I was at the 58conference November 7-8 that Chestnut Ridge Church put on, and I met some really cool guys from the organization Dry Tears, which they founded. The really awesome thing is, one's a senior in high school (Conner) and the other's a sophomore in college (Kyle)! I'm just so impressed that people so young are giving themselves to the work of justice (which was the theme of the conference, inspired by Isaiah 58).
Dry Tears is about providing one of the basic human needs that so many needlessly die from being without: water. Of earth's 6 and a half billion people, over 1 billion don't have access to clean drinking water. That's just rediculous. Most of the people who die from water-borne illnesses are children. Conner and Kyle heard about this stunning situation and were moved to action, but I think one of the details (the one for which they named their organization) is what caused them to really become passionate about the work that needs to be done. The terribly sad fact is, some children in this world are so dehydrated that their bodies can't produce the moisture needed to form tears. They cry but nothing comes out. Think about the last time you had a good cry. There's something healing in the saline moisture on your face, yes? There's some evidence that you've come through something; you wipe your eyes, and you begin to be restored. But these children sit in the dust and wail, dry as a bone, being killed from the inside out. Unbelievable.
Check out their website (I've added it to the JUSTICE section to the right) and get involved.
So I've officially missed a WHOLE month of blogging (October 2008), not even keeping up with my meager 3-a-month average. It stinks too, 'cause I feel like I have a lot to write about. I hope to make more regular writing a part of some changes to my routine that will bring some more balance to my life. I help with a lot of events in the ministry, and while I find great joy in doing those things, engaging in the creative is something molded into us by the finger of the Creator God, and I think if we don't take time for it we'll be less peaceful and more stressed.
In keeping with that sentiment, then, I've recently become part of a little community of artists (all of them more worthy to bear that title than I) mostly from Huntington University, a Christian liberal arts school my sister Colleen attends in Indiana. She asked me and my brother Christopher, who lives in Knoxville, TN to be part of it as well, and there may be others in it who aren't at Huntington. They call it Drawer Geeks Jr., apparently as an unofficial shoot-off from 'the real' Drawer Geeks. We have a theme every couple weeks, and that's basically all the structure there is to it. Yesterday I turned in my first effort for the theme WITCH. Here it is (I created it in a free program called Seashore):
I'm really a fan of artistic collaboration. I've done it with half a dozen people in songwriting, and even being a small part of a community like Drawer Geeks Jr. really helps sharpen your own skill and to see all the infinite directions a creative mind can stylistically take. Plus it's just fun to do something like this for the heck of it, not for any grade or specific evaluation! I've added a link to the blog where my sister posts everyone's creations; check it out, there's some amazing stuff there.
I was at the 58conference November 7-8 that Chestnut Ridge Church put on, and I met some really cool guys from the organization Dry Tears, which they founded. The really awesome thing is, one's a senior in high school (Conner) and the other's a sophomore in college (Kyle)! I'm just so impressed that people so young are giving themselves to the work of justice (which was the theme of the conference, inspired by Isaiah 58).
