Take Action on One Campaign, just takes two clicks

If you don't know about the one campaign, it is a grassroots effort initiated by Bono, to get governments in the Western world to give 1% of budget to end extreme poverty in the developing world.

Extreme poverty is poverty in which people actually don't have enough to continue to live and breath. Currently, 2 billion (1/3) of world population live on less than 2 dollars a day (near extreme poverty), and 1 billion live in extreme poverty. (1/6)

See my friend, Shannon Smith's blog, click on my internet friends on the right, Shannon Smith, then look for the link to urge your senator to push this initiative in Congress. Actually, the US has already agreed to it, and we just get to hold our government to the commitments they have already made.

It only takes about 2 minutes.

If interested in learning more: watch passionate speech from Bono at NAACP awards

Couple Highlights and Lowlights from last week

I lost the championship to my own basketball league, and even worse the one mostly seminary team in the league beat us. Thanks Jon Richards, you bum.

One highlight from this week was reconnecting with my friend Bruno. Bruno and I have gotten to be pretty tight since moving out to California. I originally met him when we came to visit Mosaic while living in Virgnia. We got to be pretty tight and then haven't seen each other for a few months, so it was great spending time with him. You may recognize him if you watch Coach Carter and look for the big guy bouncing a ball off a guys leg out of bounds, or else you saw him on an NCAA commercial this year during the tourney, and you will see him in a new Will Ferrell movie coming out next year, which will be hilarious.
This is him in character for the movie.

Another lowlight, well bone-head lowlight of the week. We walked a mile or so from our apartment to Target, the store of all stores, to buy rootbear float stuff among other things for a big community event we were hosting on Friday. Then, when we got to the register, I realized I forgot my wallet. Pretty smooth, huh?

Another highlight- Hannah wanted to hold Shiloah tonight. That was pretty sweet watching my little girl love my littler girl.

Mosaic

This a short video from our faith community out here in LA. It is a pretty amazing group of people that we are apart of doing some really creative and imaginative things to express the character of God in LA culture. What they are doing cannot be replicated somewhere else, but we certainly have enjoyed serving here and connecting people to our community. Here is our video recap from last year, and a funny video Young Life will love on our core values.

Very funny. This guy is the head of the film projects at Mosaic.

The Psalms

I’ve been studying the Psalms for the last two weeks, and would like to share two insights that have really made a big impression on me.

First- 65 of the 150 Pslams are Laments and more than half of the Psalms presuppose crisis. I love this because the Pslams help us to throw off the mask of the shiny happy person, that everything is supposed to be okay, or happens for a reason, and deals with the reality of the pain and suffering in the world and in the human personal experience.

The prayers of the pslams are honest. Raw. Grittty. Angry. Authentic.

They don't confuse fate with faith.

Yet, they still hold to a tenacious faith in God that grounds, centers, and give them hope.


Second- more specific. The cosmic Psalm 148 declares that all of creation, the sun shining, the moon glowing, the stars giving light in the darkness, the trees bearing fruit, the birds singing all give praise to God, and yet it is intimately personal. Both humanity and the cosmos are meant to give praise to God.

You ever wonder how the sun, moon, stars, trees praise God?

Did they sing the latest Shaine and Shaine?

They do what they are meant to do.

The Psalmists do not understand a dualistic spirituality in which we sing praise to God, but our lives are not fulfilling what they are meant to do. All of creation cries out. Humanity is meant to express the beauty, wonder, and purposes of God to care for this world, to express His love, and character to everyone around us.

Praise of God encompasses everything.

Peace

Corey

Hannah's Playground Adventures

Uh Oh, I'm dangerous now. Thanks to Jeremy Green, I can now compress videos and put them on U Tube. This is very exciting for all those who are family. More videos to follow! This is from our time off at a Pasadena playground below some beautiful mountains. Watch Hannah run and drive drive.

What you've all been waiting for-

Easter Pics







Shiloah's getting bigger too.






I love my beautiful little girls!

Happy Easter

Thankfully, we don't have to stay in hell day forever. Kind of funny though- yesterday was a bit of a hell day for us-- bad weather, Shiloah cried every waking hour non-stop, me and Danielle had some fun opportunities to work through conflict, and then we watched Blood Diamond. We woke up this morning and said to each other, thank God for new beginnings.

I hope you all had a good easter. Hannah stole the show with a new easter dress and shiny new shoes. We had a great time with our community and friends out here.

I am so grateful for the friends we have made here.

Peace

Happy Hell Day

A friend of mine just came by to borrow my basketball, and I said, "celebrating hell day by playing basketball?"

I'm not really sure where that came from, but I have been reflecting on the reality that God died and went to hell during this time. This isn't usually the part of the easter weekend we really celebrate too much, but I think we should think about it. We usually think about God going into hell in our place, but I am thinking about it as God coming into the hells of the world, coming into the pain and suffering of the world, coming into our personal hells to bring new life, to bring us real hope. We live in a world where there is a lot of hell for a lot of people, and we follow a God who has been there and back again and I think invites us with Him to bring others hope because we have found a new life.

Happy Hell Day

Lo Lo's World

Here are some pics of our growing little girl! She's a sweet little smiler.

Belated Social Justice Response

please see post below, I am a bad blogger