Suid Afrika

Before I write anything, I will first say, I LOVE South Africa, I think apartheid was awful, and its a shame that there is so much violence there now. I also have gotten to hear alot of points of view on situations in South Africa from being there. Everyone I met, from all the Peace Corps volunteers posted in South Africa, to the white Afrikaaners who ran the hostel, to the taxi drivers, to the various safari guides, and people living in a well-developed village, were ready to let me know what they thought of South Africa and what was going on there as of October 08.

Unfortunately, I had no idea who Mbeki was, no idea who Zuma was, and Mbeki had just resigned when I got to South Africa. Now I am reading a bit about Zuma in the news and it just struck me as funny today when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Zuma's two wives. It was kind of poking fun a bit, saying "Which will be the First first lady".

I also learned that polygamy is legal in South Africa because it is such a part of their tribal culture. Anyhow, I am a bit concerned for the state of the AIDs crisis in South Africa because their president has two (almost 3) wives. And has 19 kids. I hope that the AIDs crisis does not get worse there as a result of his bad example. Well, then again, it already has had other people in the government deny that AIDs is real.

Unfortunately, I still don't see South Africa's future getting much brighter anytime soon with the new president. They need transparency in their government and need to hold the government accountable to their actions.

Disturb me

>I found a video on a pro-life website yesterday that disturbed me for various reasons. It disturbed me because planned parenthood is covering up child rape and not letting the authorities know about different cases of molestation and rape because they get money from it. These women and girls deserve so much better than that. They deserve counseling and hope. They deserve to be loved, not just to be another case in the clinic. Ok, that part disturbed me alot.

The other thing that disturbed me was that these people from SFLA (Students for Life of America, which AU Students for Life is a part of, I believe) had gone in undercover and lied about the circumstances this girl was in. That also seems wrong to me. I understand investigative reporting and doing things like this for journailstic stories, but I still don't think it is right. It kind of makes SFLA out to be some sort of rougue undercover policing body. Which AU SFL was not.

I doubt that AU SFL would have supported such an endeavor . We were pretty progressive in terms of what we did for the pro-life cause. We did not support GAP (Genocide Awareness Project) which shows photos of aborted babies on picket signs. I actually think that GAP is disrespectful to the lives of the babies who were killed as well as the mothers of those babies. The photos are disturbing and may bring out truth, but I don't think they need to be seen. It is bad taste, in the same way that showing murder victims in newspapers is in bad taste (and btw, not usually allowed in newspapers).

We supported Feminists for Life, we actually had one of their speakers come my senior year and talk on campus. Their slogan is “Women Deserve Better”. Which they do. So when we marched in the March for Life, we carried Feminist for Life signs that sais “Women Deserve Better than Abortion”. With the focus on preserving the women's rights and putting their well-being at the forefront of the debate, I think Feminists for Life manages to stay relevant in the world and doesn't alienate people.

As a group we also had someone from the gay pro-life, PLAGAL, group come and talk about how gays and lesbians should be pro-life because in the future, if they start to screeen children for diseases in-utero and abort ones with negative diseases or traits, it could very well mean that children who are said to be gay in the womb would be aborted. However, I wasn't able to attend this speaker, I think I had class.

We also held cordial debates with the AU Democrats group, the largest student group on campus. We debated the pro-life issue and kept it formal and fact-based. We didn't yell, scream, or say outright without information “You're Wrong!” I think I atteneded one of these, and it went very well. People on both sides were open to hear both sides of the debate.

We also helped out at the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center. Various members volunteeted time there. We held “Diaper Drives” at the grocery store and asked all the rich Washingtonians shopping there on a Sunday afternoon every month to buy some diapers so that these girls who go to the pregnancy center would be able to afford keeping their baby. Diapers are expensive!! We had people who were pro-life come and applaud what we were doing. We had staunch pro-choice people buy diapers because they wanted to help the women who are from low-income neighborhoods in DC. We did have people say we were crazy and that we should do a condom drive with the diaper drive :). So we laughed about it then, and still laugh now. AU SFL stilll does diapers drives and keeps that pregnancy center stocked. That center is in NE DC, not the one nearer to AU because the GW Students for Life group worked with that one before AU SFL even started.
We also had a baby shower for the center and bought baby items that they needed, and some professors donated things to us, as well. We raised money tabling on the quad and in the student life center for this. We were able to get lots of things for the center, but unfortunately because of privacy issues, we couldn't pick a specific girl to have the shower for. Nor were we able to meet the people coming into the center unelss we had been through their counseling Anyhow, I don't think AU SFL would support what Stand True or SFLA did. I am not sure if I do, but it is disturbing. And maybe I need to start doing something to help the girls in my area who find themselves pregnant and scared and without support.

We in the church have been too quick to condemn those who get pregnant out of wedlock, but we need to love them just the same. One sin is a bad as another. I am not perfect, neither are they. Just my mistakes yesterday didn't lead to a child being born. Theirs did. Hah, we can cover up so much sin, we can cover up lots of things, but unfortunately, once a girl gets pregnant, then everyone points the finger and accuses, rather than loving.

So now I am praying, God, what do you want me to do about this, right here and now? Who do I need to be loving more? How should I go about doing that? As the prayer meeting I'm in grows, I think we will see lots of girls come in who have been hurt by men, whether they are pregnant or not, and they will be loved there and prayed for there. It will be a place of deliverance and freedom for them. I guess that's where I am at right now and where I must be working and moving for the time being.

Green

In honor of Earth Day being yesterday, I am reading an excerpt from a book called "Go Green, Save Green." Its pretty good so far, but I just found a quote that I like:
"If every American used one gallon less of water per day, we
would save more than 100 billion gallons per year. That’s enough
to supply the entire population of Mozambique with water for five
years."

That puts things into perspective. Partly because I see how big Mozambique is. And they need water alot. Not that reducing our water consumption here will automatically provide wells or running water for them, but maybe if we reduced our consumerism and took the money we saved by buying less stuff and using less water, and gave it to organizations like Blood Water Mission or Iris Ministries to build wells, then the people who have no water in Africa would have water.

Hmm, maybe that is my new idea for some missions thing... so far we have people giving up coffee and other drinks and using that money to fund projects in Africa, what if there was something that people could pledge to buy less things or use less water, and then they would donate that money to buy clothes for kids in Africa or provide wells in Africa.

What we may Ask

1 John 5:14-15 (New International Version)

¹⁴This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Since we are God's children, we can boldly approach God's throne. When we do, we can ask Him, our Daddy for anything. How amazing is that? And the Bible actually says we have it. Not even a "we will get it sometime in the future" its that we already have it, we have it in heavenly places and we need to believe that its coming on earth too.

Its not just that God is Santa Claus, He's even better! (in Heidi's new book, Compelled by Love, she says that, give credit where credit is due) Seriously, God listens to us and grants us our requests. If it is in line with His will, we can move heaven and earth to get it. How do we know if it is in line with His will? If we are truly seeking after God and His heart, then I believe the things we are asking for will be in line with His will.

It is truly amazing that God, the maker of the universe, hears us and listens to our prayers. Wow. We don't just serve a distant God, we serve a God who is our Daddy as well.

As I have been recently, I have been asking God for big-ticket things... And He is responding. I had been praying the price of a plane ticket down to $500, which is half of the usual price... AND I got it!!!! $506!! Yay God!

So I am still praying some big things down from heaven. If you believe God wants things to happen, pray for it. Pray big. Dream bigger. God is almighty and listens to us!!

sometimes my life just don't make sense at all

"sometimes my life just don't make sense at all..."
thank you rich mullins for understanding exactly how i am feeling right now. I can't make sense of anything. The only thing that I can make sense of is the most non-sensical person in my life right now and that is the autistic kid I work with. He makes sense. Or working with him does. Ironic, isn't it? The person who the world looks at as crazy is, perhaps, the one that speaks the most reassurance into my life that I am doing what I was made to do.

I just wish that people would stop thinking that I LOVE to travel. I am tired of traveling. I don't want to go anywhere. I feel so inadequate and weak right now. I can't make sense of anything.

I'm tired of people being jealous that I've been to a bunch of countries. The only place I actually chose to go was Brazil and that was a disaster to say the least. They think it is cool or they are jealous and make comments like "I never went to so many places". Well, why was that, then? Was it because God didn't call you there or was it because you were too scared to move?

But right now, I think I am too scared to move. And am stuck because of it. So "Hold me Jesus, I'm shakin like a leaf, you have been king of my glory, won't you be my prince of peace."

Your Eyes

Back from DC, don't know how I lived there without seeing. This song was on the radio as I was driving in DC and it hit me. Hard.

"All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide what’s underneath

There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work, he's buying time

I’ve been here a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just move and pass me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
I need a second glance
Give me a second chance
To see the way you’ve seen the people all along"

Zim

Just when I thought I was not going to cry when reading about Africa anymore, I picked up a book by a journalist in Zimbabwe called "Where We Have Hope". And I'm reading this book, the guy went to Zimbabwe right after it gained freedom. He got a job as a freelance journalist (ok, so I envy him a bit) and is interviewing all these people about Mugabe and the opposition party just after Mugabe gets into power.

And I start to cry. And that was in the first 2 chapters. That was before I started reading about him reporting about how Mugabe's cronies were murdering the Ndebele people simply because the Ndebele usually supported the opposition. I had to put the book down because I couldn't read it, my eyes had too many tears in them.

I never thought about Zimbabwe much until I went to Africa. I did think about Africa, like Benin and Sierra Leone, but never Zim. I couldn't have even placed it on a map. In Beira, we met and prayed with a lady who was headed to Zimbabwe. Literally, she is putting her life in danger to bring hope to these people. We prayed hard and cried and blessed her.

Iris Zimbabwe/ Generation Won ministries work there currently. I am not saying I will go there, but I am saying my heart is there. I would love to go. Oh yes, I understand cholera, inflation, violence, etc, but the cost is always worth the price we have to pay to find God.

Maybe one day I will be able to write from the perspective of having been there, but I have not been to Zimbabwe. But my heart burns for Africa. Not just Moz. Oh Jesus. He's put His love for the beautiful people of Africa in me. Thats all there is to it.

i love africa shirt

i made it. or at least i made the africa and hearts on it. sorry the pic is sideways, i cant figure out how to get it right.