3.22.08 :: Day 40 of Lent
The Lent season comes to a close again. It's interesting how hard it is to really reflect on Christ through this season, despite giving up something and going through the reading material everyday. The conditions are ripe for an encounter with God, but maybe I'm just not receptive. Or maybe I have thought about Christ more, by thinking how I don't think of him regularly.
Read "pay for your water" and get out between March 22-29, 2008 to do something about it.
Also, Luke 14:25-35 is up for your reading pleasure. It's a whisp of a piece. Enjoy.
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3.19.08 :: The end of first year...
...means stress galore! As Nardeen said, "This is the worst Holy Week EVER!" Prof. Beverley also added that "it's just sad that Tyndale, a Christian institution, ruins Easter and Christmas for the students. There's not much else to ruin after that!" It's true. If York, with (presumably) not that many Jewish students (but I suppose a lot of Jewish faculty and staff), allows its students to have a holiday for Yom Kippur, why can't Tyndale, which I'd say has over 90% Christian student and staff population, give extra time off so that we can actually spend reflecting on our Lord's sacrifice? Honestly!Anyway, here's the rundown to the end.
March 24th week: LTT journal 4, World Religions response paper
March 31st week: NT essay 2
April 7th week: LTT teaching lab and Tye review, Leadership self-awareness paper (gah!!)
April 14th week: LTT journal 5, World Religions major project paper
April 21st week: LTT gifted teacher report, NT exam, WR examThat's 11 major assignments/exams to weather. God help us all.
Also, please pray for my family right now. Going through some rough times again.
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3.10.08 :: Hunger Justice Leaders
I'd love to be a Hunger Justice Leader (all-expense paid leadership training!!!), but I think I have to be American. Let me e-mail them to see what Canadian organizations they can offer. Check out the site for Bread for the World.
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3.8.08 :: Q and A's
So I hit up the different booths at MissionFest today (yes, my dad braved the drive, and we stayed there the entire day!) with the purpose of gathering some information to raise awareness of justice issues at MCBC. I got a good mix of resources and suggestions, and here, I present them to you.The Question: I recently started a social justice small group at my home church. We're a new group, and we'd like to explore different issues to find our individual passions. I've been going around to different booths to find resources we can use to raise awareness of these different issues. What are issues we should pay attention to, and what are some resources at your organization or that you can recommend for us?
The Answers (in alphabetical order):
-:- Canadian Food for the Hungry International: Holistic ministry. This is the very organization that introduced me to the whole idea of holistic ministry, and they are still strong believers in it. Their main target is poverty, and they go through all means to get to it (education, health care, agriculture, clean water, environmental sustainability, business skills, worldview and more).-:- Christian Reformed Church: Karen, the Social Justice Co-ordinator (!), pretty much offered herself. She promises if I e-mailed her, she will "inundate me with information" about social justice resources. I look forward to her reply!
-:- International Justice Mission: Sex trafficking. I was handed a DVD documenting their work in freeing children trapped in brothels as sex workers (as young as 5 - purely disgusting), and a nice thick package of statistics on various issues that affect our world. It's a beautiful work they do.
-:- Living Water Canada: Safe water. They were excited to get people to drill water wells for their organization. Water is definitely on my mind lately.
-:- Micah Challenge Canada: Millennium Development Goals. This was my first stop at the exhibition hall. I was happy to learn that Micah Challenge is a mobilizing campaign to get churches active in pushing the government to meet the famed Millennium Development Goals for 2015 (it aims to halve poverty by that time). The reps were excited at our little justice group! I mentioned that I saw the campaign first in London, England, and they admitted that UK churches are very far along in the campaign. Their package contains lots of useful resources for church services to use (prayers, sermon topics, benediction, other activities). Mobilize, churches!
-:- Ontario Christian Gleaners: Food redistribution. Okay, I didn't actually ask them my question, but did you know that this organization takes produce that doesn't sell (for example, crooked carrots), dices and dehydrates it, and packs it into bags and donates it to various relief organizations as soup mixes? I think that's pretty neat.
-:- Samaritan's Purse: Safe accessible water. Samaritan's Purse has partnered with CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) with the Turn on the Tap campaign, which aims to bring biosand water filters (a Canadian invention, by the way) to Ethiopia, Cambodia, an Nicaragua. One filter, costing about $100, will bring clean water to 8-10 people.
-:- The Salvation Army: Housing in the GTA. Their "The New Suburbia" posters really caught my eye. It's an event joint with the Christian Community Development Association, which I've heard about at Urbana 2006, but don't know much about, except the fact that it has quite an impressive mandate. One of the goals is to raise awareness of gentrification and to encourage mixed income housing areas, I believe. Anyway, I'm super excited at the prospects of this event. I have to decide whether or not I'll dish out the $65 fee.
-:- Scott Mission: Volunteering. The gentleman introduced me to the many services at Scott Mission, and encouraged me to get the group out to volunteer. Yes, service learning is one of the best ways to learn, hands down.
-:- Visionledd/Women for Orphans and Widows: HIV/AIDS. It's probably the biggest issue that the world is focusing its energies on right now. The rep, Sharon, informed me that People's Church is going to have a mercy/justice event during 2-week-long missions conference, and that the head of US's Internation Justice Mission was going to be the speaker. Networking is the best way to get resources like this one!
-:- World Relief: Poverty. The rep talked about his passions in justice (he mentioned quite a few issues), and highly recommended that I check out the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (which I still need to do). As well, World Relief's biggest focus is microfinance, which provides loans to poor entrepreneurs to start their businesses. I love the concept.
-:- World Vision: HIV/AIDS. I got a "Save a Generation" campaign kit to recruit child sponsors who can in turn support children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, are dying of HIV/AIDS, or are affected by HIV/AIDS in some way. Some powerful videos are included in the kit. Also received a "Partners for Life" pamphlet full of resources World Vision provides for churches, communities, and schools.
-:- Yonge Street Mission: Prayer. The first thing Julian sprang for was the "Prayer for the City" pamphlet, which gives weekly prayer items for ministries at Yonge Street Mission, with Bible verses throughout. We talked quite a bit about various aspects of equipping the suburban church to do something about the city, and even ventured toward theology of the whole deal. The other volunteer (I forget her name) recommended me a few books (Ray Bakke and Robert Lupton) on ministering to the city. Frankly, YSM is one of my favourite organizations.
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Much can be done in our world. The question now is, will we do something?
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3.6.08 :: Drive
Need to get over my fear of driving.
Need to be more active in justice seeking.
Need to make my mind up about the summer.
Need to learn to walk in my own shoes.-:-:-:-
Well, I don't really know
Sometimes I feel the fear of uncertainty stinging clear
And I can't help but ask myself
How much I'll let the fear take the wheel and steerIt's driven me before
And it seems to have a vague, haunting mass appeal
But lately I'm beginning to find that I should be the one behind the wheelWhatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
I'll be thereSo if I decide to waiver my chance to be one of the hive
Will I choose water over wine nd hold my own and drive?It's driven me before
And it seems to be the way that everyone else gets around
But lately I'm beginning to find that
When I drive myself my light is foundWhatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes, yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
I'll be there-"Drive", Incubus
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3.1.08 :: Happy birthday, Ceci and Fong Fong!
Nothing like blowing $150 with my partner-in-crime at the grocery store for her birthday, and dining at the ever wonderful (but shrinking portions?) 168 South. :o) I hope you will have a productive afternoon, and a fun time at bowling tonight!Anyway, Ceci and I had a good chat about church affairs. It's interesting how the church leadership pined for young people to take up leadership at our recent annual general meeting. That wish would require the church to understand that when we are placed in leadership, the "Christianity" thy are used to would have a radically different face. I wholeheartedly believe that the faith has to be renewed at every generation. I just don't know if the church is ready for such a thing.
On the other hand, while pomos enjoy overstepping structures to make things happen (case in point: grocery runs), I am reminded of the operational tactic of International Justice Mission, who uses existing structures to bring freedom from oppression to people who suffer. The process, I'm sure, is excruciatingly long, but the pay off? Unimaginably sweet. Why? Because lasting changes are brought to the very structures that make our world tick, and the world is changed forever. Isn't that exactly the result we want to see?
So, as Ceci pointed out, it's a mutual give and take that we need to learn to live with. I just hope it's a lesson we can learn to the core.