Holiday Life Update

Advent blessings, my friends and family!

I apologize for the delay in sending my second life update email. My instinct was to send one out in the fall with an update on how I was doing in Washington, D.C., but I did not want to clog up everyone’s email inboxes with too many life updates. In hindsight, I think it would have been appropriate to send out a fall update and so I apologize. However, this email is quite long and should fill you in on all of my happenings. I plan on sending out the next update when I am sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer (God willing) in early March.

Something you should know is that:

Shortly after I contacted you all last time, I started shaving my head and so I am now bald by choice. My hair had been thinning rather quickly over these past couple of years and so I made what my doctor has deemed “the virtuous decision.” I have gotten great feedback being bald thus far so hopefully you all feel the same way when each of you see me.

The coolest experience(s) I had in D.C. is:  

In early September, World Vision held its annual day of prayer. The featured speaker was Ebrahim Rasool, Ambassador from South Africa to the United States. He was an anti-apartheid activist who was involved in interreligious political mobilization. He led South Africa’s Muslim community in working with Hindus and Christians to fight against their country’s then-unjust government system. His emphasis in addressing us was on how each religion can maintain its own orthodoxy (where he says postmodernism has failed) while also finding areas of common ground with other faith traditions to advocate for the Common Good. Afterwards, the other interns and I had an opportunity to engage with him informally in conversation for around 40 minutes, which really reflects the passion he has for investing in the next generation of social justice advocates. To read my notes from his speech, you can visit my blog (linked at the bottom of the page).

Only a day later, thanks to a kind woman in our office named Daisy, we interns received free tickets for an advanced screening of the Good Lie, starring Reese Witherspoon (now available on DVD!), that was sponsored by Oxfam and Sojourners.

It is really a wonderful story that is appropriate for all age groups, I highly recommend it. After the screening, another intern and myself ran into Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners’ CEO, and had the opportunity to speak with him for a few minutes. He is such a kind man and gave the both of us a giant hug before we parted ways.  Rev. Wallis is one of my role-models and so this was a really memorable experience. The evening also provided a wonderful night out of us interns to enjoy each other’s company.

My fellow interns and I at the pre-screening of the Good Lie.

My internship with World Vision was:

A very amazing and impactful experience. The people at WV really do walk the walk when it comes to international development. It was an incredible environment to be in for three months and I grew greatly as a person from my time there.

I worked on the Advocacy Team’s Child Protection group under two supervisors who gave me meaningful assignments that allowed me to learn much about U.S. government foreign aid, international anti-trafficking programs as well as corporate transparency for Multi-National Corporations.  They very intentionally designed a curriculum that was challenging, but crafted to give me professional skills that I did not previously have. They really made an incredible investment in me as a person and I feel encouraged that the work I did will add to their efforts in the New Year.

Spiritually, I have been:

Incredibly blessed. I had the opportunity to attend a free-lecture by Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston (who is a member of Pope Francis’ core group of Bishops whose task it is to advise him on reforming the Roman curia) at the Newseum this past September on the new Pope’s evangelistic emphases. He addressed many different topics, but one story he told that reflects his passion for immigration reform has remained with me (funny enough, the story went viral a couple of months after the lecture). A non-English speaking immigrant man he was talking to had said that his wife recently called him from overseas and was upset about not receiving any money from him (who lived in the U.S. for the purpose of working to send home checks to his family). The man was very confused and troubled because he told then-father O’Malley that he had been mailing home every check he had and was living a very austere life in the U.S. so that most of his income could go to his family. O’Malley asked the man where he had been mailing the checks and so the man pointed at a large object across the street: a giant trashcan. The poor soul had been depositing most of his monthly check into what he thought had been a post-office box and his wife was receiving nothing in the mail no matter how many times she kept checking. The Cardinal says that this story reflects an important group of people who the American Church should be intentionally ministering to and advocating for.

In D.C., I attended Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church and was so incredibly blessed by that parish community. Before Mass, I attended adult Sunday school classes to learn more about the Syriac Christian tradition and made many friends in the process. The Mass itself was absolutely beautiful to participate in. When it ended, everyone in the Church would gather in the Social Hall and I made many more friends through those times as well. More than a few OLOL parishioners are reading this email so thank you, God bless you and see you soon. Before I departed from D.C., I received a blessing for my Peace Corps service in Morocco from Bishop Gregory Mansour, who leads the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn.

Where am I now?:

Before returning home to California, I visited my Great-Aunts Margaret and Theresa in Rhode Island. It was a blessing to see them again as well as some of my maternal cousins.  It was very sentimental staying in that house again because every generation of my mother’s family has lived there for some duration since my great-grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from the Portuguese Azores. My grandparents even lived there with my mother when she was little before they all moved to California after World War II. They had an absolutely beautiful picture of my grandmother and her unforgettable smile that brought me to tears since she is no longer with us. I was very close with my maternal grandparents and so it is always a blessing to be back in their old neighborhood.

I will be home in San Jose for one month before departing for Morocco. I hope that this will give our family some much-needed together time because we will not be reunited again until June or July this summer most likely.

Our staging for Peace Corps in January 12 in Philadelphia and then we will be shuttled over to JFK airport in NYC for a direct flight to Casablanca.

What you should know:

Service is supposed to be the “hardest thing I will ever do,” says Peace Corps and so your constant encouragement and prayers are appreciated. It would mean a lot to me to hear back from some of you since it has been a while since we last talked. My Skype is  evenstevenhoward and please do not hesitate to schedule a time to talk.  The holidays are busy for everyone, but I could probably use the encouragement around February because I expect to be a bit homesick then.

I also have a blog I will try and update more frequently than I send these emails out. You can access it at stevenhowardsjourney.blogspot.com


I also understand that some relatives receiving this email live near elderly relatives of ours who do not have access to this technology so I encourage you to share my updates with them as well because I know they are unable to get out very much.

In the meantime

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help any of you out if you are going through a difficult time.

God bless you all, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Consequences of Ignoring a Tornado Warning and the Importance of Trust in God

10/15/2014

Earlier today, I foolishly ignored a tornado warning and thought I would have time to walk back from Union Station to our building. The trip usually takes seven minutes and I honestly thought I would be able to squeeze it in before having to shut myself indoors. I have never experienced an tornado outdoors before and fortunately, DC did not experience a tornado today. However, both rain and wind reached their maximum power on my short walk. They were both powerful and caused the streets to flood, a state of nature to erupt amongst those of us left on the street (good ol' polic sci reference) and a suspension of status-quo when it comes to the idea of crosswalks in contemporary American society. I cannot put into words how frightening the experience was. Adrenaline was racing through my body and I instantly searched for shelter. It was so horrible I came close to knocking on the doors of people I have never met and asking for the protection of their homes. Fortunately, I safely made it into the supermarket down the street from our building. In Ohio, I remembered being in our dorm's basement for a while in the sole tornado I have experienced before. I didn't want to experience this in the supermarket lobby. I looked over and saw a lady from my office with an umbrella who intended to make a break for it. We have never spoken before, but I have seen her many times and always given her a smile. "Wait, I'm coming with you!" I shouted and her response was "it's a small umbrella...keep close!"We dashed through the worst of the storm and jumped over two impressively large puddles to make our way safely into the office and also soaking wet. Let me clarify that jumping into a pool would not have made me more drenched than I was this afternoon. Fortunately, a male intern let me change into his extra shirt and the many cups of warm water I had made the recovery sweet. I honestly sit here today in a spirit of dumbfound luck. Adrenaline rushes always make things fun in the moment and I certainly felt like Jason Bourne while running through DC, but I look back at the storm with a sense of fright and sit in appreciation of my safety.

Life, like this afternoon's storm, can often seem overwhelming and too fast-paced to keep up with. There are no shortage of issues racing through my mind and worries only seem to multiply off of one another by the day. I have most recently been reflecting on the importance of trusting God through the ever-changing adversities in life.  Ultimately, everything get puts into perspective through prayer and contemplation of the bigger picture. Adversity will come..sometimes we can even see it coming miles ahead of schedule. I don't believe trusting in God equates to an end to the rough journeys ahead. I also am not expecting God to give me any specific answers to the many, many questions I have for him now. Our relationship will deepen through my learned experiences along the path, but I must remember to keep Him close. All obstacles are possible to overcome with His strength. Unexpected happenings are occurring in my own life and there is no obvious result in sight for many of them. I see beauty, happiness and pain all as legitimate outcomes of what I am experiencing now. A closeness to Christ strengthens me and gives me lenses to view these new challenges through. Trust is what I struggle with most and also my greatest asset.

The Wisdom of Ebrahim Rasool, the South African Ambassador to the United States

Notes from dialogue between Dave Robinson, World Vision International Partnership Leader: Islamic Contexts, and 

Ebrahim Rasool, Ambassador from the Republic of South Africa to the United States

2014 World Vision Day of Prayer.

National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.

10/1/2014

Steven Howard

-Is adversity necessary for foundation of good character?

-Heart has a finite capacity. Fill it with bitterness, no room for love.

-What goes into your heart?

-In South Africa, we had conscious leaders who wrestled with their souls before they led.

-Before prison, Nelson Mandela was an intolerant man. In prison, he reflected on his previous 

prejudices. He needed prison to purge the bitterness from his heart before he became a leader of 

reconciliation.

-People aren’t our enemies, unjust systems are.

-In anti-apartheid activism, we had to make sure that whites were visibly apart of our movement. We 

had to hold black people accountable as well so that they did not form the impression that all white 

South Africans were evil and all non-white South Africans were good.

-Evil is not the natural endowment of a people.

-Truth and Reconciliation commission is based off of forgiveness.

-Notion of reparation for past wrongs does not work. Human life can’t be monetized. It discredits the 

suffering and pain of those persecuted to attempt to put a price on their tribulations.

-Post-modernism relativizes everything. There is nothing that lifts our eyes to visions above ourselves. 

Religions must respond thoughtfully with orthodoxy to nihilism (of which postmodernism is).

--Extra Note from Steven: Informally after his lecture, the Ambassador went into some more 

depth about this. He stated that meshing religions together isn’t the way for interfaith cooperation to 

work. Orthodoxy needs to be maintained, but the commonalities between faiths need to be emphasized 

when they are working together. So interreligious liturgies in South Africa would usually emphasize Old 

Testament passages so as to unify multiple faiths together. I also thought of his mentioning of Moses 

and Jonah in his own lecture—figures both of our faiths celebrate.

-In the Quran, God tells us to go on a different path. Not the obvious path of the Five Pillars of Islam, but 

on the path of freeing the people who are enslaved.

-Globalization discounts faith and tradition.

-Loving relationships with neighbors are prerequisites for a loving relationship with God.

-Rabbis state that compromise is the bridge between peace activism and justice activism. Peace activism

without compromise can perpetuate conflict and justice activism without compromise can post-pone 

peace.

-How do we makeshift from competitive faith to cooperative faith?

--We are battling for the very concept of faith in the world today.

-Forgiveness: You can’t ask for what you don’t forgive. You can’t refuse to forgive your neighbor and 

then ask God to forgive you.

-In South Africa anti-apartheid movement, we met in a World Vision property. No need for explicit

proselytization, we could tell the Christian organization was loving by its actions.

-Acts of kindness are physical manifestations of deeper missions.

-What we don’t know, we fear and act in ignorance.

-How do we do things both physical and metaphysical?

-We are facilitators of the reconciliation process.

-Extremism thrives when people are outside of their mandate.

-Victims can’t participate in reconciliation process...they’re not in a position to discuss. Release your 

people from victimhood. Mandela affirmed people.

-You can’t have “racial harmony” with inequalities between genders, religions, people of different sexual 

orientations, etc. because these latter inequalities invalidate a society’s perceived sense of equality with 

race. 

-Steven H.’s note: Sort of a new way of stating Martin Luther King’s, “Injustice anywhere is a 

threat to justice everywhere.”

Steven H.’s note: During his informal discussion with the interns after the talk, I asked the ambassador 

about we Americans can learn about racial reconciliation from South Africa. He stated the U.S. needs to 

understand that racial inequality in this society is not a thing of the past, but is still a struggle that needs 

to be viewed as such. Consequently, the reconciliation process here needs to continue and Ferguson 

should be viewed as an opportunity for dialogue and not division. He mentioned the U.S. rose to 

superpower status with large immigrant population and their descendants, but now we emphasize the 

“melting pot” model and we are not advancing at the rate we used to. He stated multiculturalism needs 

to be affirmed and celebrated. We have to celebrate our identity as an immigrant nation and stop 

forcing people to reject their native cultures.

-I also asked him what advice he had for my future Peace Corps service in Morocco since I am a Christian 

who will be working in a predominantly Muslim society. This is specifically when he mentioned the 

preservation of orthodoxy and the celebration of commonality note I mentioned above. He told me to 

emphasize my commonalities with the people there and not our differences.

5 Ways to Give Yourself Hope

One of the more difficult things about life after college graduation is that it can often hit people right in the gut and also in the first round. We each respond to adversity differently and we each reach a point when we've gotten beat up so bad that we need the best pep-talk our corner men can give us (gotta love boxing analogies). If you find yourself experiencing a dark night of the soul, feeling depressed, hopeless and like giving up, then I hope this short list of things I have learned that cheer me up can also help you get ready for a second round comeback!

1. No Work is Beneath You

The only thing beneath you is no work. If you find yourself unemployed, reconsider what standards you are setting for yourself and whether or not they are reasonable given your qualifications and the current economic climate. My Dad is a manager in the tech industry and told me that, given someone has the intellectual knowledge of the subject area, he has no problem with hiring people who have two years of experience working at Starbucks after college because it shows they are reliable and committed. Even if someone has relevant experience, he will usually discard resumes that reflect the person has been bouncing around from place to place for short periods of time, even if it is in the tech field. Say you have your degree and no experience, take something to support yourself and prove to future employers you are reliable. Your degree shows you have the academic knowledge, just support yourself for the meantime and be ready for the right opportunity when it comes.

2. Develop a Routine

One of things I do in transitional periods, or what Casey Mangan refers to as "limbo" for the post-graduate period of unemployment, is essentially anything that will get me out of bed. Exercise and volunteering are great outlets for the extra energy you are feeling at the moment. You might even consider scheduling your day hour-by-hour with different activities to keep yourself preoccupied. Definitely include time spent toward things like updating your LinkedIn profile and resume as well as job hunting. However, my friend Ca Do told me that he actually limited the number of applications he submitted every day during his limbo because he found it unhealthy to marry himself 24/7 to a task that takes most people a few months to complete.

3. Introspect

You may never have the same amount of free time in your life ever again. Go to church, go to mosque, go to temple...heck, go for a walk. If you don't know where to start, then do all of the above! During my period of limbo, I started my routine by attending Daily Mass at my closest church. I genuinely needed this time to pursue a closeness with God for spiritual healing. It was a very enriching spiritual experience and has helped me immensely.

You might also consider what exactly you view as the important part of your education. Socrates states that "the unexamined life is not worth living" and the ancient Greeks actually viewed education as a method of cultivating virtue. If you went to school for another reason (good job or lots of money), then take some time and reconsider some of the lessons you learned in school that will benefit your soul. A high income or prestige will not bring you happiness and before you move on to the next big thing, you must find (or begin the process of finding) happiness in your current state.

4. Reach Out to Your Family and Friends

Many of your new college-grad friends are probably having a difficult time during this rough transition as well. Call them (yes, with a phone and your voice!) and invest in those relationships. This probably will not result in a job, but what it will do is bring you a sense of fellowship in your current situation.

This is also a good time to intentionally give thanks for those members of your family who made sacrifices so that you can get to where you are today. Each family situation is unique, but a little introspection should give you an impression on who deserves a much belated thank you, world-class hug and some quality time spent together with none other than you (because you are a great person to spend time with!).

5. Stop Driving

I mean it. The automobile fosters individualism and isolationism, two things which are not terribly helpful for you at the moment. In my own limbo, when I attended daily mass every day, I rode my bike to the church from my home. The world is a completely different place when you use alternative means of transportation to get to where you want to go. People will say 'hello', little kids will wave and you will find yourself a large number of adorable dogs to pet. The exercise and exposure to nature are also excellent for your mood. Plus, you never know who you will meet once you cross your threshold!

And Finally...

Be bold and do whatever it takes to just keep moving forward. Remember you are never alone and if you ever feel alone, glance over list items 2-5 and pursue relationships with your fellow man.

Now go get 'em, tiger!

A Smooth Transition

Well, it's almost been two weeks of interning at World Vision so I thought I'd so some blogging on the experience for my own reflective purposes as well as to brief everyone on what it's like working there. After being taken out to lunch on the very first day, another kind staff member took me out later that week. We're both Catholic and seem to hold vastly different political views. He treated me to lunch and we had a 1.5 hour discussion on the political applications of our faith. Honestly a great conversation and a great person to work with.

The team and many of the people are just so incredibly kind and passionate about their work. On Monday, Richard Sterns, WVUSA's president, met with our team and I had an opportunity to meet him, which was a privilege. The discussion was how to balance advocacy with education so that we are not moving separately from the church and that Christians are moving together in the fight for justice. I wrote a reflection for my supervisor on how WV might need to engage with my generation. I volunteered to do so and he said he would be happy to read it. I felt compelled to because my generation of the church is quite different from our parents and grandparents' generations. I basically wrote that engagement strategies have to account for the diversity of the church in more ways than one and that over-catering to one demographic can result in irrelevancy in the future if the next generation of advocates isn't invested in. I had only been there at a week up until that point and I was lucky to even be present at the meeting. Consequently, I knew a meeting with the president was not the place for a weeklong intern to speak up on these issues.

Today was a rougher day, but I am so grateful to be in this environment that my appreciation overpowers my fatigue. It was tough because I was given less than a day to prepare the intern devotions, which about 20 people attended last week, and only four of us ended up attending this morning. I don't know what happened, but I felt a bit disrespected by those who didn't attend. Of course, there may be factors I don't know about and so I just brushed it off.

This week, I helped my supervisor prepare for a testimony before a congressional committee that will be happening tomorrow. He actually included some of my research in two appendices attached to his written testimony submitted to the commission. It was such a blast and I loved the work. He's taking me to watch his testimony tomorrow and I bought him an American flag lapel pin to express my gratitude.


Honestly, I love working here and I love this type of work. I also love the church, social justice and advocacy. This type of work is so much more rewarding at the moment than anything partisan because we get to critically engage so many different types of people to advocate for social justice. If things continue to go so well, I'm going to discuss options regarding returning after Peace Corps for another internship (which I can afford with the readjustment allowance) and/or a job. The field experience should make me a desirable candidate for employment. Of course, a lot can change in 27 months, so who knows what will happen? Still though, this or ministries like NETWORK and Sojourners seem like wonderful places to apply and I know the work would be very rewarding.

At the very least, I will schedule an appointment at the end of my internship to meet with my supervisor and ask what I will need to do to work for this type of organization in the future, even if I don't posses the current qualifications now.

Here's a link to info on the hearing (and where it can be watched on television): http://tlhrc.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1267

First Couple of Weeks in D.C.

This is my third time visiting our nation's capitol and I have such a different take of this city as a resident and without a tour group. Although D.C. has a bad rep as a city to live in, I am witnessing an urban renaissance take place across the District's neighborhoods. Many neighborhoods I have walked in are safer, even at night, than my hometown of San Jose. I don't want to communicate that things are perfect here because the poverty is quite apparent. Also quite apparent is the local population's disdain of the federal government over their lack of representation in Congress. The official motto on D.C.'s license plate is "No Taxation Without Representation," and I strongly feel their lack of congressional representation is a national shame. On the other hand, the city's residents enjoy the best infrastructure I have seen in the U.S. and the many jobs the federal government has to offer through its various offices and museums.

Here is an example of how hipster my neighborhood in Tacoma (walking distance to Maryland) is:

It's a "Little Free Library" on someone's front yard. You can take a book and leave a book at your leisure. It's just such a charming concept.

Unfortunately, at the same time, poverty is a reality here. If I walk the opposite direction of my hipster neighborhood, I don't exactly feel the safest. Many areas of D.C. are like this, one minute you can find affluence and another your heart can break over what you see.

My first week was sightseeing and I got a good deal of that in! There are a couple of interesting things I haven't checked out yet, but I'm just waiting for a weekend with beautiful weather to do so!

This past week was my first interning with World Vision. So far, I am the happiest here than I have ever been in a professional setting. First day on the job was an advocacy meeting right next door to the White House (1700 Penn) that my supervisor allowed me to participate in. I got taken out to lunch twice by staff members on our team and my fellow interns are some of the nicest colleagues I've ever had. I think I'm the only one amongst them not in a master's program and so I'm using this as a blessing to learn from their wisdom.

I'm going to check out a new church tomorrow so I hope that goes well. If it doesn't, there's another mass in the evening I will inquire about somewhere else. Last week, I went to mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It may be the most beautiful church I've ever seen, which is saying a lot considering the many holy places I've been blessed to see.

I do have pictures, but I'm afraid we may have another "Rome" on our hand where they all get uploaded at once. I'm still sorting through some of those bad boys...

Speaking of Rome, I do miss the eternal city...It's been about a year since I studied abroad there, but it's fresh in my mind and always in my dreams. I'm so happy I chose to go there last year, what a blessing. I truly hope to return there someday, but will only do so on either someone else's dime or to take my own children to visit. Kind of a random end blerb, but I am just reflecting on how blessed I have been.

Charity Is Not Enough

As a 22-year old raised in the Church and educated in Christian institutions for my entire life, including college, I have a great deal of many feelings towards a great deal of many topics. When I look at the Church today, I am indeed as concerned as every other Christian author, blogger, Facebooker and Tweeter about a number of seemingly problematic beliefs that are beginning to manifest themselves in the Christian community. Some of these may be categorized as liberal and others may be categorized as conservative, but it is clear that the political polarization that is occurring in Washington has done its damage to the American Church.

One of the most dangerous and erroneous beliefs is how Christians are starting to view charity. In a sense, political apathy and the ascension of libertarian thought into mainstream political discourse have begun to negatively influence the political philosophy of many of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are seeing more and more Christians in public life assert that social injustices can be remedied entirely by the Church and that the government should have no role in addressing them.

Representative Paul Ryan is one of the better-known public figures who espouses this sentiment. He shared the theological foundation behind his views in May 2013 at Benedictine College by once more expressing that private institutions like the Church should take the place of “big government” in addressing poverty in our society. In particular, the potential 2016 presidential candidate states that the issue with government efforts to tackle this epidemic is that “[t]o truly help the poor, we have to help the ‘whole’ person – not just the material needs, but the spiritual ones too.” 

Now, if he were asserting that the state cannot be the only institution addressing the needs of the poor, the Congressman would be correct. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI even agrees with Ryan, a Catholic, by stating: “Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic.”

View of the outside world from atop St. Peter's                                                                                             Basilica.

However, in a seeming critique of materialism, Ryan moves in the opposite direction and favors a relationship between the body and soul that holds the two in distinct and separate categories. In particular, he asserts that “government can’t give [spiritual] help because…[i]t treats everyone the same…[s]o we need to look for people outside of government [to give this help].”

It is necessary to question Ryan’s understanding of physical and spiritual poverty as mutually exclusive concepts. There are of course rich people who are poor in spirit and poor people who are rich in spirit. However, the congressman’s characterization here and his wider economic views indicate that government efforts to address systemic poverty are in vain because the state, through social programs, cannot address the needs of those in spiritual poverty whatsoever. In Strength to Love, Martin Luther King, jr. addresses the problems that can arise with such an understanding of body and soul:

By disregarding the fact that the gospel deals with man’s body as well as with his soul, such a one-sided emphasis creates a tragic dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. To be worthy of its New Testament origin, the church must seek to transform both individual lives and the social situation that brings to many people anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.

This issue, identified by King above, is why Benedict offers the following criticism to the sentiment espoused by Ryan: “We cannot ignore the fact that some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity.”

So we understand that the Via Media is neither an overreaching government nor a minimalistic government. Christians should view Church and State each as necessary components in addressing the needs of the poor. This is true because the state is indeed the necessary institution to carry out certain forms of justice. The German martyr and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer expressed this balance properly when he chastised the silence of many Christians during the Nazi regime by stating: “Only he who cries out for the Jews may also sing Gregorian [chant].”

Lastly, we must consider the Church’s perspective on combating poverty since the former-vice-presidential candidate argues for it to take on a greater role in this struggle. There is no need to bring a single additional theologian into the conversation because we the Church have been addressing these issues. My own ministry experience dims drastically in comparison to most who are reading this, but I’ve done enough work to realize that the Church does not have all the resources by itself to address every social injustice plaguing our society. When I’ve worked in classrooms, met with deported American immigrants in Mexico or seen the sub-par health-care in many of our lower-income communities, I’ve quite naturally become an advocate for comprehensive education, immigration and healthcare reform.

Perhaps, there is no better guideline in Scripture on how to be a good Christian than the Parable of the Good Samaritan found in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus tells an inquiring legal expert that he is correct in asserting that love of God and neighbor are what is necessary to inherit eternal life. However, the lawyer, true to his practice, presses the rabbi to elaborate on the word “neighbor” and that is when our Lord tells the tale of a Samaritan having mercy on an injured and abandoned Jew on the Jericho Road. Here we are reminded that love of neighbor extends toward all of humanity.

In STL, King makes an absolutely crucial reflection on this story by stating: “it is not enough to aid a wounded man on the Jericho Road; it is also important to change the conditions that make robbery possible. Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the systems of economic injustice that make philanthropy necessary.”

As Christians, it is our duty to both help the traveler and fix the road.

Senior Sem

Link to my Senior thesis on Church-State Relations in the U.S. and France:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7KWno-Ttka1TUxJS05KMnp2ZHc/edit?usp=sharing

Just Graduated!

Me and my good-friend Rachel-Grace at APU's graduation

--HEADS UP: May 2014-January 2015 is Pre-Departure Information. Morocco service begins in January 2015. Begin there if you wish to only read the travel sections.--

Well, on May 3rd I graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (and a minor in Theology) after quite an adventurous four years in college. It was a very emotional experience, but I feel a very quiet motivation within me to keep pushing forward for greatness (for God, not personal glory). On my graduation cap there are images of four individuals who I hope to be like in my life: Abraham Lincoln, J.K. Rowling, MLK and Pope Francis. The future, without question, will bring forth challenges, but a faith in God's love is what is necessary to help me strive through all of them.

In retrospect, there are things I could have done better, relationships I wish I could have reconciled and opportunities I should have pursued. However, I look back on my undergraduate career as insanely busy (Marathon, Study Abroad and founding a political organization!) and filled with plenty of risk-taking. I think the essential thing for me to bear in mind moving forward is a commitment to my own spirituality through practice of the spiritual disciplines. I've traditionally been quite poor at this so prayers are appreciated as I navigate through these uncharted waters in my own life.

As for now, I  am learning Arabic and am also reading the Lord of the Rings. I have a long time until my departure for Morocco (7 months) and know there is much wisdom for me to acquire until then.