can't get over being down under

As Willy once sang, "I'm on the road again...", my bags are packed and I left for New Zealand and Australia last Sunday (follow at http://www.kaccgoteams.blogspot.com/). The current stop in New Zealand is to get to know a church planting team we're supporting in Christchurch. I'll go on from here to meet our Global Outreach team in Brisbane as we connect again with our missionary, Daun Slauson, and our friends at Ann Street Church of Christ.

My time in NZ, short as its been, has been eye-opening and challenging. So many spiritual needs in this culture. So many similarities with our situation (and many others). Tonight I was struck by those similarities as my hosts brought in a movie, one that speaks of the life situation of the Maori people, the indigenous population of this country. It's called Once Were Warriors, and it chronicles the life of a contemporary Maori family in Auckland, complete with their struggles and challenges.

Once Were Warriors is an intense movie that showcases the futility in which many indigenous people find themselves. Life issues (employment, education, choices) create a downward spiraling cycle that catches the family in alcoholism, abuse, gangs, and violence- a far cry from the ancestry from which they came. The factors and resolve necessary to break such a cycle come at a terribly high price, and while there is forward movement by movie's end, I'm left struggling with images and situations depicted. For a couple of reasons.

First, the life circumstances in which these Maori (and certainly not all Maori face such challenges) are not unique to this culture. Hauntingly similar parallels may be drawn with the Aboriginals of Australia, highland tribal groups of the Philippines, our own Native Americans and more. I shudder to think just how many peoples throughout the world are caught in similar webs of destruction. Surely we must recognize and deal with common factors and reasons if real progress is to be made in reversing so many of these patterns.

Secondly, this movie was secular and the high price paid was the life of an individual. But the spiritual reality is that an infinitely higher price has already been paid for damaged and broken lives (and doesn't that include us all?)- the life of God's own Son. His death provides the path to break through old destructive patterns and discover life the way He intended us to live it. And it's the responsibility of those of us who've chosen to walk this path to do whatever we can to help others walk it as well. I guess I'm bothered by that inasmuch as there are so many traveling the wrong direction, and sometimes I feel that we (I?) do so little to effectively intervene in a way that makes a difference. That's what we're to be about, no matter where we go, no matter what we do. So many are dying before us- what difference do they make to us...and what difference do we make to them? That's a great reminder for me at the front end of a missions trip.

And at every point in life.