Our first day in Karachi ended up being more touristy than we expected – our meetings for the day had to be postponed until the Friday, which gave us a chance to explore the city and orient ourselves to the culture we had just landed in. You can read more about that first day on the Church of Scotland World Mission Council Blog at www.cofswmc.wordpress.com.

Here, I’ll be sharing photos with a few stories:

The Central Brooks Memorial Church compound was our home for our time in Karachi. It was a homely wee place, with a beautiful Church in the centre of it.

Muhammed Ali Jinnah was the founding father of Pakistan, our first stop as "tourists" was to his Mausoleum. A very grand, empty building. Few people around - probrably due to the time we were there at.

Jinnah's Mausoleum is surrounded by extensive grounds, a fine place to go for a walk or grab some shade to hide from the sun!

The mausoleum has a permanent armed guard (although I"m pretty sure the 'arms' date from WWII). A mark of respect for the nations forefather.

The Mausoleum's Architecture is incredibly intricate, a very stunning building. As westerners visiting, we caused a bit of a stir - all curiosity, something we soon got used to walking around the streets!

Mohatta Palace was built by Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, an ambitious self-made businessman from Marwar as his summer home in 1927. The architect of the palace was Agha Ahmed Hussain. However, Mohatta could enjoy this building for only about two decades before independence of Pakistan and he left Karachi for India. He built the Palace in the tradition of stone palaces in Rajasthan, using pink Jodhpur stone in combination with the local yellow stone from Gizri.

The Palace is a beautiful building, as you would expect from a Palace in this area of the world. When we visited there was an exhibition displaying the work of Asim Butt, a local artist.

The streets of Karachi were interesting to drive through. From this sculpture of the word "Allah" to donkeys, intricately decorated buses and Transvestities, you could never be sure what you would see next!

Fiona had a bit of a soft spot for the donkeys we saw, so this photo goes out to her! We spent a lot of time driving around, so numerous photos were taken from moving vehicles - not so easy! Combine the speed, jolting and the reflections coming off the inside of the glass (In Karachi we were advised to always keep out windows up) and any photo that came out vaguely in focus and without a reflection was a huge success!

During rush hour, quite a few motorcyclists and cyclists would use the pavement instead of trying to weave through the traffic!

Delivery options for white goods are slightly different in Pakistan! Riding a bike also requires much more determination, bravery and balance!

This was one of the sadder things we saw whilst out and about in Karachi. We were just leaving a fairtrade shop and I spotted 2 boys, perhaps 8-12 years old, going through a rubbish pile for whatever they could use. :-/

Peace Out

Holy Trinity Cathedral - as most Cathedrals are, is an impressive building. We never went inside (or up the tower as I like to do). But it does give an impressive welcome to the compound as you enter the gate and look up the avenue towards it.

The Bishops Residence - another beautiful building. A warm welcome inside too. There are diocesan offices in the house as well as the Bishop and family. It transpired that I already knew the Bishops daughter and son-in-law from the conference in Nepal last year!

Rev Fiona Gardner, Bishop Saddiq Daniel, Sandy Sneddon and Chris Hoskins

Suniya and Serena-Zoe James - Suniya is one of the friends I made at the SACYN conference in MAY 2010, she also attended the Church of Scotland National Youth Assembly last September.

Bishop Danie took us on a tour of the compound - showing us the various buildings and resources in the compound

IBTIDA means “New Start” and the project works with people who have abused and become addicted to drugs attempts to give the clients just that – a new start in their lives.

Through a process of cold turkey, prayer and counselling, support over a period of several months, 40%-45% of the people who come to IBTIDA stay clean or reduce their dependency to less harmful substances.

Just across the wall from the Bishops Residence lies Trinity Girls School. The Principal, Mrs Irene Pearl, took great pride in telling us about the school and showing us around.

The girls in the school were delighted to see Fiona. In no time at all she was surrounded by a massive throng of pupils, all wanting to say hello and shake her hand.

As with everywhere else in Pakistan, the kids were wonderfully curious!

Instead of playground footie, they were playing playground cricket here! A chair instead of wickets!

We visited the Seminary in the Holy Trinity Compound, it has limited resources and a small staff, but its dedicated

Peace Out!

Tonight was such a contrast to last night (we’ll blog about today’s experiences on the World Mission Council blog later). We (Sandy, Fiona and myself) went out for dinner with 2 friends we’ve made here in Pakistan. Two incredible women: Ayra Inderyas and Alice Garrick, women whose determination, faith, strength and passion you can read about on the Council blog soon.

They took us to a highly recomended resturant called “Cooco’s Den” (number 2 in Lonely Planet’s list of places to eat in Lahore, number 8 in Pakistan). It truly was an incredible cultural experience. Firstly, it’s sits in the middle of the red light district, although this being Pakistan everything is much less obvious than in UK red light districts. The resturant itself is hosted in a Haveli, a traditional Mansion in this part of the world (often based on Middle East Islamic architecture or Mughal architecture). The owner of the Haveli, Iqbal Hussain, is an artist renowned for portraits of some of the women in the area. Some of his art is very graphic, some is very tasteful, some is very wierd. But it was kept alongside various other Asian art pieces – beautifully carved wood, incredibly vivid cermaic tiling, statues etc A very interesting exhibition to walk through to get to the Resturant.

The whole place had a very…rustic…atmosphere. And I mean that in the most positive way possible! I was enamored by the quaint sight out of the back of the building – an incredible weaving network of building, cables, streets and homes. I was wondering if the night could get any better. Was I in for a pleasant surprise! I was the last to reach the top of the stairs, having stopped to take numerous photos (shocked?). When I reached the top, I was greeted by one of the most magnificent, man-made, sights I’ve ever seen:

Badshahi Mosque

Tonight is the first time since we arrived here that I really wished I’d brought my tripod. I spent the first half an hour of being on the roof terrace finding places to steady my camera – chairs, random bits of wall, notebooks,bags, railings. I was captivated. To add to the stunning view and atmosphere, the food was amazing as well! Good food, good chat, great people and that view. What a night! Fiona kept saying that she expected it to disappear at any moment as if it wasn’t real. I had a very surreal moment thinking “Am I really here? How is this happening to me?”. It all felt so unreal, so incredible.

We were all struck by that contrast tonight. The contrast of 1 night breaking our hearts with a beautiful, but melancholy family, the next night experiencing the direct opposite end of the spectrum in Pakistan. We all felt that it was good to get a bit of a lift after last night, which is great for us, but what about that family? I’m sure their food and their view wasn’t as esquisite as ours. Is it right for us to enjoy such things on this kind of trip? I don’t know. On one hand, it would be a shame to travel this far and not take note of some of the finer, positive, rich parts of the culture (if we make sure to remember the context in which we are experiencing them). On the other hand, there is so much need, so much want, so much injustice, so much inhumanity in this land. It is a dilemma, with no easy answer. Because these cultural experiences do help to enrich our understanding of the whole culture. How? What connection does a 400 year Mosque have to anything else we’ve done? Everything! Set aside the biggest connection – the tension between different faiths – and you have the fact that this is a land with thousands of years of history, rich history, diverse history. The Christian community in Pakistan is a vital part of that history, but to truly start to understand the current context, we must be aware of what went before.

Now I know that what I’ve written sounds an awful lot like I’m trying to over-reason our experience, but it is more than that. Perhaps I am trying to assuage some feeling of guilt for enjoying the experience, not perhaps, I am. I do have some guilt that I can enjoy these beautiful places and experiences whilst others cannot. Is that wrong? One of my great passions is to travel, to explore different cultures, to experience a few of the incredible things this World, this life has to offer. Is that wrong? I am here for a specific purpose, to take pictures, gather stories and encourage council use of social media. I have done that, I think well, is it ok to, when there are no projects to visit, people to meet, that I (we) take advantage of the amazingness of where we are? The official part of the trip is THE most important part of the trip, it is the part that we put most focus on, most effort into. And yes, it is draining, we’re generally on the go from 7/8am until, well now (1am). I don’t know what to think :-/ I know that I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to travel to places like and hear such moving stories directly from the people involved. I am blessed for that, and I pray I have blessed through that.

I’m not sure how to view, to judge,  this evenings experience (ethically). It was an amazing experience, one that a few years ago I would never have dreamed would come to me. One thing that I do know for sure is that it once more brought to mind the beauty and brokenness that exists in Pakistan (in so many countries). So many of our experiences here have been a mixture of beauty and brokenness, some have been pure beauty, some pure brokenness. There is so much that needs done in this World, so much that we have to pray for, to praise for, to persevere through, to have faith for/ through. But prayer is where we must start.

Peace Out

Peace Out

Chris

• noun (pl. communities) 1 a group of people living together in one place. 2 (the community) the people of an area or country considered collectively; society. 3 a group of people with a common religion, race, or profession: the scientific community. 4 the holding of certain attitudes and interests in common. 5 a group of interdependent plants or animals growing or living together or occupying a specified habitat.

— ORIGIN Old French comunete, from Latin communis ‘common’.

I think that all 5 of these definitions of community can be useful for informing this discussion. Also informing my side of the discussion are chapter sin the following 3 books:
Postmodern Youth Ministry; Tony Jones
eMinistry; Andrew Carega
rewired; Peggy Kendall
To make things easy, i’ll take each chapter in turn, starting with rewired:
basically, in her section on virtual community, Peggy talks specifically about online community and the issues it raises, there seems to be no discussion or questioning of the presence of online community. her focus is on the lack of ‘responsilbe’ adults within teenage online communities, which could and does then lead to a lack of adult accountability amongst teenagers. no credit is given to peer accountability on the teenagers part, she seems quite resigned to the idea that without adult supervision and authority all teenagers will resort to swearing and sexual innuendo. An idea that may have some basis in reality, but I don’t think is a fair judgement on all teenagers. not that I’m supporting mono-generational communities!

What about Carega?
Carega also seems to go with the assumption that communities do exist online, then spends his chapter wondering why? He asks why more and more people are seeking to experience online community. What does it offer that people aren’t finding in ‘real life’ is his main question. He also spends some time acknowledging and thinking about those that argue point blank against the viability of online community. But ends up concluding that their definition of community is all about geography and physicality. Perhaps they are right? Who’s to say that community can only have one definition?

So what about Jones? i like jones approach, because he isn’t approaching the idea of community from a purely online context he isn’t hampered by what examples and inspirations he can call on. He doesn’t have to trawl the web for examples of online community that works, he just has to call on his and his peers experiences of good and bad community. He talks about community being a place of support and relationship, Jones is more concerned with community being authentic and honest than where it happens and what group of people are involved.

Obviously the 3 ‘reviews’ above are not extensive about the relevant chapters, for a fuller picture of what each says I would recomend looking up the book, i just wanted to give you and idea of what I’ve been reading while pndering this question. As I write this blog, I’ve asked my twitter buddies if the think community can exist online, If there are any responses before I finish this post, I’ll include them at the bottom. if you use twitter and want to follow me search for Chris_Hoskins

what about me? This is my blog, what do i think?
Bascially: yes, I do believe community can exist online. i don’t believe it will be as mutually beneficial as community which exists in the physical locale, but I still belive it can exist. All we need to do is respond to the notion of online community with a re-evaluated notion of what community is and can be. If we revisit the oxford english definitions again; 3/5 definitions rely on locale. 2/5 rely only on holding an attitude/belief/interest in common. And I’m quite happy to hold belief in all 5 definitions of community and accept that no community is likely to ever fit all 5.

I’ve found over the last 3 years that it is those whom I converse with online rather than in person that I’ve found to be most supportive in hard times. Does this count as community? Apart from my wife, most of the people I would consider my closest friends live at least 60 miles away from me, some even on a seperate continent. Yet I would still consider them to be part of my community, why shouldn’t I? how could i recieve support from and give support to my friends in Canada, none of whom I’ve had any physical interaction with for 5 years, and not consider myself in some sort of community with them?
Another case in point would be #twurch. A twitter ‘community’ that I was intorduced to through Stewart Cutler twurch is basically a group on twitter who both twitter and are Christian. I’ll include a twitter quote at this point, from tobite, a fellow twitterer who I’ve started talking to through twurch. He answered this to my twitter question: tobite @Chris_Hoskins yes – #twurch being a good example of this. I have met new people and am forming new bonds and friendships

I’ve just recieved a corker of a tweet from headphonaught, another twurch friend, he says:  headphonaught@Chris_Hoskins community isn’t a physical thing anymore. its a collective ideal. its the sharing of & participating in something beyond us
I love that notion of community. Even more so now that it supports what i said earlier about changing our definition of community in light of new experiences and revelations. It’s also, i think, a pretty good definition of church, no?

I hope this is all fitting together and making sense, I’ve not planned it, just sat down and let it come out!I wasn’t looking to write an academic text, just letting some stuff out of my head!

I think I’ll finish there for the time being, please comment and add to this discussion, i may come back and add more at somepoint.

Peace out

Chris

ps: this post is also available at missional tribe and SYMN

footseps in the graveyard

I took this photo as some of the Sunday Evening youth group were walking up through the graveyard to the Church hall this evening. I love the eerie, ghostly effect the long exposure gives the 3 figures, can you see them all?

I won’t be able to put my next 4 photos up until Friday, Linda are away in Barcelona until late Thursday night. Have a good week!

Peace out

Chris

After visiting the Mount of the Precipice, we visited a replica, working, first century farm in the middle of Nazareth. It was quite interesting, as we were being taken round by the guide he would explain how parts of the farm worked into the parables that Jesus taught. it really brought a whole new angle to the parables when we saw what the kind of farm Jesus referred to would have looked like. Below is a picture of the threshing floor at the farm, for some reason I’d always pictured it looking similar to the malting floor in a traditional Whisky Distillery.

After being served lunch at the farm, we visited some Churches in Nazareth: The Basilica of the Annunciation, St Josephs and the Greek Orthodox church of the Annunciation. all 3 Churches were awesome to visit. I have long come to the conclusion that i don’t really care how historically accurate the locations of all the Churches connected to Biblical characters/events are. To get anal about that would serve only to take away from the experience of God that so many people have in them. but lets not get into that quite yet….
Basilica of the Annunciation. This was visible quite clearly from the precipice. It’s a huge Church, quite impressive to look at. As its name suggests, It is named for the event of the Angels announcing to Mary that she was to give birth to Jesus. In the courtyard, there are many pictures of the Madonna and Child, each individualised to a different country, below is a picture of my favourite one, from Croatia. Inside the Church, there is another Church! This second Church, known as the grotto, is believed by many to be the original childhood home of Mary, mother of Jesus…..The Basilica is the site where Roman Catholics believe the annunciation took place, we also visited the Greek Orthdox Church where they claim the same event took place. Excavations on the grotto are still taking place, it was quite cool to watch archaeologists at work for a short period…



After the Basilica, it was on to St Josephs Church, which, as you may have guessed, was built for Joseph, “Father” of Jesus. Again, this was an incredible place to visit, complete with a green lit cavern that is reputed to be Joesphs workshop. What was interesting to find out was that, although we typically describe and think of Joseph as a carpenter, it is thought to be more likely that he was the 1st century equivalent of a construction worker/handyman. Able to turn his hand to most things involving stone or wood work. Which comes back to us in many of Jesus comments about wood/stone in his teachings.
After St Josephs, we went to to the other Church of the Annunciation, the Greek Orthodox site. This wasn’t as huge a Church, but still impressive nonetheless. As a Greek Orthodox Church, it had an impressive Iconostasis at the front (picture below) and also had a small chapel built over a spring that iscalled “Mary’s Well”. Guess why? Miss Whyte was given a row by one of the caretakers of the Church when she crossed her legs, we were then informed this is an insult in Arab cultures!

Once we returned to the hotel, we enjoyed an amzing dinner and then headed to the bar to chill and chat about the day. In the bar over the next few days, a small group of us, Jonnie, myself, Nicola, Rachel and Suzi became quite freindly with some of the bar staff. One in particular stands out: Lavi, a fantastic guy, always up for banter and introduced me to Arak, a fine liquer that is quite tasty!


So thats a “brief” account of the first day in Israel. An easy day to write about, in that all we did was visit sights, it was a Biblical history day, whereas some other days had a much more humanitarian/political aspect to them…….
Hope you enjyed reading this and that you’re up for some more over the next few days, I’ve a lot to write about about the trip!!!