It

By Lauren R. Stanley

14 November 2007

McClatchey-Tribune News Service

Once more, it was time to challenge some folks to do something really hard, something almost beyond their reach. They weren’t sure they could do it, weren’t sure they could be bold enough to climb that high.

So, to add a little encouragement, to push this group of 200-plus people to go farther than they thought they could, I shaved my head.

And I’m still doing it.

Silly me, I never took into account the drop in temperatures and how being bald would feel when it was literally freezing outside. The last time I did this, it was high summer and I didn’t have to worry about low temperatures, just about extreme sunburn.

It’s for a good cause.

See, there are these two schools in South Sudan that need help, the Renk Basic School in Renk and the Hope for Humanity Senior Secondary School in Rumbek. This group I was addressing – 200 6th and 7th graders and their advisers from 24 churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia – wanted to help. But I wasn’t certain they were being bold enough in their vision of what their help might look like.

So I challenged them to go higher and higher. Right up to $30,000, raised in the next three months. That’s a tall mountain for anyone to climb, but I was convinced they could do it, if only they had the right encouragement.

To make sure they understood I wasn’t simply asking them to be bold while I quietly stood in the background, I shaved my head bald, right in front of them. Then I promised them that I would only cover up my baldness when I was outside. And I told them that I would be in church every single Sunday, preaching and teaching, boldly bald for this good cause.

I know this isn’t what most priests do. It’s not what most folks do simply to raise money. But extreme needs call for extreme measures. Bold challenges call for bold leadership. Challenging the kids to go back into their parishes to raise $30,000 in three months for two Sudanese schools is both extreme and bold.

The schools in Sudan are in extreme need. There’s not much of anything in Sudan – not enough food or clean water or school supplies or even schools themselves. What schools there are often lack desks, chairs, chalkboards, books, notebooks, pens or paper. Teachers can be hard to find and harder to pay. It’s not unusual to see children learning out under the trees, writing their lessons in the dirt. The Sudanese are so desperate for education that they’ll put up with almost anything if it means their children will get a chance to learn.

So together, these 6th and 7th graders in Virginia and I are going to do our best to help out. The youth can only give up to $25 of their own money, which, as I pointed out, amounts to 25 iTunes. The rest they have to get from the folks in their parishes and communities. How they raise the money is their choice – they can wash cars or walk dogs or rake leaves or shovel snow or make Super Bowl subs or do hold dances. They don’t have to do something as crazy as shaving their heads. That’s my job. I promised them that I would do that for three weeks, taking photos every day for them to see that I’m keeping my word, that I’m willing to be as bold as I’ve asked them to be.

People’s reactions to my baldness have been varied. For those who know me, it’s been good, clean fun – generally, they burst out laughing when they hear why I’m doing this. Those who don’t know me usually start out concerned about my health and end up joining in the laughter.

But this isn’t about being bald.

It’s about being bold.

Being bald is merely a way to encourage these kids, to show them that it’s OK to be a fool for Christ.

Being bold is what Jesus calls all of us, young and old alike, to be.

Loving God in a time when the secular world says God is irrelevant is bold.

Loving your neighbors in a time when the secular world says don’t trust them is bold.

Raising money for neighbors you’ve never met who live far away is very bold.

Will these youth raise the $30,000 in the next three months?

That’s what I devoutly pray for each day as I lather up my head and shave it, working hard to avoid nicking my ears.

But it really doesn’t matter how much they raise.

What matters is how bold they are willing to be in the attempt.

(Anyone interested in helping can send a check made out to the Diocese of Virginia, marked on the memo line “PYM Sudan Schools,” attention Paris Ball, 110 W. Franklin St., Richmond, Va., 23220. The Diocese of Virginia will transfer the money to Sudan.)