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I am always inspired by innovative ideas and vision especially when they address issues close to the heart of God. Micro-finance is one of those ideas. In October of this year it was announced that Muhammed Yunas (founder of Grameen Bank) was selected as the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then there has been considerable attention given to the concept of micro-finance, and as a result many organizations working in this area are receiving more exposure. If you are not familiar with the concept of micro-finance I have included a few links and a video (16 min. documentary) below.

My business finance background finds this whole concept very intriguing. I have come to appreciate one organization that allows participants to finance entrepreneurs directly through the technology of the web. Through this organization you can setup an account, select an entrepreneur or small business owner online, provide a micro-loan, receive updates on your loan, get repaid, and loan again.  Check out Kiva.org and you can become a micro-financier within minutes. As you can read below the power of a very small loan can make a huge impact in the life of many in the developing world.

Resources:

• Great educational video (16 min. documentary) from Grameen Foundation
• The hidden wealth of the poor - The Economist
• Small Loans, Big Goals - Christianity Today
• The Nobel Peace Prize 2006 - Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank
• Basic Facts About Micro-finance - UNCDF
• Opportunity International - Christian Organization
• Grameen Bank - Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2006
• Take Tiny Loans to the Next Level - Business Week

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This past weekend Marta and I were invited to attend a hooding ceremony and graduation at George Fox Seminary. It was a pleasure to listen in as professors spoke one last time into the lives of their adult students. The students had the opportunity to share with those in the audience who have sacrificed so much to make their education possible. Students also gave praise to their instructors and fellow students who they have shared life with over the past few years. As the graduates walked in front of us I was looking for the face of that special lady we came to support. She was so beautiful! She was clearly beaming with pride and a sense of accomplishment. We were all so proud of her.  Let me tell you a little about this amazing lady.

She is one of seven children. This has its challenges and rewards. She has persevered through life’s pain in the most gracious and classy way possible. This lady is an elegant fighter and has not allowed life’s challenges to keep her down. With every curve she has found a way to seek God’s discernment and discover healing. She is continually growing and I suspect she will do so until her last breath. Her passion is to inspire the development of the inner life; a life that is in tune with and listening to Christ with each breath. This lady is real; there is no room for superficial fluff.

She has inspired me to live a life of purpose; influenced me to develop a healthy marriage relationship, helped me to learn perseverance, compassion, empathy, independence, the importance of service, good communication, and personal hygiene. I am still working on that last one. You may be asking who is this person and how could I get to know her. This amazing women is my Mom.  I am so proud of her!

Well done Master Mom!

Ecclesiastes 1:18 MSG
Much learning earns you much trouble. The more you know, the more you hurt.

Proverbs 1:7 MSG
Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.

Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study.  Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life.  ~ Henry L. Doherty

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.  ~Mark Twain

Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.  ~Abraham Lincoln

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.  ~Henry Ford

Learning is like rowing upstream:  not to advance is to drop back.  ~Chinese Proverb

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.  ~Confucius

Patience is the companion of wisdom.  ~St. Augustine

The years teach much which the days never knew.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.  ~Isaac Asimov

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.  ~George Bernard Shaw

Quotes from “The Quote Garden!”

 

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I must make a confession. When I was in high school learning did not come easily to me. Isn’t it like God to take an area of weakness and give us a passion to serve others in it? Let me continue to confess. Although I love to read and write it requires incredible focus for me to perform well. I will continue to be honest… To this day I have incredible test anxiety. I remember a few years back one of our Bible teachers handed out a test to the staff at an in-service meeting. He was giving us a Biblical knowledge test for fun. As soon as a copy of the test was placed in front of me I froze. In my mind it took me back to high school; to memories of walking into class the day of a test feeling unprepared and doomed to fail. It has taken me years to overcome some of the self doubt that resulted from my less than stellar high school academic career. My attitude toward learning has changed dramatically over the years. I believe that one of the primary contributors to that change is an understanding that learning is so much more than the ability to memorize information and repeat it back on a test (although this is an important part of learning)

I began to find areas of passion that propelled me to deeper levels of learning, late in high school, in college, and even more so in graduate school. As I matured as a student I began to understand what triggers motivated me to learn. I also began to discover that learning was exciting. Through the challenge of learning I began to not just acquire facts, but construct my own thoughts and opinions as I learned. I found learning was not just purely cognitive, but was beginning to influence my spirit, attitude, and my actions. Today I am passionate about the power of learning to transform us, especially when integrated with the heart of God.

If Westside is to strive for continuous improvement in the educational process where should we begin in order to get the greatest benefit for our effort? One of the elements of our recent visioning and strategic planning process is working to answer that question. What appears to be emerging from that work is a focus on our ability to inspire deeper levels of learning. Adding more content that is purely the memorization of facts does not accomplish the desired goal. We seek to develop in students a passion for learning, and the ability to shape well informed attitudes and actions. That does not mean we don’t need to study the facts, but that we must be intentional about training and challenging our students to apply, synthesize, and evaluate life as we learn.

Educational theory categorizes learning into three domains, the cognitive (what we know), the affective (what we feel), and the psychomotor (what we do). Within each of these categories there is a progression of learning steps that communicates with each step more ownership by the learner. For example, in the cognitive domain we begin with the ability to recall information, progressing to understanding, application, analysis, synthesis, and finally evaluation. If we are intentional as a school and in our classrooms and even in our extracurricular experiences to challenge students to move deeper in learning, they will be more prepared for college, and more prepared for life. Students will find that with each level of education (high school, college, post-graduate) higher levels of functioning in thinking, feeling, and doing are expected from them. Assignments change from fill in the blank worksheets to reflective yet documented opinion papers; from tests that require students to recall information to projects that demonstrate the ability to do something meaningful with freshly learned concepts.

In Westside’s mission statement we state a uniqueness of our educational philosophy, which is that we seek to “educate and develop the whole person to the glory for God.” Educating the whole person implies more than just downloading the facts from an instructor’s mind to a student’s mind. We want to inform the mind and inspire life long learning. We want to provide all kinds of challenging experiences that will incorporate the cognitive, but also force the heart to develop. We want to propel young leaders toward action and influence. It is through a posture of listening to Christ that we as a school seek to equip our students toward a life long process of learning – what they know, what they feel, and what they do.

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May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them
And turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen and amen and amen!

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 - A presentation for Advent at Newberg Friends Church -

As I look at the first candle we will be lighting for this Advent season I have mixed emotions. At first glance it is not particularly warm and inviting. There are no red or green bows or beautiful accessories attached to this candle, but instead barbed wire.

This year we will be lighting a “Peace and Justice” candle as the Advent candle for the month. Some may ask, “How exactly does this candle help us anticipate the Christmas Season?”

Well, the spirit of Advent is one of expectation, anticipation, and longing for Christ to rescue us from the shackles of sin and evil in this world. Our yearning for deliverance from the evil and injustice of this world was first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. This cry for hope and deliverance continues today. God hears the cry of the poor and the oppressed and has a plan to bring rescue and relief.

There are approximately 27 million slaves in the world today and 53% of the world population struggles to live on less than $2.00 per day.

Those are some sobering statistics. But they should also inspire us to respond. It takes very little on our part to make a significant impact.  We are part of the six percent of the population that owns 53% of the world’s wealth.

Rich Stearns, the President of World Vision wrote in a recent article that it would take between 40 and 70 billion dollars a year to end extreme poverty by the year 2025.

That seems like a huge number until you realize that Americans spend $450 billion dollars on Christmas. The average family spends between $300 and $1100 per year. Marta and I were challenged by a group of churches in Portland who have a vision to change the way they spend this money. They are challenging their congregations to give gifts this season in a way that will change lives. They have identified some local and global initiatives they would like to support, like linking with a local public school to support the poorest families in Portland with housing, food, and clothing. Globally, they will be partnering with other organization to provide clean water to communities through digging wells, and provide micro loans to support entrepreneurs in the developing world. (Listen to the sermon at Imago Dei about this challenge)

If two-thirds of the people in these five churches participate minimally, then they believe they would generate close to a million dollars to support these initiatives.

In our Church body if every family were to make that same kind of commitment we could generate $130,000.

As I reflect on Christmases of the past I don’t remember many life changing gifts that I received or gave. The most meaningful gifts have been personal and relational, and normally did not cost much money, but were given from the heart.

I challenge you to consider this incarnational approach to giving this Christmas. If you are interested in pursing this further there will be a resource page on the NFC website with links to organizations with gift ideas you can give or request from family members.

I can’t think of a more powerful image of the message of Christmas than to mirror the redemptive gift that has been given to us. God the father rescued us with the gift of His Son Christ Jesus. And through our gift giving we could be used by God to rescue others this Christmas.
 
Yes, there is barbed wire in this world, just like on this candle. Injustice, violence and poverty are a reality for the majority of people in this world, but our God is the Prince of Peace.  Our God is the light, the hope, and the solution, and He is inviting us to join Him in bringing peace and justice to the world he so desperately loves.
 

IDEAS:

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