Hear Ye, Hear Ye...

Christian pop culture has hit an all-time low...

7 Deadly Social Sins

7 Deadly Social Sins
- Gandhi

Politics without principle
Wealth without work
Commerce without morality
Pleasure without conscience
Education without character
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice

Come Boldly?

This weekend at Party of Prayer, Pastor Will Dungee (Grace Community Church) spoke about the true fatherhood of God. Calling God our "Father" is not just symbolic, not simply a tool to help us understand him better, or even to help us feel comfortable around such a "huge" God. He is not like a father, he is our (F)father. Will coupled this with an illustration of his family.

As he was in his office preparing for his talk, his daughter came bursting into the room, and climbed in his lap. Anytime she goes to her brother or mother's room, she knocks. But when it's daddy in the room, she just goes in (boldly). If it had been anyone else to burst in and jump in his lap, we would have flipped out, but it was his daughter. His pride and joy, his beloved. BUT, the story doesn't stop there. It didn't take long for her to announce that she didn't want to listen to the slow song that Will had playing; she wanted a fast song. And half-way through the fast song, she wanted a different one. So, let's recap. Will is prayerfully preparing for a talk at InterVarsity. His daughter bursts in, sits in the middle of his work, and demands to hear the music she wants (which changes every few minutes). And you know what? He attends to her. He is glad that she is there. He delights in her.

And God is the same way. We can crawl into his lap and simply say, Daddy, I love you. Daddy, I want to spend time with you. Now, this is not to take away from the vastness, the mystery, and the overall awesomeness (and I don't mean cool-awesome...although he is pretty cool) of God...He absolutely is all-powerful, in charge, and to be feared. But not in a cowering, lowly fear. A fear out of respect. Christ tells us to "Come boldly to the throne of Grace," which is exactly what Will's daughter did with him. She came boldly in and knew she would be accepted.

Why is it that we always think God will reject us? I suppose one item to consider is the fact that we live in a culture of achievement. It's all about what you can accomplish, preferably on your own, to prove your worth. But the truth is, Jesus has us covered. When he died, his blood covered us ALL. Believers and skeptics alike. When we come before the Lord, he sees the coverage of blood, and accepts us, regardless of all the mess that lies underneath.

Now, let's add to the mix the idea of spagkhnozomai that John Freeman talked about in service this morning. The literal gut-wrenching compassion that God has for us. He desires community with us so much that his stomach is in knots. He has a gut-wrenching desire for us to COME BOLDLY to him.

How amazing is that? How humbling?? God desires community, not from me, which implies my control, but with me, and I continually run away. I give myself away to so many inconsequential things, meanwhile the One who truly desires me I turn away from.

I pray (slightly bolder than before) that God would be patient with me as I learn to trust him more, learning not only how to trust Him as a father, but discovering what a father really is.

Hannahfest 2006

Hannahfest 2006
A "Friend-Raising" Event

Sunday, October 22, 2006
2:00pm to 7:00pm
5432 Yanceyville Road
Brown Summit, NC

Food! Entertainment! Hot-Air Balloon Ride! Silent Auction!

Suggested Ticket Price: $10.00

Please email Denine for information and/or to purchase tickets.

Prostitution 101

So, I'm finally rolling around to reading this book
that I bought this summer - Prostitution: On
Whores, Hustlers, and Johns. I've only read a
little bit so far, but it's quite interesting. It's
basically a series of essays regarding all aspects of
prostitution.

I just read the introduction by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the former Surgeon General who became infamous for her liberal views on sexuality. While I don't agree with all of what she says, I think a lot of truth rang through this essay. A lot of it is controversial, and like I said, I might not agree with all of it, but I think it's worth a read. Here are a few of the highlights of the essay...definitely food for thought. (On a side note, this book was published in 1998, so I'm sure some of the statistics are different now).

The real issues [regarding unsafe sex] occur
because of poor education - because of the things
we've often been taught. You know where it all
started. It started at church. We have our
ministers up there in the pulpit, preaching to the
choir and the congregation when they really need to
be out in the streets dealing with the real problems
that our society faces.

---

The other thing that I think we need to ask is Why do
people go into prostitution? Most of the men and
women who become sex workers do so because they're
having trouble with money. They're really doing it
to stay out of poverty or because they're poor. So
poverty is often the cause of prostitution and I
think we need to deal with that. I'm not saying that
eliminating poverty is the only cure, but I think it
is very significant. Some of the studies show that
as the economy goes down, prostitution of both men
and women goes up. When we start cutting Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), we find more
AFDC moms being arrested for prostitution. We've
known for many years that many women marry just for
money. To me, that's one more form of prostitution.

---

Nobody should be forced into prostitution or into
having sex . Let me tell you a fact. Eighty-four
percent of the girls fourteen and under who become
pregnant were abused by somebody in their own home.
Eighty-four percent! Sixty-six and two-thirds
percent of all teenagers who become pregnant have
been abused at some time during their life. We spend
billions of dollars in this country trying to
prosecute prostitution, which is sex between
consenting adults, and we do nothing about the abuse
of children. Many children in this country and
around the world are exploited for profit and
unhealthy criminal desires. I feel that we need to
begin to spend those funds not on trying to prosecute
sex between consenting adults, but on making sure
that all children will have the opportunity to grow
up healthy, educatied, motivated, and with hope for
the future.

---

We [the United States] control 25 percent of the
world's wealth and have only 5 percent of the world's
population; yet we can't feed and house our own
people. We have children in America who will only be
members of what I call the "5H Club": children who
are Hungry - every night we have 5 million children
who go to bed hungry - then Home-less; Health-less;
Hug-less; and Hope-less. That's a real problem.

---

I read the report that San Francisco did on its sex
workers. I thought the most awful thing that I read
in that report was the idea of taking condoms away
from sex workers. Can you believe that? Our country
does many stupid things. When we start criminalizing
disease or medical problems, we start making
mistakes. Just think, we don't furnish clean needles
because we say, "Well, if we furnish clean needles
that says we support legalization of durgs."
Furnishing clean needles doesn't mean you support
drug legalization, it means that you want to prevent
death and disease.

It's very important to recognize that every time you
have sex with somebody, you're not really having sex
with one person; you're having sex with all the
people in their history. Sometimes you're having sex
with up to 537 different people. You really can't
tell by looking if someone has HIV. So I bemoan the
fact that we are not out there promoting safe sex.
We're not educating people to be safe because we're
not making condoms available. They should be
available everywhere. Condoms cost health
departments five to ten cents a piece or less. I had
a woman call me one time and she said, "Dr. Elders, I
just can't possibly consider using my tax dollars to
pay for condoms. I said, "Ma'am, I buy condoms for a
nickel a dozen." They were almost giving them to us
at the health department. I said, "We spend more
than 100 million dollars a year on AFDC, or food
stamps and Medicaid for teenagers who give birth to
children." I said, "How many condoms, at a nickel a
dozen, do you think $100 million will buy?" She
said, "Thank you, Dr. Elders."

Submission

James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

In July, Will preached a sermon about submitting ourselves to God. Something I thought I had always done well. Sure, I depend on God, I know he'll take care of me, I know I "need" him. But the truth is, I didn't know that. In fact, what I did "know" is that I could handle it all on my own, and that if it did happen to fall through, that God had my back.

Needless to say, the Lord really checked me that Sunday. So, I went home, laid on the couch, and offered a simple prayer: Lord, I submit myself. I don't really know what that looks like, but I know that I can trust you. I can't promise that I'm going to do a very good job at this, but you have grace for that. I promise to try. Lord, just take me - I submit my life to you. And then I fell asleep.

Prior to this decision, I had chosen to live in a spiritual desert for over a year. I really struggle with complacency. I love feeling close to the Lord, but more often than not I choose the path of least resistance (but greatest consequence).

A few days later, my Glenwood family returned home from the Dominican Republic. And on their first day home, Denine & Suzanne each dropped a bombshell on me. I won't go in to details to respect their privacy, but let's just say my whole world was kicked off it's axis. And I immediately remembered my decision to submit. Dang it Lord! Arrrggghhhhh....but I guess you know what you're doing...I still submit. I'm angry, I'm sad, I want to break something, but I'm willing to see where you're going with this.

And I still don't know where he's going...but I trust him.

This submission to the Lord has yielded good things as well. I am always stressed out about lots of things - work, school, money, you know...all the normal things. Not even a month after I decided to just let the Lord handle it, rather than trying to fix it all myself (and screwing it or myself up, as always) I found out that my tuition is now being covered. And, starting this month, I have health insurance for the first time in over a year and a half.

Beyond all the material relief that has come my way, I have been refreshed spiritually/emotionally as well. I've found myself able to enjoy worship more, and being excited to spend time with the Lord. That doesn't mean that I'm terribly diligent, but I'm working on it :) One step at a time...

I still struggle with being in control (and have the muscle tension to show for it...), but I'm working on giving it over to God. As difficult as it is, I know I can trust him. I remember hearing someone say once, that when we can't take that leap of faith, we should rest in knowing that we can simply fall at the feet of our Father; He will always catch us.

So now, to just let go and fall. I know where I'll land.

How America Was Discovered

This is a text we read in my early American authors course...very interesting. This is an oral tradition, originally from Handsome Lake of the Seneca. This translation was recorded by A.C. Parker; he is Seneca as well, so the integrity of the text has been preserved.

According to Chief Cornplanter, Handsome Lake taught that America was discovered in the manner here related.
A great queen had among her servants a young minister. Upon a certain occasion she requested him to dust some books that she had hidden in an old chest. Now when the young man reached the bottom of the chest he found a wonderful book which he opened and read. It told that the white me had killed the son of the Creator and it said, moreover, that he had promised to return in three days and then again in forty but that he never did. All his followers then began to despair but some said, "He surely will come again some time." When the young preacher read this book he was worried because he had discovered that he had been deceived adn that his Lord was not on earth and had not returned when he promised. So he went to some of the chief preachers and asked them about the matter and they answered that he had better seek the Lord himself and find if he were not on the earth now. So he prepared to find the Lord and the next day when he looked out into the river he saw a beautiful island and marveled that he had never noticed it before. As he continued to look he saw a castle built of gold in the midst of the island and he marveled that he had not seen the castle before. Then he thought that so beautiful a palace on so beautiful an isle must surely be the abode of the son of the Creator. Immediately he went to the wise men adn told them what he had seen and they wondered greatly and answered that it must indeed be the house of the Lord. So together they went to the river and when they came to it they found that it was spanned by a bridge of gold. Then one of the preachers fell down and prayed a long time and arising to cross the bridge turned back because he was afraid to meet his Lord. Then the other crossed the bridge and knelt down upon the grass and prayed but he became afraid to go near the house. So the young man went boldly over to attend to the business at hand and walking up to the door knocked. A handsome man welcomed him into a room and bade him be of ease. "I wanted you," he said. "You are bright young man; those old fools will not suit me for they would be afraid to listen to me. Listen to me, young man, and you will be rich. Across the ocean there is a great country of which you have never heard. The people there are virtuous, they have no evil habits or appetites but are honest and single-minded. A great reward is yours if you enter into my plans and carry them out. Here are five things. Carry them over to the people across the ocean and never shall you want for wealth, position or power. Take these cards, this money, this fiddle, this whiskey and this blood corruption and give them all to the people across the water. The cards will make them gamble away their goods and idle away their time, the money will make them dishonest and covetous, the fiddle will make them dance with women and their lower nature will command them, the whiskey will excite their minds to evil doing and turn their minds, and the blood corruption will eat their strength and rot their bones."
The young man thought this a good bargain and promised to do as the man had commanded him. He left the palace and when he had stepped over the bridge it was gone, likewise the golden palace and also the island. Now he wondered if he had seen the Lord but he did not tell the great ministers of his bargain because they might try to forstall him. So he looked about and at length found Columbus to whom he told the whole story. So Columbus fitted out some boats and sailed out into the ocean to find the land on the other side. When he had sailed for many days on the water the sailors said that unless Columbus turned about and went home they would behead him but he asked for another day and on that day land was seen and that land was America. Then they turned around and going back reported what they had discovered. Soon a great flock of ships came over the ocean and white men came swarming into the country bringing with them cards, money, fiddles, whiskey, and blood corruption.
Now the man who had appeared in the gold palace was the devil and when afterward he saw what his words had done he said that he had made a great mistake and even he lamented that his evil had been so enormous.

Social welfare beliefs

In my Intro to Social Work course we talked about three of the main Value Belief Systems of the social welfare institution. Apparently most social workers fall under the Judeo-Christian model, regardless of their religious persuasion. Makes for an interesting read.

Capitalist-Puritan
Thought to be the most powerful belief system in our society. Often thought of as common sense, or even as American (part of our American heritage).

Basic Assumptions:

1. Human beings are responsible for their own success or failure.
2. Human nature is basically evil, but it can be overcome by an act of will.
3. The primary purpose of people is to achieve material prosperity through hard work.
4. The primary purpose of society is to maintain law and order which makes material prosperity possible.
5. Unsuccessful or deviant persons are not deserving of help.
6. Primary incentives to change are found in economic or physical rewards and punishments.

Humanist-Positive-Utopian
Value-belief system held by most social scientists and many liberals. There is some conflict between this system and religion.

Basic Assumptions:

1. Primary purpose of society is to fulfill man's material and emotional needs.
2. If man's needs are fulfilled, maturity, well adjustment, productivity would follow and society's problems would be solved.
3. What hampers man from attaining this state is external circumstances that are generally not under his individual control.
4. Man and society are ultimately perfectible.

Judeo-Christian
There are values which are acceptable to the other systems. Assumptions are made which underlie much activity of individuals who are concerned with helping others.

Basic Assumptions:

1. Sense of man's common vulnerability.
2. Looking at problems from the point of view of the helped person rather than from the outside (this makes you more sensitive to the needs of others).
3. Emphasis is on relationship as the principal means of helping others.

Provision

Early this morning most of the Glenwood team and the GUPpies left for the Dominican Republic.

We planned on leaving Greensboro last night at 6:30pm to drive to Pastor Will Dungee's house. The team had to be at the airport by 4:30am, and his house is a bit closer to the airport. We loaded the Grace van and started on our way, only to be met by a horrible smell and smoke pouring from the van. After a long conversation with both Will and Tripp (king of the van), we decided it wouldn't be safe to chance a trip to Raleigh and back.

So, we developed plans B & C.
Plan B - drive 3 cars, Will & I would bring two back and pay for parking for the third.
Plan C - ask the Pastor of the Vietnamese church (who lives across the street from Grace) if we could borrow his church's van. Mind you, none of us have ever spoken to this family...we've waved, but for all intents and purposes, there was no real relationship. As odd as it was though, we found that this was the choice option.

So, Marshall, Suzanne, & I headed across the street to ask. Marshall had barely begun to explain that they were travelling to the DR for a missions trip when Pastor Vo sent his daughter to get the keys. No questions asked. No proof of who we were needed. Instead, he apologized that the van didn't have air conditioning!

On the drive back to Will's house after dropping off the team, Will commented that he was humbled by the ordeal. When it comes to forging new relationships, we so often think of what we can do for the other person - how we can help them, when sometimes the Lord just wants to bless us. This was one of those times.

We had nothing to give at the time, no collateral to ensure safe return of their van -- only the amazing provision of God, and the peace he gave them in loaning their van to us.

Selling Jesus

The past couple of days I've noticed a few things that are quite disturbing... Obviously the Christian subculture has become a hideously commercial entity -- with everything from WWJD bracelets to the Construction Workers Bible to Test-a-mints breathmints. It's coming to the point where we can walk around in a perfectly Christian bubble almost 24 hours a day...but we'll save that debate for another day.

Here are the two latest disturbing observations...

1. The United Pentecostal Church of Harvey in Harvey, IL, is paying people to attend church. Yes, that's right. The first 75 people to walk through the door at each of two services, and stay for the 90 minute duration, receive $25. There's a lot I could say about this...but I'll let the church leadership speak for itself.

"It doesn't matter how we get them in the door as long as we get them here."
- Rev. Anthony Cox, Co-Pastor

Cox said that they also hope the $25 lure will turn folks into regular attendees.

The idea of giving money to get people to a worship service is not inherently wrong "as long as it doesn't overshadow the church's message."
- David Jackson, Executive Administrator of hte United Pentecostal Church International

Okay...I might buy this, EXCEPT...

"To alert community members to this Sunday's "Money Service," the Harvey church posted 50 signs along busy streets with the tagline "We know our Church is WORTH it!"
- Chicago Tribune

And finally, a word from a member.

"We're told to spread the gospel by any means."
- Tina Richardson, member, Harvey United Pentecostal Church

I would encourage you to read the Chicago Tribune's article here. There are a few comments that almost redeem them...but I'll let you judge that for yourself.


2. Christian Millionaires So, we've all seen these scams where you make $25,000 in one week, right? You only work 3 hours a day from home with no apparent difficulty. You see commercials with beautiful women on sailboats and middle-aged men in Aston-Martins. Well, now there's an opportunity you don't want to miss...YOU can be mentored by Christian Millionaires! Earn $7,000 Over and Over and OVER again! I saw it on a sign today outside of Walmart. Ridiculous. And, to add to their "missional" focus...the name of their website is ImpactOthers.com. I say missional lightly...there's no missional focus on their site. How are you going to impact others? By mentoring them on how to become millionares too?

I've got an idea for you...how about hard work, a strict budget, and maybe a little investing?! In legitimate enterprises!

trouble concentrating?

One of the funniest commercials I've seen in a while...


"I can't concentrate...I wonder if I'm pregnant?" When you need to know...choose EPT, the Error Proof Test.


Let me tell ya...pregnancy is the first thing I think of when I can't concentrate!!

Updates...

So, the time has come...GUPY. While I dread packing up (have to do it by Friday afternoon...), I am very excited about the new folks coming to spend their time in Glenwood. One of the GUPYs I know from my freshman year at LR - and I couldn't be more excited that he's coming. I also met one of the girls, who is originally from Greensboro, and can't wait for her to dip into the "other side" of the city.

Hannah's Haven has it's first resident!! I met her last weekend...she seems very nice, and I look forward to seeing her around.
***Edit*** I stand corrected, Hannah's Haven does not have any residents yet. Take a look at their website for current news. Sorry!!

My Aunt Charlotte passed away Monday, June 12th, so I went to NJ this weekend to go to the memorial. It was very short, but to the point. She suffered for a long time, so at least that is over with. She has always been resistant to "religion," and I honestly don't know where she stood when she died. My hope is that, when faced with death, she took her chances and believed.

And that's it for now...

Where my girls at

On the radio this morning I heard a DJ recommend to a "lonely listener" that he go to a church singles group to meet women.

**Insert (any number of adjectives) comment here**

Let the tin foiling begin!!

In honor of Scott's birthday, I tin foiled his office (with the help of Suzanne, of course)!

Human Trafficking

First, Human Trafficking is an excellent movie I recommend to everyone. I was a little put off by the fact that it's a Lifetime Movie...but the title piqued my interest, and I'm glad it did. This movie is by no means your mushy scorned woman Lifetime movie...It's a call to action.

More importantly, Human Trafficking is a serious issue that plagues society, and is a lot closer to home than most people think. Here are some of the stats, pulled primarily from Relevant Magazine and the Office for Victims of Crime:

• Throughout the world, anywhere from 1 to 4 million people are sold each year for sexual exploitation.
• 70-80% are women or young girls
• 50% are children
• 12.3 million people are enslaved against their will at any given time
• Sex trading generates $9.5 billion in annual revenue
• The number of US citizens trafficked within the United States is higher than foreign citizens trafficked into the US, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry.

"Scripture is filled with God's teaching about His love for justice and the oppressed."
--Penny Hunter, International Justice Mission

Scripture to pray through regarding human trafficking:

• James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
• Matthew 19:14 - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
• Luke 17:1-2 - Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.
• Mark 9:37 - "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."
• Psalm 9:9 - The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
• Mark 10:14-16 - When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

And finally, some organizations you can find more info at. I haven't visited all of these, so you'll have to make your own judgement call :)

• http://www.saveaslave.com
• http://www.ijm.org
• http://www.theviolenceoflight.com
• http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005
• http://www.protectionproject.org
• http://www.freetheslaves.net
• http://www.humantrafficking.com
• http://www.humantrafficking.org
• http://www.worldrevolution.org/guide/humantrafficking
• http://www.ovc.gov/ncvrw/2005/pg5l.html

Movie Review: THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

• Directed & Written by Noah Baumbach
• Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic dialogue and language.
• Awards - lots of nominations and wins in multiple categories
• Keep an eye out for Anna Paquin - Rogue from the X-Men films
• Jeff Daniels gives an excellent performance, especially compared to his recent films

The Squid and the Whale definitely falls into the category of "indie film." It's a relatively dark movie about two brothers, a preteen and teen, who are dealing with their parents decision to divorce. Both parents are writers, leading the film down the "artsy" path. The father is a wash-up; a top-selling author turned professor, with a major victim complex. The mother has recently "discovered her voice," publishing a book and even landing an excerpt in the New Yorker, and also has frequent unconcealed affairs. Walt, the older son, views his father as a god among writers, the all-knowing. He so respects his father's opinions that he never reads any literature; he merely memorizes his father's commentary. He blindly conforms to his father's ideals through most of the movie...we finally see the root issue towards the end. Frank, the younger son, willingly accepts the title "Philistine" - a person his father describes as uninterested in the arts, especially literature and film. Frank wants to be a tennis pro. He also despises the fact that he has his father's bone structure.

The Squid and the Whale is true to form for "artsy" movies in that it provides no clear solution/ending; however, it leaves you satisfied enough. The movie is dark, mostly as a result of the way the parents manipulate their children, however we see a glimmer of hope towards the end.

And I guess if we're going to pull one important lesson from the movie, it would be the tagline: Joint custody blows.

Despicable...

Saw this on Michele's blog, figured I'd post the link here as well. This is absolutely horrible. Apparently two elderly women took out big insurance policies on a couple of homeless men, then killed them to collect the money. There were 2 hit and run cases 5 years apart, and these women were the beneficiaries. Thankfully the police department noticed. It really breaks my heart.


Click here to watch the clip on CNN

hip hop is more than weed...duh

I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to go into that last post a little more. There are obviously lots of ways to incorporate hip hop into education. You can rap multiplication tables, use song lyrics to teach poetry, etc.

There has been some pretty heated discussion in my class...a lot of it racially based - imagine that - a class that is pretty evenly mixed with African Americans and Caucasians (if we're going to use the fancy words...) about hip hop.

Either way, I thought I should just make the point that I definitely do not see drug abuse as being unique to hip hop, and that when I think of hip hop, drugs aren't the first thing to come to mind. I grew up in the backwoods of Florida - Bay County has often been called the "Meth Capital of Florida." There are lots of stories I can tell regarding the drug abuse among the poor white kids I went to school with, but I don't know that it's even necessary.

I have lots of stuff that I'll eventually add, but right now it's a bit of a mess in my head.

marijuana as a teaching tool

I'm taking a summer course right now called Hip Hop Culture. It's quite interesting so far. All of our "class discussions" are conducted online using blackboard.

One of our questions to discuss was the appropriateness of teaching hip hop in the classroom/using hip hop as a teaching tool. Some folks have said only in high school, others have said, hey...the kids already hear it, why not use it in elementary school. Why not? Well, here's what one classmate said:

"I agree that they may hear it in everyday life but teaching fractions and measurements using marijuana isn't exactly appropriate for a school system to use. Even though kids would probably pay more attention and learn more if we did it that way, it is still not sociably acceptable and parents would be outraged." -LA

Worship Dance Night

Come see my girls dance!!



Dance Worship Night
Saturday, May 20, 7pm
Elim Christian Fellowship
Greensboro, NC
Westover Terrace/Aycock Street
(across from Grimsley High School)

Summer Reading List

I visited Ed McKay's the other day...definitely came out with more books than I expected, but I'm excited.

Well, here it is

Dayna's Summer Urban Reading List


Bronx Masquerade, Nikki Grimes


Prostitution: On Whores, Hustlers, and Johns


MONSTER: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member, Sanyika Shakur, aka Monster Kody Scott


How the Other Half Lives, Jacob A. Riis


There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America, Alex Kotlowitz


Children of the City: At Work & At Play, David Nasaw

It was founded in the foundations

Lyrics from Mat Kearney's Girl America, from the album Nothing Left to Lose

My girl America is just a youth in this world
Her smile is more precious than the sparkle of pearls
And though her age reads she's just a young girl
The age behind her eyes show the pain that she's swirled
Through the hand that's been dealth though it's quiet as kept
The weight was all felt last night when she slept
And as she crept into the dreams of the things of her past
Seems to have grown so fast, way beyond her own class
Though they're right there with her, her brothers and her sisters
A natural born leader even when her peers dis her
My girl, she's at a crossroads, people praying for her
Some are preying on her magazine ads, sex, drama
Smoking marijuana, longing for a father to call her, 'daughter'
She's part of a generation longing for reconciliation
And this future that they're facing and this poision that they're tasting
My girl, I know this love that you're chasing
/
My girl America's crying when she's lying on her bed at night
I can see that she's screaming when she's dreaming for her freedom
My girl America's dying while she's trying just to stop this fight
Don't stop believing, my girl America
/
Boys with hungry eyes have been beating her door
Telling her that's what she's for, trying to rob at her core
Then leaving calling her a whore, but still she knows there's more
I know she knows there's more because there is a voice she can't ignore
'Cause it was founded in the foundations, from the day of her creation
In God we trust engraved on the treasures of her nation
And the void that the boys can't fill
With the tipping of the bottle or the popping of the pill
But still most of her friends don't care as they glare
Ready to drown down the funnel as they frown down the tunnel
They stumble and they tumble breaking down into the rubble
My girl America, stop can't you see
It's not the circumstances that determine who you're gonna be
But how you deal with these problems and the pains that come your way
It's for you that I pray with hope for a brighter day
And so I say, your deliverance is coming
//
Faith like a child from your first birth
You left it in the dirt on your worst hurt
And I see each tear and every scar
The hands that have held you where you are
And I can see we've strayed so far
A king born under that morning star
As a crown of thorns was placed to erase
Each tear that's touched your face
And his palms and sides where pierced with spears
He hung in love just to draw you near
My girl, out of this world
Can't you see this is where we started
//
My girl America's crying when she's lying on her bed at night
I can see that she's screaming when she's dreaming for her freedom
My girl America's dying while she's trying just to stop this fight
Don't stop believing, my girl America

The shot heard 'round the world

Hmph... Someone got shot at the park by my house Friday night. You can read Marshall's post about it, too.

How about it for another male role model.

Deal...or No Deal

On my way home from class today, I walked past what I think may have been a "significant" drug deal. I say this for several reasons - first, the two guys were in a secluded gravel parking lot, next to the train tracks behind a building that people rarely go to; also, most deals that happen in our neighborhood occur out in the open - no secrets in Glenwood. It's not just that they were chillin in the parking lot, there was an obvious "trading of goods" going on.

The small deals don't really catch my eye anymore...they're pretty routine (as sad as that is...). The thing that really struck me this time is that I thought about calling the police, then quickly convinced myself not to. See, the two men definitely saw me look at them, and I feel pretty sure I know who one of them is. I rarely feel scared in my neighborhood, but today, I thought about what would happen if the police did arrive just minutes after our exchange of looks. The man definitely knows where I live, and while I don't have any reason to think that he would do anything, I still wonder. And, I mean, why shouldn't I call the police? Drugs are illegal, right? Drugs are the thing that are ruining so many of my neighbors' lives, aren't they?

Still, no calls to the police today. Instead, a prayer for the two men involved in the trade, and for clarity as to what to do in future situations of this nature.

New blog...

"The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood." John 1:14 (MSG)

Yes, even the forgotten neighborhoods. The ones riddled with prostitution, drugs, neglected and angry children - but at the same time filled with caring grandmothers, people trying to make an honest wage, friends hanging out in front yards. The Word has moved into my neighborhood, and while many people may not be aware yet, I see Him everyday. I think we're called to see God in the small things - in B, who relentlessly quotes scripture, and talks about how he could be and do a lot of things one day, if he could just quit the booz - in J, who admits to lying to get what he wants, and is tired of the street, but just can't quit - in L, an angry and confused little girl who wants to fit in to the culture forced on her by her peers, but struggles with knowing that God has called her to be so much more.

They are worthy, loved, precious, important, fearfully and wonderfully made.