Lazy Saturdays

Lazy Saturdays are probably the best days here. It’s nice to experience a culture and not always feel like we are doing “busy work.” Everyone spent the morning doing laundry, reading books for their book reviews that are due this coming Friday, and hanging out with Neha (Grant and Charlene’s “daughter”). First thing this morning we got to skype with Zach and Ashley! So good to see the almost newlyweds. One reason it was nice to have a lazy Saturday was because we didn’t sleep the greatest last night. We kept waking up from the scratching and rustling in the kitchen, AND NO it was not our CDH friends- it was the dirty RATS again. We couldn’t find them, but they left plenty of evidence that forced us to put out more traps. Praying for some dead rats tomorrow morning!

***A quick ‘book summary’ of a book Justin is reading…feel free to skip if you don’t have time to read it allJ***

Justin is reading a book called Simple Spirituality by Christopher Heuertz and would highly recommend reading this book. It was one of the books that we picked up from Urbana Missions Conference. He walks through 5 topics that have shaped his view on the poor and his spiritual walk.- Humility, Community, Simplicity, Submission, and Brokenness. The great part of this book is that most of his life experiences come from India and it makes Justin think about CDH and the importance of what we are trying to accomplish through this program.

Some quotes from the book for you to think about:

“ Humility affirms our need for God. It is required to approach God. The Scriptures tell us that when we humble ourselves before the Lord, God will lift us up (James 4:10). Humility produces obedience as a sign and symbol of our love for God. Likewise, humility “is not concerned with one’s own advantage but with that of others.” It’s an obvious prerequisite for authentic community”

In regards to Community he says, “those on the margins have a lot to teach us, yet our pride often prevents us from learning from them.”

“I began to see how we give to those who are poor. We figure people who are poor don’t mind what we give them, that they’ll take anything. So we give them our leftovers.

What if Jesus came to the door right now? What would he say? ‘I’m in town for a few days, do you know where I might be able to find a cheap hotel?’ Immediately I would offer Jesus my own bed, insist that he take it. He then might ask, ‘I’m hungry. Where might I be able to get a loaf of bread or a can of soup?’ Of course , I would sit the Master down at my own dining table and prepare a fest for him.

That’s how I would treat Jesus. But how do I treat my friends that are poor? How do I look my neighbors in the eye and recognize the sufferings of Christ in their poverty?”

In regards to simplicity he says “We want to make the issue about what we give, but in truth the issue is about what we keep”

In regards to submission he says, “The rich are tempted to allocate power according to what they own (I am what I have), so that submitting to friends who are poor in any sense is an absurd notion”

More from this book possibly in other blog updates. It’s too good to keep to oneself! So challenging, convicting, and inspiring.

That’s all for today. Listening to Jack Johnson’s Banana Pancakes while Laura, Ashley, and Kevin make us banana pancakes for dinner, then off to the theater (aka our living room with the laptop and projector!)