A Few Words Written, A Few Words Read, & A Cup of Clean Water

The internet is a huge place. For my explorer's heart, there's a lot to discover. One of the best things that has come from the Start Experiment is a ton of new blogs, ideas, internet spaces that I can explore. I feel like over the past few weeks I have learned a great deal from people that just a few weeks ago I did not have any knowledge of them, their stories, their hurts, their causes, their fears, and what makes them come alive.

It's funny. I saw the simple tweet from Jon Acuff when I was sitting on a hotel bed pondering a life altering decision and decided 'Why not?'. A simple tweet, a quick email back and a lifetime changed is how it has turned out. I've been reading his stuff for years now. It's amazing to have seen a community connected just through his writings rally around each other to support each others' dreams coming true.

One of the fantastic things I've run across is Cause Pub which is a 'for-profit crowd-book-publishing company that partners with nonprofits to help them achieve specific goals within specific causes'. For their latest venture, they have gathered 127 storytellers together to share the moments when they have been pushed outside of their comfort zones to experience the world around them.

The best part? You get to read tons of awesome stories and help people around the world through Blood:Water Mission to help provide clean water in Africa. Why clean water? Because water is life giving.

Another really cool thing? You can read and vote on some of your favorite stories to be in the book. Would you rather write or photograph? CausePub provides those options too. How cool is that?

Their newest release, Couch Rebels, is coming on August 14. Go ahead and purchase it. I know I can't wait to get my hands on it!

Today's the Day to Vote!

Hey y'all!

 

Don't forget that today is the day to vote for Together We Rise in the Toyota 100 Cars for Good competition this Wednesday to get a free Toyota Tundra. Currently we have a non-air conditioned van that enjoys breaking down. We’ll be delivering the 500 bikes we have to foster kids around the nation either way, but a new Toyota Tundra would be delightful. 

 

Want to partner with us and post a Facebook Status about this? Yes! Great! Here's one you can use or you can make your own: “This year Together We Rise will giveaway over 500 bikes to foster kids. Can you help us deliver them? Vote here: http://bit.ly/Jp4sTZ ”

Your involvement today to help get Together We Rise a Tundra would be greatly appreciated!

Can TWR Use Your FB Status For A Day?

Howdy friends,

As y’all found out last time I posted to my blog, I’m a Social Media Intern for Together We Rise (TWR) this summer. We’re in the Toyota 100 Cars for Good competition this Wednesday to get a free Toyota Tundra. Currently we have a non-air conditioned van that enjoys breaking down. We’ll be delivering the 500 bikes we have to foster kids around the nation either way, but a new Toyota Tundra would be delightful.

I would love for my readers to combine their compassion, willingness to help others and their Facebook influence to join with me for the cause of getting TWR a Toyota Tundra.

This leads me to ask the question: Would you please allow TWR to use your Facebook status on Wednesday which is our voting day to help us win?

The Facebook status is: “This year Together We Rise will giveaway over 500 bikes to foster kids. Can you help us deliver them? Vote here: http://bit.ly/Jp4sTZ ” (You can also make your own!)

Your involvement on Wednesday's Toyota Competition on the behalf of TWR would be greatly appreciated!




Also, the video on my last post has been fixed...

Philippines

Click on the picture please.

twentythree. twentyfour. twentyfive. twentysix. twentyseven. twentyeight. twentynine. 30! thirtyone. thirtytwo. thirtythree. thirtyfour. thirtyfive.

twentythree. unseenbeauty:gardening

twentyfour. unseenbeauty:lastminuterememberings

twentyfive. Preparation for Mosaic talk. Lots of tears. unseenbeauty:LaChureca

twentysix. unseenbeauty:craftingjoyes

twentyseven. unseenbeauty:simplicity

twentyeight. unseenbeauty:HPClue/OtterFamily

twentynine. unseenbeauty: comfystudysetup

twentynine2. unseenbeauty: thefunofnerfguns

thirty. unseenbeauty: sunnyandrainyweather

thirtyone. Chad got a Facebook!

thirtytwo. unseenbeauty: icephotographyprojects

thirtythree. Beautiful Katie leading Bible Study.

thirtyfour. unseenbeauty: perfecttimingphonecalls

thirtyfour2. unseenbeauty: snowinTexas

thirtyfive. Gabby and I watching Enchanted.

A Thousand Words Isn't Enough.

No matter how many times I look at the images on my computer taken by my hands (and from a few friends) I can't fathom them. Images of dirt, blazing sun, wire topped buildings, trash piles larger than cars, children bathing in the midst of the trash - these are what I've been looking at tonight.

I'm speaking at Mosaic, my church's college ministry, on Thursday night. It's not something I normally would do. I don't speak. I don't even speak up in class when my grade is dependent upon it. The whole idea just freaks me out. For some reason, along with being slightly distracted, I agreed to speak about my international mission experiences this Thursday night. I believe I will be focusing on Mexico and Nicaragua.

I've been trying to get some pictures together to show. Pictures that can show what it is like, but all my pictures pale in comparison to the real heartache and situations that I have seen in these countries.

I'm good at having my mind on several different topics at once. I'm great at compartmentalizing and becoming numb to things. These pictures though, I can't become numb to. To become numb to them is to deny the reality that these situations are truly going on in other places and in a way right here at home too.

Now I can't get the pictures out of my head. Although my tears are gone, I can feel them lurking, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

I don't know what else to say. These pictures kind of cause a loss of words...

If you want to see my Nicaragua pictures from Summer 2009, click here.
If you want to see how God reminded me of La Chureca in the fall, click here.

La Chureca Is Holy Ground

Tonight at Disciple, we spoke about the part in Exodus where God speaks to Moses in the burning bush. Moses takes off his sandals because he is on holy ground and hides his face in reverence. Laurinda, our pastor and leader of the study, asked us if there has ever been a time we were on holy ground. Tongue-tied is the only way I can describe that moment as I saw the faces of those that I passed by in La Chureca, the city dump in Managua, Nicaragua, the faces of those that I spoke with, tarped houses for and generally enjoyed. Our team claimed La Chureca in the name of the Lord as his holy ground. Tonight, as Laurinda spoke about holy ground and us being on it, I began to read part of Exodus as if the Lord was speaking directly about La Chureca in the passage.

The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in [La Chureca, the city dump in Managua, Nicaragua]. I have heard them crying out because of [the situation they are in], and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the [oppressors] and to bring them up out of that land [known as La Chureca] into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey ... And now the cry of the [Churecans] has reached me, and I have seen the way the [government] are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you ... to bring my people the [ones I adore] out of [that filth and grime]." - Exodus 3:7-10 NIV

God said, "I've taken a good, long look at the affliction of my people in [La Chureca, the city dump in Managua, Nicaragua]. I've heard their cries for deliverance from [the situation they are in]; I know all about their pain. And now I have come down to help them, pry them loose from the grip of [those who oppress them], get them out of that [dump] and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces, a land lush with milk and honey ... "The [Churecan] cry for help has come to me, and I've seen for myself how cruelly they're being treated by the [government]. It's time for you to go back: I'm sending you ... to bring my people, the [ones that I adore], out of [the dump]."- Exodus 3:7-10 Message

The Lord is crying out for his beloved people who are living in this filth, grime and oppression as the world turns, having the knowledge of this and yet living life as if it is not a reality but just a fact of life.Wake up, for it is real and Jesus Christ desires to redeem his beloved people of La Chureca.

Bad Bull

At Texas A&M, when something's bad it's called "bad bull" Well, let me introduce you to something that I would consider to be bad bull. Skechers has decided to become social justice friendly and sell shoes in order to give another person shoes. Sound familiar? No? What about TOMS Shoes? Does that ring a bell? I hope it does. The Skechers shoes are called Bobs and are a direct rip off of the alpargata style of shoe from Argentina that TOMS has made famous.

I'm excited that Skechers has decided to branch out and become more inclined to social justice issues, I'm just not thrilled they decided to do this with ripping off someone elses' idea.

I found this not so fun fact out thanks to Brad Ruggles' blog where he shed some light on the truth of the issue and provided several links. If you go explore it, be sure to read the comments as they are rather insightful.

Praying to one day have TOMS if they ever fit me...

Freely Loved, Freely Loving

I don't want to discuss immigration anymore after today. Forget the series that never really started. If you want to discuss immigration, one on one, I'd love to sit down with a cup of joe or facebook chat about it all. However, I just wanted to leave you with a quotation from my friend Mikey because I agree with him 110%. This was from our original discussion about immigration way back in October.

“My biggest fear is when I go before the judgment seat of Christ to have been found lacking - that I didn’t go to the least and the last, that I ignored people outside my own door that need Jesus, like illegal immigrants. We’re supposed to love the criminal. Yeah, they’re illegal immigrants, but Jesus still died for them. His grace is sufficient to cover that. Who are you or I to judge them? By feeding them you’re not offering amnesty, you’re offering love - a love that they might not love, but a love that was freely given to us and a love that we must freely give.” - Michael Ryan

Need Inspiration? Look No Further.

This posting of links that have impacted me in some way are chock full of the Compassion International bloggers trip to Kenya this past week or so. It's something that I could have easily skipped over and not thought about. I didn't and I hope you won't either.

You can't microwave spiritual formation. That line alone is something I think we all need to hear.

Kenyan for soccer ball. I absolutely loved the Third World Dictionary series from Shaun Groves.

Good Neighbors Don't Pray.

Music of the Masai.

A Father to the Fatherless.

Sight for the Blind.

The parable of the zebra.

Photoshoot on traveling, photography and fun? Yes!

Hobo Living Room. I like pranks. It's a problem.

Wishing the snakes would stop biting. Amen.

& Jeremiah told me to look this up earlier in the week. One of the blogs I follow posted to it as well saying that it was "Stupid Awesome". Agreed.

& Why not share two quotes that have been sitting in a window on my computer all week?

"Maybe the soul is a suitcase that holds the backup plan - a collection of keys and the patience we need to start again. Maybe it’s the thresholds that swallow us whole as we learn to let go, in spite of the dirt on our clothes." - Ryan O’Neal of Sleeping at Last

"If you have a beautiful story, it has to have conflict in it. It has to. We’ve lost touch with that. We are a conflict avoiding culture. One of the things I love about our source text as Christians, the Bible, is that it teaches us not to avoid conflict. It also teaches us that conflict existed before the fall of man, that in paradise there was conflict. It’s not wrong. God wants there to be conflict in your own life." - Donald Miller

Get Excited!

Y'all may remember something awhile back about Shaun Groves and Compassion International doing something excited for Haiti, well this is it! Get excited!

Compassion is also heading to Kenya this week and one of the bloggers that I follow, Brad Ruggles, will be heading to Kenya with the crew and blogging about it. You should go read his stuff. I'm definitely excited about following the trip to Kenya.

Call+Response

Screen the whole thing tomorrow night at A&M UMC, 7pm.
Hope to see you there!

Understanding.

Haiti, I won't forget you.

Cries Among the Trash

I read a lot of social justice stuff in a given day. I don't always focus on it though. A lot of days I like to read, meditate for a second on whatever issue I'm reading about and then click over to a "happier" blog or to facebook or to whatever else will distract my mind from the hurts of so many in this world.

While reading Pete Wilson's blog today about a girl named Puja Ghosh, a sentence struck out at me and made me take notice of it.

"She lives with a family here in the Khalpar slum who found her in a pile of trash. Her mom literally tossed her out like you would a loaf of moldy bread."

Soak the reality of that sentence up.
That could have been me. That could have been you.
God has crazy plans that are for each of us. I don't know why I was allowed a loving, generous family while Puja, a sweet daughter of the King, is growing up with a different family than her own. I don't know why I don't have to deal with the pain of that situation and Puja does. I don't know why, but I am thankful that I got to hear her story. You should go read the rest and pray for Puja.

Pray for love. Pray for her future. Pray for her relationships. Pray for God to shine through her. Pray for her new family. Pray for her parents that tossed her into the trash. Pray.

Praying for Haiti

In 2005, I went on my first overseas mission trip (not including Mexico). I went to the Dominican Republic with FUMC Houston. During this time, we were working in Jimini, which is located on the border and is a site for Haitian refugees who have come to the DR searching for a better life among the natives who reside there. I can't remember right now if it was an earthquake or monsoon which had devastated that area years earlier. The team decided to cross into Haiti right at the border with our missionaries to hold a prayer walk through the marketplace as we got to see Haiti for the few minutes we were there. I can't begin to describe the heaviness which filled the air. It seemed as if the air held the Haitians inner thoughts of depression, failure, pessimism and overall darkness. It was a hard prayer walk to say the least.

During the past 2 weeks, there have been 2 massive earthquakes that have devastated Haiti. I'm not going to let you know about the statistics because with the constant communication in the world today, the stats are everywhere. There are things following this and previous national disasters that are overlooked. One of my friends posted a link to an article in The Atlantic called Island of Lost Children. Please go read it. It's necessary the world knows of what's really going on with those children who are separated from their loved ones and may be forced into a horrendous situation of slavery. It broke my heart this morning.

I didn't think I'd post about this up this quick, but here's a heads up on more Haiti related talk we'll be having soon. Shaun Groves, a Christian music artist who is a representative of Compassion International, is working with them to headline a one day event in three major U.S. cities in support of Haiti. There will be more about this as information comes about, but please be in prayer for Haiti as well as this event.

Heading Back

It's my last night in Houston for the summer. I can't believe summer is over. It's bittersweet to say the least. Tomorrow, I'll be packing the rest of my stuff up into my car. In the meantime, I'll be praying that it all fits and preferably with a spot to pick up a friend on the way to my duplex. I'm hoping to not have to make a second trip down because I'm not sure when that would happen.

I'm hoping to make some semester goals and sticking to them. I've got a couple that have been mulling over in my mind lately, but we'll see what my last major drive for awhile comes up with before I go ahead and tell y'all. Why tell? I need a record and I can't lose this like I can a sheet of paper although I will be writing it in my journal. Mainly though, I need accountability from y'all, whoever y'all may be so that I maintain even a semblance of my goals.

I've been cramming in a lot of last minute things in the last three weeks. I had the joy of travelling to Austin to see the UTXA crew with Matt & Jen, the youth pastor and family from Wrangell. It was wonderful to see everyone and just catch up with them a bit before their semester started.

It's harder for me to leave Austin every time I visit. I'm not really ready to go back to A&M. I'm ready to see everyone. I'm just not get back to the hustle and bustle of everything especially as it consumed me last year.

No breaks though. I already have plans for tomorrow night and all day Sunday. Hopefully Monday I'll have some rest. I'm not holding out for that though. Nothing like being thrust back into the culture of A&M and the college life in general.

Enough about that, I'm sure I'll be revisiting these thoughts soon.

I read some interesting blogs tonight that I can't keep to myself. I'm inviting you to check them out. They both deal with social justice issues, something very dear to my heart, although both blogs are approached in very different manners.

This first one crushes me, but I'm glad that I am aware of this injustice.

The second one makes me rethink my daily life and seems very in line with my life in general. In short it is an inspiration.

Now to return to packing. It seems as if I have quite a bit to do before even thinking about making my thoughts of slumber into reality.

Savoring the last bits of summer...

...or visiting the doctor because I'm sick. Yeah, those seem about equal. Okay, maybe not.

Getting sick combined with last minute hangouts with full families, college friends that are in med/PA school, watching a friend of yours get pantsed by a monkey at Stockholder's reception and hearing your friend preach on Sunday morning for the first time ever has taken a toll on my time. However, getting sick just knocked me out for a few days. I'm back though with a necessity to go 1000mph to get ready to get back to school next week.

There's this problem though. It's stinking hot in here! I rarely ever get hot and always wonder why all the humans with temperature needs closer to polar bears need fans faced at them at all times or have the urge to don the Captain Obvious costumes as they spout off the obvious with phrases such as "It's hot." Well, I don't know how y'all do it, but I'll be very grateful to return to my normal body temperature where the hot is just not as hot. As if that even makes sense.

This isn't much of a read today, but I've got a link to a blog that has a link to a website. Why not just link directly? It'd be way too hard, plus the description on the blog explains a tad about the website in four short paragraphs with a great description. It's worth the extra clicking to go to a world next door.

Needing a Good Read? Great!

The last few days have been really sweet with seeing some amazing friends of mine. However, I have something different to share with you today.

I was just reading the latest blog on Blood:Water Mission's site. It got me to thinking of a novel I read earlier this year. I've been wanting to do some book reviews for awhile and I think this is a good time to start and a great novel to start with.

The Calling by Elizabeth Hankins is a book that captivated me on my December travel to Acuña, Mexico. Here's the synopsis which you can find on the authors website:

Chicago Tribune columnist Mera Kaine has overcome tremendous abuse and pain — experience that’s made her a passionate champion of human rights. But when her best friend’s religious ambition turns to violence, Mera is left with a dark secret that keeps her running — right into the war-ravaged villages of Southern Sudan where she uncovers an epic conspiracy at the hands of a militant government and its sponsoring energy consortium. Then, just as unexpected hope finds her, Mera must choose between the life she’s always dreamed of and a final, deadly act that could help liberate a people.

I strongly suggest that you go read this if you have any interest in Africa for sure. I really enjoy reading, but rarely get drawn into the point where I'm captivated in such a way that I can't put it down. I must attempt to do every other daily routine action while engulfing myself in the literature. That is how I felt about The Calling. I finished in January. It is almost August and I'm still seeing the images I conjured up in my mind as I was reading and meditating on the words Elizabeth Hankins penned that cut down to my soul. Incredible. Go, grab a cup of tea and sit in your favorite comfy chair and read this. You won't regret it.