Inside people's hearts

I came across this video about seeing what other people are experiencing - seeing life from their perspective.  Very interesting and moving.  Reminds me a bit of the scene in the Bruce Almighty movie I saw with all the voices he hears in his head that are the prayers of the people.

A very daunting task - really seeing what others are experiencing. Overwhelming to be sure.  Good news is we don't have to be God - God is God and we are not.  God deals with everyone - we just need to do our best with the people around us in our sphere of influence. In this global economy that sphere of influence may include people far away from us - but the decisions are carried out locally as we use our gifts and talents on God's behalf.

Empathy to action... led by the Spirit; Christ at work in us - Colossians 1:28-29.

That's what the Wheat Ridge grants support in many congregations around this country and the world.  People see a need and respond.

There's an app for that...

 David Ellingson and Mark Jackson, both from Trinity College in Everett, WA, have developed an excellent experiential learning process called SALLT - and now an app to go along with it. 

You learn best by experience.  But you learn best of all when you are intentional about the learning experience.  This process and the app are useful for all kinds of situations of experiential learning.  Check it out!



Wheat Ridge is involved with Dave and Trinity College in a project called "Rooftop Garden". Very cool.

Community Garden project...

The good people of Prince of Peace Lutheran in Portland, OR are on the first year of their community garden project.  Parish Nurse, Karina Wehrspann, initiated the idea and applied for and received a Congregational Health Ministry grant from Wheat Ridge to help make it happen.  They have 22 single layer 4X8 garden plots and 3 handicapped (raised) 4X8 plots available for use by the community.  It was a welcomed addition to the neighborhood for the folks living right across the fence in a condo unit - with no room for growing anything.
Goals for the project:
- outreach project so the church property would be a place for the community to gather;
- a place to grow produce / healthy food;
- 10% of produce of each plot (plus all the produce from unclaimed plots) goes to Care to Share Food Boxes program for Washington County.

Garden plots are well on their way.  15 plots are claimed by individuals (half from the congregation and half from the community) and the other plots will be planted by volunteers so all of that produce can be shared with the community.

Banana keyboard...

This is what blows the mind of a 1st Century Doctor.  I can hardly believe what your scientists and many creative minds are able to come up with.

A tiny glimpse into the Creator's mind to see all these people come up with cool spin-offs... "Let there be..."

International Connections...

I spent the morning yesterday with the good people at Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit in San Francisco.  Well named - certainly Christ's Spirit is at work in the people of that place.  I was priviledged to deliver the message that day. First worship service was to a very young crowd of English speakers (more than 80 of them would be leaders for the coming Summer Day Camp program at the church).  Second service was to a packed house and the worship was completely in  Cantonese.  I needed an interpreter (both directions) but it was a great experience.

This Church had received a Burst Project grant from Wheat Ridge for a Special Needs ministry.  I spoke on a theme of "God Muliplies" and walked them through my sermon outline online (they followed on their smartphones and video screens) and then we did a quick mini tour of Wheat Ridge Ministries as well.

This church isn't the only international Wheat Ridge project connection.  They also have a project in Hong Kong as well, and have had many others over the years.

Nutritional Choices... How to decide?

I still can't get over how much choice you have here in the 21st Century in your food stores (although, to be accurate, the variety of choices is not world wide... the 'western' world has many choices; some of the people in the world do not have any. That is the subject for perhaps another post).

It is mind boggling to think about having to decide between all the choices.  What criteria should you use?  What criteria do you use?  Taste, price, ease of preparation, how healthy is it?

Here is an interesting concept.  I wonder why this was not invented sooner.  NuVal - a simple number, decided with algorithms (Google searches work pretty well using those, don't they?) that can tell you, basically without bias, which food item from the same food category is the most healthy - the higher the number, the more healthy it is.  You can even compare across food types... the higher the number, the better it is for you.

Check out your local grocer to see if they have it. If not, ask them to get involved...  Much of what makes us healthy - or not - is decided when things get put into the shopping cart.

Mapping the Brain in the next ten years...

As 21st Century scientists did with the human genome, the plan is for a ten year project to map the human brain.  Exciting stuff... can't believe how much human knowledge has grown since the 1st Century - and much of that has really happened in the last 100 years!

Ten years to map the brain.  What about Pastors taking a year of their Circuit Conferences and Educators taking a significant portion of their in-service time for a year and focus on some of the best books out there on current knowledge of the brain. This emphasis on brain research will present an even bigger seismic shift in our ability to understand the brain and how it works, and how that applies to the way we do things... some practices will be reinforced, others will need to change.

And, as with the new genetic information, the scientific world needs to hear the theological voice on ethical issues as well.