So you took a year off and served at ADRA Bangladesh.

How much did that affect your thinking? What would Alexander Carpenter today be with out that experience?

Would you recommend others to do that same?

Yes, I volunteered with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Bangladesh during the '99-'00 school year. I did so because my father had worked as a missionary, and as happens when one grows up, I just thought: I will do it as well.

It is difficult to distill the experience into words, but there are a few things in my current worldview that I can still consciously trace as formed by that experience.

1. I saw how political missionary work can be. Between ex-pats, ethnic groups, donors and the chronically impoverished I learned that conflicts over power and money as well as cultural differences are just as much a part of humanitarian work as the pretty pictures and heartwarming stories. I have some friends who have left the church over their missionary experiences and others who are deeply cynical about the whole thing. I didn't choose either of those paths, probably due to the differences of experience. The one area where it pushed me past the ethics of charity and guilt-based giving and toward advocacy for structural reform in cultures and an engagement on issues of social justice.

2. I read a lot while I was there. I packed my suitcase with several massive collections of world literature short stories, a literature textbook as well as the writings of Albert Schweitzer. I also read a lot of Tom Wolfe there, after I found a used book store in Dhaka. Although I am not sure that I knew what I was reading, when I look back now, I see a lot of my ideas of spirituality, cultural understanding and even specific taste in authorial voices come from that time.

3. I remember very specifically sitting outside in the sun, watching an old Bangladeshi Adventist pastor explain the 2300 day prophecy to a group of people. As I looked beyond the chart to the poverty, total lack of communication infrastructure, and illness, I almost laughed at the absurd priorities evident. It was then that I really become interested in testing my Adventist beliefs with the follow rule. They have to be able to translate into real world applications for better lives on earth. Trying to teach economically vulnerable folks the subtleties of the primitive gospel fever in the aftermath of America's Second Great Awakening or impress on folks half way around the world the importance that some New Englanders saw some stars fall a couple of hundred years ago seems inhumane in a world of hungry, hurting people. I am so glad that there appears to be increasing numbers of folks at the Adventist headquarters who get that we Adventists have to changing lives, not just converting numbers.