The 2012 Let Justice Roll Down Seminar

Steve and I are facilitating a three week long seminar at YWAM Kona in May! It is open to anyone and it is not too late to sign up if you are interested! Check out the website for more info and to apply. We would love it if you joined us!

Here's the gist.

How do we work with Jesus to undo oppression? How do we live the gospel within a violent context or war-zone? How do we build just communities of faith that really are good news to the poor? How do we challenge the status quo and work to reconcile communities?

The Let Justice Roll Down Seminar is in many ways a response to these questions. A response to the ever growing awareness of young people entering the missions field who are overwhelmed with the realities of Human Trafficking, Poverty, Violence and War. It's a response to an ever growing cry within the margins of society from oppressed peoples who are singing liberation songs and for people young and old who want to learn those songs but don't know where to start.

The truth is that in the wake of a world ripe with injustice most of us feel at a loss when it comes to actually doing something. We read the gospels and see Jesus creating holy mischief all over Palestine and feel inspired, but when it comes to our own communities and nations struggles, we can't connect the dots. Into this tension, the Let Justice Roll Down Seminar will connect young radicals with veteran faith-based activists and peacemakers in order to transfuse a vision of practical peacemaking and works of justice modeled after Jesus! Through a three week intensive workshop and seminar series participants will find themselves rooted within the vast history of faith-based activism and peacemaking, learn a biblical vision of justice, craft a practical tool-belt for engagement and return home ready to insight holy mischief within their communities, nations or missions field.

So whether you've been involved with addressing injustice issues for years, work within the mission field or simply have a yearning to learn how to actively engage injustice and violence in your own community with a "Jesus-centric" witness...The LJRD Seminar is for you.


Speakers:

 SHANE CLAIBORNE :: Author, Prominent Christian Activist, Sought-after Speaker and Recovering Sinner - thesimpleway.org 
With tears and laughter, Shane Claiborne unveils the tragic messes we’ve made of our world and the tangible hope that another world is possible. Shane graduated from Eastern University, and did graduate work at Princeton Seminary. His ministry experience is varied, from a 10-week stint working alongside Mother Teresa in Calcutta, to a year spent serving a wealthy mega-congregation at Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago. During the recent war in Iraq, Shane spent three weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team. Shane is also a founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner city Philadelphia that has helped to birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. Shane writes and travels extensively speaking about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus. He is featured in the DVD series “Another World Is Possible” and is the author of the several books including The Irresistible Revolution, Jesus for President, and Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers. Shane speaks over 100 times a year in a dozen or so countries and nearly every state in the US. Shane has given academic seminars at Vanderbilt University, Duke University Pepperdine University, Wheaton College, Princeton University, Goshen College and Harvard University. Shane also speaks at various denominational gatherings, festivals, and conferences around the globe. Shane’s work has been featured in everything from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal to CNN and National Public Radio. 

CHED MYERS :: Theologian, Author, Activist, Co-Founder of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries - chedmyers.org

Ched, a fifth generation Californian, lives in Oak View, in the Ojai Valley and the Ventura River watershed. Over the past three decades he has worked with many peace and justice organizations and movements, including the American Friends Service Committee, the Pacific Concerns Resource Center and Pacific Life Community. With Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries he focuses on building capacity for biblical literacy, church renewal, and faith-based witness for justice. Ched holds a Bachelors in Philosophy from the University of California at Berkley (1978) and a Masters in New Testament Studies from the Graduate Theological Union (1984). He has served as adjunct faculty at Memphis Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, Claremont School of Theology and is the author of nearly a dozen books including “Binding The Strongman: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus” (Orbis Books, 1984)
Ched travels throughout North America and abroad giving seminars and retreats, teaching, preaching, and facilitating gatherings. He works with Catholic, Protestant, and Anabaptist parishes and denominational offices, as well as with ecumenical organizations. He is particularly committed to faith-based peace and justice efforts such as Christian Peacemaker Teams, Borderlinks, the Catholic Worker Movement, Witness for Peace, and the Servant Leadership Schools.

ELAINE ENNS :: Educator, Author, Activist, Co-Founder of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries - bcm-net.org

Elaine has been working in the field of restorative justice and conflict transformation since 1989 as a mediator, consultant, educator and trainer. She provides mediation and consultation services for individuals, churches, schools, community organizations, criminal justice agencies and businesses, and travels throughout North America teaching and conducting these trainings.
With a Bachelors degree from the Canadian Mennonite Bible College (Winnipeg, 1989) and a Masters in Conflict Management and Peacemaking from the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary (Fresno, 1995). Elaine was trained and still collaborates with the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies at Fresno Pacific University. Elaine often partners with her husband, Ched Myers, to teach on the Theology and Practices of Restorative Justice, and most recently co-authored with him a two volume project entitled Ambassadors of Reconciliation (Orbis Books, 2009). She has led numerous seminars, retreats and conferences across the ecumenical spectrum. Born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Elaine currently lives in Oak View, CA.

Tim Nafziger :: Activist, Blogger, Organizer, International Outreach Coordinator for CPT - cpt.org

Tim is passionate about gathering people with shared values to work together for change in our communities and our world. One such space is Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) where he has worked as Outreach Coordinator since 2008, supporting the growth of CPT in the US, Europe, the Philippines,  Australia and Colombia. Another space is the blog Young Anabaptist Radicals, which he helped found in 2006. He has also been involved with organizing movements of young people in the Mennonite church in the US such as Spark Renewal, Becoming Undone and Cynicism and Hope.
Tim lives beside Lake Michigan in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago with his wife Charletta where they attend Living Water Community Church. He has written chapters in Widening the Circle:Experiments in Christian Discipleship, Fear or Freedom?: Why a Warring Church Must Change and 118 Days: Christian Peacemaker Teams Held Hostage in Iraq. His photographs have appeared in StillSpeaking and the Mennonite Weekly Review.

Sylvia Morrison :: Educator, Community Organizer and Undoing Racism Coordinator for CPT - cpt.org

Sylvia Morrison is an educator and community organizer who has done extensive work in the violence against women sector, serving as a counselor advocate for survivors of trauma, domestic violence and sexual assaults.  She is an anti-oppression trainer and Professor at George Brown College.  Sylvia engages in community development work locally in Canada, and internationally, supporting grassroots community initiatives in Cuba, Uganda, Benin, and Ghana.  

Sylvia is the Undoing Racism Coordinator with Christian Peacemaker Teams. She leads Christian Peacemaker Teams through change processes in which the framework and operations of the organization are being reworked to reflect anti-oppressive values and best practices.

Sylvia lives in Brampton, Ontario and is the mother of two young adults Yoeshae and Joseph Morrison.

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diamonds in the rough

I had the awesome opportunity to photograph at a local women’s prison here in Mazar. An NGO in the area is working to raise support to better the conditions of the facility so I got to use my camera to help with that process. 

The assignment was to photograph the conditions of the facility. 

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 I didn’t think that I would even have the opportunity to photograph the [treasures] that make their home inside the prison walls. The [women] shyed away from the camera, avoiding it at all costs as if it would steal their soul. Hiding in corners and covering their faces with their headscarves.

the children were scared of the camera too.

 

what are children doing living inside of a prison? when a woman in afghanistan goes to jail, her young children become prisoners with her. if she has older children they are sent to an orphanage.

 there are no grassy patches to play in. no sandboxes, crayons or toys. there are [sparks of hope] in the eyes of these tiny people. they are diamonds in the rough.

my first twenty shots were of crying babies. who knows if they had ever seen a camera before. thank GOD for digital photography...as i began to show these two and three year old babies their portraits their crying subsided and i even got a few smiles out of them. 

when their mothers saw their children's faces on the LCD they began to warm up

 to me. Within a few minutes there was such a drastic change...they came alive. Before long their faces were unveiled and they were dragging me by the arm from one side of the courtyard to the other, fighting over who got to have their picture taken next. as soon as the shutter closed they would dive towards me to see their faces in the screen. 

 

as i began to look into their eyes, my heart was shattered as i empathized with the intense pain, anger and angst written on the faces of these broken women. such stony exterior masking delicate hope. diamonds in the rough. 

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