Conversation Point

When There is Peace

Children heading back to school here in the United States are used to the routine. New clothes, study supplies, bus schedules and lunch money all fit together, settling into a steady rhythm focussed on building the foundation for a solid future. Not all students, past or present, appreciate what an education combined with hard work can mean because few of us have ever considered life without public education. We are a privileged people who take education, among many other things, for granted.

Refugees from Darfur, gathered together in camps just over the Sudanese border in Chad, have a great deal to teach us about our sense of entitlement, about what to them is a joyful opportunity for relative normalcy now and a glorious hope for the future. You see, according to information I recently received from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), this organization has committed itself to providing a quality education for the children residing the refugee camps as a result of the genocide taking place in the Sudan. Two million people have been killed. Two million more have been displaced from their homes and their lives. Total numbers at the camps vary from day to day. But thirty thousand children, having made it to relative safety, will study science, math, history and language skills, exactly what our children will be studying this year.

Something you may need to pause to realize is that this is possible, not solely through international support, but because some of those two million displaced Sudanese people from Darfur are professional teachers. Whole societal structures, including the educational system of a people, have been uprooted, denied their due place and pleasure. But the resiliency and tenacity of the people of Darfur means the next generation will not be denied its place in the world. Melissa Winkler of the IRC shared her vision of this miracle in photos and conversations with those making it happen. One student who embodies this hope for the future of all the surviving people of Darfur is given a voice here through Ms. Winkler. "Some forty young women gather in a tent for a history lesson. Moda Abdajala Gasser tells me how happy she is to be able to go to the next level and continue learning, otherwise she would never be able to go to university. 'I will become a doctor some day,' she says resolutely. 'When there is peace in Sudan."

When there is peace.

How many times have these words been uttered through the course of time? How often have we found ourselves believing our lives were on hold until that great day of peace finally arrived? But how many people through time have decided, like Moda, not to wait, but to make their lives full and ready to act when the day of peace does come?

Jesus addressed this issue time and time again, telling those who would listen that the kingdom of heaven was already among them. The Roam occupation was a fact, but so could be their faithful activity as God's people. Jesus shared many stories about what the kingdom of heaven looked like here on earth: a grain of mustard seed that starts out small and grows to be a huge plant; leaven in a baker's loaf; treasure hidden in a field; a pearl of such worth that a merchant sells all their goods to purchase it; a fisher's net that, when thrown overboard, rewards its owner with unimaginable bounty. Jesus' audience knew poverty, desperation, hopelessness and fear, as surely as the Sudanese people carrying on their lives as strangers in a strange land. But he was also directing his listeners' attention to something more, something useful and tangible from which they could gain perspective and strength. Jesus was guiding them to their faith, pointing them to ways they could see God's presence and join in actively embodying God's spirit to build for the future to come.

Not all children in the United States take their education for granted. Many are eager to make a contribution with their lives to make the world more than it is today. Not every young woman or man in the refugee camps of Chad possesses the strength, determination and hope that Moda does. But for those who hold the light in themselves, for those who lift this light up to guide others, we are grateful. They show us what it means to live the kingdom of heaven on earth. They reside in a world that appears devoid of all good things, but they see much more and know they can make it happen.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 3:39 PM