Home again, home again

**Blogger would not let me spell check this...so please excuse any spelling issues**

Driving home from the county of oranges and housewives yesterday the car was pretty quiet. I had mandated the day before that anyone sitting "shotgun" should be prepared to stay awake the whole drive or switch seats with someone. R-girl did a fabulous job, though there were a few moments I wondered if she had decided to take a quick little rest. There was the endless game of "spot an out of state license plate and smack the person next to you" that kept us all going though. Lots of people from Arizona on the road. And motorcycles. We were stuck in traffic for awhile and were being passed by many motorcyclists...we finally started counting them and were well into the 50's before I found a place to turn around and take a different road.

There are some things rolling around in my head that I want to talk about but some are not quite fully formed yet, so for now I'm just going to list somethings that I found interesting at the conference and get back to y'all later!

• Bottled water is out for me. I'm committing to eliminating my use of bottled water and sticking to tap water...or the stuff that I get in big reusable bottles that sits in a jar in my office. What I'm really eliminating is the single use bottles. Too much pollution and questionable bottling practices. Not to mention the questionable practices of the companies in aquiring land and the resources.
• Free trade does not equal fair trade. In fact from what I gleaned from this conference, free trade ain't all it's cracked up to be...though I kind of had that one figured out before hand.
• Our ideas about humanitarian aid aren't bad, but they need to be evaluated for effectiveness. Newsflash...goverments can be corrupt!
• Giving money to feed people vs. giving money to educate people.
• Using language that's respectful to all people and how our descriptions of people groups plays a part in their view of themselves.

There's more but the two things that have come out of this conference that I'm really pondering on are these...

1. Is it possible for us in society to stop debating with each other and really start listening to each other. My friend Randy just published a book called "Your Ministry of Conversation" that got me thinking about this topic. I'm noticing more and more the people who are willing to listen, the people who just want to debate and the people who just write other's thoughts and feelings off because they don't agree. I'm still wrestling with this a little but this has also lead me to...
2. The one thing that I kept hearing over and over this week was "we need to get young people into the church". Now, I'm not disagreeing with that statement, however, there are some people who said this right in front of some "young people" and then proceeded to shoot down all those young people's thoughts and ideas. Yeah...how effective is that?? More to come on this subject.

But probably the best thing to come out of this conference was the opportunity to sit around a meal table 3 times a day with 4 college students, one high school student and two other fabulous adults as we shared about our day, the things we were learning or just laughed and laughed and laughed. Thanks county of oranges and housewives. We had a great time...oh! and the mouse kingdom was excellent too!

Day two--oranges and housewives

There comes a point in every conference or convention where information overload sets in and my brain shuts down. It happened briefly this morning but I think it was partly due to the negative caffeine forces at work. The issue was fixed post haste and brain function returned to normal.


I heard a couple of gentlemen from Cameroon speak today. They had an interesting perspective on all the aid that is sent to Africa. They stated that aid money is sent in amazing amounts to the government but somewhere between the government and the people it gets lost. And if it does reach the people then the people then just begin to rely on the aid instead of working to do something about their situation.


I've heard that same statement from people about the welfare system in America or in reference to homeless programs. It's an interesting paradox, people willing to open their pocketbooks and help others out of a situation and yet those being helped aren't learning tools to help themselves. One of the speakers said something to this effect...it's like taking fish to a bear who should know how to fish. The more fish you bring the more the bear relies on you to bring the fish. The bear soon forgets how to fish and just relies on the one bringing the fish to them. Thus always needing help. This speaker suggested that instead of giving aid money we would be better off funding programs to help the people help themselves.

There's a term floating around here that I've heard before and not thought much about...global footprints. Not carbon footprints, global footprints. As I have unpacked it for myself, everything that I buy, consume, use can be traced back to a beginning. It can be traced back to shippers, carriers, farmers, labourers, etc. It all starts somewhere, thus footprints. What that means for me is that when I consume, buy or use something I need to be aware of the process that it took that item to get to me, aware of those who worked to bring that item into existence and the conditions in which it came to be. I'm been pondering that a lot today and wondering what God is asking me to do with that information.

On a different note, R-girl and I have learned a new song for VBS this year (just a mere three weeks away!!!!) It will be much fun...as will the pirate dance that R-girl is excited to teach. There has been much laughter this evening. I'm very blessed with the company I keep.