Amnesty celebrates 50th anniversary with Bob Dylan tribute album – CNN.com

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Dylan, music

Amnesty celebrates 50th anniversary with Bob Dylan tribute album – CNN.com.Ke$ha??? Seriously??? Dylan must be smacking his forehead right now…

happy winter!

Happy Resurrection~!

Last night I celebrated the Passover meal with a group of friends with which I live in community. There’s just something about the unleavened bread, wine, and sacrament that, upon walking into this holy moment, speaks loudly without having to break the sacred silence. Sitting down into the seat of this moment is like holding breath, but I almost missed it with my quick mouth and busy mind. As we started to center and gather ourselves from each of our four winds of life (mine being work, love, the future, and post-it notes), I realized how close I had come to driving right on through my friends’ sun-lit kitchen on my way to the next thought.

What could possibly have been a more important meditation during that still moment than to dwell on the fact that salvation has come upon us? That the Israelites knew something was up, but they had no idea on the massive breadth of impact this evening held for their futures? That history repeated itself thousands of years later with striking precision? That the blood they brushed from the veins of a lamb would be replaced from the veins of a minority who was truly the King of humanity? And how we, now, in this greatly progressed 21st century, are just as belovedly bewildered as those Israelites and unaware as those disciples as to the time in history that we are in… Awaken my heart o Lamb- that I would watch and not miss Your still beauty in my busy ugly…

Coming soon!!

Solstice

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Solstice

cynicism as a lack of education

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Donald Miller

Be aware that I am not offering a context to this excerpt, but this thought written by author Donald Miller stuck out to me and I just wanted to share the thought. I appreciate this stream of thought.

This paragraph is an excerpt out of an article in Relevant Magazine where DM was interviewed during Blood: Water Mission’s cross-country bike ride a few months ago. Yes, he was part of the procession…

“…Usually cynicism exists because we haven’t had a conversation with whatever person who had the idea we’re cynical about. Cynicism begins because we’ve had limited experience in the Church. You have to be removed from whatever subject you’re addressing in order to be cynical. Cynicism is really a sign of a lack of education on a given subject … I was pretty cynical. So getting to know America, getting to know some of these people—seeing just how open and friendly especially small America was really helped me understand that the America we encounter in the media is not an accurate representation. We aren’t that polarized. We’re not that divided. We’re actually quite unified, I would say..

the four year fight for a foothold in life…

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ORPHANAGE, UNICEF

I’m amazed at the fact that I have almost been home for two months. I am amazed at how this trip has changed me, even more amazed at the areas of my life where the trip did NOT change me, and amazed that it has yet to rain in Beira since I’ve been home…

My goal here is to just slowly release photos and talk about what each of them represent to me during this next season…

Hopefully it will be thought-provoking if not at least a little bit informational.

Alright…let’s pick a photo to mull over with our eyes and hearts…

I chose this photo because I still think about these eyes.

I don’t know this baby’s name, but I’ll tell you where we met. Kate took this photo at an orphanage on the other side of Beira from where we were located. As far as I could tell, this particular orphanage was funded through UNICEF, and run by Mozambican nationals.

This orphanage was populated mostly by babies and toddlers that had either been abandoned at hospitals, the mother died during birth, from AIDS, or other crisis circumstances… From how I understood it, there were many babies here who had AIDS, and after interacting with them, it was pretty easy to tell which children were not doing very well. The life expectancy of a child born with HIV is about two to four years, but if they make it past this point, they have a very good chance of leading a fairly normal life for a long time.
This is information I acquired while in Mozambique, but there are websites that provide similar information, such as www.aidsbabies.org

Remember all those quilts Kate and I dragged across the world? Those quilts ended up with these children.

I had the privilege of interacting with these children on Saturday, October 4th. We played with them, fed them, and just hugged them. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but for many babies in many-not all, but many, orphanages with these circumstances, do not receive an adequate amount of stimulation to their senses, thus hindering their motor skill development. Bringing color before their eyes and touch to their bodies is exactly what they need the most. That and lots of love. It was a pretty easy job; one I could have easily given years of my life to…

UNICEF, UNAIDS and other partners today launched a global campaign focusing on the enormous impact of HIV/AIDS on children, saying it was a disgrace that fewer than 5 per cent of HIV-positive children receive treatment and that millions of children who have lost parents to the disease go without support.

UNICEF said that children affected by the disease are the “missing face” of AIDS – missing not only from global and national policy discussions on HIV/AIDS, but also lacking access to even the most basic care and prevention services. Millions of children are missing parents, siblings, schooling, health care, basic protection and many of the other fundamentals of childhood because of the toll the disease is taking, the two UN institutions said.

The global campaign is entitled Unite for Children. Unite against AIDS. People can follow developments in the campaign at www.unicef.org/uniteforchildren.

this sticker was posted to the door leading into the babies’ room

The Rhythm of Africa

every morning, the girls sweep the yard- i think this is Julia…

this is monica. she was from zimbabwe, and she has two sisters here.

this is rosina. we pretty much just want to eat her up. is that weird?

this was taken a few days before katelynn’s arrival. lee, cody, and part of my face enjoying dinner in lee’s new house. aw! we even set the table… (i really thought i got all of my face…)

…right, who’s cody… cody comes from the states for about three months a year to help with the boys. as you can see, they are all very happy to have him here. :) this picture actually took a few tries to get a shot were everyone wasn’t laughing like the bunch of ridiculous boys that they are. cody will be here until the middle of december.

Kate and I decided to run across the dusty road to Kadesh tonight and make a quick blip on the common international means of communication, i.e. the internet. Yes, WaMu is my bank- what the heck?? Huh, apparently stuff is happening back home, and here we are, blissfully ignorant of it all. Well, at least we were trying to be, but it didn’t work out very well. Apparently the world finds you no matter what.

We spent today working on building HOB’s file for Social Services, so we’ve been collecting up to date portraits of each of the kids and writing up a profile for each of them. Basically spending a lot of time getting to know each of their stories. It’s pretty incredible what they have made it through. We’ve also been working on digging a new well while we’ve been here. We have some pretty hilarious photos from that as well. I’ve definitely been settling into a daily rhythm these past couple weeks, and being here has been growing increasingly easier. Well, I just spent this whole time trying to load one photo, but to no avail… Sorry folks. Until next time. :)