theGodzwas.com

It’s the day after Thanksgiving and everything is on sale.  If you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping yet, chances are you found yourself hunting for a bargain.  We kept it simple.  A quick trip to Home Depot for our new tree followed by a brief online hunt and the Godzwa family’s shopping was over, but chances are we’ll find ourselves in a store tomorrow.  For the amount of money we’ll save, it would be silly to let this chance slip by.

But what if I told you that with far less effort you could possibly save millions of lives?  I’m sure you’ve seen the news reports about the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.  The numbers are staggering.  According to some estimates more than 400,000 have been killed and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes. These refugees face the danger of disease, starvation, rape and murder every day.  What can we do to help?  We can make sure their needs are not forgotten, especially during this Thanksgiving season.

Let your voice be heard by signing the petition urging UN action in Darfur.  It takes less than 5 minutes and it could be the best gift you’ll give this year.  Click on the picture above or go to www.savedarfur.org

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a video of the kids. Here’s Levi (aka “The Tongue”) showing off some of his developing talent and Sam jumping into the fun.

There are a lot of things I am thankful for today.  I’m thankful for my family, for the blessings of God, for good food (and a wonderful wife who makes it), for great friends, for football, and cranberry sauce (the slice-able jellied kind that comes in the can).  But I would be missing a huge category if I didn’t mention you, our awesome team of supporters!

Because of your faithful prayers and sacrificial giving, we’ve been able to see God do the miraculous here at American University.  This year alone we’ve seen students begin relationships with Jesus, learn how to follow Him more closely, ask honest questions, and take steps toward discipling their peers.  I know I’ve said it dozens of times, but we couldn’t do it without you.  You’re the best!

Oh, the picture is another thing I’m thankful for…Jen’s peanut butter pie.  I’m not sure why, but I have food on my mind…

For my wide base of email subscribers, I finally solved my issue with the subscription service!  Instead of receive the email saying, “theGodzwas.com has changed,” should now get the full post in your inbox.  Let me know if you have any further problems!

One of the reasons I love working with college students is because of their intelligence, hunger for truth, and passion for understanding.  An example of this is the blog written by Sereena and Chris, two of our student leaaders, for their discussion group.  They are reaching out to seekers, with a level of thought and commitment that humbles and inspires me at the same time.  Grab a cup of coffee, put on your thinking cap and get ready to go deeper!

Do you remember the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail?” In it there’s a scene where King Arthur and his men come upon two peasants and are given a lecture on political theory. The basic premise is that the common person is being repressed by the current “dictatorship.” Why am I thinking about this? I was out running today and I passed by the AU parking lot where Jen was robbed. My thoughts strayed to the past 2 weeks of dealing with the justice system. Needless to say there are many times I wanted to stand up and shout like Dennis the peasant, “I’m being repressed!”

The main reason for my frustration is that our systems are designed to add to the victim’s distress and allow the perpetrators to go free. For example, AU’s campus is wired with video cameras almost everywhere you look. Part of the current security upgrades this year is to install new blue light security points. These blue lights are highly visible distress signals with video surveillance in each. There are probably more than a dozen of these going up on a fairly small campus. Sounds like a good system for a safe campus right? Well, if you pull back the curtain and see who’s operating the system you’ll discover a very large flaw. The entire camera system is operated by 1 university employee who works from 9-5, Monday through Friday. This fall, our family has been the victim of 2 crimes where video tape evidence could have been useful in bringing the thief to justice. My laptop was stolen on a Friday night and Jen was robbed on a Saturday morning. The employee in charge of the surveillance equipment wasn’t able to view the video on the laptop theft until Wednesday. In Jen’s case, where a violent felony was committed, he didn’t view the tapes until Monday. THAT’S PRACTICALLY 4 FULL DAYS AFTER THE CRIME!!! I addressed the situation after my laptop was stolen and all I got was an apology and an assurance that they would look into it. Obviously, nothing was done.

The DC police isn’t any better. The thief was an idiot! As he ran away, he left the knife he used to threaten Jen lying behind our car. The CSI unit was on the scene immediately bagging the weapon and fingerprinting the car to get a positive ID on the perpetrator. In all the crime shows, the technicians go back to the lab and then run the fingerprints against all known criminals. I assumed that the same would happen here. Makes sense doesn’t it? I was wrong in my assumption. The detective (who was given the case 5 days after the incident) told me the only way they would use the fingerprint information is if they had a suspect (I guess the crime lab is too backed up to just run fingerprints). How do they get a suspect you ask? The same person needs to commit another crime in the same part of the city and get caught. Then they will try to pin this crime on him too. What is the chance of that? Slim and none. Do you feel the repression yet?

I’m feeling a little passionate about this. I find it difficult to be comfortable with the idea that someone else needs to be victimized to bring a criminal to justice. I’m in the process of working within both the university and the city’s policing policies to see change happen. It’s the right thing to do. Pray for us and pray for an advocate within both systems to bring about the justice that all people deserve.

Jen gets all the press in the family!  This time I’ll let her take it.  Follow the link to read an article about crime on campus.  Jen was interviewed by one of our student leaders who also writes for the AU Tunnel the campus’ alternative news source.

After our worship meeting this week I felt the need to do something out of the ordinary. Instead of just mixing with the crowd in the middle of the chapel, I walked to the back to connect with students as they walked out the door. That’s where I met Katie (not her real name) looking obviously distressed.

I asked her how her week was going and she didn’t mince words. “Not good…not good at all.” She went on to tell me that she wasn’t supposed to be at the meeting at all. She was on her way to a study session but as she passed by and heard the music, she decided to skip it and join us.

“You are probably going to say it was God who brought me here. I think it’s a bad habit.” Katie told me that because of all of the condemnation and judgment she’s seen in her church experience, she wants to abandon the faith that she’s been brought up on. As I asked her clarifying questions she kept saying, “I know what you’re going to say,” or “I know all about the Bible.” As the conversation ended, I encouraged her to not abandon her faith until she took a close look @ the life and teachings of the One who founded it, Jesus. I offered to meet with her to look @ the gospels and see what we could find together. This is where the painful part comes. Although she thanked me for the offer, her body language didn’t reflect a strong desire to take me up on it.

As I watched her walk away I got a bit of a sense of how Jesus felt when the rich young ruler passed on becoming his disciple. It’s an overwhelming sadness when you watch someone walk away from their God-given purpose.

Pray for Katie and for thousands of students @ American University who are experiencing the drawing of the Holy Spirit and pray for me that I would be ready when they respond.

A friend wrote a blog that touches on this matter. You can read Ken’s comments here.

In the front room of our apartment sits a little yellow plastic barrel that gets filled up with spare change. It’s a Buddy Barrel from the Assemblies of God program called B.G.M.C. and the proceeds from those funds goes to supply missionaries with literature or office equipment they need to tell the world about Jesus.

It hard to imagine that spare change amounting to much, but because of a whole lot of donations from boy and girls from all over Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, we have a brand new Dell LCD projector! Thanks kids for helping us broadcast the widescreen gospel message @ AU and thanks for sending a check instead of all those quarters.

Sam just learned the “Hokey Pokey” at school this week and now he’s going around singing “That’s what it’s all about!” Well, this week I’m reminded what campus ministry is all about.

One of our small group leaders told me about a conversation with Bill (not his real name). Bill had been turned off to organized religion a long time ago, by a grade school teacher. But because of the a number of different things that college life brought out, he began to explore Christianity for the first time. He got involved with a small group and became more excited about the Jesus he was reading about and experiencing in the relationships there. Last Tuesday night, Bill stayed after small group and talked with his leaders about taking the next step. After it was explained he said, “I would be glad to do that!” With that, Bill prayed to begin his relationship with Jesus. That is what it’s all about!