The richest people on earth

  This blog is written in response to some discussion we had in class last Monday with Chris. He asked me to write on the topic of poverty after some great discussion. The topic comes from the question "How do we best serve the poor?" Before we go there i want us to think about another question, What is poverty? Make a mental note or write a few things down.

  Poverty is often defined by money. I would safely bet that money is the first thing on every ones list. And when we think poverty we see a slum in South America, or a village in Africa. we see the poster child who is suffering from malnutrition. these all are the faces of poverty. but is the lack of food and water the definition? maybe, its possible. Authors Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert  believe the root problem of poverty is lack of relationships and self worth.

  In a three volume set called "the voices of the poor" a man said, "No one needs us, we are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of." so now back to my first question, How do we best serve the poor? We can and we have given money, food, water, clothes and other items to the poor, and when this is done responsibly its a good thing. But i don't believe its enough to get them out of poverty. another man says "If you are poor, you will always be poor." this is probably coming from a guy who is getting help. His problem is, he does not feel any value.

  Value. these people feel like they have none. these people(keep in mind that these people are made in gods image) feel no joy love or hope. They feel like "the garbage everyone wants to get rid of." so my answer (and you can take this or leave it) is that we can best serve the poor by loving and having a relationship with them.

  To help my point come across clearly i want to tell a brief story of a man in Guatemala. He is a missionary who has lived there his entire life. and his ministry is centered around a group of young boys who live in the physical definition of poverty. they have little food, water, clothing and even parents. most live with grandparents. and the life expectancy is 24 years old. but amazingly, these young boys don't know they live in poverty. sure they see all the brokenness around them, but they feel rich because of the red haired white dude that gives them love, attention, and the occasional handful of candy. and eventually he hopes to move these boys out of the city to his boys home located several miles away from the city.

  After following him around for a week i saw him giving love, attention, and the most important thing he can give, the good news of Jesus. Now i know you are thinking cliche`. but its true. these families that are in over their heads in poverty are happy and full of joy. In fact, we could all learn a lesson from them. because they are some of the richest people on earth.

 So thats what i think on the subject, and its all opinion. hope you all enjoyed
 

the past few days

hey everybody. its Monday morning just want to give you a quick summery of the past few days. starting with Thursday, i went with Dan from believers to Metro Christian academy. we had lunch with the high school students and went to their chapel service. looking back at my high school experience i wish i could have been in that kind of environment, i was a student at the Union Alternative High school where about 80 percent 123 students are previous drop-outs, in or out of Rehab, AA, or just out of jail. some are headed to jail. i was apart of the other 20 percent, students with learning disabilities any where from dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, or just struggles in the classroom. i had struggles with the classroom so Alt-Ed was a great fit for me. but seeing the atmosphere at Metro made me wish for something that i didn't have. after that me and Dan went to starbucks and talked for awhile, i learned a few things about him that was cool.

So on friday we (me and Andrea) had some devotional time with our new small group leader Joanie. she is great, very animated. what was only supposed to be an hour turned into two and a half. we all shared our story and listened to each other about struggles and hurts, then talked about joys and blessings in our lives. it was very refreshing and i walked out feeling some weight lifted off of me. im very excited about the next time we all meet to do it again.

saturday was a day trip to the beautiful Norman Oklahoma to watch OU take on Mizzou while tailgating with my girlfriend Ashlee. seeing her and some other friends was great and just a great vacation day.

sunday im going to divide into two parts, first, sunday school sucked. i met with the college students and my relationship with Ashlee came up. a couple people really gave me a hard time about some stuff that happened between me and her a few months ago. and after beating that dead horse for awhile they started saying i was not putting any effort into Link Year because im having struggles with my internship. so sunday school was very frustrating.

so part 2 of sunday was pretty good. i went up to Believers to hang out with some seventh and eighth graders. i got to lead them in worship for three great songs with my 2 new friends Alissa ande Ethan. both are very talanted and playing with them was a joy! seeing abut twenty mid-high students worship was awesome and encouraging. after worship we split them up and went and read some scripture, we read 1 timothy 1:1-11. a great passage of Paul writing to timothy to maintain the truth of the lord jesus in the church of Ephesus. it was very difficult for even the adults to understand but these seventh and eighth grade guys nailed it after awhile of decoding the message.

so there you have my past few days. im now sitting in our fearless leaders office listening to some classic rock and roll. after this its lunch time and class time. until next time everybody

My "I wills"

So one assignment we had was to write a list of "I wills". they are rules we will be held accountable to over the next year. lets get started shall we.

1. I will put my internship/class before any of my other commitments to get everything i possibly can get out of this experience.

2. I will allow myself to be challenged beyond what i think i am capable of.

3. I will not let my current relationship jeopardize my experience this year.

4. I will be open and completely honest in discussion and meetings with my mentors. And allow them into my space to learn my joys and pain.

Well there you have it, my 4 i wills. these actually took me awhile to come up with and be truthful about. so until next time.

Driving

So today was our first day of the program and guess what we did? We drove or I drove me and Andrea all over Tulsa looking for volunteer opportunities. And we drove everywhere. It took us a couple hours to get started but when we finally got going it was not so bad. The bad part was taking pictures with all of our "new friends" that we had made. We went to organizations such as, Little light house, Meals on wheels, several elementary schools in the Union and Tulsa public school districts, and global gardens. The elementary schools received us the best. But after 6 hours of driving I was ready to be done. It was fun getting to know Andrea better, we argued about music and other dumb things. So I guess I see why Chris had us do this. We both got to know our city better and see it's needs while getting to know each other. So it was a good day, tomorrow is Saturday so it's my day off! so you won't hear from me until Sunday night. Till then god bless and enjoy the cool weather all ye tulsa and surrounding area residents!