More from New Orleans

It's been another long day in Louisiana. We started working with Habitat for Humanity on Tuesday, and it's been a nice experience so far. We've building and putting up frames for walls for a house and also doing some flooring. Some of the work is pretty tedious - hammering in nails into wooden planks, sawing stuff, and gluing and nailing floorboards. I always imagined building a house to be almost impossible for a normal person, but it's actually not that bad. It's nothing like extreme makeover: home edition, but it's pretty good. Hopefully by the end of the week, we'll have framed a house. When the home is actually complete, Habitat for Humanity sells it to the owner of the destroyed home for an average of $75000, which just covers the cost of materials. They also have to put in "sweat equity", their own 250-hour contribution to the labour. Then the whole process continues, with more houses being built.

Like I said before, I've been really impressed by the people here and today was another unforgettable experience. Some of the locals come to the volunteer camp we're staying at (Camp Hope, which is the largest volunteer base in the US) to share their experiences with Hurricane Katrina. It's amazing to hear their stories and they tell you things you would never hear about in the news. You just have to be here and hear it for yourself. Today, a man named Steve showed a video of the destruction in St Bernard Parish (a small parish just outside of New Orleans) and offered his commentary while images of the damage came up on the TV screen. The pictures were just unbelievable. Homes and stores were more than half submerged. Imagine the size of a Wal-mart - the water level came up to the middle of the Wal-Mart sign. I saw videos of people in boats with the water so high that you could touch a traffic light. I saw pictures of houses that were literally picked up by the water and moved down several blocks, ending up beside another house, almost as if it had always been there. Now that's just the physical damage.

Steve told us how many familes were separated. Many died, and many children were left without parents. The emotional damage post-Katrina was probably even worse. The incidence of children needing psychological help has increased six-fold, and healthy people have literally been dying of emotional stress. Steve himself has lost almost everything including his wife and his best friend, but he manages to get by by talking to the volunteers here. When a destructive force of this magnitude devastates thousands of innocent people like this, you have to think to yourself how God could allow this to happen. When you're taught in church that God has a purpose for everything, it's still hard to convince yourself that something like this was even necessary. If this happens to you and you think that way, it will feel like gg for you.

Fortunately, God has a plan. For the people of Louisiana, the hurricane has brought out the best in some of the worst people. It brings people together and gets them to care for people in ways that would never occur under normal circumstances. And those who prayed and trusted God to provide for them in the tough times had their prayers answers. As it says in Jeremiah 19:11-14, '"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."' Even corporate giant Wal-Mart stepped up to the plate to help these people. They offered anyone in the community a job at the store that paid whatever they were earning before to get them back on their feet. Students from high schools in Florida donated their prom dresses and suits to the students in St bernard so that they could have a prom. From big to little things, God provided for them.

Now as for Steve, he had his own share of miracles. When he was rescued from his house after the flood, he had a 4-6 inch wound in his leg that was infected by the dirty contaminated water that went up to his legs. The doctor said it wouldn't heal and he'd probably have to get it amputated, but despite the advice, he trusted that God would be the only one who would know what would happen to his leg. After that appointment, he didn't see the doctor again and it completely healed to the point that he feels no pain today. Before the storm he had a limp and a partially blind right eye, but now he walks normally and sees perfectly fine in his right eye. Now he is working on opening a community center in memory of his wife, which will be the first of its kind in St Bernard. When he started out he only had $250 out of $1000 required to initiate the proposal. A week later, the volunteers heard about it and started giving him money and he had enough to start. Since then people have been lining up to offer whatever they can to get the community centre up and running. A culinary school offered to provide the food for free, a band promoter offered to line up bands to play for free for the dance programs. One of his friends even offered to finance the whole project. At the end of the story, he shows us his keychain of the cross he holds so dearly and it's pretty clear by now the power of prayer. Selflessly, he insists that he's just an ordinary guy and that he's just doing His work. Then he thanks us and calls us the "real heroes" for helping to rebuild New Orleans.

I never even imagined that this experience would have any kind of spiritual impact. Now that I've witnessed something extremly encouraging and real, I just thought I had to share it. I wish you guys could have been there to hear just a few minutes of some of the stories I've heard, because my account hardly does justice to the true, unedited version. There's about 2 more days left here and it's been great so far. I've got a lot to think about and writing this down really helps me remember it so, this is pretty cool. Anyway, I need to rest up for another long day. Stay tuned for another entry.

In N'awlins

Hey guys,

I realized no one's posted in a while on the blog, and to be honest, I probably havent checked it for a month. But anyway, here's a bump. For those of you who don't know, its my reading week and I'm on a volunteer trip with some other students from my school in Louisiana. I got here on Sunday and it's been a nice trip so far. The weather is warm, much nicer than in Toronto or London.. its actually sunny and I'm sweating right now. It's also been a nice cultural experience as well, and I'm enjoying this taste of Southern flavour.

So I'm about 2 days into my trip, and I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I'm doing here and stuff. Going to a place you've never been and volunteering to help people you don't know is something we don't normally do, and in a way it's a lot like missions. I'm in the greater New Orleans area, and it's amazing how badly devastated this place is. It's been over 2 years since Hurricane Katrina and there are still TONS of houses that haven't been touched since it happened. Driving along the streets and highways, I've seen abandoned strip malls, Wal-Marts, taco bells, and tons of damaged houses - in sharp contrast to the mostly-repaired downtown New Orleans. The political situation down here has been complex, and many people deeply rooted to their homes are now homeless. You just wouldn't expect this to happen in a country like the United States.

Today, we helped restore a home for a lady, who is now staying temporarily in a house down the street. The house has been around since 1790, and we did some demo work on the house so other people can help put it back together again. It's amazing to see how grateful people can be. There were 40 of us working on the house and she took the time to cook all of us lunch. Some of us were vegetarian, and when she found out, she went back into the kitchen to make us a "vegetarian" pasta, but it had chicken in it. She must have thought vegetarians only avoided red meat, but anyway, the vegetarians couldnt eat it so she went back to make salad. Now it's amazing she did this for us, but she does this everyday for every volunteer who comes to help. In a low-income neighbourhood where the house down the road sold for $2000, it's amazing how people with very little (and on top of that no home) can give so selflessly. This is just one example of what I've witnessed so far, and this form of love and selflessness is just amazing. I think that as Christians, this ability to give so freely is something we should all aspire to.

So far, that's just a taste of what I've seen here so far, and I'm sure I'll see more. It's been very encouraging for me in a time when I haven't been as on track with my spiritual life as I should be, and although I'm not technically on a missions trip, I feel like there is a bit of a mission for me to accomplish here - to other people and within myself. Please pray for the people of Louisiana in their gradual healing and restoration of their homes, and for a sense of hope as they go through the tough times. People who didn't have much to begin with have lost everything including their family members and their homes, and many of them still haven't returned since being displaced.

I'll do my best to keep you all updated, so keep an eye out for a new post. Good luck on your midterms and school.

Later guys,

Colin

Distraction

Just some sharing...

I've been going through some tough times lately and let's just say that I've been trying to keep myself distracted by doing different kind of activities (i.e. going out, playing ball, etc) - but once I was at home, it was hard to find something to distract myself - and of course, school is not a distraction, it is a pain =p....

Funny thing, I prayed to God that I could find something effective to distract me -or better say- draw my mind away from what I've been going though - then I realized that what I had to do was to focus on was Him cuz that was what I was lacking lately...- and yea, what's cool is that is that since I realized that - things are a bit better now - and he even gave me an extra 'bonus' so that I could distract myself even more: and that is that I got a hold of ROCKBAND! woohooooo! =p (thx for the info John!)

~next men's group gathering: my place ;p~

First!

Oh yeah...first post ever for me...and first post for 2008! =D

Just wondering if any of you still look at the blog - after talking with John, it seemed that nobody was checking it out anymore (yeah, including myself XD)...

So how's school going for everyone? It sure feels weird for me specially coming back out of seemingly long and tiresome workterm. Luckily I only have 2 days of school per week and about 8 hours of class in total :)

Good luck to ya'll in this semester.

Merry Christmas!

Just wanna say "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" to you all =)

have fun... chill ... relax before another hard semester coming up =)

Missions Conference - COLD FUSION

Hey guys!

This weekend is Missions Conference! Hope you guys can come out this Friday and Saturday!

Friday is a joint program. Basically speaker from 8pm-9:30pm (approx). I was hoping that after the program, we go bubble tea to just chill and catch up!

Saturday's program include 6pm-7:30pm dinner, and then at 8pm, there's a speaker. Please try to attend!!! It'll be amazing (We'll learn EVEN MORE about cold fusion!), so just come out even for the 2 hours for the message at 8pm. In other words, take a break from your studying, John! HAHA Oh, and if you're coming to dinner (I think there might be a few tickets left), come a bit earlier (i.e. 5:30pm). Peter needs help setting up stuff for the dinner.

Hope to see you guys soon!
Tim

An Interesting Conversation

Elizabeth	darnn, this is so hard pickign a topic for my research paper ><
Justin	whats it for
Elizabeth	http://killercoke.org/
Elizabeth	its for my equity class
Elizabeth	thats an interesting site
Elizabeth	these are what i had in mind:
Elizabeth	well topic wise -a campaign spearheaded by or endorsed by celebrities (org: keep a child alive) -an analyses of abercrombie and fitch and its relation to issues of equity -focus on a brand/corp and diss teh equity issues surrounding it (haven't chose one)
Justin	ah
Elizabeth	I dont know what to pick, I have to start b/c i need to hand in my proposal tmr! hahahaa its so hard!
Justin	equity eh
Elizabeth	yaa
Justin	in what context?
Elizabeth	like....ok, say I was doing the keep a child alive thing
Elizabeth	its an equity issue b/c of the negative picture we show of africa, which indeed what started these problems were globalization
Elizabeth	and then for A&F the equity issues would be ones around their employment discrimination and their target audience
Elizabeth	mann, if i do one on A&F it'll make me feel so bad to ever wear my clothign again ..and i have so much from them :S
Justin	haha
Elizabeth	I can pretty much toss away my jacket/bags/sweaters/shirts/tees/pants/and w/e else I might have bought from them LOL
Elizabeth	or i will keep them and feel like a hypocrite hahaha oh the predicaments
Justin	or u can rip out the logos and burn them
Justin	lol
Justin	I'm joking btw.
Elizabeth	LOL
Elizabeth	i think i've settled for this topic
Justin	I would pick something that has a lot of discussion/source material
Elizabeth	yaa, but I can't really think of anything atm
Elizabeth	I coudl talk abotu hurricane katrina and all the inequities it revealed
Justin	so your focus would be the US government?
Elizabeth	yes, and more
Justin	can you focus on more than one organization?
Elizabeth	depends what orgs they are
Justin	an interesting topic would be to examine the proportion of aid and economic support from north-american organizations that's going overseas, vs what's going to native indians within the country
Justin	as a spotlight on exactly how equity is viewed in our society
Justin	or rather whether our definition of equity has been hijacked by politics and business
Justin	and world opinion
Elizabeth	interesting, but that might be too broad
Justin	yeah maybe
Justin	thats probly more like a thesis paper :P
Elizabeth	lol well it is sorta a thesis paper lol
Justin	hehe well anyway, just a suggestion
Elizabeth	thanks maybe i can work around it lol
Justin	np
Elizabeth	yo ,i really do like your idea, its interesting
Justin	haha
Elizabeth	but then it'd be really hard to research on ur topic
Justin	yeah honestly I understand there's a certain degree of stubbornness from the first nations - they're not adapting to the changing world
Justin	but that said, neither the canadian nor US governments are doing nearly enough considering these are the people whose land was conquered in order that we have first world society
Justin	and I think it would be interesting to see the results of a comparitive study on foreign/domestic aid.... see if the governments are as deeply hypocritical as it seems
Justin	however informal that study is
Elizabeth	but you know what...the first nations people want to preserve their culture
Elizabeth	and after the years and years of broken treaties, oppression and exploitation, they're community is so broken down
Justin	so then there should be economic and social support programs - at least much more than there is right now
Elizabeth	ya
Justin	right now there's more work being done by organizations like katimavik for the first nations than there is by the government
Elizabeth	but you know those assistant programs can be really detrimental to
Justin	right but that's a political issue, not an equity issue
Elizabeth	no, its na equity issue too
Justin	really?
Elizabeth	ya, their economic assistance is impeding their economic growth
Elizabeth	like we're surpressing them making the world and those we're 'helping' think that they are dependent on us
Justin	well yeah, that's what I mean. what the government is offering isn't true support
Justin	you can't just throw welfare at a situation and assume its going to solve itself
Elizabeth	its an equity issue b/c it affects how others view them including themselves...theres a since of inferiority
Elizabeth	reinforcing eurocentrism
Justin	I don't think that's really an issue.... currently most of the world turns a blind eye to them anyway
Elizabeth	a lot of things go back to equity issues, its annoying sometimes critiquing everything
Elizabeth	well, we see it as an issue
Elizabeth	sometimes us 'first worlds' gotta realize that we might not be helping them by sticking our noses intothe situation...is. IMF and SAPs
Elizabeth	but ok, perhaps i'm diverting from the topic though
Justin	yeah but the problem is, our noses are in their situation whether we like it or not
Justin	we created their situation
Justin	and ignoring it is obviously not helping
Elizabeth	I'm thinking more like...programs to help africa ..we're really just placing them more in debt
Elizabeth	ya, thats true
Elizabeth	but we're going at it in the wrong way by implementing these programs on them
Elizabeth	but ok, the first nations people is different though
Elizabeth	i'm thinking more of other countries so i guess its different
Elizabeth	wait...I totally forgot about the topic we were talking about
Justin	yeah I just think politics and business has taken over everything we think is a moral cause
Elizabeth	sorry, that was the point, we're paying not enough attention to the aboriginals, instead we stick our noses elsewhere where we're not evne doing that much good as harm
Justin	what's to say africa is more important than the first nations, especially after the grievances they've suffered
Elizabeth	its the affects of globalization
Elizabeth	while we shouldnt stand idle watching the world suffer b/c of what we've inflicted on them the first place, we also shouldnt be implementing these harmful programs b/c we're not helping...so perhaps we should draw back a bit and look at our problems here in canada
Elizabeth	we've 'invested' (detrimentally) so much on world issues and yet neglected those who we've taken 'our' land from violently
Elizabeth	thats what you're arguing right?
Justin	yes, sort of
Justin	I think it's a broader issue than political motivation, because why do governments do anything? to garner political favour either domestic or international
Elizabeth	theres definately more behind it all
Justin	and when you talk about currying political favour within the country - so they can stay in power - they capitalize on popular opinion. what's trendy
Justin	right now, saving africa is trendy. just look at live 8
Elizabeth	yes the trendiness of 'helping' others!
Elizabeth	we were talking about this briefly and its interesting
Justin	I read an article saying there was a ridiculous amount of waste generated by the live 8 event, nevermind the pollution caused by the planes for all these participants flying in on private jets
Justin	if they really wanted to do something big, it wouldn't have been a massive, idiotic concert
Elizabeth	exactly
Justin	but yeah. back to what I was saying.... the first nations don't get more attention in north america because not enough people care
Justin	as a public, we are not doing anything, so the government feels almost no pressure to do anything
Justin	and so ultimately the equity issue rests on us
Elizabeth	i like how each year its a different trend of awareness :P
Justin	at least assuming our democracy works the way its supposed to
Justin	yeah it's really ridiculous.
Elizabeth	I think aids was last yrs trend
Justin	it even wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much merchandising with each "movement"
Elizabeth	the year before was environmental awareness I beleive?
Elizabeth	ya, the awareness plays on commercialism
Justin	like how much pollution was generated so that people could buy t-shirts saying "go green or go home?"
Justin	thats why I don't own anything like that
Justin	unless these companies permanently replace their regular products with so-called green products, its all just a masked effort to generate more money
Elizabeth	its good to get across the msg, but not to benefit big companies
Elizabeth	its hard to find
Justin	well yeah. and when's the last time a t-shirt caused a huge social movement
Elizabeth	oh ya the yr before was also make poverty history
Justin	probly never.
Justin	haha yeah I remember that
Elizabeth	haha no
Elizabeth	its sad these issues are just trend-setters..shows us how much globalization has affected us :P
Justin	its really interesting, I see a lot of parallels between these sorts of things and what we're taught in church
Justin	like... it's pointless and possibly even counter-productive in the end to preach the gospel if you don't practice it
Elizabeth	ya
Justin	and its the same thing with all these global causes
Elizabeth	but i'll admit, i'm a sucker for certain things that makes me a hypocrite...
Justin	environmentalism.... you can wear as many slogans as you want, but if you don't change your lifestyle at all, what good are you doing
Elizabeth	ya
Justin	well to a certain degree its unavoidable.... our economy is consumer-driven
Justin	but there's a lot more to it than slapping a twenty over the counter for a t-shirt, or going to an activist concert
Elizabeth	sometimes i feel so hopeless b/c its soo hard to not conform in our ways, being an environmentalist or an equity activist is so inconvenient due to how our world is set up around luxuries, convenience and etc
Justin	yeah it does require a level of introspection
Elizabeth	but if we dont start, things arent going to change itself
Justin	but IMO it often lines up with what we deal with spiritually, staying true to what we know is right
Justin	and so in that regard I feel I'm a lot better off than non-Christians because I have the tools to keep myself on such paths
Elizabeth	the idea of not dwelling/desiring/treasuring worldly things play a big role in all of this
Justin	yeah for sure
Justin	I think I've become a lot more socially conscious since accepting Christ
Justin	and I was a pretty opinionated on social justice before already
Elizabeth	and you know what, as much as my equity class bashes on Christianity, I find that the more i learn about my faith, the easier it is to be more enviromentally aware/ dealwith equity issues myself
Justin	yeah for sure
Justin	haha your class bashes christianity eh
Elizabeth	ya! a lot
Justin	u know I used to have issue when people bash christianity, but after a while I realized
Justin	especially after reading a particular passage in the bible (can't remember which)
Justin	but basically it said of those who hear the word, there will be those who don't follow, despite the appearance they put up
Justin	so there's going to be christians who perpetuate misunderstandings and negative stereotypes as long as the church is on earth
Elizabeth	ya, I realized that
Justin	and if we're going to do God's work, it's our task to correct these things, not blame people for their ignorance
Elizabeth	ya
Elizabeth	but then again its also impt to reveal to them these issues
Justin	yeah but action makes most of these things self-evident
Justin	hence the focus about being a witness
Justin	I actually thought about this a lot in regard to my music, as in what I should do with what I've been given
Elizabeth	yaa
Justin	cuz there's a lot of artists who personally hold christian beliefs, and most of them fall into one of two categories
Justin	worship artists, who lets be honest, really only affect those who already believe, or are searching
Elizabeth	ya
Justin	and mainstream artists, whose "worldly" music isn't connected to their faith
Elizabeth	ya, I see that a lot too
Justin	and what I'm coming to realize is it's not about the music.... the music is a tool
Elizabeth	and then sometimes you'll hear a random part where it'll show their faith butthen you listen to the other songs and its totally not apparent
Justin	you have to make the focus what you do and what your life is for
Elizabeth	ya...well i think switchfoot and lifehouse sorta falls between the two categories
Justin	yep exactly
Justin	and Mae
Justin	in between the two categories ultimately fails
Justin	because there's no watering down the truth
Justin	but anyway.... in context of the focus being your self and your life living for God, either way is useful for reaching out
Justin	if you make secular music, you're doing missions
Elizabeth	well those that dont know the gospel misinterprets their songs sometimes
Justin	because people who like your music get to know you, and through you they get a glimpse of God
Justin	and if you do worship music, then you are helping to strengthen the Church by showing what it means to live the word
Justin	it's actually nothing new right, but I think because music is so trapped in the entertainment industry, that separation of living and doing isn't easily made
Elizabeth	ya, its really hard, but then again living a Christian life isn't supposed to be easy :P
Justin	yeah but living a christian life has a context-specific element right
Justin	and if you're going to be a public figure, your witness and action must be public. I think that's what is lacking in the performing arts
Justin	when it comes to spreading the word
Justin	its no good if you're switchfoot and participate in all sorts of charity efforts but nobody outside of christians know what you're doing or care.
Elizabeth	yes but also you know that a lot of times its these artists that get surpressed because all of a sudden it makes it seem like you're forcing christianity on the population and that becomes a touchy subject
Justin	but that's the thing, you're not
Justin	because you're not trying to preach with your music
Justin	you're preaching with how you live
Elizabeth	I guess it would depend on yoru lyrics
Justin	well that's what's involved with being a musician right... your work is writing songs
Justin	ultimately the way I feel is, there's no getting away from detractors. but currently there are hardly any artists successfully bringing Christ to the masses because they either merge their music with their faith, or try to make it "acceptable" by distilling it, which is ineffective
Elizabeth	tis true
Justin	and IMO it's because the focus is too much on the music, and not on what it means to be Christian in an industry which is completely material
Justin	man, if I'd only managed to say that at the beginning. lol