Long Walk to Freedom

I found myself watching many different things on the news as 2013 came to a close: reflections on the 1-year anniversary of Sandy Hook, the "Fast4Families" call for immigration reform, escalating tensions in Sudan and horrific attacks in Syria, all the buzz about Pope Francis as the Time Magazine "Person of the Year"... but the stories I found myself following the most closely were the commemoration events that marked the passing of Nelson Mandela.

I had planned on reading his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, during the Christmas Break, but when he died on December 5, I immediately got started. I was about halfway through the book when I went with a friend to see the film of the same name that came out at Christmas. I was nervous that I would stop reading once I saw the movie, but a 2 1/2 hour movie cannot begin to capture the massive swath of history covered in the book, so I returned to reading with renewed interest. (My own review: it's a really good movie... but no surprise, the book is even better!)

Digging into a thick biography is nothing new for me. I usually try to pick up one per year; in the past I have studied the lives of Theodore Roosevelt, John Steinbeck, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Lewis & Clark, Lou Gehrig, Mother Teresa, Eric Liddell, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Merton, Martin Luther, James McBride, Lauren Winner, C.S. Lewis... My appetite is never really satisfied! I immediately made a mental note for my next one when I saw a preview for a new movie coming out this April on the life of César Chávez.

I am currently in the section of Mandela's book that the movie did not portray in deep enough detail: his 27 years spent in captivity as a political prisoner. He spent 18 of those years on Robben Island, a desolate former leper colony. I finally have to make myself go to bed as I read these chapters; they are so gripping that I do not want them to end, but at the same time I don't feel like I can read fast enough to take it all in.

One of the main reasons I enjoy reading biographies is that I am profoundly fascinated by people's capacity to endure and move on past hardship. I learn from each person's journey, and if you know anything about the people listed above, you will see that the majority of them persevered through unimaginable suffering, remarkable challenges and heart-breaking misfortune.

With this is in mind, I am truly being schooled when it comes to the life of Nelson Mandela. Here's a sampling of some of the things he describes:

• At that time of year, the cells were so cold and the blankets provided so little warmth that we always slept fully dressed.
• The racial divide on Robben Island was absolute: there were no black warders, and no white prisoners.
• Prison is designed to break one's spirit and destroy one's resolve. To do this, the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality -- all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are.
• I never seriously considered the possibility that I would not emerge from prison one day.
• The authorities liked to say that we received a balanced diet; it was indeed balanced -- between the unpalatable and the inedible. 
• As a D Group prisoner [the lowest grade], I was entitled to have only one visitor, and to write and receive only one letter every six months. I found this one of the most inhumane restrictions of the prison system.
• We fought injustice wherever we found it, no matter how large, or how small, and we fought injustice to preserve our own humanity.
• [After describing his bouts of solitary confinement] But the human body has an enormous capacity for adjusting to trying circumstances. I have found that one can bear the unbearable if one can keep one's spirits strong even when one's body is being tested. Strong convictions are the secret of surviving deprivation; your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty.

I won't begin to compare anything in my experience with the expansive saga of Mandela. But for the last several months I have been part of a group that is seeking after lives of shalom and solidarity on the Westside here in Santa Barbara, an underserved community with the majority living at poverty level. So the story of Long Walk to Freedom is compelling and instructive. There are about 20 of us who are building friendships there week after week, and I am grateful that there are many small victories to celebrate.

Nevertheless, we have very, very far to go to truly join in the lives of those we have met. But if Nelson Mandela can live through 27 years of imprisonment, I cannot find any of the challenges I am facing to be insuperable. Rather, as he counsels, I will seek to live by "strong convictions" and the invigorating strength of the Holy Spirit, seeking to work with others to fight injustice and be messengers of peace and hope. 

As you begin this year, what road are you on? Has it been a long odyssey? Do you feel like you are nearing the goal, or are you wandering? Are your spirits flagging? Be reminded that the journey is the destination. Redouble your efforts and dig in for the long haul. Personally, I can only do that with the grace and revival of the Spirit's work in my life daily... and reading good books like Long Walk to Freedom!

So as 2014 commences, I rejoice that I have truly, finally, found freedom (Galatians 5:1) through the honesty and beauty of the gospel. It was a long walk, and I will continue on that journey so that others may know that freedom as well.

Pray for our friends who suffer

Since 2000 I have tried to be committed to praying for fellow Christians around the world who suffer horribly simply for being believers. While there is a lot of confusing information flying around, I have found a website that appears thorough and reliable: EA.org.

Each week I use it to pray daily for whichever country they highlight, with a world map in front of me. I circle that country's name to remind me that I have prayed for them. In reviewing my current map, it is profoundly tragic to see how many places around the world where followers of Jesus are suffering horribly.

Please look over the unbelievable ways that Christians are suffering in Vietnam right now:

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 017 | Wed 12 Aug 2009

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VIETNAM: BRUTALITY CONFRONTED THROUGH PRAYER
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As reported in the Religious Liberty Prayer bulletin of 17 September 2008 (link below), a prayer movement erupted in Vietnam's Catholic Church in December 2007 after Vietnam's religious liberty advocates, mostly Catholic priests frustrated by years of futile political activism, simply asked the people to pray. And pray they did. In Hanoi, some 10,000 Catholics came onto the streets to sing hymns and pray for religious liberty. They held flowers and crosses, and candles on dark nights and umbrellas on rainy days. The Hanoi prayer vigils for religious liberty have been the largest public demonstrations Vietnam has seen since the Communists came to power. As the prayer vigil movement spread, the clearly rattled Government lashed out with a virulent anti-Catholic propaganda campaign in the State-run media while blocking access to at least six major Catholic news agency websites. The authorities also started physically attacking the vigils -- beating even women, publicly shaming young children, arresting priests and their lawyers, and demolishing church properties. But despite abuse, slander, beatings and imprisonments, the public prayer vigils continue.

The parish of Tam Toa in Vinh Diocese (300km south of Hanoi) is a historic parish for Vietnamese Catholics. Founded in 1631, it quickly became the largest parish in the diocese, running a convent, orphanage and school. A beautiful Cathedral, opened there in 1887, was destroyed in an American bombing raid during the Vietnam War. The parishioners, whilst unable to rebuild the church, continued to meet and worship at the site in the open air until March 1996 when the Communists seized the property and declared it a War Memorial. Ever since then, the church has been seeking the property's return. The parish has over 1,000 parishioners.

On Monday 20 July, a team of Catholics was erecting a cross and temporary shelter at the site when they were confronted by some 100 police. Using tear gas, stun guns and batons, the police brutally beat the Catholics into submission. About 20 were arrested while others were made to sit on the ground where a Communist vigilante group was given permission to beat them. One of the wounded, Father Paul Nguyen Dinh Phu, suffered broken ribs and head injuries. When Father Peter Nguyen The Binh visited Fr Phu in hospital he was beaten and hurled from a second floor window. Fr Binh is now hospitalised in a coma. On the night of 8 August, all 178 parishes in Vinh Diocese held simultaneous processions that saw some half-a-million parishioners come out onto the streets holding candles and signs calling for religious freedom. According to several reports, many locals came out and applauded the Catholics for having the courage to stand up against tyranny. Standing in solidarity with Vinh Diocese were some 3,000 Hanoi Catholics who held a simultaneous prayer vigil at the Thai Ha Church. The next day some 2,500 Catholics in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) held a prayer vigil in solidarity at the Redemptorist Monastery.

Meanwhile, as reported in the RLPB 009 of 17 June 2009 (link below), Vietnamese Protestants have been experiencing escalating persecution ever since December 2006 when the US deemed Vietnam's religious liberty reforms sufficient to be rewarded with Permanent Normal Trading Relations status. Communist authorities, who will not register Protestant house churches, are raiding and breaking up house church meetings on the grounds that they are unregistered and therefore illegal. Pastors are beaten, publicly denounced and sentenced to 're- education' while members are fined and terrorised. Church leaders say the harassment is so widespread that it must have approval from the top level of the central government and be part of an unofficial policy to stop the spread of Christianity.

During raids on Protestant house churches, not only do the police confiscate property (from hymn books and Bibles to motorbikes and cash), they also tend to be very violent. Compass Direct reports that the Agape Baptist house church in Hung Yen province, led by Pastor Duong Van Tuan, was raided several times in June. On one occasion police assaulted Pastor Tuan's wife, Nguyen Thi Vuong, seizing her by her arms and repeatedly banging her head against a wall until she collapsed unconscious.


PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT:

* God will build and sanctify his Church through these trials.

* Those praying in prayer vigils will be drawn to put their faith in
Christ alone -- as our one mediator (1 Timothy 2:5), Great High
Priest (Hebrews 4:14), and divinely appointed Head (Ephesians
1:22,23); may all idols be brought low and may God alone be exalted.

* God will expose the ugly truth about the cruel brutality and
corruption of atheistic totalitarianism, and its inability to
produce an equitable, free and peaceful society.

'Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: "Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said [scoffed], 'Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy'; but it is they who shall be put to shame".' (Isaiah 66:5 ESV)

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