My Grandma, Miriam Charles, gave the message at Habecker Mennonite Church a few weeks ago. [download mp3]

I’d like to say that I’m an easily contented person, but I’d probably be lying. I’d like to live simply, but I don’t do a very good job. For instance, biking is a simple pleasure, but somehow in my enjoyment of biking I ended up with 5 bikes and a unicycle. This is not to say that I find contentment in stuff, it’s just that I don’t feel contented as often as I’d like.

This summer I ended up wandering around Europe for a while. I went for LinuxTag, staying to do some more work and a bit of vacation. With a memorial day holiday thrown in, I spent a good long while away from home in North Carolina and by the time I got back my roomate had gotten a TV and cable. The journey got a little lonely at times, but at the end I was completely contented. My entire life was in my backpack and it was more than enough.

Right before I left MCC offered me a position and I told them I wasn’t going to think about it till I got back, but wandering around with nothing but your own thoughts or the meditative worship at Taize isn’t exactly the best situation for ignoring decisions. I think at some level the desire to simply led to my decision to come to Bangladesh with MCC. The idea being that by putting yourself in such a new situation, you can be confronted with your wants and desires. I have no desire to be an acetic, but I’m not sure I want to be distracted from the things I think matter.

Last week I moved to Bogra. Bogra is where I’ll be based for foreseeable future. On the whole I think I’m enjoying Bogra more than Dhaka. My observations have been slightly tempered by being slightly sick and the desire for a proper latte. Surprisingly enough there were several places in Dhaka where one could get good coffee. Bogra is much smaller and while it’s pretty dense downtown and has most of the things available in Dhaka, traveling a few kilometers will take you to rice patties. I’m not sure of the population of Bogra, I’m pretty sure the number listed on Wikipedia was pretty far off, but there are less than 10 Bideshi’s(expatriates) in the whole city. I haven’t seen one on the streets that I didn’t know. Right now those of us who work for MCC make up the majority of that number. We eat together for most of our meals and the majority our conversations consist of the state of our digestive system, how we’re getting along with the local food, and the things we miss. Figuring out why you miss something is sometimes very telling. Deciding how to replace it and justifying it even more so. Some of the justifications and rationalizations can be a little embarrassing.

A few days ago I used my limited Bangla to take a rickshaw downtown where I bought UHT milk, sugar, tea and an electric tea pot so I could make tea. As I walked down the last alley before getting “home” I thought about where I was. I hadn’t showered in 3 days. I had a brush burn on knee, I was in as “foreign” of a place as I’m ever going to be able to get in my life and for no discernible reason I was content. Ami kushi – I am happy/contented.

Incidentally the electric tea pot has also been the source of a surprising amount of joy.

One thing I’ve noticed since moving to Durham is that young adults in this area is pretty transitory.   This might not be anything geographically unique, but  we come for a couple years go to grad school and then move on.  I first spent extended time in Durham in the Summers of 2001 and 2002  when I was here for an internship and since 2003 it’s been home.  I’ve seen many people come and go.  Someday I will also and I imagine I’ll go with mixed emotions.  I haven’t always enjoyed the time I’ve spent here.  I feel like there are more loose meandering threads than anything clear or concrete.

Without relatives in this area I probably would have never come and upon arrival and I started attending Durham Mennonite Church with them.  For as long as I’ve been there it’s been missing a solid group of 20-somethings.   Brad and Beth Yoder moved into the area and from them I found out about this Mennonite Church Plant in Chapel Hill.  I visited but the service for me at the time was a bit much and I didn’t return until about 4 years ago.  In that time it had changed to something I found more palatable and since then I’ve been attending both churches.  Those who have sojourned there and at Durham have gotten me into a fair number of things.  From Fred and Elizabeth Bahnson I got involved in Anathoth Garden.  On Tuesday nights I try and get out to to the work session in the garden, It’s a bit of a haul but there’s a potluck after the garden work is done and a Mexican lady makes these fresh tortilla’s that are to die for.  Jonathan and Leah Wilson-Hartgrove were part of the same Christian Peace Maker Team as Shane Claiborne and I got to know some of the folks from Rutba house as that formed and gotten to know something about the New Monastic Movement.  I led the youth group at Durham such as it was until everybody graduated from High School about two years ago.   We did a few things with Raleigh Mennonite and I got to know folks from there.   So I feel like I’ve formed a life here, but it’s spread out, everything requires driving 20 minutes to get there and I move from event to event, group to group without a lot of connection.

… Cue Ramble On – Led Zeppelin …

So when the Jesus for President tour comes to Raleigh I’m only mildly interested, I think I know a bit about this Shane Claiborne character.  I figure I know the community he’s writing from and his story, but even still it’d be fun to see the pageantry.   He and Chris Haw didn’t disappoint as it was more than I expected.  Their dialogue interspersed with fragments of song from the Psalters was raucous, awesome in the classical sense and I love that sort of thing.  But I feel like I’m in the choir.  I’m not really sure we’re the crowd who should have been there.  I’d have loved to see how a bunch of Southern Baptists or Presbyterians would have reacted.  I thing that most us of attending probably agreed with him going in, so for us it’s nice hear another voice speaking counter to the market.  It’s refreshing to hear a prophet who isn’t shilling for the man.  It allows us to tune out the messages in the media a little while longer.  So although the audience might have been the wrong one, to me it was the audience was the most significant part of the evening.  Amidst this motley crew of 700ish people that showed up, there were those I know from the Mennonite Churches in the area(Greensboro, Graham, Raleigh Durham and Chapel Hill), people I know from playing Ultimate Frisbee on Sunday afternoons, people I know from Habitat from Humanity, from Anathoth and from Rutba house.  It made me really happy to feel like all these fragmented pieces that seem so disconnected are part of a larger community, if only for one night.