What to do with the Church...

This past weekend I was working on a review of the movie "Butterfly" (Spanish title: La Lengua de Las Mariposas) the film, by José Luis Cuerda that came out in 1999, is set in Spain in 1936 roughly a year before the fall of the second republic and the start of "La Guerra Civil" the civil war that put Franco in power for decades. The Catholic church supported the fascists in this time, causing those in favor of the republic to become increasingly skeptical of the church and its representatives. To this day the church in Spain has not quite recovered from the damage done by supporting a fascist regime that tended to favor the rich.

For the same class I am also working on a research project related to the integration of schools in Northern Ireland, a discussion that believe it or not is more than 175 years old. This brings into discussion the roles of both Protestants and Catholics in the region highlighting crimes of all denominations involved. Within the conflict in Ireland the Catholic church became the underdog and continued to support its people, maintaining a strong presence. As the conflict has continued and the conflict ceased to be one in which a dominant culture oppresses the minority, and became two near equals still bitterly divided the role of churches in the fight only breeds resentment of organized religion. The arguments posed on both sides of the debate for integrating schools end up stemming out of political motivation rather than differences in faith and they come evenly split between the two sides of the argument.

So watching films for class, and reading material for my research paper this past weekend certainly took its toll on my feelings as far as the establishment of the church. Surely though, on a college campus, in the United States the outlook couldn't possibly be so bleak. Unfortunately following the last election there have been many voicing their view that America elected the "anti-christ" along with various other polarizing arguments adding to this notion that God would have voted republican though I maintain that if God was voting then we wouldn't need to. I'm not making an argument for or against either side in this past election, I'm simply trying to put forward that it sounds rather sacreligious to imply that God would endorse EITHER candidate.

Though the clencher for me last weekend, was when I went with my friend Amanda to visit a "homeless church" EARLY Sunday morning in downtown Miami. This worship service is held within another church building (that I will not name) this church refers to that section of the building as "the mission" there is a back door through which the homeless are to enter and those helping out at "the mission" can enter through the main doors of the church. Inside "the mission" there is a door that leads to the rest of the church building that has a sign on it reading "DO NOT ENTER Authorized Personnel Only" preventing the homeless from entering anywhere else in the church. Amanda was of course insistent that I, and those with us, enter through the same door the homeless enter through. When we sat down for the worship service a man welcomed all those attending to the service and did normal introductions, then pushed play on a laptop connected to a projector that played a previously recorded worship service from the "real church". There was no real person to lead worship, no real person to give the scripture, and no real person to deliver the message. The meal served by the church is prepared by different church groups from around Miami each week, so the host church, apart from a few representatives who are formerly homeless themselves, has no interaction with anyone in "the mission". The most connection that even those church groups have with the people at "the mission" is when they hand them their plate. This church doesn't even want to see these people much less touch them.

What ever happened to this: (Matthew 25:34-40 RSV)

34	Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
35	for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
36	I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'
37	Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?
38	And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?
39	And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?'
40	And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'

Honestly now? Am I wrong in saying that it seems like this church wouldn't even invite Jesus into the sanctuary?

Following this past weekend my hope for the church has dwindled. I know that as the BRIDE of Christ we can resemble the prostitute God asked Hosea to marry, I just tend to have such high hopes for us as the BODY of Christ.

I ended up postponing writing my review of "Butterfly" because I was too frustrated with the church to only critique it as I saw it represented in the film, especially because the film, to be honest, was far more forgiving than I was willing to be.

Back to School... ministry continues

I have 250 pages to read about Robespierre, 30 words in Ancient Hebrew to memorize (along with the "alef-bet"), along with plenty of reading up in Nutrition, and "Mathematics of Social Choice" all by Monday, gee... I must be in school again. This time with a twist, you see I'm now attending Florida INTERNATIONAL University, which would explain why my roommates are Peruvian and Puerto Rican and the friends who hang out at our appartment are Kuwaiti, Italian, French... and the list goes on, a combination such as this can only be found in Miami!

I am reassured that in the coming days I may have some extra time to finish my homework, unfortunately this "extra time" will be due to the possibility of Hurricane Ike hitting around Tuesday. My roommates and I are taking inventory of our hurricane supplies and looking into boarding our windows (we have one large glass sliding door in the living room).

Since wrapping up my year as a Young Adult Volunteer with the PC(USA) I have been busy working on a video of photos and video clips from throughout the year, but with school back in session I haven't been able to get to the final touches, plus I have some video that's not quite loading right. My goal is to have that done by the end of September. The only thing on my Christmas list this year is a plane ticket to Walla Walla for Christmas break so I can come visit for a couple weeks, and hopefully during that time I'll be able to share my story of what I've been up to all year. I can't tell you how homesick I've been, Florida is nice, and it's cool being able to visit my parents a little more often, but this deffinitely isn't home. It's very weird going back to school as a Junior (well FIU hasn't processed all my transfer credit yet so who knows what I am!) when all my friends are headed back for their Senior year, when Florida doesn't have any seasons (except for "wet"and "dry") I feel like I've just had a REALLY long summer break. Once I find a part time job (PLEASE be praying for that!) I hope to be able to schedule at least an afternoon or two at Sweet Home so that I can continue my work with the children there, I haven't seen them in about a month now and I miss them quite a bit.

Love in Christ,
Maggie

I haven't forgotten!!

I haven't forgotten that I promised you all I would post soon! Life has simply been chaotic the last few days.

A lot of things I've been hard at work on are ending, and many are just starting. Early August I'll be flying to visit my Grandparents in Iowa their region was affected by the Tornados that hit in late May, and I hope to contribute to the cleanup effort while I'm there. http://www.pcusa.org/pda/response/usa/midwestflooding-inia-061108.htm in spite of all the news of flooding, my Grandfather tells me that their town (Aplington, which is mentioned in the link I attatched) has been VERY dry, which raises concerns for farming in the area. My cousin Denny and her husband lost their home during the storms and one of their neighbors was killed http://www.courierwebcasts.com/play.php?vid_id=970&file=newhartford4052608.flv this is a video from one of the local news sources of Denny showing a cameraman around the rubble of her home, Grampa is in the background trying to help out. I fly out on the 7th of August, after a week I'll fly straight to the Young Adult Volunteer "Debriefing" retreat, as soon as I return home I'll have 4 days before fall classes start at Florida International University. This means that I need to have a NEW place to live before I get on the plane on the 7th!

Housing costs in Miami are incredibly high, and oncampus housing doesn't make things any cheaper. So please keep all these things in your prayers, and I hope to get you all a decent and proper update soon!
In Christ,
Maggie

Technical Difficulties

blogspot has been giving me some problems. I have made 2 very long posts in the last couple months, the most recent I made just tonight and spent a couple hours working on it. Unfortunately neither have been posted.

Thankfully HALF of what I wrote tonight was able to be saved, but I don't have the energy, or time to rewrite the rest tonight. So PLEASE, check back... maybe around Sunday afternoon (Saturday will be VERY busy for me) and I hope to have it up.

Hello From Princeton

Yep that's right! I am currently writing to you from the computer lab of Erdman Hall on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary. How did I get here? Well, I heard vague bits of information about a discernment event hosted by the Fund for Theological Education (FTE), told my site coordinator I was interested, and the next thing I knew I was on a plane to Newark, NJ with my roommate Allison who was just as well informed as I. Upon arriving at the airport we met up with several other people coming from a variety of faith based year-long volunteer programs, all of whom had been informed of a free trip to Princeton Seminary, and a day trip to New York to visit Urban Ministry organizations there. Upon later investigation only one person had the opportunity to sign up early and actually knew exactly why she was here, the rest of us were left to huddle together for heat speculating as to what cruel person would pay for us to fly to New Jersey and wait for a bus to Princeton that may never actually show up. None of us could possibly have expected the reception we received today.

Upon arrival at the seminary there were apologies right and left for a mix-up with the bus service sent to come get us, a gourmet meal was prepared for us... maybe it wasn't gourmet, but for once I wasn't eating a meal prepared on my meager grocery budget, it was absolutely amazing, and don't even get me started on dessert. We were each given our own individual room and bathroom in Erdman Hall, a very nice shoulder bag filled with a variety of things, a book describing experiences while working in Urban Ministry in New York (the Author of which we will meet on Tuesday), a 2008 catalog of seminaries in the US, a notepad, pencil, etc. We held worship in the chapel which had wonderful acoustics and the music director had our group sounding like a choir of angels in no time.

Tomorrow will be spent at the seminary with a variety of speakers and seminars, a little free time, and a little worship all thrown in together. I wish I could tell you all more about this, but I've just arrived and the trip all came together so quickly I can hardly believe I'm here! Allison and I got off the plane and exclaimed "LOOK! Deciduous trees! REAL grass! It's SOO green here! I bet the dirt is REAL too, the real brown stuff that grows things!! Oh look a HILL!!" I love my work in Miami and my community there, but I do miss the landscape and plant life that is so severely lacks. I hope to fill you in on more when it happens, but it's 1am and we have things to do tomorrow!

Life keeps rolling on

SO much has happened since I last posted on here. I keep promising that I'll try to keep up with this, and it never seems to happen.

Spring break has come and gone here, and with the arrival of spring came some new questions about my work here in Miami. I love my kids here, however I'm beginning to feel God calling me in another direction and so I've been discussing different areas in which I could become involved with my site coordinator. We've come up with some ideas but nothing is concrete yet, right now I'm really looking to move North, at the moment I live south of Miami near Homestead, and yet most of the activities I'm involved in such as the music ministry are in Miami itself, and the Main office of my agency (Family and Children Faith Coalition http://www.fcfcfl.org ) is also in the Miami metro area in the community of Little Havana so the commute is becoming very costly, I'm also wanting to live IN the community I work in, when I work in one place and live in another it leaves me feeling very disconnected with the community, and not to mention I simply don't feel as safe there if I have to commute in every day rather than being a neighbor.

Spring also brought a rise in gang activity, not only to the community I work in, but also to the communities in which my roommates work (they work in Homestead and Florida City to the south, I work in West Perrine to the North). Just before Spring break I was outside with the children when we saw a red truck speed by and turn onto the street one block away, we could still see it driving down that street through the gaps in the houses and all of a sudden we heard eight shots ring out. The children ran toward the church screaming, my coworker shot me a worried look, I yelled for the kids to pick up their book bags as they ran inside, folded my chair and walked it like it was the most routine thing in the world. My first drive by shooting, I thought I would have been scared. I'd really love to tell you that I was terrified, and my calm, rational response to the whole situation was just an act I put on to keep the children from seeing me panic. I wish I could tell you that I was just as scared, or more scared, than the children to go back outside when it was time to go home. The truth is though, that I felt nothing. Just a couple months before that I had to break up my first fight, and a few days later I had to break up another. My roommate Allison served here last year and the only real response she has had when I come home from these experiences is a sarcastic but empathetic "Welcome to South Florida." I feel very desensitized to this activity, and that scares me more than the activity itself.

In the last few months I've also been exposed to more racism, or at the very least I've made many more friends with varying racial and ethnic backgrounds being discriminated against. It's not just a Caucasian vs African-American or black. It's not Caucasian vs. all other races, it's not as simple as one group against the other, it's each race against every other race, nationality, and ethnicity. It's so hard to see friends caught in that, it is at times hard to be caught in that myself as well.

Last week I had the pleasure of a visit from my brother Travis, which was quite exciting, though brief. He is doing quite well in submarine school in Connecticut. As far as updates from the rest of the family Dad is still traveling the world for work and loving it, Mom and Hayden are doing well in their Kung-Fu class, Hayden just returned home from a spring break trip to Paris and London, though I haven't gotten on the phone to hear much of the details just yet, starting a few months ago he was placed in a higher work-out group on his local swim team, Mom and Dad are just excited that they got him back on a team so it's even better that he seems to be continuing to improve.

Prayer Requests

• Finances are getting tight for my family, and I'm sure for many others right now, so keep that in your prayers, and also pray that I can get the suburban sold soon and find something more gas efficient to alleviate some expenses in that area.
• The spring semester for Miami-Dade College is coming to an end (THIS WEEK!) and I'm stressing to get a LOT of work done, and trying not to procrastinate!
• A friend got himself into some trouble this week, it's mostly his fault, but there were also some circumstances outside his control.
• My roommates and I are entering a time of transition, in which I may need to move to a different location, and 2 other roommates will be moving out to work at summer camps.
• A friend of mine with our program recently left her work site as she no longer felt called to be there, however this puts her between placements because she doesn't feel called to be elsewhere either and she's struggling to find another ministry.
• Keep me in your prayers as I'm also looking to find other ministries to get involved with, though I am still working at my current site, and plan to keep connections even when/if I find a ministry further North.
• Also keep my transfer to FIU (Florida International University) in your prayers, I've been accepted and all that jazz, but there is quite a bit of paper work to get to. My housing arrangements for the fall are also still somewhat up in the air, I don't want to live on campus and I'm fairly confident I know where I'll be living but it's not completely nailed down yet.

Love in Christ,
Maggie

Happy New Year!!!

I'm a little late with wishes for a Happy New Year, but I thought I'd get them in anyway. God has been amazing and keeping me busy the last couple months. I hardly even see a computer anymore, and some of my days I'm out of the house at 7am and not home until 9 or 10pm. I've been helping out in the office at Sweet Home Church, working with the kids in the afternoons, taking classes at Miami-Dade College, and serving on the worship team for The Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse is the church I have attended every Saturday night since arriving in Miami. The Lighthouse formed out of Miami Music Ministries http://www.miamimusicministries.org/ the worship team that I serve on meets Monday nights to discuss the service each week and what kinds of changes should we make and where we feel God is leading us, as well as spending time in prayer praying over the prayer requests from that week. The music ministry seeks to bring people from the community to the music school to learn instruments and music theory, and out of these classes to form a youth band, as well as a band that plays at the lighthouse service, I cannot express in words how amazing the music is but please check out their myspace page, it has a couple of their songs on it http://www.myspace.com/lighthousemiami. The goal is to train the musicians to work and to build up music ministries elsewhere, as a result most the members of the band that plays at the Saturday night service work in various churches and ministries Sunday morning. Currently I'm taking guitar lessons at the music school, and I start piano lessons this week.

I no longer have internet in my house so I haven't been getting to the computer as much as I'd been planning to, it puts a wrench in the works, but I'm trying to schedule time to make it over here to the church computer to write both my blog and my newsletters. Things have been incredibly busy and I need time now more than ever to reflect on everything that has been going on. My work at sweet home, as well as my involvement at the lighthouse has been such a blessing this year, and I hope I'll have more time to share it with you all. This past month I was able to deliver my first sermon at the Lighthouse and they've asked me to preach again in about a month. God has been doing big things here in Miami I know there will be much more to tell.