"Displace Me" Video

This is the footage we captured at our "Displace Me" event a few weeks ago. I've heard some great stories of things junior highers have been doing to raise awareness and funds for people around the world and also right in their own backyard. Amazing stuff I get to be a part of! I can't wait to host another event...next time in the Texas heat.

Students Blog Too

Not many of the kids I know blog. I guess as adults we're more desperate to diversify the ways we try to get people to notice how cool we are. In any case, I know of at least one of our junior high students that does keep a blog because her small group leader recently emailed me and told me to check out this post.

She wrote about her church. She's in 6th grade. Gotta love it when kids "get it".

Dramatic Times

(click to enlarge) (click here for more photos)

We live in dramatic times. A war continues to rage in East African countries like Uganda and the Congo. This weekend, Watermark Student Ministries hosted a "Displace Me" event for the junior high kids to raise awareness and call for action. Participants were asked to identify with the displaced children of East Africa by simulating just 24 hours of life in their shoes. They were then offered the opportunity to consider how they might act in response.

Below are scriptures that inspired our event and a list of practical ways any person can take action:

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Psalm 82:3-4
3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. 4 Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Philippians 2:3-4
3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Proverbs 31:8-9
8 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. 9 Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

Invisible Children
www.invisiblechildren.com
Click “Movement”
Click “Bracelet Campaign”
Buy bracelet videos, wear the bracelet, and show them to your friends

Click “Movement”
Click “Schools for Schools”
Start a “Schools for Schools” club at your school, send books & raise money

Click “Movie”
Buy The Film and share with friends and family

Take The Walk
www.takethewalk.net
Organize and Host a Walk at your school
Raise money to help with medical care for children
Raise money to help fund AIDS treatment
Raise money to purchase Tom’s Shoes for kids in need
Raise money for drilling water wells

Tom’s Shoes
www.tomsshoes.com
Click “Buy Online”
Purchase shoes and Tom’s will donate shoes to kids in need

Shoes for Orphan Souls
www.shoesfororphansouls.org
Click “Host a Drive”
Host a shoe drive for orphans in need

Nothing But Nets
www.nothingbutnets.net
Click “Buy A Net” ($10 and Up)
Send a donation to buy a mosquito net for African kids

Compassion International
www.compassion.com
Click on “Search for a Child to Sponsor”
Click on Geographic Region “Africa”
Click on Country “Uganda”
Sponsor and befriend a specific child in need

World Vision
www.worldvision.org
Click "Sponsor a child"
Click "Ways to Give"
Click "Gift Catalog Giving"

Advent Conspiracy
www.adventconspiracy.org
Watch the Video
Click on “Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All”
Consider giving and/or receiving at least one less gift this Christmas

A.L.A.R.M (African Leadership And Reconciliation Ministries)
www.alarm-inc.org
Click “About Us”
Learn about the importance of local church leadership in resolving conflict
Consider how you might prepare yourself today to make a difference tomorrow
“Learn to Teach”

Texas & United States Government
www.congress.org
Enter your zip code where it says “Find Your Officials”
Click an official’s name
Click the “Contact” tab and find their address
Mail letters to the President, Governor, Senators, and Representatives
Call for action

Sample Letters:
For Uganda
For the Congo

New York in 3 Days...

I am in New York for the weekend for my brother's college graduation and thought I'd break my recent silence (sorry, it's been a busy season :) and show some pictures of this weekend.  My brother has spent his college days going to The New School in Manhattan, New York.  It is an amazing school that covers any type of the music/arts that you can think of.   It is a very cool school, and my brother will play his graduation recital with a jazz trio (he plays the upright bass) this Sunday.  Very exciting!  Here's some pictures...

  

Dave and I at Historic Rucker Park in Harlem

                                              Holly and I in Central Park

Holly and I in Bryant Park (part of You've Got Mail was filmed here).

                                                               Rockefeller Center

Times Square

Sick Chapman

This is what my son looks like when he has a fever and gets to watch lots of Mickey Mouse Club. I promise I didn't pose him but I was able to get a little grin out of him. Even illness can produce small joys.