Final WUF 10 Update 2-12-20

This is my final day in Abu Dhabi. It's been an amazing journey with long time friends, and also many new friends. I met some fascinating people who are working together to design cities where people can flourish. There are so many sites to see in Abu Dhabi. I love how they've planted trees everywhere and that there is water everywhere.

There are also fancy sports cars everywhere. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to bring home a Ferrari or a BMW. It's a tough choice.

I learned a lot this week at the World Urban Forum. I love looking at maps and exploring new cities, so the connections that I made with organizations who produce urban maps should keep me occupied for a long time. There are some brilliant minds here! The resources from the Urban Expansion Observatory really resonated with me (they're tracking how cities are growing outward and upward using satellite imagery).

Our Urban Shalom Society team participated in another interfaith event today entitled Faith and Religion as a Pathway for Implementing the New Urban Agenda: Insights from Researchers and Practitioners. This event led to some incredible discussions about the common ground that faith leaders have in the addressing the challenges of rapid urbanization. Several leaders presented original research on work that they're involved in, and the panel discussions were meaningful. We'll be sharing the outcomes with our colleagues at the UN.

Many of the leaders from the Urban Shalom Society team gathered for a dinner to debrief the day's events, and to plan for the remaining time at WUF 10. I had a fun conversation with BGU grad Jacob Bloemberg. We caught up on all of the latest happenings at the university (lots going on with equipping urban leaders around the world), and Jacob shared more with me about his pastoral journey with his church in Vietnam. We're both hoping that his book, Love [Your City], will catch on with pastors and churches around the world.

I'm sad to be leaving Abu Dhabi as this has been a remarkable adventure! At the same time, I'm looking forward to reconnecting with my family and rejoining the amazing work that is happening in Pittsburgh. If you've been reading this blog, thanks for tracking along with me for this adventure! 

WUF 10 Update 2-11-20

There's so much happening at the World Urban Forum. It can be very overwhelming! Our team of Christian leaders is staying on task, though. We've been out networking with the other leaders at this event, conducting interviews, sharing about what we're up to, inviting people to our UN sanctioned networking event, and dreaming about next steps for our collaborative movement. WUF 10 created plenty of interesting spaces for these discussions (and power naps on the beanbags).

Many of the workshops at WUF 10 focus on collaborative efforts between UN agencies and civic society organizations. The first workshop that I attended focused on how urban growth in sub-Saharan Africa has traditionally occurred in megacities, but now that growth is taking place more in secondary cities of 300,000 people or less. UNICEF and UN Habitat are collaborating in some of those cities to engage in poverty alleviation efforts among children and youth. Many of the leaders that I have the privilege of working with at Bakke Graduate University are engaged in similar type of transformational efforts in that region. Our BGU leaders are on the cutting edge of innovate relief, development, and advocacy work in that region of the world.

Part of the work that I'm engaged in involves equipping business leaders to transform cities through economics of mutuality. There were many places where economic principles were being discussed at WUF 10, and I was reminded again that BGU's work in empowering business leaders to make a difference in the world is much needed. I also experienced a push for universities with an emphasis on urban issues to partner together at several of the talks that I attended today.

At home in Pittsburgh, I've experienced first hand at North Way Christian Community and with friends from the Imagine movement that Christians are impacting cities through mentoring, orphan care, refugee care, poverty alleviation efforts, and advocacy work. I've enjoyed sharing many stories with leaders that I'm engaging with here in Abu Dhabi. There is often a negative connotation connected to religious activity around the world that has at times been destructive, but I think it's important to share with the world about the positive work of faith groups whenever I have the chance. The Urban Cinema Chris Elisara organized at WUF 10 isn't just focused on transformational faith work, but the films are being received well by delegates who stopping by the booth. Films are another great way to share the narrative of the importance of transformational urban work.

I've been discovering so many amazing resources to share with BGU and TULI leaders. There are many interactive urban mapping resources and books that will be helpful with urban research. I've been invited to participate in a workshop that is being conducted by the Urban Expansion Observatory later in the week. I'm looking forward to learning more about that resource.

At 4:30pm, several years worth of work at Faith-based Urban Thinkers Campuses throughout the urban world culminated in our UN Habitat sanctioned networking event where we shared our outcomes with the world. We organized faith leaders who had been present at the UTCs, and others who came to Abu Dhabi especially to present their research.

We had some challenging discussions on the tensions and challenges of interfaith work, and we also had some incredible break throughs. It was encouraging to be a part of peacemaking discussions in a world that experiences so much violence between religions. All in all, we were very pleased with how everything turned out.

I finished the day off with a dinner with friends from the Urban Shalom Society where we debriefed about the day's events, and planned for the next day. This is such a special group of people to me. I've developed many life long friendships out of this global advocacy work over the past several years. After dinner I enjoyed a stroll around the city center of Abu Dhabi.

It's hard to believe, but our final advocacy event is scheduled to happen the afternoon of February 11 with six presenters sharing about their research and transformational practices in modern cities. Please pray that the last event will go well, and that our team can continue to connect well with the other participants at WUF 10. It's been an amazing journey so far! 

WUF 10 Update 2-10-20

I have been having such an amazing time in Abu Dhabi for the UN Habitat World Urban Forum. It was an adventure to get here (my flights were delayed coming out of Pittsburgh, so I had to fly into Dubai and then drive to Abu Dhabi in early hours of the morning). It was worth it, though, to make it to Abu Dhabi in time for the Urban Shalom Forum for Christian leaders that I helped to organize with the Urban Shalom Society leadership team.

Recent Bakke Graduate University DTL grad Jacob Bloemberg kicked off the Urban Shalom Forum with the official launch of his new book, Love [Your City], which is a resource stemming from his innovative dissertation at BGU. I was excited to be with him during this important book launch. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in how churches can make a meaningful impact in the city.

At the Urban Shalom Forum, leaders gathered from many different parts of the world to join the dialogue on how Christians can participate in God's redemptive work in cities. We had several keynote presentations, and then we organized into working groups on topics including theology of the city, healthy cities, community development, children and youth, arts and culture, urban poverty, economic justice, environment, urban design and resilience, good governance, and smart cities. The Urban Shalom Society has been organizing around these key issues for the past couple of years at UN Urban Thinkers Campuses for faith leaders, and this gathering of leaders contributed mightily to the content that we'll be providing to the United Nations on the best thinking of faith leaders in the work of urban transformation.

After a successful day of engagement with global Christian leaders at the USF, we rejoined the next morning to pray for our time together at the UN Habitat WUF 10 gathering. Our team has been preparing for at least a year to engage with the policy making and civic society goals of the New Urban Agenda that will be discussed at WUF.

One of the Directors of the Urban Shalom Society, Dr. Chris Elisara, happens to be a film maker. He worked closely with the WUF 10 organizers to prepare an Urban Cinema booth in the main convention area. He's excited the showcase important video stories of people who are making a difference in cities.

Our group gathered together for the opening ceremonies of WUF 10 that included meaningful urban talks from the President of Afghanistan, the Prime Minister of Fiji, and the Executive Director of UN Habitat. It was exciting to join a gathering of 18,000 people for such a historic event.

After the opening ceremony, I toured the many displays that countries and cities from around the world had put together in the main exhibition hall. There are so many innovative things taking place around urban planning and policymaking. There were also many interesting things to experience. I just had to have my picture taken with this incredible bird that friends from the Abu Dhabi exhibition had brought.

I've had the privilege of working with many leaders from Nigeria and Kenya in recent years. So, I was excited to spend time with leaders here in Abu Dhabi who are doing transformational work in megacities like Lagos, Nigeria (soon to be a city with more residents than any other city in the world with potentially 50 million people) and Nairobi, Kenya, where I'll be for an urban immersion from May 1-10 of this year.

In the afternoon of the first day of WUF 10, our Urban Shalom Society leadership team helped to organize our first of three significant interfaith gatherings with the goal of sharing our best work on what faith groups are doing to transform cities with the United Nations. Our first event was a Faith and Urban Resilience Research Workshop where global faith leaders shared presentations on The Heartware of Sustainability in Asia, Being Poor and Trusting in God, Participatory Action Research, The Role of the Urban Church, The Vital Role of Faith Communities in the Lives of Urban Refugees, and Violence and Spirituality in Latin America. I was greatly encouraged the learn more about the important work that faith communities are doing in taking on complex challenges in urban environments all over the world.

All in all, these first couple of days in Abu Dhabi have been fruitful. With the world urbanizing at such a rapid rate, it is important for people of faith to put together our best thinking and actions at systemic and policymaking levels. We must remain engaged at the grass roots, life on life levels. But, we must also engage in advocacy in places of power. It is possible, and, indeed, it should be ordinary, for faith leaders to engage individually and systemically with complex urban challenges.