Progressive Dating was a huge success!! I set the date when we had 5 men and 5 women. By the time we had the event, we had 9 and 9. As everyone was mingling, I was so pleased to see such a beautiful group of people. Everyone had a great time. I think Progressive Dating might actually happen more than just a couple times. I often get really excited about an idea and then nothing ever comes of it, but maybe this will be different. I raised $350 for my trip! I'm going to do another one in May. Then in June, we'll start raising money for other non-profits in Portland.
A couple of my girlfriends in Salem are going to host Bunco nights to raise money and my friend's sweet 13 year old daughter is going host a Wii game night with her friends to raise money. I love it!!
Thank you everyone who has supported me already!!
I have my first Lahash training this Friday night.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Progressive Dating
Over a year ago, I decided that Portland really needed a Christian speed dating event. I had previously gone twice and though I met some nice men, none were Christians. So, I started planning, with the help of some friends. I put it on hold for awhile. But recently decided that it would be a great fundraiser for my trip to Africa. We're having our first event this Monday!! I believe we will have 8 men and 8 women attending, which is amazing, since the men have been very hard to find! I'm excited to tell you how it goes.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Passport
Renewing my passport was a bit of an ordeal.
I set my old passport out months ago, so I wouldn't forget to renew it. However, when it came time to apply I couldn't find it anywhere. I called my mom in Arizona and asked her to FedEx my birth certificate. The day after I got my birth certificate, I found my old passport! Oh well.
Then I find out that the post office only accepts passport applications from 10-3 on week days, which means I'd have to leave during work. When I get to the post office, there are 2 sets of people in front of me, so it took forever. The guy behind me was grumpy, the passport lady talked too much, and one of the tellers got annoyed with me when I kept messing up the debit machine. I think it's a requirement to be grumpy at the post office. My process went smoothly.
When I got home and reread the application instructions, I found out I could have just mailed the renewal. It seems to be a habit of mine to make things harder than they need to be.
I set my old passport out months ago, so I wouldn't forget to renew it. However, when it came time to apply I couldn't find it anywhere. I called my mom in Arizona and asked her to FedEx my birth certificate. The day after I got my birth certificate, I found my old passport! Oh well.
Then I find out that the post office only accepts passport applications from 10-3 on week days, which means I'd have to leave during work. When I get to the post office, there are 2 sets of people in front of me, so it took forever. The guy behind me was grumpy, the passport lady talked too much, and one of the tellers got annoyed with me when I kept messing up the debit machine. I think it's a requirement to be grumpy at the post office. My process went smoothly.
When I got home and reread the application instructions, I found out I could have just mailed the renewal. It seems to be a habit of mine to make things harder than they need to be.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Reflections on Christian Leadership
In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen
"Nouwen was a Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books on the spiritual life. After nearly two decades of teaching at the Menninger Foundation Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, and at the University of Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, he went to share his life with mentally handicapped people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada." - Wikipedia
I recently finished reading In the Name of Jesus. I believe I'll be reading the book again in the near future, because the wisdom I found there was encouraging, as well as thought provoking. I have a long way to go in order to be the kind of leader Henri talks about. But I think that is the whole point. Being a leader is a journey, not a destination. I wanted to share some of Henri's words with you.
"These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self - the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things - and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments. I am telling you all of this because I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
"... there is little praise and much criticism in the church today, and who can live for long in such a climate without slipping into some type of depression? The secular world around us is saying in a loud voice, "We can take care of ourselves. We do not need God, the church, or a priest. We are in control. And if we are not, then we have to work harder to get in control. The problem is not lack of faith, but lack of competence. If you are sick, you need a competent doctor; if you are poor, you need competent politicians; if there are technical problems, you need competent engineers; if there are wars, you need competent negotiators. God, the church, and the minister have been used for centuries to fill the gaps of incompetence, but today the gaps are being filled in other ways, and we no longer need spiritual answers to practical questions.""
"While efficiency and control are the great aspirations of our society, the loneliness, isolation, lack of friendship and intimacy, broken relationships, boredom, feelings of emptiness and depression, and a deep sense of uselessness fill the hearts of millions of people in our success-oriented world."
"The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows them to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success, and to bring the light of Jesus there."
"Knowing God's heart means consistently, radically, and very concretely to announce and reveal that God is love and only love, and that every time fear, isolation, or despair begins to invade the human soul, this is not something that comes from God."
"Contemplative prayer keeps us home, rooted and safe, even when we are on the road, moving from place to place, and often surrounded by sounds of violence and war."
"The central question is, Are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God's presence, to listen to God's voice, to look at God's beauty, to touch God's incarnate Word, and to taste fully God's infinite goodness?"
"Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of our time."
"But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative."
"Living in a community with very wounded people, I came to see that I had lived most of my life as a tightrope artist trying to walk on a high, thin cable from one tower to the other, always waiting for the applause when I had not fallen off and broken my leg."
"But most of us still feel that, ideally, we should have been able to do it all and do it successfully."
"...it is Jesus who heals, not I; Jesus who speaks words of truth, not I; Jesus who is Lord, not I."
"...so also must they be persons always willing to confess their own brokenness and ask for forgiveness from those to whom they minister."
"Christian leaders are called to live the Incarnation, that is, to live in the body, not only in their own bodies but also in the corporate body of the community, and to discover there the presence of the Holy Spirit."
"Leadership, for a large part, means to be led."
"What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life."
"...Jesus has a different vision of maturity: It is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go."
"The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross."
"If there is any hope for the church in the future, it will be hope for a poor church in which its leaders are willing to be led."
I am young and still have so much to learn, but what I do know is that being led where I would rather not go has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I have seen the beauty of Christ over and over again and it's usually in the hardest, darkest, deepest places.
"Nouwen was a Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books on the spiritual life. After nearly two decades of teaching at the Menninger Foundation Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, and at the University of Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, he went to share his life with mentally handicapped people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada." - Wikipedia
I recently finished reading In the Name of Jesus. I believe I'll be reading the book again in the near future, because the wisdom I found there was encouraging, as well as thought provoking. I have a long way to go in order to be the kind of leader Henri talks about. But I think that is the whole point. Being a leader is a journey, not a destination. I wanted to share some of Henri's words with you.
"These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self - the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things - and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments. I am telling you all of this because I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
"... there is little praise and much criticism in the church today, and who can live for long in such a climate without slipping into some type of depression? The secular world around us is saying in a loud voice, "We can take care of ourselves. We do not need God, the church, or a priest. We are in control. And if we are not, then we have to work harder to get in control. The problem is not lack of faith, but lack of competence. If you are sick, you need a competent doctor; if you are poor, you need competent politicians; if there are technical problems, you need competent engineers; if there are wars, you need competent negotiators. God, the church, and the minister have been used for centuries to fill the gaps of incompetence, but today the gaps are being filled in other ways, and we no longer need spiritual answers to practical questions.""
"While efficiency and control are the great aspirations of our society, the loneliness, isolation, lack of friendship and intimacy, broken relationships, boredom, feelings of emptiness and depression, and a deep sense of uselessness fill the hearts of millions of people in our success-oriented world."
"The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows them to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success, and to bring the light of Jesus there."
"Knowing God's heart means consistently, radically, and very concretely to announce and reveal that God is love and only love, and that every time fear, isolation, or despair begins to invade the human soul, this is not something that comes from God."
"Contemplative prayer keeps us home, rooted and safe, even when we are on the road, moving from place to place, and often surrounded by sounds of violence and war."
"The central question is, Are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God's presence, to listen to God's voice, to look at God's beauty, to touch God's incarnate Word, and to taste fully God's infinite goodness?"
"Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of our time."
"But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative."
"Living in a community with very wounded people, I came to see that I had lived most of my life as a tightrope artist trying to walk on a high, thin cable from one tower to the other, always waiting for the applause when I had not fallen off and broken my leg."
"But most of us still feel that, ideally, we should have been able to do it all and do it successfully."
"...it is Jesus who heals, not I; Jesus who speaks words of truth, not I; Jesus who is Lord, not I."
"...so also must they be persons always willing to confess their own brokenness and ask for forgiveness from those to whom they minister."
"Christian leaders are called to live the Incarnation, that is, to live in the body, not only in their own bodies but also in the corporate body of the community, and to discover there the presence of the Holy Spirit."
"Leadership, for a large part, means to be led."
"What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life."
"...Jesus has a different vision of maturity: It is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go."
"The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross."
"If there is any hope for the church in the future, it will be hope for a poor church in which its leaders are willing to be led."
I am young and still have so much to learn, but what I do know is that being led where I would rather not go has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I have seen the beauty of Christ over and over again and it's usually in the hardest, darkest, deepest places.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tanzania 2000
Route: Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Babati, Kiru, Tarangire National Park, Ngorogoro Conservation Area, and our last stop was a little town along the northern coast of Tanzania where we snorkeled in the Indian Ocean, maybe Tanga.
View Larger Map
These are some of the pictures from my Tanzania 2000 scrapbook.
Top left: A girl named Gracious, from the secondary school, befriended us. That's me on the left.
Top right: We spent some time talking with some folks from the local bible college in Babati.
Middle: Shopping in Arusha. I was a typical tourist and bought way too many things. I have many of the items displayed in my house and my office.
This is the secondary school. We taught some geography lessons and worked on one of their building projects. The students asked if Michael Jackson had his own village.
Top right: This is a very common way to travel in Tanzania. It was a very bumpy ride. All travel was an adventure.
After being in Tanzania only a couple days, we trekked up to Kiru for a two night stay in a mountain village. We divided into small groups, each with a translator, and stayed with a family. The pictures below show the family we stayed with. They lived in a 3 room mud house. The building the children are standing in front of is their kitchen and barn.
These 3 days were by far the most impactful days of my whole Tanzania experience. We ate tons of Ugali, walked through corn fields, herded skinny cows, went to a town meeting in which they were discussing a $10 tax, introduced balloons to the children, slept where critters tried to nibble on our toes, brushed our teeth with twigs, and had to stay inside at night because of possible predators. My greatest culture shock moment was singing and dancing in their little church and hearing them sign praises to God in their native language. It was truly amazing!!
View Larger Map
These are some of the pictures from my Tanzania 2000 scrapbook.
Top left: A girl named Gracious, from the secondary school, befriended us. That's me on the left.Top right: We spent some time talking with some folks from the local bible college in Babati.
Middle: Shopping in Arusha. I was a typical tourist and bought way too many things. I have many of the items displayed in my house and my office.
This is the secondary school. We taught some geography lessons and worked on one of their building projects. The students asked if Michael Jackson had his own village.
Top right: This is a very common way to travel in Tanzania. It was a very bumpy ride. All travel was an adventure.
After being in Tanzania only a couple days, we trekked up to Kiru for a two night stay in a mountain village. We divided into small groups, each with a translator, and stayed with a family. The pictures below show the family we stayed with. They lived in a 3 room mud house. The building the children are standing in front of is their kitchen and barn.
These 3 days were by far the most impactful days of my whole Tanzania experience. We ate tons of Ugali, walked through corn fields, herded skinny cows, went to a town meeting in which they were discussing a $10 tax, introduced balloons to the children, slept where critters tried to nibble on our toes, brushed our teeth with twigs, and had to stay inside at night because of possible predators. My greatest culture shock moment was singing and dancing in their little church and hearing them sign praises to God in their native language. It was truly amazing!!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Letter
April 2010
Jambo Friends and Family,
I hope this letter finds you well! I’m excited to tell you about my trip to Tanzania this summer. Some of you may remember that I went to Tanzania while in college. It was a very moving and even life changing experience. I’ve always wanted to go back. From mid July through August (6 weeks), that is exactly what I intend to do! I’d like to invite you to take this journey with me! Here are the details you need to know.
Who:
I am partnering with a small grassroots organization called Lahash International. I have had the privilege of knowing Lahash’s founder for several years and have always appreciated their approach to ministry. The Grace and Healing Ministry (GHMD) of Dodoma are partners of Lahash and I will be traveling to Tanzania to volunteer with them. Over the last two years, eight people from my church, Vibrant Covenant, have made this same journey. GHMD cares for a very impoverished city by providing home-based care for AIDS clients, sponsorship programs for vulnerable kids, and an exciting church outreach network.
What I hope to do in Dodoma:
* Keep the connection between my church and the Tanzania church strong and healthy. * Spend time at the church and volunteer with the various projects. * Go out into the community to listen and learn from the people. * Live with one of the local staff. * Join Home Based Care teams on their weekly visits to homes in the area caring for people with HIV or other illnesses.* Teach the Compassion International and Lahash kids at the church. * Learn how the Tanzanian church applies the principles of justice, advocacy, and compassion. * Teach English, computer basics, and tutor kids after school at the church. * Use my counseling skills with the children wherever they will be applicable.
Why do I want to go:
To be face to face with Jesus’ most vulnerable children, to see Jesus through their eyes, to walk with them in their grief and their joy, to offer the Jesus in me through service and presence, and to more freely give when I return home.
How you can journey with me:
· Let’s get together for coffee and I’ll tell you first hand about this journey I’m on.
· Tell others about Lahash and think about sponsoring a child in East Africa.
· Pray for me, my journey, the East African nations and what God is doing there.
· Host a fundraiser to help cover the cost of my travels.
· If you are willing and able to financially support my journey to Tanzania, I’d greatly appreciate it. I will be covering the plane fair on my own, but it will cost approximately $1000 for me to stay and travel in Tanzania. You can send donations directly to me at 12959 E Burnside St., Portland, Oregon 97233 or you can donate on Lahash’s website. Under “Lahash Travelers”, click on my name. All donations are tax deductable.
· If you’d like to hear more about my journey, check out my blog at http://erinweissjourney.blogspot.com/.
Upendo, Erin Weiss (weiss.erin1@gmail.com)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
What I might be doing in Dodoma
Partnership
- Keeping the Vibrant-Tanzania church connection strong and healthy.
- Continuing friendships begun during the Vibrant '08 and '09 trips.
- Dialoguing with CV and Amos about further trips and connections (pastors).
Exposure and learning
- Spending time at the church and volunteering with the various projects.
- Going out into the community to listen and learn from the people.
- Spending time in the hospitals seeing the needs and local structure.
- Live with one of the local staff.
Current Service Needs
- Joining Home Based Care teams on their weekly visits to homes in the area caring for people with HIV or other illnesses.
- Teaching the Compassion International and Lahash kids at the church on Fridays and Saturdays.
- Teaching some JAC principles to the local staff and learning from their experiences in Justice, Advocacy, and Compassion.
- Teaching English, computer basics, and tutoring kids after school at the church.
I also hope to utilize my counseling skills in some way, but I'm not sure if my skill set with translate.
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