To Detroit, our Wedding, Mexico, and moving to DC - Micah's Ministry Newsletter #11

Dear Friends in the love of Christ,

The last month has been a whirlwind for me. I've visited Friends in Michigan; gotten married in Barnesville, Ohio; honeymooned in Mexico; and traveled halfway across the country as I moved out to Washington, DC to live with Faith at the William Penn House. God has been doing a lot of important work this month. In this letter I'd like to highlight God's work among Friends and beyond, both in my life and in the lives of Friends in the United States and Mexico.

I felt that my time among Friends in Michigan was very fruitful. I was able to attend meeting for worship at Detroit Monthly Meeting (Lake Erie Yearly Meeting) and New City Friends Worship Group in Detroit, and Crossroads Monthly Meeting (Ohio Yearly Meeting) in Flint. I had precious times with each of these groups, and I am particularly grateful for the time that I was able to spend encouraging Friends from New City Worship Group as they deepen their walk together in Christ. I was also very grateful for the time that God allowed me to spend with some members of Detroit Monthly Meeting, and the opportunities that I was given to witness to my faith in Christ Jesus.

In addition to regular meetings with Friends in Detroit and Flint, New City Friends Worship Group hosted a regional gathering at which there were Friends in attendence from across Eastern Michigan and Northwestern Ohio. At this called meeting for worship, I felt the quickening power of Christ's Spirit among us and was grateful to how He ministered to us as individuals and as a gathered body. On a personal note, I was very grateful for how Tyler and Ray opened their home to me. I was very much in need of some quiet time alone with God, and I was able to rest and wait on the Spirit during the time I spent with them in their home.

Following this blessed time in Detroit, I returned to Marysville, Ohio, and spent a number of days with Faith's family. I accompanied Faith's father and brother as they drove out to DC to pick up Faith and her sister, and a few days after that my father, grandmother and aunts picked me and Faith up in Columbus and took us to Barnesville, where we would be married that coming Saturday. It was a joy to spend time with my extended family - who I see so rarely because of geographic distance - and to have them get to know Faith.

Our wedding was all we could have hoped for. We were grateful for the presence of family and f/Friends from across the country and across the spectrum of Quakerism. The worship service for marriage was deep and rich, with many Friends sharing grounded messages out of the silence. There were many Young Adult Friends in attendence, which allowed for a mini-YAF-gathering during our reception on the front porch and lawn of the Stillwater Meeting House. As I understood, YAFs continued to meet together into the evening following the reception. Faith and I were pleased that our wedding could be a venue that brought together young Friends leaders and encouraged them to deepen their connections to one another.

Following our wedding, Faith and I spent two weeks together in Mexico. We spent most of our time in Mexico City and Xalapa, in the state of Veracruz. These two cities are both very special to me: Mexico City, because of the time that I spent working at the Casa de los Amigos in 2005; Xalapa, because of the time I spent there during college (in 2003) and returning on an continuing basis since then. I have many friends in both cities, and I enjoyed introducing Faith around. Faith and I didn't get too involved in the Quaker community for most of the trip, but we were able to visit Mexico City Monthly Meeting, as well as meeting with Young Adult Friends in Mexico City and encouraging them in their walk. We pray for Mexico City Monthly Meeting, the Casa de los Amigos, the Friends who live and work there, and for the Church as a whole in Mexico - that they be strengthened and encouraged as they walk in the way of Jesus.

Faith and I flew back to Ohio, and the next day I flew to Wichita. I loaded up my belongings into our car and then spent a day driving out to Richmond, Indiana, for the Board of Advisors meetings at Earlham School of Religion. This coming year, I will be working part-time for ESR doing outreach to Young Adult Friends, helping to increase the school's visibility as a resource for young Friends leaders who are feeling the call to deepen their life in Christ as they are called into a variety of ministries. I am looking forward to connecting with Friends from across North America in this coming year to talk about the value of theological education for the Religious Society's emerging leadership and the important role that ESR is playing in this process of equipping servant-leaders for the work that the Spirit has set before us.

While in Richmond, Faith and I were able to attend the final meeting for worship of Fountain City Friends Meeting. In the past few months, they had made the decision to lay down at the end of September; when we found out about this at our wedding, we told them that we would be there for their last session. It was a touching final meeting, and few of us avoided crying. Though this meeting of the Church is being laid down, however, we are convinced that the Church of Jesus Christ is more alive than ever. We branches wither and die, but the True Vine is eternal and unbreakable. This assurance has been confirmed by the new ministry that we observed taking place in Fountain City.

A new group called "the Underground Connection," has begun to meet in Fountain City's meetinghouse on Sunday evenings for praise, teaching and worship in the name of Jesus. Describing themselves as, "a place where people can worship God freely," their ministry is one of creating a space for seekers and believers to experience the freedom that comes in worshiping God in spirit and in truth. What Faith and I witnessed when we visited this past Sunday was a truly Spirit-led worship service consisting of praise music led by an Evangelical-style praise band, a sermon (that evening, delivered by a young child), and a time of open worship. The open worship was a time of great depth, a powerful sense of Christ's presence, and grounded vocal ministry out of the expectant silence. We were greatly encouraged by what we saw, heard and felt while we were among the Friends of the Underground Connection. We are convinced that Christ is doing a new thing among this meeting of God's people, and they are in our prayers as they continue to seek God's will for them as children of light.

On Tuesday, Faith and I drove the rest of the way home, to Washington, DC. Faith has lived and worked at the William Penn House for the past two years, and I am joining her there. We have just gotten mostly unpacked, and this weekend I'm in Philadelphia to take part in a 50th anniversary celebration that ESR is holding at Arch Street Meeting House. This is the beginning of a lot of traveling that I will be doing for ESR as we work to raise the school's visibility as a resource for Friends who are being called into servant-leadership. Next weekend, I will be traveling to Boston for a friend's wedding, and I will also be meeting with area YAFs to share with them about my experiences as a recent graduate from Earlham School of Religion and to hear about the needs they have from an institution like ESR. Following that weekend, I will be flying out to Richmond, Indiana, to meet with folks at ESR and Earlham College to talk about how we can better engage with Young Adult Friends, both across North America as well as at Earlham College itself. I will also be attending the sessions of Friends United Meeting's General Board.

As I travel this month, I would be very grateful for your prayers - prayers for protection, and that God's will be served in all that I do. I am at a moment of great transition in my life - a new marriage, a new home, a new city and a new job! I need your prayers that I be kept grounded in the Spirit of Christ and that I not be overcome by fatigue or a wandering mind.

Your friend in Christ Jesus,

Micah Bales

Yucatán, idleness and Quaker Monasticism

Since my last post, Andrew and I have gone from Mexico City to Xalapa, Ver., to Veracruz, Ver., and are now in Mérida, Yucatán. Ever since leaving Xalapa, the weather has been steamy, and these boys from Kansas are scrambling to adapt to the heat and humidity of the region. We've seen some concerts - Spanish-language hip-hop, Veracruz folk music, Cuban bands, serenades on classic guitar - walked on some beaches, visited some cafés. Muy tranquilo. Today, we are headed out to Chichen Itzá, to see some of the more impressive Mayan ruins that are to be seen here in Mexico. My main concern is to avoid getting too sunburned. I am unsure as to how successful I will be, after this afternoon.

This trip has been very relaxed, mostly just Andrew and me hanging out with Mexico as a background, and it has given me opporunity to do some thinking. I have been reflecting a lot on my own spiritual life and how connected it is to community and place. I am seeing in very concrete ways how much community and place impact my spirituality in the way that I feel spiritually off-balance traveling here in Mexico. Being here, largely disconnected from Friends and all of my familiar patterns of life, it is far more difficult to keep myself oriented towards God. I am more easily distracted, most easily confused. This trip has convinced me that, at least for the time being, travel for pleasure is not an activity that I should be engaged in. To be here in a foreign land without a sense of mission, without work to do, is dangerous idleness. In the future, I hope to be more conscientious about bringing all of my plans before God and listening very carefully before I commit, rather than assuming that I know the answer already. Just because a plan seems good and logical to me does not mean that that is how God wants to use me.

With all of this travel, I have also had the chance to think a bit about the Quaker tradition and how it relates to forming or joining more intentional community. I identify with the convergent tendency, wanting to move forward in radical, unexpected ways, but not at the expense of the important "check" of our tradition as the Quaker branch of Christianity. The place that this seems to become most difficult is in forming or joining intentional or new monastic communities that are composed of various types of Christians. Straight "emergent" makes sense when dealing with a bunch of people from different Christian backgrounds. It seems like in that case, you're just looking for the lowest common denominator, so that everyone can be included. Unfortunately, it seems that in many if not most neo-monastic communities, the lowest common denominator is not, in fact, very congenial to Friends who want to remain in the Friends tradition. "Basic Christianity" almost always seems to include bread and wine communion and water baptism, as well as extensive spoken liturgy. Where waiting worship might come in here, I'm not sure; but there doesn't seem to be much reference to it.

This is only a problem because we Quakers are such a small group, and, on top of that, a group that teeters between a significant minority that does not strongly identify with Christianity and another that does not strongly identify with the Quaker stream, often prefering to "just be Christian" (that is, Protestant). What I am personally hoping for, as a Friend of convergent orientation, is to see explicitly Quaker intentional and neo-monastic communities grow and show what a new Quaker monasticism could look like. The question for me is: will Quakers come to the banquet, or will we need to call in anyone and everyone, accepting the change (dilution?) of our corporate witness as Friends as our makeup becomes much more Protestant in flavor?

Do you feel led to more radical, intentional Quaker community? Let's talk.