Lofbomm.com

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQkkAkNwIDw[/youtube]

The reading in church this morning really struck us, in light of current events.

How long, O LORD? I cry for help
but you do not listen!
I cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.

Habakuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4

The American government has admitted its intention to extend its war into Iran. Read this report on Global Research…

The World is at the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US has embarked on a military adventure, “a long war”, which threatens the future of humanity.

It is essential to bring the US war project to the forefront of political debate, particularly in North America and Western Europe. Political and military leaders who are opposed to the war must take a firm stance, from within their respective institutions. Citizens must take a stance individually and collectively against war.

Come on, peace train.

-Jessica

For a year now, Adam and I have lived less than a mile from the most heavily fortified border in the world… ever. Today, we are participating in the 40 Day Fast, and we want to talk a little about North Korea.

(Both photographs were taken from the same hill.)
Photo 1: Adam and I live in the valley beyond the hill behind me.
Photo 2: Looking across the Han River to North Korea.

Where we live in Paju, South Korea, the air is clean, the hills are beautiful and lush, and dense rice paddies fill every valley. Parents wearing designer clothes drive their new cars to bring their children to their schools and private after-school academies, stopping for fast food on any stretch of road along their way. The stretch of highway leading to the next town of Ilsan runs along the pristine Han River. Only a few miles further South, lies Seoul, considered the “Miracle of the Han River” and the second largest city in the world. Seoul is a huge, wealthy, modern metropolis.

However, look through the barbed wire, just across the river, and you see an unreachable land. Despite our close proximity to North Korea (the entire Korean peninsula is only as large as the American state of Minnesota), there isn’t a more distant place. Looking through binoculars from the “Unification Observatory” in Paju, we can glimpse the rolling hills across the river, cut bare for better surveillance of the border.

We can also see the propaganda village which was built in the river valley to show South Koreans that their northern neighbors are living comfortable and rich lives. The only problem is that the North Korean government could not even afford to complete this village. It looks like a bombed out ghost town. The empty shells that are supposed to convince us that everything is okay do the complete opposite. If they couldn’t even afford to finish this important PR move, how well is the real population of North Koreans living inland?

We have heard so many rumors, but of course we can’t see for ourselves. Kim Jung Il, the dictator is feared by his people. He and his late father, Kim Il Sung demand adoration as saviors, perfect men, ideal leaders of the perfect society. But while South Korea grew from poverty to wealthy metropolis in fifty years flat, North Korea has gone from bad to worse. The totalitarian government and the complete isolation, combined with widespread floods and droughts in the 1990s have made life extremely bleak in North Korea. People are starving, they live in fear, there are public executions, prison camps, curfews.

Amnesty International says,

Reliable figures on North Korea are difficult to obtain, given the lack of access and barriers to information gathering. Estimates of the number of deaths that resulted from the 1990s famine vary widely, ranging from 220,000 to 3.5 million. Some sources claim the famine destroyed between 12 and 15 percent of the total population. Economist Marcus Noland recently estimated that the famine resulted in the deaths of between 600,000 to 1 million people, out of a pre-famine population of approximately 22 million (between 2.7 and 4.5 percent of the total population). However the social damage was much higher if one considers the fall-off in the fertility curve caused by famine.

– from an article entitled “Starved of Rights: Human Rights and the Food Crisis in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)”.

The thing is, I don’t know how to help. Refugees caught in South Korea and China are sent back into the fire. Additionally, the minimal aid that is sent in, funnels through the corrupt people in power. Many South Koreans even fear a future reunification because the utter poverty and decades of brainwashing would flood into their borders and weigh heavily on their newfound affluence. It is a heavy and difficult situation that has spiraled out of control because of its shroud of shadowy secrets.

Please join us today as we pray for the people within the fortified borders of North Korea.

“Children of the Secret State”, a British documentary from 2000

Part 1 (10 minutes):

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=FVA4kgVGmX0[/youtube]

Part 2 (10 minutes):

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dm5xiFwnOSg[/youtube]

Part 3 (10 minutes):

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=LQUipc28cwA[/youtube]

Part 4 (10 minutes):

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=toOi1_7aNmM[/youtube]

Part 5 (5 minutes):

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=NEIv9gcLmt8[/youtube]

Other resources:

“North Korean Starvation Detailed” Seattlepi.com
“Starvation Threatens Millions as Aid to North Korea Dries Up” Times Online
“Scores of Children Dead in North Korea Famine” CNN

-Jessica

Being the only child of two extremely loving and adoring parents, pride and self-inflation are perhaps some of my greatest struggles on the spiritual path. I’m not alone though, this is the last and deepest obstacle for all who walk on two feet in this world.

Seeing who we really are, and living in light of that reality, could be said to be the whole point of this human being thing that we are all doing.

I’m both comforted and challenged by these tremendously accurate and insightful words from Thomas Merton:

“€œIt is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is the beginning of blessedness and the consummation of humility is the perfection of all joy. Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the life of the soul. It is the only key to faith, with which the spiritual life begins: for faith and humility are inseparable. In perfect humility all selfishness disappears and your soul no longer lives for itself or in itself for God: and it is lost and submerged in Him and transformed into Him.”€

- from €New Seeds of Contemplation

-Adam

Here’s another fantastic quote from Father Thomas Keating that I thought was worth sharing with all of you:

“If we refuse to think of anything except what we are doing or the person that we are with, we develop the habit of being present to the present moment. In a way, the present moment becomes as sacred as being in church. Far better to be present to your duty if you are a bartender, than to be present in church and to be thinking about being in a bar. At least you are present to yourself when you are paying attention to what you are doing.

“Attention, then, is a way of doing what we are doing. It cracks the crust of the false self (our psychological awareness of daily life) in which we are the center of the universe while everything else is circling around our particular needs or desires. This is an illusion, but unfortunately it is the heritage we all bring with us from early life.”

Jessi hasn’t been inspired to write in the last week or so, and the blog was starting to look a little sad with only the daily del.icio.us links piling up, so I thought I should do my part and post something.

I’ve been reading some good books lately, so I guess I could share a bit about them. First, I read Father Thomas Keating’s book on contemplative prayer practice called, Open Mind, Open Heart. I finished that one last week and started in on another great book, Lost Christianity, by Jacob Needleman. Both books share a common thread of digging into the Christian tradition to reveal holistic, transformational disciplines and practices that have too often been overlooked in favor of intellectual and emotional development.

I’ve felt for a long time that part of the equation was lacking, and both of these authors do a good job of shedding light on what that other part might entail. Both argue that there is an inner dimension in man beyond thought and emotion — a dimension that is actually of primary importance in spiritual development — that can only be developed through silence and contemplative practice.

There is a time for cultivating the mind and the heart, absolutely. And, there is a time to set these highly limited faculties aside and open our whole, unmediated selves to resting in the presence and reality of God through the practices of centering and contemplative prayer. This, I believe was the psalmist’s experience captured in the words, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Keating highlights the deep value of developing the inner life beautifully on page 44 of Open Mind, Open Heart:

“We fail to believe that we are always with God and that He is part of every reality. The present moment, every object we see, our inmost nature are all rooted in Him. But we hesitate to believe this until personal experience gives us the confidence to believe in it. This involves the gradual development of intimacy with God. God constantly speaks to us through each other as well as from within. The interior experience of God’s presence activates our capacity to perceive Him in everything else — in people, in events, in nature. We may enjoy union with God in any experience of the external senses as well as in prayer.

“Contemplative prayer is a way of awakening to the reality in which we are immersed. We rarely think of the air we breathe, yet it is in us around us all the time. In similar fashion, the presence of God penetrates us, is all around us , us always embracing us. Our awareness, unfortunately, is not awake to that dimension of reality. The purpose of prayer, the sacraments, and spiritual disciplines is to awaken us.”

Isn’t that great stuff? I find the prospect of living in that sort of awareness very exciting, and I have found this approach has reinvigorated my spiritual life in a new way. I don’t really have a point to make here, per se, other than to share with you where my mind has been this week. Maybe I will share more with all of you sometime soon.

-Adam

Adam and I are in one of those spots.  One of those transitional phases.  We’re very near the end of our first year in Korea.  Our year at English Village.  We’re preparing to move to Seoul in just a few weeks, and we’re feeling a potent mix of nostalgia, melancholia, anticipation and home-sickness.  I’ll speak for myself, but I know Adam also feels a lot of the same things…

It has been a great and difficult year.  We have made some good friends, seen some new things, and we have learned a LOT.  The thing about learning is that it sucks.  Only later do you look back and say, “well, at least I learned a lot…”  Korea is an intense place.  Intensely good and intensely infuriating.  The building blocks of this culture are so different from ours, so we think in very different ways, work in different ways.  It’s good to get shaken up a little– to say, I don’t really know what I believe– I don’t know exactly who I am and why I value what I value.  It’s also good to sometimes be able to tactfully say, that’s weird and I don’t agree.  Then there are the great things, the great people, the great traditions, the great food.

The thought of beginning again and getting even deeper into this place makes me alternately thrilled and terrified.  I sort of want to run away home, but what baby reaches the pain of birth and says, “no, I think I’ll just go back to the womb.”

Tonight I watched the video I made in December, walking through Seoul.  I remembered the city with similar nostalgia as when I remember Nashville and Chicago.  You see a place, a person, a time through the lens of your choosing.  This second year in Seoul is going to be incredible.  I think this year has been a gestation.  We need to stay for the birth (…this metaphor is not to be taken literally… we are not, read NOT, expecting a baby this year…).

This blog has been pretty lame recently, and there are two main reasons.

1. Adam and I are a commuting couple for June and July, and a lot of my time that had been spent blogging is now spent in the city or hanging out in Paju with Adam when he’s home.

2. It’s not as easy to write when you don’t know what you feel exactly.  Maybe it makes for good reading, but it’s not easy writing.  I’ll try to be more candid if you’ll forgive my clumsiness.

And I think that’s it for now.  Here is the video, re-posted from December.  It’s funny that the whole first sequence up through the Galbi restaurant is filmed in immediate proximity to where we’ll be living very soon.  Enjoy.

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4914792137795201625&hl=en[/googlevideo]

-Jessica

Adam and I will be participating in a 40 day effort to raise awareness of hunger around the globe as well as sharing ways to help. A woman named Kat has organized 40 bloggers to fast for a day and write about a cause close to their heart. Adam and I are on the schedule for July 24.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZz6ICzpjI[/youtube]

Keep up with the 40 day fast, and join us all by fasting on the last day, July 31. Today, it began with Kat. Here is the 40 day schedule.

June 22 - Kat

June 23 - Brant Hansen

June 24 - SAM

June 25 - Shaun Groves

June 26 - Kristin

June 27 - Chaotic Hammer

June 28 - Stephanie

June 29 - Stephen

June 30 - Jeanine

July 1 - Truevyne

July 2 - Ryan G

July 3 - Jeremy Thiessen

July 4 - Steven

July 5 - Susanne

July 6 - Valerie

July 7 - William Guice

July 8 - Todd

July 9 - Scott

July 10 - Transition Pete

July 11 - Marianne

July 12 - Mark Jaffrey

July 13 - Michelle

July 14 - Lucas Parry

July 15 - Tim Harm

July 16 - Andrew Osenga

July 17 - Shawn

July 18 - Lorijo

July 19 - Euphrony

July 20 - Brody Harper

July 21 - Amy

July 22 - Erin Mount

July 23 - Dray

July 24 - Adam & Jessica Lofbomm

July 25 - Carlos

July 26 - Kat’s Mom

July 27 - Ted

July 28 - Charla

July 29 - Rick

July 30 - Tressa

July 31 - Toby

Ever feel like this?  I do.  Sometimes it’s a little hard to deal with the things life throws at you…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrm50vKhYpg[/youtube]

Thanks, La Tisha for the link.

-Jessica

…mostly.

I’m having a rough week at work because I have a very difficult group of students.  They are an extra-large class, their level of English is pretty low, there are two girls with severe special needs with no aide, and several of the girls are rude to the girls with special needs.  AHHH!  They are mostly sweet kids, but I have felt heavy and overwhelmed all week.

After a nice evening and yoga class, I feel recharged, and tomorrow I’m going to enjoy my students and look forward to my classes.  Maybe that will change my experience.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

-Jessica

“We’re like people living in the penthouse of a tall brick building. Every day we need 200 bricks to maintain our walls, so we go downstairs, knock 200 bricks out of the walls below and bring them back upstairs for our own use. Every day. . . . Every day we go downstairs and knock 200 bricks out of the walls that are holding up the building we live in. Seventy thousand bricks a year, year after year after year.”

What on earth is this guy talking about? That’s absurd. Who would do such a thing?

Me. I’m doing that.

The writer’s referring to the fact that, due to an essential flaw in our cultural program, humans (me, and I presume you) destroy two hundred species of life a day. Every day. These sickening but true words were written by Daniel Quinn, in a speech of his called ‘The New Renaissance,” which you can read here.

Right now, I’m taking a class in Personal Ecology at Depaul. It’s a prerequisite, and I figured I might pick up a few new ideas on how to be a little more environmentally-friendly, but I wasn’t expecting any major eurekas or anything.

My professor assigned us Quinn’s book Ishmael to read over the course of two weeks. I sucked it down in two days. It was that good. I mean really good.

Eureka!-good.

It’s the story of a man who meets a highly intelligent gorilla named Ishmael. The man wants to know how to save the world and the gorilla promises to teach him. Ishmael proceeds to systematically school the man in the true nature of the destructive cultural subcurrent running through all civilization.

The sum of Ishmael’s message is fairly simple (though I highly, highly encourage you to follow his thread for your self ). Somewhere around the time of the agricultural revolution, we got this strange idea that this world was made for us instead of us being made for the world. As Quinn puts it in “The New Renaissance,” “Humans belong to an order of being that is separate from the rest of the living community.” This notion, he argues, is at the bottom of a great deal of our strife and struggle.

I tend to think he’s exactly right.

The fact is, there is a massive ecological problem facing us right now. Either the problem is with the Earth itself, or the problem is with us. As far as I can tell, the Earth works pretty great, so my guess it that the problem must be with us, and more specifically, with our perspective.

My perspective.

Laws aren’t going to do it. The Kyoto Protocol’s not going to do it. Recycling’s not going to do it. Hybrid cars are definitely not going to do it.

But if we could get it into our heads that this is our home and our neighborhood and not our kingdom, that might actually do it.

And, of course, there is the living it out too. That’s the domain of the laws and recycling and hybrid cars. But those are effects, not causes. The perspective shift has to come first, or else the effects will be empty and feeble.

I don’t know how to go about doing something about this other than to communicate this perspective to you. I think it’s the only way it’ll happen really. Bono could talk about it on TV and people would get excited for a while, but the only way I think its going to stick is for me to begin seeing life in this way and to talk about it with you. And for you to see life in this way and to talk about it with some other people too.

And so on.

Until we all decide it’s time to stop playing Jenga.

-Adam

“During your lifetime, the people of our culture are going to figure out how to live sustainably on this planet–or they’re not. Either way, it’s certainly going to be extraordinary. If they figure out how to live sustainably here, then humanity will be able to see something it can’t see right now: a future that extends into the indefinite future. If they don’t figure this out, then I’m afraid the human race is going to take its place among the species that we’re driving into extinction here every day–as many as 200–every day.”