Water 1st

So a few weeks ago peter and i had the privilege of attending a banquet for Water 1st...what a great organization! their focus is water...that's where their projects start and where they finish. They have projects in Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, and Honduras. Water is a privilege....in this country we have been soo very blessed with abundant resources. It is always so humbling for me to see how others living in different countries have such scarce resources....and i think gosh how much water do i waste in a day?...brushing my teeth or running the shower for just a little bit longer...or even washing dishes?...or flushing the toilet? People in soo many other countries have to walk miles...i mean MILES to collect a days supply of water and then they turn around and do the same thing the next day...

that night...a few things were said that really stuck with me...you can live a month or so without food, but only one week without water. And also...a glass of clean water is a privilege only extended to 3 million people in the world.

check out the organization http://www.water1st.org/news/index.htm

and if you are at all intersted in getting involved.... they have an event planned called CARRY 5

(the next bit is from the website...) What would it be like to carry 5 gallons of water for 5 kilometers every day and still not have enough? Watch this online film from Ethiopia now.

• In developing countries, women and children spend up to 5 hours each day collecting dirty water from contaminated streams and ponds.
• Water-related illnesses kill 5 million people each year, the majority of whom are children under age 5.
• Every day, 5,000 children die from preventable water-related illnesses.

CARRY 5 raises funds and awareness to end the water crisis for people living in poor countries.

• May 3rd 2009 - Tucson, Arizona
• May 16th 2009 - Boulder, Colorado
• May 22nd 2009 - Overlake High School Redmond, Washington
• May 30th 2009 - Seattle, Washington

A Powerful Noise


In Celebration of International Women’s Day..i had the pleasure of attending a sold out screening of the documentary A Powerful Noise at Pacific Place..sooo very good and soo very challenging. Just so important to recognize the power of one voice and the impact they can have on soo many people.

This acclaimed documentary takes you inside the lives of three women — Hanh, an HIV-positive widow in Vietnam; Nada, a survivor of the Bosnian war; and Jacqueline (“Madame Urbain”), who works to empower girls in Bamako, Mali — to witness their daily challenges and significant victories over poverty and oppression. More than 450 theaters across the United States participated in this historic event.

The previews rolled stark, painful statistics about the state of women and girls around the globe: illiteracy, poverty, displacement. We also saw the powerful video The Girl Effect, which demonstrates the tremendous contributions of girls in their communities and their unlimited potential as women.

The film’s producer, philanthropist and businesswoman Sheila C. Johnson, introduced the evening and reminded us that the purpose of International Women’s Day is to “recognize the accomplishments of women and reflect on the work that remains to be done.” She expressed her firm belief that by galvanizing the power of women we can start a revolution that cannot be stopped.

I was overwhelmed by the women’s stories — simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring. Each woman has tapped her own power and used it to effect change in her community. That one person can make a difference was starkly evident. Despite the devastation of war, HIV/AIDS, poverty, and exploitation of girls, these women found hope.

Visit the site...and Find out how YOU can make a powerful noise.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

by Peggy McIntosh

This is an excerpt from the article...and this is something i read when i was in Mexico...and truly opened my eyes to the things i NEVER even think about.

Daily effects of white privilege

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions.

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.

12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.

17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.

18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.

25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.

28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.

29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.

30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.

31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.

32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.

33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.

38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.

43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.

44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.

45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.

46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.

48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.

49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.

50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

This is a film about silent racism and the stereotypes and silent assumptions we make about other people...soo good.

A POWERFUL NOISE





A powerful noise documentary trailer....in theatres ONE night only March 5th. Check out the website. http://www.apowerfulnoise.org/ AND COME SEE THE FILM!

WEDDING PLANNING: the challenge

Wedding planning...we are making progress, but to be honest it has been such a challenge. I have truly struggled with the amount of money one can spend on their wedding...how excessive it all seems. Have we lost sight of the true meaning of weddings? How are we as Christians being stewards of the money we have been blessed with? How are we as Christians representing Christ with our wedding plans? With the way we spend our money? So many questions I have wrestled with...i have even struggled with the whole idea of registering for gifts only for peter to reassure me that they even do this kind of stuff in Africa with dowries..=)

So my hope and my prayer is that our wedding reflects us...our faith, our love for the Lord, our love for each other, our passion for justice and healing, and our love for family and friends!

Center - Charlie Hall





I LOVE this song...we sang it at church a few Sundays ago and to be honest, I was singing it for WEEKS afterwards...and it is still with me. So Enjoy!!

I actually stole this next entry straight from Mark Drennans blog (hope you don't mind Mark!!)...peters brother is in Sierra Leone, Africa right now working with Children of the Nations...and this is just a taste of his life there ...this post brought me to tears and truly challenged me in so many ways!

I actually stole this next entry straight from Mark Drennans blog (hope you don't mind Mark!!)...peters brother is in Sierra Leone, Africa right now working with Children of the Nations...and this is just a taste of his life there ...this post brought me to tears and truly challenged me in so many ways!

There's Something About Mary

I was running. I thought I was running home and running late but as I reached the village of Ngolala I realised I was running towards something else. I was running to Mary Lahai, a seventeen year old girl I had met a month before, the most emaciated hand I have ever held. Mary had a mysterious mass in her stomach, something which caused her extreme pain and, as I found out much later, made it difficult for her to hold down food. I was running with my friend Andy (yes the same Andy I always mention), three other friends had beaten us to it and another would shortly join. In one of the many moments of providence that would punctuate a desperate story we would all converge at the point where we were most needed. We found Mary writhing in agony on the front porch of her home.

Having made quick arrangements with the extended family she was staying with we took Mary to the COTN clinic. Andy lifted my dying friend in his arms and carried her through the village. People watched us from their verandas, themselves frozen into inaction by a perceived inability, indifference or a type of triage. Mary was either hopeless, infectious or a witch. Rain ensured that the atmosphere matched the mood. Then, perhaps because pain and fear had prevented it before, from over Andy’s shoulder Mary seemed to see me for the first time. She called my name with a smile and, just for a second, her eyes brightened.

As my friends and I carried Mary we prayed and sang to our God, not an act of saintly piety and more than an effort to comfort Mary and ourselves, we were reminding ourselves of our hope at a moment when heart break was wearing it thread bare and threatening to let desperation crash through. We pleaded with the great physician to heal, a prayer that would spread from Sierra Leone in the months to follow and be taken up by God’s children in the UK and America.

Although we did not fully appreciate it as we carried Mary through the rain, we were actually mirroring a scene that had been played out about two months before. Then Mary had been found by Samuel and Elijah, two COTN-SL staff members, abandoned to die in a hut. They too had carried Mary in their arms to the clinic and we were following their example of love. But Mary’s situation was a complicated one. She needed an expensive operation in Bo, a city three and a half bumpy hours drive away. She needed to be strong enough to survive that procedure and she needed to have someone to care for her before and after. And such was the nature of Mary’s condition and the equipment available here that we would not be able to tell what was really wrong until Mary was on the operating table. During a period of time when the COTN Country Director and clinic staff were trying to work with Mary’s family to come up with a course of action, I sat on the dark, dirt floor of Mary’s hut. I rubbed her back and sang to her while she rocked back and forward in pain and vomited. Her mother sat in the dirt beside me weeping and pointing out worms in the vomit with a stick. In the end it would only be Mary’s mother of all her family members that would stick by her but she was unable to properly feed the two of them when they were at home let alone finance a lengthy stay in a strange city. When the two finally set off for Bo they were helped immeasurably by Elijah who brought back the wonderful news that an extended family member had been found in the city who was willing to take them in. We rejoiced at the Lord’s provision. In a twist however this relative would have a change of heart and within two days had thrown Mary and her mother in to the street. So often in Mary’s story however desperation would be met with hope, ugliness matched by beauty. The family living right next door to Mary’s relative, complete strangers, brought in this small family and would care for them, offering food, shelter and a hand to hold at the hospital, for the next three months.

It would take about that long for Mary, with the proper treatment, to build up enough strength to face the surgeon’s knife. Before she started to improve she got terribly depressed and in the depth of one particularly hopeless low she tried to slit her wrists. But with time she got stronger and her spirits were lifted. Money came from Sierra Leone, America and Northern Ireland. Then, when all the tests had been done, the numerous doctors seen and the operation finally scheduled, Mary decided that she needed no further treatment. Effective care had made her feel so much better that she believed that she had been healed. “I can work. I can run. I can jump. Before I couldn’t do any of those things.” I made an emergency trip to Bo with our clinic’s head nurse and along with a wonderfully patient and understanding surgeon, broke the unpleasant news. Without surgery, Mary would die.

I had just finished a youth event and the setting sun had splashed red and gold across the sky. My phone rang. I did my best to measure Dr. Vandi’s words with thoughts of “There’s still a long way to go” but, maybe truly for the first time, I allowed the dream of Mary’s recovery to finally come in to full focus, to joyfully wash over me. “She’s stable. The surgery was a real success. We were very lucky really. We found a huge puss-filled abscess behind her spleen. It’s amazing that it never burst!”

A few weeks later Mary and her mother walked in to the COTN office in Ngolala to tell us they were home. With money that was left over after all her medical bills were paid we arranged for Mary to start back at school. She has a long way to go but on the thirteenth of January 2009 she was a vision in her old school blue amidst a crowd of Mallory Jansen Primary School green.

At one point of fear and confusion when Mary was sick she found my face at the other side of a crowded room. Our eyes met and, stretching out her hand, she called my name. Mary’s story will change my life for as long as I let it but it isn’t one I can tell and finish with a full stop. Mary isn’t a character in a story, she’s a girl that lives down the road from me. She largely lives off the generosity of her neighbours, the desperate leening on the needy. And just as she cried out to me before, demanding a response from one who claims to be the child of the God who is love, so her daily struggles in the here and now call for my response. And maybe yours too. What that is and will be is a big question but, for me, one thing is certain. In the words of a recent American visitor to COTN-SL, “I’ll never forget and I’m telling everyone.”

After reading Marks blog...I was soo overwhelmed and wrote him this email ...

Mark..

So first off...i think this is the first email I have written you since you have been away, and its terrible i know! and there is no excuse...but there have been soo many times where i think i will write and then i dont...and i think ill try to get him an email and send it to him before he gets on the internet again..but then i dont...and to be honest...i just get overwhelmed. I don't know where to start and where to finish, so I just don't write. Every single time I read your blog posts...i get soo darn emotional...every single time mark drennan...every time i hear about how you are doing...i get even more emotional. every time i hear peter talk about you....i get emotional...are you seeing a pattern here. so instead I jsut don't write...

As I write this...I just think of you in Sierra leone...in a bed so different from mine, in a house so different from mine, in a climate so different from mine, after a day so different from mine...I write this email as I lie in my bed with the a computer on my lap that has an internet connection...with a light shinning ...a light that I can turn on and off whenever I want...in a house that has heat whenever I want it...and i get overwhelmed. School is wonderful...but I feel it just leaves me even more frustrated...feeling as though there are all these amzing people out there (like yourself) changing the world, and here I am ....i read books like three cups of tea and mountains beyond mountains for school..which if you havent read...ill try to get that to you...and i feel as though i am not doing enough..i want to be a change agent...and i jsut get overwhelmed and dont know where to even begin....i read your blog and i feel as though i am not doing enough...i havnt even experienced what you have experienced..and i still know and feel that im not doing enough. We have been blessed in sooo many ways in this country, and where do i go and what do i do with these blessings.

why is it that we lose sight of the power of our God in this country...that we allow His voice to become barely audible because we are distracted by so many worldly things....why is it that we have soo much here, yet people within my own country are homeless and poor...it was not suppose to be like this. I read books about Africa...about their hesitance to preventative healthcare measures...about this fatalistic worldview they supposively have...about their passivity in regards to health...i read books mark...and you are living it...you are experiencing it every single day. and im sure its hard...i dont doubt that....but i just want you to know that you are living my dream...=) sometimes i get soo angry and upset because i yearn for a place I have NEVER been to..and I just dont understand why...i yearn for Africa more than I have ever yearned for a place and its unexplainable...and I get angry and overwhelmed...and I don't write =)

i find myself constantly battling with my culture...constantly going against the grain of my culture and even my peers...thinking about how it is that i live my life...what types of choices I make..how those choices affect other people....how do i spend my money?...how do i spend my time?....how culture and consumption play such a huge part in ones identity and how do I as a Christian steer away from buying into it all?..

Mark...i apologize for my rant, it seems soo selfish, but I wanted to share with you what was on my heart...my heavy heart...i read that story about mary and i am floored....floored by the alienation she experienced and floored by the grace and the love that was shown to her...i am floored at how beautiful she is...mark i thank you for sharing your experiences with us...for sharing the stories of REAL people...of REAL people who have touched your life and changed you..like mary, pastor, Massah..and soo many more. ...mark thank you for what you are doing there...for the life you have chosen to live...for the life you were called to live....many blessings my friend!

love malia

SLAVERY MAP

Check this out... http://slaverymap.org/ . Some human trafficking incidents right in our background. Amazing isnt it? This is a place to see the cases of human trafficking that have been currently reported, locally, nationaly, and internationally...check it out. Its an amazing resource!

Human Trafficking DOES happen here! This is a promotional video for the Tronie Foundation...the only one of its kind in the nation. They have established Homes of the Freedom, a recovery home for human trafficking survivors.

Publish Post

Dove Evolution of Beauty....what some makeup, a new hairstyle and photo shop can do for a person! unbelievable isnt it...

Global Village

So I am sure we have all received emails talking about if the world were reduced to 100 people how many people would be educated, have computers, clean drinking water, etc..etc.. And I am reading this book called Globalization, Spirituality and Justice by a guy named Daniel Groody, and he talks about this global village of 100 people, but for some strange reason this one really hits home with me. He says that if the world as we know it today was proportionally reduced to a village of 100 people, 51 would be male; 49 would be female; 60 would be Asian, 14 African, 11 European, 14 American (north, south, central and Caribbean), and 1 Australian or New Zealander. 14 in this village would speak, as their first language, Mandarin, 6 English, 5 Spanish, 3 Hini, 3 Portuguese, 3 Bengali, 2 Russian, 2 Japanese, 1 Arabic, and 1 German. The other 61 would speak Indonesian, French, Italian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and many other languages. From a faith perspective, 33 would be Christian; 20 Muslim; 14 atheist, agnostic, or nonreligious; 13 Hindu; 13 from other religions; 6 Buddhist; and 1 Jewish.

In our global village of 100 people, the resources are unevenly distributed. The richest person in the village has as much as the poorest 57 taken together. 50 do not have a reliable source of food and are hungry some or all of the time, and 30 suffer malnutrition. 40 do not have access to adequate sanitation; 31 people live in substandard housing; 31 do not have electricity; 18 are unable to read; 15 do not have access to safe drinking water. Only 16 have access to the Internet. Only 12 own an automobile. Three are migrating. And only 2 have a college education. Overall, 19 struggle to survive on one dollar per day or less; 48 struggle to live on 2 dollars a day or less.

In the book he shows that 95% of people live on less than $49/ day, 75% live on less than $10/day...how much do you spend in one day if you broke it down?? We may think we are poor and need to make more money, when the truth is...we are soo rich in comparison to so many! I look at those statistics and think...I am one of those that DOES have a reliable source of food, I am one of those that does NOT suffer from malnutrition, I am one of those that DOES have adequate sanitation, electricity, safe drinking water...I am one of those 16 that has access to the Internet (or else I wouldn't even be writing this!!)...I also own an automobile..and only 12 out of 100 people own one?...and last but not least...i am one of those 2 that has a college education, but not only a college education, I have the opportunity to pursue a masters. Now if these statistics don't put things into perspective for you...I truly don't know what will. We are soo very blessed, but what are we doing with these blessings?