It's a documentary about how faith in America is being reshaped. It's about ordinary God-followers who are tired of the labels that society puts on Christians - most of them rightfully so - and have decided to change the world through love. Not religion.
When I was looking through some internet stuff about Rapha House - a ministry in Cambodia that helps girls who have been rescued from the sex trafficking industry - I stumbled upon their blog, so I thought I would post it here. I'm also going to be putting it on my sidebar as one of the blogs I regularly peruse.
I had a phone conversation with one of the directors of Rapha House, and it was neat talking about what we can do to help them when we go to Cambodia next summer. My prayer is that our partnership with them will change lives and will be an answer to prayer for them.
I'm excited about this coming Sunday at our church, because the student ministry gets to present its missions trip to Cambodia next summer, as well as some of the other amazing things that are happening in our ministry and around us, as our passion for justice is "infecting" others around us, and they are responding to the need. I will share more after this Sunday, but there have been some amazing stories through all of this.
One of the highlights of this Sunday will be the presentation of the 30 minute video that Christ in Youth showed us this summer - which was the spark for our students to get involved with stopping human trafficking and Cambodia. You can see the trailer below.
Our t-shirt designs are almost ready, we are excited about them and we already have a good response from them! (the front of one of the t-shirts is featured above.)
I think that days like today are really neat. Why? Because it's 08.08.08. You only get to experience those once a year, and only until the year 2012. After 12.12.12, it doesn't happen again until January 1 of 2101.
This is pretty cool. I'm sure it's pretty neat to have a child on this kind of day, except for maybe two years ago. I thought that my friend Meg in Ohio, when she gave birth to her boy on 06.06.06, should have named her boy Damian, but she didn't agree with me. Jacob is a good name, though.
I remember reading his book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in high school. I was amazed at the brutality of the Russian labor camps and its leaders.
I think we can find a similar situation in China these days - although I shouldn't get started on what I think about China hosting the Olympic Games, it seriously makes me want to vomit. Especially with the latest news stories: internet shut downs, broadcasting from Tieneman Square is closely monitored, and now Joey Cheek, the Winter Olympian and Darfur activist, gets his visa revoked and is not allowed into China because of his activism in Darfur - a situation that China hasn't helped since they've been supporting the Sudanese government in all of this.
Perhaps a Chinese author will be able to stand courageously against his/her country and tell the world the truth about communist China.
A design like this is going on a t-shirt that your youth ministry is going to sell in order to raise money for organizations that are dedicated to stopping human trafficking.
We're excited about what God is doing - we'll see what happens this next year as we prepare our hearts and souls for Cambodia.
I found, through interestingly enough trying to find some new recipes for our family, a cool website called Wordle, which makes some really cool "life clouds" when you give it a bunch of words. It creates some cool word art.
Here's one I created by copying a post I had concerning the missional church:
Here's another one we created that we might try and paint on our daughter's new bedroom wall:
Pretty cool stuff.
By the way, the website I found this from is this one, she has some pretty good recipes as well.
I'm not sure we need another Bible translation, but this one looks interesting. The Voice is a new Bible translation project that is pretty unique. Here's their description:
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A Scripture Project To Rediscover The Story Of The Bible
The Voice Is A New And Dynamic Translation Of The Bible That Brings The Biblical Narrative To Life, Representing A Collaboration Among Scholars, Writers, Musicians, And Other Artists.
Four Key Words Describe The Vision Of This Project:
Holistic // Considers Heart, Soul, And Mind Beautiful // Achieves Literary And Artistic Excellence Sensitive // Respects Cultural Shifts And The Need For Accuracy Balanced // Includes Theologically Diverse Writers And Scholars
The Team Writing The Voice Brings Unprecedented Gifts To This Unique Project. An Award-Winning Fiction Writer, An Acclaimed Poet, A Pastor Renowned For Using Art And Narrative In His Preaching And Teaching, Greek And Hebrew Authorities, And Biblical Scholars Are All Coming Together To Capture The Beauty And Diversity Of God’s Word.
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You can download the book of John at their website. I'm going to take a look at it this week and I'll comment on it once I read it.
