Editorial Reflections
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In this new and uncertain time, we need to know who has our back. What collaborations and partnerships do folks in the faith and nonprofit communities need to strengthen themselves so they can continue to be the embodiment of God's love, as voices of hate are given permission to threaten efforts to serve.
Are we talking with each other about new ways of being, doing and serving? The same old patterns may not work as well as they have for years. Will people in fear withdraw or will they be more generous, knowing government funding may wane? Will private corporations, knowing they will likely have a tax windfall, be more generous, knowing that nonprofits are at the core of keeping the local and regional communities and economies healthy as a stable setting for business success.
There will be changes. There will be new people in need, losing jobs and homes, losing stability and safety. Are our congregations and nonprofits now engaged in including those concerns in their visioning for outreach, care and advocacy.
What will be the new landscape for advocacy? What will be safe? How will people protect each other?
I raise these questions because I have visited in closed societies with centralized rule that limited speech and action—East Germany and China. I know what creative ways faith communities and others acted because they cared.
In some ways it's no different from what we have been doing, what we have always done.
Look at what Happy Watkins did to break open understanding, action and relationships—to change hearts and minds, to make a difference until making a difference made the difference that was needed, aware there was more to do.
Look at what James Watkins, his family and others in the community are doing, committing to carry on Happy's legacy of dreaming ridiculous dreams.
Look at what Carla Peperzak did as a teen in the resistance in the Netherlands and later in life, despite her discomfort, has done to educate school children about the Holocaust and genocide. Now look at what Clement Lye and Kristine Hoover are doing to record a documentary of her first-hand story of standing up to inspiration future generations.
Look at how Bob and Anita Dygert-Gearheart heard some podcasts and were awakened to the impact of climate change, enough so that they made changes in their own lives and then wrote a curriculum, "Wake Up,World!"
Look at what Community Congregational United Church of Christ in Pullman is doing, collecting offerings to share $500 to $800 with programs improving lives of people who live in the Palouse.
Look at Samantha Miller taking college students to a monastery or into the wilderness for a faith journey because her love of the "desert fathers and mothers" in the early Christian Church going into the wilderness when Christianity became the legal state religion of the empire.
Look at what Tony Stewart has done through the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations to say no to hate in North Idaho, support efforts around the country and persist in a witness that makes a difference in the lives of so many people.
Look at Bon Wakabayashi still calling attention to the ongoing needs of her neighbors in North Spokane following the Oregon Rd. fire more than a year ago.
Look at how Adam Janes is combining his work as school band director with his church's outreach to the community—to provide instruments and a setting so younger students can begin in band because he knows music can open doors and opportunities.
Look at how Don and Ronda Gilger guide The Kroc Center in Coeur d'Alene as it provides swim lesson to keep children and elders safe, offers a counselor to school children and meets all sorts of other needs of low-income people in the community.
Look at how a team from the Post Falls 3rd Avenue Marketplace volunteered skills they have to help at N-Sid-Sen Camp and Conference Center on Lake Coeur d'Alene in exchange for a time and place for respite on the lake.
Look at words of Gretchen Rehberg, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, who was asked to offer reflection for the Columbia River Basin Transboundary Governance Symposium, read up and offered succinct understanding of the impacts of colonialism, the church's role, the possibility to repent and change, and with new awareness to be in solidarity with the concerns of Indigenous people and local citizens to protect the watershed in these times.
Look at Charlotte and Da-Jin Sun who found a place in Idaho for a Daoist hermitage where people can come to learn practices that will strengthen their health through meditation, qigong, tai chi, herbs and organic foods. Charlotte previously shared Chinese health practices to revolutionize long-term care in the Bay Area.
In the previous issue we shared about Kassahun Kabede's library in Ethiopia, Kizuri's fair trade efforts, Gen Heywood's photographic exhibit, Hershel Zellman and Mary Noble's promotion of Holocaust and genocide education, Kate Burke's outreach to West Central youth, Dewy Bill's work to reconcile congregations and Native Americans, Tom's Turkey Drive's campaign to feed people and Nuns on a Bus.
We have shared many such stories of people caring and serving others over our more than 40 years of publishing.
Such stories are reasons to support The Fig Tree as we meet the challenges in such times as these. We can each find our niche in these times and any times to be in solidarity with each other, to care for those who are suffering or excluded, to persist in using our unique gifts to make a difference in lives, communities, regions, the nation and the world, because God calls us to live our faith in these times—in any times.
Loving God, loving neighbor and living in community with all of God's creation has never been easy, but it's our call.
Mary Stamp - editor
