Weekend camping :)

Lovely original vintage oil painting - I like it more the more I look at it :)

I spent last weekend up at the lake, a yearly tradition with my church wherein we all drive up on Friday evening, spend two days hanging out and doing whatever we want, and appreciate the time 'away from it all'. I was worried about all of the socializing I would inevitably be required to do, but then found myself loving 99% of it. I got to catch up with people I see all the time, but don't often have hour-long conversations with. I got to eat baked oatmeal and watch with interest at how much coffee all of the adults drank each morning. I got to kayak on a clear blue lake with a friend, and feel outdoorsy for the first time in ages. It was a lovely weekend.

Yesterday was spent recovering from all of the human contact by cleaning up my apartment, and listing stuff on eBay. I love my job, this whole reselling thing I do. I love the rhythm of it, the flexibility of it. I love that it is always changing, always shifting. It's been a good month.

Please take a moment to read the latest from the war in Syria and consider making a donation to Mennonite Central Committee, one of the few organizations providing direct aid to Syrian refugees.

Give to Syria Relief.

The Syrian war makes me feel so helpless, so small and insignificant. It reminds me of my own family, refugees who survived. I am reminded of how war changes people forever.

Today, there are over one million child refugees from Syria. They are living in Jordan and on the border of Syria itself, in refugee camps with hundreds of thousands of other people, displaced by a war that appears to have no end.

My goal is to raise $10,000 for Mennonite Central Committee, one of the only organizations providing direct aid to Syrian refugees. You can verify their business and accountability information here.

You can give as much as you are able directly through MCC's website here. Their minimum donation amount is $5.

Relief efforts :)

Vintage A House Blessing by Arthur Guiterman

This year, I held a rummage sale at my church to raise funds for Syria relief. Money, raw paper money, is what people in crisis situations most need, because it allows them to obtain exactly what they need.

Unfortunately, when tragedy comes (war or tornadoes or tsunamis), people want to feel like they can do something. They want to help. They long to help. So they send things. They send clothing, and devotional books, and toilet paper. And this stuff cannot possibly all be used. It usually creates new problems for the people in need, because now they have all of this extra stuff to figure out how to store.

Vintage Desiderata on wood

We often see other people's tragedies as we would see our own, and we block out all of the unknowns (because they're unknown - duh). We forget that there's a mess to clean up, that there are lots of people and organizations nearby that are set up to help in these situations. If your neighbor lost their home, there would be other neighbors to help. People are helpers. People like to help.

So take this time to figure out how to make cash out of the things you want to send. Maybe you sell them on eBay. Maybe you have a garage/rummage/yard sale. Maybe you need to do that to get the $5 or $10 to send to the Red Cross or Mennonite Disaster Service. Maybe cash just isn't obtainable, so you go donate blood today (hey, you get a cookie, and juice!). Maybe take an extra minute to create space in your life to help more the rest of the year, when there isn't a huge crisis to focus on. Find a place to volunteer once a week. Find a kid who needs some unconditionally positive adult attention. Find a way to create a world where love overwhelms people 365 days of the year, not just one.

World AIDS Day

 

AIDS is so huge, and hidden, that we often forget how real it still is, that people are still suffering and dying, that whole countries in Africa are essentially being run by an orphaned generation.

Please don't choose to be apathetic and helpless today. Please do something.

As I focus my own advocacy and support towards Mennonite Central Committee, I will point you in that direction. If you already have something in mind, please comment on this post. I would love to hear what you do to honor those who suffer, who have died, who have lost, and who struggle each day to fight against oppression and racism and indifference and ignorance to fight the evil of HIV/AIDS. Please know that the most populated countries in the world are those most at risk for total devastation (e.g. India & China).

Please don't give up on caring. It hurts, and it's difficult, but it also makes you human.

Keep her Barefoot and Pregnant

I'm not one for blog hype, but when Christians start talking about sex, I'm all over it. Donald Miller's blog posts about love this week have set the blogosphere on fire, from angry feminists to angry conservatives; every one of them was pissed, and every one in between was in love with Miller's Eldredge-meets-Driscoll brand of romance.

Now I was offended too, not because I didn't agree with Miller, but because I did. I am easily lulled into the new-reform movement's ideas about love: boy is in charge of the love story, boy woos girl, girl stands back and lets it happen, making sure that she doesn't get too power-hungry and spoil the whole thing. And I was that girl that wanted too much, that did too much, that thought too much and talked too much. I was all wrong inside that model, and now I'm bearing the fruits of my sin, of my lack of desire to be submissive, to be invisible.

Now I'm all for submission in marriage, but by teaching that women must submit to their husbands in all things, we perpetuate a culture and gender-promoted view of men-on-top. It's not as easy as "The bible says it...that settles it." Submission is bigger than "Do what you're told." Submission is about trust in a relationship, and trust can never be established when we initiate a relationship in this inegalitarian way. Maybe at some point, the relationship can handle that kind of restructuring, but for a woman to make herself less to be attractive to men is to take away her God-given identity in order to conform to a chapter and verse.

As a good friend reminded me yesterday, we Christian women love to talk about being a Proverbs 31 woman, but we like to forget how strong that woman is: "The heart of her husband trusts in her...(v. 11)."

That's all for now. Don't trash yourself.

My Bad Attitude

This summer, I have been working on getting a new thrift store opened in my city. The Mennonite Central Committee has a network of thrift stores in the US and Canada, and the West Coast regional office would like to see more stores on the West Coast. That's where I come in.

I know my city's thrift culture like no other. I know where to find things, where the sales are, where the best volunteers and employees are, etc. I know my stuff. So I attacked this project with glee. I figured I could work all summer and see significant progress before I went back to school in August to complete my final year of my graduate program. But nothing has happened. So little has happened, in fact, that I've stopped doing anything. I put my heart on my sleeve in everything I do, especially in this, and now I feel defeated, completely defeated.

The churches in this city are busy, busy, busy with ministries. I have gotten the rude brush-off countless times simply because I wanted to talk about the possibility of a store. People saw me and ran in the other direction. I got yelled at once. And I'm not being down on myself in every aspect of this either. I did really well, and I've learned an awful lot, but I have nothing to show for my efforts.

If I could do it myself, I would. But that's impossible. The magnitude of the project is great. Opening a store to be run almost entirely by volunteers is a big deal. And I am small. So right now, I'm believing that if God wants it to be done, it can be done with or without my help. This means being a little bit more spiritual (or a lot) than I typically am. So all summer, in the face of several things I have no control over, I finish each day with this prayer.

Receive oh Lord, all my liberty.

Take my memory, my understanding, and my entire will.

Whatsoever I have or possess, thou hast bestowed upon me;

I give it all back to thee and surrender it wholly to be governed by thy will.

Give me love for thee alone, along with thy grace, and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.

-St. Ignatius Loyola