the umc blogging site that had something to do with villages and continents got killed off.

So - now when Mary Beth asks, I can say I practiced writing an entry and I didn't pass out. boom.

missing from the conversation

I'm writing from the press room at General Conference in Tampa. It's quiet here this morning, and I'm thinking hard about the conversations that have been happening here in Tampa and what they mean for us in the context of the local Church. 

I made a mental note earlier this week that we were missing some people. We learned during the Young People's address that one of the two presenters, Joy Eva Algodon-Bohol, was unable to be physically present with us in Tampa because she had been denied her visa to enter the United States from the Phillipines, where she is president of the National United Methodist Youth Fellowship.  She was still able to present, via technology and the large screens above the floor of the plenary session area, but that left her co-presenter, Krin Ali alone on the stage. Ali is 18 years old, and is from the Rocky Mountain Conference. I was blown away not just by his presence and content, but by his ability to have a conversation on a stage in front of thousands of people - with someone on a video screen. 

At the press conference afterwards we asked Ali and Algodon-Bohol about their preparations and what it was like to present together from afar. Ali explained that the two of them have never met, and instead had prepared their joint presentation entirely through skype and email, a process that he described as "very time-consuming." Agodon-Bohol, who participated in the press conference via skype, but who was not miked, said through Ali that her visa process had started in January with a denial and then a reapplication for which she has not yet had her interview. Asked what he thought about the situation, Ali said, " We have a lot of issues to address as a global community. The person who should have presented with me couldn’t be here." 

Later in the conversation, when Ali was asked about his thoughts on the future of the United Methodist Church, he spoke of others who are missing, saying " I feel like what we need to do is go beyond our church, go beyond our ways, reach people who are not in our religions. Religion has created many boundaries. Keep your beliefs, but don’t push it on others. Preach love, humility. Then we could get somewhere. We need to go beyond our own church, our own customs, embrace more people."

I think the United Methodist Church has more to learn from Krin and Joy than just what they said in their presentation to the General Conference. I think we can learn from them about what it means to find new ways to connect, in spite of significant obstacles. I think we can learn from them that the work of making room for others can be very time-consuming, and that the results can be profound. I think we can learn from to spend less time focusing on the times we have been excluded and more time and energy into welcoming others who have been excluded. And I think we can learn from them the value of seeking out, making a place, and showing hospitality to all God's children.

We paid a visit to the display area at General Conference this morning, and were intrigued to discover this booth-less booth, created by the United Methodist Women. The display, pictured here with UMW President Inelda Gonzalez and Director (and Nebraska delegation member) Marilyn Zehring in the foreground serves as a creative piece of advocacy. I found it quite powerful.

The booth, which appears rather empty, is bounded by a plain rope. In the background is a sign (pictured below)

which reads,
In 600 square feet it is impossible to show 143 years of women in mission, the work our members are doing in their churches and communities every day, the lives transformed through the global ministries of the Church, and all the ways United Methodist Women will move into the next 143 years.
So, instead, we used the money to fully fund the seminary education of two female local pastors in Cameroon.
Turning faith, hope and love into action.

I  have a deep appreciation for UMWomen and their long history of advocacy, compassion, and justice-seeking. I thought this booth was a creative way to tell their story while continuing to advocate for women. Nicely done!

General Conference - restaurant review, the Taco Bus

Good news! First, I've remembered how to log in to my long-forgotten blog, and second, we found a super restaurant in downtown Tampa Bay - the Taco Bus. Located at 505 Franklin St. (Tampa FL 33602) the Taco Bus impressed us with their speedy service, reasonable distance from the Tampa Convention Center, general tastiness, and affordability. Find out more at www.taco-bus.com and a note: if you are scared of taco trucks (which I hope you are not) please be assured that the Taco Bus is a "real" restaurant with a bus attached to the front of the building...

practicing

I have been practicing new-to-me technology this week. First I set up twitter accounts for myself, Dietz, and UMM. Now I am practicing blogging. I used to blog on 7villages, back when UMCommunications sponsored it, but after a conversation with Larry Hollon at Annual Conference, I have freed myself from feeling like I had to use the bulky 7villages site. We'll see how this goes...