RosaLoves

I just got another message from Kat Costello, my friend who's working with RosaLoves to help support Hananasif Orphanage Center for their "Water the Fields" project. When she wrote us a few weeks ago, they still needed to sell 57 t-shirts to completely pay for the irrigation system, which will be the basis for the orphanage's agricultural program.

As of this morning, they are only 12 shirts away from reaching their end goal! Kat told me that many of the orders came from Orlando (heck yeah!), so I just wanted to thank all of you that supported Hananasif and RosaLoves and purchased a shirt. This will truly make a difference in the spiritual and community development of Hananasif Orphanage.

You guys rock.

And if you still haven't bought a shirt, what are ya waiting for?;)

Also, if they end up exceeding the remaining 12 shirt goal, the money will still go to Hananasif, but the money will be used for a chicken coop. This coop will house 300 chickens that will be used for food for the orphans, extra income for the orphanage, and fertilizer for the crops that they are growing.

Check out http://rosaloves.com/stories/waterthefields to read the story and order a shirt!

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27).

peace,

M

calming down

currently listening to: a good day by priscilla ahn

I originally thought this was going to be a ranting/venting blog entry. But Priscilla Ahn's new CD (auspiciously named "A Good Day") has put me in a slightly more amiable mood, so I think I'm going to let this one go.

I was just frustrated about something I heard today. I think I'm starting to realize what my issue is. Sometimes it feels like certain people focus on producing "right behavior" over internalizing truth that produces authentic action. I get frustrated when the emphasis becomes on doing what's apparently right and socially proper, rather than being genuine, transformed and authentically motivated to act on the truth.

I feel like when you begin to arbitrarily use other people's words and actions as a blanket litmus test for their spirituality rather than seeking them out and establishing relationships and trying to understand where people are coming from, you just invite people to be judgmental. And narrow-minded.

And we don't need any more help with that. We're bad enough as it is.

I realize I'm being vague. I 'm not trying to be divisive; I just start to get a bit annoyed when we take intimacy and authenticity out of the equation and try to replace that with pleasing people and doing the non-offensive, proper thing.

But that's just me.

Also, I disagreed with something that was said that I heard today. Essentially, what was said was that there is no poverty America and if you live in America and are poor, then it's basically your own fault, due to laziness or slothfulness.

I couldn't barely listen to the rest of what was being said, I was so incensed by this statement. First of all, this person did not define the parameters of poverty, only made a blanket statement, which perpetuates ignorance and propaganda.

A little known fact: out of all developed countries around the world, the United States actually has the highest rate of poverty. Of course, this refers to developed countries like in Western Europe or wealthy Middle Eastern nations, as opposed to places like Malawi in sub-Saharan Africa which are developing countries. There's a difference between poverty and extreme poverty. Extreme poverty refers to those who live on $1 a day or less. Of course, under these parameters, I realize that America does not suffer from extreme poverty.

However, those parameters were not defined. There is poverty in America, although not extreme poverty like we see in developing countries. What angered me was more of what was more of the apparent motivation behind what he was saying. He was not trying to educate us with accurate information about poverty in America. He was making a statement about the American dream, that if you try really hard, you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. And if you are in financial straits in America, then it's your own fault.

Tell that to kids in inner city L.A. who grow up amid gang violence, single-parent homes and drug culture. Tell that to people living in New Orleans, still recovering from losing everything in Hurricane Katrina while living in a city that still deals with the scars of institutionalized racism and injustice. The issues are so much more complex than this idealistic American dream propaganda that so many people just blithely spout out to make a point.

I wish the emphasis had been more of a call to serve and love people who are suffering, rather than polarizing the situation by making it an "us vs. them" situation. Yes, there are plenty of lazy people out there who manipulate the system and there are plenty of times where financial woes is self-inflicted in America.

But rather than judge and make divisive statements about how they are suffering the consequences of laziness, why not urge Christians to address these issues through love and service?

My main problem was that this was a politically-charged and polarizing statement to make a point, rather than actually address real issues.

Okay, I'm done.

Back to chilling and listening to Priscilla Ahn on a Sunday afternoon:)

CIY thoughts

I’m finally home from CIY (www.ciy.com) Summer Conference at Lee University, TN. I haven’t been to CIY since the summer before my senior year of high school, so it was awesome to come back to it and experience it as an adult sponsor, six years later.

The theme of the week was ONES: because we were never meant to be alone. The main speakers were Jayson French, Danny Schaffner and Jeff Walling. It was kind of neat, because I’ve heard of all three of these guys before this week. I still remember Jayson French preaching about the jealousy of God back in 1999. I had never heard a sermon on anything like that (even though Ezekial and Hosea and other prophets are packed with the concept), so it has stuck with me since then. I had met with Danny on a previous occasion to discuss his multiethnic church plant project in Tampa http://thetampaproject.blogspot.com/. And I had heard Jeff Walling speak at the North American Christian Convention in Louisville, KY last summer. I honestly don’t remember anybody else who spoke in Louisville that year except for Jeff Walling… That’s how good he was!

They also did this neat thing where they featured a documentary about AIDS in Africa. I was really glad to see CIY stepping up to raise awareness about the issue and urge the church to get involved. My only problem was that the only Scriptural reference during the whole hour was ‘do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Not to downplay the importance of the “Golden Rule,” but I think the biblical foundation for serving the poor and the sick goes so much deeper than that. But then again, I guess it is up to the local church leaders to be studying and teaching about what the Bible has to say about poverty and injustice. A couple of books that have helped me understand this is Gary Haugen’s “Good News About Injustice” and Bryant L. Meyer’s “Walking with the Poor.” Gary Haugen is founder of International Justice Mission (IJM), a Christian organization which offers legal, law enforcement and rehabilitative aid to those victimized by human trafficking and other social abuses. Bryant L. Meyer is (I think) Vice President of World Vision, a well-known organization dedicated to meet the spiritual and social needs of children in Third World countries.

The truth is, AIDS at its core in relation to the church is not a moral issue (as many conservative evangelicals are quick to claim), but a spiritual issue. It is a spiritual issue because the Church has a responsibility to care for the poor and the sick, as Christ himself did and taught (Matthew 25:31-46) when He was here on earth. One thing that has always struck me is the issue of Sodom and Gomorrah. Why was judgment particularly wrought on Sodom? I had always thought it was because of defiance of God, particularly through sexual immorality. After all, that is what is emphasized in the story of Lot and his daughters in Genesis… But Ezekial 16:49 says “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.”

This passage made me realize that God takes neglect of the poor and needy very seriously, especially when those in power (the “overfed and unconcerned’) supposedly have a knowledge of God.

Anyway, I think I understand why CIY didn’t delve too deeply into the Scriptural thing… It might be a lot to hit on in an hour, especially to a 1500 high schoolers. Again it really is our responsibility as leaders and ministers in our own churches to raise this issue and really study and pray about it as a community, and find out what God would have us do within our own spheres of influence…

I will hopefully blog more about CIY in the days and weeks to come… There is a lot to unpack. Figuratively;)