Hey everyone! This blog is where you can follow my adventure
to Malaysia and get the latest updates during my year of global service. My first post is the sermon I will be sharing
on Sunday August 4th, check it out!
The gospel is Luke 12: 13-21, The
Parable of the Rich Fool: “Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my
brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be
a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he
said to them, “Take care! Be on your
guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of possessions.” Then he told
them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do,
for I have no place to sore my crops?’
Then he said, ‘I will do this: I
will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my
grain and my goods. And I will say to my
soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry;
But God said to him ‘You fool! This very
night your life is being demanded of you.
And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it was with those who store up treasures
for themselves but are not rich toward God.” (1724-1725, Lutheran Study Bible)
In the parable of the rich man it
becomes evident it is not material possessions that make us rich in God’s
eyes. So what does make us spiritually
rich? There are probably many ways to
answer that question but I think it is about being in relationship with others
and using our gifts to serve. One of my
most important gifts is to teach.
Teaching has opened my eyes to hundreds of new ideas, relationships, and
perspectives. I have taught students in Woodbury
and Minneapolis, Minnesota; Evansdale, Nashua-Plainfield, Charles City, and
Waverly, Iowa; New York, New York; Selma, Alabama; Arvada and Denver, Colorado
and very soon will teach students in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. My
students have had different skin colors, spoken different languages, come from
various socioeconomic backgrounds, have had different abilities, and have liked
different subjects, sports, or tv shows.
There have always been hundreds of reasons they were diverse. However the more I teach the more I realize kids
are all just kids. This notion first
came to me when I went to Lulanzi, Tanzania with Christ Lutheran in 2007. Another participant on the trip and I were
playing duck, duck gray duck with a group of girls and despite the language
barrier it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. There is something about the innocence of
children which emphasizes how similar we all are. This notion, which began in Tanzania
eventually led me to some new ideas which eventually turned into a painting
(see below).
It came about as a result of a
project I taught my kindergarten students at Tennyson Knolls Elementary school
while I was student teaching in Colorado.
They were doing a mixed media self-portrait, they painted a background
similar to Van Gogh’s starry night, glued a picture of themselves, a little
poem they wrote about their hopes and dreams, and of course lots of glitter on
top. I took close to a hundred pictures of
my students pretending to look up at imaginary stars. I also interviewed them to help them write
their poems. I asked them questions like
“what do you wish for?” and “what do you dream of?” I heard wonderful dreams of becoming doctors,
ballerinas, police men or women, artists, and teachers. I also heard wishes for dad’s to be let out
of jail, parents to stop fighting, to no longer be hungry and even for a big
bowl of ice cream. In their beautiful
innocence comes beautiful honesty. The
even greater truth I saw in their answers was that regardless of their
individual story they all had beautiful dreams.
The children you see in front of you are not just random faces, they
were my students, Jocelyn, Beni, Syndi, Johnson, and Diego. They each have a wonderful story all their
own but when they are in a classroom they share the story of being
kindergarteners together. They have some
big dreams, some of which may never be realized, but that will never stop them
from dreaming. I won’t go into too much
more explanation of my painting as everyone will interpret my piece in terms of
their own perspective. I called my
painting “They Have a Dream” and am finding even greater significance in the
idea of dreams as I head to Malaysia.
As we were discerning our call to
be Young Adults in Global Mission or “YAGMS” in April we were challenged to
listen to other people’s stories. We
were told that by sharing our stories and listening to the stories of others we
would create a new space for being. A
space to create a new story by being in relationship with others. As a teacher I both have many stories and
listen to stories all the time. As I
think about my next year I am excited about the deep sharing of stories but I
am also excited about the possibility of many unwritten stories. As I await these stories yet to be written I
am realizing I have many dreams of my own for my year in service. I am realizing there is actually a wonderful relationship
between dreams and stories. I am
realizing every unwritten story began with a dream. All of the stories awaiting me next year
would not be possible if I had not dared to dream I could be a YAGM. It was only through the help of God that my
dream of being a YAGM was realized. It
was through the gift he gave me to teach, my trip to Lulanzi which gave me a
heart to serve, the network of support I find in my friends, family, and this
church which gives me courage.
I have often heard diversity and
unity spoken of as if contradictory ideas but I have come to see them
differently. My students have shown me
that despite each having their own individual story to be celebrated, we share
a story as a classroom, as that classroom shares a story with the school, and
the school shares a story with the community, and the community with a larger
community and so on until eventually we share a story as humanity and as God’s
people. This is God’s story and he
intended for us to share it.
As I mentioned earlier I will be
serving as an English teacher at Grace Center in Kota Kinabalu. The school provides a basic education to children
of foreign migrant workers. They are
considered “stateless” meaning they cannot provide documentation of
nationality, which in Malaysia means they are denied education and healthcare. Thousands of families from Indonesia and the
Philippines have moved to Malaysia to provide cheap labor for the ever growing
palm oil industry. The industry’s rapidly
increasing success in Malaysia is the result of a high demand in the U.S. and
Europe due to the products lack of unhealthy trans-fats. Today, more than half of all products sold in
U.S. supermarkets contain palm oil. For
far too many stateless children, the inability to attend public school will
mean they receive little to no education and will end up working alongside
their parents on palm oil plantations for minimum wage (something like $7.50 a
day). Their only hope may be learning
centers run by non-profit organizations like Grace Center. It may be the only chance of their dreams
being realized. In one of the articles I
have read ( found at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/palm-oil-for-the-west-exploitation-for-young-workers-in-malaysia/274769/) it speaks of a girl named Fatima Binti, who at 18 had to stop
attending a learning center as a result of lack of money and the long distance
from where her family worked. She had
dreams of being a doctor and longed to attend classes with her friends
again. She hoped her siblings could
attend school so they could read and count.
However, Fatima’s dreams may be dreams deferred. As I embark on this journey of being an English
teacher for around 200 students for one year I am hoping to help dreams be
realized. Through the relationships with
my students, other teachers at Grace Center, other YAGMS, and my newfound
community in Malaysia I know I will have much to feel spiritually rich
about. However, I think God’s dream is
greater than my dreams or the dreams of my students. I ask all of you to walk this journey with
me. To pray and dream for the stories
yet to be told.
If you would like to help
financially check out the instructions to the right. As another way to get everyone at home involved I am also collecting dreams. I will write dreams of people I know here in
the US on yellow slips of paper and put them in a box. If you’d like to share a dream please shoot
me an email at delia.bingea@gmail.com
and I will add it to the box of dreams.
Your dreams may be already realized like becoming a doctor or
teacher. I.e. “I dreamed of becoming a teacher and I made
it happen.” Or dreams with unwritten
stories like making a new friend or writing a book. I will then carry the box of dreams with me to
Malaysia and have my students write their dreams on blue slips. This way when I return home I can show how
your stories have been shared and show how those dreams have come together to
create a new story. I dream of a year
full of opportunities to use my gifts and become spiritually rich. With this will come many challenges so as you
walk this journey with me I have a challenge for all of you. Share your story, listen to someone else’s
story, be in relationship with God’s people, and watch as dreams are
realized. Fill your barn with stories of
love, hope, and knowing God’s people.
