Hi.

I still need to write all about India and Sri Lanka. The last month has been very….full. I am getting there. Soon. Right now there are some other things on my mind!

One of the things I do with the Anglican Church, is I work with our Refugee Sponsorship program. I speak to churches and groups and teach them and work with them to help sponsor people who have been identified by the United Nations as refugees in need of finding a new country to live in. Working very closely with the Canadian government we compile information and fill out forms and give all of that to the government. The Government reviews the information, does background and security checks and if those are clear, then interviews the refugees. If the refugees meet the government’s criteria, then they get the designation of a Permanent Resident of Canada and then they can come here and try to start a new life. This is not easy, and most refugees around the world would like nothing better than to return home. But that is not always possible. Resettlement is the last option. It is a long process and not everyone who applies meets the governments criteria.

I have some serious concerns about Bill C-31 and the potential effects that has on the Refugee Sponsorship program. But that is a whole other issue.

When someone first arrives in Canada, even though technically they are eligible for Provincial Health care, it takes up to three months for that to take effect. What happens in those three months? The Government provides what they call Interim Federal Health Care coverage to the newcomers.

The Federal Government has announced changes to the Interim Federal Health Care Program as of July 1st. Read all about it  HERE.

I am all for fairness and stopping people taking advantage of the health care system. But the implications of this are that government and privately sponsored refugees who come to Canada will be affected by this.

Reading the specific wording of the policy, it seems clear enough. The problem is, the last time I had a a newcomer who needed to go see a Dr. it was very difficult finding a clinic that would accept the IFH coverage. I spoke with 6 clinics who refused to deal with it. They wanted cash up front. The thing is, that the IFH doesn’t accept the submission of receipts. With these changes, I imagine this will get even more difficult. If the provider of the coverage is going to be very finicky and essentially try not to cover things if they can get away with it, then the working definitions are going to limit it even more. Read the wording yourself HERE.

A real life story that has come in to my email today:

“I was disturbed when I read this e-mail as we have a real life situation happening right now.  We have a VOR family from Iraq and the wife has been for her dental check up.  She has severe gingivitis and had to have IV antibiotics for 3 days (twice a day) at our local hospital in March.  The dentist said she will need all her top teeth removed and she will require dentures.  I looked at the IFH website and was glad to see that it covered dentures but now I don’t know what we would do if she can’t get the work done before the end of June and if IFH doesn’t agree to pay as it is.”

In the case of Privately sponsored refugees, there MAY be the opportunity to raise funds (from the public) to pay for these services, that would be on top of the funds needed for a sponsorship in the first place. In the case of the Government sponsored refugees – the only people they have to lean on, is the government, who just cut the health care coverage that is supposed to cover them until they get their Provincial coverage. I guess as of July 1st  they are on their own. Welcome to Canada.

I have already sent a personal message to my MP expressing my concern. If you are reading this, I would ask you to consider doing the same. Forget the petitions and form letters – use your own words and tell your MP what you think. And hey, if you have questions? Ask me! I would be happy to try and answer them for you.

And just on the opinion side? Who’s next? First newcomers (vetted and approved by our government – NOT cue jumpers or interlopers, or cheaters, or scammers or criminals), and then maybe people that can’t afford healthcare – the poor? As these ever closer steps towards not universal, but rather two tiered health care systems, and other possibilities? If we don’t speak up what happens? And when it comes to us, who will speak up for us?

-Scott

So this was our last day in Colombo.
It has been a very eventful trip and we have met some very amazing people. Heard some heart breaking and difficult stories, seen some amazing land and learned an incredible amount about a very complex situation.  I do not feel as though I have a firm grasp on it. Opinions a’plenty but there is so much more to this than opinions!

Racism, ethnic tension, pressure, violence, war, division, loss, fear, uncertainty, death – living through all of that for 30 years has an effect on a nation. Even though a victor is proclaimed, there are no victors, only losers,  and those who lose the most are always the innocents caught in the middle. Whether its Africa or Central America, South America or Asia, or even at home, with respect to the innocents one thing is certain, they always lose.
The point of this trip, the point of my entire faith and the hope that it fills me with is the hope and belief that death does not have the last word over life, and that we have the ability and are empowered to live that hope and faith out – to share it and not keep it for ourselves, and to be open always for others sharing it with us. This has only been reinforced by seeing the refugee camps in India and the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps and resettlement villages in Sri Lanka.
We don’t do this blindly or happy hazardly though, it has to be smart and informed and effective advocacy. We have to be willing to ask the questions of partners, of others and especially of ourselves.

Its time to get on the plane and I will write a lot more later!

As the title suggests,  I accidentally ate some shellfish last night. I was worried that was going to putt a damper on things but so far so good.

So to recap, we arrived in Colombo, got to the hotel late and the Bishop graciously bowed out of meeting us at 11 pm! So we could get a good night’s sleep and get up at 4:30 to get on a bus and drive 300km (approximately) north to Trincomalee.
Normally, as Canadians, we would expect that drive to take 3 hours maybe 4. But this is not Canada. Figure in single lane roads and a bicycle race put on by the air force, and then bad roads and all of this equals arriving in Trincomalee at 3 pm. I’ll let you do the math on that one. I felt like my brain was going to be rattled out of my head.

We had a brief intro into the work that OfERR Ceylon does at their office in Trinco. Very interesting because of course it is similar to what OfERR does in India but the next step, and continuation. They work with resettlement of IDP’s (internally displaced people), and returnees from India. They partner with UNHCR, and receive funding from PWRDF and others to do this work.

We were able to visit a couple of villages and meet people from a variety of backgrounds, some who had been IDP, and some who were returnees from India from the 1990′s and 2000′s.
The issues are complex and multiple, and I will try to give a more thorough explanation of it all later.

Yesterday we went to the Anglican parish of St. Nicholas and I thought I would try and be official and wear a clergy collar, which resulted in me being invited to concelebrate the Eucharist and share the bread!

After church we made a couple of other visits to villages and heard more stories. Important listening and getting an idea of where people are at, what they need and then ideas about how we can advocate to help them.

Then the bus headed off on more bumpy roads to Vavuniya. Had a good dinner and went to bed. Thankfully no reaction from the shrimp!

We have just visited two other communities today, first at someone’s house meeting with a women’s group to hear how they have fared resettling. The second was a visit with a much wider cross section of a community at their multi-use hall. Interesting there because there was a local government agent at the meeting. Given the wider context of being in the North, and the post-war conflict there were certain subjects we didn’t bring up.
Now we are having lunch at the OfERR office in Vavuniya. More learning to come, and when I get a real keyboard and not just my phone I will try and explain some of this more!

So we just arrived in Colombo and already the difference between here and India is quite noticeable.

Traffic is less crazy and suicidal, it is noticeably cleaner on the streets, and less noisy.

Its also been raining and right now the humidity has to be %70 or more!

As has been the case all the way along, flexibility is key, and our plans have changed a little bit! So we are off to the hotel for a quick turn around and then off to a late dinner with the Anglican bishop. Then its a short nights sleep and we head off at 5:30 am to go to Trincomalee, Vavuniya, and the projects and camps that OfERR Ceylon is involved with.

More after dinner and probably on the way up North!

So the first thing I have to say is the traffic is insane. One would have to be an insanely good driver to drive here. Our minibus swerved to not kill a motorcyclist that drovebrifht in frontbof us. We did not sir and the mini bus managednto only drive over a curb sized median. The driver jumped out, checked.the.vehicle, tore a strip of the motorcyclist, and they came to an agreement to pay for the damage. That was yesterday. Today our mini bus was pulled over 3 times by traffic police …. because they were looking for bribe money, not because of actual traffic violations.  This is India.

The rest of the week has been a blurry whirlwind, and a good one. We have visited 2 Refugee camps, OfERR’s Trichy office and their farm,  which is also where they produce Spirulina for sale! 

At the camps we have met some amazing people and heard some difficult stories. The first camp we visited was in an especially bad way because a 3 year old child had been accidentally electrocuted and died that morning.  We heard stories of lives on hold and hopes for a better future without violence, persecution, discrimination and racism. 

The issues are complex and at the same time they are not. People just want a chance to live. Its all any of us want.

Because I am typing this with my thumbs on my phone and because some of the OfERR youth want to show us a documentary they have made I will leave it there for now. I will write a LOT more later and also hopefully explain things in a bit more detail.

We leave for Sri Lanka tomorrow and a lot more to learn and see.

-Scott

This is OfERR’s head office. Although feeling a bit tired, we have been meeting with and getting an orientation to OfERR’s work.
A couple of quick facts for you :

- OfFER started in 1984

- Currently they work with around
69,000 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu province, India, spread over 115 camps.

- PWRDF has been a funding partner for a number of OfFERR’s projects.

OfERR does an amazing amount of work with a lot less resources than seems reasonable considering what they get done. Education, health, youth work, empowerment, vocational training, advocacy, mental health & counseling,
Self-help, and disaster relief.

That’s right,  disaster relief. OfERR, an organisation for refugees and almost entirely staffed by the refugees it serves helped with disaster relief to their Indian neighbours after the 2004 tsunami hit the east coast of India.

That’s about all I have time for right now but tonight we are taking a night train to Trichy! 

Bread from heaven, birds falling from the sky – God provides, even when people complain against their leaders, and against God. God still provides.

Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who decides to pay all of the workers the same daily wage – whether they worked all day, or just an hour – even when the workers complain against the landowner. God provides.

This next part I learned from Bill Cliff at Huron College – and that is this: in those days, the days when Jesus was walking around and preaching, and teaching and healing – the usual daily wage was enough. It was enough for a worker to take home the wage and feed his family and “pay the bills.” It was not poverty, it was better than that, but it was not riches – it was enough. Not a lot left over for saving, not a lot left over for much of anything else, but it was enough to live and provide a living for one’s family. It was usual to work a day’s work to receive the usual daily wage, but everyone knew what the wage was, and what was expected.

So here is Jesus telling this story – about people who get picked up to work later and later and later until the day is almost over. The ones hired last got paid first – and they were paid the usual daily wage – which they were probably not expecting. So then the guys at the back of the line start thinking – JACKPOT! YESSSSSSS! Only to find out that they too receive the usual daily wage – which is what they agreed to in the first place. What ensues is disappointment, frustration, envy …. Its not fair – he only worked one hour, and we (read I) slaved away all day, and he gets the same as I do? That is not fair. There is the landowner’s response, chastising that attitude – but it goes beyond the surface level of what we take “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

The daily wage, in terms of the kingdom of God, is not money – it is God’s love, and what Jesus tries to teach over and over again is – you can’t earn it. It doesn’t matter if you work all day and all night, or if you work for just one hour – it doesn’t matter if you have been receiving the love of God your whole life, or if you have received it for just one minute, if you are receiving God’s love, you are receiving God’s love. God’s love is infinite. I am no math wiz, but I do not that if you apply the rules of division to infinity, you still end up with infinity, no matter what way you try to crunch the numbers. So whether you have a ‘small’ part or a ‘large’ part of infinity, it is still infinite, and really the small and large in that case don’t make sense – they are infinite. What this means in relation to God’s love and the usual daily wage is, that it is enough. God’s love is enough. It is not less than you need, but it is enough. If God decides to give to those who come last the same as to those who have known God’s love for their entire lives, then that is something to be joyful for, something to sing songs about, to tell stories about. “O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples.Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works.Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.”

In some ways we could look at it as probably more than you need and in that sense there is this element of it being meant for passing on. Amen.

77 = 7×11…. 70×7=490…. how about 70×7= infinity. Forgiveness is not just a number. Jesus’ parable, and Peter’s question were not about some kind of a magic number – some kind of a limit for forgiveness. Forgiveness does not mean condoning, approving or allowing to continue something that is needing to be forgiven. Forgiveness is part of healing, change, repentance and bringing restoration. It means that we actually care enough about something to commit to work to change cycles of harm, fix mistakes, situations of distress. Last week I showed a short video at St. Peter’s – it starts out with the words on the screen – In Rwanda, In 1994, In 100 days, 850,000+ people were killed In the Rwandan genocide. This is Emmanuel’s story. The next scene shows us a man standing and he starts to say how very sorry he is that he murdered your husband, your son, your daughter. How he is filled with sorrow and cannot pay his debt. …and yet somehow God has forgiven me. I don’t understand it, I don’t think I ever will. Somehow God has given me a second chance. There are flashes of the man at various sites and memorials as well as looking out over the countryside. There are a couple of shots of machetes, and of children running in trees. Then the scene cuts to this man, Emmanuel standing in front of a woman, we assume the woman who’s family he killed, and he says, “Please forgive me.” 15 years from 1994 to 2011. Forgiveness is not a slow or easy journey sometimes. It takes work, and commitment, and time. This is what Jesus called the disciples to do, not just understand but to do, to live. This is what we are called to do, and to live. To embody that forgiveness and the love that goes with it. The final scene of the short two minute video is of the woman, who looks up and says, “God forgives you and so do I.” Amen.

PEOPLE OF THE SECOND CHANCE: EMMANUEL’S STORY from PEOPLE OF THE SECOND CHANCE on Vimeo.

Creator God, you have gifted us with mysterious potential. Within each of us are the seeds of so much promise. Help us open to those who help us believe in ourselves and to answer your call to serve with all that we are. In the name of Christ we ask, Amen.
(from here )

What are you looking for? Those words of Jesus to two of John’s disciples who had started to follow him – both in the literal sense and in the figurative sense. They were looking to follow Jesus – to learn from him, and to follow in his footsteps. They wanted him for a teacher, to teach them how to live, how to pray, how to be.

That is what we want, at least I think that’s what we want? I think that we want to learn how to live, how to pray and how to be. I think that like them, we want a teacher, we want to follow in the footsteps of the Messiah – the Lamb of God, the Son of God. We want to be close to God and to know that God is close to us. Like the psalmist in psalm 40 we want to sing a new song, a song of praise, a story of good news and rescue.

But sometimes when we look at the world around us, when we read and hear the news, stories of floods, mudslides and other disasters, of violence and unrest, of disease, of sorrow, sometimes our songs and our elation and our inspiration get caught, or stop. And we think – now what? But in Scripture, in the psalms, in the gospels, in the letters, in the prophets and the other books, there are stories like those we read and hear in the news. But there is always the constant reminder to follow, and to sing a new song – a song that does not dismiss what is happening around us, but actually sees God at work in what is going on around us, and reminds us to hear and to read the stories of promise, and rescue and return. In the midst of whatever is happening, we do have joy to offer! We do have good news to tell. We are not the lone voice in the emptiness, but we are a chorus, trying to bring joy to our own lives, and to the lives of those around us – to be part of the building up of God’s kingdom! Let us follow, let us see where our Saviour is going, so that we may stay with him, stay with God and learn, and sing! Amen!