Last evening Karen Warren shared with us her passion for working to end human trafficking in the world. It was quite an amazing evening and all the students who attended were greatly affected. First, throughout the day we had a table in the hallway sharing information about human trafficking with people and inviting them to the evening's main event. This was successful as our usual attendance for Tuesday Bible studies is about 25, last evening we were around 45.
I can't sum up what Karen said here and I won't try. She has done much research on the issue, has spoke about it to many people, and has lived in Cambodia working in prevention and intervention. Her stories from her time in Cambodia were most eye-opening. She has seen young girls up close who have been forced into the sex trade, she has seen white Europeans and Americans walking the streets in the red-light district seeking out child prostitutes. Many times she had to hold back tears as she shared.
Perhaps most challenging was her calling the students to not just care about human trafficking because it is the cool thing for the moment. The temptation will be to move on to environmentalism, then homelessness in the US, then whatever comes next. She told the students not to care about human trafficking just because she does. Rather, she called them to find what issue they are passionate about and learn about it. Her prayer, and I echo it, is that students would look outside themselves, increasing their view of the world, and overcome evil with love.
She also warned us to be on the lookout for slavery in our own communities. This may seem shocking to many of us, but the fact is that thousands are trafficked through the US each year and that many are held in slavery here right now. Just this past weekend the local newspaper ran an article about massage parlors in the Berks area that serve as fronts for prostitution. That is just scary. But it should cause all of us to be aware.
During the question and answer time I could tell the students were somewhat shocked. My prayer is that the shock won't wear off today or anytime soon, but rather that the students in CSF would work with their peers on campus to actively join the movement to end slavery in our lifetime.
Below are a few websites of organizations dedicated to working to end slavery:
Love 146
International Justice Mission
Free the Slaves
Not for Sale
American Anti-Slavery Group
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Concession stand - why I hate nachos with cheese
CSF at University Park runs a concession stand in Beaver Stadium for each Penn State home game. The money they make off this helps fund many ministry activities. One or two times each year, CSF Berks travels to the game and works the stand with UP. We then get a portion of the profit also. Money aside, it is a fun trip!
This past weekend we worked the game against Temple. It was the first time I worked the stand in two years, since I couldn't make it last year, but little has changed. I volunteered to be a cashier, with Emily as my "runner". Basically, I took the orders and the money while Emily retrieved the food. Having both worked the stand as students, we are veterans and make a pretty good team.
Unfortunately, I got stuck right in the middle of the stand. There are six lines, each with a cashier. Being on the end is just better, but I did not claim a spot soon enough so I was in the middle. This meant that Emily had to go to one corner of the stand or the other for soda orders, we had no soda nearby. But soda was not the problem. Nachos with cheese was.
There are two machines that dispense nacho cheese. I imagine someone designed these machines in the 1800s, shortly after the invention of nachos with cheese, and the design has not been improved upon. When the machine runs out of cheese you need to remove the bag (pouch?) that is now empty and replace it with a full one. The process for this refil is difficult and only one or two people in the stand, out of about forty, seemed to know how to do it. On Saturday one of the machines was broken, so the only one working was practically right behind my cashier station. Thus, most of the day I had a line of people behind me waiting for cheese or trying to fill up cheese.
Furthermore, people running around in tight spaces with cups full of liquid cheese is a recipe for disaster. Early in the game a worker carrying nacho cheese ran into Emily, spilling nacho cheese on Emily's white PSU sweatshirt. Later in the game she got more spilled on her. Needless to say, that sweatshirt has probably been worn for the last time!
So if any engineers are reading this I have a challenge: design a better nacho cheese dispenser for Beaver Stadium!
Overall it was a good trip, despite my animosity towards nacho cheese. We had a good group of students go up from Berks and I enjoyed seeing many old Berks students who now to to UP. I am grateful that we can partner with CSF UP in this stand once a semester. We might try to plan another trip up for they can certainly use the help. But if I go I think I will volunteer for pretzel maker or soda filler...whatever keeps me away from nachos with cheese!!!
This past weekend we worked the game against Temple. It was the first time I worked the stand in two years, since I couldn't make it last year, but little has changed. I volunteered to be a cashier, with Emily as my "runner". Basically, I took the orders and the money while Emily retrieved the food. Having both worked the stand as students, we are veterans and make a pretty good team.
Unfortunately, I got stuck right in the middle of the stand. There are six lines, each with a cashier. Being on the end is just better, but I did not claim a spot soon enough so I was in the middle. This meant that Emily had to go to one corner of the stand or the other for soda orders, we had no soda nearby. But soda was not the problem. Nachos with cheese was.
There are two machines that dispense nacho cheese. I imagine someone designed these machines in the 1800s, shortly after the invention of nachos with cheese, and the design has not been improved upon. When the machine runs out of cheese you need to remove the bag (pouch?) that is now empty and replace it with a full one. The process for this refil is difficult and only one or two people in the stand, out of about forty, seemed to know how to do it. On Saturday one of the machines was broken, so the only one working was practically right behind my cashier station. Thus, most of the day I had a line of people behind me waiting for cheese or trying to fill up cheese.
Furthermore, people running around in tight spaces with cups full of liquid cheese is a recipe for disaster. Early in the game a worker carrying nacho cheese ran into Emily, spilling nacho cheese on Emily's white PSU sweatshirt. Later in the game she got more spilled on her. Needless to say, that sweatshirt has probably been worn for the last time!
So if any engineers are reading this I have a challenge: design a better nacho cheese dispenser for Beaver Stadium!
Overall it was a good trip, despite my animosity towards nacho cheese. We had a good group of students go up from Berks and I enjoyed seeing many old Berks students who now to to UP. I am grateful that we can partner with CSF UP in this stand once a semester. We might try to plan another trip up for they can certainly use the help. But if I go I think I will volunteer for pretzel maker or soda filler...whatever keeps me away from nachos with cheese!!!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Seeking Answers to Tough Questions
This semester our theme for our Thursday night gatherings is "Seeking Answers to Tough Questions". Each week we look at a different question, or set of questions, that people have about the Christian faith. The first week we discussed questions relating to God, seeking to understand how Christians can believe in one God who exists as three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). We saw that rather then being an academic doctrine only for theologians, this is a very practical truth as it shows us that God has always existed at base in loving relationship and we are invited into this relationship.
Last week we talked about where the Bible, specifically the New Testament, came from. We looked at things like the process in which the New Testament was put together and why certain books, such as the Gospel of Thomas, were never included. Tonight we are going to discuss the transmission of the Bible, asking whether we can trust that copies of copies of copies have preserved accurately what the original writers intended. In both of these the goal is not just an intellectual understanding but also to see how these questions, and our answers to them, play out in real life on a practical level.
Planning ahead, I am wondering what some good questions would be. I have a few that I have asked myself, and been asked by others, over the years and that I would love to talk about. But I want to make sure I am talking about questions people are asking. So I am open for suggestions.
Here are some I am thinking of:
*Relationship of Jesus to other religions?
*How can a good God send people to hell?
*How can the wrathful God of the Old Testament be the loving God of Jesus?
*How do you explain Christianity's support of slavery and oppression of women through the centuries?
*Why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?
Any other ideas?
Last week we talked about where the Bible, specifically the New Testament, came from. We looked at things like the process in which the New Testament was put together and why certain books, such as the Gospel of Thomas, were never included. Tonight we are going to discuss the transmission of the Bible, asking whether we can trust that copies of copies of copies have preserved accurately what the original writers intended. In both of these the goal is not just an intellectual understanding but also to see how these questions, and our answers to them, play out in real life on a practical level.
Planning ahead, I am wondering what some good questions would be. I have a few that I have asked myself, and been asked by others, over the years and that I would love to talk about. But I want to make sure I am talking about questions people are asking. So I am open for suggestions.
Here are some I am thinking of:
*Relationship of Jesus to other religions?
*How can a good God send people to hell?
*How can the wrathful God of the Old Testament be the loving God of Jesus?
*How do you explain Christianity's support of slavery and oppression of women through the centuries?
*Why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?
Any other ideas?
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Volf is kicking my butt
I read a lot. Part of the reason is simply that I love reading. Another part is that reading is part of my job as a campus pastor. I believe all of us pastors need to be continually learning and growing, thinking through new ideas and poring over difficult texts. If I am not learning, how can I teach?
I finally started a book this week that I have wanted to read for a long time. It is Miroslav Volf's Exclusion and Embrace. Volf teaches theology at Yale and is originally from Croatia, having firsthand experience of the war (and ethnic cleansing) that took place in Yugoslavia. The book is, as the title indicates about the problem of exclusion and the answer of embrace. Maybe when I get further than page 57 I can offer more explanation.
But already in the first chapter Volf has said some challenging stuff. I'll leave some quotes that I have been pondering over, figuring out how they relate to my life and ministry.
"Our coziness with the surrounding culture has made us so blind to many of its evils that, instead of calling them into question, we ofer our own versions of them, in God's n ame and with a good conscience" (36).
"The ultimate allegiance of those whose father is Abraham can be only to the God of 'all the families of the earth,' not to any particular country, culture, or family with their local deities" (39).
"Christians can never be first of all Asians or Americans, Croatians, Russians, or Tutsis, and then Christians. At the very core of Christian identity lies an all-encompassing change of loyalty, from a given culture with its gods to the God of all cultures. A response to a call from that God entails a rearrangement of the whole network of allegiances" (40).
"Unaware that our culture has subverted our faith, we lose a place from which to judge our own culture. In order to keep our allegiance to Jesus Christ pure, we need to nurture commitment to the multicultural community of Christian churches. We need to see ourselves and our own understanding of God's future with the eyes of Christians from other cultures, listen to voices of Christians from other cultures so as to make sure that the voice of our culture has not drowned out the voice of Jesus Christ, 'the one Word of God'" (53-54).
I finally started a book this week that I have wanted to read for a long time. It is Miroslav Volf's Exclusion and Embrace. Volf teaches theology at Yale and is originally from Croatia, having firsthand experience of the war (and ethnic cleansing) that took place in Yugoslavia. The book is, as the title indicates about the problem of exclusion and the answer of embrace. Maybe when I get further than page 57 I can offer more explanation.
But already in the first chapter Volf has said some challenging stuff. I'll leave some quotes that I have been pondering over, figuring out how they relate to my life and ministry.
"Our coziness with the surrounding culture has made us so blind to many of its evils that, instead of calling them into question, we ofer our own versions of them, in God's n ame and with a good conscience" (36).
"The ultimate allegiance of those whose father is Abraham can be only to the God of 'all the families of the earth,' not to any particular country, culture, or family with their local deities" (39).
"Christians can never be first of all Asians or Americans, Croatians, Russians, or Tutsis, and then Christians. At the very core of Christian identity lies an all-encompassing change of loyalty, from a given culture with its gods to the God of all cultures. A response to a call from that God entails a rearrangement of the whole network of allegiances" (40).
"Unaware that our culture has subverted our faith, we lose a place from which to judge our own culture. In order to keep our allegiance to Jesus Christ pure, we need to nurture commitment to the multicultural community of Christian churches. We need to see ourselves and our own understanding of God's future with the eyes of Christians from other cultures, listen to voices of Christians from other cultures so as to make sure that the voice of our culture has not drowned out the voice of Jesus Christ, 'the one Word of God'" (53-54).
Friday, September 4, 2009
Apologetics Night
Each week CSF Berks gathers together on Thursday evenings for worship and fellowship. This is also the time when I have the opportunity to teach. Our theme for this semester is "answering tough questions about our faith." I am not good at titles, so if I mention the theme throughout the semester it might change each time. But basically, the fancy term is "apologetics."
Last evening I started with questions regarding God, specifically how can Christians believe in ONE God who is also THREE persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). It was a lot of fun! It seemed like many students were very interested and learned some new things. Through my preparation I was struck again by how practical this doctrine is: the Trinity shows that God is inherently relational; the foundation of who God is has always been a dynamic relationship of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The beautiful thing is that this relational God invites us into relationship.
The next two weeks I am going to talk about the Bible, specifically focusing on the New Testament. One of the biggest questions I had growing up was, where did the Bible come from? Why is this book different from other books? So we'll be talking about other gospels that are not found in the Bible (should they be?), how was the New Testament put together, and how has the Bible been passed down and translated through the centuries. Fun stuff!
Beyond that, I'm not sure. We'll probably get into the problem of suffering, hell, and world religions. But I am open to ideas and I am looking forward to discussions with students about questions they have. So we'll see where we end up!
Last evening I started with questions regarding God, specifically how can Christians believe in ONE God who is also THREE persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). It was a lot of fun! It seemed like many students were very interested and learned some new things. Through my preparation I was struck again by how practical this doctrine is: the Trinity shows that God is inherently relational; the foundation of who God is has always been a dynamic relationship of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The beautiful thing is that this relational God invites us into relationship.
The next two weeks I am going to talk about the Bible, specifically focusing on the New Testament. One of the biggest questions I had growing up was, where did the Bible come from? Why is this book different from other books? So we'll be talking about other gospels that are not found in the Bible (should they be?), how was the New Testament put together, and how has the Bible been passed down and translated through the centuries. Fun stuff!
Beyond that, I'm not sure. We'll probably get into the problem of suffering, hell, and world religions. But I am open to ideas and I am looking forward to discussions with students about questions they have. So we'll see where we end up!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
I am excited for this opportunity
Last night we had our first "official" CSF meeting (not that ultimate frisbee and a cookout are not official, but they are not our normal weekly activities). In addition to talking a bit about what CSF is going to be doing this semester and having some fun icebreakers for people to get to know each other, we had a guest come in and share a cool opportunity with us. Allen Dawkins is a pastor at New Creation Community Church in the city of Reading. He is working on starting an after-school program at Southern Middle School and he came to tell us about the program and invite the students to take part. Each Wednesday, starting in October, there will be a "homework center" from 3:15-4:15 during which time tutors will help the middle school students with their homework. But it is so much more than that.
Allen talked to us about how many of the kids in the city do not have people encouraging them in their studies. At some point, each Penn State Berks student was told about Penn State Berks and the opportunities a university education can open. By going into the city, the students can bring this same encouragement to kids who have not had it before. Along with that, Allen desires for these middle school kids to see real Christian young people living out their faith on a daily basis. After the homework center each week there will be another hour of Bible study. This is optional both for the tutors and the middle school kids, but my hope is that many stay for it. The chances for friendships and for making impact for Christ in their lives will be enhanced with this second hour.
This program starts on October 7. Please pray that students will step up and be committed to this as much as they can. Pray for details that need to be ironed out, such as rides to the school. Most of all, pray that this program changes the lives of both Penn State Berks students and the middle school students in Reading who we will be serving.
Allen talked to us about how many of the kids in the city do not have people encouraging them in their studies. At some point, each Penn State Berks student was told about Penn State Berks and the opportunities a university education can open. By going into the city, the students can bring this same encouragement to kids who have not had it before. Along with that, Allen desires for these middle school kids to see real Christian young people living out their faith on a daily basis. After the homework center each week there will be another hour of Bible study. This is optional both for the tutors and the middle school kids, but my hope is that many stay for it. The chances for friendships and for making impact for Christ in their lives will be enhanced with this second hour.
This program starts on October 7. Please pray that students will step up and be committed to this as much as they can. Pray for details that need to be ironed out, such as rides to the school. Most of all, pray that this program changes the lives of both Penn State Berks students and the middle school students in Reading who we will be serving.
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