Tents and Tarps

I know that everyone has heard about the earthquake the Haitians experienced earlier this month. The more I hear about it, the more I wish I was in a place in my life where I could just go down there and help do something. I feel so helpless when I hear about terrible disasters like that, but my heart is always with them. I've been praying for them and their situation since I heard the story. I've never been to Haiti. I've never seen their faces in person. But I've seen pictures. And after seeing those people in Belize last summer and learning to love them, I can't help but feel that same tug at my heart when I see the suffering these people are enduring.
I am so proud to be a part of a student body here at Harding that loves people all over the world so actively. The Student Association, along with Harding's administration, immediately began searching for ways that we could help. We had two University representatives go to Haiti and assess the situation and then come back and let us know what the most urgent need was. I was heartbroken to learn that these people that we see on the news sleeping in the streets aren't just the ones who have lost their houses. They are all sleeping in the streets because the earthquake came at night, and they're afraid if they sleep in their houses it might come again while they're inside. They're terrified to sleep in their own homes. Can you even imagine?
Anyway, the Harding SA, along with several other Universities and organizations, has organized an effort to sent tents and tarps to Haiti to provide shelter for those who have lost their homes, and for those who are simply too afraid to sleep inside anything more substantial than a tent. We have already raised enough money to send tents for 200 families who were able to sleep inside them last night. I am amazed at what God's people can accomplish when the love of Jesus is in their hearts.
So, this is an invitation to those of you who are still looking for a way to help. Go to https://tentsandtarps.org/ where you can see pictures and videos of the great need in Haiti and donate to TentsAndTarps. $50 will provide shelter for one Haitian family, but donations of any size are welcome and appreciated.
Even if you are unable to donate money, please, please keep praying for these people. God can work through this tragedy to bring about a divine light. Let's work hard to keep remembering our brothers and sisters even in the midst of our busy, but -honestly- comfortable lives.

"Sometimes it's sweet, and Sometimes it's sour."

I've been debating starting a new blog since my old one lost its funding back in August, but I was pretty self-conscious about it and unsure about how much I really had to say and how much time I had to say it. I don't want to steal Ellen's blog insecurity bit, though, so this is me moving on.

You're probably all wondering what in the world "life is like a pickle" means exactly. Of course, life is like a box of chocolates, but a pickle? Well, I'm glad you asked. The title is actually pretty appropriate in that it may be one of the first legitimately intelligent things I ever wrote. (If you're astute enough to hear a story coming, you should get used to it because, after all, there is a story for everything. There's even a story about how there's a story for everything. But this is not the time for that.)

When I was 8 years old, I wrote what I will call, for the purpose of this story, an "essay" entitled "Life is like a Pickle: Sometimes it's sweet, and sometimes it's sour." I can't reproduce the rest of it here, but it went on to talk about church and how attending church and being a part of God's people will make your life sweet and not sour. The section that is my personal favorite, after reading it again as a semi-adult, quotes verbatim an evangelism tract that has been in the foyer at Beebe Church of Christ since the Apostle Paul was knee-high to a grasshopper. Something along the lines of being "In the Lord's house, with the Lord's people, on the Lord's day." Oh, yeah. All of you BBCofCers know exactly what I'm talking about. Anyway, I don't remember writing this brilliance at all, but apparently my daddy was so proud of it that he showed everybody at church and copies were made and distributed.

So, needless to say, I've been "wordy" for as long as anyone can remember. I like words as more than a friend. It's a love affair that has molded and shaped my life for nearly 22 years now, and I'm currently trying my hardest to make a career out of it.

This blog will mostly be a way for me to indulge my love of language and my incredible self-interest while occasionally (hopefully) fulfilling the needs of my first love language. I hope that all of you in blog-reading-dom enjoy it at least enough to keep coming back because, after all, regardless of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I'm never writing just for myself.