Interview With Justin Zoradi

This post is a “bonus” post, which I should have published sooner. It's time to catch up on a bit of news. But first, a confession: although I am still TH, I no longer live in SoC. Last September, my company transferred me from Southern California to Oregon. I suppose I should now call this blog TH in OR, but I'm too comfortable with the present name to go through the hassle of changing it.

Anyway, about a month and a half ago, I was browsing some of the old posts from the blog, JZ in NI, written by 25-year-old Justin Zoradi, about whom I have written before on my blog. While he was actively writing JZ in NI, he was involved in missionary/reconciliation work in Northern Ireland. He is now involved in a missionary/social aid organization called These Numbers Have Faces. I looked up their website and discovered that Justin has also relocated to Oregon, and was living nearby. Thus it was that we connected with each other at a local coffeehouse on a Saturday evening. I had only seen a few pictures of him on his blog before our Saturday meeting, and he had never seen me.

If you go to his blog, under the “About Me” section is a picture of black rap musician Jay-Z (born as Shawn Corey Carter). I'm really not into rap music and had never heard of Jay-Z, so when I first stumbled across Justin's blog and saw the picture, I found myself scratching my head and asking, “What's this guy doing as a missionary in Northern Ireland? I'm impressed!” Later, I ran across some actual pictures of Justin, and got a bit of a chuckle out of his profile “ruse.”

During our Saturday meeting we swapped abridged life stories. He is originally from San Luis Obispo, California, while I was a resident of Orange County before my job transfer. We are both relatively new to Oregon, and are both getting used to such things as the mostly cloudy climate. He is now pursuing a Master's degree in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies at Portland State University, while his fiancee is pursuing a Master's degree in Social Work at Portland State. I didn't get to meet his fiancee, as she was unable to make it for our Saturday meeting. They intend to get married after they finish their education, and to move to South Africa in support of These Numbers Have Faces.

Justin described his family as a loving family, with an orthodox faith. His schooling was also good, as he attended private Christian schools from the beginning of his education until his bachelor's degree. Yet as he moved into high school, he began to notice a disconnect between the faith that was being taught to him and the suffering and injustice he was seeing in the world. This led to a lot of questioning, as well as a bit of a rebellion against the “safe” Christianity he had known all his life. But while pursuing his undergraduate degree, he met a professor who told him that his questions were valid, and who challenged him to join the professor in Northern Ireland as part of a missionary team working to end sectarian violence by reconciling Catholic and Protestant factions. Justin accepted the challenge, and so his blog, JZ in NI, came into being.

His work with that professor in Northern Ireland showed Justin that there is in fact a strong connection between the Bible and social justice, and that the Bible has many relevant things to say about the condition of this world, and the duty of Christians to practice charity. If you read his blog, you can see the many practical, incarnational graces which his missionary team was called to practice. For instance, he learned a lot about mentoring young, fatherless kids – lessons which he is applying in his neighborhood now in Portland, where he and a few other Christian young men deliberately chose to live in a house in a poorer part of town, so that they could minister to fatherless, directionless kids.

He also told of a couple of tight spots he got into while in Northern Ireland – once at a Catholic gathering to which he had been invited as a guest. While the gathering was in progress, some Protestant paramilitary members came and began to surround their meeting place. A couple of young kids helped him escape before anything happened. There were a few other tight spots as well.

We found out that we both have a similar problem with regard to finding a church – he attends a Mennonite church because of its rich spiritual tradition, but also likes visiting a more lively modern church in town because it has a strong emphasis on the arts in ministry. He doesn't quite feel at home in either church. Likewise, when I go to church, I usually go to a Lutheran church because of the richness of the liturgy and the hymns. Yet I don't feel quite at home among the Lutherans – their traditionalism tends to make them ignore the needs of the larger world. It turns out that we both prefer old, theologically rich hymns rather than the new “praise music.”

If you go to the These Numbers website, you'll find the following information in the “About Us” section:

We are realistic.

We have read the statistics, heard the news stories, and seen tragedy and brokenness with our own eyes. We recognize how easy it is to forget that there are human faces behind the numbers. Yet we are committed to confronting apathy in direct and concrete ways by listening and responding to the lives of our friends.

We are hopeful.

We believe that the smallest actions can produce small changes, which over time can lead to revolutionary results. We do not claim to be the saviors of the poor; we are no more gifted, talented, or superior than our friends in need. We only desire to marvel in our interconnectedness and share the stories of those we meet in hopes of bringing transformation, joy, and purpose to all our lives.

Why we’re different:

Lets face it. There are thousands of nonprofits, NGO’s, and faith-based organizations doing work in Africa. Why is These Numbers Have Faces any different?

First, we believe in the skills and abilities of Gugulethu locals to affect change in their own communities. In short, we think South Africans know what’s best for South Africa. We simply want to highlight, advocate, and support the initiatives already in place by the people themselves.

Second, we’re starting small by sharing the stories of a few real people. Statistics, graphs, and pie charts can be helpful, but we think the faces, experiences, and insight of local people are far more compelling. While we may only support one soccer team and one student in college this year, we think that’s how these things start - one person at a time.

The members of These Numbers realize that their strength and resources are small, and that the challenges they are trying to confront are great – yet they are learning how to meet those challenges with a little strength. That should be an encouragement to all of us who are trying in any way to be operatives of God's Kingdom in a fallen world. Although my blog, TH in SoC, has been focused mainly on problems within the American evangelical community, it is refreshing to take time once in a while to look at examples of people who are trying to do things right. If any readers want to point out other examples, feel free to send me a comment.

One other thing: I have started a new blog titled, The Well Run Dry. That blog will explore day-to-day experiences in the world we are now starting to see – a world whose high technology and high standard of living are beginning to fail, due to resource shortages and climate change. That blog will address things I was only able to barely touch on TH in SoC. However, I will only be posting sporadically at first on the new blog. Feel free to check it out.