Feeling Small on Planet Earth

A couple years ago I wrote a post called "Geography and Me" about the "right brain" ways I saw the world as a kid whenever I studied the globe. This was partly because of the two-dimensional nature of maps and globes, but 21st Century technology has changed all that. Over Christmas Break, I spent hours playing with Google Earth. If you have not yet downloaded this free program and "explored the world," you're in for a treat.

Once you have Google Earth open on your screen, rotate the globe until your state or province is in the center. Now zoom in and adjust to your house or neighborhood--yes, you will be able to see it. Then zoom out until the entire earth seems lost in space. Now zoom back in again from outer space all the way to your house. You can do the same thing with any place in the world from Vancouver to Venice.

If you're like me, it makes you feel like a microscopic speck in a blue marble. Even more amazing is that the satellites that provide these images are focused only on Earth. If they showed the whole universe, we would see not only that we are specks on that marble but also that the marble is a speck among a million other specks in the universe.

Feeling that small brings to mind great literature like "Horton Hears a Who" by Dr. Seuss and songs like "From a Distance" (which is more of an artistic than theological expression). But even more, feeling small raises the echo of King David, the Psalmist, who asked God, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?..."

So is it any wonder that I, a speck among a billion other specks, can feel incredibly "lost" and amazingly "found" at the same time?

It's because this speck is not at all lost in a sea of specks. This speck we call Earth that revolves every 24 hours and finds its way around the sun every 365 days is precisely where God put it for His purpose. Do I fully understand this? Not after half a lifetime of wonder.

Do I believe it? With all my heart. When does it make the most sense to me? When I study the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament against the backdrop of the Old Testament. Explaining the new paradigm, the new way of thinking about God and His relationship to man, was at the heart of Christ's parables and the hundreds of questions he asked of his listeners. Like the time He asked the lawyer "Who was neighbor to the man?" Jesus also had interesting ways of prompting good questions from his listeners, like the time they asked him, "When did we ever see you sick and visit you?" and he answered... "'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."

About ten years ago, my home church began sending a "medical missions team" of volunteer doctors, nurses, and helpers to the northern-most part of Thailand (formerly Siam) in the mountain region north of the modern city of Chang Rai. (Not Chang Mai... the smaller dot above that on the map.)

A couple months ago I was invited to go on this year's trip to make a video "documentary" about the work that has been done in those mountains with the Akha and Lahu tribes.

(Years ago, when I was a teacher and had my summers off, I owned a video business and put in thousands of hours behind a camera. It was good work, and I enjoyed it, but my schedule eventually made it impossible to do both "jobs." When we moved to Michigan in 2000, I packed up my equipment, and haven't done "paid" video work since.)

Back in November, the lead doctor on the team learned of my previous experience and asked me to consider joining them to make a video documentary. (They've wanted to do this for years.)

Julie and I prayed about it for a week before saying yes. It's probably no surprise that we are "home bodies." Julie is not going, but we knew it would mean my leaving family just a few days after dropping our middle daughter off at college in Chicago. It would mean delegating some of my school duties to the administrative team. They and the School Board were totally in favor of this global opportunity.

My mom's health also factored into the decision, but she and Bob were very supportive of the idea. She will even be able to spend a week here with Julie and Natalie while I'm gone (and while Bob is on assignment with some photography work for this Special Olympics fundraiser up north).

While they're keeping busy here, I'll be sleeping in the little hut on the left. Just kidding. We will be staying most nights in modern accommodations, but our days will be spent in jungle/ mountain villages like this. The team sets up what looks like a "MASH" unit and tends to the medical and dental needs of hundreds of people who otherwise go without this care (and the cases of medicines we have packed to take with us).

I've never traveled to this part of the world before. We will be flying out of Detroit, north around the top of the globe to Tokyo, Japan; then to Bangkok, Thailand; then north to Chang Rai. From there, we travel by truck caravan to smaller towns and villages. (These are some Akha women. These tribal people are the "least" of the least in the social order of Thailand. Though they have lived for generations within the borders, they are not considered citizens of the country. The royal family and government--which is in a state of flux--are beginning to accept these people into their lower class.) The great thing about going back to the same places year after year is that the team leaders maintain ongoing relationships with the people we help. There are many indigenous co-workers waiting for us to arrive.

Since Christmas, I've been packing, updating my video equipment, researching Thailand, and studying satellite maps and images. We leave early Friday morning, but it will be a busy week. Once there, I don't know whether I'll be able to post weekly updates. (We will have limited access to email, but I'm not sure Blogger will work from those connections. If not, I'll post again in February. Please pray for the team and the many people we will meet. Feel free to leave comments. If I can read them, they'll be encouraging from afar.)

Yesterday morning in church, they had the team stand and people gathered around us to pray for this two-week trip. Feeling that support was very humbling. Like that first time I zoomed in and out on our home from outer space, I felt simultaneously lost and found, needed and needy, empowered and yet very small... on planet earth.
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