I find it very sad that people have put all their faith and hope on a person that is no better than you or I. If you haven't figured out by the title I am talking about Obama. I want to state up front that I have nothing against the man. He is my president, I will support and pray for him. I may not agree with everything he does, but I battled the lines and voted so I have the right to complain when the time comes. With all that being said, I am talking about the Messiah complex everyone is attaching to him. Everyone assumes he is going to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity. A time when we would not be at war defending our nation from those who want to do us harm. A time when we, as a nation, would not be in economic turmoil and would return to be an economic juggernaut with the dollar being far superior to all other forms of currency.
I have dire news. This will not happen immediately. It may not happen in the next four years. How do I know this? Obama is human. Congress is also full of human beings. Human beings are fallen, and have missed the mark that is the glory of God. Remember when the Democrats took control a couple of years ago. They said they would not write anymore blank checks for Bush and Co. Except they did that. They said they would push for a time table and have our troops home soon. They tried to push and nothing happened. While everyone is caught up in the idea that Obama and the Democrats are going to save the country, let us not forget that the Republicans were not the only ones who helped the country fall to this low.
Sorry for the sidetrack, I was talking about the Messiah hopes everyone has for Obama. He can no more make peace in the middle east than he can make Swiss cheese without holes. He cannot single-handily save the nation from the downward spiral that it is in. His historic win is wonderful. I am glad to be in a country that decided to look past ethnicity and vote for someone they believed in.
I seem to be rambling, what I am trying to say is that our hope should not be put into flesh and blood. Human beings cannot be the basis of all hope. It seems that those who are truly looking for some hope are latching onto whatever they can. There is a hopelessness in America that has not been seen for some time. This hopelessness is derived from the fact that people have put their faith in the stock market and it has tanked. They turn to leaders and they have been disappointing. They are trying to find something that is going to make them feel good. Then along comes a man that is a really good orator. They latch onto him because they see in him something they have been looking for, hope.
As I said we should not put our faith in something that looks like hope, because it may not come. Our hope and our faith needs to rest solely on Jesus Christ. He is the only one that can fill the void in our lives. Hope needs to be seen in Christians who will stand up for those who are less fortunate. We need to take the light out into the dark corners of this great country of ours. The time has come for hopelessness to be vanquished. A great spiritual awakening is coming to the land. There are birth pangs of this awakening happening all over the place. Hopelessness will disappear, we will see a new era of peace. A time where the discussion of the day would be Christ centered and not centered on the latest happenings in Hollywood.
Oh, how I hope and pray for this great day to come when the Lord would be known once more throughout the land. I pray for the coming of the spirit to pour revival out onto all of the land. Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
07 January 2009
22 December 2008
Quick Update
I've been told I need to update. I really have nothing new to say, except that I have graduated. I am still in Louisville. I am working on paperwork with the Board. We are surviving. If I have an interesting thought I want to share with the world I will write a new post. I now this is short, but the title says a quick update. So there it is.
Until I post again, remember what the imminent philosopher Red Green would always say: "Keep your stick on the ice."
Until I post again, remember what the imminent philosopher Red Green would always say: "Keep your stick on the ice."
15 April 2008
A Thought
Poverty. This has been something that has been discussed in a class recently. It is interesting to see how explosive a discussion of poverty can be. I have recently finished a book about squatters called "Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World." One of the things brought out in this book is that some of the people who are living in these squatter communities are quite happy. They do not care about property ownership, if offered a title deed they might take it. However, this would mean for some they would have to go deeper into debt. It is easier for them to live in an illegal city than in the legal one.
Many believe those that are in poverty stricken areas hate it there and want nothing more than to move out. While this is true for some, it is not necessarily true for all. I applaud those that have been able to get out of the poverty areas, yet there are those that are still there. It is heart wrenching to see these people in dire need of help. What is the answer for these people?
I have none. The reason I say this is because whatever model I come up with is from an outsider's perspective. I have not been in these communities. I would have an etic approach to all of this. The poor will always be with us. We do need to help, that is obvious. How far can one go without allowing the people to become dependent? This is a question worth pondering.
That part of the post was written about two months ago. Recently I traveled to Honduras with my Church and got to see some abstract poverty up close. While we were there we pondered the exact same question. How to help these people? There was so much that these people needed that it was impossible for us to even begin to scratch the surface while we were there for one week. We just had to think through what could possibly be done. One thought was to buy some land for them so they could be able to farm the land, turn a profit, and live better lives. I, of course, pointed out how this would not help the people.
They would not become self-sufficient as they should. Instead they would become dependent upon the church. The church provided the land, they should be able to provide the money for the crops, and then the money for the tools to harvest the crops. This leads to providing money to help them reach the marketplace to sell the crop. This is a never ending cycle of needing money from the church to do more . The argument could of course be that once they make money, they would begin to pay the church back. Of course, the time for Coffee to grow and be harvestable is a long time. Which makes the money that the church needs to get paid back harder to have all the time. Instead of the money staying in Honduras it would go back to the church which is backing the production. This means the poor will stay poor and the church will slowly recoup the losses. This does not work.
One of the problems I think several of us were having was we were not thinking like they do. While we see a problem with people leaving the village to get a better life and send some money back, they really do not. This is what has always happened, it is in fact the trend for the world. The majority of the world's population is living in the city. Rural outposts like the one we were in are becoming scarce. Some are becoming ghost towns overnight, while more and more squatter communities are rising.
What can be done to help those in abstract poverty like we saw, without them becoming dependent or staying poor? I do not know. Whatever the answer, those who are poor need to be involved and they should not be stereotyped as something ugly. Because the majority of them are not the way many people think they are.
Many believe those that are in poverty stricken areas hate it there and want nothing more than to move out. While this is true for some, it is not necessarily true for all. I applaud those that have been able to get out of the poverty areas, yet there are those that are still there. It is heart wrenching to see these people in dire need of help. What is the answer for these people?
I have none. The reason I say this is because whatever model I come up with is from an outsider's perspective. I have not been in these communities. I would have an etic approach to all of this. The poor will always be with us. We do need to help, that is obvious. How far can one go without allowing the people to become dependent? This is a question worth pondering.
That part of the post was written about two months ago. Recently I traveled to Honduras with my Church and got to see some abstract poverty up close. While we were there we pondered the exact same question. How to help these people? There was so much that these people needed that it was impossible for us to even begin to scratch the surface while we were there for one week. We just had to think through what could possibly be done. One thought was to buy some land for them so they could be able to farm the land, turn a profit, and live better lives. I, of course, pointed out how this would not help the people.
They would not become self-sufficient as they should. Instead they would become dependent upon the church. The church provided the land, they should be able to provide the money for the crops, and then the money for the tools to harvest the crops. This leads to providing money to help them reach the marketplace to sell the crop. This is a never ending cycle of needing money from the church to do more . The argument could of course be that once they make money, they would begin to pay the church back. Of course, the time for Coffee to grow and be harvestable is a long time. Which makes the money that the church needs to get paid back harder to have all the time. Instead of the money staying in Honduras it would go back to the church which is backing the production. This means the poor will stay poor and the church will slowly recoup the losses. This does not work.
One of the problems I think several of us were having was we were not thinking like they do. While we see a problem with people leaving the village to get a better life and send some money back, they really do not. This is what has always happened, it is in fact the trend for the world. The majority of the world's population is living in the city. Rural outposts like the one we were in are becoming scarce. Some are becoming ghost towns overnight, while more and more squatter communities are rising.
What can be done to help those in abstract poverty like we saw, without them becoming dependent or staying poor? I do not know. Whatever the answer, those who are poor need to be involved and they should not be stereotyped as something ugly. Because the majority of them are not the way many people think they are.
10 January 2008
Update
Well, it has been a long time since I have updated. Not sure what has prevented me from doing so. Wait, I remember school, work, marriage, etc. Life happened. Let me try and catch everyone up to speed since July 25, my last post. Nothing really happened in August, other than school starting. In September, Rebecca's parents and sister came up for a visit during Labor Day weekend. We traveled across the bluegrass seeing various touristy spots. (Not really my cup of tea, as I am an off the beaten path traveler) October came and marked the passing of my grandfather. It was a very sad time as I was really close to him, we took the week off and went home for the funeral. I did not miss any school as it was during fall break, I would have missed school anyway. November came and we had our first thanksgiving in our apartment. After that was the crazy greed season at all the retail stores, lucky me I work in one. Christmas came and we were able to go home for a little while.
Now it is January and we are in the middle of planning an m-trip to Honduras in June. There are 19 individuals traveling, the ages range from 11 to 66. This is an amazing group. Things are coming together better than I had thought they would. We (Rebecca and I) have also been given the opportunity to go overseas by the end of the year for a 2-3 year term with the board. We are still praying through this and have a meeting with a professor and his wife tomorrow night to discuss it some more. That is all, I will try to update more this year. Yeah, right.
Now it is January and we are in the middle of planning an m-trip to Honduras in June. There are 19 individuals traveling, the ages range from 11 to 66. This is an amazing group. Things are coming together better than I had thought they would. We (Rebecca and I) have also been given the opportunity to go overseas by the end of the year for a 2-3 year term with the board. We are still praying through this and have a meeting with a professor and his wife tomorrow night to discuss it some more. That is all, I will try to update more this year. Yeah, right.
25 July 2007
Providence rocks!
Well, as many of you know I got married. I do not have any pics, yet. When I do I will try to put some up. (That is for those who were not able to make it to the wedding). We have been in the apartment in the 'Ville now for a couple of weeks and a lot of things have happened. This past Sunday we moved our membership to the church we attend here in Kentucky. On Tuesday we made a trip to the Social Security office, so Rebecca could get her name changed on her Social Security card. (We had finally received the official copy of our license last week). After having a rousing wait of approximately 40 minutes, in a place that ... there is no nice way of describing the room or those in it, so I will not describe it. I'm sure there were some people there that were not as bad as they looked. I have seen worse at state fairs. Moving on, we get back to the apartment to grab some lunch before we go get our driver's licenses. We did not make it, because I got a call about a job interview that afternoon and then our washer and dryer showed up. This is a washer and dryer that we did not have to pay for, that's pretty sweet.
I go to my job interview and am handed the job without a real interview. The questions were along the lines of: "So you can work on what days? How does $8.50 an hour sound? Can you come in tonight for orientation?" Needless to say, I had the job because I showed up for the interview. I knew they were desperate for people and I was desperate for a job. It was a perfect fit.
We got our driver's licenses this morning, I am now an official resident of Kentucky.
God has worked providentially in our lives in the last week, and for this we are grateful and thankful. It truly is amazing to see how God works in our lives when we put full faith and trust in Him.
I go to my job interview and am handed the job without a real interview. The questions were along the lines of: "So you can work on what days? How does $8.50 an hour sound? Can you come in tonight for orientation?" Needless to say, I had the job because I showed up for the interview. I knew they were desperate for people and I was desperate for a job. It was a perfect fit.
We got our driver's licenses this morning, I am now an official resident of Kentucky.
God has worked providentially in our lives in the last week, and for this we are grateful and thankful. It truly is amazing to see how God works in our lives when we put full faith and trust in Him.
22 May 2007
My New/Old Kentucky Home
Well, I've moved from the top of the hill at Seminary to the bottom. I've been unpacking, looking for furniture, and a washer/dryer. However, I'm bored out of my mind because I do not have any classes and I am not working right now. This just gives me more time to not do anything at all. Needless to say I'm bored and will continue to be so until something happens, i.e. hopefully a job offer. I'm writing this because I thought I might update this, I have no news or anything to discuss. Just that I'm bored and I'm moved into the new apartment.
20 April 2007
Wait a minute
I had been doing some research for some papers on a particular people group (the Tartars of Russia) and had a thought. Maybe after Seminary, me and Rebecca should go to Alaska to reach the Russians that are there and then maybe go to Russia later. I'm not sure where that came from and I'm not sure why I'm posting it now. However, after looking at the the Web site peoplegroups.info I found out that in all of Alaska there are approximately 5,250 people of Russian ancestry. Out of those 5,250, approximately 900 claim Russian nationality. However, approximately 2,000 speak the Russian language. That's pretty cool, I have yet to find out if there are any churches being planted among the Russian people in Alaska. I'm still trying to figure out why I'm thinking about this and all that jazz.
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