husband, father, mission pastor, jesus-follower. attempting to live out my faith every day in my family, my community and the world. this is my personal blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the church i serve, the denomination i serve in, or the family who i might embarrass with my posts
“We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water" -Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary General
Let me begin by saying that there is no direct correlation between Swine Flu and safe drinking water. Swine flu is trasmitted just like other flus, from coming in to contact with sick people, coughing, sneezing, etc.
However there is a correlation regarding safe drinking water and your ability to recover from a disease like swine flu, and other diseases like those that Kofi Annan talks about in the quote above.
Think about what it would be like trying to recover from the flu if you didn’t have a source of safe drinking water. Flu symptoms dehydrate you (sweating from the fever, vomiting, and diarrhea.) If you are trying to rehydrate with contaminated water, the flu symptoms and associated problems are exacerbated.
Healing Waters International works in Mexico. We work to provide access to safe drinking water to the poorest of the poor, those who are most impacted by diseases like the flu and water-borne diseases.
Some happy kids in the Dominican Republic, smiling a lot despite having so little.
JJ Gomez, the National Director for Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad in the Dominican Republic, shared the bible study/reflection below with me. It really resonated with me so I want to share it with you. Enjoy!
GOD SMILES WHEN WE USE OUR ABILITIES
"He has shaped each person in turn; now he watches everything we do" (Psalm 33:15 MSG).
After the flood, God gave Noah these simple instructions: "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything" Genesis 9:1,3
God said, "It's time to get on with your life! Do the things I designed humans to do. Make love to your spouse. Have babies. Raise families. Plant crops and eat meals. This is what I made you to be!"
You may feel that the only time God is pleased with you is when you're doing "spiritual" activities like reading the Bible, attending church, praying, or sharing your faith, and that he is unconcerned about the other parts of your life. Actually, God enjoys watching everything you do, whether you are working, playing, resting, or eating. The Bible tells us, "The steps of the godly are directed by the LORD. He delights in every detail of their lives" (Psalm 37:23, NLT)
God especially enjoys watching you use the talents and abilities he has given you. God intentionally gifted each of us differently for his enjoyment. You may be gifted at mechanics or mathematics or music or a thousand other skills. All of these activities can bring a smile to God's face.
You don't bring glory or pleasure to God by hiding your abilities or by trying to be someone else. You only bring him enjoyment by being you. Anytime you reject any part of yourself, you are rejecting God's wisdom and sovereignty in creating you. God says, "You have no right to argue with your Creator. You are merely a clay pot shaped by a potter. The clay doesn't ask, ?Why did you make me this way?'" (Isaiah 45:9, CEV)
In the film Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner Eric Liddell says, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God's pleasure." Later he says, "To give up running would be to hold him in contempt." There are no unspiritual abilities, just misused ones. Start using yours for God's pleasure.
Ok, so I know I am a little bit behind the times here, finally blogging about Susan Boyle. I had actually bookmarked the video on YouTube more than two weeks ago, but just didn't feel inspired to write a blog post about it. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, watch the video above.
At the most basic level, I love the musical Les Miserables and enjoy the music from it when it is sung well. So I enjoyed the peformance for that reason, but that certainly wasn't enough to insipire a blog post and it wasn't what everyone else was talking about either.
So I sat on the video and thought about it some more, looking for inspiration. As it turned out, the pastors at my church have incorporated the Susan Boyle story in to their sermons for the past three weeks. On Sunday morning, pastor Pattie Kitchen talked about it again and even showed the video for those who hadn't seen it. It was her sermon and analysis that finally inspired me to post something about this.
So much in this world and in our lives centers around striving for acceptance. We don't want to be laughed at, made fun of, mocked, or disrespected. We want to be accepted and feel loved.
This is a nearly universal human desire, to feel accepted and loved. And we have all struggled with it, some more than others. I have no doubt that Susan Boyle has had her share of struggle wanting to feel accepted or loved.
Seeing the way the crowd initially reacts to her when she comes on stage made me sick to my stomach. It brought back flashbacks of awkward and painful moments in high school. Somehow I was relating to a 48 year old woman in Britain on a very basic level. Susan Boyle and I had something in common, we had both been treated unfairly by people who didn't even know us. People made assumptions about us based on appearance or on one or two things we had said without caring enough to get to know who we really are.
And then, the glorious redemption! As soon as she opens her mouth and begins singing, the crowd cheers for her and is brought to tears. A standing ovation follows! But why did it take an angelic voice for people to treat Susan Boyle with basic respect and dignity?
Dig deep here, think about yourself, the way that you treat and interact with people, strangers, or people who you have only exchanged a few words with. Now reflect on your faith and what accepting the love of Jesus calls you to do and defines how you should treat people.
I hope and pray that the Susan Boyle example can impact the way that you treat people. Be the person that God created you to be and let the love of Jesus shine through you, especially in how you treat other people.
I have used this quote in a previous posting, and found that someone had incorporated it into a cool video for Healing Waters:
"Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words." -St. Francis of Assisi
This really exemplifies the work that Healing Waters does. We set up most of our water projects in churches in developing countries. We then empower the church to run the water project. They use the tool of safe drinking water to affect physical, social and spiritual transformation in their communities, without saying a word. That is the most powerful way for the church to impact lives, by providing a basic need to the people. Check out the video:
Photo of a child in Guatemala that, despite not having a lot, has a great perspective on life (and a great smile!)
I am forever working at trying to have a positive outlook and perspective on things. I love coming across things that flip a negative perspective on its head. One great example of this is a friend of mind who was driving home and complaining to someone on his cell phone about the rush hour/commuting traffic. His friend commented, "What a blessing that you are stuck in commuting traffic. It means you have a commute, which means you have a job."
BOOM! It hits you over the head like a 2x4. I am blessed.
My friend sent me the attached prayer that kind of reasserts that. Enjoy!
Even though I clutch my blanket and growl when the alarm rings. Thank you, Lord, that I can hear. There are many who are deaf.
Even though I keep my eyes closed against the morning light as long as possible. Thank you, Lord , that I can see. Many are blind.
Even though I huddle in my bed and put off rising. Thank you, Lord, that I have the strength to rise. There are many who are bedridden.
Even though the first hour of my day is hectic, when socks are lost, toast is burned, tempers are short, and my children are so loud. Thank you, Lord, for my family. There are many who are lonely.
Even though our breakfast table never looks like the picture in magazines and the menu is at times unbalanced Thank you, Lord, for the food we have. There are many who are hungry.
Even though the routine of my job often is monotonous. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to work. There are many who have no job.
Even though I grumble and bemoan my fate from day to day and wish my circumstances were not so modest. Thank you, Lord, for life.
I am sitting in the Spanish class that I teach at the University of Denver right now. My students are all taking a quiz, so I thought I would post to the blog while I am waiting for them to finish.
I have been teaching Spanish at different universities since my return from Ecuador in 2002. This is my seventh year as a part-time Spanish professor, and I love teaching.
Those of you that look at my profile picture may be scratching your heads right now. How could that tall, germanic, viking-looking guy be a Spanish professor. I like to joke that I am the "Tallest, Whitest, Blondest" Spanish professor you will ever meet. Students who come in to my class the first day and are expecting an Antonio Banderas looking character are sorely disappointed, but asi es la vida (se la vi, or such is life.)
So I am this tall, blond white guy who has spent nearly 10% of my life in a Spanish-speaking country. I am constantly "invading" Latin America, leaving a little bit of myself there and bringing back some of the culture with me on each trip.
Two customs that I have adopted and made my own are spicy salsas and micheladas. As it turns out, I am not alone any more in my taste preferences for these things.
A few years ago, I read an article that salsa has surpassed ketchup (or is it catsup or catchup) as the number one selling condiment in the United States! This is in terms of total dollars sold, and not total volume, yet. Some excerpts from an article in the Wall Street Journal are below:
I’ve come across the salsa claim several times, as a factoid trotted out to illustrate the impact of Latinos on the U.S. Tidbits like this often gain credence simply by being repeated over and over, and this one has already had a long life: Back in 1992, NPR’s Weekend Edition trotted it out, prefaced by the comment, “Here’s a fact about American life that may illustrate as much as any census finding.” That same year, the New York Times reported it in a piece headlined, “New Mainstream: Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Salsa.” More recently, the claim has appeared in an article on marketing on the Web site of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and in a story on ABCNews.com.
So we have had a "Latin Invasion" but really it has been for the better. Now we actually have more choice when it comes to our condiments. I remember growing up there were only one or two selections of salsa in the grocery store. Today we have a lot more choice.
The other one of my favorite things from Latin America that I stumbled on here in the US and that really caught me off-guard this past weekend was the Michelada. For those of you that don't know, Micheladas are a peculiar drink that are particular to Mexico and Guatemala. Take your favorite beer and mix it with lime juice, salt and your own special mixture of spices. Depending on the region you can also throw in a splash or tomato juice or Clamato. Finally, serve this delicious concoction over ice.
Now, when I tried to explain this drink and serve it to my father-in-law, he said "why would you do that to a perfectly good beer." I respect his opinion, but have to tell you that on a hot day, there is not much better then a well-prepared Michelada.
Finding the elusive Michelada in the United States can be difficult. If you go to an authentic Mexican restuarant, you can usually order one, although the waiters always chuckle at the big, blonde gringo ordering a uniquely Mexican drink.
All of this changed this year, when Budweiser started marketing the drink as a pre-mixed drink you can buy in a can. And I stumbled upon this amazing drink in the strangest of places, at the mid-mountain lodge at Breckenridge ski area! I was so excited, that as soon as I got back home, I had to figure out everything I could about this. So I went to Budweiser's website and found this great article and press-release (which I have cut excerpts out below):
¡La Combinación Perfecta! Budweiser & Clamato Chelada and Bud Light & Clamata Chelada Arrive Nationwide Anheuser-Busch and Cadbury Schweppes Team Up on Latin-Inspired ST. LOUIS (Jan. 14, 2008) – As one of the hottest new products to hit markets in California and Texas cities, followed by tremendous success in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska, Budweiser & Clamato Chelada and Bud Light & Clamato Chelada will arrive in convenience stores, supermarkets and grocery stores nationwide today. Latinos, specifically those of Mexican descent, have been mixing beer with Clamato for decades. Budweiser & Clamato Chelada and Bud Light & Clamato Chelada honor that tradition by combining Anheuser-Busch’s classic American-style lagers with the spicy, invigorating taste of Clamato Tomato Cocktail, made by Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CSAB). . . “This is a recipe that combines cultures and flavors,” said Ana Vitrano, product manager, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. “Budweiser, Bud Light and Clamato are all highly respected brands that, when combined, produce the authentic-tasting recipe many Latinos love. It’s la combinación perfecta!” . . . The name Chelada is a shortened form of the Spanish word michelada which loosely translates to ‘my cold beer.’ To order Budweiser or Bud Light & Clamato Chelada, one might say: “Una michelada con clamato, por favor.” To shorten that but still keep the beer recognizable as the traditional recipe, Anheuser-Busch focused on the name Chelada.
This is so cool! I love this drink and have been mixing them up for myself for years. Now it is available as a pre-mixed drink.
All of this is to say that there have been some very positive impacts from the immigration of Latinos to the United States. The next time you go out to get some Mexican food and enjoy that basket of chips and salsa, be thankful for the "Latino Invasion."
I am sitting here in a coffee shop this morning instead of up at the office. We have had a huge spring snow storm blow in to Denver and are getting dumped on.
The office for Healing Waters is actually about 15 miles outside of Denver up in the foothills. Denver is at 5280 feet elevation and our office is over 7000 feet in elevation, so if it is snowing hard down here, it is snowing even harder up there! We all brought our laptops and work home with us last night in anticipation of a snow-work-from-home day. So here I am.
It is sometimes nice to work from a different place. This coffee shop has people coming and going and some nice music in the background. I am slowing down a little bit and reflecting on a few things.
I want to thank those of you who are following my blog. I saw a huge jump in readership during my trip to Guatemala and the hits on the blog have continued to be high. I appreciate those of you who are following and are interested in what I have to say, what I am thinking, and in the work of Healing Waters International.
One of my close friends, Eric Moe, has had an exciting month. He and his wife left Denver about a year ago to move to Spokane. Eric is a professional musician and the music scene in Spokane has been less than fulfilling for him compared to the great gigs he was playing and the great groups he was playing with here in Denver.
A few months ago he heard about auditions for the You Tube Symphony Orchestra. He put together and audition tape and was selected. I won't write down all the details of his experience here, but the culmination was a concert he played yesterday in Carnegie Hall in New York City. You can read about the project by clicking on the link above and you can read about Eric's experience and journey on his blog: http://www.moetrumpet.com/
I don't know how many of you are familiar with Compassion International. It is one of the "child sponsorship" organizations. For $32 per month, you can help provide a child education, health, personal development and spiritual growth.
As an organization, Compassion focuses on the "spiritual growth" piece of their mission directly, and they do it well. They outsource the education and health pieces to organizations that can help them with those parts of their mission. That is where the relationship between Compassion International and Healing Waters International comes in.
One of the key aspects of providing health care and education to children is a source of safe drinking water. Without safe drinking water, kids become sick (health) and miss school due to their illness (education.) Compassion partners with Healing Waters to install water purification systems in the Compassion Childhood Development centers. 18 of our 68 systems are installed in Compassion centers, providing a free source of safe drinking water to the kids while they are at the center and a source of safe drinking water to their families while the kids are at home!
Healing Waters loves its partnership with Compassion International, and we hope to continue to grow and build that partnership over time. In fact, the next water system that we install in Mexico will be at a Compassion center and will actually serve four additional Compassion centers in the area through a system of safe drinking water deposits. Really cool stuff!
Compassion put together the video below to illustrate the drinking water problem. . . enjoy!
Anyone remember the "Slip 'n Slide" and the "Crocodile Mile" lawn toys? We had a lot of fun with these when I was growing up on the few summer days in Flagstaff when the temperature would go higher than 80 degrees!
The video below uses the old "Crocodile Mile" commercial to illustrate an important issue about safe drinking water and the 1.1 BILLION people that lack access to safe drinking water in the world.
"Hey mate, what do you do when you see a crocodile. . . you run, you slide, you hit the bump and take a dive BUT WATCH OUT FOR THOSE CROCS!" Watch out for unsafe drinking water too!
I am going to post some videos over the next few days/weeks that deal with the global drinking water crisis. (I apologize to those of you who are viewing the blog over a dial-up internet connection.)
There are a lot of phenomenal organizations out there doing work with safe drinking water in developing countries, including Healing Waters International, the organization that I work for. So I am going to start the video collection with a Healing Waters video.
This was a fun promotional video we put together a few years back for a conference we were attending. We built an outhouse and put a video screen in the toilet. So imagine yourself opening the door to an outhouse and peering down in to the toilet and seeing this video playing back at you. Enjoy!
The text/script for the video is below. You can watch the video a few times to get the message, or just check out the text below: Something you probably didn’t know:
If a community has access to tap water it is considered to have an improved water supply, making these communities overlooked for aid because they already have an “improved” water supply; but the water is all too often contaminated.
According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, Over 3 million people (mostly children) die each year from water related illness.
Bottled water is too expensive for the poorest people so they drink bad water.
Healing Waters doesn’t just provide a source of water, we make it clean.
We work with churches to help them serve their communities to make water affordable for everyone.
So now that you know, what can you do?
Take the H2Oath: Learn about the Issue Do something to help Tell others about it
My mother-in-law sent me this video today. It moved me to tears. If you have 7 minutes, take a look. Here is a synopsis of the video: This film is about the hunger and poverty brought about by Globalization. There are 10,000 people dying everyday due to hunger and malnutrition. This short film shows a forgotten portion of the society. The people who lives on the refuse of men to survive. What is inspiring is the hope and spirituality that never left these people.
Food insecurity, malnutrition and starvation go hand in hand with lack of access to safe drinking water. Let's all work together to try and solve these problems.
I was given the privilege of leading a bible study during our last morning together in Guatemala. Below is the text of that study:
Some facts about the global drinking water crisis: -More than 1.1 billion people in the world, 1 in 6, lack access to safe drinking water -More than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die from water borne illnesses each year, like the equivalent of 16 Boeing jumbo jets crashing each day, no survivors. -Diarrhea is the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children.# -Five times more children die due to diarrheal diseases than HIV/AIDS.# -220 million of the 1.1 billion lacking access to safe drinking water live in poor, urban communities around the world.# -The growth of these urban slums is so rapid, it is predicted that by 2030 they will include 2 billion people.† -Poor, urban communities of the developing world pay the highest prices in the world for water.† These are numbers. Numbers and statistics are important for us to try to understand the depth and breadth of a problem, but numbers never tell the whole story.
These numbers have faces, and we have looked in those faces each day we have been here.
Ours is a story of hope, because each one of you are here working to change these numbers, but just as important, looking in these faces and building relationships and solidarity with the people that represent these statistics.
We have been working on building houses and working with projects that distribute safe drinking water to poor people. I don’t think we can overlook the theological significance of either of these things.
Water is used as imagery throughout the bible. One of my favorite stories is in John, Chapter 4. The story of Jesus and the Samirtan woman at the well. This version is from The Message, interpreted by Eugene Peterson:John 4:7-13 (The Message) 7-8A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?" (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) 9The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water." 11-12The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?" 13-14Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."
We are here working to offer water, and hope, to the people of Guatemala. But there is an incredible thing that happens in that exchange, we begin to feel a renewed sense of hope, and we have a desire to drink that water, both physically because of the hot sun and hard labor we did, but metaphorically too.
The theological significance of house building is also strong
The parable of the builder in Matthew 7:24-27 uses house building as a way to talk about the importance of not only listening to the words of Jesus, but taking those words to heart and putting them in to action. This version is from “The Message” bible interpreted by Eugene Peterson, Jesus speaking to his disciples: Matthew 7:24-27 (The Message) 24-25"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. 26-27"But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."
The NIV bible puts it a slightly different way, but equally poingnant. Jesus say: 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
I just think about our time on the Habitat build this week, and how much cement we mixed to build a solid house that can’t be blown down, and how at the same time we have had little transformations in each of our lives, that we need to put in to practice so our spiritual house is built on a solid foundation.
So all of this really begs the question: What are you going to do with what you have learned and experienced this week? We need to take these words, the experiences we have had this week, the faces and people we have had the privilege of building relationships with, and we need to bring that spirit back to Denver with us, ready to keep fighting the good fight on behalf of our Guatemalan brothers and sisters
This is your call to action, remember you all took the H2OATH and wore your shirts this week: Learn about the problem Do something about it Tell others
Let’s build our houses on a solid foundation of love for Jesus, and love for our fellow human beings in Guatemala. Let’s seek to drink that living water and live a life that shows an artesian spring welling up from within each of us. . .
