Real Talk

1)

Some thoughts on how we as Christians can witness to Muslims

2)

How Arab Christians are providing a great model for witnessing to Muslims

3)

Some advice on attaining spiritual refreshment through intimate prayer

Labels: Christian, God, Islam, Muslim, news, prayer, witnessing

Peace and blessings,

I thought it would be good to identify what I think are the most significant postings of 2006 and 2007. Below are the postings for 2006. Peace, blessings, and speekonit...






1)

More Than Meets The Eye?

(The potential social, moral, and political implications of superheroes)






2)

Wake Up Call

(The historical and contemporary stereotypes of black women)






3)

Everyone Playing Their Part?

(V for Vendetta and Michael Resnick's educational technology)






4)

Access Not Granted, Pt. 2

(Christian hip-hop's lack of mainstream access)



5)

When It's All Said And Done

(God's divine providence)







6)

Unpredictability of Prayer

7)

Minority Report

(The power of a small minority to influence the majority)

Labels: 2006, prayer, stereotypes, superoes, V for Vendetta

Peace and blessings,


Below are a few news updates. Please pray for those who have lost homes and/or loved ones during these fires. Also pray for our country. Take care, have a blessed day, and speekonit...



1) The Wildfires that recently hit Southern California

may start to get under control

2) A very insightful article about

the power of fear especially within the U.S.

3) An article about how

God loves as individuals,

and how we can learn to better love ourselves. God is good because earlier this week my friends and I were just talking about doing away with guilt, and forgiving ourselves for our transgressions once God has forgiven us.

Labels: America, fear, God, love, news, prayer, Southern California

Peace and blessings,

Below are a few articles that I came across, which offer some important perspectives on many of the issues facing us as God's children. In addition to reading about these and other issues, I also encourage us to continually and fervently take these issues up in prayer. Take care, stay blessed, and speekonit...

1) A Bishop and pastor discuss

how the Jena 6 case may reflect larger racial issues that are affecting the body of Christ

2) An Op-ed contributor to the NY Times

argues that the racism within the justice system is only a fraction of the larger issues plauging black families.

3) The Million Father March comes to the West Coast, holla! Videos on the Million Father March in Sacramento, CA, and the Black Cross March protesting youth violence in Chicago:

Click Here

Labels: Bishop, church, justice system, Million Father March, pastor, prayer, racism

Peace and blessings,

Let me first apologize for just now posting this. In this second part of my response to McNeil and Richardson’s “The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change,” I want to highlight what I think are some of the book’s main points. As mentioned in the previous post, the book emphasizes the cultural, ethnic, and social nature of the bible, and our call as Christians to avoid perpetuating differences but work towards reconciling relationships between people and groups. To do this, they urge us to view any tool of injustice and division (e.g. institutional, economic, racial/ethnic, cultural) as a product or representative of sin itself. By identifying this sin, we will be in a better position to spiritually equip ourselves through prayer, forgiveness, scripture, and reconciliation to take claim of the victory over sin, which Christ solidified through his death and resurrection.

One of my favorite chapters of the book is chapter seven, where the authors discuss the role of receiving forgiveness for the sins we’ve committed against others (and thus God), and extending forgiveness to those who have sinned against us. The chapter discusses a time in Richardson’s (who is white) past when he and his brother were attacked by some African American youth. Realizing that the stereotypes he formed regarding African Americans based on this incident was and would continue to hinder his ministry, he decided to confront and eliminate the stereotype once and for all. During his prayer, he asked Jesus to enter into his memory and into that incident. Recalling the incident with Jesus being fully involved, he was able to see Jesus’ love and restorative power, as Jesus broke up the attack and spoke words of healing into the situation. This example spoke to me immensely because until reading this I never thought about inviting Jesus into my hurtful, past experiences that have shaped how I view people, the world, and ultimately myself.

The other chapter that I really enjoyed was chapter eight, which shifts the focus on the human problem to the sin problem. It’s not the person or group per se that is the source of conflict, strife, and injustice, but the spiritual forces influencing them. The chapter is best summarized by the following quote:

“How can one close one’s eyes at the fact that the demons themselves have taken over rule of the world, that it is the powers of darkness who have here made an awful conspiracy?”

- Deitrich Bonhoeffer, cited in McNeil & Richardson, pg. 113

These words, spoken by a Lutheran Minister who actively opposed Nazi Germany, highlights not only the source of our world’s problems, but also the responsibility (personal and collective) we have to address problems once we are aware of their source. In one of the most powerful scenes in the first “Matrix”(1999) movie, once Neo is “unplugged” from the matrix, he notices that his eyes are bothering him. Once he tells Morpheus that his eyes are bothering him, Morpheus replies by saying that it is because he “never used them before.” Similarly, I think that as we as Christians work towards progressing in our personal, social, and cultural walk in Christ, we are going to experience constant phases of learning-unlearning-relearning because we are constantly experiencing new ways to view ourselves, others, and the world through our newly acquired, ever-evolving spiritual eyes.

To conclude the book, the authors leave us with the following challenge:


“This is a new season for leadership in the church. No longer will we be defined by a few charismatic superstar leaders at the center of all Christian activity. We are moving into a corporate model of leadership in this day. The new models of leadership that are emerging will be much more accountable to the communities they serve. In order to accomplish this, God is moving people forward into places of authority and responsibility. We must be ready to take a stand.”

McNeil & Richardson, pg. 155

No comment here, as the challenge is pretty self-explanatory. What do you think? About inviting Jesus into our hurtful memories and experiences? About getting used to using our spiritual eyes? About the role of Christians in reconciling people, groups, and nations of the world? Until next time, be encouraged, share your thoughts, and speekonit…

Labels: Christ, cultural, division, heart, Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change, injustice, Jesus, justice, personal, prayer, racial, sin, stereotypes

"Father, I'm praying for a friend, he and I are really close/and out of all my friends, for this one i'm concerned the most/he say he reading daily, but he ain't really learnin'/he be in church but say that he ain't moved by any sermon/his face (is) weak, he ain't prayed in a week/he wake up and just weep/with his face in the sink/Lord, you gotta help my man/I'm praying for him daily/he ain't sin but it just seem as if he's going crazy/ ...but is it done for him?/ Lord don't let it be/if he don't want to talk to You then Father hear from me"


Peace and blessings,

These words come from the opening verse of "Praying for You," a song off of Lecrae's "After the Music Stops." In this song, Lecrae is having a conversation with God on behalf of one of his friends, whose spiritual welfare Lecrae is deeply concerned with. When I first heard this opening verse, I immediately thought that this song was about the importance of us interceding on behalf of, or praying for others. Once I heard the second verse, however, I realized that my immediate thoughts about the song were only partly accurate. While the song is about intercession, it is about a type of intercession that I personally never thought about until hearing this song. At the end of the second verse, Lecrae "reveals" to God (we can't really reveal anything to the One who is all-knowing) that the friend he is interceding for is none other than himself. Now at first I was taken back and extremely confused. How could he be talking to God, when in the song he said that his "friend" (i.e. himself) has not been talking to God? How can a person go to God and intercede on behalf of him or herself?

The more I wrestled with this idea, the more I began to "break out" of my limited view of intercession and view the term in a broader, more encompassing sense. Moreover, as I reflected on the sacrifice Jesus made for us, and the various things we experience in our Christian walk, the type of intercession Lecrae was talking about started to make more and more sense. Despite our sinful and rebellious behavior in the Old Testament, God continued to show compassion, sending prophets to warn them to turn away from those things that are not of God, and to turn back to those things that are of God. For those of who repented and turned back to God, He not only provided for them, but in many cases He elevated them in ways never imagined. In the New Testament, Jesus, despite our sinful and rebellious behavior towards each other and also towards Him, gave His life so that we can be in good standing with God, granted we follow and believe in Him as Lord and Savior.

Reflecting on Lecrae's song, and on how God deals with us in the Bible, I began to ask the question: Even though God's love for us is unconditional, is there anything about us, that God sees in us, that could also serve as motivation to love and care for us despite our shortcomings, sins, and rebellion? Now by "about us" i'm not referring to things that we do, because there is nothing we can physically do to give us salvation. It only comes through believing and following the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. By "about us" I am referring to some inherently spiritual aspect of our being, that God considers worth preserving and nurturing. I have come to realization that there must be an inherently spiritual part of us that not only longs to connect with God, but that also "intercedes" with God on our behalf when our mental, physical, or emotional being is trying to distance ourselves from Him. That would help explain why even when we feel like we are at our worse and are disconnected from God, He does something, or sends someone in our lives to remind us that He's right there by our side. We don't just intercede for others during their time of need; there's also a part of us that intercedes on our behalf during our own time of need.

This idea is something I have just recently started seriously thinking about, so I am really interested in hearing what others think. Until next time, stay blessed and speekonit...

Labels: After the Music Stops, Bible, Christian, conversation, God, intercede, Intercession, Lecrae, love, need, prayer, unconditional

Peace and blessings,

I mean I joke about things being "apocalytpic" (i.e., that mini snowstrom steez in Cambridge, MA last year) and that we are in the end times, but now it doesn't seem so funny. For those of you who have not yet heard, here's some info on

Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda

Despite the fact that his claim to be the second coming of JC is all wrong, his steez is wrong on so many levels:

#1: He "preaches" that there is no such thing as sin because JC destroyed sin when He died on the cross. Therefore, we can do no wrong in God's eyes.

This statement is beyond inaccurate on at least two accounts. The first account is the fact that although JC died and resurrected, he did so so that we, through Him, can have a closer relationship with God, given that we accept and live for Him. The second account is due to the fact that sin is still very real. You would be lying to yourself and jeopardizing your soul if you tried to convince yourself otherwise. Jesus is very much alive, and yes He did die and rise for our sins, but that does not mean that we are exempt from obeying His commandments and trying to live like Him. If anything, His death and resurrection is all the more reason to live right. Lastly, JC, who was there since the beginning of time and will be there after the end, never said anything about there will be a time when we could do no wrong in God's eyes. Although He often told people to "go and sin no more," He NEVER said "do what you want because there's no more sin."

#2: He "preaches" that prayer is a waste of time (as if "#1" was not inaccurate enough).

There are too many bible verses where JC emphasized the importance of prayer and fasting. I mean dang, He did both for forty days! If he prayed, fasted, and was tempted with sin (although he NEVER succomed to the temtpations), who are we to think that we are exempt? If anything we should be treated more harshly than He was, but instead He showed HIs unconditional love for us by humbling Himself among us and paying the ransom for our transgressions. Neglecting prayer is spiritual denial because it's like saying that there's no need to talk to God, and that God doesn't work through/answer prayers.

#3: He makes His congregation get a "666" tatoo like him. What more is there to say?

How can one speak this blasphemy when the very things that he claims are irrelevant now (sin and prayer) are two things that JC spoke of passionately and often. Heck, that's what most of his ministry was about. Also, if there is no such thing as sin, then why did JC often speak about the sin of greed and how it can prevent one from entering heaven (Matthew 19:23-25; Luke 16:19-23)? If there was no more sin, the JC would have told His disciples that after He died, that everyone would automatically go to heaven. Further, He would not have comissioned us to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20).

I don't know what bothers me more. The fact that he has the audacity to promote such garbage, or the fact that his followers are growing. In one conversation with the disciple Peter, JC speaks against everything that Miranda "preaches" about:

"Simon, Simon (Peter), listen! Satan has asked excessively that [all of] you be given up to him [out of the power and keeping of God], that he might sift [all of] you like grain, But I have prayed especially for you [Peter], that your [own] faith may not fail; and when you yourself have turned again, strengthen and establish your brethren."
-Luke 22:31-32 (NKJ AMP)


What do you think? Are you more bothered by Miranda's claims or his increasing number of followers? Weigh in and speekonit...

Labels: blasphemy, God, JC, Jesus, Jose De Jesus Miranda, Luke, Matthew, Peter, prayer

Peace and blessings,

I must say that things have been going pretty well since i've been home visiting family during this past week and a half. I can honestly say that I do not remember when was the last time I totally did not do anything for this many days consecutatively. Although i've enjoyed doing nothing during these last 10 days, this time off as also allowed me to think about how truly blessed I am. Not just for my health, family and free food (although these things are great, lol), but for the fact that this time of year marks the celebration of when God, through Jesus Christ (JC), established a new covenant with His children. This new covenant is demonstrated by JC's birth, life, death, and resurrection.

I think the movie "the Nativity Story" does a good job of capturing the essence of what kind of conditions (e.g. economic, political, social, moral, cultural) surrounded JC's birth. In additon to the divine occurances during these times (e.g. angel appearing to Mary and Joseph, Mary's immaculate conception, the pregnancy of Elizabeth, and the birth of John the Baptist), what fascinates me about JC's birth is how Mary and Joseph chose to react to God's workings. They both trusted God and allowed God to use them to bring about change in their generation and for generations to come (because we all know JC was on some major "revolutionary" steez). I've been thinking a lot about how God will often use one person to reveal himself to another. One common example is when I'm talking to something, and they tell me something that confirms that I felt God has been saying to me. I also think that God uses one's prayers to reveal Himself to another as well. Therefore, I urge us take time during this season (and always) to think about the role(s) we each can play in representing and/or revealing God to others. A link to an article about JC's relationship to us, and what that means for our relationships with each other, is provided below. In addition, here are some things that we can pray for. Take care and as always, speekonit...


Pray for familes who have lost loved ones during this time of the year

Pray for those who are still experiencing the aftermath of past recent catastrophies, and are in the process of rebiulding their lives (e.g. Tsunami, Katrina, Plane crashes, 9-11, gang violence)

Pray for the lives on both sides of the Iraq war

Pray for the country and world "leaders"

Pray for the AIDS epidemic in Africa

Pray for the negative effect music has on youth and adults alike




Artlicle Link--http://www.urbana.org/wtoday.ephesians.cfm?article=89

Labels: God, holiday season, Jesus Christ, Joseph, Mary, Nativity Story, prayer, relationships

Peace and blessings,

I wanted to share something with you, something that God revealed to me a few about 6 months ago. But first, I have to add some contextual background...



About a week and a half ago, my girl told me about an interesting phenomena she observed while at Kaiser. Basically, she was telling me how she watched a woman who, after having an unpleasant interaction with a woman of a different race, kept telling her young son (who by girl thinks could not be any older than 7 years old) that the other woman was mean. In particular, the mother kept telling her child something to the effect that "see, now that's a mean, mean woman," and so forth. Moreover, the mother made sure that her voice was extremely soft and her demeaner was overly nice, as to provide her son with a sharp contrast between the nice, sweet mother and the mean woman of another race. After my girl told me exactly why this observation upset her so much (namely because she felt that the mother was using her influence as his mother to convince her son that the other woman was mean), we came up with the following "theory" regarding the development of prejudice and/or racist attitudes among children. In particular, the idea that the development of prejudice and/or racist beliefs within a child may result from the child's learned association between a person of another race and another trait. Further, this association (and thus its affects on the child's development of discriminatory attitudes) is stronger when the child learns this association from an influencial authority figure (e.g. his mother, etc...).


How does this incident relate to prayer you might ask? I provide this story as contextual background because as a child, I underwent a similar process in which I came to associate a behavior with an influential person in my life. That person was my great aunt. She's a matriarch of the family in that all of my cousins and I grew up over her house, as she would babysit all of us. She also one of the most annointed, sweet, and "filled with the holy ghost" type folks I have ever met. In fact, I truly believe that she is an angel, always providing the family with the type of love and spiritual guidance we always need but rarely know how to ask for it or truly appreciate it. Every day, she would pray over all of us( her children, myself and our cousins). In addition, she would spend hours in her room praying to God. As a look back, i realize that she provided me with a great deal of the spiritual foundation that I working to strenghten today.


Although as a child I didn't fully understand what the Christian walk would entail, or who God was for that matter, But started emulating my aunt's prayer behavior for two reasons. One was that you simply couldn't grow up in her house hold and not talk to God, lol. The other, and more important reason, was that even though I didn't quite know what she was doing or why, I knew HER. I knew that she always had my best interests at heart, and whoever she was praying to must be pretty important, because she truly was (and still is, of course) a strong, wise, and beautiful person. So, whenever I would be experiencing hardships, i would get on my knees and attempt to talk to God. Out of the many things I would pray for ( and out of a need to preserve my character I'm not going to name all of them, lol), the thing that I prayed for the most was for my parents to stop arguing. When I was younger, they used to argue all the time, and I was scared that they were going to get a divorce. Despite many nights of praying, my parents continued to argue (and in some instances the arguments got worse). Once my sister came into the picture and was old enough to realize what was going on, I became less concerned with how the arguing affected me, and more concerned with how I could prevent it from affecting her.


Now plenty years have passed and I've gotten older. Further, I have come to know for myself, the same God that my aunt so fervently prayed to day in and day out. Although I could now say that I had a personal relationship with God, at times I would still feel that because my parents didn't stop arguing, that God did not answer my prayer. However recently, out of nowwhere, it was if God spoke to me and was like "look at the bigger picture." I thought about my fellings regarding the answering of prayer, and how sometimes when I would tell others to trust God I would feel like a hypocrite because deep down I felt like that one my sincerest prayers as a child did not get answered. However, as I widened my perspective of who God is and the extent of our relationship, it became clear that many times when i pray, my "prayer-scope" is limited due to the limitations of my human nature and rationality. Because my parents didn't go from arguing to "the Huxtables," I thought that God "dropped the ball" with regards to that prayer. Despite my doubting of God, he nevertheless reminded me that He did in fact answer my prayer, but He answered it HIS way, which was in much broader scope than I had initially perceived. Even though in my prayer I wanted my parents to stop arguing, what I really wanted (e.g. my heart desired) was for my parents to stay together. By the grace of God they just recently celebrated their 23rd anniversary and I don't have to spit out divorce statistics to illustrate how much of a blessing that is.

So in sum, it took alot of wrestling and growth to realize that God answers all your prayers (assuming they are in accordance with His will), but He does so His way. Further, His way is the way that has our best interests in mind. So if I've learned anything from this realization, is that not only does God answers prayers, but that if we feel like we have been constantly praying to God for something to no avail, then it probably means that our "prayer scope" is too small, and that when God answers it, He's going to do so in a way that 1) gives Him the glory and 2) goes over and above what we thought we wanted or needed. Until next time, speekonit...

Labels: children, family, God, learn, parents, prayer, prejudice, racism, spiritual

Peace and blessings,

This piece is something I felt God has been putting on my heart for the last couple of weeks. It seems like within American ideology there is this over-arching sense of and need to polarize beliefs, ideas, and groups. For instance, a large part of our livelihood tends to consist of a composite the choices we make from polarized alternatives. Either you're a Democrat or Rebublican, beautiful or ugly, fat or skinny, and so forth. I know these examples are somewhat simplistic, but the point is made nonetheless. Many aspects of our lives are dictated by an "either/or" framework.

Now I am not making a case for absolute relativism, because I believe that the enactment of absolute relativism, especially moral relativism, would pose a great threat to the human existence. Moreover, I believe that when it comes to how to live and how we should treat one another, there is an objective truth that governs these and all behaviors, and it resides in the relationship with God through Jesus Christ. With that said, what I am making a case for is for the acknowledgement of the spiritual diversity that derives from a relationship with God.


As a child, I thought of God as someone who was a strict disciplinarian who saw and knew everything. I thought that if I ever did anything that was contrary to His will, He was going to severly punish me, if not immediately, then eventually. Therefore, I attempted to stay away from trouble and be a "good boy," but for the wrong reasons. Although God is a sovereign and jealous God, our primary reason for living holy lives in accordance with His will should not be because we are afraid of what God will do to us. Instead, I believe that our primary reason for living for God is simply because of WHO HE IS! Once we change our conception of God from someone who is waiting for us to mess up so He can "lay the smack down" to someone who created, redeemed, and called us into a loving relationship with Him, we will be able to walk with Him, and thus live for better lives for Him.


Lastly, it is this "living for Him" part that inspired me to write this piece. Once we are in a relationship with God through Christ, we learn about the Christian docrtine and the principles of the faith. I know for me, there were times where as I was getting more into the Bible and into what it means to be a Christian, I would not only feel marginalized within a larger social context (e.g. there are just certain places and things a Christian is not suppose to go and do), but I would also feel limited in terms of the way I thought about God. I think it is often easy to confine our conception of God to the books of the Bible. Even though He is the same God, He also created each and everyone differently, and thus speaks to us differently. As I began to realize that, I stopped assessing my conception of and relationship with God based on others' conceptions of and relationships with Him, and found my own. That is the beauty of God working in us through the Holy Spirit, is that God not only meets us where we are at, but He also uses us according to our interests, personalities, and ways of thinking. For me, the way I view the world and the phenomena within it is heavily based on me viewing things in terms of connections, patterns and analogies. In order for me to truly understand something, I must develop a comparable analogy that explains it, or see how it connects to something else. It is no surprise that becaause God made me this way, that these are the ways in which I feel that I see God at work in the world. Things like how the little, everyday things we do (either by deliberate choice or out of reacting to the circumstance), can make the difference in receiving or missing our blessing, as well as in our opportunities to be a blessing to someone else.


Through my experiences and the constant changing of my conception of God, it is clear that while there are many people who do not have a relationship with God because for whatever reason they do not believe, there are also many of us who have a narrow conception of God and of the avenues through which He plans to use us to do His will. It is my prayer that we as Christians place substantial emphasis of the diversity of the Holy Spirit, namely the fact that our conception of God should never be limited, but to expand so that once we realize that God uses all of us according to our unique personalities, ways of thinking, interests, and talents (assuming of course these do not conflict with His will), we can put ourselves in a better position to serve Him. Stay blessed and as always, speekonit...

Labels: conception, diversity, God, Jesus Christ, personalities, prayer, spiritual, thinking, will

Peace and Blessings,

I know my updates have been sparse as of late, but blame the mind not the heart. Been on my academic grind lately plus traveling. Anyway, I'm back like I left something, and I wanted to direct your attention to the two newest additions to the "archives" section. With all of the negative press currently in the media, especially as it relates to people of color, it' s good to hear of stories where God is obviously present. Yesterday I came across the article about the young girl who testified against the person who shot her. The image of her on aol.com had her crying, and initially I didn't want to click the link. My spirit has recently been grieved with all of the "bad" news I've been exposed to lately, and I felt like I couldn't take reading another article about a young child suffering. However, the "her words might surprise you" part of the link caused me to click on it to read about what happened. Apparent this beautiful young girl was hit by a bullet fired during a shootout when she was 3 years old, and is now paralyzed for life. Now five years old, she confronted the shooter in court and after telling him that what he did to her was horrible, she broke out in tears before replying with "but I still forgive you." I was blown away that a five year old who was the victim of a terrible crime and is paralyzed for life can do something that we as adults fail to do all the time. The power of forgiveness is not just manifested in the way in which the "forgiver" can now move on with their life. Forgiveness is also and more importantly a transformative act that changes the way in which the perpetrator, regardless of the offense, views the moral implications of their actions. The bible's emphasis on forgiveness (e.g. many of Jesus' healings were in the form of forgiving people of their sins) reflects one of the many ways that things work out for good for those who believe. In particular, God's love and transformative power can be revealed even during times when our choices have detrimental affects on others. I believe that being confronted by his victim and then forgiven by her, especially seeing the severity of the bullet's impact and the fact that she is only five, resulted in some sort of "transformation" for the perpretrator.
The other article I wanted to speak on briefly was the one about the father finding his daughter after 13 years. There are not really any implications I can draw out of this situation as with the one mentioned above, therefore I can do is thank God and give Him the glory. There is no doubt in my mind that people were constantly praying for him and his family and that he be reunited with his daughter. With all that is going on, it;s a blessing to come across stories like these where the only explanation of the outcomes (e.g. how can a five year old who has suffered so much take the moral and spirtual high road and forgive her shooter? How can a father who has not seen or heard from his daughter in 13 years since she was deemed missing now have the opportunity to reunite with her next week?) point to the Lord Almighty. Until next time, continue to, and always, let's continue to pray for out friends, families, communities, and for situations we may not be directly tied to, because if it's one thing i've recently realized is that prayer not only works, it is revolutionary! Speekonit...

Labels: Bible, daughter, father, forgiveness, girl, God, moral, news, prayer, reunited

A few months ago I was reading an editorial on a hip hop website, and I gained a better understanding of the phrase "put your money where your mouth is." Now, this particular phrase doesn't even fully apply to the individual I am referring to because as long as I've followed his NBA career, he's never came off to me as someone who is "on a pedastal" because of his fame and fortune. The individual I am referring to is Kevin Garnett. I found out that to aid the Katrina victims, he has vowed to build one house per month for two years! It's amazing how God uses people to bless others. Although alot of major corporations "gave" money to help people after Katrina, I feel like to what extent are you "giving" if it's only to indciate the amount you give as a tax write-off later. Also, I felt like with the major contracting that went out to certain big name construction companies, while grass roots organizations and communities who traveled to New Orleans to offer their services were turned away, it begs the question of what does "help" entail in these type of situations? How can certain companies have a monoploy on the type of aid that can be applied towards the rebuilding of the New Orelans community? In my opinion, Kevin Garnett's vow is not out of financial (tax-break incentives) or political reasons (I think Tommy Hilfiger's appearance on BET's "save oursleves" telethon was very political, but that's another issue), but it was from the heart. For one, he's using his resources to building homes for people at a time when Katrina victims are now being evicted from the hotels they've been staying. Where are these people going to go? I know much more needs to be done, and I pray that God puts it on all of hearts to be more compassionate towards those in need. Even if we can't physically or financially contribute at the moment, we can definately pray. There's indeed power in prayer, and moreso when many people are praying about the same issue. I've literally prayed for something in the morning and received it later than afternoon. Lastly, let's not forget that no one gets to where they are at by themselves! We're either products of people looking out for us (whether we realize it or not), people praying for us, or both (which is probably the case). Peace, blessings, and let's remember to pray for ur brothers and sisters here and abroad who lack the very things we take for granted...speekonit

Labels: God, help, Katrina, Kevin Garnett, NBA, New Orleans, prayer

It has been estimated that about 5 million citizens in Malawi will need food to last them until April 2006, because they are suffering from a severe drought, resulting in them not having any food. Once I saw the video of a family in Malawi eating termites, I was motivated to create a space for people to pray for issues plaguing us in the U.S. and abroad. To the left is a link to the transcripts of that report. I plan on putting up links to various topics to prompt discussion on this blog. Often I see or read about things, have passionate reactions to them, yet feel that as an individual student, there are times when there isn't much I can do to alleviate the situation. I realized however that for poverty for example, it is about much more than giving money to a stranger here and there. There is power in prayer, and I can testify that where I currently am in my life is a direct result of the prayers of my family, friends, and those who came before me. Therefore, it is my hope that people who view this blog will contribute to it by praying for these issues. Regardless of the political beefs or whatever else is going on between governments, things should NEVER get to the point where families have to eat termites. It seems like after all this time on this earth, we still do not understand the value of all human life. Even if the government in Malawi is experiencing political conflict, other countries are too wealthy to allow families to starve like this. I mean there was a child who couldn't be no older than 1 or 2 being fed termites by his or her mother. I understand that the families have to do what they must in order to provide for them and their children, and given the impoverished conditions they are in, I admire them for their courage and love for themselves and their children. Speaking of the families, the CNN correspondent describing the families' methods as "primitive" upset almost as much as the video itself. For one, what is primitive about creatively coming up with a way of getting food for your children? Second, even if the methods could be interpreted as primitive (which I highly doubt because to me there was nothing primitive about it), what does that have to do with the bigger picture? Oh wait, I almost forgot, that when it comes to the big picture (i.e. the value of all human life), we tend to drop the ball. If a family had no food, and was not receiving any local or international assistance, how else are they supposed to survive? When thinking about this situation, I can't help but think of the beatitudes and the various accounts in the bible when Jesus would heal (as well as direct His disciples to heal) those who were sick and impoverished. I pray that God will bless everyone in Malawi suffering from this drought and provide for them, especially when those who are aware of their plight and have the means to alleviate it, do nothing. Peace, blessings, and I'm interested in people posting their prayers and/or opinions on this issue. So speekonit...

Labels: African, children, drought, family, food, Malawi, politcal conflictm, poverty, prayer, starvation, suffering, wealth