Celebrate Life

I am packed and ready to head out to our district camp grounds in Indianapolis. Tonight starts our weekend Celebrate Life retreat. This is the first time we have done celebrate life as a weekend retreat and I'm pretty excited about it!

I am the speaker for tonight's service and I'm pretty pumped up for it! It is always exciting talking to a group of teenagers and sharing what God has placed in your heart. I'm talking about Jacob and Esau tonight. I'll be sharing how Esau traded all that God had created to be for a momentary craving for soup! I think we all have many moments just about every day where we can sell out the person God has created us to be for a momentary craving that never fulfills and leaves us hungry for more.

I have a quote on the wall in my office that says, "I have created you for so much more! Why do settle?"

It's my prayer that I refuse to buy into lies and momentary cravings and instead pursue passionately the life and the person that God has created me to be.

Love, Joy & Peace!

President Obama Hama

I met a woman today who volunteers at a local elementary school. She works with kindergartners and 2nd grade students and she told me a story about a 5 year old boy that she was helping. The little boy asked her,

“Have you heard of President Obama Hama?”

She said, “I think I know who you are talking about.”

The boy said, “Have you heard of President Hilary?”

She said, “I think I know who you are talking about.”

The boy said, “Did you know they don’t like each other? I heard them say that on the news last night.”

She said, “That’s not very nice! You can say I don’t like something you do, or I don’t like something you said but you should never say “I don’t like you.”

The boy said, “I know! I can’t watch the news anymore. I get too depressed.”

The wisdom of a 5 year old!

I agree with him. When I see the news, when I see how things really are, when I see how much evil is in the world I tend to get rather depressed. I tend to feel a little hopeless.

But I am convinced that we have great reason to hope. I am convinced that Jesus Christ is the solution for the world. That the way of forgiveness, love and peace will ultimately triumph over the world of evil, hate and violence. I am convinced that the way of Jesus is the best way to live.

Pics & Vids

Pictures Are Here!

I've been home for about 20 hours now and I can finaly upload some pictures and Videos for you today.

I had hoped to have a few more posts while I was gone but I hope you enjoyed what I was able to post!

I'm in a bit of a return culture shock now that I'm home. It was a little odd going to wal-mart and the grocery store, I think about 12 villages could fit inside of one!

We arrived home on Thursday night at about 9:30 p.m. it was a long trip. I think we spent about 23 hours traveling. I was pretty tired! When we were in Detroit the flight was overbooked so that asked for 7 volunteers to spend the night and fly out in the morning. I was volunteer number 6 and for my sacrifice I was offered a free nights hotel, free dinner and a free roundtrip ticket to anywhere in the US including Alaska!

So I was pretty fired up about the free flight and a good nights sleep at the Hilton. I said goodbye to our team and waited for my ride to the hotel...when suddenly I heard my name paged over the intercom. I went to the counter and they informed me that there were two empty seats on the plane and I had to board! So I lost it all!

But anyway, here are some video's and pictures, I'll post some more tomorrow too!

Worship On Sunday Morning at the Church in Kitchumboora:

The Church of the Nazarene at Kitchumboora:

My Boy, I don't know his name. This is the kid I hung out with all week:

Hanging out with Dennis and his family at their home:

Some of the kid's at church on Sunday: Daniel:

The Nile River

Today began the relaxing part of our trip!

We were unable to attend a local church this morning because of confusion of service times, so we had church together in the front yard of the hotel. We sang a song together, Don preached, and John Kraft prayed. It was interesting that we came to build a building for a church that was worshiping under a tree and today we were the ones worshiping under a tree!

After Church we loaded up our vehicles and headed to Murchison Falls Park. It is a large game reserve on the Nile river. It is the largest game reserve in Uganda. It took us two hours to drive on the bumpy dirt roads roads! But once we arrived they greeted us in the lobby with cold towls to wash the dust from the roads off of our faces, and a cold glass of passion fruit juice!

The hotel is amazing! The name of the hotel is the Paraa Safari Lodge. If you google it they have a web site. Apparently The Queen stayed here before as well as Ernest Hemingway. All of the wood in our room is Mahogany. The whole place has an Africa explorer feel to it. We have a balcony in our room that overlooks the Nile river. I just had tea on the roof and you can hear the hippopotoms in the river below! It is amazing! There are more stars in the sky than I have ever seen before.

We took a 3 hour boat ride up the Nile today to Murchison Falls. It is a 100 foot waterfall near the start of the Nile. We traveled along the shore the whole way up and encountered all sorts of animals. We saw hippos everywhere! We also saw several Elephants and their babies, Crocs, warthogs, a Giant King Fish and some gazzel and plenaty of baboons! I couldn't describe to you how amazing it is to be that close to a giant animal like an Elephant or Hippo.

We could not get very close to the falls but even at the distance we were at you could feel the power of them! The entire Nile river has to pass through a very tiny gap and it comes crashing down!

Tomorrow we have brekafast at 6:30 and then we will head out into the park for a Safari of our own! I will be riding on the top of one of our vans for most of the day!

As I wrap up tonight I want to put a few sections from a journal I have been keeping.

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this so if you are post some comments!

Love, Joy & Peace



"I had a lot of fun with the kids today. None of them could speak English but we still communicated and we still had lots of fun! I taught the kids some very cool things today, like how to make glasses with their hands and that thing where you twist your hands around your middle fingers. They couldn't do the finger thing but they had the glasses down. A whole village of kids was walking around with their hands flipped on their faces like glasses!"

"There is one boy I played with most of the day but I don't know his name. He has a huge smile and is really cute. He wears the same shirt everyday and it has all sorts of different animals. We can't talk to eachother so we just hang out together and smile and laugh!"

"The women went to the Pastors house today to see his wifes garden. While they were there several of the woman asked about me. They wanted to know how many wives I had!"

"Kathy and I went and walked all around the town of Masindi toady. It was amazing! As we walked past all of the shops we dodged cars, trucks, bikes, and motorcycles all while walking on the left sid of the road with people laughing and point everywhere! Everywhere we went little kids would get very excited and yell "Wazungu!" which is a white person. We must have been a site to see, two white Americans in a sea of Ugandans."

Thats all for now! I'm off to sit by the river Nile. It hard work serving Jesus!

Uganda Part 2

Hello again everyone!

I found time and a ride back into town to post again. We just finished the construction of the church today. In the past 6 days we built all of the trusses, hung them, and hung the metal sheets for the roof. It has been hot, especially hanging on the roof of a metal building.

Today while some of the guys were finishing up their work I was able to go with a teenage boy I met here to visit his home. We walked about 1/4 mile up the road and turned down a long lane leading to his mud hut. Once we arrive there about 20 members of his family came running out to greet us. His mom was mad that he didn't tell here he was bringing friends over! (Not to different from home!) The had goats, chickens, ducks, and a couple of pigs running around. It was awesome! They gave me two pineapple and a papaya.

We then walked back to the church in time for the dedication of the new building. We presented a soccer ball to the youth of the church and they were very excited about it! They all agreed that in the front of the church they would build a soccer field for God! IT was great! Then the pastor of the church thanked us for coming and for giving our time. Then pastor Don prayed a prayer of dedication for the building. Many people were crying as they knew this would be the last time that we would see each other. After the dedication prayer we all sang the doxology together.

We passed out candy and beanie babies to all of the kids as they left the church. They were pretty fired up about receiving one. (See there is still a use for all of those beanie babies you have laying around!) We said goodbye to our friends and drove home. They gave us so much today. We had a box full of pineapple, papaya, jackfruit, sugar cane, banana's and passion fruit!

Tomorrow we leave Masindi for the game park. We will take a boat cruise down the Nile!

One more quick story and I need to Run.

Those of you who know my grandfather have probably heard his story about a cat drinking gas. Well yesterday I had to lead devotions at the church and I was looking for a story to tell and I told Grandpa's cat story. The people fell off their benches laughing! I thought grandpa would appreciate that! Maybe he has a future as a comedian in Uganda?

I need to run! I hope you are still reading! Thanks for praying for us!

Love, Joy & Peace,

Uganda

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been able to write anything in the past few days. I'm in Masindi Uganda at an Internet Cafe. I don't have much time so I'll be quick.

These past few days have been amazing.

We are working on a church here. IN the past 3 days we have built all of the rafters, hung them, and tomorrow we will begin hanging the metal for the roof. I'm the youngest on the trip so everytime something has to be done high up I get sent up. So it's been fun trying to balance on the tip of the rafters in the hot sun of the Equator. I'm impressed with all the work everyone was able to do in just a few short days.

Our hotel is very nice, the food is good, and we almost always have hot water and electricity! Today in the middle of his shower the water just shut off on Don!

We worshiped here on Sunday morning and it was one of the most amazing worship services I have been a part of. The Ugandans shared testimonies and songs, and so did we. There was such passion and intensity in their worship. .

God has been so good to us! The people are amazing. I love to hear them laugh, and sing. I told one team member you kind of just want to hold the kids down and tickle them all! She said the would probably be really afraid of the crazy white man holding them down!
I have had a fun time playing with the kids and teenagers here. Today I had a group of about 15 kids following me around everywhere I went. They were cracking up laughing because I was afraid of a lizard!

ON Saturday I am going to visit the house of one of the teenagers named Dennis. I have to walk a 1/2 mile to get there! We have talke alot the past few days. I have a video of him singing a song that I will have to post when I get back.

Well I'm running out of time so I need to run. I should be able to post again tomorrow or Monday! Keep Praying for us!

Love, Joy & Peace

Amsterdam

We're sitting in Amsterdam now. The time at home is 3:30 A.M. and its 9:30 A.M. here.

Everyone is having a great time so far and we haven't had any problems at all. I have never traveled so quickly through security at an airport! Things are going great.

A lot of our group is getting pretty tired...ok all of our group! and it's really starting to show on their faces! But I still think they are all beautiful!

Our entire team if finally together here. Kathy and the Shorbes met us in Detroit and the other couple (I don't know their names!) just now met us here in Amsterdam at our gate.

The flight to Amsterdam went faster than expected we had a strong tail wind and ended up arriving an hour earloy. The phrase "hurry up and wait" keeps coming to my mind along with the lyrics to a Jerry Garcia song "Sitting here in Limbo".

I've really enjoyed the mix of people here. On the plane today the man in front of me had his new born son and 5 year old daughter and they were traveling to Kuwait to see his mom. Behind me was an Indian family, and next to me was a woman from Laos and in front of her a man from Kenya. I really enjoy being around such a diverse group of people. There were some interesting smells as well!

We will be waiting here for about 3 hours and then we head off to Entebbe, which is another 8 hour flight! We will spend the night at our hotel in Entebbe and then we are off to Masindi in the morning, which I think is about a 5-6 hour drive.

This is all still a bit surreal. When we landed here it was a fun realization that 7 years ago I was in the exact same place and I never really thought that I would ever be here again. It's crazy where life takes you. I was telling someone the other day how increadible my life has been. I have had such a blessed and privelaged life to go to all the places I have been to and to see all the things I have seen. Before I left I said that this was about it on my list of places I would like to see but now after browsing airling magazines I'm thinking about Kuwait, Greece, and Korea! And I'm not even in Africa yet!

On the plane I watched the movie "The assination of Jessie James: by the Coward Robert Ford" it was pretty much amazing and I can't wait to watch it on a normal t.v. when I get home. You should check it out. It's really long...

Well I'm off to wait in line at security to board our plane to Entebbe. I'm really excited to touch down and finally be in Africa. I can't wait! I'm really excited and looking forward to having my whole world changed these next 2 weeks. I'm anticipating what God is going to do in my life here. I don't have a clue what it is but it is my hope that when I return home I will be a different person!

A friend of mine in North Vernon has been telling me the past few week, "I can't wait for you to come back your are going to be so different!" I hope so!

Keep praying for us! I only have a few minutes left so I need to post this! Hopefully you will here some more from me tomorrow!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Off to Uganda

So I'm leaving for Uganda in about 47 hours and wanted to get some information on here for everybody to follow along with me on my journey. I don't know how often I will be able to post on here while I am in Ugand but I know we will have a few days throughout the two weeks where I will be able to throw something on here real quick.

In the next two days I'm going to put up some thoughts out of my journal that I've been keeping as I prepair for this trip. But for now here are some quick details about what will be happening:

We leave Thursday February 7 out of Cincinnatie to Detroit. We have a 2 hour layover in Detriot then we have a long flight to Amsterdam. After a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam we fly off to Entebbe Uganda. We arive in Entebbe at 9:00 P.M. their time. We will have to get thorugh Immigration and then spend the night in our hotel in Entebbe.

The next morning we have a 5 hour ride to Masindi Uganda. Misindi is the town we will be working in. Our goal is to build a church for the people of Masindi. We have 6 days to do the whole building!

Here is a link to the hotel we will be staying in at Masindi http://www.hotelvictorybijja.com/

Some time during the trip we will be visiting Murchison Falls National Park for a three day safari. You can check that out at: http://www.uwa.or.ug/murchison.html

Here is a rough map of where Masindi is located: (the bottom left)

I hope you read along the next few weeks!

God's Strength

I have these days where it seems like I try and try to do the right thing, to make a difference, to bring some sort of order to the chaos of the world and things just seem to get worse! Or if not worse it just seems like nothing really changes. I get discouraged easily, I'm quick to doubt, I sometimes just want to throw up my hands and walk away.

It is in those moments when I begin to realize that my desire should not be to change the world, my desire should not be to make a difference. My desire, my purpose is to serve God. I'm quick to forget how big and powerful God is. I'm quick to depend on my own strength and not his.

I forget that this God that I worship and serve is the one who gives sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and good news to the poor.

"The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down." Psalm 145:14

It's been a while...

So I just remembered I had this blog and I just realized I have almost gone one year without posting anything! Tonight I have children on my mind, not my children but other peoples children!

For the past 3 weeks it seems as if my life has been invaded by kids with bum parents! I've encountered several kids who have dads that have completely abandoned them, kids whose moms are addicted to drugs, kids who don't know where they are going to be living tomorrow, kids who were hit by their moms just last night, kids who are afraid to go home because of what might happen. Kids who are hurting and afraid, and honestly I'm really sick of it!

As a pastor and more importantly as a follower of Jesus I wonder what the local church is doing to address this issue. Do we just sit by the side and hope that the government will take care of them? Do we ignore it and just pray the things get better? Or do we roll up our sleeves knowing that we're going to get dirty and dive into a world of confusion, fear, red tape, pain and uncertainty? What if men steeped up and said, "it is entirely unacceptable for a kid in my church/community to grow up without a father figure in his life." What if we decided that it was critical for the future of our boys that men steeped up and began to father children that no one is fathering.

I really like the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child." That phrase indicates that all of us play a role in the raising and supporting of the children around us. A close friend of mine who lived in South Africa for 27 years shared with me the mindset of the South African children. He told me when he arrived in Africa he was constantly frustrated when he would ask a child who his/her mother was, because the child would point to the woman closes to him/her. The child's understanding was that every woman around her was a mother figure. If you want to know who the child's birth mother is you have to ask, "Who's womb did you come from?"

I guess I'm just tired of seeing kids who get tossed aside with no one to love them. I get tired of seeing kids who are so bright and intelligent loosing out on a promising future because no one will take an interest in them and encourage them. I guess I'm tired of seeing kids who are hopeless, kids with bruises, kids who are terrified of what tomorrow may hold.

So what do we do about it? Are we willing to do the hard work? Are we willing to allow a child or a teenager a place in our lives? It really is pretty simple, provide an ear that is willing to listen, a look that shows you care, an afternoon when you really weren't going to do anything anyway! Alone we can't do much but together we can change the world. And I really believe that! I really believe that it is possible for us to change the world.

It's been a while...

So I haven't posted much lately, it's mainly because I haven't had much to post. I preached last Sunday night about the need for Christians to do "Works". That didn't go over to well, which is odd because its all over scripture. I am preaching again this Sunday morning so we shall see how that goes. If I have any deep thoughts anytime soon i'll post them.

Black and White, and Gray

I had to attend a thing in North Vernon last night called "5th Quarter". There was a big basketball game at the High School. Jennings County Played Bedford North Lawrence. Apparently their coach is someone important. He helped win a state championship for BNL in the early 90's and played for IU. His name is Damon Bailey I think. Maybe you know him. Anyway, after that game I had to attend this 5th quarter thing. I was kind of ticked off because it was supposed to have been put on by all of the youth pastors in town and...no one told me about it until Friday morning. I showed up anyway. None of my teens were there but I knew a lot of the kids anyway.

When I got there I talked to a few of the youth pastors that were there and they all had some interesting things to say. The first guy I was talking to stopped one of his teens and asked him to show me his shirt which said "Turn or Burn." The youth pastor told me how cool it was and how he wished that he could get away with wearing that shirt. Too bad.

I talked with another youth pastor who attended the same youth specialty conference that I attended. We were supposed to have lunch together at the conference but we never meet up. He asked me what I did for lunch, and I told him I spent it hanging out with some homeless people and eating lunch or talking with them. To which he responded "Did you get any of them saved?" I responded "No" and slowly walked away.

The moments I had with those homeless people in Nashville were honestly some of the best parts of my trip to Nashville. I walked through downtown for 2 hours with one man as he poured out his life to me. We got to the library he was walking to and I asked him if he wanted to go eat with me but he turned me down because he just ate at the shelter. As I went to walk away he yelled "Hey!" I turned around and he grabbed me and hugged me tight and with tears in his eyes he said, "Thanks for listening to me, no one ever listens to me." He let me go turned around and walked inside. Maybe you disagree or you had to be there at the time, but to have said to that man after the hug and emotion "Ok sir that's nice and all but you need to turn or burn." Would have cheapened the moment and made the whole 2 miles we spent together seem like nothing but warming up to him so that he would convert at the end of our walk. Everywhere the man turns he is being preached at. The way a lot of the shelters are set up in Nashville you have to listen to a sermon before you can eat, or get a bed. These men and women are preached at constantly. Maybe we would do better if we just listened more.

I digress...

So after talking to these youth pastors it comes time for stupid games, (that's what they called them, not me) and then one of the youth pastors began to give a short devotional. It was pretty good. He talked about how we are all valuable to God, and no matter what people at school may say to us, or how our parents treat us it doesn't matter because even though everyone treats us like crap we are valuable to God.

All of that sounds good, makes sense and is true...Unless your the kid being picked on, whose parents are a mess, who no one will listen to. I think that if I was in that position as a teenager I would think "Big deal. What does that do for me Monday morning at school when people start making fun of me again? What does that do for me Monday when I am ignored, pushed around and degraded by everyone at school? Do I just put on a happy face and say, Gee this sure sucks but at least God loves me." It reminds me of a t-shirt I saw the other day it said, "Smile Jesus Loves You." and then bellow it in smaller type it said, "Then again, he loves everybody."

I don't say all this to make fun of the youth pastor or say I have it right and he has it wrong. Or I'm better than him because I can see it this way, because really I don't have an answer to my own questions. Should it be enough for that kid to just sit back and say, "Its ok when I'm beat up and picked on because Jesus loves me."

I have a lot of questions. And sometimes it scares me to death.

I read Rob Bells book Velvet Elvis a few months ago and what I remember more than anything is his chapter on Questions. He said something like, "Many people are afraid to ask questions. But what really scares me is when people don't have any questions at all."

Sometimes I think that life would be better and ministry a whole lot easier if everything were black and white. If I could say "Turn or Burn" and We need to save all the homeless people (I just realized his assumption that since they were homeless they obviously weren't "Saved") and here are twelve simple steps to guide you in living your life, and tonight when you get home and you want to accept Jesus into your heart than say this exact prayer. For me things are a lot more gray. Which scares me some. I tend to see a lot of "if's" and "but's". I don't really feel that "if's" and "but's" are too welcome in the church.

I think about where I will be in the future when I leave North Vernon. How do questions fit into a typical Nazarene Church? How do gray areas fit into a typical Nazarene church? These questions make teaching and preaching a lot more difficult too. I have a hard time standing in front of a group of people and proclaiming this is exactly what you need to do and this is exactly how you should do it. I'm a mess!

I was reading 1 & 2 Timothy yesterday and I read this in 2 Timothy 2:8 "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel..." I can agree with that.
Where does everything else fit I'm not exactly sure. I'll keep journeying though...

Claxton

Today is the day! I have promised for about 2 weeks now to post pictures of my new dog. The wait is over. Here he is, Claxton.

Oil, Kids, and more kids

Today hasn't been much of an exciting day, its been busy but not very exciting. I started my day off by arguing with a woman at a car dealership about an oil change. I had to get the church van's oil changed. My secretary was supposed to arrange everything and I was supposed to take the van's. Well I show up and the lady hands me a bill for $30. I told her it was supposed to be charged to the church and that should have been arrange by the secretary who made the appointment. She storms off, comes back huffing and puffing, then hands me a receipt and no thank you or anything and says a bill will be sent.

Then it was off to the Melting Pot. I talked with a woman there for about an hour. I see her at the coffee shop a lot but she would never talk to me. She had plenty to say today. She is a foster parent and I asked her what it was like to have them and what a person has to do to have foster kids. Its all really sad. She has been a foster parent for 9 months and has already had 19 different children live at her house. For the most part they stay for a couple days or weeks and then return to their homes but right now she has 2 girls that have been living with her for four months.

The sad part is some of these kids if they come from a home where the parents use Meth show up at her doorstep with nothing on but a hospital gown. Due to the chemicals used to make meth the kids are not allowed to take anything with them when they leave their house, they have to go to the hospital to be sterilized and then dropped of at the foster parents house. This lady told me on several occasions she had to go to wal-mart at 10 o'clock at night with a kid wearing only a long t-shirt. That's it, no shoes, no underwear, no socks, just a big t-shirt. Then the foster parent has to pay out of their own pocket for the clothes the kid needs. Most of the time they do not get reimbused and if they do it takes around 3 months to receive a check from the government.

I though it would be cool if the church did a gift card drive to wal-mart, or k-mart, or target so that if a foster parent gets a call in the middle of the night and a kid shows up in a hospital gown they could call the church and receive a $25 or $50 gift card for clothes. I'm not sure how to get it done but I'll be talking to some people around here and maybe get something going.

I also ended up at the elementary school in town today. A man in my church who is a conservation officer did a presentation on hurricane relief work that he was a part of to all the 6th graders at the school. I had a wonderful conversation with a group of kids after the presentation about how a person would go about hunting an alligator. One kid concluded, "I'd just get my grandpa's shotgun and blow his head off!" as all the other kids cracked up laughing.

I'm pretty sure he was serious though.

Pictures of my dog will be up hopefully tomorrow, sorry for the delay.

My New Dog...

I got a dog last night, and to be honest I'm terrified!!! He is about the cutest dog I have ever seen but I have a feeling he might stress me out. The lady I got him from found him running through a field at her house took him in and then shipped him off to my house. He is a black lab mixed with something else (I'm not sure what that something else is) he is all black except all four of his paws are white, he has a white spot on his nose, and some white on his chest. He is only three months old, so he is still pretty small. His name is Claxton.

I named him Claxton because that is what I wanted to name my first born son but I decided that any respectable woman would never let me name her first born son Claxton...So I named my dog that instead. There is a bluegrass bar in Nashville that I used to go to occasionally and on the wall they had a pencil etching of Roy Acuff's head stone. It turns out that Roy's middle name was Claxton, I liked the name and had been in search of something to name after him since that day. If you didn't know Roy Acuff is a famous bluegrass fiddler. (After a quick google search I discovered that there is a town in Georgia named Claxton and also a law firm somewhere named Claxton & Claxton I bet they are cool guys).

I have been reading up on how to train a puppy and discovered that most people recommend buying a training crate to keep your puppy in at night so he doesn't run all over, and apparently its easier to house train him that way. So I went out and bought one last night and Claxton was pretty calm when I put him in it so I went to bed. I thought it was odd that he didn't make a noise all night. I had a nightmare that I didn't close his crate and he broke out, destroyed my house, went to the bath room everywhere and then came in my room to kill me. Well when I woke up I discovered that my nightmare turned out to be true (except for the killing and destruction part)! He broke out of his cage somehow and when I looked for him I found him sleeping on the couch.

I'll post a picture of him soon. I have a feeling that my mother and my brother are not going to be to happy about my new addition. Oh well! I'm also extremely concerned about having to take care of him for a long time. I told Jennifer that this is my test to see if I should ever have children. I hope I pass.

My thoughts on Christmas

I have a friend that has been encouraging me to start a blog so I decided today would be the day. This is all a little weird to me but I guess I'll get over it. To start things off I'll post some thoughts I wrote out last night as I was researching and reading on Christmas. I have been reading The Liberation of Christmas by Richard Horsley. You should all [which is probably only one of you] go out and buy this book tonight. So here are my thoughts...

Christmas was once something beautiful, something real, something connected to the core of what it is to be human, what it means to hope, what it means to wait. Christmas was once a holiday for the forsaken, the oppressed, the despised, the peasant. Recently Christmas has been made into an event for the rich. The day after thanksgiving has almost become its own holiday of debt and injustice. The original story of Christmas was one of hope, liberation, release from domination, and one of revolution. The poet Thomas John Carlisle wrote about the song of Mary found in Luke,

At our eternal peril
we choose to ignore
the thunder and the tenor
of her song,
its revolutionary beat.

Revolution. There is now hardly any revolution associated with Christmas. We have turned Christmas into a new type of hope and liberation. The hope and liberation is now only real for places such as Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Starbucks and the rest. They are liberated from debt, low summer sales, and "the Red". I read recently that 40% of all retail sales in the United States take place between the day after Thanksgiving and December 25. Christmas is no longer a story about revolution and liberation it has become a holiday of oppression. We are oppressed by credit card bills, expensive gifts, unhappy boyfriends & girlfriends and spoiled children. What was once a beautiful story of liberation and hope we have turned into a time of domination and oppression. Make it beautiful again. What can you do this Christmas season to make the story of hope and liberation real?