Adam Gonnerman

Children Face a Long Wait for Adoption in Brazil

2012-05-25T11:58:00.000-04:00

Saying grace before breakfast with the children at Missão Criança..

In 2009 Brazil's "National Adoption Law" went into effect. Aside from eliminating direct, private adoptions (all must now go through a court process), it has also slowed down the process of adoption for thousands of children. With all the best intentions, this law aims to promote the restoration of children to their biological families before permitting their adoption as a "last resort." The effect, as I indicated already, as been to drag out the legal process. Biological parents are encouraged to visit their children before finally signing off, and efforts are made by social workers to get the children back with their blood family if at all possible.

The statistics are startling. Of the 39, 383 children currently living in orphanages, only 5,215 are available for adoption. That means that only about 15%, or 1 in 7 children, can be adopted in Brazil. Further, the maximum length of time a child is to await adoption, 2 years, is largely not respected due to the extended legal process to free up the child for adoption.

What can be done? It's obvious that a change needs to be made to the law, expediting the process without removing the attempt at family reunification. On a grassroots and very practical level, I'd like to say I'm proud of the past efforts of Ministério Social Beija-Flor in Uberlândia, Brazil to help out at a local children's home. Work was done fixing up the playground, food and other supplies donated and time was spent with the children. Although the kids don't have a family to go home to at the moment, friendly, familiar faces and attention can make a big difference. I certainly saw this in the children at Glenhope Nursery in Jamaica during a HOPE worldwide mission trip.

This summer I hope to help encourage Ministério Social Beija-Flor to resume work in both the Missão Criança children's home as well as start something new in the Morumbi neighborhood. There is so much need, and just the little bit we can do to help can really impact lives for the better.

See also, in Portuguese:

The Adventure Project: Funding Entrepreneurs in Developing Nations

2012-05-24T12:56:00.001-04:00

The video below came out today from Mashable, highlighting the work of Becky Straw (who appears in the video below) and Joyce Landers through The Adventure Project in working to fund entrepreneurs in developing nations. It's a nice interview and sounds like a great project. Microfinance is the "big thing" in global development efforts these days, and I hope that it turns out to be more effective and have more staying power than previous strategies.
If you are interested in learning more about microfinance in general, particularly from a Christian perspective, I highly recommend the book, "The Poor Will Be Glad." It's an excellent, full-color primer on microfinance and employment-based solutions to poverty. Click here as well for the book's official homepage.

Book Review: Kisses from Katie

2012-05-23T12:43:00.000-04:00

"Jesus wrecked my life, shattered it to pieces, and put it back together more beautifully."

Last week I read a glowing review of "Kisses from Katie" in the print edition of The Christian Chronicle and immediately downloaded a copy onto my Kindle. The other reviewer wasn't mistaken. This is a very worthwhile autobiography to read.

"People often ask if I think my life is dangerous, if I am afraid. I am much more afraid of remaining comfortable."

Katie Davis was a typical teenager in most respects. She loved going shopping, hanging out with friends and spending time with her boyfriend. Then, when she was 16, she announced that she intended to go serve the poor in a foreign country. Her parents resisted, but during Christmas break of her Senior year in high school, she and her mother went on a 3-week trip to Uganda, where they helped take care of children in an orphanage. She was hooked.

"Jesus called His followers to be a lot of things, but I have yet to find where He warned us to be safe. We are not called to be safe, we are simply promised that when we are in danger, God is right there with us. And there is no better place to be than in His hands."

It took a great deal of cajoling and convincing, but she eventually talked her parents into letting her take a "gap year" between high school and college to serve in Uganda. As the father of a girl, it seems impossible to me to consider letting my daughter go by herself to a developing nation where she has no family or close friends. It's so ridiculously risky. She could be raped, murdered, trafficked...we live in a world full of horrors. Somehow, she did it. Stepping not only out of her comfort zone but also taking a big risk, she moved to Uganda. During that year, at 18 or 19 years of age, she even started adopting children.

"Everywhere I looked in the Bible, from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of Revelation, people who believe in God are supposed to share with the poor. Helping the poor is not something God asks His people to do; it is something that, throughout all generations, He instructs us to do."

What compelled Katie was her passionate faith in Christ. This was one of a few aspects of this story that really confused me. Her faith is strong and she comes across as evangelical, but at one point she mentions giving out communion at her parent's Catholic church during a return trip to the United States. Having grown up Catholic, I don't see how a non-practicing Catholic (or one converted to evangelicalism) could be allowed to do that. This either means that parish is particularly lax, or else she truly is a faithful Catholic who works freely with evangelicals. I say this because everything else in the book indicates that the faith-practice she was involved with in Uganda was essentially evangelical in nature.

In any event, her deep faith motivated her to see what so many in the affluent West skim over in their Bible reading: The many, many passages that reveal God's heard for the poor and oppressed. She not only saw this truth in Scripture, but realized she had to act on it.

"The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left."

One of Katie's first efforts in Uganda was to organize a child-sponsorship program. She and her Ugandan friends began working to identify children in extreme and genuine need...and the list grew well beyond their plans and expectations. God provided donors, however, and the program led to the formation of Amazima Ministries, a non-profit that is continually expanding into new forms of outreach.

More than this, Katie herself began taking in children and "adopting" them. I write that in quotation marks because it seemed beyond strange to me that during her gap year, and as a young, single woman, she would be taking in children and forming a family. She now has 13 Towards the end of the book she indicated that under Ugandan law these were foster children, which clarified some of the matter for me. Still, the fact that she was forming a permanent, stable home with a fixed group of foster children during her gap year indicates to me that she never really had any intention of moving back to the United States.

Then again, perhaps she never really thought that far ahead.

"I didn't realize then, but I strongly believe now that there is a common misconception that whatever happens to us is the will of God. It’s as though we think: Okay, I can do whatever I want and God will either do something or He won’t and that will be His will. It will all work out. It will all happen just like it needs to. I don’t believe this anymore. I believe that God is in control, yes, but I also believe I have a choice: I can follow Him or I can turn my back on Him. I can say yes to Him, or I can say no. I can go to the hard places or I can remain comfortable. And if I remain comfortable, God who loves us unconditionally will continue to love me anyway. I may still see His glory revealed in my life and recognize His blessings, but not like I could have. I can miss the will of God. The rich young ruler certainly did. He didn't fall dead, as Ananias and Sapphira did; and maybe he went on to live a great life, but it wasn’t the life he could have lived had he said yes to what Jesus was asking of him."

Of all the beautiful, inspiring things Katie had to say in this book, the section quoted above is my favorite. I've long rejected that awful cliché that says "everything happens for a reason." Try telling that to a child dying of cancer, or her parents. Say that in the face of gross human error that costs hundreds of lives. Announce it to victims of rape. Yes, there's a cause to every effect, but it isn't always God behind the scenes making it all happen. He is sovereign, but not a micro-manager to the extent of promoting pain and sorrow.

Deeper in her observation about the will of God is a truth I've found in the past several years of my unofficial exile from Brazil. It's the fact that not everything I do, in the long or short term, is God's will for my life. I can miss his will through rebellion. I can fall short through sin, either active or passive. If I fail to do the hard thing to which I know I'm called, I can miss the best God has for me. Such is what I believe to be the case for me regarding Brazil, but I'm hopeful that I'm learning my lessons and soon will be restored, more competent than before, to the mission of God in that country.

"Here is the thing: I want big things from God. We want big things from God and then think it’s strange when He asks us to build an ark, or feed five thousand or march around a building for seven days with seven priests blowing trumpets made from rams’ horns. I am asking for big things from God. Big things like a van I can take my whole family to church in and a house with ten showers. Bigger things like 147 million orphaned children in the world to each have a mommy who knows what they like for dinner. So really, I am not surprised at the craziness of my life. Every morning, as I wake up with some impossible task in front of me, I know that God will meet it with impossible strength and love. I serve the God who used Moses, a murderer, to part the Red Sea; a God who let Peter, who would deny Him, walk on water. A God who looks at me, in all my fallen weakness and says, 'You can do the impossible.'"

Katie shows us all that doing great things doesn't require a college degree or infinite material resources on hand. It takes the blessing of God and a willing heart.

Although the way this book was organized confused me a bit, with details left out and the story not quite told in order all the way through, it's a challenging story and one worth reading.

"In the days of Jesus, He expected everything of His disciples. Do I believe He requires the same today? I do. And I want to live like I believe it."

An Idea TED Wouldn't Spread

2012-05-22T09:30:00.000-04:00

TED Talks are referred to as "Ideas Worth Spreading." Apparently, TED Talk curator Chris Anderson thought Nick Hanauer's thoughts shouldn't get out. He opted not to include the talk among videos available online through TED, and only published it to YouTube after a popular outcry.

While I'm no economist and am not certain about Nick's take on things, he makes some interesting points about taxing the wealthy and investing in the middle class. Check it out below and let me know in the comments what you think.

Gateway Church of Christ's 30 Hour Famine - 2012

2012-05-21T10:18:00.000-04:00

This past weekend my daughter joined Gateway Church of Christ's youth group for the 30 Hour Famine. This event, held in support of World Vision's efforts to feed and care for children in need around the world, involves fasting for 30 hours while also participating in Bible studies and community service activities. Youth raise funds to be sponsored for the famine. I'm proud to say that my daughter received $500 in sponsorship donations, exceeding her goal of $360! The group as a whole raised $2,348.00, beating their goal of $1,800. This total is not yet final, as check and cash donations have yet to be included.

Below are a few pictures from their Saturday of hunger, service and prayer.

For their activity, the team weeded and planted flowers in front of Marlboro town hall.

There were a few Bible studies, focusing on God concern and our call to help the poor.

A "tent city" was set up, simulating life in a developing nation. A "missionary" couple came, speaking only Spanish. My borderline trilingual daughter did her duty as an interpreter.

After camping out and going without food for nearly 30 hours, things got a little weird....

Forks, representing children dying of hunger, were suspended from a cord in the worship area on Sunday morning. Every five minutes a string of forks was cut by one of the teens, symbolizing the deaths within that time. A grim reminder of the harsh reality of our world.

I highly recommend the 30 Hour Famine to churches and youth group leaders. It provides a valuable lesson to kids in the affluent West, and supports a great cause.

Book Review: Growing Up Amish

2012-05-20T16:49:00.000-04:00

"It's a strange but indisputable fact: Even among the Amish, other Amish seem odd."

Although I read a lot, it isn't often that I find a book that I have trouble putting down. "Growing Up Amish" hooked me from the first few pages, and I found myself thinking about it whenever I wasn't reading. I ended up reading most of it in a single Saturday.

"Growing Up Amish" is the story of a man, Ira Wagler, who was born and raised Amish, then struggled to find his way out of the group. Having grown up in the vicinity of Mennonites and Amish folks (though not on any first-name basis) I never heard much about their young people leaving. Apparently it isn't too uncommon, based on what I've read and heard lately. This book came to my attention, for example, through an appearance of the author on the NatGeo program "Amish: Out of Order," a series that focuses on the lives of young people struggling to make it in the "English" world, away from their Amish roots.

"It's a law of human nature. The young will defy and test the previous generation’s boundaries and push them to the limits. It has always been so and will likely always be."

Ira's story begins with his birth and goes through to his ultimate departure from the Amish faith, but it isn't a straight line or an easy path. It took a few tries and a great deal of heartache before he finally found the means to make a clean break. The greatest challenge seems to have been the deeply entrenched belief that for ex-Amish in particular, there's no salvation outside the Amish church. There remains only a nagging certainty for those who leave that if an accident should happen while out of the community, an endless hell of torment is all they can expect.

"A mental choice, absent real internal change, is no choice at all. We couldn’t force ourselves to be something we were not. That just couldn’t happen. And it didn’t."

With this belief in no salvation outside the Amish, Ira agonized over his heartfelt desire to be free. He attempted to find a way to be content within the Amish "box," but every time ended in depression and departure. It was only an encounter with a convert to the Amish faith who explained the concept of God's grace to him that finally, and perhaps ironically, set him free from his Amish ties.

"The box of Amish life and culture might provide some protection, but it could never bring salvation."

Reading Ira's story of growing up Amish and then leaving, I couldn't help but think about my own -- very different -- story. I was raised Roman Catholic, attending Mass every Sunday and "Holy Day of Obligation." In my teen years I found the resources of that faith insufficient and began searching for better answers. Studying the various world religions and other faiths as best I could in those pre-Internet days, I often prayed for light on my journey. When finally I found my convictions (at that time) in the evangelical faith, I summoned the courage and made the announcement to my parents. My Catholic mother surprised me, as she herself was not surprised at all by my decision. Good mothers know their children, I suppose. What caught me even further off-guard was her complete openness to my decision. She even helped me find the route to the church I would then join. It was a smooth transition. One week I was attending Mass, and the next Sunday I was taking communion at a Presbyterian Church.

The first big difference between my experience leaving Catholicism and Ira's journey out of the Amish church was the way my parents accepted this choice, and his most certainly did not. The second variance is in how easily I cast off my Catholic faith. The core of my faith remained largely the same, with trinitarianism and the content of Scripture, but the other elements that were distinctly Catholic I was able to divest rather simply. The key difference is that I had made up my mind about my beliefs before I left the Catholic Church, while Ira still tended to believe that the Amish were right, even as he left them multiple times.

"Growing Up Amish" is an addictive book to read, one that you will not want to put down if the sociology and psychology of faith from a very personal perspective are at all of interest to you. It's less than $8 for the Kindle edition, so pick up a copy and give it a day of reading.

"But God is who he is. Forever. Unchanging. And always there, even when he doesn’t seem to be. This I have learned. And this I know. Ultimately, I rest in that knowledge. And if my readers glean only one thing from my story, I hope that’s it. That God is there, even when he seems far away."

Thankful for the Word of God

2012-05-19T13:49:00.000-04:00

In the United States we have an overabundance of Bible translations. So many it's difficult to decide which to use. We have cause to be grateful. Here's a video from World Team, showing an isolated community in Indonesia receiving the complete New Testament in their language for the first time.
h/t to John Dobbs

The Road to Rio - Brazil's Forced Removals

2012-05-18T12:18:00.000-04:00

When the Olympics were held in China, scattered reports came out of forced evictions and people left homeless by preparations for the event. Such was expected by many of us in the West from the communist government of that nation. It may surprise some to learn that Brazil, a modern, democratic nation, is not much different. Nations states are nation states, and they do as they please to benefit the bottom line for the wealthy insiders. The following short film explains the injustice that's going on in the time leading up to Brazil hosting the World Cup and Olympics.

Faith In Famine

2012-05-16T10:09:00.002-04:00

Come join us this Sunday at the Gateway Church of Christ as the G4 Youth Ministry presents "Faith in Famine." This will conclude our spiritually packed weekend of doing World Vision's "30 Hour Famine."

Holmdel Senior/Community Center
6 Crawford's Corner Road
Holmdel, NJ 07733

Kingdom Kids & Young Ladies Class - 9:15-9:45 am
Worship Service - 10:00-11:00 am

For more information or directions please visit our website
www.gatewaynj.com

To help my daughter towards her $360 goal for the 30 Hour Famine, click here and contribute. Thanks!

30 Hour Famine with Gateway Church of Christ

2012-05-15T10:43:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned yesterday, my daughter will be participating in Gateway Church of Christ's 30 Hour Famine, supporting the work of World Vision in fighting childhood hunger and poverty around the world. The following explanation by Mark Zielinski is from Gateway's 30 Hour Hunger page:

We are so excited to be doing our Famine this year! During the 30 Hour Famine, our youth group will actually NOT EAT for 30 hours. YES! You read that right. Teenagers... not eating...for 30 hours. Why? Because nearly 11,000 children under age 5 die every day because of hunger-related causes. That's one child every 10 seconds. And we are NOT okay with that, we will NOT stand by while children die from lack of food.

In the time leading up to and during our 30 hours of fasting, the students are going to get a crash course in global hunger and come face to face with the realities of poverty and injustice. We will make a global impact by learning about world hunger and raising money for hungry children around the world through World Vision; a local impact through service projects and raising awareness during our 30 hours; and making an individual impact on us when we will all get a small taste of what it is like for starving kids around the world.

The Famine is our chance to make a difference, our chance to make hunger part of our history not our present, and our chance actually do something about hunger. Our youth have come together and set a group goal, each $30 we raise will help feed and care for a child for a month. Check out our thermometer to see our goal. Will you help us reach our goal this year? Please donate today.

Thanks for sponsoring us to go without food so others can eat. And so our Famine begins.

In Christ,

Mark Zielinski
Youth & Family Evangelist
Gateway Church of Christ
www.gatewaynj.com

Support Gateway Church's 30 Hour Famine

2012-05-14T10:56:00.000-04:00

This coming weekend, May 19 & 20, my daughter will be participating with Gateway Church of Christ's youth group in the 30 Hour Famine. This is a "crash course" in global poverty that confronts young people with the hard reality of social injustice, as well as with God's call to action for the poor. For more information, and to sponsor Gateway's 30 Hour Famine, click here.

N.T. Wright Sings Bob Dylan

2012-05-10T10:51:00.000-04:00

Reverend Thomas McKenzie shares the following video, taken at The Rabbit Room in Nashville, TN on May 7, 2012. Reverend N.T. Wright demonstrates that he's no single-talent man, and that he means it when he talks about expressing the truth of God in all we do, including work, the arts and music.

For more on that evening, click here.

Learn Something Online

2012-05-04T09:30:00.000-04:00

When I first took an interest in Linux and also software/web development a few years ago, I was amazed at how much information, usually in the form of tutorials, was available online for free. As if that weren't enough, there were forums with (generally) helpful people willing to answer questions. In recent times, some universities and other groups have begun offering free online courses, with or without a certificate at the end. Three of the more interesting (to me) options are as follows:

Check them out.

Investidores Anjos no Brasil

2012-05-03T09:30:00.000-04:00

Duas semanas atras, o jornal Fantastico da Rede Globo passou esta reportagem sobre investidores anjos no Brasil. Achei bom, como uma iniciação nos termos e conceitos do mundo startup para o público brasileiro.

The Lean Startup: An Interview with Eric Reis

2012-05-02T10:57:00.001-04:00

Eric Reis has failed been through enough start-up failures to write a book...and so he did. In "The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses" he lays out his lessons learned, along with his proposal for a better way to be an entrepreneur. The Lean Startup approach, together with Agile methodologies and the Scrum framework, are of great interest to me. Frankly, my dream job would be with a startup that employs these concepts (and if it were located in Brazil, then even better!)

I love what Eric has to say in the video below, from Wired's recent Business Conference in New York. Take 25 minutes and give it a listen. WIRED Business Conference: The Lean Startup from WIRED on FORA.tv

See also:
Startup Lessons Learned (Eric Reis' blog)
Introduction to Scrum

How Linux Is Built

2012-04-30T10:12:00.000-04:00

The following video gives a solid, straightforward explanation of how Linux is put together. It's all about collaboration and openness.

Dump Day 2012 is May 2nd

2012-04-27T10:42:00.000-04:00

The annual "Dump Day" to benefit ongoing work with the poor who work in the Tegucigalpa dump in Honduras will be May 2nd. I've blogged frequently over the past few years about the important work going on in Honduras, and encourage everyone to get informed, get involved and give. This is an effort primarily of the Churches of Christ, directed by Marc and Terri Tindall. One of the things I love about them, without having met them yet in person, is their genuine love for people. Although they are Christian missionaries, they aren't practicing bait-and-switch by being kind and doing benevolence with the ulterior motive of evangelism. Doing social good flows from them without that condition and as part of the Christian life. They care about the people they meet.

The money given goes to provide food on a weekly basis to people at the dump, and is also used as emergency funds for medical care and other urgent needs. Part of it is also set apart for specific development projects.

Please read the following article and posts, and watch the video. Pray for this effort, make a commitment to give and maybe even consider going on one of the trips down.

A day at the dump: Ministry serves the hardworking poor in Honduras (The Christian Chronicle)

How To Give On Dump Day and Dump Day Give-Aways (TreyMorgan.net)

Four Posts on New Heavens and New Earth

2012-04-15T09:30:00.011-04:00

People in my Christian circles know that one of my constant themes is New Heavens/New Earth. I grit my teeth every time a preacher tells us our home is in heaven or a song talks about "flying away" from this world after death. My annoyance has caught at least a couple of people by surprise, and I realize I need to tone it down a bit in my personal presentation of the biblical view of eternity. Still, for me there is no denying the truth.

Looking back over posts from a few years ago, I've uncovered some "classic" posts on the topic that still essentially reflect my understanding of the topic. Without further ado, here are four of my favorite posts on resurrection and New Heavens/New Earth:

Nowhere Will Be Here

Declared to be Son of God

Universal Entropy vs. Evolutionary Optimism

Grim Foundations

A Girl's Message To All Christians

2012-04-14T09:30:00.001-04:00

This young lady may be simplifying matters a bit, but I get where she's coming from. The video made the Tumblr rounds in the last few weeks, and I'm pretty sure it will stay in circulation for a while. One does not have to believe that "all roads lead to God" to be gracious toward everyone, regardless of their perspective and background.

No Justice from Brazil's Courts for Child Prostitutes

2012-04-13T09:30:00.004-04:00

Neither the knowledge that in Brazil sexual mores are more relaxed than in the United States, nor and that prostitution as such is not illegal in that country, prepared me for what I read in a recent artice from The Economist.

First, since 2009 the age of consent in Brazil is 14. I'm not sure if there are any further conditions involved, but 14? Such could be considered normal 100 years ago in either the United States or Brazil, but in our modern times with age of majority set at 18, 14 seems unreasonable.

Second -- and more shocking to me -- was a decision from Brazil’s highest criminal court on March 27th that girls as young as 12 can give proper consent if they have have sufficient sexual knowledge and experience. The case in question involved an adult man who had sex with three 12-year-old girls in 2002. Rather than set the age of consent at 12, the decision from the court was that these situations need to be handled on a case-by-case basis.

As noted in the article from The Economist, child prostitution often begins with rape. Thus a girl who has been raped then has enough understanding of sex (so it seems) to then consent to further sexual acts.

Regardless of whether a girl is familiar with sex or not, I believe society needs to make a decision to protect its most vulnerable members. Girls at age 12, regardless of whether they have had sex before or are otherwise "innocent," need to be protected.

See also:

The wrong signal (The Economist)

Child Prostitution in Brazil

Brazil’s Child Sex Trade

Dealing With Brazil's Sex Trade

Brazilian Evangelicals Launch a Campaign Against Child Sex Tourism

A Simple, Free Way to Learn Brazilian History (in Portuguese)

2012-04-12T09:30:00.001-04:00

Last December I shared about Telecurso, an excellent online resourch provided through a partnership between the Fundação Roberto Marinho, the Federation of the Industries of Sao Paulo State and Rede Globo. It's an educational system that consists of multiple series of educational videos directed towards people working to complete elementary or high school courses, as well as a new vocational series. History, Portuguese, various types of math, sociology and a number of other subject areas are covered.

For someone like me, who speaks Portuguese fluently but never learned Brazilian history in depth, these videos are enormously beneficial. I've taken to picking out the episodes in the high school history series that deal with Brazil, listening to them on my walk to the train to work every morning. In a very short period of time my understanding has deepended dramatically.

You can either sort through the various Telecurso videos on YouTube, or else simply go to the "Site do Estundante," where the videos are pre-sorted into neat categories. Also, click here for downloadable pdf versions of the text books!

If you speak Portuguese and want to understand Brazil better, I strongly recommend Telecurso.

Book Review: The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

2012-04-11T09:30:00.015-04:00

The first I remember hearing about William Kamkwamba was on an episode of The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart interviewed him about his book, "The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind." It was a funny, heartwarming (of all things) segment, and I immediately dropped the book in my Amazon.com queue. It was only recently that I finally picked up a copy of the Kindle version. What a story!

"Before I discovered the miracles of science, magic ruled the world."

With those words, William begins his tale of poverty, famine and engenuity. Rather than leap right into how he built his first windmill, he spends a great deal of time explaining the cultural reality of Malawi and the history of his own family. The reader learns that "magic" and superstition are part and parcel of daily life in William's country, and then is introduced to William's parents with stories of their meeting and early married life.

From there, William talks extensively about his childhood, including, friends, hunting trips and a favorite dog that long accompanied him. All of this, in my opinion, bogs down the narrative a bit. However, when the famine hits, we are no longer observing the story of strangers but the suffering of people we've come to understand.

Oh, the famine. Having been raised in the West, with an excellent supply line for food and numerous food banks for those in need, I've never known what a famine was all about. Sure, in the early 1980s I was introduced to the topic, along with most Americans, through the crisis in Ethiopia. It remained a distant topic, and in many ways is still today. I've heard of people in poverty in the United States eating poorly or even missing meals, but never entering into full-fledged famine.

As the story unfolds, the reader is taken in apparent slow-motion through the famine Malawi experienced in 2001. William was forced to drop out of secondary school (in Malawi students must pay fees for this level of education). People began starving, and his family was reduced to one meager meal per day. When finally the next year's crop is ready and there's sweet corn and pumpkins to be eaten, I found myself grinning.

"My God, to have a stomach filled with hot food was one of the greatest pleasures in life."

Time was passing for William, and even with the famine in the past there was still no way to pay his school fees. He remained a dropout, and his prospects were not good.

"I remembered that the previous year a group called the Malawi Teacher Training Activity had opened a small library in Wimbe Primary School that was stocked with books donated by the American government. Perhaps reading could keep my brain from getting soft while being a dropout."

Herein we find a major turning point. Although initially William intended to read in order to try to keep up with what he was missing in school, he soon discovered a couple of texts that explained physics and practical applications for energy that illuminated his understanding. Beyond the pages he could see how this information, put into practice, could change his family's life. Specifically, if he could build a windmill, he could provide both electicity and a reliable source of water for his family. With water the fields could be irrigated, providing two harvests a year (no longer dependent on the rainy season) and famine would never again threaten his family.

"Standing there looking at this book, I decided I would build my own windmill. I’d never built anything like it before, but I knew if windmills existed on the cover of that book, it meant another person had built them. After looking at it that way, I felt confident I could build one, too."

The tale continues from there, but rather than spoil it all, I strongly recommend that you pick up a copy and have the patience to read through the "slow" parts. It's worth the time for the sake of the encouragement you'll find in a boy who harnessed the wind.

"If you want to make it, all you have to do is try."

See also:

Open Source Hardware for the Developing World

Global Village Construction Set

Setting Up Conky on Ubuntu

2012-04-10T09:30:00.000-04:00

Originally published on IgneousQuill.net, 30 June 2010.

Conky is a pretty cool desktop app that displays system monitoring information. I began using it months ago and recently had to go through setting it up again when I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop. Yes, 9.04. For some reason 9.10 just didn't seem to agree with me. Anyway, the following steps are specific to Ubuntu 9.04. You may need to do some tweaking to use it on your version of Ubuntu. Steps for installation and set-up on distros based on anything other than Ubuntu will vary.

First, install Conky either through Synaptic (simply look up "conky") or via command line with the following:

sudo apt-get --assume-yes install conky

Second, make a configuration file in your home directory. This is where you will put the code for what you want displayed on your conky desktop.

gedit /home/your_user_name/.conkyrc

Third, insert the code for your conky display. There are many options made available online by more knowledgeable minds than mine, but the following is what I use. I adapted it from something I found on the Ubuntu forums (see here) You can copy and paste it into the conkyrc file you should still have open. Once you've done this, save and close the file.

Code:

# UBUNTU-CONKY
# A comprehensive conky script, configured for use on
# Ubuntu / Debian Gnome, without the need for any external scripts.
#
# Based on conky-jc and the default .conkyrc.
# INCLUDES:
# - tail of /var/log/messages
# - netstat shows number of connections from your computer and application/PID making it.
 
# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
 
# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes
 
# fiddle with window
use_spacer right

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans:size=8
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 2048
 
# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1.0
 
# Minimum size of text area
# minimum_size 250 5
 
# Draw shades?
draw_shades no
 
# Text stuff
draw_outline no # amplifies text if yes
draw_borders no
uppercase no # set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
 
# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 3
 
# border margins
border_margin 9
 
# border width
border_width 10
 
# Default colors and also border colors, grey90 == #e5e5e5
default_color grey
 
own_window_colour brown
own_window_transparent yes
 
# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right
 
# Gap between borders of screen and text
gap_x 10
gap_y 40
 
# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen
 
TEXT
$color
${color blue}SYSTEM ${hr 2}$color
$nodename $sysname $kernel on $machine
 
${color red}CPU ${hr 2}$color
${freq}MHz   Load: ${loadavg}   Temp: ${acpitemp}
$cpubar
${cpugraph 000000 ffffff}
NAME             PID       CPU%      MEM%
${top name 1} ${top pid 1}   ${top cpu 1}    ${top mem 1}
${top name 2} ${top pid 2}   ${top cpu 2}    ${top mem 2}
${top name 3} ${top pid 3}   ${top cpu 3}    ${top mem 3}
${top name 4} ${top pid 4}   ${top cpu 4}    ${top mem 4}
 
${color green}MEMORY / DISK ${hr 2}$color
RAM:   $memperc%   ${membar 6}$color
Swap:  $swapperc%   ${swapbar 6}$color
 
Root:  ${fs_free_perc /}%   ${fs_bar 6 /}$color 
hda1:  ${fs_free_perc /media/sda1}%   ${fs_bar 6 /media/sda1}$color
 
${color grey}NETWORK (${addr eth0}) ${hr 2}$color
Down: $color${downspeed eth0} k/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed eth0} k/s
${downspeedgraph eth0 25,140 000000 ff0000} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph eth0 
25,140 000000 00ff00}$color
Total: ${totaldown eth0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup eth0}
${execi 30 netstat -ept | grep ESTAB | awk '{print $9}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr}
${color orange}LOGGING ${hr 2}$color
${execi 30 tail -n3 /var/log/messages | awk '{print " ",$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10}' | fold -w50}

Fourth, create a bash script for starting Conky when the computer boots up.

gedit .conky_start.sh

Place the following code in the new file you have created, then save and close.

#!/bin/bash sleep 2 && conky;

Do the following to ensure that the file is executable:

chmod a+x .conky_start.sh

Fifth, add the conky start script to "Startup Applications" (System > Preferences > Startup Applications).

The command is located at /home/your_user_name/.conky_start.sh

Sixth, restart your computer and enjoy Conky. Play around with the config file if you want to change colors or other settings. As I mentioned above, there are other codes mashed together out there on the Internet that you can use for a different look. Mine isn't definitive, by any stretch.

Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship 2012

2012-04-09T09:30:00.002-04:00

The Skoll Foundation recently held the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The following video has the highlights. Many more videos of talks and panel discussions are available on the forum page.
The following description of the Skoll Foundation and its work was taken from its official YouTube channel:

Jeff Skoll created The Skoll Foundation in 1999 to pursue his vision of a sustainable world of peace and prosperity. Led by CEO Sally Osberg since 2001, our mission is to drive large scale change by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs and the innovators who help them solve the world's most pressing problems. Social entrepreneurs are society's change agents, creators of innovations that disrupt the status quo and transform our world for the better. By identifying the people and programs already bringing positive change around the world, we empower them to extend their reach, deepen their impact and fundamentally improve society.

Three Ladies: An Easter Meditation

2012-04-08T07:42:00.000-04:00

"Do not say, 'Why were the old days better than these?' For it is not wise to ask such questions." - Ecclesiastes 7:10 NIV

A family friend back in my native Missouri posted the picture included here to Facebook recently. The image is a bit fuzzy, but it's a photo of (from left to right) my maternal grandmother Nadine and her sisters Mildred and Emily. They were seated on the porch of some neighbors to watch the annual homecoming parade. It must have been the late 70s or very early 80s. Others who saw the picture commented that they wish they could sit and watch the parade with them. I surprised myself by choking up the moment I saw the picture. These ladies have been gone for a while, but I never really stop missing them. In fact, one of my most frequent recurring dreams (coming in great diversity) is of being in the home of my great-aunts again.

There is always a longing for the former times. In the years after that picture was taken, my grandmother would be taken by Alzeimer's. My memories of her before that time are few and precious. I had many more "good" years with my great-aunts, who were like an extra set of grandmothers too me. I miss them all deeply, and share the desire of others to be able somehow to step through that picture, sit on that porch and watch the parade.

The foolishness of such yearning, however genuine, is in its subjectivity. For me, when I look at the photo, I see three ladies I miss very much. What they might see, were they looking at it, was the absence of people they loved. Where was my grandpa Joe? He passed away while I was still in my mother's womb. What about the parents of the ladies in the picture? Gone by that time. So, while I would like to spend an afternoon with them again, surely they would have wanted more time with others they knew and loved.

If we were to reset the clock to any particular point in history, there would always be someone absent. Death has been humanity's constant companion since our earliest history. Further, at the time this picture was being taken, what grave injustices were being perpetrated elsewhere in the world?

There is talk from time to time from pulpits and in Christian literature about a "return to Eden." Such is not possible. We are not called to return to the starting point, nor can we idealize any point in human history and wish to have it back. Rather, we look forward to a new city, the New Jerusalem. The Christian hope is of New Heavens and New Earth, brought about by the power of God in Christ.

As I right this post, it is Easter 2012. On this day, Western Christians of the Roman Catholic and most Protestant traditions put a special emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus. In his literal, physical resurrection from the grave, we have the hope and promise of our own resurrection. He overcame and reversed death. The new creation broke right into the middle of the old one. In time, the full manifestation of this new reality will be revealed. Injustices will be righted, secrets exposed and resolved, and death will be reversed.

Because Jesus lives, we look not for the old days, but for a brand-new Day where sorrow and loss will be no more.

"Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth,' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'" - Revelation 21:1-4 NIV

See also: