Picking Up Speed

For this post, I want to share a little bit about how things are rolling right along these past two and next few weeks. I would like to share some about the people I am working with and how they are approaching the issue of child sex trafficking. I would also like to share some of my insights as an anthropologist who believes in Jesus, and the interesting juxtaposition there.

Of course, much of my internship has revolved around and hinged on our trip to Thailand and Cambodia. Being there, ALL there, for 14 days straight, there was much to see, learn, and experience anthropologically and otherwise. It was constant sense overload in good ways, exhausting ways, and disturbing ways.

This past week was the first one that I felt very settled in my place in LIFTED as a whole, in its normal state in Raleigh. One interesting thing is that there is no LIFTED office here, it's more of a cooperative of people (mostly out of North Ridge Church) who come together to form LIFTED. For many of these people, their responsibilities in LIFTED ebb and flow depending on whether or not there is an event coming up. For a few (Cat, Jess, Dan, and myself to name some) it is something on our minds most days, planning for future events, corresponding with people who have questions, people who want to host events, people who want to know how they can get involved. I am realizing how exhausting non-profit work can be. You must love the cause, and be willing to devote most of your time and many of your best efforts to making a tiny dent in the problem, literally one changed heart at a time.

So, we've been getting ready for this Boone event, and it is hands down going to be our biggest event yet in terms of prospected attendees, promotion, our efforts in planning, and length/content of the event. I've written contracts, corresponded through emails and phone every day. I've been planning my cultural table, gathering statistics about RNhu and the issue as a whole for some of our visuals. I've been planning my music, planning rehearsal times and set lists. Numerous students from App have emailed me asking how they can get involved, and I've corresponded to find a way for them to help out. I'm updating the LIFTED blog every week, which is a more time and thought-consuming task than one might think. I've been involved with the practical planning of when we'll leave, who rides with whom, where we're staying, and a general schedule of the time. There are many things I just get to dip in, sharing my voice, thoughts and opinions in conversation. Because the people I work with are friends of mine outside of LIFTED, it is something we talk about quite a bit together. It's becoming a part of my overall life here, which is good. That's the way I'd want to do it if I were doing this full time.

Catherine, who is my direct overseer and founder of LIFTED events, is 24 and a fifth grade teacher at a year-round school. She literally spends free moments at school texting and emailing about LIFTED stuff. She comes home and plans. On her trackout weeks, she is primarily doing LIFTED full time. To help get a picture of Catherine, she is teeny tiny skinny with a fire-y personality. She speaks quickly with her hands flailing in the air, animating her scattered and quick-moving thoughts. She is bold and, most of all, a woman of conviction. She does not grow weary as readily as one might think, because of her deep conviction and call to this issue. And she'll be the first to tell you it's not her, it's the Lord. Hands down, the majority of her involvement in LIFTED is in her prayers about and for it. I am not exaggerating.

At first, this was a tough thing for me to deal with as an anthropology intern. Not because I don't share my beliefs with Catherine, but because in my 5 semesters in anthropology classes at Appalachian, I tried to keep my beliefs in one side of my brain and the theories and methods of traditional anthropology in another. I even remember one class specifically, the teacher saying how you cannot be Christian and an Anthropologist. I remember thinking, well, that's not true, because I believe in Jesus and follow Him and I think he's the God of Anthropology. There are so many ways that Anthropology and Christianity go together, it makes so much sense to me. But in classes, it's not something I talked about because I knew it wouldn't be worth the trouble trying to explain myself. In that, I didn't realize how disconnected I let my beliefs become in my studies.

So I get here, and the biggest point that Catherine will make about LIFTED is that it wasn't her idea, it was the Lord's. And that it is a gospel-centered organization, a gospel-centered event. Something in me immediately became almost offended. If you really want to reach people, I thought, you must not force the gospel down their throat! These people are resistant to even just the word "Christianity," let alone a "Christ centered event"! HEL-LO! I thought. They think Christians ruin everything that was good. Did they understand people in Boone? Did they understand how resistant people were to this sort of thing?

What I didn't realize in my thinking was that I had kind of become one of those "Boone" people. I kept my beliefs so quiet because I didn't want to offend anyone, even myself.

What many people don't realize is that we don't do this to give Christianity a high-five, like... YES! We put Jesus' name on the issue of human trafficking, we got it, so we're set. What else can we put his name on?

What we have is something I might align with the anthropological term "communitas."

A community, deeply moved by something together, something supernatural. To the anthropologist, it's something scientific, something in the DNA of how humans react to one another and to the meaning of life. To me and my LIFTED friends, it's something real. More real than breathing or getting up in the morning. More real than what my eyes can see and more real than what my mind can dissect to understand. It's counterintuitive to how I would explain things myself.

So here I am as a believer in and follower of Jesus the Christ, praying for this event. And here I am as an anthropologist of sorts, not typical I guess, but I consider myself one. I'm passionate about anthropology, how it's in everything we do because we're humans, together. I am passionate about the theories of anthropology, and how they can be applied in Christianity, not just to it.

A lot more thoughts on this, which I could explain way more eloquently, but I just had to come out and address the elephant in the room, even if just a little.