True obedience

This is true obedience...to obey even when there is no certainty that God will provide an escape.

- Allan Boesak
South African minister

Is social action leftist?

To most evangelicals, "social action" as a theological tenet once had liberal, suspicious, and unbiblical connotations. Such "social gospelers" were considered politically left, semi-Christians who had forsaken a biblically based salvation message for a diluted gospel of mere social ethics. And because it was largely the theological liberals who embraced social action, evangelicals reacted by making both liberals and social action their adversaries.

No longer. Over the past few decades, evangelicals have increasingly talked about a holistic gospel that incorporates in its salvation story a Jesus who came into the world to minister to all needs of a hurting humanity--physical and social needs as well as spiritual needs.

Tony Campolo in Adventures in Missing the Point by Brian McLaren and Tony Compolo

A simple way to help!

Every morning when I sit down to my computer I click on two sites before I do anything else. I have done this since 1999. Fortunately, these two sites send me an email reminder every day.

The first is: http://www.thehungersite.com/tpc/ERH_062508_THS

With a simple, daily click of the yellow "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button at The Hunger Site, visitors help provide food to those in need. Visitors pay nothing. Food is paid for by the site's sponsors and distributed by Mercy Corps worldwide and by America's Second Harvest to food banks throughout the United States.

http://www.thechildhealthsite.com/tpc/ERC_062508_CHS

It is estimated that one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. That's roughly 100 times as many as those who actually die from these causes each year.

Since its launch in June 1999, the site has established itself as a leader in online activism, helping to feed the world's hungry. On average, over 220,000 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the yellow "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button. To date, more than 300 million visitors have given more than 500 million cups of staple food.

The staple food funded by clicks at The Hunger Site is paid for by site sponsors and distributed to those in need by Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest . 100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners.Funds are split between these organizations and go to the aid of hungry people in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.

It is a simple way to help!

Praying when we are weak.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

- Romans 8:26-28

Vacation Bible School at Beggars' Valley

Pastor Samuel Babu wrote the following:

During the summer vacation we conducted VBS (vacation bible school) especially for the children at Beggars' Valley. About 50 children attended the VBS. We gave them good Bible teachings. Thru this we reached their parents with good news of Jesus.

We gave children New Testaments and pencils. These children are the poorest of the poor and out of 50 kids only 3 are going to government school. When asked whether they are interested to go to school they all showed great interest to education but their parents are unable buy them books, school uniform, etc.

In the attached picture you can see the VBS children with New Testaments and Pencils. Please pray for these children and their parents that our Lord open their minds to gospel.

Sad story from our partner in Myanmur!

Many of those children become orphans after losing their parents in the cyclone or the flood. One girl I met told me “I have three other siblings. Both my parents use to work on our agricultural farm where we grow crops for sell. We were happy family. We have nothing much, but ourselves and that was enough to keep us happy. Suddenly, everything change, and here I am, with nothing. My parents and siblings are all gone.

That evening, I went to bed and when I woke up, I find myself in pitch dark, blown and thrown away by strong winds above and carried away by the flood water underneath my bodies. I shouted, but none respond. I got hit by several hard object (or I hit them) and finally, I was able to hold onto one of those and it turn out to be a palm tree. I hold on there in my refusal to be thrown by the flood and storm. I am glad I persisted or else I would have been death by now. When things calm down, I looked for my parents and sibling, but I could not find, except my younger sibling. Her body was stuck between two broken branches.

A New Book for Parents and Teachers

FAMILIES LIVING IN THE FABRIC OF FAITHFULNESS

Gloria Goris Stronks, Ed.D.
Julia Kaye Stronks, Ph.D.

For much of their professional lives these two authors have worked with students in the age group from 18 to 22. Julia Stronks is an attorney and a professor of political science at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. Gloria was a professor of education at Calvin College and at Dordt College and since her retirement serves Worldwide Christian Schools as the director of continuing education for teachers. After watching generations of students graduate and face adult life, they believe that more can be done to encourage parents to help their children think deeply about God’s calling in our lives.

Over the course of the last seven years the authors interviewed many young adults about their attempts to live with intentionality in the fabric of God’s faithfulness, to use the phrase from Steven Garber’s fine book. They also interviewed the parents of these young people in an attempt to understand the kind of parenting that was part of what led their adult children to their decisions for just living. They interviewed seventh and eighth grade students from Christian families to determine their concerns and fears.

Throughout the chapters the authors have integrated conversations between themselves—conversations that occurred as they conducted the interviews and did the writing. “J” stands for Julia and “G” stands for Gloria. They have also integrated comments, suggestions, and stories from the young people and parents that we interviewed.

It is unusual for scholars to publish books on the Internet. Both of these authors have worked with prestigious publishing houses in the past but they wanted to make this book available to parents and teachers in Africa, India, and other countries around the world who might not be able to afford the book and the shipping prices of American publishers.

Families Living in the Fabric of Faithfulness may be downloaded free of charge from the following website:

http://www.whitworth.edu/livinginthefabric

Wonderful websites for teachers!

Our WCS-India board president, Charles Manual, just sent the following information. It is great for teachers and for home-schooling parents:

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to deliver a key note address on topic of "Role of companies like IBM in developing Technical Education" in Manila. Among the speakers were some folks from the United Nations and I had an opportunity to brainstorm on some of the social aspects to HR development (something which large businesses like IBM cannot cope to address). One of them was this amazing lady who has done a ton of work in the field of education as part of an Inter Government International UN team and she sent me these resources that are available to school teachers.

Here are the links.

www.webquest.org
www.pbs.org/teachers
www.pbskids.org
www.educationusingpowerpoint.org.uk
www.ikeepbookmarks.com/bruneict

Cherie' Horton's music

There is a CD that I keep in my car. I listen to it often because it is an incredibly beautiful sound. Cherie' Horton, a classical pianist, made the arrangements for the piano and two other instruments that play together.

Some of the songs are old hymns with a new arrangement. Others are classical in nature. If you are interested in learning more about this beautiful music, go to the following website:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/cheriehorton

from Henri Nouwen

Our faithfulness will depend on our willingness to go where there is brokenness, loneliness, and human need. If the church has a future it is a future with the poor in whatever form.

- Henri J.M. Nouwen
Sabbatical Journey (quoted in Sojourners)

Prophets of a future not our own!

Prophets of a Future Not Our Own

It helps now and then to step back and take a long
view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it
is even beyond our view.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a small fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said. No prayer
fully expresses our faith. No confession brings
perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No
program accomplishes the Church's mission. No set of
goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant the seeds that
will one day grow. We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise. We lay
foundations that will need further development. We
provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our
capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of
liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do
something, and to do it well. It may be incomplete but
it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity
for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the
difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

-Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of
El Salvador (1917-1980)

Do you sacrifice?

Every time you sacrifice something at great cost—every time you renounce something that appeals to you for the sake of the poor—you are feeding a hungry Christ.

- Mother Teresa

The Death of the Grown-up

(This post was submitted by Ron Polinder to the Dan Beeren's Nurturing Faith blog. Ron is Executive Director of Rehoboth Christian School, Rehoboth, New Mexico.)

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. I was flipping channels, that miserable masculine habit that drives wives out of the room. I settled on C-SPAN, where a Washington reporter, Diana West, was reflecting on her new book, The Death of the Grown-Up.

“Curious title,” I think. “I better tune in to this.” The next half hour has substantially altered how I view modern history, our culture, even my profession. We all have that experience from time to time, when a writer or speaker communicates reality so clearly, so insightfully.

West proceeded to unfold her thesis, that in the past 50 years a monumental reversal has taken place. It was gradual to be sure, seeded in the ’50s, incubated in the ’60s, and epidemic in the ’70s, “leaving a nation of eternal adolescents . . . chucking maturity for perpetual youth.”

Adolescence, a concept not even known to the human condition until 1941, when the term “teenager” first appeared in our lexicon, has now been judged by the National Academy of Sciences “as the period extending from the onset of puberty, around 12, to age 30.” The MacArthur Foundation is even more radical, arguing that the “transition to adulthood” doesn’t end until the age of 34.

West notes that until “this most recent episode of human history, there were children, and there were adults. Children in their teen years aspired to adulthood; significantly, they did not aspire to adolescence. Certainly, adults didn’t aspire to remain teenagers.”

Again, for most of time, even folks of my generation, we looked forward to moving past the awkwardness of the teenage years, and looked up to grown-ups—certain teachers, relatives, even our parents. We wondered if we could be like them.

But now this amazing turnaround, where adults are straining to be like the kids. They try to talk like them, dress like them, act like them. We all know moms well into their 30s, even 40s dressing like “Britney.” Or the middle-aged house guest who quickly dismisses a well-trained child’s greeting—“I’m not old enough to be a ‘mister’; call me Bob.”

The rise of “Adolescence” has reached religious proportions, thus a capital A. And what is more important than being “Cool,” capital C, not unlike capitalizing the Bible or Christianity. Consider how many of our youth will bow their knee to a behavior or habit that will assure their “Coolness.”

And that in turn makes it so very difficult for parents to establish appropriate boundaries for their teenagers, inclined themselves—secretly, or not so secretly—to crave “Coolness.”

If you worship the god of Cool, how can you run the risk of having your kids consider you to be “out of touch,” prudish, boring?

Given that mindset, how can a parent stand up to the foolishness of youth? So parents stick their heads in the sand rather than come to grips with MTV, which was surveyed by the Parent’s Television Council during spring break 2004 for 171 hours, tallying up 1,548 sex scenes, 1,518 unedited foul language, and 3,127 bleeped profanities.

Speaking of spring break, some parents pay for their adolescent’s plane ticket so they can take part in the debauchery and drunkenness of Cancun.

All this has enormous implications for education. Sociologist David Riesman, of Lonely Crowd fame, noted that “the educator in earlier eras might use the child’s language to put across an adult message.” Now it is “no longer thought to be the child’s job to understand the adult world as the adult sees it.”

This contributes much to the dumbing down of the educational enterprise. Teachers must constantly “stand on their heads” to retain a few minutes of adolescent attention. And if they act cool, they think they have a better chance.

Happily, there are still some teachers who understand the boundary between teacher and student, and who earn the everlasting respect of their students because of it. And students who catch on to that reality are fortunate and often more successful in growing up.

Relationships matter!

The following was written by Gypsy Meadows, who earlier was the director of Comprenew Academy. She provides a thoughtful description of the kinds of questions Christians face in many parts of the world. We believe that relationships matter a great deal in every aspect of our work. But at times that leaves us with questions.

Comprenew Academy was a W. Community schools "experiment" that produced results that are challenging to me. I spoke with Jerome Able (not his real name) this weekend at his graduation open house (one of our first Academy students who has remained a part-time employee of Comprenew). I asked him how many kids in his class are going on to college. He thought I meant Comprenew Academy kids, and he said, "I think 100 percent." I said, "What aboutyour school, Creston?" Then he said, "Oh, that would be about 50 percent.

Loosely, it would appear that Comprenew Academy either attracted driven students (from my experience, not really) or that our focus on their future goals really did help them make that choice to pursue higher education. However, it was not a highly evangelistic effort by any means.

That's where my personal challenge comes in, whether the Christ-centered potential was intentional enough (and I was the leader of it so I'm not criticizing anyone but myself). Is maintaining a relationship with Tarick, who is from a militant Muslim family, valid since I have not shared the gospel with him? Yes, I have encouraged his growth as a student and human being and may have played a part in where he is now, but what matters in the long run? In eternity?

Since he is a minor and I was a teacher in his life, I didn't feel it right to encourage him in a path that would seriously disrupt his already tumultuous family life. Comprenew was the only safe place for him, outside of school, and I didn't want to jeopoardize that in any way by threatening his family. That must be some of the things teachers in certain places of India grapple with.