In a word or less: good. In a few words: not what I had expected, but definately a gift from God. For the unabridged version, well, you’ll have to stay tuned to hear more about the specifics.
But as of today, I’m officially (more…)
I got a call from my friend & staff partner Abner last night just before I was going to bed. “36 students stood up to relate to Jesus.” He had just spoken at UCLA as part of a week long “No Ordinary People” event this week. Abner was talking to a mostly Latino student audience about human trafficking & modern slavery in light of the Gospel. So exciting.
More reflections on the event from Serving Bread.
Via Vivirlatino.com - Scholarship opportunities for Latino college students: documented & otherwise.
Printed copies will be distributed through the Sallie Mae Fund’s national “paying for college” bus tour, which launches its California tour today. Additional scholarship directories will be distributed by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, and by the Hispanic Scholarship Fund at their programs throughout Southern California.
Download a copy of the directory at LatinoCollegeDollars.org. FYI - looks like this is just for California Latinos. Don’t know if that means going to school in California, graduated from H.S. in California, or just California dreaming.
While I had hoped to spend some time during the holidays updating my blog & making some design changes… that didn’t happen. But I’m back blogging again, so look for the changes in the next few weeks. As I come to the end of my sabbatical and return to campus in February, look to see this blog continue to morph. Not anything drastic, but you can expect a lot of the content to center around the following (but not always related) themes: following Jesus, the Bible, etc.; Los Angeles, life in Boyle Heights, ghetto birds, etc.; college students and campus life; sports; and my beautiful daughter, Isabel and the joys & sorrows of raising a daughter with cerebral palsy. More on all of that to come….
I’m trying to finish my final paper for my Old Testament Writings class - been “working on it” all day. But mostly just been trying to press through my writer’s block. I’m getting the basic framework/structure though. And a title - “Complaints, Questions & Love Making.” also known as “Things that don’t scare God”. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I just sent out my December newsletter in yesterday’s mail. Here is an e-copy of it if you like:
Way back in September 1992, I had my first - of what has become many subsequent - experiences of new student ministry. Back then, I was the new student. Since then, I’ve been the one welcoming new students on campus. Because of the timing of my sabbatical, this was going to be my first year not being involved in the “its a new school year” experience of college life.
But this past Sunday, (more…)
“This is going to take years to correct because it took years to decay.”
This from Robert Taylor, new L.A. County Probation Chief for the Juvenile Detention Deptartment, talking about the state of California’s rehabilitation system, taken from today’s LA Times. Read the whole article.
…when you send your only daughter to college. The LA Times tells a heart-felt - if not melodramatic - story about a Latina from Highland Park named Betty Perez who decides to go to college on the East Coast. I think it is a telling tale of the Latino/a college experience on (at least) two fronts.
One, it highlights many of the family dynamics & paradigms - the blessings & the challenges - that Latino students bring with them when they are in college. (more…)
“En sabática” = on sabbatical = rest. That’s what I’m looking forward to. Yesterday I started my 6-month sabbatical from my ministry with InterVarsity at CSULA and with La Fe.
While the day-to-day of my sabbatical is still taking shape, I’m looking forward to the freedom to focus more on my wife & daughter, to rest (I’m taking an on-line photography class) to read (I’m sure I won’t get to every book on my list, but I’ll try), to some time for deeper study (I’m hoping to finish James and start another core book study, plus taking a class at Fuller in the fall), and to do some significant reflection on my past 6-10 years of ministry to get a better vision & direction for the next season.
I’m really grateful for how InterVarsity carries the value for renewal of those in ministry that taking this sabbatical will afford me. I’m sure a lot of my experience over the next several months will show up here on this blog.
“Within four years of leaving the foster care system at 18, roughly one-quarter of youths are homeless, one-quarter are incarcerated and one-third receive welfare. Fewer than 1% graduate from college.” LA Times, July 19th, 2006
When you multiply that to 4,300 kids a year, that is an epidemic. When you couple that with the breakdown in education, we’re talking about a youth catastrophe. As the chief of governmental affairs for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, Mitch Mason says, “Raising kids in foster care does not promote good outcomes. There are some kids that have achieved great success, but kids need families. They need permanency in their lives.”
Those are the statistics. Then there is my boy Davon.
Even though I posted about heading into jury duty two weeks ago, I’ve hesitated about posting a response from my experience, since it turned out to be a very personal experience.
I went in to fulfill my patriotic obligation - to serve jury duty. Like most of you, in the back of my mind I was hoping I could find a reason to get dismissed, or that God would orchestrate something that would get me excused. After hearing the “jury-duty-is-a-huge-honor-and-a-great-service” welcome speech, I began to think maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
So I was curious in anticipation as my name was called for the first jury selection of the day. “Maybe this could be an interesting experience,” I thought, walking through a 2nd security checkpoint to the courtroom. “I wonder what the charges are?”
Not a full four days later, after returning a guilty verdict for 1st degree murder in a gang-related shooting, my conviction about jury duty had about-faced, and my head was swirling… (more…)
Last night, while most other students on campus were moving out, or starting to party because finals were finished, our handful of students from DEEP finished up our last session for the quarter of studying the Gospel of Mark. We started in January & made our way - week to week - through about 1/3 of the gospel, examining Jesus under the microscope. Last night we spent some time stepping back from the microscope to see… (more…)
UPDATE - “C-O-I-N-T-I-S-E” - really? wow! Great shot at it, Kendra!
UPDATE 2 - “B-D-E-L-L-O-I-D” - way to nail it, Finola.
UPDATE 3 - “U-R-S-P-R-A-C-H-E” - nice. Love seeing Finola taking second. You go girl.
I’ve been meaning to post this link for a couple weeks. The LA Times had an article in their Sunday magazine (link is to the author’s site) in April on a club at UCLA for undocumented immigrant students. It’s important to put a human face on the immigration debate. Here’s an excerpt:
If archers and anime fans could have student clubs at UCLA, why not undocumented immigrants? They called themselves IDEAS (Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success) and gathered weekly, talking about all manner of frustrations: how mortifying it is to get carded at an 18-and-older show and have no ID . . . How frustrating it is when people make fun of you because you can’t drive, when you can’t get a license in California. How you hate lying about stupid things. How sometimes, even though you would never tell them, you blame your parents for coming here the way they did and making your life so difficult.
But the conversations usually turned pragmatic. Some administrative staff in the finance and registration offices were unaware of AB 540 and openly hostile to students whose files lacked a Social Security number, telling them that their admission must have been a mistake or that they didn’t belong in college.
Recent surveys of females on spring break have shown some alarming results:
• 83% of college women say their break will involved heavier than usual drinking, including drinking most nights during the break.
• 74% said that women use spring break drinking as an excuse for “outrageous” behavior.
• 74% also said that spring break results in increased sexual activity, with
• 57% saying that promiscuity helps women “fit in” on spring break.
• 84% said that images of girls partying on spring break contribute to reckless behavior
• and even more (86%) agreed that those images may contribute to dangerous behaviors by men toward women.Among those who had gone,
• 52% regretted getting sick because of their drinking,
• 40% regretted passing out,
• 20% regretted sexual activity.
• In addition 13% reported sexual activity with more than one partner during their break,
• 12% report being forced or pressured into sexual activity
• and 10% regretted engaging in public or group sexual activity.
I took two of our students shopping for food on Monday, had lunch with two of the women in our group yesterday, and am going to see their tennis match today. It makes me grateful for the growth I see in their lives that they are able to make choices different than their peers, and it reminds me of the need for gospel witnesses on the college campus.
“Inner-city parents desperate to use vouchers to send their children to values-forming parochial schools can’t, because the reigning political calculus holds this would somehow “advantage” an abortion-resistant Catholic Church. Meanwhile the only values taught now in public schools are diversity, tolerance and respect for the environment…Maybe it’s time for the sex obsessives on the left and right to take their fights over abortion and gay rights into a corner somewhere and give the rest of society space to restore some ethical rootedness in an endlessly variable world.”
Read the whole thing here.
Jesus, I commit myself to you in holiness and abstinence,
for your love to cover me,
for your life to fill me and satisfy me.I commit myself to you in purity,
giving you the keys,
giving you authority.I want the gift of sex in the context you made it in marriage. I take this ring as a solid reminder of my union with you, and as a reminder of what great value you are to me.
I give you my sexuality.
I give you my identity.
I give you my confidence and trust.
Amen.
