Debate 1: Sweatshops

I have only recently begun to think deliberately on worldwide issues, much to my shame. As citizens of the most powerful country in the world, we must always be mindful of how our actions affect the rest of the world. We have a responsibility to be Christ not only to our countrymen, but to all who are made in God's image. I must thank Clay for helping me to think more beyond our borders. I read one of his emails to his family that addressed his concern for sweatshop workers. I have been thinking on the subject for a while and have done some limited internet research but still am not sure how a Christian living in America should respond to the issue. Here are some possible choices:

Do nothing. Just continue living your life as though nothing is wrong.

Boycott all goods produced in a sweatshop.

Become an activist to raise awareness for the situation.

Help fund organizations that are working to improve working conditions around the world.

As I am still formulating my stance, I have submitted my opinion as a comment and I want you to comment as well so that we can learn from each other.

Back to Business

This has been a great but crazy summer for me. I don't think I have ever traveled so much in so short a time ever in my life. I traveled 13,150 miles which included 127 hours of driving and 3 plane trips, and I spent 38 nights away from home. While I don't regret having traveled so much, I am certainly glad to be home.

One of the main reasons I am glad to be back is so I can find some routine in my life. It was nearly impossible to keep any sort of schedule this summer. Because of that, my bible study, prayer life, eating and exercise habits, family structure, etc., has all suffered.

A sermon I heard while in Malibu convinced me that I desperately needed structure and discipline in my life in order to grow spiritually. I have been frustrated at my lack of spiritual growth for quite some time. What I didn't realize, was that I was not actively pursuing spiritual growth. How absurd would it be if someone expected to excel in basketball without ever practicing? How crazy is it to expect to get straight A's in school without ever paying attention in class, without reading your textbooks or doing your homework? It's ridiculous! And yet this is exactly what I was expecting in my spiritual life-- growth without effort.

Beginning today, I am actively seeking to bring discipline back into my life. I will no longer wait for Jude's cries to wake me up, but will wake myself up in time to exercise, read, and pray before the day gets underway. Reading the bible and praying are probably the two most important spiritual disciplines. If you aren't familiar with the spiritual disciplines, they are grouped into 3 major categories (according to Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline), Inward Disciplines, Outward Disciplines, and Corporate Disciplines. The Inward Disciplines are Meditation, Prayer, Fasting, and Study. The Outward Disciplines are Simplicity, Solitude, Submission, and Service. And the Corporate Disciplines are Confession, Worship, Guidance, and Celebration.

I am first committing to incorporating Prayer and Bible reading into my daily routine. When I have consistently been reading and praying daily for 3 months, I will add another discipline. Then, when I have successfully incorporated another discipline into my daily routine for 3 months, I will add another. In this way, I hope to do all I can to train myself for godliness, "for physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

Three things I ask of you; pray for my efforts, hold me accountable by asking how I have been doing in this endeavor, and join me if you are ready to grow. I pray that God blesses all who seek Him with new and surprising growth.

A Taste of Mexico Mission 2008

Hey guys, I thought I'd post some pictures from the trip to Mexico we took in June. Not only did we have a great experience in Mexico, but there were many obstacles we faced on the way there and back that God helped us through. Nothing is too big for God :) I will try to give a good account of the entire round trip there and back...

We will start with our first night in Abilene, TX. Nothing really happened from Troy to Abilene. It was just a long day of driving. We went through Dallas were we saw the Texas stadium and the new one that's being built, too.

New Texas stadium under construction

Drew's wonderful mother opened her home to us and fed us a great meal. She is truely an amazing lady. There were kids sleeping everywhere in her home! We are all grateful for her generosity. Here we met Drew's best friend from high school. He let us ride in the back of his new nice big truck to the campus of ACU where they went to college. I forgot my camera so I have no pictures for this :( We walked around campus and saw cool art and a room made of stained glass windows. It was all very beautiful. We started out the next day and we drove and drove and drove....seemly endless drive through Texas, a small part of New Mexico and Arizona.

We stopped at a state/national park..? one or the other. It was a desert. Chelsea got a cactus poker in her toe. I'm not sure which state this was in though...Like I said, it was a long drive...

So we finally arive in Yuma, Arizona. We ate at Whataburger and got settled into our very nice hotel. It was really nice and clean. I think it was like a 108 degrees that day. No humidity though so it was nicer than the hot here. All was well until the next morning. We had a great breakfast at the hotel. Drew mistakenly let Gary have the keys to the church van. Gary left them on the bus and what do you know...the door got shut and of course it was locked. So Gary and Cory plot to pick the lock and retrieve the keys seeing as we have no extra, while the rest of us happily go on eating our nice breakfast. Katherine finds out about the disaster and tells me. So I break the news to Drew. He decides that I can fit through the window, located below...

6 INCHES TALL! Yeah, so I stand on Drew's shoulders and with little difficulty fitting my head through it's all good and we are on our way, and we give God the glory for helping us and not leaving us stranded in Yuma.

I have no idea what state these windmills were in

These mountains of rock were in Cali

Awesome! Sand dunes!

We arrived in San Diego, CA on friday morning. We first took a trip to the zoo where we saw some of God's creations that we don't see on a daily basis in Troy.

We got done at the zoo, and headed to check into our hotel. Drew went inside to get our room keys and things while we sat out on the van. We had been sitting for awhile when all of a sudden things get crazy. I see a man run by and then some other men and a woman pulling out guns all dressed in plain street clothes. So I think to myself, "maybe we should duck" and "are they going to just shoot that guy" and "oh man this is bad". I look around and there are cars all around us and then cop cars begin pulling up. We are surrounded. Turns out the people with the guns were cops...lucky for us. They were only a few feet from us and the van door was open. Some lady walked by and asked us if the men they were arresting were are drivers. Ha! So Drew comes out, and he is just looking around like wow and he walks up and says, "Give me my camera" of course. So we all got a slight scare then it was all "dude! that was cool."

This dude thinks he is really cool with is gun and all

Mr. "I'm buff" here controls the scene

So with that out of the way we get settled into the hotel. We went to the beach earlier before all that, and then we went back that night to have a devo. This turned into quite an event. We parked between the beach and the bay. There were some fireworks we noticed at the bay so we walked over to see them, and then headed back to the bus to grab some blankets for the devo since it was pretty chilly out. Matt was right in front of me as we first headed to the beach and that was the last I saw of him for a long, long time. Keep in mind it was dark out at this time. We stopped by some restrooms and gathered back by the wall at the beach. It was then that we realized Matt was gone. So we looked in the bathrooms...no Matt. Looked around a little...still no Matt. Drew took off on a search. The rest of us were told not to move from the spot we were at. No one could leave...for any reason whatsoever. This was serious. I was thinking maybe someone kidnapped the kid. We waited for approximately an hour or so. During this time a few events happened, not real important to the point I'm trying to make here so we'll just skip that. So I get a call from Drew. He had finally found Matt...at the bay. All the way on the other side of the parking lot and the other side of the bay. So the area we were at was pretty crowded and it all looked confusing especially to someone with a bad sense of direction which I'm sure we would all agree that Matt falls into that catagory. That kid got lost from the group so many times I can't even remember them all. Haha. He kept all our eyes wide open after this.

So we had our devo and reflected on the trip so far. We shared our feelings about what we expected to get out of the Mexico mission. We got back to the hotel for a much needed night's rest.

The beach

We met up with the other churches on Saturday and had lunch then we all headed to Mexico to the City of Children. The kids are amazing. You can tell from their smiles...

This is Kimberly with me. She is the little girl we sponsor. She calls us "her americans." All week there was a sparkle in her eyes and a grin on her face. She was so happy to have us to love and be loved by us.

These pictures are from Colonet. It is the town where the church is that we are helping.

We made baskets for the church families in need.

This is the baptistry in the church building in Colonet. It is not heated, and it was COLD there.

This is Matt with some of the kids from Colonet. He was a real trooper pushing them through the dirt in this jeep that had locked wheels.

These are the chairs that someone in California donated to the church in Colonet.

When we left Mexico to come back to the US this fog was all over. It almost looks like we are in a plane looking down at the clouds.


We got back to California and got our van back and loaded up on it. We set out for home on a differnt route through Utah and Colorado and Kansas...you get the idea.

We got stuck in a huge traffic jam around LA which put us behind about four hours. It was like 115 degrees outside and when the van is not moving at least 40mph or faster the air conditioner just doesn't blow out cool air. So it was about like an oven in that van since we weren't moving in the traffic.

We got out of that and headed on our way. Drew took us to see the Hoover Dam that night since it wasn't too far from Las Vegas. When we got there we had to take all our luggage off so the guy could look in it to make sure we weren't going to blow up the dam. We made it and got to see the awesome Hoover Dam. Then we were on the way back to Las Vegas and while coming down a ramp all of a sudden the long window on the van door shattered! We thought it was Gary's Roman noodles that did it, but turns out it was a rock that he got on the way over to California that was up in the luggage rack.

So Drew found a Wal-Mart and got some camo duck tape and hard poster board and rigged it up. He backed over this bush when we stopped to fix it haha...

Then we drove down the strip in Las Vegas to kind of put things in perspective since we had just come from Mexico. It's pretty crazy how hard it is for some people to just live. Then here we are in America "livin the life" as they say. Never having to worry about having food and alot of the time not even giving a second though, or a first thought for that matter, about what other people are going through.

We saw this in Utah earlier on the day we went to the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas and all. I just forgot to put it up there before those pictures.

We visited the continental divide. It was 50 degrees there. So cold with short and flip flops on and just earlier that day we were roasting in the traffic! Crazy huh?

The mountains in Colorado were so beautiful

The rest of the trip home was mostly flat, flat land. Kansas...pretty much nothing there. Maybe a few oil wells..? We made great time on Sunday getting back by about seven I think. It was good to be home safe and sound and changed for the better.

The mission trip to Mexico this year was a great experience for all of us. We learned alot about ourselves and how lucky we are. I give props to Drew for doing such a great job driving us. One night until about 4am and then the next night until about 3am. He is a wonderful youth minister. I think I have covered most all the details of the trip...the main ones anyways. I may post some more pictures later when I have more time. I hope you all have a nice day :)