The Twenty-First Time

Another great song!


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Nowhere to live
Nowhere to fall
He used to have money
But he’s wasted it all
His face is a photograph burned in mind
But I pretend not to see him for the twenty-first time

He sleeps under stars, it’s all he can afford
His blanket’s an old coat he’s had since the war
He stands on the corner of Carter and Vine
But I pretend not to see him for the twenty-first time

He may be a drifter who’s grown old and gray
But what if it’s Jesus and I walk away
I say I’m the body and drink of the wine
But I pretend not to see him for the twenty-first time

She’s 29 but she feels 48
She can’t raise three kids on minimum wage
She’s crying in back of the welfare line
But I pretend not to see her for the twenty-first time

She may be a stranger trying to get through the day
But what if it’s Jesus and I walk away
I say I’m the body and drink of the wine
But I pretend not to see her for the twenty-first time

This is a call for a change in my heart
I realize that I’ve not been doing my part
When I needed a Savior, I found it in Him
He gave to me, now I’ll give back to them

Drifter or stranger, daughter or son
I’ll look for Jesus in everyone
‘Cause I am the body and drink of the wine
And I’m thankful there’s more than the twenty-first time

Surely We Can Change

Great song!


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And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn’t hit

And I don’t know
What to do with a love like that
And I don’t know
How to be a love like that

When all the love in the world
Is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose
What our hands will do

Where there is pain
Let there be grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Help them be brave
Where there is misery
Bring expectancy
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Something

And the problem it seems
Is with you and me
Not the Love who came
To repair everything

Where there is pain
Let us bring grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Let us be brave
Where there is misery
Let us bring them relief
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Oh surely we can change
Something

Oh, the world’s about to change
The whole world’s about to change

Shooting Jesus

Dennis Morris is a phenomenon in photographic circles. At the age of 11, a photo he took of a Palestine Liberation Organisation demonstration featured on the front page of The Daily Mirror.

In 1973, aged 14, he was invited by Bob Marley to photograph the reggae singer’s UK tour. From then until Marley’s death in 1981, Dennis took iconic images of him and the Wailers that appeared on the covers of Time Out and Melody Maker.

As a result, Johnny Rotten, a big reggae fan, asked personally for Dennis to take the first official pictures of the Sex Pistols when they signed to Virgin Records.

Despite his track record, however, Dennis might have been forgiven if he’d taken a deep breath at one particular commission, brought to him by a vicar and a youth worker last year. They wanted him to take photographs that would give the Easter story contemporary relevance for young people.

Nevertheless, Dennis agreed, and for a fee that was a seventh the size of what he could usually command for a commission from the music industry.

The images form part of an Easter resource pack jointly sponsored by the Diocese of London and CMS. A grant from the Westhill Foundation enabled CMS to part fund the resource.

The pack has already been distributed to all Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education in local education authorities nationwide and to selected media.

Also, a flyer for the pack has been sent to every primary school in the UK with the ultimate aim of helping young people to make connections between the Easter story and their own lives.

It has been designed to be highly flexible for use in a variety of ways in churches or schools, including workshops, assemblies, all-age worship, young people’s groups, in part or as a complete package.

The concept and responsibility for the resource rested with Bob Mayo, priest of a London parish, and youth worker Ben Bell, who co-ordinated the involvement of a group of non-Christian young people from St Mary's Youth Club, Islington, to play ‘roles’ in the photos.

Some of them helped to recreate the scene of the Last Supper in Shepherd’s Bush.

One of them played the role of a black teenage ‘Jesus’ in the rain on a concrete playground in a deserted park doubling for the Garden of Gethsemane.

“I wanted to give a spontaneous feel and quality to each photo,” says Dennis. “I focused on ensuring that each of them looked like it wasn’t too set or staged. I was going for a snapshot feel, immediacy, capturing a moment in time.”

Nonetheless, all the shots took several hours of pre-planning and thought beforehand, “even if taking a particular shot only took five minutes,” says Dennis.

The contact with the project prompted him to admire Ben’s ability to reach out to the youngsters, because some of them, he points out, were “quite hardcore”.

“Three of them had confidence, a light to them, hopeful futures. What the three had was very clear to me. But it’s a pity that youth clubs aren’t seen in the same light as they were when I was young. Then they were where things were ‘happening’. Now, if you attend a youth club, you’re seen as ‘weak’ by other teenagers.”

Bob was delighted with the results of the photographer’s work, “Dennis is an absolute genius at what he does.

“The young people wanted short, sharp bursts of activity followed by long periods for them to relax and talk together.

“Dennis wanted patience and precision in order to capture on camera what he was picturing in his head.

“Ben and I had our own understanding of how the events should be pictured but we needed to give the story away in order to get it back reshaped and re-invigorated through these pictures.”

The project soon took on a life of its own, he says. “It drew together the curiosity and boredom of the young people, Dennis' imagination and intuition as the photographer, and Ben's and my need to get the project completed. Each of us fought the others for control.”

Summing up, Bob admits, “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It enabled us to look at the world through different eyes.”

From: http://www.cms-uk.org/tabid/151/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/144/Shooting-Jesus.aspx
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Luke 19:28-Luke 24:50

A Moment of Courage

Today was one of the more difficult days at Charis House. But it was a day of bravery. Monday night a new resident moved into CH. She is 18 years old with a gorgeous 6 month old son. After being at CH this week it became obvious she was too immature to be a mom. This morning the residents were all quite upset because Social Services would be coming in the afternoon to take the baby boy into foster care. It was heartbreaking to see this girl upset about losing her son. The staff and residents had all grown attached to the chunky blue-eyed boy with the big smile.

Holly, a 4 year old who lives at Charis House asked her mom at lunch "Did you know that **** isn't coming back. Someone's going to take him this afternoon. Will they bring him back after?... I'm going to miss him." I hate that these children live in an environment that robs them of the innocence that is essential to every childhood. I hate that from such tender ages they must learn that there is no stability in their lives; that things can change in a heartbeat.

After social services came around 3:30pm it was revealed that the mom had made the choice to put him in foster care because she knew that she didn't love him a way a mom should and therefore couldn't provide for him the way he needed. Although it brought me to tears to see this handsome baby taken away from his mom, I was touched that she made the best decision for her son. That showed maturity and courage beyond measure--especially for a teenager.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

So last night I stayed up kinda late watching "Little Women". Around 12:30 I turned it off since my eyelids were getting heavy and there was still about 30-45 minutes left in the movie. I turned on my Matt Redman CD and fell asleep soon after. But just as I had fallen to sleep I was awoken by a loud rumble and my bed and entire room swaying.

My first thought was it was an earthquake. But I'm in England...not California. England doesn't have earthquakes, so I quickly dispelled that theory. But I couldn't come up with another reasonable explanation. I was pretty scared, I think mostly because I didn't know what had happened. I spent a few minutes searching the internet for an explanation and after coming up empty-handed, fell back asleep.

Waking this morning, I checked the news, still hoping to find an explanation. And sure enough I found it:

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- An earthquake shook Britain early Wednesday, causing damage to buildings and leaving at least one person injured.

This image provided by the British Geological Survey shows the seismogram registering the earthquake at Market Rasen, England on Wednesday.

The British Geological Survey put the preliminary magnitude for the earthquake at 5.3, according to the British Press Association.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 4.7.

Emergency services across England received calls following the incident, many from people who woke up to find their homes shaking.

Ambulance officials said a man from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, required hospital treatment after a chimney collapsed and fell into his bedroom.

The quake struck at around 0100 GMT and was centered about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of London, the British Geological Survey said.

Julian Bukits, of the organization, called it the most powerful quake in Britain since a 5.4 quake hit North Wales in 1984.

"This was a very large earthquake in UK terms," he told The Associated Press. "This one has been felt throughout the whole of England and southern Scotland."

"It felt pretty scary," Haydn Jones of Nottingham, who lives in a third-floor apartment, told CNN. He said he had lived abroad in Japan and knew immediately what it was, but felt that a lot of those in England "didn't really know what was going on." Watch images of the damage caused by the quake »

Jones likened the feeling to "someone very big and angry jumping on the ceiling below you, rather than the floor."

He believed the shaking lasted about 10 seconds, but said, "time sort of stands still for you."

Earthquakes frequently hit Britain -- between 200 and 300 annually, according to the British Geological Survey, although most have a magnitude of less than 2.

Earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 to 4.9 hit mainland Britain about once every two years and strike beneath the North Sea about once per year.

Britain's strongest recorded quake was the North Sea quake of June 7, 1931, with a magnitude of 6.1. It was felt across the British isles and in northwestern Germany. The quake killed one person.

The most powerful onshore quakes occurred on July 19, 1984, in north Wales (magnitude 5.1) and on April 2, 1990, along the Welsh border with England (5.1 magnitude.)

A 4.6 magnitude quake in Colchester on April 22, 1884, was Britain's most damaging earthquake, knocking spires from churches and masonry from roofs. Turrets and parapets also fell, and brick walls and chimneys collapsed. Two people were killed.

haha

I decided to make a list of some of the best questions I've been asked since I've been in England. Here we go!
*"Do you know Pastor Bob? He moved to Texas from England."
*"Are you Mexican?"
*"Do you all drink tequila?"
*"Are you close to Brazil?"
*"Are you close to the equator?"
*"Is New Mexico an American state?"
*"Roadrunners are real birds?"
*"Are Lutherans even Christians?"

Hope you enjoyed as much as I have!

Dreaming Upside Down

Yesterday I spent a great day with Naomi in Manchester. Naomi is 18 and the daughter of half the management team of GNFC, Hazel and Roger. She is fantastic and has grown to be one of my favorite people in Buxton.
In Manchester I was once again confronted with globalization. And although there definitely are some comforts of seeing Pizza Hut, Urban Outfitters, Gap, and Super Cuts it doesn't seem quite right. It feels awkward and out of place. And I suppose that's because it is out of place. Naomi introduced me to Shared Earth. It is a fairtrade store just down the street from the Manchester train station. Fairtrade and organic products are one of my new favorite things that I've discovered while being in England. The treasures I found in Shared Earth were so much cooler than what I found in Primark or H&M. They were so much cooler than what you can find in Old Navy or Gap. But where did I choose to spend more money? Primark, not the fairtrade store. But why? It's cheaper of course. But why can't globalization be turned upside down to have the treasures from Shared Earth all over the world for easy acquiring?
And then today I remembered a poem that was read to us at our orientation in Chicago back in August.
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"Dreaming Upside Down"
By: Tom Peterson

I dreamed the other night that all the maps in the world had been turned upside down. Library atlases, roadmaps of Cincinnati, wall-sized maps in the war rooms of the great nations, even antique maps with such inscriptions as "Here be Dragons" were flipped over. What had been north was now south, east was west. Like a glob of melting vanilla ice cream, Antarctica now capped schoolroom globes.

In my dream, a cloud of anxieties closed around me. The United States was now at the bottom. Would we have to stand upside-down, causing the blood to rush to our heads? Would we need suction-cup shoes to stay on the planet, and would autumn leaves fall up? No, I remembered, an apple once bopped Newton on the head - no need to worry about these things.

Other things troubled me more. Now that we're at the bottom, would our resources and labor be exploited by the new top? Would African, Asian, and Latin American nations structure world trade to their advantage?

Would my neighbors and I have two-dollars-a-day seasonal jobs on peach and strawberry plantations? Would the women and children work from dusk to dawn to scratch survival from the earth of California and Virginia? Would the fruit we picked be shipped from New Orleans and New York for children in Thailand and Ethiopia to hurriedly eat with their cereal so they wouldn't miss the school bus? Would our children, then, spend the morning, not in school, but fetching water two miles away and the afternoon gathering wood for heating and cooking? Would a small ruling class in this country send their daughters and sons to universities in Cairo and Buenos Aires?

Would our economy be dependant upon the goodwill and whims of, say, Brazil? Would Brazil send war planes and guns to Washington, D.C. to assure our willingness to pick apples and tobacco for export while our children went hungry? Would Brazil and Vietnam fight their wars with our sons in our country? Would we consider revolution?

If we did revolt, would the Filippino government plot to put their favorite U.S. general in power, and then uphold him with military aid?

Would we work in sweatshops manufacturing radios for the Chinese? Would our oil be shipped in tankers to Southeast Asia to run their cars, air-conditioning and microwave ovens while most of our towns didn¹t even have electricity?

Would top of the world religious leaders call us stubborn pagans upon whom God¹s judgement had fallen, causing our misery? Would they proclaim from opulent pulpits that if we simply turned to God, our needs would be met?

In my dream, I saw child crying in Calcutta. Her parents wouldn't buy her any more video games until her birthday. I saw her mother drive to the supermarket and load her cart with frozen and junk food, vegetables, cheese, meat, and women's magazines.

I also saw a mother in Houston baking bread in an earthen oven. She had been crying because there were no more beans for her family. One of her children listlessly watched her. He was a blond boy, about six years old. He slowly turned his empty, haunting gaze toward me.

At that point I awoke with a gasp. I saw I was in my own bed, in my own house. It was just a bad dream. I drifted back to sleep, thinking, "It¹s all right, I'm still on top."

Thank God!

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