God, Be The Solution

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Sarah made baked oatmeal, which is one of my favorite things, so I got up for breakfast. But soon after, I found my way back into bed… They woke me up in time to head into town for our crew day off. We ran a few errands, including getting the van vacuumed out and things, got lunch and hit a movie. The show was good, but the surround sound speakers were cutting in and out the whole time. They gave us our money back, though.

We grabbed some ice cream; actually surprised Sarah and bought an ice cream cake so we could celebrate her birthday properly, since I wasn’t here on the actual date. Lots of fun! She has this 9’ scarf that she was wearing and we all wrapped it around us for pictures. I’m pretty sure that this was also the first time in all our time together that we took a picture of just me, Sarah, and Kyle. We took candles and did the whole thing! Then to Borders for some reading/napping. Wallace and Pat came to bring their famous chicken, so we made sure we were home for that. Other than that, really all I did today was pack and read (I finally finished my book!)

The movie we was was Slumdog Millionaire, and fantastic. I’ve heard rave reviews about it, and now I know why. But throughout the movie, there were scenes from the slums, and all I could think of was, “Why are there people, especially children, still living in such places?” I saw Tato’s face in the main character. This question has been on my mind a lot lately. Yesterday, Sharye got news that one of the kids she took care of in Uganda died from AIDS. 9 years old, born with it, now dead from it. While we sat around and watched commercials whose spots were worth $3 million a piece. Think about how much more we could do with just the money spent on Superbowl ads? How many wells, how many clinics and doctors, teachers, schools, whatever. Not to mention what the ads cost to produce, plus what the players and coaches are paid, the ticket sales…

But God is still God. And He has commissioned us to do something about it. Not because He can’t, but because it’s good for us. He wants to teach us things, to grow us, to use us. Are we willing? Are we ready? Will we give what it takes to show the world His love and grace?

When the Bubonic Plague swept through Europe, the doctors fled the cities to save themselves, but the Christians stayed behind and nursed the dying. When the world is dying of AIDS, where is the Church? Even more, when the world is dying of things we can treat and cure and prevent- malnutrition, childbirth, tuberculosis, cholera, waterborne diseases… God MUST be the solution to these things, and we are the syringe to deliver the vaccine.

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Photos

Fire
She kept blowing them out when she wasn't supposed to. See the huge flame from the lighter?