For those of you who follow One.org and the action that they help facilitate, and for those who don't, we're making a difference. Here's an update from Ginny on critical funding for poverty relief.
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Members of the U.S. House of Representatives just voted 286-140 to pass the 2007 continuing resolution!!
If the bill also passes in the Senate before Feb. 14 then instead of AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and refugee programs receiving no increases from 2006 to 2007, they will receive an increase of $1.45 billion. The difference will add up to hundreds of thousands of lives.
Thank you to those in the House who voted to fully fund the programs that are working to end extreme poverty. We'll post their names here shortly.
Virginia Simmons
Online Organizing Coordinator
The ONE Campaign
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
ONE Action
From Virginia at ONE.org
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A straight continuing resolution would have left funding at 2006 levels through all of 2007 - but a few weeks ago, ONE launched a major effort to raise awareness and save as much of the planned increase as possible. In January alone, ONE members sent over 200,000 emails, faxes and letters to their members of Congress urging them to fully fund poverty programs in 2007.
Last night, a bill was filed asking for a $1.3 billion increase in AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis funding - a full $300 million more than the one billion dollar increase ONE members urged their representative to save.
Sound Off
(Nothing is a done deal though until the bill passes both houses. A House vote is scheduled for tomorrow and a Senate vote is set for February 5. We'll be posting updates on these votes times and outcomes on the ONE Blog.)
We have been told that this money, which easily could have vanished virtually unnoticed, was saved due to the pressure from the community. Without exaggeration, outreach on the 2007 CR may have just saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the world's poorest countries.
Please send me an email or call me if have questions. Every convesation blog post on these issues counts.
Ginny
Virginia Simmons
Online Organizing Coordinator
The ONE Campaign
----------------------------------------------------------
A straight continuing resolution would have left funding at 2006 levels through all of 2007 - but a few weeks ago, ONE launched a major effort to raise awareness and save as much of the planned increase as possible. In January alone, ONE members sent over 200,000 emails, faxes and letters to their members of Congress urging them to fully fund poverty programs in 2007.
Last night, a bill was filed asking for a $1.3 billion increase in AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis funding - a full $300 million more than the one billion dollar increase ONE members urged their representative to save.
Sound Off
(Nothing is a done deal though until the bill passes both houses. A House vote is scheduled for tomorrow and a Senate vote is set for February 5. We'll be posting updates on these votes times and outcomes on the ONE Blog.)
We have been told that this money, which easily could have vanished virtually unnoticed, was saved due to the pressure from the community. Without exaggeration, outreach on the 2007 CR may have just saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the world's poorest countries.
Please send me an email or call me if have questions. Every convesation blog post on these issues counts.
Ginny
Virginia Simmons
Online Organizing Coordinator
The ONE Campaign
Monday, January 29, 2007
Isn't She Beautiful Reflections
It has been a week since I returned from the Isn't She Beautiful conference in Michigan and it has taken me a little while to really process what I experienced. The conference was deeply refreshing for me in that it was a call to love (my God, my self, my neighbor, and all of creation). The narrative of God is all about restoration and I want to be part of it. I want to fully engage Missio Dei for the sake of my own heart.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Images- Isn't She Beautiful
The Mars Hill stage
Rob Bell getting ready for the final evening.
Rob preaching.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Redeeming The Hurting
Tonight was perhaps the reason I came to Mars Hill. The night was dominated by worship and communion...and the cross. Okay, this was a pastors conference but as I was saying to my friend, "where do pastor's go to find their own redemption and love." I feel sorry for pastor's. They don't give themselves space to be human. There seems to be this cruel club they all belong to that says they can't be anything less than perfect and a shining example of what it means to be a Christian.
Tonight Rob call them out of this palce and gave them a place to be real, to hurt, to cry. Tonight a group of 2,000 pastors, elders, leaders and volunteers took time and space to remember (and embrace) what it means to restore their own hearts. Some took their place under the cross, many red faced and wet cheeked from the experience. Others took their place under the prayer shawl. Other sat with other elders and received prayer. The scene looked must like a revival only this was a group of pastors and leaders.
I thank my father for a brother like Rob. Some people don't understand him and that is okay, but he know what it means to restore. I like that. I like a person who stands up front and says, "We need to love." This is why I came.
Tonight Rob call them out of this palce and gave them a place to be real, to hurt, to cry. Tonight a group of 2,000 pastors, elders, leaders and volunteers took time and space to remember (and embrace) what it means to restore their own hearts. Some took their place under the cross, many red faced and wet cheeked from the experience. Others took their place under the prayer shawl. Other sat with other elders and received prayer. The scene looked must like a revival only this was a group of pastors and leaders.
I thank my father for a brother like Rob. Some people don't understand him and that is okay, but he know what it means to restore. I like that. I like a person who stands up front and says, "We need to love." This is why I came.
Tweaking The Norm
This morning at the Isn't She Beautiful conference Rob was in full form. If Rob has the ability to do anything it is to tweak the way people see the story of redemption. This morning was all about Salvation, Heaven and Hell. And the content of these sessions are for another post. What is important was how Rob expanded the conversation of heaven, hell and salvation. And as I looked at the mood of the room it was obvious that he had tweaked the norm.
You see, there is historical way of operating that is so fixed, so completely restrictive to a select few (some would call it scholasticism) that it gives people no permission to think. Rob won't let you do that. He calls out a way of being that requires you to think. He's so much like Jesus in that he almost forces you to wrestle with it. His best subversive quality is his capacity to tweak the way you see it.
And the reality was that 20% of the people were deeply confused and immediately discounted what he said. I am at lunch as I write this and I just finished a conversation with a local pastor, who came because he just heard of Rob's church (this guy is really tweaked). The very first thing he said was "I didn't agree with about 25% of what he said." I asked him why, and he stumbled on it. "We did the proof text and..." You can finish the sentence.
See what Rob does that bugs people is that he makes people aware of their own way of seeing, and in the presence of a new way of seeing it most people question the validity of their own image. Some immediately walk away, some go numb, some just agree, and a small group wrestles with it. Some, like my neighbor at lunch, immediately assume an attack on their image and can't handle it.
What if we miss the whole story when we do this. What if we miss the story that Jesus is trying to communicate, when we assume our way of seeing is fixed and the only way to see something. I have been listening to Rob for about a year and a half and I think he would probably say, "I could be wrong."
How then do we find love in all of this? How then do we live in the tension of the new and the old and find a way to remain in the learning, the relationship, and the love? How do we stay in trust when something affronts our senses and constructs? That my friend is the question of living.
More pictures to follow.
You see, there is historical way of operating that is so fixed, so completely restrictive to a select few (some would call it scholasticism) that it gives people no permission to think. Rob won't let you do that. He calls out a way of being that requires you to think. He's so much like Jesus in that he almost forces you to wrestle with it. His best subversive quality is his capacity to tweak the way you see it.
And the reality was that 20% of the people were deeply confused and immediately discounted what he said. I am at lunch as I write this and I just finished a conversation with a local pastor, who came because he just heard of Rob's church (this guy is really tweaked). The very first thing he said was "I didn't agree with about 25% of what he said." I asked him why, and he stumbled on it. "We did the proof text and..." You can finish the sentence.
See what Rob does that bugs people is that he makes people aware of their own way of seeing, and in the presence of a new way of seeing it most people question the validity of their own image. Some immediately walk away, some go numb, some just agree, and a small group wrestles with it. Some, like my neighbor at lunch, immediately assume an attack on their image and can't handle it.
What if we miss the whole story when we do this. What if we miss the story that Jesus is trying to communicate, when we assume our way of seeing is fixed and the only way to see something. I have been listening to Rob for about a year and a half and I think he would probably say, "I could be wrong."
How then do we find love in all of this? How then do we live in the tension of the new and the old and find a way to remain in the learning, the relationship, and the love? How do we stay in trust when something affronts our senses and constructs? That my friend is the question of living.
More pictures to follow.
Monday, January 22, 2007
The Spirit of Love
About three months ago I convinced my wife that I needed to go to Michigan in the middle of winter. Normally this would be considered a really stupid move (as some of my friends would say, "Are you insane?") but on this particular instance it was to go to a conference at Mars Hill. Well today I'm finally here. I'm at the Isn't She Beautiful conference, which is essentially a dialog about how to be a church that loves.
Rob Bell (the pastor at Mars Hill) says what I believe, which for someone who values language is like having a personal translator to my soul. His gift is in seeing and communicating the language of what we all are experiencing on this journey.
This morning was on the Eucharist, which is the giving of life by the pouring out of our souls. Its this practice of following Jesus in love in the giving of ourselves. Its this profound place where we connect to what it means to be a human in this crazy world and still not give up. The key for me this morning was actually not the Eucharist, even though I really, really enjoyed the conversation. The key was in seeing the little ways that I have forgotten to say, "I love you." Once we broke for lunch I had to stop and send my wife an email letting her know how much I appreciate her. I needed to write to her so that she could read it in her own space and reflect on it when she needed.
And then it hit me. What Rob is really trying to do is foster the spirit of love within a community so that it pervades everything they do. I could feel it within the building, within the people. We, the audience, we all on a little pilgrimage to experience that community. He was just smart enough to bring everyone together around this banner.
Thank you Rob for choosing love.
Rob Bell (the pastor at Mars Hill) says what I believe, which for someone who values language is like having a personal translator to my soul. His gift is in seeing and communicating the language of what we all are experiencing on this journey.
This morning was on the Eucharist, which is the giving of life by the pouring out of our souls. Its this practice of following Jesus in love in the giving of ourselves. Its this profound place where we connect to what it means to be a human in this crazy world and still not give up. The key for me this morning was actually not the Eucharist, even though I really, really enjoyed the conversation. The key was in seeing the little ways that I have forgotten to say, "I love you." Once we broke for lunch I had to stop and send my wife an email letting her know how much I appreciate her. I needed to write to her so that she could read it in her own space and reflect on it when she needed.
And then it hit me. What Rob is really trying to do is foster the spirit of love within a community so that it pervades everything they do. I could feel it within the building, within the people. We, the audience, we all on a little pilgrimage to experience that community. He was just smart enough to bring everyone together around this banner.
Thank you Rob for choosing love.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Oxfam's Farm Bill Action
This is a reprint from the ONE.org site. It was originally posted by Tim Fullerton of Oxfam.
It's incredibly tough to be a small farmer these days. From Mali to Mississippi, family farms are struggling just to stay afloat. Meanwhile, huge industrial-sized farms in the US gobble up small farms, and poor farmers across the globe struggle to survive on just a dollar a day.
But it doesn't have to be that way. This year, Congress will debate a new Farm Bill, which for five years will set policies that could either help small farmers at home and abroad - or keep them struggling.
Join Oxfam's Farm Bill Action Team and help pressure Congress to support hardworking farmers around the world.
We need you to make sure this year's Farm Bill lets small farmers compete and make a living. The last bill included billions of dollars in handouts for gigantic farming operations - while leaving family farmers across the globe struggling to make ends meet.
This is one of those touchstone issues where your actions can have a huge impact. Rural communities are devastated when small farmers lose their livelihoods. The results: Poverty and hunger skyrocket, the young move to cities, and unsustainable farming practices deplete the land.
As part of the Oxfam Farm Bill Action Team, you'll be given easy ways to educate your friends, Congress, and the media about how our tax dollars shouldn't go toward subsidies that hurt family farms both in the US and in poor countries.
Help us cultivate change to make our world a better place. Join the Farm Bill Action Team today!
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Please take a moment to help out.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
How Does Love Intervene
Last night I had dinner with my cousin at Fats (great Thai food) and the conversation served as an strange tipping point to recognizing to the great costs associated with marriage. My cousin is currently separated from his wife of 12 years. I sat and listened to my cousin, chewing on a delightful Walnut Shrimp concoction and wondered if I hadn't just heard this conversation before. You see, one of my best friends had spent the previous night over at my house as we watched the BCS game between Florida and Ohio State. He too was separated from his wife. A third great friend had also separated, and divorced, from his wife this summer.
As I listened to my cousin I couldn't help but wonder why divorce happens. Why is it that we can reach a place where we give up, lose hope, or just lose touch. In each case, it was not instantaneous events that contributed to the demise but ongoing lack of concern for the other person. Each had simply lost touch with the other person.
But in the listening I became aware that I am now my father's age when he divorced my mom. It is a strange thing to really reach an age and realize how completely impossible it is to prepare for marriage and really understand what it means to love someone forever. In each case the couple had simply grown indifferent and apart. Little things added up to create a giant wedge that pulled them in different directions. I cannot deny that I was deeply sad for each of them.
How does love intervene when two people reach a point of giving up? How does love find a way out and see beyond all of the crap that gets in the way and steals our hope? How do we regain the ability to love even when our spouse doesn't reciprocate, instead lashing out at simple attempts to make sense of the mess? I don't know. That is the problem.
I sat looking at my cousin very aware that love takes work. It takes a willingness to see beyond the simple petty things that add up and still find hope. I have hope for them, but I don't know if it is enough.
As I listened to my cousin I couldn't help but wonder why divorce happens. Why is it that we can reach a place where we give up, lose hope, or just lose touch. In each case, it was not instantaneous events that contributed to the demise but ongoing lack of concern for the other person. Each had simply lost touch with the other person.
But in the listening I became aware that I am now my father's age when he divorced my mom. It is a strange thing to really reach an age and realize how completely impossible it is to prepare for marriage and really understand what it means to love someone forever. In each case the couple had simply grown indifferent and apart. Little things added up to create a giant wedge that pulled them in different directions. I cannot deny that I was deeply sad for each of them.
How does love intervene when two people reach a point of giving up? How does love find a way out and see beyond all of the crap that gets in the way and steals our hope? How do we regain the ability to love even when our spouse doesn't reciprocate, instead lashing out at simple attempts to make sense of the mess? I don't know. That is the problem.
I sat looking at my cousin very aware that love takes work. It takes a willingness to see beyond the simple petty things that add up and still find hope. I have hope for them, but I don't know if it is enough.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Simple Ideas To Love
I have a friend who really inspired me this week. His name is Brandon. He's actually the boyfriend of my wife's friend Alicia. Brandon had this unique idea of doing something with his passions so he created a non-profit that would serve the poor in Colombia. The idea was to create something that would serve a specific community that needed help and consistently target one area. He's not looking to save the world from poverty, only a tiny corner of it.
This week he's traveling down to Colombia to meet with some people who live in the community and begin the process of creating an assessment of what they need. I honestly wish I was on the plane with him.
My hats off to you Brandon for doing something so inspiring with your life. Thank you for practicing love in its best form.
This week he's traveling down to Colombia to meet with some people who live in the community and begin the process of creating an assessment of what they need. I honestly wish I was on the plane with him.
My hats off to you Brandon for doing something so inspiring with your life. Thank you for practicing love in its best form.
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