Bethlehem's Extra Mile
By Bishop Paul V. Marshall
[Published in The Morning Call, August 4, 2007]
The eight Millennium Development Goals of the United
Nations will not solve all the problems of the world, but they go a long way
towards making life sustainable for all. They focus on poverty and hunger,
education, empowerment of women, child mortality, maternal health, disease,
environmental sustainability, and global partnerships.
The price is low –.07% of the Gross National Product
of our United States.
In the Diocese of Bethlehem, we have begun something
unique to go an extra mile: a capital campaign for others. We are currently
in the advance gifts phase of our
Some 75% of the
money raised will help the destitute in
We are responding to the request of the Diocese of
Kajo Keji in the southernmost part of Sudan for assistance in building
the educational and organizational centers that will allow them to provide for
their own future. Through revolving “micro-finance” funds, enterprising
individuals, largely women, will be able to make a new start in a war-torn
country.
We have had a partnership
relationship with that diocese for the past six years. A few months ago, a
four-person diocesan mission team visited schools, an orphanage, a displacement
camp, and the site of the proposed center of the diocese which will house the
cathedral, the theological college, the bishop’s house, an agricultural center
and a primary and secondary school. They also met with local leaders to hear
them talk about priorities and dreams.
In July of 2004, some
160,000 expatriate Sudanese came back across the southern Sudan border when Kajo Keji was
experiencing a drought. That created a desperate situation. We were able
quickly to raise $80,000 to send trucks loaded with staples from Kampala, Uganda, over rutted roads in the Kajo Keji area.
“What the Diocese of
Bethlehem has done,” wrote a correspondent in Sudan, “will enter the history
books of Kajo Keji. Your actions have given our people hope that they are not
alone.”
In early 2005, Diana Marshall and I spent an intensive
five days with sisters and brothers in Kajo Keji. A broiling bus
ride remains the major moment of conviction in my life: in the heat, dirt, and
physical danger of that journey I knew we are called to work selflessly with
these fellow members of Christ.
Since 2000, I and others from our diocese have gone to
Africa several times to seek a vision for Bethlehem among the suffering and those who care for them, in a place where the Holy Spirit can work.
Though I have known, intellectually, the disparity between
what we Americans take for granted and how most of the world actually lives,
seeing it produced a jumble of thoughts and feelings. I was grateful,
embarrassed, a little sick, but mostly convinced that it is not possible for a
Christian to see this much suffering and not lower his own standard of living
in order to help brothers and sisters. I returned with the determination never
again to let myself be gulled by our culture into feeling deprived.
In September, every member of our diocese will be
given the opportunity to make a commitment for New Hope.
Though we don’t get to keep the money, there is something
in this campaign for us. We are not simply taking a collection. We are inviting
ourselves to sacrifice, to lose a bit of our substance. We find our lives,
however, in letting go. Where sacrificial giving for others occurs, I am
convinced we enter a new way of experiencing ourselves.
I have come to no greater opportunity in my life to
give selflessly, to surrender significant resources in service to God. Making
that commitment means that I am going to have to retire a little bit later than
I had planned. For others, the sacrifice may also have consequences. It may
mean keeping a car a year longer or not taking that dream vacation just yet.
In calling ourselves to go the extra mile, we are
calling ourselves to transformation, to growing more into the image of God we
were created to reflect.
[The Rt. Rev. Paul V.
Marshall is bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem, 14 counties of eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania. Additional columns and sermons by Bishop Marshall are available at www.diobeth.org.]
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