Justice Conference

Excuse me while I nerd out for a moment.

A group of us just got back from the Justice Conference in Portland, OR. The number of amazing speakers and writers that we got to be in the same room as in the course of 24 hours was completely mind boggling.

I don't tend to be one to fawn over the famous, but, seriously? Within four hours, Shane Claiborne presented, Francis Chan presented, AND Donald Miller was present for a pre-screening of Blue Like Jazz. The only thing better would have been if JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis had happened to wander through the room as well.

Beyond even that, we heard from speakers who casually threw out phrases like, "Well, Martin used to say..."

Yes. Martin, as in MLK. They spoke about him the way that I might reference one of my friends or a few well loved professors. Hello. Talk about sitting in the room with history. Some of these people have been living and breathing this stuff for longer than my parents have been alive.

And, yet.

And, yet. They looked out across a mish-mashed crowd of four thousand from every corner of the US, and quite a few corners outside of it, and they declared that they were witnessing history. For the church to come together like this, with the sole purpose of seeking God's justice; for the white church to take the time to try to listen and learn; for such a cross section of generations to be represented; they said was history.

Only time will prove that statement, but I can say that it was well worth the time and the effort - and the fight to force myself out of bed in time to present for first hour Sunday school the next morning.

Hint: When Blue Like Jazz starts at 10:00pm, you will be arriving home very late.

We got to have cool conversations, hear cool conversations, and see people get excited about God sized things.

And, weirdly enough, I got to meet the people from World Vision ACT:S in real life.

Maybe that's just the 90's child in me. People who you know on the internet don't actually exist in real life. Do they? Haha. Clearly, yes, they do! (Almost as surreal as when I saw Shane Claiborne wander past on my way between pre-conference sessions.)

Fun Fling

 Once a year we gather up a good chunk of the 4th and 5th graders, run them in circles with the pool/rock wall/basket ball court/wall ball courts at the Club, feed them copious amounts of sugar, play a counselor hunt type game, watch movies, pretend for a few hours like we are sleeping, feed them breakfast, and send them home to their parents.

Mainly it is a chance to connect with them in that weird place somewhere between more-grown-up-than-we-let-them-be-at-Sunday-school and younger-than-they-have-to-be-at-school. Which, really means that they get to just flat out act their age.

What I learned is that the curled up, frightened, hypervigilant, sweet, goofy, intuitive little ball in the lower right corner of the picture, still remembers me from when I was his kindergarten Sunday school teacher. (Five years since I last got to interact with him. Five. Years.) When he found out that we would be riding in the same car to and from the gym, he told his sister, "She's an awesome leader!"

Haha. Thanks, kiddo. I wish I was half as cool as you think I am.

When he was little, we joked that he would have to fight off the girls with a stick because of his dark, gorgeous eyes. During the overnight, those eyes tracked me everywhere. He knew me, and, if he knew where I was, he was "safe." If I was watching the food line, he could watch it a little less carefully. When I walked into the room at breakfast, his little shoulders sagged with relief.

(He was thrilled that they hadn't found me during the counselor hunt, because it meant that I was "sneaky." [Soft and quiet and good at hiding - all of the things that help keep little people safe when big people are angry.] In his mind, it somehow meant that, when he thought that I got it, I really did understand.) 

But there were smiles. There were real, excited smiles, and laughter, and the ability to play even while other people were still finishing breakfast.

He's come so far since the wide eyed, frightened kindergartener who refused to roll up his sleeves and took his gloves off once all year. (Yes, we counted.) He's gotten out of an unhealthy situation and he's growing and changing at a mind boggling rate. And, he's picked up some amazingly intuitive little boys as friends, boys who push him and protect him and encourage his confidence - all without really realizing that they're doing anything at all.

Have I mentioned that I am proud of my kids?

SMALL Group

 This week was a record for my Sunday school group - a this-is-the-smalest-group-we-have-ever-dreamed-of-having sort of a record. One of these kids is actually even from another small group, but tagged along because his leader wasn't there.

So, clearly we had to make sure there were blurry pictures of the occasion. Because, this is 2012. If there isn't an Iphone pic of it, it didn't actually happen.

The sun came out, so we gathered up some Frisbees, took them outside, and practiced the memory verse twenty thousand several dozen times. "'God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.' 2 Corinthians 5:21" We listened to the lesson, and then they split off into corners to pray for friends and for the alter call that was going on in big church (main service).

This week, the dance was relatively simple; no runners, minimal perseveration, manageable anxiety, decent impulse control, and, wonder of wonders, only five of them. Next week, the dynamic will be totally different. But, hey, that's why we're flexible.

Posing for pictures, though, is maybe not so high up on our list of skill sets...

90's Child

Weird thought, right? I am a child of the 90's, where the truest fact about any individual was that they were an individual. (A neon leggings wearing, large haired, Mario playing sort of an individual, but an individual nonetheless.) We were taught that we could be anything, because it was expected that the person our actions mattered to the most would be us.

It was probably backlash from the communal wave of the 60's and 70's. Like so many other things, it was just weirdly and bizarrely 90's.

And then, we grew up. And, suddenly, it was not the 90's anymore. The internet exploded, and with it, our knowledge that the world was bigger than us, more complicated than most Americans had ever imagined. Children born in this millennium take it completely for granted that their actions, thoughts, and video can jump continents, cultures, and languages. Even as a 90's child, I facebook friends in Kenya and Indonesia without thinking twice about anything except for the time zones.

But, I probably, most emphatically, don't stop often enough to realize the power that we have to change the world. The choices that I make, choices to help fundraise for a well in Zambia or to do Lent on purpose, really and truely do have the power to change the world.

It might be small change. It might even be so small that no one else ever realizes that they've noticed it. But, like water dripping from the roof of a cave, those choices add up, pile on top of the choices of others (because, in 2012, the truest fact about any individual is the way that they are connected with countless others), and, eventually, we create something magnificent.

The Things I Find Myself Saying at Work

"Gentlemen, please don't head butt during lunch. We are not mountain goats."

"Please do not stick your banana in your mouth and blow on it."

"No, you may not stick him in the garbage can."

"It's time for class. You can finish your sacrifice at second recess."

"Back in your chair. We can't do a worksheet while you're sitting on the desk."

"Before you go in, let me clean the footprint off of your back."

"Ladies, please keep your feet below your head while you're eating."

"Was it a good choice to throw your raisins at the girls?"

"Boys, let's not eat lunch under the tables. I need to be able to see your faces."

"Let's find a game that doesn't involve trying to smear goose poop on our friends."

"I know that you're playing family, but please don't actually push on his belly when he is having a baby. I don't want you to hurt him."

Can Canada overcome its 'Katrina moment'? - Inside Story Americas - Al Jazeera English

Can Canada overcome its 'Katrina moment'? - Inside Story Americas - Al Jazeera English

Canada is once again in a position where its policies regarding funding to First Nations communities are coming to the attention of the international community. This program takes a look at that situation, compares it to conditions in the US, and, seeing as everything now is about elections, ties it back to the presidential candidates. Well worth the twenty-five minutes that it takes to watch.