Fanatics Unite

In case some of you are getting weird reactions as you try and integrate what you've learned into your life - being thought of as a fanatic, and such - here's a fun quote for you.

"“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures, and to be warmed with the desire of relieving their distresses, is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever to be permitted at large.”

William Wilberforce - he was a British Member of Parliament in the late 18th to early 19th century and after his conversion in 1786 he and a group of prominent evangelical Christians in England set about a lengthy struggle to abolish slavery in the entire British Empire (which was accomplished in 1833).

You Gotta See This!

Look for the catch at the end---now there's a way to get people's attention!

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52536

Community Development

Thought I'd post some good news for those who've been praying for me / my site group who prayed for me on the issue of community. I was playing Uno with the two girls in my house that are not American, and I noticed my Swiss roomie's got a Bible. And a dangly cross on her cell phone. So it's pretty clear God's put another Christian smack dab in my own house. And here I was waiting to build community.

So yeah, excited to have an answered prayer – you can imagine.

And, as a side note, for you speed Uno players. We didn’t like the silent rule for 7’s, obviously because we’re trying to speak more. So we changed it. You have to make an animal noise; and if you repeat a noise in the same game you have to draw two. It’s pretty interesting with international students!

Neighbour

A couple of quick things ...

Since Sean and Alice have both commented on feeling anger I thought I'd mention a conversation I had with Christy a few weeks ago. We were talking about debrief and she reminded me how angry I was when trying to process my first overseas experience in Ecuador back in 2000. I had forgotten how angry I was ... but looking back I see how God used that anger at injustice and idolatry (materialism/consumerism) to shape my future. At the time I had one more year in a biology degree with no thoughts of pursuing any Christian ministry as a full-time vocation ... a year later I was in seminary. Anger is a sign that something is wrong ... like sadness, or pain ... something wrong with us, with our relationships, or with the world ... the danger lies in repression of the anger onto ourselves or projection onto others undeserving ... I pray that God would reveal to all of us the roots of our anger, and show us the way/s to right those wrongs.

The other thing is just a quote that I found as I am working on a conept analysis of the word "neighbour" - I feel very patriotic about that "u". The quote is a reflection on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

"It is from the perspective of the ditch where one lies helpless and battered, and in desperate need of help, that one should reflect upon the question "who is my neighbour?" Then one will know how wide the reach of neighbour love should extend when one is in a position to be handing out favours." John Nolland