Oppression.

It's one of the things that makes me sick.

My friend here at college: Raped. After 2 years she is still having flashbacks because it wasn't confronted when it happened. This was because the cops wouldn't believe her. Her parents said that God was telling them she didn't need a counselor (which she obviously does.) She's constantly being told that she made it up in her head. If people truly saw how she acted and how this has affected her life, If people watched her cry and try to rationalize what happened- they would know. She isn't lying.

The homeless: As you guys know, I go on a homeless outreach. This past Saturday the people who were here last year re-united with a homeless man named Alexander. Dirty Roots formed a relationship with this man, took him to the eye doctor and bought him glasses, hung out with him, prayed with him. They thought they were making progress, but then he was back in jail. Yesterday they saw him again for the first time.
I met him for the first time, he was so nice and gentle. I was talking to him and he said, "You know what? I really appreciate all that they have done for me. They are such a good organization. They accept you where you are. This cycle I'm in- it's vicious. I'm constantly being judged by a criminal act on my record from the 80s. I just got out of jail and I'm in a halfway house. They expect me to pay them $35 a month. How the hell am I supposed to do that? I have no income. People won't hire me because of my record." He then sees a small girl running around and he says with a sad look in his eye, "They are so innocent". This man will do ANYTHING. He will pick up trash from the street, but no one will hire him.
Poverty has a face.

Our judicial system! I've had my fair share of hearing about awful lawyers/cops/guards. I went to a tent city as well last weekend and we met an attorney who told us of how he wanted to turn this building that the homeless were living in- into a club. Because that's exactly what St. Louis needs, another club. So he also told us that he wanted to build more huts for the homeless along the river in the tent cities. We took his card and we went our way (feeling sketch about it). This Saturday we met with the tent-city "mayor"- O.G. (original gangster.. haha). Also, O.G. owns three homes. He gave all of that up to help girls on the street who have been raped. So his tent-city is full of women who have been abused and he treats them all like his daughters.
O.G. tells us that this attorney we met was full of crap. That he just wants to take all the glory for himself to make himself look good.

Gosh.
My heart is breaking for these people. But even through these awful times, I still see God moving in and within them. In each story there is a chance for redemption.

My friend from college- She wants to help people and to minister to people who are going through or have gone through what she has. She wants to go to a counselor to get it all figured out so she can in turn help others.

The homeless- Each Saturday we get to laugh with these people and share love with them. I get to meet grateful people that most people push to the side. I get to be preached to by the homeless. It's a beautiful thing. It truly is.

O.G.- HE GAVE UP HIS OWN HOMES. He has a distribution center basically through that. He doesn't take more than he needs, and he sends extra things to other tent cities in the national parks in Missouri. He is still running the tent city and he loves what he does. Passion. It's great.

Through the Oppression I see the face of God. I'm so glad I've been called to Ministry.

Tent.

I walked around a tent-city today.
Eye opening.


7 out of 10 Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless.
Try that one on for size.

Hold the Phone.

Holy. Crap.
I have to read this book.
I got to read the first chapter, let me just share a little of what I found to be the most convicting, true reality of American Christianity. This is exactly what I've been trying to say. What I've been thinking about.

Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of these eager followers of Jesus in the first century. What if I were the potential disciple being told to drop my nets? What if you were the man whom Jesus told to not even say good-bye to his family? What if we were told to hate our families and give up everything we had in order to follow
Jesus?
This is where we come face to face with a dangerous reality. We do have to give up everything we have to follow Jesus. We do have to love him in a way that makes our closest relationships in this world look like hate. And it is entirely possible that he will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor.
But we don’t want to believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away. “Jesus wouldn’t really tell us not to bury our father or say good-bye to our family. Jesus didn’t literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor. What Jesus really meant was…”
And this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with.
A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives all our affection. A Jesus
who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger altogether.
A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream. But do you and I realize what we are doing at this point? We
are molding Jesus into our image.He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.



You can check out the whole first chapter here: www.radicalthebook.com

Love.

So I'm at a new stage in my life.

I feel worthy to be loved. I deserve to be loved.
That means a lot coming from my mouth.

Dreaming,

I want to leave. To experience life. I want to see the hospitality of good people and sleep on couches, or in a car. I want to drive down a two lane highway with my friends in the car without a destination- not a word spoken with the windows down on a sunny day- arms resting on the door frame where the window would be. I want to spend nights outside under the stars admiring His creation. I want to experience the life that God would want for us. Relational. To love His people. To love this life because we only get one story. Not getting caught up in the politics of the Church or the Government. I want to spend my life helping others and loving others. I want to spread joy where there is sorrow, happiness where there is hurt and light where there is darkness. I want people to know the God I serve and love. I want to let people know that they belong in this story. Let people know that they have a place in society.

People might say these are only dreams. Well, I'm only eighteen (almost nineteen). I'm allowed to have dreams. And who knows, maybe I'll be the person that actually follows through with those dreams.

New Thought.

So I was just looking around at Seminaries and Grad Schools in Oregon/Washington when I came across George Fox University. I found that they have a pretty cool seminary program for Missional Leaders. I also found that they have an awesome campus and, from the looks of it, a great undergrad program. It's also REALLY close to Portland. For the next hour I find myself looking all over this website and for some reason looked into Transfer admissions.

I felt compelled by this school as I was looking through it, and yes I know mostly everything can look good on the internet but it was a weird feeling. I have no idea what this means.
I haven't been feeling that great about Greenville lately and I'm not so sure why.

I even called my Mom to talk about the possibility of transferring. She told me to just keep praying about it. Don't worry no rash decisions will be made. This was just something that has been coming up and I don't know what I'll do about that yet. Who knows maybe I'll stay at Greenville next year, or maybe I'll go to Oregon.
It would be hard for me to go Oregon, but for some reason I'm not ruling it out yet. The months to come will be full of deliberation.

It would be logical for me to stay at Greenville, but I don't have anything that has me set in stone and can't get away.

http://www.georgefox.edu/college-admissions/index.html
^^Check out how beautiful that campus is!

Fresh.

Hello 2011.
:D

It's gonna be a good year.