Best Pics of the Week

It's an Injustice if you Don't See this

On a lighter note. A friend of mine, Benji Kimball, out here in LA decided to do hip-hop dance. Here is his performance. If you have 5 minutes, watch till the end. The Grandma thinks he is awesome. Hilarious Benji!

Moving from education to action against human Trafficking

This weekend was a big education and awareness weekend in Raleigh and Pasadena about the issue of human trafficking. We are excited to be a part of a community (Visio Dei) that is wrestling with how we can join with God in rescuing people out of these situations. Visio Dei sponsored a benefit concert, invited Kimberly Smith (who works to rescue women and children from human trafficking) to come and preach at their church gathering, and slept out at the capital building with others on Saturday night to raise awareness. My school, Fuller, held the ASHA forum to educate and equip the church to deal with this issue. We had speakers from all over the world, and we were able to gather a good deal of resources.

To find watch videos to find out more info:
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ProjectVideo.aspx



I just read an article today in TIME on the Jamestown Colony at the beginning of our country. I used to drive by the Jamestown exhibit everyday on the way to Jamestown high school when I was on staff with Young Life in Williamsburg, and it was a reminder at the ways we justify the dehumanization and oppression of others. When I studied American History in college, I was always shocked that the majority of the christian church justified slavery and supported it as a positive part of building a healthy society. I got to see the continued cycles of the founding system in our country that allowed "liberty" and slavery to exist side by side continue to play out in the life of our community.

In addition to the many injustices in our culture, slavery still exists in many places in the world. Human trafficking is 32 billion dollar industry. Since coming to California, this is an issue Danielle has become passionate about, and we have been working to educate ourselves on the issue to see what ordinary people can do about the problem. Just as the church justified slavery in early America, there were always a minority that voiced out and worked for the abolition of slaves. Christians were always leading the way to free people from slavery.


Danielle has found this book helpful to learn about the issue and has been discussing it with a group of women:

In our culture, the church often lives by the accepted values of consumerism, comfort, security, and convience so much that we fail to connect to God's imagination to bring healing and rescue to those who despeartely need it. Jesus did not live, die, and rise from the dead to justify our self-absorbed existence but to call us out of ourselves into a life that is lived fully for the rescue and redemption of others. He wants to inspire an alternative imagination in us to restore the world to God's intentions.

This is an issue we need to think about, pray about, wrestle with, and support.

What did my friends in Raleigh learn this weekend?

Goodbye Dirty Trucker!

This is what I refer to as the David Paxton look. Scary! It also reminds me of Wesley from The Princess Bride. Corey often says to me, As you wish.
And this is the Sweaty look. Corey just returned from a run and Hannah said, "Daddy's wet!"

I figured out Corey's password and now I can get on his blog whenever I want, in all the spare time I have during my baby-filled existence. --Danielle

Should the Dirty Trucker look have left?

So, I got a hair cut today. Good decision or bad decision?

Flashback to College

Most of you who knew me in college know that one of my strengths was not time management. I was known for the all-nighter to do the paper the night before. There was just too many people to spend time with until the paper was due. SOme of you (Bryce and Kush and Fudge) remember the pain of writing these papers and the amount of coffee that I consumed that would kill a normal human being, however it has become a part of my blood.

As I went to grad school, I have been deteremined to break the cycle (not the coffee drinking) of all-nighters, and I pretty much did it until last night. I made a mistake reading my syllabus and got the due date for a term paper wrong. Basically, I had to write the full term paper yesterday as well as take care of my families and fulfill some other things in the afternoon. THis means, I brought back the all-nighter. Just finished the paper, and it's time to turn it in.

I can't wait to be done with school!

G-diapers

A simple thing we started doing to our life style to care for the environment is switching to G-diapers. Diapers take over 500 years to decompose, and this is our little part to make a difference. I have been struck at how indifferent I have been toward the environment for most of my life, I never saw this as a central part of my life following Jesus, but now I think it is really important. Part of it comes from my understanding of discipleship- before I think I would have seen these kinds of things as an attempt to earn God's approval or love. Now i see that as missing the point. God's given me His approval and His love so that I will be a agent of change in this world, to reflect His deepest desires for the world through my character. God changing our lives to reflect His desires through the Spirit of Jesus is the sign to the world that God is alive. I'll always be seeking to grow, change, and improve in many different areas of my life as I continually to learn new things about the world and myself. This is a bit more exciting than just waiting for Jesus to come back. I have noticed that a simple shift in theology has made such a difference in little decisions.

If you are interested in learning more about G-diapers: www.gdiapers.com
It's a little annoying at times, when I swish the stuff around in the toilet and it gets all over my jeans, but it's worth it. (i get over my jeans because I am a bafoon, not because this is inherent in g-diaper disposal)

Conversations of the Kingdom

As we drove back from a long detour I made unitentionally (some call this getting lost, I called it an opportunity for conversation), me and Danielle started talking about the Kingdom of God--is the Kingdom within? do we bring the Kingdom? do we get a ticket to the Kingdom? do we wait for the Kingdom? or do we participate within the Kingdom?----yes, these are the kinds of conversations that we often have and that bounce around in seminary students heads---I think how we think about this is very significant for our lives, but I'll my opinion for later-

Later that afternoon after picking up a mattress for Hannah's new toddler bed at Ikea, I also had an interesting conversation about the Kingdom with my sister. She was talking about a potential idea for her PHD project. This idea came out a conversation with a Jewish professor that tries to connect churches to serving the community, and often gets frustrated because churches say their mission is to "worship" God and are too busy to be involved in the community. To which, my sister responded beautifully- what if we could help churches see the connection between worshipping God and serving the community in an intentonal way. To which, her new friend said, 'only if i get to be on your PHD committe.'

Did I mention I love my sister, Dr. Rowe? What a great response.

One article I read earlier this year said that most city managers hate it when new churches start because they are blackholes of money from the community. They take money from people that would be spent on other things, and the community doesn't benefit from it at all---

Why do you think so many churches see worship as detached from the life of the community around them?

How do you understand worship?

Do you see any connection between these two conversations?

The Paxton Girls This Week

Hannah and friend Aidia at kids' space




one cool looking toddler
snuggling in the lazy boy

Call to Prayer all over the world

Prayers are going out all over the world. This is an image from our campus website here in California. We all received an email from our president asking us to pray for families in Virginia. I am praying for the school, the families, and the family of Seung-Hui Chohe. In a shame based culture like Korean culture, I can't imagine the pain they are going through.