Helping Hurricane Victims

Check out an opportunity to get your hands dirty and help those who are still suffering after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina! In a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and the Baptist World Alliance, 6 houses will be built in four weeks outside of Lafayette, Louisiana for families displaced by the storms. I helped with a similar blitz build last year and it was a wonderful experience. We need 250 volunteers to make this happen! The dates are from April 20-May 17. For more information on how to get involved, please email me at julie@bwanet.org.

Just Neighbors

Do you ever think about who is your neighbor? At my job I deal with issues of disaster relief and sustainable community development on an international level. As a result, it is very easy for me to get wrapped up in thinking about my neighbors as those over "there" and forget that I have neighbors who are "here" as well. In preparation for a Habitat Blitz Build that will occur this spring, I have been reviewing a curriculum called "Just Neighbors". I find it to be extremely thought provoking but not only that, it also makes me want to act. My neighbors who live right "here" are living in poverty and I am failing if I do not confront the injustices associated with it. Check out the materials at http://www.justneighbors.net/

Love in India

I went on a two week trip to India in the beginning of December. The lessons I learned about how to show Christ's love tangibly will not soon be forgotten. Here is an article I wrote for my church newsletter that talks about how our simple, daily decisions can make an impact. What will you do today?

Eating Rice and Beans Provides Blankets for an Indian Village

Every two weeks a group from the contemporary congregation meets together to share a simple meal of rice and beans. The idea behind the dinner is to raise awareness that many in the world are limited to this food choice day after day. Instead of gathering and spending money to eat out in a local restaurant, the attendees chip in the saved funds into a corporate bean can. The money that is collected is then distributed to local and global charities, including causes such as the crop walk.

The most recent contributions were gathered for the trip that Natalie Perdue and Julie Justus went on to India. They gave the money to Leena Lavanya, the woman that they went to visit in Andhra Pradesh. Leena has started several ministries that meet the spiritual and physical needs of the marginalized in the surrounding communities. Among her ministries are an AIDS Hospice, a home for lepers, an AIDS orphanage and a sewing school for women who are coming out of prostitution.

The money that was given by the rice and beans participants was used to purchase blankets for those living in a small village near Leena’s home. The villagers spend their days begging in order to have enough food to eat. Leena normally brings rice to them but this month they had asked for blankets. Their homes are simple huts and no electricity is available to the community and so the blankets will be useful in keeping them warm during the colder winter month. They gathered together when the team arrived and Leena led in the distribution. The experience was touching as each family came up to receive the Christmas gift. It is amazing how the simple act of eating rice and beans can show the love of Christ on the other side of the world.

All Talk, No Action

I am a single woman. Now, the reason that I am telling you this is because I am hoping that I can circumvent eHarmony and just use Faith Sowers as a kind of online dating agency. Ok, ok, that was just a joke. The real reason I am telling you is because of as a single woman in her twenties I get a lot of "let me set you up" offers from people far and wide. I get suggestions of possible romantic introductions from work, church, friends, friends of friends and even family. For example, my grandfather introduced me at his church this past Christmas as his unmarried granddaughter. The horror! Most of the times these comments are made with the best intentions. Yet if I had a dollar for every time I was told that someone knew someone who was just perfect for me, I would be a rich a woman. Rich enough, perhaps to end hunger in the world today. However, nothing ever comes of these offers. There is very little follow through. It is "all talk, no action".

At this point you might wonder what my singleness has to do with injustice in the world. Do I think that the fact that I am not married is unjust? Well, no, I don't. Yet after watching Blood Diamonds I must admit that able to think smugly that I definitely know I don't have one of those! Anyway, do I think that people saying that they have someone who should be my future husband and yet do nothing about it is unjust? Perhaps, but that is for a different blog! Anyway, the reason is because I have been reminded about the "all talk, no action" is because it not only relates to potential setups but even more so to the Church as a whole as we simply do not act when we say that we will.

Recently I went to a conference that was hosted by a high profile anti-hunger organization in Washington, DC. There were a lot of compelling speakers urging us to get involved in social justice and to see everyone, rich and poor, around the world as our neighbor. They called us to love and to act in ending extreme global poverty. All of this I agree with. However, what struck me was that we were hearing about a lot of shocking facts and statistics about the struggle against poverty. There were a lot of words being shared. Yet are these words being backed up by action? Will the participants actually do something after leaving the excitement of the meeting? Were we full of talk and no action?

This conference is not an isolated issue. We in the Church love to talk. I love to talk. But do we love to act? Do I love to act? Do I actually give up my leisure time to go out and do? I like to talk about injustice and how we can end suffering in the world but I wonder what actions I do on a regular basis that perpetuate the very thing that I am talking about wanting to end. I am so quick to pick out the inaction of others that I forget to realize that I am also standing still and simply moving my mouth.

So, where does that leave us? Clearly I am still without a date! Seriously, though, if I get frustrated with people talking and not acting about my nonexistent love life, how much more frustrated must God get when those who say they love the poor do not show it? Hmmm, I could write about this forever, oh irony!

I love reading

I love reading. When I was young I would read Babysitter club books with a passion. Now by passion, I mean I would get so wrapped up in the complex storyline of adolescents banding together to watch neighborhood children that I would sneak the books into the shower to continue my reading. I would stand in the back of the tub to avoid ruining the treasure but the reality is that it would get a little more than moist. (Don’t act grossed out I was 10, and let’s be honest, no one likes to take a shower at 10).

Now that I am older, my interest in hygiene has not totally overpowered my passion for reading. I wish that I could pretend that I like to read deep and profound books, especially since I graduated for seminary and that’s what seminary graduates are supposed to do, but I still love fluff. Chick Lit is probably the best genre ever created. For example, a spring afternoon sitting outside with a non-fat iced mocha and a page-turner like the something from the Shopaholic series is hard to beat. I can devour a book like that in two days without breaking a mental sweat. They are just that good; even if I do get a little stressed out that the heroine is spending too much money. Better her than me!

While Chick Lit is what I prefer to read while relaxing, every once and a while someone will loan me a “Christian” book with such a glorious recommendation that I simply cannot pass it up. I will finish whatever fluff I am reading (Marian Keyes, anyone?) and tentatively dive into the realm of the virtually unknown. More often than not I find myself once again captivated by the written word and challenge to follow Jesus just a little bit closer. This phenomenon has happened three times in the past several months.

The first was with Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. While reading it I was dared to question the status quo of my culture and my convictions as questioning leads to growth. I started to wonder how I as an individual and we as the church decide what priorities for living are. Am I too concerned about appearing to have it all together?

Then I was blasted by the simple, yet stark, honesty of Shane Claiborne in Irresistible Revolution. I marveled at how something as simple as loving one’s neighbor daily can seem so radical in contrast to what we as a church decide to focus our efforts on instead. Would I be willing to step out of my comfort zone and love my enemies? How do I change the injustices that I see around me? Do I simply write letters to those in power or would I actually be willing to go to Iraq as a peacemaker?

Most recently, as in Sunday, I picked up Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. Once again I am resonating with his candid struggles of loving God’s people inside and outside the church. Would I be willing to set up a confessional booth and ask for forgiveness of my sins? Am I willing to live in dirty, messy, even confrontational (I am one of the most non-confrontational people at least in Northern Virginia) community?

Now the real challenge is to actually put my musings into practice. It is great to read these books and feel that I am not alone in my questions yet nothing changes unless I act. Will I love as Jesus loved? Will we? How should I/we love in tangible ways? Hmm, maybe I should just check if my library has Shopaholic and Baby…

Easy?

This is my first try at a blog. I am a little nervous!

From my limited experience, blogs can be wonderful things! I enjoy reading my friends' blogs to see what they are thinking about and as a different way of staying in touch. I have read blogs in an effort to learn more about the world around, and to waste a little time at work. This is not always for good stuff, sadly, as I must admit that I have a rather unhealthy attachment with a certain celebrity news blog!! I wrote about them in research papers as a sociological example of how the postmodern culture deals differently with information. They are radically changing the way that we communicate.

All that said, I am rapidly realizing that it is much easier to read another person's blog and critique/comment than to actually have to write my own.

I guess that is how it is with a lot in life. To use the old cliche: Easier said than done.

This platitude is especially true with love. It is so easy to talk about how we should love everyone as they are our neighbors and children of God. But how does this really work? If we say we love, then what are we doing to act out that love? How far does that love call us to step out of our comfort zones? That's what I hope this blog will focus on: How are we attempting to love as we journey with Christ?!

Do I have it right or all figured out? Of course not! But there is joy in the journey, right? Easier said than done!