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I do not think of myself as a pioneer, but apparently I am the first minority staff worker in my region for years. On this blog I’ve spoken a bit about how God has been working on my heart with the issue of race, culture and it’s associated problems in this country. I feel that it is no coincidence that God’s been raising my awareness of some of these issues at the same time when I’m going on staff. In recent years InterVarsity has been looking at how to shake off some of that racial and cultural residue that tends to gather around any organization. I’ve been proud when I’ve seen the steps that InterVarsity has taken. It’s a thorny issue, one that I have to deal with myself and learn how to help grow a ministry that reaches out to all cultures. Part of this, both on InterVarsity’s side and on my own will be the Multi-Ethnic Staff Conference that I will be heading off to next week. I’m excited about it, and will try to take notes and write down stories that I will be able to share with you.

So I guess that I will ask you all to pray that God will provide his grace and hope for us staff at this conference as we look at InterVarsity’s history with multi-ethnicity, and prayerfully determine what our direction will be in the future.

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The informal agreement with my InterVarsity supervisor is that I will be introduced to my new students when I’ve raised my first $500 (per month). If things go extraordinarily well, I can have the commitments for that by the end of next week. I covet your prayers. My total monthly goal is about $3200.

I really missed riding in the vans with the Family Night Kids. If you remember, I used to teach 3rd and 4th grade classes last year, but this year I’m teaching middle school (6th – 8th grades to be precise). In order to keep the class semi-focused it’s meant a lot of prep work while I’m actually at church so that logistics are completely taken care of, and some (though not all) of the activities and illustrations are more sophisticated than I had to do last year. It means that I haven’t had as much time to just hang out with the kids as I wanted to. Last night was a great night for that on many levels. I’m also realizing that I need to eat with them more.

At some point I’m going to try a Dulce de Leche latte. It’s not offered on the menu at the Deli, so I’m going to have a double latte with Caramel and Vanilla flavor shots.

Moleskine on a Bus hasn’t been updated in a while. Partially because I haven’t been sketching in a while, but I just rebought a sketchbook, so it may start up again. I’ll let you know. I’ve also been toying with doing a webcomic. I’m waffling between doing a semi-historical drama miniseries, or an action-adventure ongoing series. One could just say do both, but I definitely don’t have time to be writing and drawing both. Now if I found some good artists… I think I’m going to write some “pitch” documents for those stories.

Going to California on Monday, I’ll post more about it on Blogging IV later today.

You know you work in a liberal workplace when you are surprised that the only choices a client wants for gender is M and F.

I need to do some art stuff. I may try over this weekend to take pictures of Hamline (and get dirt as well, I’ll explain later on Blogging IV)

By returning to Philemon, Onesimus risked death, or disfigurement (the laws of the time, as I’m told, allowed for a slave owner to kill a runaway slave, or if he chose to let him free, could brand him in the forehead, designating what he was). In the quest for reconciliation between himself and Philemon, Onesimus was willing to be hurt, killed, or returned to the life he risked everything to leave.

How many of us have found ourselves willing to put ourselves in danger of being hurt, for reconciliation?

This willingness speaks of two things. It speaks of how important Paul and Onesimus regarded the potential reconciliation. It was apparently better for Onesimus to lose everything in an attempt at reconciliation than for Onesimus to be safe, helping Paul in his ministry, in tension with a brother in Christ.

It also speaks of an incredible spirit of submission. Onesimus put his faith squarely in Philemon’s hands. Paul, instead of insisting on Onesimus’s freedom with all the authority of his office as pastor/teacher/church founder, chose instead to ask Philemon to set Onesimus free. Not only that, but even though one could make the argument that it was Philemon’s duty as a Christian to forgive (and financially absorb) the debt and damage that Onesimus caused during his escape, Paul offered his own money so that Philemon did not have to do that.

I think both these things are amazing, and I can’t help but wonder if and how they can apply to the issue of racial and cultural discrimination in the United States. And to be honest, my thoughts falter when it comes to practical applications of the lessons in Philemon to this very complex issue. But I feel that there needs to be a greater need for submission and vulnerability in handling this on all sides. Too often, as pointed out in “Being White”, in majority African-American churches do the members see white brothers and sisters visit, but never stay. Too often do African-Americans find themselves in positions that are reminiscent of the one in Crash, where the man would rather get shot than follow the instructions and accept the help of the white policeman in front of him.

The truth is we human beings of all colours are scared of being put back in the position that we just left, or to be put in a worse position than we have ever been in before. Yet when we pray “Your kingdom come” and see the picture in revelation of all peoples, all nations, all tribes and all tongues, we need to realize that working for God’s kingdom requires us to be willing to risk it all.

Nohari

Tell me what else you think of me here

Oh, and I do plan to do the Philemon part 2 before the end of the week. I’ve actually started it.

My plan was always to update this regularly, but truth be told, this last month has been insane. There were some highlights though. I went to our region’s Winter Conference (called Breakaway). It was an awesome conference. I was helping out in the relationships track, which one might say I was mostly unqualified for . I did learn way more than I taught there, and for that I am grateful.

One of the things that this contrast highlighted for me is how much I love and miss working with students. I got a chance to connect with a few people, and got a glimpse of what God is doing on the U of M campus, and that was awesome. I know this is what I want to do, it’s what I have a passion for, I cannot wait to start.

So that being said, I’ve sent out my first set of announcement letters, two out of the three people at my church whom I sent it to came to me on Sunday and more or less said yes we’ll help you out. So I just want to say that I love you guys, and the fact that you all believe in me and/or this mission motivates me.

Please pray that I continue to be timely in my fundraising activities, and for God to prepare me and the campus so that God’s will is done. And pray for George as he deals with bureaucracy and related issues in the Philippines.

This is cool.

I want to know what you think of me. Describe me in about six words here.

Gianna Jessen’s mother was seven-and-a-half months pregnant when it was decided to abort the foetus she was carrying

Tonight I will.

-Send off at least three of my fundraising letters. This means that if I don’t have addresses, I will get them.
-Write the Philemon entry.
-Buy tickets for Mute Math concert
-Call a Driving School

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I’m ok.

I still have another Philemon post that I need to make, I just haven’t been able to sit down and do it yet.

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