Random pics from the last few months...

Poverty and Michael Jackson

I watched part of the Covenant Annual Meeting online to see what happened last week. Jim Sundholm received a reward for the service he's done with Covenant World Relief. In his acceptance speech, he talked about three people who died last week and how everyone was talking about them. (Michael Jackson was one of them). But then he said an innocent child dies every 5 seconds and no one talks about them. Ironically, I found as I googled my favorite Michael Jackson song, Man in the Mirror, that... apparently, Michael Jackson tried to talk about the forgotten ones that Jim was trying to remind us about. Are we listening any more now than we were then?

Michael Jackson - Man in the Mirror (1987)

As I turned up the collar on

A favorite winter coat

This wind is blowin' my mind

I see the kids in the street

With not enough to eat

Who am I to be blind

Pretending not to see their needs

A summer's disregard

A broken bottle top

And a one man's soul

They follow each other

On the wind ya' know

Cause they got nowhere to go

That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make a change,

I've been a victim of

A selfish kinda love

It's time that I realize

There are some with no home

Not a nickel to loan

Could it be really pretending that they're not alone

A willow deeply scarred

Somebody's broken heart

And a washed out dream(Washed out dream)

They follow the pattern of the wind ya' see

'Cause they got no place to be

That's why I'm starting with me

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make a change

There are so many ways to "actively listen" locally and globally. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the needs EVERYWHERE. But this week, the youth and I have been serving at a bakery that employs handicapped youth called Grain de Vie. Here's another option:

Covenant World Relief
Established in 1946, Covenant World Relief has served as the international humanitarian aid and development arm of the ECC (in times of extreme need it also does USA domestic disaster response). Our charge is to assist the poorest of the poor by offering Relief, Rehabilitation, and Transformational Development.
Covenant World Relief is an effective, efficient, respected and flexible humanitarian aid ministry in Christ’s name, with a sixty year history. CWR works through local churches, collaborations, and partnerships. This increases local presence in service, controls and reduces overhead, empowers local ministry, and grants immediate response to disaster and human suffering.
UPDATE - Learn more about the new Human Trafficking website and read about how Covenant World Relief is helping to Break the Chains!

Currently, I am babysitting at the Nickols' house. They live about 20 min from my house. I picked up Patrick after school (8 yr old, almost 9) and then Katherine (13) should be getting home any minute from a party. The dad's British and the mom's an American from New York. Patrick cracks me up, so I just have to share what happened at supper. I was telling him about how I saw in the news that a 3 year old flushed a little puppy down the toilet thinking he was trying to give it a bath. I said, "The puppy was in the sewer for 4 hours!" He said, "How old is the puppy?" I said, "I don't know, but I'd say about 4 weeks. He's really little." Then, without missing a BEAT, he said, "4 hours, that's 1/168th of his life!"

I am not kidding you - that is what he said. So then I was trying to quickly calculate to see if he could actually be right, and I think he is!

Just to play, I said, "What if it had been a 40-year-old?" And again, without hardly thinking, he said, "1/168th would be a little more than 3 months."

A second later he said, "But if the person were 42, that'd be exactly 3 months!"

So, either I am hanging out with a genius, or it was just a fluke. I told him, "Patrick, I think you're having a genius moment..." He of course responded, "Come on, it's been over 5 minutes - that's more than a moment!"

After supper, he proceeded to cream me in his version of "Wii Olympics". We played soccer, crushed watermelons with our heads, tennis, bowling and golf, in that order.

After putting him to bed, I called up the stairs, "Gute nacht." He said, "Uh, you mean good night." I said, "Yeah." Then he called out, "What's with the German?!" Maybe you had to be there for this one but I'm gonna go to bed laughing.

It's been a great day overall... though it started slow. I think I had a low grade fever and Madeleine has the chicken pox so the poor girl is covered in pox from head to toe. I got stood up for a worship practice which is too common, so that's an area that could use some prayer. One of the highlights, though, was walking around with one of my students and her boyfriend. They've got a great relationship and I've seen both of them change a lot in the last year. They're in their early 20s but I think they're thinking this could go long term. It was a privilege to hear more about how they met and what they are thinking about for the future. It was a bit of a counseling session and I got to pray with them. He was shy about praying out loud, but I was floored that a girl that used to be so shy and so closed off just launched into a beautiful prayer for them both. I've noticed lately that people are letting me into their lives more, both in and outside of our little church community. This is such an honor! And yet, it seems as if the end of this project may be coming into sight. Not sure when - I don't think it's super soon, but for the first time since I got here, I see that I can't stay here forever and it seems like now is the time to talk about 2010 and beyond. Thanks for your prayers in this as well!

Excited about tomorrow: Serve the City meeting as we prepare for June 27th through July 4th (our big work of over 100 projects throughout the Brussels region), then lunch or something with Karen and maybe Marissa, then to the movies with Elisa, a new friend of mine, then home somewhat early to prepare to lead worship on Sunday.

On Sunday, after church, I plan on driving to see Peter B in Germany!! He was in seminary with me in Chicago - a foreign exchange student from Germany. I will finally get to meet his fiancee.

Hope you are all doing well! Thanks for reading!!

This is a "Student's Prayer". I gave it to the youth so they can pray as they study. Thanks for praying with and for them!

Prière de l’étudiant
Apprends-moi, Seigneur, à bien user du temps que tu me donnes pour travailler et à bien l'employer, sans rien en perdre. Apprends-moi à tirer profit des erreurs passées sans tomber dans le scrupule qui ronge. Apprends-moi à prévoir le plan sans me tourmenter, à imaginer l'œuvre sans me désoler si elle jaillit autrement. Apprends-moi à unir la sérénité et la ferveur, le zèle et la paix. Aide-moi au départ de l'ouvrage là où je suis le plus faible. Aide-moi au cœur du labeur à tenir serré le fil de l'attention, et surtout comble toi-même les vides de mon œuvre. Seigneur, dans tout labeur de mes mains, laisse une grâce de Toi pour parler aux autres et un défaut de moi pour parler à moi-même. Garde-moi de l'idéal de la perfection, sans quoi je me perdrais d'orgueil. Purifie mon regard: quand je fais mal, il n'est pas sûr que ce soit mal, et quand je fais bien, il n'est pas sûr que ce soit bien. Seigneur, ne me laisse jamais oublier que tout savoir est vain sauf là où il y a travail, et que tout travail est vide sauf là où il ya amour, et tout amour est creux qui ne vient de ta grâce. Seigneur, enseigne-moi à prier avec mes mains, mes bras et toutes mes forces. Rappelle-moi que l'ouvrage de mes mains t'appartient et qu'il m'appartient de te le rendre en te l'offrant. Que si je le fais par goût du profit, comme un fruit oublié je pourrirais à l'automne. Que si je le fais pour plaire aux autres, comme la fleur de l'herbe je fanerais au soir. Mais si je le fais par ta grâce, je demeurerais dans le bien. Et le temps de faire bien et à ta gloire, C'EST MAINTENANT. Amen

Here are some facts about Congo sent to me through the Paul Carlson Partnership, a non-profit organization that works with international relief and development. This is not good news...

The person who sends out the updates from www.paulcarlson.org/pcp wrote:

Having spent about a full day's time now hunting through the tables and charts that comprise the report, I can highly recommend the website for anyone with an interest in data digging. In addition to the report summary, the Fact Sheet is the gateway to the data mines.

For those who may not find their fun in comparing rankings and percentages, here are a few things about Congo:

Nearly 30% of Congolese children aged 5 and below are underweight for their age, one indication of malnutrition. That's worse than the average for Africa.

Childhood deaths at ages 5 and under are also higher than the African average: 161 of every 1,000 live births, compared with an average of 145/1,000.

The number for Congo in 1990 was 200/1,000, which means these deaths have decreased by about 20% since then.

But the Millennium Development Goal is to reduce early childhood deaths by two-thirds by 2015, and Congo is clearly not on track to meet that.

There are some disparities within the country that are as telling as anything else: Young children in rural areas die at a rate 45% higher than children in urban areas (177/1,000 to 122/1,000); children in the lowest income families die at a rate almost twice as high as in the highest income families (184/1,000 to 97/1,000, a rate increase of 90%).

To take another indicator: The rate of maternal deaths in childbirth is higher in Congo than the regional average: 1,100 for every 100,000 women compared with 900/100,000. Yet the proportion of births "attended by skilled health personnel" is better than the average: 74% in Congo, 46% the regional average. Here too there are some significant disparities, though all the numbers are still comparatively good: 63% of rural women have access to skilled health care, while 91% of urban women do; 59% of the lowest income women receive this care, and 98% of the highest income ones. These kinds of disparities exist in many places, of course, including the U.S. -- but in Congo they more often decide life or death.

Just a couple more observations: While 52% of Congolese children receive some kind of antimalarial treatment in response to a fever, only 1% are sleeping under the chemically treated mosquito nets that can prevent the infection. Just 24% of people with advanced HIV infection receive antiretroviral therapy (the regional average is 30%) -- and only 9% of pregnant women receive the treatments to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

At the beginning of May, I had the joy of watching these four kids while their mother did some grocery shopping. They were getting very antsy in the car, so we walked to the nearest park.

Maman Bydjee. She is from the island of Mauritius (French and Creole-speaking with heavy Hindi-influence). I teach her English on Thursdays.

And here are three pictures from Merveille's (Da Costa) 18th birthday party!!!

Look at that smile... Happy Birthday, Merveille!!!!

A recent reading from Howard Thurman's "For the Inward Journey"

I Seek Room for Peace

I seek the enlargement of my heart that there may be room for Peace. Already there is room enough for chaos. There is in every day's experience much that makes for confusion and bewilderment. Often I do not understand quite how my relations with others become frayed and chaotic. Sometimes this chaos is a positive thing: it means that something new, creative, and whole is beginning to pull together the tattered fragments of my relationship with a person and to fashion it into that which delights the spirit and makes glad the heart. Sometimes the chaos is negative, a sign of degeneration in a relationship once meaningful and good. There is room enough for chaos.

But the need of my heart is for room for Peace: Peace of mind that inspires singleness of purpose; Peace of heart that quiets all fears and uproots all panic; Peace of spirit that filters through all confusions and robs them of their power. These I seek now. I know that here in this quietness my life can be infused with Peace.

Therefore, before God, I seek the enlargement of my heart at this moment, that there may be room for Peace.

The results from the 20k in Brussels:

$351 U.S. or about 259 euros was raised for Stop the Traffik - THANK YOU!!!!

It was a good race, but HARD. I started too fast (even though I said right before we started to the two that I did it with, "Whatever you do, don't start too fast. That's the most common mistake.") So, I ate those words at about the 4th kilometer. And it was hard to keep moving until the 9th km when all of a sudden, I ate my energy gel and got in the GROOVE. And that's when I remembered why I love running. The last 10 km were mostly FUN. The crowd was huge - I've never run a race where the crowd stayed thick all the way through the end. 27,200 people and I was probably running in a pack of 50-100 runners at all times. That was actually a little annoying. I prefer when it's a little less crowded. Even a couple km in, we hit a tunnel and had to walk for a while because of the bottleneck.

My final time: 2h10min and 24 sec

I am REALLY happy with that because I wanted to beat 2h15... and yet I had no way to measure how I was doing. I didn't bring a watch or anything and then with the way I burned out in the first 4 km... it almost makes me want to do another one someday to see if I could beat it... ha! We'll see...

My rank: 17,162 out of 27,200 I wasn't in the first half, but it feels good to have finished before 10,000 others. :) (Sorry, I know it's not about this... but I have a rather strong competetive streak).

Highlights: thinking of you all and praying for you!, singing Psalm 121, "I Lift My Eyes Up" as I ran up the big hill at the 18th km, running behind a clown who was juggling as he ran, a guy dressed as a zebra who had a "just married" sign on his back, pouring water on my head a few times, seeing the guys come in who had matching blue shirts because they had run this race every year since its inception - 3o years ago!, listening to all the music and drums on the sidelines...

Starting with Londi and Amanda, and having great fans: Chris, Boone, Sam, Lydia, Jacob, Karen and Marissa! (But unfortunately, we didn't see each other at the finish because the pack I came in with was so big... bummer.)

It's RACE DAY! Thanks to all who are praying and giving toward the 20k in Brussels. I will be running with about 45 others to create awareness and raise funds for Stop the Traffik (an organization that works to end human trafficking).
THE TOTAL YOU HAVE GIVEN IS 259 EUROS!! THANK YOU!!


Quotes from Chariots of Fire:

Liddell: You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape - especially if you've got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe you're dinner's burnt. Maybe you haven't got a job. So who am I to say, "Believe, have faith," in the face of life's realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me." If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.

Eric Liddell: I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.