1000+ Letters for Nigeria Day 59 – Heartbreaking EYN News, A Light in the Darkness

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Before I get to today’s letters, I have to share troubling news about the EYN.

Today, Boko Haram overtook the EYN headquarters and the EYN’s Kulp Bible College. Both are located in the village of Kwarhi. No leading EYN staff appear to have been harmed, as many were in a meeting off site, but several guards and soldiers were killed. Additionally, the status of several families who had returned to Kulp Bible College and the headquarters property is unclear. Finally, there is concern for other EYN staff and members in Kwarhi and surrounding communities.

For a more detailed report on the situation, please click here.

Now, more than ever, pray for the EYN, and seriously consider what you can do to get involved. Please help me share the EYN’s story by writing your own letters, making phone calls, and contacting media and community leaders. Consider donating to the EYN compassion fund, and encourage your friends, families, and congregations to do likewise.

I welcome donations of stamps and envelopes, and you can find my address below, as well as a link to where you can donate to my project. However, I encourage you to donate to the EYN compassion fund over me, particularly right now. If you would like to discuss how you can get involved, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

And always remember, pray.

I find this news particularly disheartening because of recent news about a potential ceasefire between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. However, in this dark moment, I have to remember what I say about the EYN in my letters, and I hope you do to. In many of my letters, I write: “The EYN understand that they must be beacons of Christ’s love to a landscape darkened by violence.”

I truthfully believe that there is a light in the darkness. Jesus equips us with a tenacious love that is capable not of destroying,  but of actually winning over even the darkest of evils. The EYN have been courageous and inspiring ambassadors of Jesus’ love. When you pray for them, pray also for the continued and ever-straightening resolve of their conviction, and pray most fervently for the resolve of your own conviction. You have that same light as the EYN, so let it shine.

Today’s letters go to:

Peace and Justice Foundation

Interfaith Communities United for Peace and Justice

Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center

Get Involved!

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!

1000+ Letters for Nigeria Day 58

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Learn more about the 1000+ Letters for Nigeria Project

Today’s letters go to:

Kathy McGinnis – Executive Director, The Institute for Peace and Justice
Interfaith Resource Center for Peace and Justice
Kathryn Getek Soltis – Director, Villanova University Center for Peace and Justice Education

Click the pictures to read the letters!

Get Involved!

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!

1000+ Letters for Nigeria Day 57 #BringBackOurGirls

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Before I post today’s letters, look who was featured on the official Bring Back Our Girls Facebook page today!

Screen Shot 2014-10-27 at 11.23.56 PM

The campaign is starting to receive more attention, and people outside of the Church of the Brethren are finally beginning to hear more about the amazing and heartbreaking story of the EYN.

If you’ve been wanting to get involved, now is the time! Scroll below to find out what you can do. Whether that means donating to my project or the EYN compassion fund, sending me some stamps and envelopes, sending your own letters, or at least sharing my project and the EYN’s story with your friends, families, and congregations, the EYN deserve to have their story heard, and you can do something about it.

Today’s letters go to:

World Beyond War
Ross Holzman – Executive Director, Create Peace Project
Interfaith Peace Builders

Click the pictures to read the letters!

Please Get Involved!

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!

1000+ Letters for Nigeria Day 56

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Learn more about the 1000+ Letters for Nigeria Project

Today’s letters go to:

Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers
Melanie Greenburg – CEO, Alliance for Peacebuilders
National Peace Foundation

Click the pictures to read the letters!

Want to get involved?

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!

Jesus is Not the Secretary of Afterlife Affairs

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A few weeks ago, I attended a conference about anabaptism and church mission. This is third installment in blog posts responding to the main presenters. Today, I’m responding to Brian Zahnd. Brian is the pastor of the Word of Life Church in Missouri. He is also a speaker and the author of “A Farewell to Mars.”

One of Brian’s favorite ways to talk about Jesus is to say, “Jesus is not the Secretary of Afterlife Affairs.” By this, he means “Jesus is our Lord, now, on Earth.”

Not, Jesus will be our Lord when we go to heaven.
Not, Jesus’ is in charge, but his jurisdiction is heaven.
Not, Jesus is Vice-Lord.
Not, Jesus is Lord-elect.
Not, Jesus is my ticket for getting into heaven.

But, Jesus is Lord, right here, right now.
His Kingdom is on Earth.
Which means I’m in his Kingdom.
So I should live like I’m part of his kingdom.

Most Christians don’t bat an eye at the concept of “Jesus is Lord.” It’s standard terminology in the Christian Church. So much so that we’ve become very desensitized to its implications.

Imagine that you are a member of the very early church. This means that you live in the Roman Empire. In the Roman Empire, there was only one lord. The Caesar. The Emperor. No Lord but Caesar. So to say “Jesus is Lord.” Was to commit treason.

To say “Jesus is Lord” was to say “Caesar is not.”

No wonder so many early Christians were killed. And no wonder Jesus was crucified, a form of execution reserved for acts of political sedition.

We don’t have that vocabulary anymore, and we don’t live in that political reality anymore, so we have lost the radical implications of saying that Jesus is Lord.

It is our job as Dunker Punks to acknowledge and reclaim the radical implications. Being a Dunker Punk is to be countercultural. Being a Dunker Punk is to be nonconformist. Being a Dunker Punk is to be a radical follower of Jesus.

Here’s the problem:

The Church in the United States is very nationalistic. We love to call the United States a “Christian nation.” This is dangerous because it gives the United States the appearance of wielding the power and authority of Christ, while relegating the actual Jesus to the sidelines.

One of my favorite quotes is by the author, theologian, and activist Jim Wallis: “Mixing the Church with politics is like mixing ice cream with manure. It doesn’t do much to the manure, but it really messes up the ice cream.” Any time the Church becomes part of the power structure, as it has in the United States, it betrays its heritage as a subversive institution that challenges the powerful and stands up for the powerless.

This is the culture that we have to counter. This is what we can’t conform to. Whereas the Church in the United States wants to confine Jesus’ love and power to the borders of the United States, Dunker Punks understand that Jesus loves everybody, and we have to do the same.

The borders of Christ’s kingdom don’t end at the Atlantic or the Pacific or the Rio Grande, so our love can’t either. Christ on the cross reveals a God who would rather die than kill. By following Jesus, “love your neighbor as yourself” and “love your enemies” are the pillars of our foreign policy. And feeding the hungry, healing the sick, clothing the poor, and standing with the imprisoned are the pillars of our domestic policy. And the terms “foreign” and “domestic” are irrelevant because we are all children of God.

Jesus on the cross should prove to us that a different organization of society is possible. Dunker Punks must be leaders in following Jesus. We are living in Christ’s kingdom, and we have to act like it.

That starts with us saying “Jesus is Lord,” and accepting the radical implications.

Emmett Eldred - Hollidaysburg COB, Middle PA District

Emmett Eldred is a sophomore Creative Writing; Professional Writing; and Ethics, History, and Public Policy Major at Carnegie Mellon University. His passions include reading about, writing about, and snuggling with pugs. Emmett is the founder of DunkerPunks.com, and he wants lots more people to contribute! Fill out a Dunker Punks profile, and join the conversation! Follow Emmett on twitter @emmetteldred and follow Dunker Punks on Twitter @DunkerPunks and on Facebook.

Want to contribute? Fill out a Dunker Punks profile, and/or email Emmett at dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com.

1000+ Letters for Nigeria Day 55

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Learn more about the 1000+ Letters for Nigeria Project

Today’s letters go to:

Muslims for Peace
Peace Direct
Center for Peace Through Culture

Click the pictures to read the letters!

Want to get involved?

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!

1000+ Dunker Punks Letters for Nigeria Day 54

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Learn more about the 1000+ Letters for Nigeria Project

Today is Day 54! That means that 162 letters have been sent to public figures, community leaders, and media about the violence in Nigeria, and how the EYN is working to bring peace, despite their own suffering. Is today the day you get involved, either by supporting my project, or by directly supporting the EYN, or both? Make sure to check the bottom of this page for more details!

Today’s letters go to:

Anthony Lake – Executive Director, UNICEF
The Global Poverty Project
Steven W. Hawkins – Executive Director, Amnesty International

Click the pictures:

Want to get involved?

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!

1000+ Letters for Nigeria Day 53

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Learn more about the 1000+ Letters for Nigeria Project

Today’s letters go to:

Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
Mara Giglio – Director, Appalachian Peace and Justice Center
Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice

Click the Pictures to Read the Letters!

Want to get involved?

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!

1000+ Letters for Nigeria Day 52

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Learn more about the 1000+ Letters for Nigeria Project

Today’s letters go to:

Jason Boone – Executive Director, Peace and Justice Support Network
Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice
Kelli Seals-Obazee – Executive Director, Dallas Peace Center

Click the pictures to read the letters!

Want to get involved?

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!

1000+ Letters for Nigeria Day 51

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Learn more about the 1000+ Letters for Nigeria Project

Today’s letters go to:

Brad Watkins – Executive Director, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center
From War to Peace
Paul George – Executive Director, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center

Click the pictures to read the letters!

Want to get involved?

Contribute to the project!

Send non-monetary donations (stamps and envelopes) to:
Emmett Eldred
Carnegie Mellon University
SMC #2046
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Sign up to write your own letters!

Contribute directly to the EYN Compassion Fund!

Have a project of your own?

We want to know about it! This is your movement, and we’re here to help you express your Radical, nonconformist approach to following Jesus!

Please fill out a Dunker Punks Profile and email dunkerpunks2014@gmail.com about your vision!