Tuesday, July 19, 2005
REC 7
On Sunday we each spent the day with families from the area. Some reflections from our choir director, Joel Navarro:
After breakfast the 150 or so REC delegates were divided into several groups that were sent out to visit the Reformed churches around Utrecht and its surrounding villages. My group was sent to attend the morning service at Vinkeveen, some 30 kilometers away. I thought the worship service reflected a balanced treatment of prepared music, Scripture, prayer, exposition, and greetings. The music - psalms taken from the Genevan Psalter - was accompanied by a modest-sized organ all throughout, and sung with much enthusiasm by a congregation numbering about 60. What especially struck me was the presence of children and youth in the liturgy who helped serve in collecting the offerings and cantor in one psalm. It was a warm and welcoming congregation, consisting of professionals, artisans, and farmers from the Vinkeveen area—a small, compact, self-contained, self-sustaining, very well-knit and integrated community. It was a typical Dutch village with a highly developed irrigation and flood control system that allowed it to exist and prosper below sea level. Vinkeveen is surrounded geographically by lakes and is maintained by a system of locks, or sluis, that control water levels within its enclosure to help navigate boats that traverse lakes and their tributaries.
Kees and Freja Romijn treated us for pre-lunch in their lovely and well-manicured garden. Kees is one of five local medical practitioners in the area and Freja is a self-made amateur pianist. We moved on to another couple’s house for lunch. Hank is a retired facilities administrator in a local university. Being a warm and sunny day, they served lunch on their porch. It was a bigger house adorned with rich heirloom furniture that was very well-maintained. In one chamber was a music area, set a few feet above the living room. It occurred to me that this was a family that held music in high regard. Across the room was a fine harmonium which, I was told, was at least a hundred years old. I played a few psalms from the Psalter on it and was taken by its rich tone and balance.
By mid-afternoon, we drove off to a lovely resort town called Loenen. I had never seen so many recreational boats in such a small but affluent village. Families came with their boats. They lay stretched out in their decks, intent on getting as much tan as they could. Each time a fleet of sailboats came, small but efficient bridges were hoisted to allow boats to pass through. Of course, pedestrian traffic waited patiently. It was an occasion to exchange pleasantries with each other. Everyone knew each other.
Making connections with my experiences in Michigan, I began to realize how much Dutch Americans loved their boats and the water. Is it any wonder, then, that Michigan has the highest number of recreational boats in the United States?
After sampling what was described to us as typical weekend summer afternoon, we proceeded to another family’s house owned by Clarins van Andel, also from the Vinkeveen congregation. It was a rather large house that had its own private pool and pier overlooking a larger lake. Clarins was a retired but active and a well-traveled corporate lawyer who was eager to hear our stories.
The highlight of my day, I now reflect, was in listening to the stories of the two Afrikaner pastors in our group. One pastor, Arnau Van Wyngaard serves in a church in Swaziland; the other pastor, in South Africa. Their stories about Africa were especially moving and provoking. Apartheid may have ended but racism remains a great evil. As an African nation that registers 43% of its population suffering from AIDS, Swaziland cries out for the world’s attention. We are challenged to not just recognize that there is a problem, but that it is OUR problem. Third World poverty is much larger and more urgent than we think or care to admit.
As an academic, musician, and follower of Christ, I pondered once more upon my own response to the problems of humankind. Was it enough to challenge my students to have them sing the songs of the marginalized peoples of the world? Was it enough to have them focus on becoming agents of transformation to a world that is heavy with the burden of poverty, hunger, genocide, and inequality? What could I do to share in the suffering peoples of the world?
The day brought more questions than answers. It was a day that carved deep impressions and reminders about the disparities of the world, how rich nations respond to the problems of humanity, and how I can become a reflection of God’s light and peace to a suffering world. As a resident of the United States, I feel the need to become a voice for conscienticizing my church, government, community, and the family of nations to develop lifestyles of simplicity, frugality, cultural sensitivity, respect, and worldwide engagement so that we might all share in becoming global citizens, fully cognizant of the need for justice, debt relief, equal distribution of the world’s resources, and hastening the alleviation of poverty and human suffering throughout the world.