Every Child is My Child

Wow. It’s been a long time.

I promise I’ll post more often but real life > blog life and being a college student prevents me from doing things that I want to do (and not being one prevents me from doing more things I want to do)

So…

I went to South Africa last week. Yes, a little township called Mabopane which is located about an hour from Johannesburg and forty-five minutes from Pretoria. I spent 10 amazing days immersing myself in South African history and culture and giving all of my love to a group of orphans.

Many of these orphans lost their parents to AIDS, and many of them are HIV positive. The older kids are active in the community trying to promote HIV/AIDS awareness in a culture which says there is no problem and has many misconceptions about the disease.

Each child has their own story. They are stories of death, disease, rape, alcohol abuse, and ultimately triumph when they found Mama Mary and the Good Hope Organisation. Every child is my child, and these are their faces:

It made a difference for that one

What does it take to be extraordinary? People come and go from this earth all the time without leaving much of a mark on those around them. However, every once in a while a person may become world renowned— and remembered. While these great figures mark and clutter our history, I feel as though they may overshadow and cause us to forget the people who impact our lives every day. The people who serve as daily living inspirations to us are just as important as the ones who are mentioned in the history books. One life may impact two lives, and those two lives, in turn, impact four. Like ripples on the glassy surface of a pond, the magnification of the initial ripple is immeasurable.

As I think of the amazing men and women in my life who have inspired me, none of them are millionaires, they are not globally recognized, and they are not distant like most of today’s idols and stars. They are everyday “ordinary” people who are doing something extraordinary. They are living their lives in a way that they are constantly reaching out to serve and assist those who need guidance, protection, and love. They are self-less , often working late hours to make sure that everything is just right in hopes that they will make a difference for at least one person. The sad thing is that many of these people never realize the full effects of their life’s work. I consider myself blessed to have noticed these people and I aspire to live my life in a similar way.

There is a story that I absolutely love and reminds me of these influential people. Those of you who have attended LeaderShape at Meredith have heard this story by Loren Eiseley, and I’m sure that many others have as well. It goes something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a wise woman who used to go to the ocean to do her writing. She had a habit of walking on the beach before she began her work. One day, as she was walking along the shore, she looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. She smiled to herself to think of someone who would dance to the day. So she began to walk faster to catch up. As she got closer, she saw that it was a young woman and that the young woman wasn’t dancing, but instead she was reaching down to the shore, picking up something, and very gently throwing it into the ocean. As she got closer she called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?” The young woman paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.” “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.” “But, young woman, don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!” The young woman listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said, “It made a difference for that one.”

As we continue on our journeys and work to find our place in the world, remember that it does not take fame, fortune, or a group of followers to be extraordinary. All it takes is an ordinary person living his or her ordinary life in an extraordinary way. All it takes is making “a difference for that one.”

Positive Energy Wall

This is a photo of my “positive energy wall” in my room. This summer I realized how important positive encouragement is in accomplishing my goals. When ever I feel down, it’s great to look at the different notes on my wall and remember that people are standing behind me, encouraging me everyday. So, if anyone wants to mail me a note, that’d be great. I’ll add you to my positive energy wall.

Encouragement is also important in the Christian faith, we should build each other up with brotherly love. We should provide support for one another through thick and thin, times of persectution and rejoicing.

This Changes Everything…

I know I haven’t posted in a while, and I apologize. Life has it’s way of reminding me of what’s most important and between the end of school last year and the summer, I had other things that were more pressing than my photo journal.  So here’s what I’m deeming my “summer recap” photo

There’s this little thing called LeaderShape that I was a part of the week after classes concluded. I signed up for on a whem after Betsy, one of my bosses, encouraged me to do so.  This 7 day boot camp for leaders, as I describe it, was the best week of my life. The week focuses on building up people who live and lead with integrity and have a healthy disregard for the impossible.

My experience at LeaderShape has completely changed my thoughts about what I want to do with my life. As part of the curriculum at LeaderShape I sat down and examined my passions and the result was  a vision of what I want the world to look like. My vision is that I want to create a world where all people have the opportunity to explore and grow in their spirituality. Tangent to my vision, I also discovered that as much as I want to achieve my vision, I have just as great a desire to see others identify their passions, develop visions, and realize that they are leaders, regardless of what their titles are.

Recently I’ve been struggling with trying to incorporate my two passions together without making it too complicated. This however was solved when I attended a lecture at Meredith College by Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai. A question was asked regarding the role of religion and faith in shaping her life. Her answer was an answer to my problem.

The reason why my vision is relevant to more than religious and spiritual thought:

Those people who make the biggest impact on the world are living for something larger than themselves. They are living lives of service and sacrifice, giving themselves away for something greater, something beyond earthly reason. This is the role of spirituality in the world we live in. This is why my vision is so important and can tie in with any aspect of leadership, service, and social justice. By working towards my vision, I am not only solving spiritual needs, but I am indirectly helping others develop into more ethical and confident servant leaders.

So that’s where I’m at in life right now. I promise I’ll try to update more often…

Whatever you did…

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

Matthew 25:34-40

Judah’s Daughters

“Be glad, Zion Mountain; Dance, Judah’s daughters! He does what he said he’d do!” Psalm 48:11

“Let true lovers break out in praise, sing out from wherever they’re sitting, Shout the high praises of God, brandish their swords in the wild sword-dance…” Psalm 149:5

I love winterguard and it’s one of the ways that I praise God. It’s been hard not being able to spin on a guard this year, but I’m confident that God will use that area of my talent somehow. This picture is of a performance that my high school guard performed today. They continue to amaze me.

Team Octopi

This is a photo of my crew from our week in Brunswick, GA. I truely believe that God brought us together to be an awesome group and to accomplish what he had planned for us durring the week. Over the week we had between 7 and 9 different worksites and made really close connections with 4 or 5 amazing kids. If you would have had me pick out any group of people to work with, this selection would not have been my first choice. However, I wouldn’t trade my experiences with this crew for anything in the world. They were amazing and such a God send. They were exactly who I needed at this point in time in my life.

Being Rooted and Firmly Established

“I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to  be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts though faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you  may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think- according to the power that works in you- to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” ~Ephesians 3:16-21

Persecuted, not Abandoned

These were the last two pictures I snapped on my camera before it broke. This is a student artwork located in front of the Gaddy-Hamrick Art Building at Meredith. The rest of this post is quoted from the February 18th, 2009 edition of The Meredith Herald, in the article “A Controversial Crucifix” by staff writer Erin Huber:

The artwork, “Jesus,” was made by Jen Leiner in Professor Pearce’s sculpture class. It was part of an ongoing theme that Leiner has used with many of her projects. It involves looking at almost forgotten stories of the holocaust. Leiner wasn’t necessarily trying to make a direct religious statement; according to Leiner her goal was to “resurrect, so to speak, the memories, art, and people that have been scattered to the wind.”

The story behind this sculpture dates back to World War II. The original crucifix was created by Ludwig Gies and was hung in Lubeck Cathedral. Leiner said that “it went against Hitler’s ideas of a ‘New Germany.’” So, unfortunately, it was removed and became part of a 1937 exhibition in Berlin entitled “Entartete Kunst” or “Degenerate Art.” The story of this sculpture ends with the Nazis cutting the head off the figure and burning it to ashes. It’s a story who thought that all the country should agree with his tastes in art, and a story of intolerance in general.

Some of that story seems to have come back to haunt Leiner’s artwork. Not everyone is ready to be tolerant of the religious sculpture, and most people who get upset about it don’t even go up to the sculpture to read the description on the sign next to it. They don’t realize that the primary concept behind the sculpture isn’t about religion. Professor Pearce siad that sometimes her class likes to just watch and see what people’s reactions to the sculptures outside Gaddy-Hamrick are. Sometimes people stop for a second and stare, often they look and then walk on. Interestingly enough, Professor Pearce said that a sculpture of the head of the Indian god, Krishna, was actually on display for a while, and no one noticed. People seemed to classify that as more of a cultural object than a religious one.

Should there have been a controversy over the sculpture? We are facing similar questions all over America. There have been numerous cases of controversies over freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and where the line is drawn between the two. Should this have ever caused a problem? And in this case, the sculpture wasn’t even meant to be a purely religious symbol. But that is the one good aspect of all this controversy. Professor Pearce said that the goal of the sculptures in her class is for the art to create a dialogue- either an internal or external one. I think “Jesus” has definitely achieved that.

So, ponder that.

A Photographers Nightmare…. Yikes!!!

So my camera’s broke. The screen won’t display anything and considering the fact that I don’t have a view finder, my photographs wouldn’t be to great. Shooting blind. I’ll try to post a couple of pictures, but I don’t know when. Wish me luck in my camera search!

<3 JP