on the nicer side

our pastor at church shared a conversation on sunday that he had with a woman who bluntly told him that she didn't think fellowship church cared about the poor so she did not want to attend. he asked her why she thought fellowship did not care about the poor, and she told him to look around at the cars in the parking lot and the way people are dressed. the pastor then went on to tell her about fellowship's heart for the poor and all of the programs the church administers to help the underprivileged in the community and she decided to give the church a try.

although i do not feel that i need to justify that i care for the poor like our pastor justified our church's mission, and don't really want to write a whole entry on compassion (although it is terribly important, especially for christians), for the people out there that feel i have heartless soul, i would like to share a little bit of my heart/life. in last year, james and i have done a variety of things to help the community...

1. we worked (james still works) for camp war eagle. if you are not familiar with the mission of cwe, the camp was started 3 years ago from a walton foundation endowment to provide underprivileged kids in northwest arkansas with a premier summer camp experience. 80% of the children go for free (cost is based on family income), and there is no greater joy than seeing these kids escape the harsh reality of many of their family lives for a week of fun and love at camp.

2. we not only worked with these kids last summer, but we volunteer at events throughout the year for the kids and families, like the cwe christmas dinner where we served 400 of the poorest families in nwa a full turkey dinner and gave presents to 250 kids.

3. we've also served food at the samaritan community center.

4. we've initiated the good neighbor food drive in our neighborhood to help stock local food banks.
5. we've donated money to loving choices pregnancy center.

6. james built homes for families in mexico on a mission trip and we've supported other missionaries accross the world.

that's all of the tangible things that I can think of right now. i don't list these things to brag about how great of people we are because there are so many needs in the community and i wish we could spend more time volunteering because ultimately it is relationships that matter. however, i do recognize the need to help and love on the less fortunate people in the community. i've truly enjoyed getting to know these people (mainly the camp kids and families) and learning more about their life stories.

anyway, thank you all for your comments (both in agreement and disagreement) on the last post. i love discussing issues like this, and i especially love when people disagree because it challenges me to reflect and reevaluate why i believe what i do. although the high school debater part of me wants to break down the arguments and provide line by line responses, i think i'll pass.

a few random side notes though--pugsnotdrugs is my friend julia, who went to free state and jbu with me. although we've had our share of interesting blog experiences ;), i respect her opinions and experiences. we've actually emailed a couple times since my last post, and we agree on much more than we disagree on (i.e. the importance of taking responsibility, the need for improved education programs, etc.).

i'm not sure who kartasi is? apparently she's been stalking reading my blog for a while. i think it's ironic that she left a comment about not judging the poor, but in the same paragraph labeled me and my childhood as "upper middle class" because i grew up in lawrence and attended jbu. hm... that's kinda interesting. i never knew that all people who live in lawrence are upper middle class and i'm pretty sure i received a full scholarship to attend jbu, so my parents' income played no part in that (and while we're talking about giving to others, james and i donated money to jbu last year, too, as a small token of appreciation for all of the people who gave money to fund our educations). i deleted kartasi's comment because i thought it was rude and ignorant (and i have no idea who the heck she is).

okay i'm turning into mean silvy again. in other news, i have my 36 week checkup on monday and am excited nervous about the doctor checking my cervix to see if i am dilated at all. i kind of want to be dilated, but i'm not going to be disappointed if labor still looks far away (as in 4 weeks). the doctor will be checking me every week from here on out, which is pretty crazy exciting that our baby is close to being in our arms!

james and i might have big news soon (sorry sam, it's not that we're moving to denver :(). i can't say anything until everything is finalized, but we're keeping our fingers crossed and i'll give an update as soon as i can.

sweet dreams, good night. love you all!