The Rice Bucket And "Bucket of Compassion" Challenges

source

In the wake of over a million people dousing themselves with buckets of ice water to raise money for Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), there's now a new movement in India called the "rice bucket challenge".

In that country, more than 100 million people lack access to clean drinking water, so Manju Kalanidhi, a 38-year-old journalist from Hyderabad, came up with a different idea. Since a third of her people live on less that $1.25 a day, and two pounds of rice costs over half that amount, she proposed the rice bucket challenge, which works like this:

1. Fill a bucket of rice.

2. Give it to a needy individual or family nearby.

3. Post a picture on Facebook with the hashtag #RiceBucketChallenge.

Thousands of people worldwide have already responded, and tons of rice or other foods have been donated as a result.

Or here's another idea: In light of the ever worsening situation experienced by the now three million Syrian refugees alone, let's challenge ourselves and others to make generous online donations to help alleviate these and other desperate needs around the world. We could call it the Bucket of Compassion Challenge.

Here are some links where we can make donations right now:

CARE

Christian Aid Ministries

Mennonite Central Committee

 Oxfam International

And by the way, the best financial adviser I know suggests we avoid a lot of fanfare when we donate, assuring us that our real rewards will come later and in other ways.

Is This Really What the Friendly City Needs?

One of 13,000 MRAP vehicles offered free by the Pentagon

I'm not sure whether the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicle shown here looks exactly like the one the city of Harrisonburg recently received from the Pentagon, but it's probably close.

The rationale for acquiring this appears to be that if anything costing $500,000 or more can be gotten for free, that it's just too good to pass up. Meanwhile the City Council this week approved getting $30,000 in state money to refurbish and repaint this "gift" in preparation for its use by the Police Department, in spite of high fuel consumption and frequent roll overs having been problems in combat use. After all, it's all free, right?

I probably shouldn't be questioning this. How would I know when or whether our local police might encounter dangerous mines on our streets or be threatened with an ambush while carrying out their duties? 

I still can't help wondering, though, whether when it comes to this way of arming a police force the City should just say, "Thanks, but no Tanks".

Good To Be Together--A Wedding Remembered

photo by Sam Showalter

We experienced a truly once in a lifetime blessing yesterday, thanks to friends and relatives who packed the great room at the Old Massanutten Lodge near Keezletown to help us celebrate our 50th anniversary (actual date was August 8).

Thanks, friends and fellow church members Guy and Margie Vlasits, for hosting this at your B&B yesterday, and everyone who attended. And a special thanks to our three children and spouses who put so much time and creativity into making it happen.

photo by Sam Showalter

Thanks, daughter Joanna, for doing the invitations, creating the display of our old wedding pictures (enlarged and framed) and otherwise spending hours and hours in planning and helping create the best anniversary celebration ever.

Thanks to son Brent and good wife Heidi for preparing the most gourmet fare imaginable for the occasion, and for investing countless hours of time to pull this off. We were totally impressed with how attractive and tasty the food was, far exceeding expectations we would have had for even professional caterers.

And to oldest son Brad, thanks for emceeing the singing and sharing time yesterday, and for preparing the prayer litany as well as the paraphrase of I Corinthians 13 read by your nine-year-old nephew and niece And of course for providing our favorite sax accompaniment for background piano music (with long time family friend Keith Bly), and for singing the song you composed and sang for Brent's wedding in 2001--and sang for Jo's wedding several months later. The words, melody and guitar were so beautiful it made your heart hurt:

the ones you love are gathered ‘round
to bless the day, the love you’ve found,
with song and prayer and a joyful sound,
it’s good to be together..

as you were loved when you were small,
so may you grow, then, when you fall
you’ll get back up and shake it off,
and travel on together..

a mystery to see you through,
how 1 and 1 is more than 2,
a cord of 3 strands binding you, and
it’s not easily broken..

the simplest magic known to us:
to come to care, to learn to trust,
to love what’s there at any cost,
to learn to be together..

the ones you love are gathered ‘round
to bless the day, the love you’ve found,
with song and prayer and a joyful sound
it’s good to be together
it’s good to be together…

 It was indeed "good to be together"! We'll remember yesterday forever, along with fifty years of other yesterdays that have blessed us beyond belief.

photo by Sam Showalter

We're anticipating yet another anniversary/reunion gathering with members of my Yoder clan in Campbell County next month. Joy!

Some Words To Ponder On Your Way To Church

source

In his book "The Original Revolution" John Howard Yoder (pp. 28-29) summarizes what makes Jesus' life and teachings so revolutionary for his followers:

He gave them a new way of dealing with offenders--by forgiving them.

He gave them a new way to deal with violence--by suffering.

He gave them a new way to deal with money--by sharing.

He gave them a new way to deal with problems of leadership--by drawing on the gifts of every member, even the most humble.

He gave them a new way to deal with corrupt society--by building a new order, not smashing the old.

He gave them a new pattern of relationship between man and woman, between parent and child, between master and slave, in which was made concrete a radical new vision of what it means to be a human person.

He gave them a new attitude toward the State and toward the "enemy nation."

If this vision of a radical new community is what Jesus really had in mind, can we keep on just doing church as usual?

A College Dream Deferred?

A young friend of ours whose father is a member of our church graduated magna cum laude from Blue Ridge Community College this spring with a pre-engineering degree and a prestigious math scholarship. He was looking forward to majoring in engineering at Virginia Tech this fall.

But this week he learned that his student loan couldn't be approved unless he had a job that paid $15,000 or more a year or had someone able to cosign for him.

What? I thought student loans were designed for people just like him?

Meanwhile he is looking for a local drafting or construction job to help him save money to be able to enroll next year--unless some miracle happens and he can arrange for a different kind of loan for this fall.

I'm not well versed in financial matters, but I'd be glad for some feedback on this. I had been under the impression that student loans were almost too easy to get, even for students far less likely to succeed than a hard working 4.0 GPA pre-engineering student.

I'd welcome your comments.

Pure Passion

Fully celebrated when the time is right

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure."

- Hebrews 13:4a

A pastor friend of mine once told me about a group of young teen boys from his church he took on a camping trip. After he retired and they all thought he was sound asleep, several started talking about of some of the liberties they had taken with girls they had been with. One young man, however, who remained unimpressed, said, "The main reason I want to be a virgin when I get married is because I want our sex to be really, really good."

Wise beyond his years.

According to the landmark study of "Sex in America: A Definitive Survey" published by the University of Chicago in 1995, religiously oriented monogamous couples, to the surprise of many, reported having more frequent sex and enjoying it more than non-religious and non-married couples.

Could it be that celibacy before the wedding and fidelity throughout marriage aren't prudish, outdated notions as much as genuinely prudent choices that result in the greatest possible satisfaction in the bedroom?

Here are nine qualities* associated with great lovemaking:

PURE LOVE: "Pure" literally means "unadulterated". In this case it suggests a life of faithful and passionate lovemaking with the pledged love of one's life, treating them with care, fidelity and pure love.

PURE JOY: Devoted couples experience lovemaking in a spirit of celebration and abandonment, without undue reservation or regrets, all resulting in the exquisite and shared pleasures of pure joy.

PURE PEACE: The best lovemaking results in a renewed a sense of bonding and togetherness, an unmatched kind of united and safe feeling with ones beloved, resulting in pure peace.

PURE PATIENCE: Good lovemaking never demands ones one immediate pleasure but seeks the pleasure and enjoyment of both, and is always committed to working things out when difficulties arise. Pure patience.

PURE KINDNESS: Great lovemaking isn't just about what happens in the bedroom, but is an integral part of life throughout every day. There is nothing so conducive to intimacy than consistently respectful and considerate expressions of pure kindness.

PURE GOODNESS: Becoming thoroughly good people and good partners adds greatly to the appreciation and respect good lovemaking thrives on. We may never achieve "good" in every respect, which is where amazing grace comes in, but pure goodness is always our aim.

PURE FAITHFULNESS: The kind of trust needed for uninhibited and passionate lovemaking is nurtured by consistent fidelity in thought, word and deed, resulting in a relationship without remorse or regret for past inappropriate or addictive behaviors. Pure faithfulness.

PURE GENTLENESS: Soft, loving touch and tender words of affection fan the flame of desire like little else, adding to the intensity and deep pleasure of being intimate. Pure gentleness.

PURE SELF CONTROL: Strong boundaries protect strong relationships. Good lovemaking involves the exercise of personal restraint as well as times of shared abandonment. Pure self control.

* "fruit of the Spirit" from Galations 5:22-23

Death To Infidels: Spanish Conquistadors, 1532; ISIS Fighters, 2014

Conquistadors praying before a battle

We've all been appalled by news of Muslim extremists leaving a trail of death and devastation in Iraq and torturing and killing hundreds of innocent Christians and others they consider "infidels", including Shiite Muslims.

Sadly, so-called "Christians" have also been guilty of such acts of terror in the name of God, as documented in Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel (1977, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 69-77, and found in Ron Rude's 2010 book, Abel Emerging, Beavers Pond Press., 193-200).

The following is from a report of the sixteenth century Spanish conquest of the Inca people in the Andes Mountains, led by a Governor Pizzaro:

"The prudence, fortitude, military discipline, labors, perilous navigations, and battles of the Spaniards--vassals of the most invincible Emperor of the Roman Catholic Empire, our natural King and Lord--will cause joy to the faithful and terror to the infidels."

The report then includes details of their "terror to the infidels" in city of Cajamarca. The Spanish force, only 200-300 in number but armed with superior weapons, faced an Incan crowd of tens of thousands who had assembled the city square with their leader Atahuallpa with the promise that "no harm or insult" would befall them.

Then at a given signal, mounted Spanish infantry and ground troops, guns blazing, charged into the assembled crowd of mostly unarmed people and slaughtered them by the hundreds.

"The Indians were so filled with fear that they climbed on top of one another, formed mounds, and suffocated each other... The cavalry rode them down, killing and wounding and following in pursuit. The infantry made so good an assault on those that remained that in a short time most of them were put to the sword."

To the conquered Atahuallpa, the Governor afterwards explained,

"... We come to conquer this land by his command (the King of Spain), that all may come to the knowledge of God and of His Holy Catholic Faith: and by reason of God's good mission, God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all things in them, permits this, in order that you may know Him and come out from the bestial and diabolical life that you lead... When you have seen the errors in which you live, you will understand the good we have done..."

Author Ron Rude concludes, "It is hard to hard to imagine that such thought processes and behavior could even remotely have been associated with the life, teachings, actions, crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus the Christ."