B A M B O O S O N G

I’m making a playlist of diva’s, so I need your help. Who should be on my playlist?

In October, I visited a friend 400 miles away to celebrate her birthday with her. She did something very unique, holding a dinner and dance party and asked for a donation to a cause that she believed in. An organization based in Lima, Peru called Paz y Esperanza, Spanish for Peace & Hope, was the cause that she supported. Located on the Western Coast of South America, the Amazon covers sixty percent of Peru, it is a land of the Amazon, Inca ruins and the Andes. The country has a history of violence, weak economy and was devastated by a massive earthquake in 2007. The mission of Paz y Esperanza is:to promote justice and the development of the poor and marginalized. Most of you are familiar with the International Justice Mission, which works with Paz y Esperanza . Paz y Esperanza works in the community with local churches to help in these areas:

• Work for Peace
• Work for Justice
• Work for Local Development
• Work for the Environment

A civil association from the evangelical-protestant community of Peru. Our organization contributes to the transformation of people and society by working toward the achievement of a quality of life for everyone that corresponds with God’s intentions. Our work focuses on the promotion of justice and the development of the poor.

If you would like to learn more about what they do, they have some great explanations about their work and their principles, so check out their website: I recommend the tabs Who are we: About, Underlying Principles and What we do.

Peru: country profile and stats and factbook

News headlines about Peru: Poverty and progress:

The capital, the Pacific coastal strip and most of the north of the country are all thriving. The problem is the southern Andean region, where poverty reaches 70% of the population. Helped by tourism, mining and microcredit some Andean cities, such as Cajamarca, Cusco, Huaraz and Huancayo, are prospering. The big divorce is with the surrounding, often mountainous, countryside, where many Andean Indians remain trapped in subsistence farming on small plots. Whereas 60% of the labour force in Lima are waged workers, only 27% are in Apurímac, notes Efraín González, an economist at Lima’s Catholic University.

Suffer the children: KICKING a football around a dusty lot, Judin Quicaño looks like any other boy of four. But stand him against a standard growth chart and he is almost a head shorter than he should be at his age. His mother says that is just his natural build. Health officials say he is among nearly 30% of Peruvian children in his age group who suffer from chronic malnutrition. The figure rises to 90% in places such as Lliupapuquio, a village in Apurímac department in Peru’s heavily Indian southern Andes where Judin lives.

What should you do? Be and stay informed of the needs in other countries. Research a country like I have done here, learn about their economy and their poor, it says a lot.

Updates will follow once or twice more throughout the day. If you are interested follow my RSS feed here:

(The 40 Day Fast: Check out Fay’s post also)

As I have prepared for my day, Matt Maher’s song Unwavering has been my inspiration. I have a beautiful recording of Bethany Dillon singing it from the Sing Over Me album. I first heard it at camp where we sang it in worship. This song is such a good reminder to remember that we should be thinking about the least of these much more often than we do. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Galatians 6:2-3 nlt

I think that sharing one another’s burdens means being concerned for the things that God is concerned about, and doing something about it, as James encourages us to have faith and deeds, because if we really believe in God and love and serve him in obedience, how can we not do what he asks us to do, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. James 1:27 nlt

Blessed are the poor
The kingdom is theirs
Alive in the promise
To be dead to the world
Blessed are the meek
In honor of your Father
The Word at your right hand
The Spirit of truth

Unwavering is your voice
Unwavering is your hand
Unwavering is the heart that bled for the sins of men
Unwavering is your will
Unwavering is your plan
The fount of salvation on which we will stand

Blessed are the righteous
On bended knee
Found in this freedom
Committed to you
Blessed are those who see
The heights of glory
Found in the valley
And suffering for you

Send us out to be your hands and feet

I’m still figuring this out myself, but at least continue to be open to where and how God wants to use you. And don’t think you are better than anyone else, no matter their socio-economic status. Join with me today as I pray for Peru. - Lori Jo

today’s blogger/faster is Autumn check out her post, and stay tuned for sunday, which will be my turn to share.

For more about the 40 Day Fast check this out:

If you aren’t already, subscribe to my feed by RSS or by email (emails get sent out once a day by feed burner when there is a post; no post-no email.

My favorite sites from this week:

1. Wordle - My Number One Favorite of the week is Wordle, a site that takes words, letters, any text you enter and turns it into word art. You can do anything. I copied and pasted my blog categories, did a couple of Bible verses and one with my name and things I like. The more times you repeat a word, the larger the size of the word. You can make them, print them and save them. Or print without saving if you don’t want it in the gallery. My picture/logo was created in wordle. It takes skills and a few relayout changes to get the right word order that you want. But it came out perfect!

2. Text2MindMap - You can make mind maps for anything. Mandy made one of her life. I made a prayer map. You could make one for projects, ideas just about anything you want to!  The freeze button is really handy, you can arrange them any way you want. It’s pretty awesome

3. Pie Chart Maker: I googled ‘pie chart generator’ and this is what I found. You can also do bar graphs, or a few other types of charts. It is fun and practical! Check it out.

4. Brain Games - Fun word games. Go. play.

5. New Release Tuesday. Sign in and listen to an entire album, free, before it releases. Pretty Awesome!

Your turn! What new sites have you been spending time on? I hope you enjoyed this new feature!! If you have suggestions throw them at me (but only if they are soft and squishy, and not hard ones)

I love word pictures. I will be playing with this for a long time…

here is my blog in a visual word picture thanks to WORDLE. my new favorite thing. Click to view it full size.

Today’s bloggers are: Annie and PD. Check out their blogs and their causes.

Last week I introduced you to a book by Carolyn Custis James, When Life and Beliefs Collide, She has opened my eyes to theology in a new light making it a relational, practical concept. We need theology to build our faith. Whether we call it theology or not we all have some kind of theology, what we understand and intimately know about God, what we believe about who God is. We need good theology because it makes a huge difference when life begins to throw things at us and we have to live by faith. Theology is the knowledge that God is good, it is knowing that He has been faithful to us, remembering how He has protected us, healed us, provided for us in the past. By looking back on what He has done, by reflecting on His attributes, His holiness, His faithfulness, and His Sovereignty. By simply knowing that God is in control no matter what. Knowing this, we can face difficult situations, seasons and even deal with pain. It gives us the faith to cling to God when life goes in ways we hadn’t planned, or hoped wouldn’t happen. Carolyn says that it gives us “certainty that God is good and can be trusted, even when his ways made little sense to [them].”

The second chapter of her book is called “The Dreaded T-Word and Why Women Avoid It,” and she compiles a list of reasons that women have stayed away from theology. The myths are:

* Theology is for Men
* Theology is Bad for the Soul
* Theology is for Professionals

We begin by addressing the first myth, that theology is only for men. Carolyn begins by saying,

“The presupposition is that God designed a world in which womanhood and theology are incompatible. The second [notion] is the conviction that deep knowledge conflicts with the biblical idea of wifely submission; a thinking woman will find it difficult to submit to her husband and to church leaders.”

When Mary of Bethany sat at Jesus feet He was “undoubtedly counteracting this notion when he affirmed the necessity of teaching Mary.” She uses the three passages of Mary’s encounters with Jesus, explaining how each encounter leads to the next. She sat at his feet and learned about him, because that is what she needed the most, she needed to to know him, as we all do, regardless of gender. We are all God’s image bearers, whether male or female.  “Theology is knowing God. This is not a gender issue…It is about what it means to be a Christian.” I agree wholeheartedly.

In Carolyn’s second book, Lost Women of the Bible, she tells the stories of Eve, Mrs, Noah, Sarah, Hagar, Hannah, and others and provides a fresh perspective on who these women were, and where they needed God.  Her chapter on Eve absolutely blew me away.  She strips away our misconceptions, any baggage we have about the person, and Eve is one of those with the most baggage, everyone blames her, but she addresses where Eve got lost, and gives a refreshing perspective, redeeming her, and showing us that Eve was not lost for good. These women weren’t just lost in the Bible, they were lost themselves, and God redeemed them, revealed himself to them in very different and unique ways.  I bring up this book here because there are so many women in the Bible, there is so much to learn from them and their theology.  One can’t look into the lives of the women of the Bible and say that theology isn’t for women.

In looking at how the Bible portrays women, Carolyn explains that

“they are admired for their depth of theological wisdom and their strong convictions. Women in the Bible did not need anyone to carry them. Their theology strengthened them to get under the burden along with the men and contribute in significant ways…They empowered, strengthened and urged [the men] on to greater faithfulness and were better equipped to do so because of their grasp of God’s character and ways.”

Finally she refers to Deborah (Judges 4, 5), Ruth, (3, 4) and the Proverbs 31 woman saying that “these theologically informed women were valued, praised and pursued for their wisdom.”

There have been misconceptions and misunderstandings of some of the new testament teachings on women.  She seeks to correct these,

“The apostles encouraged men and women to pursue theology–wholeheartedly, freely, together. They compared knowing God to milk and meat (1 Peter 2:2; Heb 5:14) –essential nutrition for every believer…”

“Paul’s instruction for women to ask questions of their husbands at home (1 Cor 14:35) was designed not to shut women down but to open up a rich theological conversation at home.”

I have learned so much from this book and I highly recommend it, any and all of her books.

Next week we will address the second myth that theology is bad for the soul of a woman.

What do you think about this?  Have you encountered or experienced opposition to your pursuit of theology and knowing God?

In Brooke Fraser’s song Hosanna, the second part of the bridge cries out to God, “Break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I am for your Kingdom’s cause, as I walk from earth, into eternity.”

Until this morning I hadn’t experienced a broken heart.

I know a lot of friends who are experiencing broken hearts and broken situations and as I was chatting with a friend, the words “break my heart for what breaks yours” came to mind. My next thought was is God really answering my prayer? Dang it! That’s not what I meant, God…

He wants us to understand his heart and how his heart hurts for our world. He wants us to experience compassion and need for his love. Maybe it takes a bit of broken hearts to understand that.

During our LOUD series at Sandals, Pastor Matt talked about brokenness and how our soul screams for healing. He took a large clay pot and smashed it. We can’t hide our brokenness, we can’t shine God’s light if we aren’t allowing it to shine through us. God puts the pieces together in ways that we don’t understand. He takes pieces away that we want back. He holds pieces for a time. So we are those clay pots. We are broken. But God’s love and his truth remain. In order for his love and truth to shine through us, we must lead lives that are worthy, submitting our lives to him. “I love you, all of my hope is in you, Jesus Christ, take my life, take all of me”

I don’t know how to live with a broken and hurting heart, but I can only lean on the one who loves me more than anyone. Trusting that he will heal my heart, or teach me how to live with this brokenness, and to respond with more sensitivity gentleness, and compassion.

Brian writes today on the global food crisis and how we can help for the 40 Day Fast.