Kiwi Visitors from the UK

We love having visitors! Recently, Kushla and Laura (friends from New Zealand, who are living in London) came and stayed with us for a week to have a taste of Italy.

We visited Polignano, Ostuni, Alberobello, spent a couple of days at the beach and looked around old Bari. We ate giant pizza's, espressino freddo's, apperitivo's and of course pasta.

Here are some photos of our time together.

Polignano


Ostuni








Dinner in old Bari

Hospitality Part 5

An Example of Middle Eastern Hospitality

Friedel Rother, an ex-journalist has been riding a bicycle around the world with her husband. She shares an account of the hospitality she faced in the middle east which serves as an encouragement for us to show hospitality to sojourners and in general. Her blog is here.

If there is one thing you can count on in the Middle East, it is that you do not need to seek out hospitality. It will find you. Standing on a street corner in Iran, looking confused or lost, is impossible to do for more than a minute before a helper will arrive and declare themselves to be at your service. In Syria, we ruled out accepting tea more than twice a day. Otherwise we would never have made it beyond the border post. Invitations flow freely from the smallest village to the biggest city.

The key to enjoying this warm welcome is simply to be brave enough to accept the offers that will come your way. Most of us were taught to beware of strangers, and suspicions are quickly raised when someone appears out of nowhere with an offer that seems too good to be true.

“Is this for real?” you will wonder as the man you asked for directions jumps in a cab with you and insists on paying the fare to the train station. It is so far removed from reality in many countries that it's almost unbelievable you will not be the victim of some scam. We cannot promise it will not happen, but in the hundreds of instances that we have accepted the help of others, we have never been disappointed.

“Why are you doing this?” we asked Talal as he arrived at our Damascus hotel to take us on a city tour and out for dinner. “It is my duty. You are a guest in my country,” was the reply. It was a commonly repeated response when we put the same query to others. “Travelers are a gift from God,” answered one young man.


I reckon this attitude would significantly alter the lives of people we meet, and our own.

Hospitality Part 4

The Impact of Hospitality



Christian hospitality was a subversive act that obliterated societal barriers involving gender, race, economic condition, and citizenship status. The extension of hospitality was a moral statement with moral overtones that offered a dramatic and often effective witness to the world and was crucial to the growth of the early church.(1)

The book of Acts is an extended historical account of the growth of Christ's church, and episode after episode shows hospitality as integral to this growth. Hospitality was at the centre of the critical meeting of Cornelius and Peter. It was also central to the discipleship of Apollos by Priscilla and Aquila. Hospitality enabled the transmission of the Gospel in the early church. Nothing has changed. We should be asking if our own loss of understanding and practicing hospitality as a means to spread the Gospel is one reason why the Gospel is not spreading in our culture the way it did in Acts. (2)

Hospitality emerges from a grateful heart; it is first a response of love and gratitude for God’s love and welcome to us. It will not occur in any significant way in our lives, homes, or churches unless we give it deliberate attention.(3)

When we develop a lifestyle of hopsitality we allow room for the serendipities of God. In Hebrews 13 we are told not to forget being hospitable to strangers, because some have discovered that they were actually entertaining angels unawares. This idea almost certainly draws from the Genesis 18 account of Abraham being visited by angelic strangers. Hospitality allows for supernatural surprises. These could include unexpected divinely arranged friendships and timely fruitful connections , provisions of food and clothing, or even changes of perspective on people. Put simply, God shows up in hospitality settings, and the miraculous occurs in our midst.(4)

Hospitality can also transform our lives by forcing us to remove self form the centre, and focussing on others.


1. Jason Foster, Christian Hospitality: A Way of Life. Online at http://faithepchurch.org/files/Documents/Discipleship%20Resources/Hospitality.pdf accessed August 2010, 4.
2. Ibid, 21-22.
3. Christine D. Pohl, ‘Hospitality, a Practice and a Way of Life’, in Vision Spring 2002. Online at http://www.mennovision.org/Vol%203%20No%201/Pohl_Hospitality.pdf accessed August 2010, 37.
4. Jason Foster, 25.

Hospitality Part 3

Hospitality Towards Other Believers

The agape (unconditional love) that we are to show to others always implies hospitality (filozenia).(1) Another type of love that we are to exhibit is referred to as “love for each other” (filadelfia). The connection between filadelfia (love for each other) and filozenia (hospitality) is striking and is a reminder that although a particular Christian might be a stranger to us, he or she is still a brother/sister and should be treated as such.(2) This is not a recommendation to host people at our homes who we know (although that is a good idea) but to host fellow believers who we don’t know. When was the last time you opened your home to such a person?

We might hear an objection to strong emphasis on hospitality today because of the extreme need for hospitality in bible times. People who failed to receive hospitality could face death because of a lack of hotels/hospitals and so on. Travelling conditions were quite different. However perhaps there are such clear injunctions in the bible, not simply because it was practical, but because it had spiritual value in its own right.(3)

There is a significant problem in both the church and wider culture today of shallowness in relationships. It is often difficult is getting past the surface-level friendliness and engage people on a deeper, more meaningful level.(4) Perhaps church services pander to such surface level friendships by bringing us together in short bursts regularly but without demanding any deeper relationship. Maybe, by seeing the same people each week we can be fooled into thinking we are in a good relationship with others, but years can go past without real relationship. If this is the case then the church will struggle to become anything more than a group of friendly strangers, and our hospitality will not resemble biblical hospitality.


Instead of saying to ourselves in church, "How quickly can we get out of here," we should be saying, "How can these folks help me in my growth with Christ, and how can I help them?" Instead of pondering, "Will I let them into my life," we should resolve to answer, "HOW will I let them in?" (5)

Hospitality Towards Non-Believers

Hospitality can and should be extended to the stranger, whether or not s/he is part of the Christian community. What qualifies a person to receive hospitality is not their faith, but their humanity - they are made in the image if God.(6) When we invite our neighbors into our homes, we are likewise inviting them to enter our world and see Christianity in action in the home, warts and all. Hospitality is inextricably linked to evangelism and mission precisely because the invitation to experience the presence of Christ in our homes is part of a robust theology of evangelism and making disciples.(7)

Matthew 25 is an anthem for Kingdom conduct with hospitality at its centre:

Several points of application can be gleaned:
1) Jesus identifies himself with strangers.
2) Service to strangers is equated with service to Christ himself.
3) Hospitality has eternal overtones.

The radical claim of Jesus is that hospitality to the stranger is a defining mark of a saved believer – an essential characteristic of one who is part of God's Kingdom and is loyal to its King, Jesus the divine Stranger.(8)

(1)Orchard Keeper, http://cbumgardner.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/christian-love-and-christian-hospitality/
(2)Ibid.
(3)Ibid.
(4)Jason Foster, Christian Hospitality: A Way of Life. Online at http://faithepchurch.org/files/Documents/Discipleship%20Resources/Hospitality.pdf accessed August 2010, 53.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Stephen W. Sykes, Making Room for the Other: Hostility and Hospitality in a Christian Perspective, online at http://www.elijah-interfaith.org/uploads/media/Hostility_and_Hospitality_in_a_Christian_Perspective.pdf accessed August 2010, 62.
(7) Jason Foster, Christian Hospitality: A Way of Life. Online at http://faithepchurch.org/files/Documents/Discipleship%20Resources/Hospitality.pdf accessed August 2010, 5.
(8) Ibid, 10.

Hospitality Part 2

Background of Biblical Hospitality

In Jewish thought, hospitality is seen as rooted in both a concept of God who “loves the sojourner” (e.g., Deut 10:18), and in the story of the Israelites, to whom God said, “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Ex 22:21).

Whether it is Abraham receiving the three angels (strangers) in Gen. 18, the Midian priest taking in Moses in Exodus 2, Rahab allowing Joshua's spies to stay with her in Joshua 2, or Nehemiah extending hospitality to a random trumpet player in Nehemiah 4, the Old Testament is full of examples of hospitality being extended to strangers who become valued guests.

The New Testament is no different. The Samaritan woman invites Jesus the stranger to stay with her community, which he does (John 4). Paul (Saul), who had previously been enemy of the Christian movement, is taken in by the apostles in Acts 9. Later in that chapter, it is said that Peter stayed with a tanner named Simon during his time in Joppa. Perhaps all of this seemingly immaterial information is included because it is actually quite significant to the biblical authors. (3)These are just a few examples of many of a practice that is found thoughout the bible.

Peter when teaching about what it means to exercise spiritual gifts in this last age, tells God's people to 'offer hospitality to one another without grumbling' (1Peter 4.9). This is given as a command that is applicable to all Christians (4). Paul speaks to believers in general in Romans 12:13 when he says that we are to “pursue hospitality.” Some translations are too bland in translating the verb as “practice”(5). The verb here, dioko, connotes an earnest striving after something. We are to pursue opportunities to give hospitality.

The act of offering hospitality must be basic to Christian identity and practice. For most of the church's history, Christians located hospitality within a vibrant tradition in which people are welcomed and even transformed. Hospitality addresses the physical needs of food, shelter, and protection. But hospitality also radically affirms the high worth and common humanity of all people. Table fellowship is an extremely important way, even today, of affirming the equal value and dignity of people. (6)

We might hear an objection to strong emphasis on hospitality today because of the extreme need for hospitality in bible times. People who failed to receive hospitality could face death because of a lack of hotels/hospitals and so on. Travelling conditions were quite different. However perhaps there are such clear injunctions in the bible, not simply because it was practical, but because it had spiritual value in its own right. (7)

3. Jason Foster, 2.
4. Ibid, 2-3.
5. Orchard Keeper, http://cbumgardner.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/christian-love-and-christian-hospitality/
6. Jason Foster, 4.
7. Ibid, 53.

Kaira has turned 2

We celebrated Kaira's second birthday last week, we called the Grandparents in the morning so they could speak with her and then went to a friend's place for an afternoon tea with a group of our friends.

We can't believe that she is 2 already. The time has flown by. she is very much a little girl now.

Here are some photos from her special day.



Opening her presents


All ready for her party




Kaira's Cake


Dancing with Papa

Hospitality Part 1

One of the things that I love about living in Southern Italy is the hospitality. When invited out for lunch it is impossible to eat and drink everything that is presented to you. As a guest they honour you and give you their best. I have really enjoyed watching the way the Italians welcome guests.

There is a depth in this hospitality that is prevalent in the middle east as well that is perhaps missing from New Zealand and other western countries. Over the next few days I want to explore the idea of hospitality and the sense in which it should be central to daily faith.

In the contemporary West, hospitality usually associated with etiquette and entertainment. In the past, especially for the ancient Greeks and Romans, hospitality was a divine right. The host was expected to make sure the needs of his or her guests were seen to. Wikipedia mentions that the ancient Greek term xenia, expressed this ritualized guest-friendship relation and adds a further term theoxenia when a god was involved (1). I wonder whether theoxenia is an appropriate term for when we offer hospitality. In engaging in hospitality perhaps we bring God into the situation. Can the act of hospitality actually amount to perhaps a supernatural act that brings the presence of God into our everyday lives?

Jason Foster suggests that Christian hospitality, as given to us in the Bible, is a sacred process of 'receiving' outsiders and changing them from strangers to guests. (2) In this sacred process Christ is present.



1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitality
2. Jason Foster, Christian Hospitality: A Way of Life. Online at http://faithepchurch.org/files/Documents/Discipleship%20Resources/Hospitality.pdf accessed August 2010, 1.

Kieron Williamson, Painting Prodigy

I love this story in the NZ Herald article on Kieron Williamson, an 8 year painting prodigy.



He's Britain's most talked-about young artist. His paintings fetch hefty sums and there's a long waiting list for his eagerly anticipated new works.

It has all happened so quickly - he's still getting used to the spotlight - and Kieron Williamson fidgets a little when he's asked to share his thoughts on art.

"Cows are the easiest thing to paint," said Kieron, who has just turned 8. "You don't have to worry about doing so much detail."

Horses, he says, are "a lot harder. You have to get their legs right, and you have to make their back legs much bigger than their front."

Paintbrush prodigy Kieron - dubbed "mini Monet" by the British press - is a global sensation. All 33 of the pastels, watercolors and oil paintings in his latest exhibition sold, within half an hour, for a total of 150,000 pounds (NZD$330,000). Buyers from as far away as the United States lined up overnight outside the gallery, and there is a 3,000-strong waiting list for his Impressionistic landscapes of boat-dotted estuaries, snowy fields and wide marshland skies.

Here is his website. I think I will buy Kaira some paitbrushes this week.

Future Trends in Evangelicalism

Ed Stetzer makes some interesting points about the future of evangelicalism. These are two of his thoughts that I think are really pertinent to the church today:

First, evangelicals must learn to navigate what I call a "post-seeker context." When I use this term, I do not mean that seekers no longer exist. Rather, churches that once targeted seekers from the Boomer generation are finding that large portions of subsequent generations do not have the same religious memory. "Seeker churches" thrived when they could create new expressions of church that related to a population with at least some Christian memory.

I believe that all seeking is in response to the work of the Holy Spirit. In practical means, then, I believe the Spirit often uses the religious memory latent within a culture to pique the interest of the unchurched. For evangelicals to reach seekers in the decade ahead, they will need to develop new models and other means of communication to deliver our message into the cultural destination of an increasingly post-seeker context. When religious memory is gone, we can no longer rely on those outside of the faith to be interested in what it means to be inside of the faith.

Fourth, evangelicals must address our shallow definition of discipleship. LifeWay Research published a book called The Shape of Faith to Come by Brad Waggoner. Based on a study of 2,500 regular Protestant church-goers, we found the statistics revealing. Only 16 percent of participants said that they read their Bible daily, and another 20 percent said they read the Bible a few times a week. Only 23 percent agreed strongly with the statement, "When I come to realize that an aspect of my life is not right in God's eyes, I make necessary changes." In the past six months, only 29 percent said that they had shared with someone how to become a Christian twice or more, and 57 percent said they had not done so at all.

Perhaps most disappointing, however, was what had happened when they were srveyed again a year later. There was very little change in the actual data, but over 55 percent indicated that they had grown spiritually in the past year. The area of discipleship is definitely the elephant in the room for evangelicals and must be addressed going forward. Beliefs must become practice in order for evangelicalism to thrive in future decades.

Tourists for a week - Part 5

Alberobello is famous for its beautifully kept trulli. A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional stone dwelling with a conical roof. The style of construction is specific to Itria Valley. There are plenty all around the area but Alberbello provides a concentration of fully restored ones housing shops offering a lot of local delicacies. There are some that also offer a hotel room.



Traditionally they were built without any cement or mortar, probably to avoid taxation.



At the top of a trullo's cone there is normally a pinnacle, that may be one of many designs, chosen for symbolism. there are often symbols painted on it as well such as planetary symbols, the malocchio (evil eye), the cross, a heart, a star and crescent, or a few others.
33

Tourists for a week - Part 4

Ostuni, about 1 hour from Bari, is also know as the "white city" because all of the buildings within its fortified walls are painted white giving it a classic Greek island feel. Standing on top of a hill the town is prominant from miles away and has commanding views over the sea about 12 kilometres away.


The region around Ostuni has been inhabited since the Stone age. The town is reputed to have been originally established by the Messapii, a pre-classic tribe, and destroyed by Hannibal during the Punic Wars. It was then re-built by the Greeks, the name Ostuni deriving from the Greek Astu néon ("new town").

Ostuni was acked after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in 996 AD the town became part of the Norman County of Lecce.

In 1539 the town had towers built along all the shoreline, as protection against anticipated attacks from the Turks who controlled the Balkans. These towers (still existing, including Pozzella Tower, the Pylon, Villanova and others), were permanently garrisoned and communicated through fire beacons.

Main Road


City Wall




The region is well know for its olive oil which is quite outstanding. We purchased a bottle but it only lasted a week. So good for slalds and bread.

Community: Blinded by love

Here is part of an interview with Shane Claiborne on community. We are looking at concepts of community here at Bethel Church over the next month. He psoes a fascinating challenge that a myopic love for our family or our nation (perhaps our church, city, friends, job as well) could cause us to lose sight of our God given call. The rest of the interview is here.

Let's talk about "doing life together." We have a nuclear vision of Christian community, where the church is divided up into families, and the families come together now and then but otherwise live their lives apart, sealed off behind the four walls of their separate homes. Does this make it more difficult to recover something resembling the community of the early church?

Without a doubt there's some deep wisdom in the scripture that says that we're not to conform to the patterns of the world but be transformed by renewing our minds. We're to have a new way of thinking about things, including family. Jesus really challenges the notions and even the idol that we have made of the nuclear family, when he says, "Unless you hate your own father and mother, you're not ready to be my disciple." I know that Jesus is not shunning a love for our family. He loved his mother, and as he was dying on the cross he encouraged John to take care of her. But he's pushing the boundaries of where our love stops.

A lot of times a love for our own family or our own nation creates a shortsightedness. This is my people and my family. But Jesus says, actually, you're born again. That means that if someone is in prison, it's like your own kids are in prison. If someone's suffering injustice, it's like you're suffering. I really love the line, "A love for our own people is not a bad thing, but our love doesn't stop at any border."

We are born again into a terribly dysfunctional family. If we're going to take our rebirth seriously, it should keep us up at night. It should allow us to be disturbed by the pain and the suffering that is happening around the world and even right next to us.

Tourists for a week - Part 3

Polignano is positioned on a steep sea cliff dotted with caves. A lot of the old town is perched quite pecariously on the cliff face with stunning views over the bautiful azure colours of the Adriatic.. It is quite spectacular.



Apperitivo - one of my favourite things about Italy. A light lunch before lunch..hmm..more food.






Polignano was the birthplace of Domenica Modugno who sang "Nel blu dipinto di blu" ("In the blue, painted blue"), also known as "Volare". You will know it when you here it.