Dauner News Update, March 2010
As far as attendance figures are concerned, 2010 has so far seen a clear upward tilt, visible for worship services, more evident in our ongoing outreach ministries. Among the numerous events of the last month, I would like to indulge in some blog-like musings about two of them.
EYE-OPENER: CEM MISSION TRIP TO CAMBODIA AND MYANMAR
Even a short ten-day mission experience in a third-world setting can turn out to be unexpectedly enlightening for 19-year-old students raised in France or the U. S. Although they expected the material poverty, experiencing it first hand — the sights, sounds and smells — was something else altogether. This was a constant theme as each cemist reported to the Marseilles church about the trip.
But two other reactions drew my attention: two reactions that are more of a reflection on our own Western culture than on the culture of the two South East Asian countries they visited.
The first was their astonishment at how well-behaved the children were. During their short stay, our cemists had many opportunities to interact with Cambodian and Burmese children in different situations. Surprise ! They were invariably polite, respectful, quiet, obedient, unselfish and thankful. These are not adjectives that you would spontaneously apply to the groups of kids our cemists work with year round in our different youth ministries, or to any typical group of French kids.
The French have an expression that seems to represent for many the philosophy of child raising: l’enfant-roi (the child is king). But maybe treating kids like kings turns them into knaves. Maybe our kids “with little impulse control and self discipline and various embedded habits of pleasure addiction” are the exception in the different cultures of the world, and in history. In any case, the cemists had the chance to discover something they did know could exist.
The second reaction concerned the elaborate, richly decorated Buddhist temples that arose from every town or neighborhood, no matter how poor. Why don’t these people, whose average income is less than a dollar a day, keep the money for themselves instead of wasting it on costly places of worship? Well, because religion is more important to them than personal comfort. Building and embellishing places of worship is what people do in just about every part of the world and have done at every time in history except in our modern rigidly secularized Western democracies. Once again, our cemists took the secular, materialistic, consumer society that they live in to be the norm: in French culture, the upkeep of places of worship (except by the State as tourist attractions) has no place at all in the family budget.
PURPOSE OF GOD GOES NON-STOP
The second cycle of the Purpose of God was scheduled to begin this Monday evening for three people. At the appointed hour, eleven people showed up instead! They all live in the neighborhood and heard of the series by word of mouth. We’ll keep running the cycles continually, in a loop, as long as we have new students.
It is clear that one of the factors explaining the growing interest in the Purpose of God is the animated visual format, which makes historical and theological truths more accessible. But even then, the material is heavy stuff for people with little or no religious background. Why not start out with something lighter? Well, because in contemporary French culture, religious practice is regularly disconnected from religious belief. There are literally millions of “Catholics” in France who do not even believe in God, and a good number of practicing Catholics who do not believe even the most fundamental articles of Christian doctrine. We feel it is necessary to insist on the content of faith to counterbalance that tendency and have found the Purpose of God to be useful to that end.
Prisca and I are presently working out an itinerary for our trip to North America this summer and will communicate it to you soon. In the meantime, may the Lord bless you and grant that you walk always in his truth and light.
Max and Prisca Dauner