Life Update and Adventure to Peru

I just sent this out to many friends and family, if I missed you, I’m sorry!

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you well. I’m writing to update you on things that are happening in my life and to ask for support with an upcoming adventure.

A lot has happened in my life over the past 2 years. The most recent good news is that after a grueling admissions process I have been accepted into medical school! I don’t know where I will be going but I know I will start the next step in my journey to become a physician this summer.

Many of you know I have met an incredible woman that has been willing to date me for over a year! Her name is Rachel Moody and she has been a amazing blessing in my life.  We share similiar values, faiths and dreams in life. One area where all those converge is a desire to serve people in places with limited resources. We feel strongly this is a calling God has placed on our lives. 

Rachel and I have planned a trip to intern with a rural health clinic in the Andes Mountains of Peru through an organization called AIDE. We both have experience traveling in Latin America and wish to further our fluency in the Spanish language and culture. We are leaving for Peru April 5th and returning to Portland July 8th. That’s close, I know! In that time we plan to work for eight weeks alongside physicians, nurses, dentists, and midwives near Cusco; and then venture into the mountains near Machu Picchu and spend some time exploring.

This trip is something I have been dreaming about for years. Ultimately it represents something I wish to make a regular part of my life - travel and service to areas of need. Soon I will be able to bring medical skills and knowledge of public health that I hope will further causes of peace and equity in the world. For now I am looking forward to sharpening my Spanish language skills, gaining perspective on life from another culture, and seeing the practice of medicine in a context of limited resources.

I am humbly asking for your support for this trip. There are many ways to support us, including financial gifts, prayers, even notes of encouragement now and during the trip. While the finanical burden of the trip is not crushing, it is beyond what my current salary has been able to save for and any small amount would be helpful. If you want to give a little there is a link below that you can use to send money through Paypal. My current address is also below.

If you would like to stay updated on how the trip is going, we’ll be starting a blog soon to document our adventures and I can easily send a link along.

I would love to hear how things are going in your life. Please write back and update me as well!

Sincerely,

Steven Krager

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Kiva- Loans that change lives

If you don’t know about it already, you really need to check out kiva.org.

Their mission is: To connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

I discovered Kiva a while back and have been impressed with their vision, and even more impressed with the way they carry that vision out. Their website is easy to use, and is probably the best use of the Internet for combating real world problems that I’ve found.

Not only can you lend money yourself, but you can give gift certificates so that others can discover Kiva and use the gift certificate to make their own contribution. I’ve done it several times and it makes a great gift.

So check out Kiva and make a loan! What seems like a little money can go a long way.

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Spread the word- Advent Conspiracy

Jesus was counter-cultural. I think we should be too. That doesn’t mean that if we clash with our culture on just any issue we’re following Jesus. We need to take a thoughtful look at our culture and pinpoint those cultural influences that are in opposition to Jesus’ teachings.

Modern-day Christmas seems like a good place to start.

This paragraph from the Advent Conspiracy website sums it up well.

“The story of Christ’s birth is a subversive story of an upside-down kingdom. It’s a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love that is still changing the world to this day. So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists. And when it’s all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling that we somehow missed its purpose.”

Advent Conspiracy is a movement among churches in America during the Advent Season.

Check out this video about the Advent Conspiracy to learn more about the movement, it’s really well made.

Tell everyone you know about it! Join the Conspiracy, and let’s celebrate a more joy-filled, Christ-centered, relationship-building Christmas season!

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

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Prayer in Church

You know what bugs me? When a church uses the prayer time after a sermon to allow the music team to all set for some closing songs. Do they think we don’t notice all those people walking up towards the stage?

I know it’s trivial, but it bothered me today. Is the music team above praying with the rest of the church? Would it be too much to ask for them to sit and pray with everyone else?  I can sit and wait another 30 seconds after the prayer is over for them to get set up.

End rant.

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The Speedy Knight, Fighting Rabbits, and what it all has to do with Art

I had a conversation with a friend comparing recent books and movies we have seen/read. Our conversation centered around Speed Racer and The Dark Knight, with my friend making the absurd declaration that Speed Racer was a better movie. Crazy, I know. He clarified by saying that he just enjoyed Speed Racer more; he has more fond memories of that movie than the Dark Knight. Ok, I suppose that’s reasonable. I liked Speed Racer. It was much more entertaining than I thought it would be.

But I would much rather see The Dark Knight again. I can’t help but wonder if this is some personality thing. Why am I drawn to the incredibly depressing movie about a psychopath killer and a hero who tries to be God? I’ve seen it twice. Each time I walked away from the theater having trouble shaking it from my thoughts. The moral ambiguity fascinated me. I loved the insight into human nature, collective and individual. But still, it was incredibly dark. Shouldn’t I be drawn more to the happy go lucky movie with the plucky kid who takes down the big corporate powers by pursuing what he loves to do? (When Speed Racer is racing, my friend called it “art in it’s purest form”. I liked that.)

Maybe not. Maybe I’m reading a little too much into things. Maybe I’m more drawn to The Dark Knight because it was a far superior movie in terms of acting, plot, dialogue, cinematography, pacing, and basically every other cinematic element (although Speed Racer was much more colorful, I’ll give it that). But that’s just my opinion.

The conversation continued on about books. I talked about two recent books I’ve read, Watership Down and Fight Club. Two great books. Two very different books. To go all SAT on you, The Dark Knight is to Fight Club as Speed Racer is to Watership Down.

This time however, I’m much more drawn to Watership Down. It’s one of my all time favorite novels. And yes, it’s about rabbits. And you should read it.

It all made me confused. I thought I liked the dark stuff? Why do I like the adventurous story about traveling rabbits? What’s wrong with me? Nothing, of course! I’ve concluded that I like both (I’m a both/and kind of guy, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, well you’ve obviously never taken a class with Dr Nienhuis). I like to be uplifted, but I also liked to be shown the world as it is.

I think we need both types of art. We need art that reveals the mess that this world is. But we also need art that paints us the beautiful picture of what could be, and inspires us to work to make it that way. Deep thoughts I know. : )  What do you think?

Thanks for reading, someday I’ll try and write on a consistent basis.

(Photo Credit)

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Video: Handlebars by Flobots

 Check out this music video. It’s a song called “Handlebars” by the band Flobots. Look for the symbolism throughout the video. Once you see it, it’s pretty obvious, but I missed it the first time I watched it. Be warned, the video is pretty intense, especially at the end.

So what do you think?

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My Baccalaureate Speech

I recently had the great honor of speaking at my University’s Baccalaureate ceremony, here is what I said:

My last quarter here I have had the privilege of being an academic mentor for a Christian Formation class taught by Dr Nienhuis. Part of my role was attending most of the class sessions, which, trust me, was a very good thing. Experiencing the class for a second time, I realized that it has been a kind of “capstone” for much of what I have learned about my faith while at SPU. One of the main goals of the class is to emphasize the unity that exists within all the faith traditions of Christianity. I have become increasingly passionate about this issue, especially as I observe so much division within the Body of Christ.

I think it is a part of our fallen nature to divide into groups. We see it in the world everywhere. We divide based on economics, race, education, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender, culture and language, just to name a few.

In Christianity it is all of these issues and more. We add in interpretation of scripture, worship style, leadership structure, baptismal practices, doctrinal statements… the list goes on.

I’ve become more and more convinced that if we want to have any voice of witness in the world, we desperately need to seek to heal these divisions. And we can. But not by our own power. Sadly, when we try and do things by our own power, we often fall short, even when our intentions are good. I’ll give you an example.

A student places a sign up that reflects an opinion. Many feel that the opinion encourages exclusion. Some are very concerned about including others, of promoting unity. So how do we react? We insult this person. We yell things at them through the window. We send hate-filled emails. We do everything in our power to make this person feel… excluded.

Ironic? Sad? Discouraging?

“Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid;

do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Sometimes being courageous is speaking out clearly, speaking with conviction and compassion for those who have no voice, even when fear is choking your own.

Sometimes it takes strength to be silent in the heat of the moment when every human emotion, every natural desire is to cry out, to insult and demean.

Fellow graduates, I pray that we will look to God for the wisdom to discern when to speak and when to be silent. I want to thank the friends, professors and mentors who have given me tastes of this wisdom, and have taught me how to find it for myself.

So, can we heal these often overwhelming divisions?

I have faith, I believe we can. I am not afraid. I am not discouraged. Because I know that wherever we go in this world, the Lord our God will be with us.

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Does Marriage Complete You?

I attended a wedding last weekend, so naturally my mind contemplated the issue of marriage. I’m 22, graduating from a Christian college, and single, so yeah, it has been on my mind a little anyway. The wedding was enjoyable, but a couple of things the pastor said during the ceremony made me uncomfortable. He focused on the Genesis story, and how God saw that it was “not good” for Adam to be alone. I can’t remember if he said it outright, but the overall impression I was getting was that humans are incomplete without a spouse. I know he was trying to express how special and important marriage is, so it’s probably more of an issue with my interpretation of his words. Either way, it unsettled me a bit.

My independent spirit fought against this idea of being incomplete without a wife. Part of it is my own arrogance which makes me think that I don’t “need” anyone. Another side of me (probably the better side) was uncomfortable because I know that I can only find completeness in Christ. I think that is a dangerous slope that could lead someone towards viewing their significant other as their savior, the person who makes them whole.

I put this question of completeness to a mentor of mine, who is married. He used both/and language to describe his thoughts. He said, yes he feels like he is a “better” person because of his wife. Yet he was also uncomfortable with the idea that marriage completes someone, especially with many Christians who emphasize marriage so much. It kills him that in many churches, single parents and single people can feel left out because they are not married.

I will probably be married someday. But right now, I feel complete. Maybe the language of completeness comes from the idea that when two complete people come together they become one fully complete whole. So it’s not that marriage is what “completes” someone, but rather what allows two complete people to be completely “one”.

What are your thoughts?

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