More Tea, Vicar?

When we were in Colorado recently a friend gave me a copy of Greg Mortenson's 'Three Cups of Tea'. I began reading it on the journey home and finished it back here in Amsterdam - what an unusual and moving book. Written in a very direct style that doesn't even try to hide its hero's flaws and weaknesses, the book follows the campaign of Greg Mortenson to bring education to the remote villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan he has discovered as an off-track mountaineer. Lost, disoriented and near death after a failed attempt on K2, Mortenson is cared for by the simple Islamic people of a village high in the Baltistan. Finding that they have no building in which to educate their children, he vows to come back and build one: a promise that pushes him to the very limit of his capabilities but that, once fulfilled, introduces him to his new life's calling. Over 50 schools have now been built, and Mortenson continues to pursue his passion to see children - particularly girls - receiving the education they deserve. The book captures the spare and moon-like atmosphere of these remote mountain regions and there is something haunting about this one man's determination to fulfil a promise. Significant American sales have come from the fact that Mortenson's adventure runs parallel to both the Afghan and Iraq wars, and that his gentle, guile-less relationship with his Muslim friends so contrasts with that of many other Westerners.

I was personally challenged by Mortenson's determination to be a man of peace: building friendships first and out of those friendships working for change. He quite rightly discerns that the simple, local faith of the Muslims he meets is not the same as the strident fundamentalism he has been warned about, and that there is more to be gained from human contact than from conflict. Would I. with my strong faith, be free to build such friendships - or is it this man's lack of faith that enables him to do so? I don't have an answer: but I am challenged and stimulated by the question.