Prayers for Steven Curtis Chapman

Keep the family of Contemporary Christian songwriter, Steven Curtis Chapman, in your prayers as they mourn the tragic death of their youngest daughter. His music has brought many closer to Christ and now he and especially his teenage son need our prayers.

Another Opportunity to Help

While at Vanderbilt, I had the opportunity to travel to Thailand for 17 days. Among other things, we studied the problem of the sex trade and responses to it. One of the things that we learned was that many of the girls were from the hilltribes of Northern Thailand and from Burma. The cyclone that hit Myanmar (Burma) has given the sex traffickers another opportunity to take advantage of these girls.

Right now, Not for Sale organization, has partnered with another foundation to raise $50,000 in the next two weeks to help. Here is what the e-mail said:

The Crisis in Burma continues...
Today in Myanmar, 2.5 million people cling to survival after the disaster that hit two weeks ago. The latest state television update in former Burma has declared the death toll after the May 2nd cyclone to be 77,738 people. Another 55,917 are still reported missing.* Thousands swarm the roadsides of a country void of the foreign aid it so desperately needs. Children, destitute and orphaned, are picked up by vicious traffickers prowling the disaster area.

This week, David Batstone travels to Myanmar to approach the crisis situation.

Last Fall, Not For Sale partnered with Thai Abolitonist Kru Nam to build a shelter for 125 kids rescued out of the sex trade industry. Today, she implores us to intervene again as Burmese children trafficked into Thailand are being rampantly sold.

It's time to build a shelter, and it's time to act fast.
Not For Sale, this week, has partnered with a foundation that will match EVERY DOLLAR we donate, up to $25,000. Our goal is to raise $50k in the next two weeks. The shelter will be on the border between former Burma and Thailand, and will provide the critical care necessary to rescue Burmese orphans out of slavery. Kru Nam's village, as is, cannot support one of the growing needs in this crisis. But together, we believe we can raise enough money that can.

DONATE now. Every dollar you give is worth two. Join the call to action in this crisis.
* Statistics obtained from www.nationalpost.com

Join us in making a difference.

(Bi) Weekly Review

So many articles, so little time . . .
But here are some highlights.

Tony shares some good reads. Thanks to his post, I'm now reading Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution" as part of my morning devotions.

Over at the Ooze, Kimberly George challenges the church to speak out about Domestic Violence. (Interesting side note, according the Percept data, this is a major issue for the Grant area!)

Mental Floss is a lot of fun AND you can learn lots of cool trivia. Check out 7 Things You Need to Know About the Torah. (And just for fun, you can learn things you never knew about the Dick Van Dyke show!)

Gotta to love the shareholders at Google! (Did you know that they began with the motto, "Don't Be Evil"? Right in line with Wesley's general rules. Rule one, "First, by doing no harm or any kind of evil.) What would the world be like if more shareholders demanded that their companies be as concerned with improving the world as improving profits?!

Time Magazine examines the problems in Burma/Myanmar.

As I walked back to my boat, the [Burmese] teacher asked where I came from. He inquired whether in the U.S. people can "say government bad." I said, Yes, we can. The teacher looked at me and shook his head. Then he pointed at the waterlogged earth and slashed a finger across his neck.
Hannah Beach Time Magazine

How wonderful that all Presidential candidates are declaring that poverty IS a moral issue!

Check out "5 Psychological Experiments that Prove the World is Doomed." I would have entitled it: "5 Psychological Experiments that Prove the World is in Need of Redemption."

How to Help China Earthquake Victims

Here is the link to donate to UMCOR to help with assistance to the victims of the horrific earthquake in China.

Check out this Radiohead video

All I NeedCheck out Eugene Cho's blog about this video for ways you can help.

Steven's Graduation

What a wonderful day!

How to Help Mynamar

As if this country hasn't experienced enough pain from its government, now a cyclone. Here is a link the UMCOR Advance. Remember 100% of what you give goes to relief!

Witness

Weekly Review

This has been quite a week for reflections. I think I've bookmarked more articles this week than any other week, so the challenge will be to pick and choose. So here we go:

First, I discovered a blog that I love! Check out Beauty and Depravity written by Eugene Cho, the pastor at Quest Church in Seattle (wish I'd known about his church when we were in Seattle last year instead of wasting time trying to contact Marc Driscoll!) He has a great sense of humor and I don't recommend reading it if you can't handle satire and sarcasm (although it is gentle). I had to control myself not to recommend every one of his posts from the past week. Some of the highlights this week are ultimate fighting jesus about concern over the feminization of the church; my conversation with rob bell about women's leadership in the church; and 10 reasons why men should not be ordained for ministry.

You may want to check out Coldplay's newest album, some say they are following in the footsteps of U-2.

Interest in Jesus is coming from the strangest places and the strangest people feel qualified to tell us about him. But somehow I can't imagine that the director of Basic Instinct is well versed in the subject.

Poor Christian Witness of the Week goes to Christian marketers who steal the designs of others.

10 Ways to Find Balance in your life.

Coffee Pastor reflects on the problem preaching on Mother's Day!

Our youth pastor, Tony, reflects on the importance of names--especially the name Christian. Hey Tony-- other names that are important to me: Mom, wife, pastor.

Scot McKnight reflects on reading the Bible for formation.

Beliefnet had a blogalogue containing conversations between N.T. Wright and Bart Ehrman discussing evil.

Over at Out of Ur, David Swanson gives an uncomfortable challenge about what to do with our economic stimulus tax refunds!

Well that's enough for now.

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Tammy Wynette's song was released in 1968 and I guess I must have been about the same age as "Little J-O-E." I was living in Texas with my mom and sister and my dad was living in Virginia. I have very few memories of my life before divorce was a part of it. Growing up, I remember going outside as the stars started to appear and wishing on the first star that my parents would get back together. And I remember the pain of leaving my friends to go to Maryland for the summer to stay with my dad and his parents and wondering if they would all forget me while I was gone. As an adult, I look back and I know my parents did their very best to make our lives somewhat normal. And I suspect the divorce was less a mistake than the marriage, but it is hard to regret something that brought you life! Anyway, my life has been formed and shaped--for better or worse--by the reality of divorce. So I couldn't help but pick up a copy of Newsweek with its article about the Class of '82 and the effect divorce had on their life (The Divorce Generation Grows Up) and then later in the week to find this blog about divorce and forgiveness.

Wait and Pray Friday Five

Last night, I gathered with a wonderful group of friends to discuss the book, The Shack (which I think we all agreed we will read again!). One of the main messages that we received from reading the book was the importance of waiting expectantly for God. Then this morning, over at REVGALBLOGPALS, the Friday Five questions deal with waiting. So here are their questions and my answers and I invite you to share your answers with me.

Then he was taken from their sight into the clouds, two angels appeared and instructed the probably bewildered disciples to go back to Jerusalem, where they began to wait and to pray for the gift Jesus had promised.

Prayer is a joy to some of us, and a chore to others, waiting likewise can be filled with anticipation or anxiety....

So how do you wait and pray?

1. How do you pray best, alone or with others? While I enjoy times of corporate prayer, I pray best alone. I guess this is the introvert in me, but I pray best in the quiet of my sun room or even the comfort of my bed. I actually do a lot of praying while driving (a good thing given how much time it seems I spend on the road—please avoid all jokes here ;-D ) My prayer life tends to suffer when I can’t or don’t find “alone” time.

2. Do you enjoy the discipline of waiting, is it a time of anticipation or anxiety? I am ashamed to admit it, but I’m not good at the discipline of waiting when I don’t know when the waiting will end. In other words, pregnancy was fine because I had an approximate end date. Right now I am anticipating my move to New Life because I know when it is going to happen but even that is tinged with a bit of anxiety about what lies ahead. Actually, come to think about it so did pregnancy . . . But I am awful about those times of waiting where you don’t know when or HOW they will end. God has been at work with me for years on this issue and while I’m better about trusting during the waiting time, I’m still not terribly good at it. A book that was very helpful to me during one of those waiting times was Sue Monk Kidd’s “When the Heart Waits” and Renita Weem’s (my Hebrew Bible professor at Vandy) “Listening for God”

3. Is there a time when you have waited upon God for a specific promise?
Yes. Many times and God has always been faithful even when God answered in a different way than I expected or had a different timeline than I did! Actually, I guess that is the real promise anyway that not matter what God will be with us and is working on our behalf. I’m not sure God promised anything more or less than that.

4. Do you prefer stillness or action? Oh, I’m a Martha—give me action. I think that is why I love spiritual disciplines, such as prayer stations and labrynths. They allow me to reflect silently while actively doing something.

5. If (and this is slightly tongue in cheek) you were promised one gift spiritual or otherwise what would you choose to receive? PATIENCE! (NOW!)