California get ready

My friend Scott Parr has just accepted a position at Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church, so I hope that all my friends in California are ready, because I just moved back to CO to bro down with this guy. I can't now, so you'll have to. He kind of looks like this

geek news just in

I'm not sure if anyone who might read this is a J.D. Salinger fan, but there are a few of of us out there who are huge fans - we've read everything he's published...all four books. He is a complete recluse, and selfishly, we are hoping that when he passes, a great horde of posthumous work will come forth.

This really isn't interesting for most people, I'm realizing, but I got excited to find out that the title to one of Salinger's novellas "Raise high the roofbeam, carptenters" is actually a line from an ancient Greek poem about a wedding! Isn't that geeky! Lates.

Pina, check this out

I'm not really sure that anyone should bother checking this blog, but if you do, greetings. This is the first chance I have had to use a high speed connection in some time - it's at my school. I am an assistant in three first grade classrooms at a local k-8 school! Sometimes, I don't like it. I feel awfully childish when doing something I don't like upsets me so much. When do I get to grow up at least a little bit? Denver is alright - I miss the mountains.

Interesting note- telling children to do something doesn't automatically mean anything. Did everyone else know this already? I am learning a lot.

Moving again...

Anne and I have moved back to the homeland, but to a new place - the big city of Denver! We spent last Thursday looking for apartments, and did not know what we were in for. After a break for my parent's fortieth anniversary, we started looking again yesterday, and after disagreements, disappointments, long goose-chases, aqua carpets and lots of driving, we called one more place. "I think this was supposed to be your apartment" the lease manager told us. So do we.

We qualified for low income housing so we got a really nice new apartment for what we were hoping to spend, and it is within an easy bus ride to Anne's campus, and it is between there and where she will be interning. (If anyone knows where I am working, please let me know). For any Coloradans, we now live where you used to ride the Wild Cat. After Elitch's Gardens moved downtown, the old site was developed into a community of apartments for seniors, low income and also anyone else. There are row houses, community houses, a common garden, and parks and single family homes. Our window looks north up the front range towards the Flatirons and Long's Peak. We are directly above the old theatre at Elitch's, which is being redone to be a local arts theatre. We know that our God is with us.

I think this internet software is not letting all the blogger icons pop up, so I can't figure out how to put up a link. Strange. Here is where we live:

My friend Hunter

First bit of information: My friend Hunter arrived here at Calvin Crest almost two weeks ago.
Second bit of information: On Mondays (most) all of the staff get together for "Bible study"; these last few weeks we have been discussing each beatitude from Matthew 5. Last week was "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

And somehow we ended up talking about the genocide in Rwanda, and the genocide occuring in the Darfur region of Sudan over the last year and a half. Hunter expressed that he was not content simply to use other people's suffering as an example.

So here is a chance not to use other people's suffering, but to perhaps do something about it.

I wear a white wristband

that says ONE on it. It's one of the rubber-band ones, that Lance has made so popular. THis wristband reminds me of people less fortunate than myself, nations less fortunate than this place I just happened to be born in. Sometimes it pisses me off, because I cannot figure out what good my life is for people who are needy, people who live on a different continent, but are not less worthy than me. There is so very much wrong in the world, death and injustice, decay and despair, and my feeling of impotence makes me want to take the wristband off.

A few months ago I read an article in Time Magazine by an economist named Jeffrey Sachs. He is now in charge of the UN Millenium Project, and the goal is to half the world's extreme poverty by 2015. An estimated 1.1 billion people live on less than $1 a day, and they cannot live like this. 8 million people will die this year because of their lack or resources. My wrist band is to remind me and help others learn about the ONE campaign, which put's public pressure on politicians to hold the U.S. accountable to fulfill its commitment of 0.7% of the the U.S GNP to the UN Millenium Project. This money will be used for education, AIDS relief, environmental, agricultural, economic aid, and debt relief for fellow humans being crippled by their circumstances.

I cannot do anything. I cannot help. I am not a lawyer, an economist, a doctor, a politician. I have no connections, no influence, no political capital, no wealth. I wear this wristband and languish in America. I want to tear this wristband off, but I cannot.

"We must never be satisfied with mere protest or complaint about the things we believe are wrong. Rather we must do the harder, more creative, and ultimately more prophetic work of finding and offering alternatives. "

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord"

Sunday Afternoon

I'm sorry, I just haven't had much drive to post about anything lately. Except that my parents are celebrating their 40th anniversary this June. This amazes me, because I am starting to feel like I have been married for a while, and it hasn't been much more than a year and a half. I am thankful for my parents, and thankful to them for this gift to us, their children. They are going to Prague in September to listen to music and then into Germany to see all the places that J.S. Bach used to live. They deserve it. (This is a very Cory Pina-esque post)

jc