remembering haiti

image from here

It's hard to believe it's been one year since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Hoping to continue to find ways to help this country get back on it's feet!

Barefoot Week

You may not have realized it but this week is Barefoot Week! This special week is sponsored by Soles4Souls. The U.S. government estimates that 300 million children around the world don't own a single pair of shoes, and yet Americans threw away the same number of shoes into landfills last year alone. Soles4Souls has a simple mission -- to collect new and "gently worn" shoes to donate to victims of natural disasters and those living in extreme poverty. Our church is going to participate in the 2nd Annual Barefoot Sunday this Sunday, June 7th. If you are looking for a way to donate your shoes, you can find a partipating location here.

Labor of Love

*picture from Labor of Love site on Facebook

Above is an event this Sunday night in Nashville, Tennessee to support Sisters of Rwanda, Falling Whistles, Dry Tears, eXile international, ArtStopsViolence, and Global Support Mission.

David and I hope that one of us is able to attend (we will proabably have to do rock, paper, scissors to see who will get to go). David actually met this past week with a girl who works with eXile international and learned about her work, including counseling children soldiers in Africa, displaced Africans in refugee camps, and even families affected by the violence from the Kenyan presidential elections.

We also came across this blog from the Falling Whistles organization. I highly recommmend spending some time reading through some of the exerpts in this blog to make yourself uncomfortable (so that you may find a way to make a difference) and more aware of the children being taken in the Congo and forced into becoming soldiers.

Shaun Groves

(picture from Shaun Groves blog)

Last night, our church hosted the muscial guest, Shaun Groves. He was part of a series we have had on Wednesday nights, where the muscial guest shares songs related to one of the Fruit of the Spirit and then a host and the audience have an oppurtunity to dialogue with the muscial guest between songs. Shaun's focus last night was on "gentleness." His songs spoke of the Kingdom of God that is NOW and how as Christians we are to become poor in Spirit first so that gentleness may be displayed in our actions. His main message was about our responsibility as Christians to take care of the poor and how our churches are failing to prepare us for this. We are more often taught on being "saved" so that we will go to heaven (and not hell) when we die but we are not being taught that Jesus was sharing a bigger message that many of us have missed. Jesus' message was that you are "saved" so that NOW you can act and bring about what He calls the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom where mercy, peace and justice reign! Not a popular topic we hear from the pulpit these days and that is unfortunate. Shaun tackled this hard question from an audience member on why do we not hear this message in our churches (of any denomination)? Shaun gave a great response that convicted me and brought me to tears. He even took the time to sum it up on his blog and you can read his response here. I hope you take the time to read his comments and share with me what you think.