Images of Holy Week

The Big Picture Blog has an amazing collection of photos of Holy Week from around the world. Some are beautiful and some are disturbing. Which photo stands out the most to you and why?

Cultural Opposites and How We Perceive the World.

Guantanamo: Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Design that Saves Lives!

Refugee Stories

This past weekend my family had the privilege of participating in the Ride for Refugees. Sometimes in the USA it is difficult to fully grasp the reality of the situations refugees face. The following is a podcast from the BBC sharing the stories of several refugees. These are very powerful and very touching real life stories.



Organizations that are working with refugees:
World Relief- Partner with churches and connect them with refugees who seek asylum in the USA.
Crossing Borders- Serving refugees and orphans who have fled from North Korea.
World Vision- Serving and helping the poor world wide
Ride for the Refugees- Want to serve refugees and not sure where to start? Join the ride for the refugee with some friends to raise awareness and funds for refugee ministries.

Related L=M Articles
Don't Forget the North Korean Refugees
Human Trafficking
The Mission Field: Coming to a City Near You
God Grew Tired of Us
How do you see the World?

Is Your Worldview Frozen in 1952?

Cultivating Life in the Dessert

It was a scorching afternoon, but as they say in Arizona it was a dry heat. That did not stop the sunshine from feeling like a cosmic laser beam that was attempting to burn your skin right off your body. The day before I had been invited as part of a small group to see a local pastor's field. Coming from Ohio where large swaths of land are covered by corn, wheat and soybean I had been trying to imagine what this field might look like in the Arizona dessert in the middle of the Hopi and Navajo reservation. I had seen no sign of vegetation and each time the pastor said he went to his field, I imagined that he would go to a small piece of Ohio-like farm land hidden somewhere nearby near an oasis behind a barrier of trees.

The small group of us piled into the white rental van and passed through one of two stoplights that Tuba City has. We drove to the edge of town and our guide took us on a driving tour of the new and the old Hopi villages. The older village looked like it could have been a small pueblo straight out of Galicia, Spain except that it was in the middle dessert land and over looked a small (small by Arizona standards) canyon.

As we drove out of the village the road began to descend slowly into the small canyon. Along the way we passed by a spring where some people were filling of large plastic containers with water (many of the homes on the reservation have no running water). The pastor explained that the Mormons helped the Hopi's find this spring several generations ago. As the road brought us down between the canyon walls we could see the land divided into small fields before us. We parked the van in a space that entirely shaded by a fruit tree and as we got out we heard the distinct sound of rushing water. Beside the parking spot was a ditch with clean, potable water rushing through it. The ditch made it's way down into the canyon, bisecting the fields.

A Communal Culture- According to Hopi culture and law, the land is not owned by individuals but it is owned by the tribe. If you want to farm a piece of the land you can petition the tribal counsel. Our guide said that if you let your farm land lie fallow for two complete seasons then someone else could bring a petition to the counsel asking to take over the field. Since our guide was also a pastor he said he personally observed the Old Testament practice of working the land for six years and then letting it rest on the seventh year. The first time he did this his Father thought he was crazy, but on the eighth year his crop was significantly more robust than the other nearby fields and now his Father lets his own field rest on occasion.

The water that comes down the ditch in the middle of the field can be hooked up to pipes that will divert some of it to the fields. Our friend comes to his field every morning at 5am. In the dessert the air is crisp and cool and refreshing in the early morning. He said he will spend about two hours taking care of the plants in the field. He waters the crops and hoes the weeds so they can't take root. Sometimes he said that coyotes or foxes will come at night and gobble up the water melons. He also pointed out that some of the other farmers had over-watered their crops (this was evident by leaves that were yellowing).

The pastor grew peppers, melons, squash and a lot of corn. He said that the Hopis use corn for a lot of different dishes and so they plant several different kinds and colors of corn. In his larger of the two fields that he works, it was entirely planted with corn. At the end of the season he said it would produce multiple barrels of corn that could be dried and stored. Whenever some was needed for a meal it would be boiled in water and was ready to eat. He said that of all the barrels of corn that this one field would make he would keep one and then deliver the rest to cousins, aunts and relatives around the reservation. At this point in out tour one of the visiting group members asked, "Do your relatives come and help you plant, cultivate, or Harvest the fields?" The Pastor thought for a moment and said, "No, not really." Our group member said, "Well, it seems strange that they get to benefit from the harvest even though they did not participate at all in the work." The pastor smiled and nodded in a knowing way and said, "This is just the Hopi way. The one who has takes care of those who do not."

I was totally impressed by the richness of Hopi culture and the way it was displayed even through such a small task as having a small field of crops in the middle of such and arid landscape. I also had the sense that this field was a living, tangible illustration of the spiritual work that good pastors are engaged in every day. Watering, cultivating, protecting from weeds and pests that would devour the crop, it reminded me that there is someone working hard on our behalf to help us bear fruit, even in the worst of soils and conditions. Not only that, but like this pastor's relatives, I know I receive far more of the blessings then I ever deserve or worked for. It is my prayer that I can be more like this Hopi Pastor in the way I think about and care for those around me.

Don't Forget the North Korean Refugees

We just watch this Korean drama called The Crossing which follows the story of one refugee family from North Korea. The movie was very well done and a powerful illustration of the plight of North Koreans.

One of the Blogs I follow called The Big Picture focused on North Korea this week and had some amazing photos. Click on the Picture to see the album.


Related L.I.M. articles
Human Trafficking
NK Women Being Trafficked
The Mission Field: Coming to a City Near You
TED video gives Glimpse inside of NK

Condition Critical: Voices From the War in Congo

Post-Industrial Detroit

Detroit Wildlife from florent tillon on Vimeo.

Kopi Luwak (yummy cat poopy coffee)

So, I just tried Kopi Luwak for the first time in my life. This is a coffee that is considered a delicacy that was sent to us from some friends who are living and working in Indonesia. Traditionally, Kopi Luwak coffee beans were harvested from the dung of the Asian Palm Civet. I have been told (and hope it's true) that they have found ways of replicating the process that the coffee beans go through in this cats digestive track by exposing them to a specific enzime before raosting them.

As far as the flavor, I will say it is unique. It has both a sweetness and a biterness that is different from the coffees I normally have. MMMMMmmm! Hope you can try it sometime.

Poverty in America

I just watched and ABC program entitled Children of the Mountains. It gives a small glimpse into the life of those in Appalachia. It is powerful and well done.

Watch the full episode here.

Amazing Photos of Extreme Rich-Poor Divides

Click here to see more.

A look at Indonesia

I have some friends who are working cross-culturally in Indonesia. When I saw these photos at The Big Picture it made me think of them.

Beautiful Look at London

London (harder, better, faster, stronger) from David Hubert on Vimeo.

I.O.U.S.A

Every American citizen should watch this.

What does the Future Hold?

Kevin Kelly has been the executive editor of Wired. This is a talk that he gave at the Q conference on the next 1,000 years of Christianity. Below is a talk he gave at TED talks about the next 5,000 days of the internet. Both, are insightful and I think that they go well together.

2008 Favorite Blogs Roundup

I wanted to share some blogs with you for the holidays in case you find yourself surfing the web and aren't sure where to go. I subscribe to all of these blogs in my reader and hope you enjoy them.

Art and Design
Design Milk Full of beautiful furniture and design ideas
Elite By Design Web design and Photoshop Inspiration
Photojojo This is a great site for photography tips and gadgets
WebUrbanist Urban design, culture, travel, architecture, and alternative art

Random Interests
Problogger An excellent site with tips to improve the quality of your blog
BoingBoing Bizarre news from all over the web
TreeHugger Everything environmental and green
Freakonomics A look at the world through stats and figures
Lifehacker Life tips and downloads
Sharkride Cutting edge technologies
Don't Taze Me Bro Documents of the abuse of power by those in authority

Science and Technology
Both Ted Talks and Pop!Tech have awesome videos of thinkers from our time who are on the bleeding edge of their field of study
WIRED Technology news
Discovery Science news

World News and Insight
Google News The best web based news service available. You can customize it to follow your own specific interests and it collects data from all the world's news aggregates.
Fox News and CNN are good to read side by side to see what is happening in the USA. Fox leans to the American right and CNN to the American left, so reading both you have a better chance of distinguishing the truth.
BBC is one of the best sources of world news
Al Jazeera is world news from a middle-eastern perspective

Ministry
Tall Skinny Kiwi This is one of my favorite Christian blogs.
Beauty and Depravity The is the blog of a Seattle Pastor Eugene Cho, that I just began following.
His church also runs the Quest Cafe and I find his articles very thoughtful.
Mustard Seed Associates this is a blog run by a Christian group living in intentional community
Todd Hiestand is a pastor who has a blog devoted to missional living in suburbia
SmartChristian keeps it's finger on the pulse of Christian news

Just for Fun
ThinkGeek Great gift ideas for the geek in your life (wink, wink)
Woot! Random item that is on sale for one day only
FAIL Blog Pictures and videos of failed moments

Chicago Blogs
Here is a link to some of my Chicago Blogs of Note

Do you have a favorite blog not listed here? Leave the link in the comments and I'll check it out.

2008 in Review: The Big Picture

Aaron linked out to The Big Picture blog a few weeks ago and I have been enthralled by it ever since. They just released a three part series that captures some of the most incredible images from 2008. These photos put a human side on the stories that we hear about in the news. Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Consumerism

“From 1900 until 1989, U.S. population tripled while the use of raw materials multiplied 17 times. With less than 5 percent of world population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper. Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world. “

Sustainable Consumption: Why Consumption matters, Dave Tilford