Decade to Overcome Violence

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

Dear Friends,

Well, it is a new year, and I am finally getting around to writing. Actually, things are looking up for 2005, so I sincerely believe the newsletters will be more frequent this year. We returned from our home assignment in July and have basically been adjusting all this time. We discovered that I had a thyroid problem and since I’ve been taking my medication, things have been much better. David is adjusting well to school; he is practicing his guitar every day and has judo, ceramics, singing, woodworking – as well as the 3 R’s. He’s reading everything he sees which is not always so good when you are passing graffiti! Besides the medication and the adjustments, the stability of facing 4 years of not having to move or be on the road (other then vacations) brings us a sense of security that I’d almost forgotten. It makes me feel ready to take on the challenges of the world!

Dear Friends,

Advent/Christmas was interesting, it started out with David getting a little sick at the beginning of the month and each day he would be over the previous day’s sickness (almost – the coughing lasted the longest) but still a little sick in a different way. One day it would be fever, and then the cough came on, then an earache, then hives. He was well early enough to celebrate his birthday on the 22nd, but it sure seemed like a long time. We had 8 other kids celebrating with us and it was quite a challenge – but they were really good kids and well-behaved. We even let them eat in the dining room with the Christmas tree – and the only one who spilled anything was me when I kicked over a glass.

Meanwhile I was gone for meetings 5 nights during the time he was home sick. And then I got sick – but it was only 3 days. Those were 3 crucial days – because there was so much to do this year for Christmas. Not only for the worship service with the kids (which was so amazingly beautiful!) but for the first time in David’s life, he was going to have a relative outside our immediate little family celebrating his birthday and Christmas with us. The only other holiday we had family was Easter of 2003 when my Dad was here (the 1-year anniversary of his death was the 3rd of January 2005). Steve’s Mom was visiting her Mom in Lower Franconia and we talked her into coming for David’s birthday. So, of course we were all a tizzy. I even attempted a Christmas Goose for the first time (as is the custom in Germany at Christmas). I must admit – it was amazingly good! I can’t wait ’til Easter now!

A Day In The Life

As I sit here and write, I’m wondering if I ever shared with you a day in our life. We have no car or clothes dryer, live in an apartment in an old house, which has high ceilings and one room has stucco around the ceiling. We have one bathroom with no lock (which is always fun when you have overnight guests)! As a matter of fact the only doors in our apartment that we can lock is the front door, and our bedroom. Most of these old doors have the lock part painted ten times over and the keys lost probably since the end of WWII (I just made that up I don’t really know!). Our TV/family room doubles as our guest room, which means when company comes there’s no TV watching – which is OK because when company comes they are always more interesting then the TV. We also have no outside connection on the TV – it is only for use with the DVD player or video player. So, when German company comes over, they are often surprised because we don’t fill their stereotypical view of a US citizen.

Don’t get me wrong – this is not a whiny list – we love our home. And the public transportation is so good there is really no need for a car. Sometimes when my bedroom is full of wet clothes hanging on racks, I wish I had a dryer – but you wouldn’t believe how much longer the clothes last when the aren’t dried, and the idea of saving that much more of God’s precious gift of energy is quite satisfying. I would say of all the people we have met since moving here, I only know of one who has a dryer. Most people hang their clothes to dry. The awareness of use of water and electricity here is fantastic! But that means all the more shock for them when they read how much energy US citizens use per head.

Let’s Get Down To Business

The biggest news for me, as far as the professional side goes is that I have been offered the position of organizer of the EKBO’s (Protestant Church of Berlin, Brandenburg and schlesches Oberlausitz) Committee of the Decade to Overcome Violence. For those of you who don’t know what that is, I will quote from the WCC’s (World Council of Churches) internet page, and offer you links to them and to us (although our page is in German only. The entire church’s website is under construction at the moment, there are a lot of mistakes but we hope to clear them up soon). I’ve already been doing their internet page and acting as a member – but now I get to run the show, and I’m very excited about it.

My big project is an organizer that one can download or have in paper format as a resource for churches to use in giving programs focusing on the various topics we cover in our first 5 years. Those would be: Violence against; women, foreigners, and children; violence in the media; and violence free conflict resolution. We hope to have it finished by September.
One other thing about being the head of the committee is that I get to go to some fantastic conferences. 3 of the 5 days I was gone in December (mentioned above in relationship to David being sick) I was at a meeting of the DOV focusing on the USA. In 2004 the chosen area of focus was the USA – for 2005 it is Asia (can the committee somehow see in the future?). The title of the meeting was “The Long Way to Just Peace”.

The guest speakers were absolutely fantastic: Rev. Dr. Robert Edger (http://www.ncccusa.org/news/2000GA/edgar.html) – the general Secretary of the NCCC (National Council of Churches); Konrad Raiser, former General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC); 2 German Bishops; Nelson Mandela’s prison Chaplain the Rev. Peter Storey (an old article: http://www.bu.edu/sth/news/archive/storey.html); the Director of Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy in Washington, D.C., Rev. Barbara Green (http://www.cctpp.org/centersstaff.html); and many more people who made it 3 days of utter amazement. Those three days were the culmination of all the political conversations Steve and I have had since the day we met at the end of August 1986!!!

All the speeches were fantastic! I have a copy of the speech from Rev. Peter Storey, (OK – I’m gonna boast – I got to sit next to him one breakfast and remember back on it so fondly!). I’d love to quote the entire speech – but it is 10 pages. If you want a copy – email me and let me know. I will quote the bit from page 7 – 8, though – I entitle it his call to awareness and words of hope and direction . . .

“For the first time we face a truly global empire, whose every action will have global consequences.

How do concerned Christians respond? What does it mean to witness to the Gospel in Imperial Rome? How does anybody turn this culture around? Are there any clues from other experiences, like that of South Africa?

Simply put, it requires the church to be the church.

The American church has become deeply embedded in materialism and nationalism. It has a “balance of payments deficit”, having imported much more from the surrounding culture than it has exported. It must shake itself free in order to be the church again. The churches in the US need to be re-evangelized with the Gospel of good news to the poor, of primary loyalty to another, greater realm than that of Caesar, of commitment to a world of sharing, justice and peace.

This task calls for ecumenical initiative and resolve. Just as thirty years ago right-wing fundamentalists buried their differences to work together in the campaign that has now hi-jacked Jesus into the service of the political right-wing, American Christians who want to reclaim Christ as Saviour of the World, Prince of Peace and Servant of the Poor, had better learn to work together. Denominational chauvinism is rife in the US church, and ecumenical action needs to be re-discovered. It is not impossible: in 1968 a small minority of Christians in South Africa launched their Message to the People of South Africa, and began to slowly build an ecumenical consensus against apartheid, burgeoning into a powerful force for change. I know that it is a different era and a very different place, but Americans are not strangers to an activist church. It was their ecumenical, inter-faith civil rights struggle, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (together with that of the Confessing Church in Germany) that was our greatest inspiration in South Africa. The work of revisioning what it means to be Christian in America must begin now – together.”

I’ve been so reinforced and empowered through my work with the Decade to Overcome Violence! I see what needs to be done – and am inspired by people like Peter Storey and Robert Edgar not to give up the hope of a more just world. At a time when I was overwhelmed with confusion, God puts me in places and with people to lift me higher then ever before. We are so blessed.

When I mentioned with sadness how few people on our journeys this past summer even know about the Decade to Overcome Violence, Robert Edger mentioned the budget for promoting the DOV in the US would not cover California, I was humbled, such an amazing and powerful direction given in true concern by the highest ecumenical unit of the world – and the US citizens have so little chance to hear about it. So I beg each and every one of you, get informed – and spread the word! Here is a link to help you out: www.overcomingviolence.org. Our German page (and the entire website is under construction right now: www.ekbo.de/ag_dekade/index.php. I don’t believe there has been a time in my awareness where the world was in greater need of overcoming violence! And there is so much help out there to learn how.

My prayer is that those who have lost faith and hope in a world of Grace will take steps in seeking out the signs of change and act according to their calling. Doesn’t going out into the world and making Disciples mean sharing who Jesus really is – even to those who claim him as their savior and are misinformed about his life?

Shalom my dear ones,
Lisa Smith

Steve and Lisa Smith serve with the Evangelical Church of the Union (EKU), in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, Germany. Steve serves on the Ecumenical Council of Churches on behalf of the region. Lisa serves as assistant to the commissioner for migrant issues. They also provide lay training in the church region.