Tidbits of Wonderfulness

Man oh man, the past few days have been delightfully random and very enjoyable.



This past week there was a week long missions conference here, on campus. I was privileged to sit in on a few of the sessions. Wow! I met some wonderful people and heard some pretty incredible stories. Tuesday, I head Carl Maderias (that's probably not spelled right, sorry Carl.) give a wonderfully reflective and bitingly humours address on why missions have nothing to do with religion. He had some great points and just kept bring it back to Jesus. If you want to hear more about it send me a comment--it was great. And even if you don't want to hear more, send me a comment anyway. The blog has been really dead recently. Is anybody other than my dad still reading?


Tidbit of wonderful randomness numero dos: Last night Sarah and I ran out of food. (Well, to be honest we didn't completely run out, we still had feta cheese and some peanut butter.) So, we decided to order a pizza. But because someone had stolen the refrigerator magnet with the number to our trusty local pizza delivery chain restaurant, I went hunting around the hostel for the number. I never found the pizza delivery number, but I found something even better: a great guy who gave me a small catalog and told me about Mr. Delivery. Whoa Man!! Life at the hostel will never be the same. Mr. Delivery will bring almost any restaurant-type food straight to your door. (Or mine, rather!) So, Friday night at 10:00 Sarah and I feasted on a delicious dinner of Chinese take out and Chocolate ice cream. Incredible. It is probably good that we didn't discover this amazing public service until now...

Also, it was sunny this weekend! This was especially wonderful because it was rainy and cold and damp all week. For the first time since I've been here, I went and sat out the pool with some good friends and got some reading in along with my daily allotment of vitamin D. (I still can't get over the fact that I live next door to a pool. How cool is that?!) The sunshine felt absolutely delicious on my very pale skin.

I've been re-reading a book I first picked up last summer, God has a Dream, by Desmond Tutu. This is an incredible little book. It's about a lot of things; Tutu talks about his work as the former Archbishop of South Africa and reflects on peace, reconciliation, and living justly. This time around I was particularly struck by the message of hope in the book. Over and over Tutu comes out and says South Africa's history is a testimony that there are no hopeless situations; peace can happen and love can--love will, win.

As I was getting sunburned, I came across a passage that reminded me of something I had previously posted on the blog which someone (anonymously) questioned. A while ago I wrote something to the effect of, "I have a hard time accepting ministry that is without advocacy...."

What I meant by this is that I have a hard time buying into a ministry (especially institutional ministries) when there is no outward focus--no action toward making very real hope a very real reality for people who may not have any connection with the Church. But I think Mr. Tutu says it better than myself:

"What is also interesting is how many times the prophets say that if your
religion does not affect the way you live your life, it is a religion God
rejects...What God wants is that we refrain from cruelty and oppression. What He
wants is that you loose the fetters of injustice and set free those who have
been crushed, that you share your food with the hungry, take the homeless poor
into your house, and clothe the naked. And when the people offer Him
sacrifice and a cacophony music and prayers, He rejects these in
words that must have shocked the worshipers..."

And on a completely different note, I'm in the middle of a small crisis: my pants keep shrinking in the wash. I guess this isn't that big of a deal, but I only have four pairs of pants and two are quickly becoming, well, let's just say I look like I'm waiting for a flood. Is there any way to prevent shrinkage other than cold water and no drying? Help! I guess I could just stop washing them, but then I might have bigger problems...