30 days left to go before we’re walking down the aisle!!!

Tom & Jas

Happy 14th month ‘anniversary’ to my love, Tom! 

Seeing as how I’ve been so busy with

• wedding planning 
• winding down the last 7 wks of school
• applying for seminary at ATS
• ministry at CLL (taking a break from preaching, tho)
• gearing up for TECBC (thanks Manni for co-leading the workshop with me!)
• helping train new staff for Herald Gospel Camp this summer
• day-to-day activities

I’ve been neglecting my blog writing. Prob not a good thing, since I really need to both TALK and WRITE about what I’m feeling in order to fully process. In any case, my heart still burns for certain issues, and if you look at my last few posts, you’ll see I’m still singing the same old songs – gender equality and openness toall spiritual gifts in the church. I’ll prob keep singing these songs for a long time – til I see change come about. But, since I’ve no time to actually write about what I’m thinking, I decided to re-post a message that came in the most recent email from Christians for Biblical Equality. 

“But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!‘” (Rom. 10:14-15, NRSV). I enjoy addressing the contributions of women in history at Christian colleges or universities. When invited to speak, I often make an effort to learn something about the school, particularly their founders and graduates. In doing so, I have discovered an impressive number of women graduates who were trained by these former Bible institutes (today’s Christian colleges and seminaries), and, having the full support of the school’s founders, went on to become leaders on mission fields all over the world. I usually do not have to work very hard to recover these histories.Typically these schools have archives that are filled with letters and journals written by their female graduates. Women were great letter writers, and they loved to report on their gospel-work around the world. These audacious women were not interested in becoming “Miss Captivating” in order to attract “Mr. Wild at Heart” because, well, they had their own wild hearts, hearts that were wild about Jesus. Their passion for Christ was itself riveting and captivated the special attention of secular journalists eager to record women’s unprecedented leadership all over the world. What is more, the Bible institutes that trained these women were proud of the wild-hearted way in which their female graduates served Christ in dire circumstances and without much support! Their efforts were enormously successful and God blessed their work! Because of this, these Bible institutes celebrate their female graduates without reservation! Missiologists, like Dana Robert in her book American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice, argue that By the final years of the twentieth century, more than half of all Christians were to be found outside the region that had been the historical heartland of Christianity for nearly 1500 years. New centers of Christian strength and vitality were now to be found where missionary initiatives were focused in widely scattered places in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. This was the direct result of the emphasis evangelicals placed on evangelism and conversion, and women were the driving force behind it, outnumbering men on the mission field two to one. These women not only founded mission organizations, they also funded these organizations and occupied all levels of service and leadership. Even so, as I retold the gospel-work of these women, the Bible faculty in one school refused to attend my lectures. Why? Their reason was that, as evangelicals with a high view of Scripture, they do not believe that women should preach or teach men, even though entire communities learned about Christ because of their female graduates! These women helped contribute to one of the greatest expansions of Christian faith in history, and they were compelled to do so by Scripture—to preach the good news. The question becomes, will the real evangelicals please stand up? Does Scripture, anywhere, rebuke women for preaching the good news? While Paul asked chattering women to ask questions of their husbands at home (1 Cor. 14:34), or tells women they may not exercise abusive authority over men in the church (1 Tim. 2:11-12), Scripture celebrates the women who publish the glad tidings of Christ’s completed work on Calvary. We can support the gospel work of women with confidence, just as Paul did when he celebrated their service as prophets, evangelists, teachers, and even one who was prominent among the apostles. Can we not give women the freedom Paul gave Junia the apostle (Rom. 16:7), Priscilla who taught Apollos the way of the Lord more perfectly (Acts 18:24-26), the women prophets at Corinth (1 Cor. 11:5), Phoebe the deacon (Rom. 16:1-2), and those who labored beside him as missionaries (Rom. 16:12, Phil. 4:2-3)? Friends, if we hold Scripture as authoritative, let us include women to the extent Paul did. Will you join us? Mimi Haddad President (CBE)

This issue’s column is written by Martine Extermann, CBE board member and associate professor of oncology at the University of South Florida.

A kingdom in crisisThe king was desperate. He was a God-fearing man and from his youngest age he had sought God. Now, trying to rid God’s people of idols, he had undertaken major repairs in the Lord’s temple but he had just realized that his efforts were insufficient. His secretary had just brought back a book from the temple—a lost book found by the high priest during repairs. After reading the book, the king realized that despite all his religious training, all his faith, all his attempts at doing what he thought was right, he had been wrong. His priests had been wrong. His people had been wrong. This was the book of the law of God which said “You shall have no other God before me” and warned of the curses against Israel if they did not obey the law. The king was now aware of the remaining idols in the temple and all the false gods around the country to whom Judah was making offerings. The Lord’s feasts such as Passover were barely celebrated, and the covenant was forgotten. The king was appalled. This could mean terrible disaster for his nation because, having forgotten God’s law, they were under his wrath. The king convened his highest ranking officials: his secretary, his attendant, the high priest, and a couple of others. He ordered them to inquire of God for himself and the people of Judah to find out what, if anything, could be done.

Now these powerful men are confronted with a crucial question. How should they proceed to ask God? The high priest could go into the temple, make sacrifices of repentance, and hear God’s voice at the altar. Or they could ask a prophet—but which prophet? Should they go to Zephaniah, to Nahum, to Habakkuk maybe, to Jeremiah, or to Huldah? They decide to consult with Huldah and she boldly offeredthem a word from the Lord. Her message was a difficult one, but one that would generate the most complete revival in the Old Testament: “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart, and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses” (2 Kings 23:25, TNIV). Her words led to a whole recommitment to God’s covenant, and to a cleaning of the souls, temple and houses of Israel (2 Kings 23:3).

What an affirmation this passage is for the role of women prophets. God entrusted Huldah with his message at a crucial time in the kingdom of Judah. There were other well-known prophets in Judah, but this is the person who spoke for God at such a crucial point in Israel’s history. Nothing in the text indicates that the high officials had any qualms in consulting Huldah. This was no curbside consultation on a secondary matter. They did not send an underling to consult her just in case, nor did they consult her only because she was living close and was the wife of a temple employee. Huldah was a recognized prophet whom they could consult when something as essential as the book of the law of God had been rediscovered. What can be more central than the law in the Old Testament? God did use women as well as men to carry his message to the people, to speak in his name—in both the Old and New Testaments. And it moved God’s people.

Martine Extermann

Great concise post by a long-time Southern Baptist pastor in the Bible Belt. Read it – it’s worth it! And remember to keep celebrating Women’s History Month and supporting the women in your life!

http://vtmbottomline.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-jesus-eternally-subordinately-to.html

The Truth About First Century Women - International Women’s Day Synchroblog

Today is International Women’s Day, a day dedicated to the celebration of women’s social, economic and political achievements worldwide, and I’m celebrating by participating in the IWD Syncroblog my wife is organizing. She specifically asked us to write about women in the Bible, and I couldn’t help but think of some of the things I’ve been learning in the “Early Church and Roman Society” class I’m currently taking at Austin Presbyterian Seminary. It’s a fascinating class all around, and, fortuitously enough, we’ve actually just started discussing the roles of women in first-century cultures. Understanding this context is essential, I think, to understanding how the New Testament addresses the role of women in society and especially the early church. We have to know what it stands in contrast to in order to understand how revolutionary the Bible was for its day in regards to women.

First off, it’s important to recognize that when talk about the cultures of the New Testament, we’re not just talking about one monolithic thing. In our class we actually distinguished four different sets of cultural expectations that could have provided the setting for the New Testament writings about women: Jewish, Roman, Classical Greek/Athenian, and Macedonian/Hellenistic (I was intrigued to discover that Hellenistic – i.e. post-Alexander Macedonian -attitudes towards women were somewhat different than the older, Classical Greek ideals.) We also distinguished between upper and lower class gender norms, as well as cultural ideals versus actual practice.

I can’t get into all of these here, but for this post at least, I did want to focus specifically on Jewish attitudes towards women in setting of the gospels. While of course we can’t just disregard the Roman, Greek and Hellenistic contexts either since 1) many of the gospels were shaped within those settings, and 2) Roman and especially Hellenistic norms were certainly an influencing factor on Jewish culture in first century Palestine, when we look at the context of Jesus’ teachings the Jewish cultural setting is primary and provides the baseline for everything else. The most intriguing thing I discovered in my class discussion was that there was apparently a pretty sharp divide between theory and practice among the Jews of Jesus day. Textual evidence (mainly from the rabbis) rarely talks about women except in regards to cleanliness laws, and, unlike other ancient Mediterranean cultures, there were no special festivals or days dedicated to women, or any specifically female civic or religious societies in first-century Judaism. When women are mentioned by the rabbis, it is basically just to recommend that they be kept separate from the men both in the synagogue and at home, and that they not be seen in public any more than necessary.

Archaeological evidence (e.g. tablets, inscriptions, architecture, etc.), however, shows that most of these rabbinical restrictions were rarely (if ever) enforced in actuality. For example, while the early rabbis wanted to have a separate “women’s section” of the synagogue, archaeologists have yet to uncover any first century synagogues with such a partition. Likewise, while the rabbinical writings generally restrict theological training to men, ancient inscriptions indicate that in actuality many women did receive instruction in the Torah. Or consider the gospel narratives themselves. While written norms wanted to keep Jewish women indoors and away from the public sphere, in the gospels we see Jesus frequently encountering women out and about in society. The inevitable conclusion, as my professor pointed out, is that the picture of first century Jewish women as cloistered and segregated is not much more than an unrealized “ideal” created by a small handful of influential (male) rabbis. It may have been what the religious leaders thought “ought” to be the case, but the actual lives of real people were far different.

We also pointed out that a lot of this discrepancy probably had to do with socio-economic realities. Whether we’re talking about Roman, Greek, or Jewish culture, the rules that apply to upper-class women are often simply impossible for the working class poor to abide by. When you’re barely making it (as most people in this time period were) everyone, male or female, does whatever is necessary to survive. The rabbi can talk all he wants about how women shouldn’t be out in public, but when your family’s very survival depends on a wife or daughter going and selling your wares in the marketplace, religious ideals are usually going to take second place to economic realities.

Looking at it in this light, I can’t help but draw a comparison with the situation in a lot of conservative churches these days. I can recall sitting in very culturally and theologically conservative churches and listening to the pastor tell his rural, working-class congregation that God’s ideal for the family is for women to be stay-at-home-moms and for the men to be out working in the world as the breadwinners. And I recall looking around at the wives and mothers actually present as he said this and realizing that the vast majority of them didn’t have any choice but to work outside the home. Given the hard realities of a depressed rural economy, most families simply can’t survive on a single income anymore. What this pastor was preaching had no relevance to the actual lives of his people, and did little more than create guilt complexes for those women who were being told that they were disobeying God by doing what was necessary to provide for their families.

In these sorts of contexts then Jesus’ teachings and example in the gospels is truly liberating. Rather than laying heavy burdens on his listeners by agreeing with the unrealistic ideals of the Pharisaical rabbis, Jesus stepped into the reality of women’s lives and affirmed them where they were at. Never do we see Jesus telling a woman to retreat from engagement in society or to simply stay in their place as women. In fact, when Martha rebuked Mary for leaving her feminine role and daring to go receive rabbinical training along with the men, it is Martha, not Mary, that Jesus chastises. Likewise, we see Jesus out in public engaging in theological dialogue with women (e.g. the Woman at the Well, the Canaanite woman, and Martha herself after the death of her brother Lazarus), welcoming their presence as followers and disciples, and enlisting them as the very first witnesses to the resurrection. Jesus countered the dominant ideology of his day by dignifying the roles women were already playing in society and expanding their roles as participants in his mission. Rather than seeing themselves as victims of economic circumstance falling short of God’s ideal, women could see their active, productive roles in public society as valuable assets for the kingdom of God. As my own experience in the aforementioned church bears out, this is a message that still needed for many women today.

Re-printed with permission from Mike Clawson’s blog.
[Thanks, Mike!]

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ for those you have read.
2) Add a ‘+’ to the books you adore.
3) Add a ‘-’ to the books you abhor!
4) Remove the ‘x’ from the books you can’t actually remember whether you read or not, didn’t finish, or those you marked because of the movie.
5) Tally your remaining total at the bottom.

[] 1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
[x] 2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
[] 3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
[x+++++] 4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
[x+] 5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
[x+] 6 The Bible
[x] 7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
[x] 8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
[x] 9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
[] 10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
[x] 11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
[] 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
[] 13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
[] 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
[] 15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
[x] 16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
[] 17 Birdsong – Sebastian FaulK
[x] 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
[] 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
[] 20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
[] 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
[x----] 22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
[] 23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
[] 24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
[x] 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
[] 26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
[x+] 27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
[] 28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
[x] 29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
[] 30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
[] 31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
[] 32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
[x+] 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
[] 34 Emma – Jane Austen
[] 35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
[x] 36 The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
[] 37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
[] 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
[] 39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
[x] 40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
[x] 41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
[x] 42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
[] 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
[] 44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
[] 45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
[x] 46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
[] 47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
[] 48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
[x] 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
[] 50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
[] 51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
[x] 52 Dune – Frank Herber
[] 53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
[] 54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
[] 55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
[] 56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
[x++] 57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
[] 58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
[x] 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
[] 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
[x] 61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
[] 62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
[] 63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
[x] 64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
[x+] 65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
[] 66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
[] 67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
[] 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
[] 69 Midnight’s Children – Salman
[] 70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
[x] 71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
[] 72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
[x] 73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnet
[] 74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
[] 75 Ulysses – James Joyce
[] 76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
[] 77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
[] 78 Germinal – Emile Zola
[] 79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
[] 80 Possession – AS Byatt
[x] 81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
[] 82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
[] 83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
[] 84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
[] 85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
[x+] 86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
[x] 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
[] 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
[x] 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
[] 90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
[x] 91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
[x+] 92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
[] 93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
[] 94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
[] 95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
[] 96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
[] 97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
[] 98 Beloved – Toni Morrison
[x] 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
[x] 100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

SCORE = 37?

=/ Not so good ah…

I have my own reflections, but I’m going to post someone else’s instead. If you havent read Kathy Escobar’s blog, you really must. If you advocate social justice causes of inequality and the marginalized, you MUST read her blog. She’s an amazing pastor and mom of 5 in Colorado. I’ve mentioned her a few times prior.  Here’s her note on yesterday’s International Women’s Day and the implications for the Church. It’s worth reading the whole thing. 

[KATHY - I hope you dont mind! I wanted to get your words out to the Chinese church audience here in NYC.] 

most people around me know that one of the things i am most passionate about is equality for women–across the board, in the church, in our communities, in the world.  the injustice that continues to prevail against women in many shapes and forms is not something that i think we can just stand by and ignore.  because it’s so prevalent, engrained deeply into cultures & systems, i think sometimes it feels overwhelming; and as individuals sitting in our houses on a saturday morning it doesn’t seem like we can do much about it.  after all, it’s been this way for a long, long time.  and even though many men and women know it’s “wrong” we somehow don’t know what we can do about it.   sunday march 8th is international women’s day.   a lot of people around the world are writing, organizing, speaking, mobilizing and doing everything they can to raise awareness of women’s issues across the globe.  julie clawson organized a synchroblog/synchrosermon, and as the posts come in over the next few days, i’ll try to add a list at the end of this post so you can check them out.

this past thursday i went to see the movie a powerful noise followed by a live satellite discussion.  it chronicled what three women–from vietnam, mali, and bosnia–are doing to change the course of history for women in their communities by refusing to stand by while they are discriminated against, abused, starved, ignored, used.  i left stirred.  and of course challenged.  and inspired.  and also really, really sad that so many women–beautiful, powerful, created-in-God’s-image, nurturers of life and peace and hope–are marginalized and voiceless in more ways than one while so many Christians are wasting time haggling over the interpretation of 1 timothy 2 and the size of their new building.      i believe God’s heart is the redemption of all people, and that he uses us–ordinary people with the kingdom of God threaded into the fabric of our hearts–to help set others free & work toward making what is wrong, right. and like all-things-connected-to-Jesus, it will require risk, sacrifice, and an incredible trust that small things can make a big difference.  it’s our responsibility to not stand by while our sisters-in-spirit are being harmed.

today & tomorrow many will be writing about different women in the Bible. i can’t wait to read all of their perspectives. i  decided to focus on a probably-very-overlooked woman in the old testament, one without a name.  one with a story that will make you cringe.  and one that represents the millions of women across the globe with no voice,  no value, no current hope because she’s really nothing more than property.  she is found in judges 19 and 20.  warning: it’s disturbing.  she is the concubine of a levite.  she leaves him, goes back home, and he comes back to get her.  her father keeps stalling, but eventually she leaves with him and they go to the town of gibeah.  there, they are staying at a man’s house & some wicked men come and demand the owner to send the man out so they can have sex with him.  here’s what happens:

The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this disgraceful thing. Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don’t do such a disgraceful thing.”  But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold.  He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. - judges 19: 23-29

all kinds of crazy things happen afterwards, wars & fighting and a lot of people dying.   but that’s not the part i want to focus on in this moment. she is the one i care about.  this was a human being.  someone’s daughter. sold into slavery.  born to be used by a man.  thrown to the wolves by their host (who threw out his virgin daughter at the same time). raped and destroyed while her owner sat inside, knowing exactly what was happening.  and this isn’t just some weird part of history, way-back-when.  this is happening while we speak:  parents selling their daughters into slavery so they can eat, women systematically raped as strategy of war, girls married off to men who use them for nothing more than slaves.

it is so easy for me in this moment to become overwhelmed, to say “there’s absolutely nothing i can do to make a difference”, to crawl into a cave and scream out to God “how can you stand by while this is happening to your daughters?” but i think in these moments the bigger story for each of us is “what can we do?”…what small, tangible things can we do to make a difference, to fight for the nameless, voiceless, beautiful-daughters-of-God, who need someone to care? here a few thoughts that come to mind:

our freedom affects their freedom.  we have more choice, more possibility than almost any other country in the world.  when we allow ourselves to live in bondage here in church systems that limit and de-value and silence women’s voices, we are stifling their possibility, too.  these voiceless women need us to use our voices on their behalf, to advocate, to believe, to dream. if we are stuck here, how can we ever expect that they would get unstuck?

whoever has a voice needs to use it. in the movie, it was so beautiful to see these women rock the boat on others behalf.  they advocated for women’s education, health, and economic freedom.  the women they were journeying with didn’t have the strength, but they did.  and they felt a responsibility on others behalf to make “a powerful noise” instead of idly standing by.  i have no idea what it would have looked like for the concubine if she had an advocate in that moment, someone who was willing to stand between her and her abusers and say “no.”   yeah, they might have died.  but maybe not?  we’ll never know, but i feel pretty clear that she deserved one. we can all be advocates in some shape or form.

education & economic freedom changes the course of history.  without education & economic freedom, it is impossible for women to ever be set free from the bondage of the injustice systems they live in. this is the case in the US as much as it is in other countries.  single mommies who make $7 an hour cannot feed their families and will never be able to get a leg up.  if they can get their education, they can make $21 an hour and that changes everything. in third world countries, an education or training in a specific skill means food & shelter & hope for their kids instead of starvation.   on the panel in a powerful noise the director of care said that economics also shifts things for men.  men see women as bringing value to their family and they are more likely to respect them for their work.  i know, that makes my stomach turn a bit, too, but it is a reality; i wonder for the concubine if she also had a side business that made some good money if he would be as likely to toss her out to street?  we can help women get an education, here and abroad.  we can buy their products.  there are so many organizations that help make that happen & a little bit goes a long way to changing the course of a woman’s destiny.

brothers, we need you. i know so many amazing men who advocate for women in powerful ways.  but as a whole, we have a long way to go.  the strongest women’s rights advocates continue to be women. if that shifted and we learned how to work together to battle injustice and provide voice to the voiceless, we’d be a much powerful force.   imagine what it would look like if the levite said “no, you can’t have her, it’s wrong. (and now that i think about it, it’s wrong that i own her, too.)”   that’s what should have happened.  needs to happen today.  this is why i am such a loudmouth about equality in the church–if men don’t start refusing to cultivate systems that dishonor their daughters, sisters, wives & mothers–how can we ever offer hope for freedom & equality to these women around the world?  the kingdom starts with us, now, right where we live, and we need each other desperately. Jesus gave tangible examples of advocating for women.  and he says to “be like him.”

as always, this barely scratches the surface or gives the passage and the concubine justice.  but i hope this focus on women around the world, in the Bible, in our neighborhoods and families, will remind us we can do something.  we can:

• listen to what God might be asking us to consider
• step out in faith to what God is stirring us to do & fight off the voices that say we’re stupid to try
  
• use our voice on another woman’s behalf
• send money and love and help to organizations & individuals who directly support self-sufficiency for women here & around the world.
  
• say “no” and step in between a woman about to be harmed
• cultivate & call out another woman’s beauty, dignity, or leadership
• fan into flame another woman’s dream & help her make it happen
  
• do whatever we can—no matter how small or big–to contribute to another woman’s freedom. 

the only thing we can’t do is just stand by.

here’s my prayer:

God, lover of justice & defender of the weak, our hearts break for what was stripped from your daughter.  and for what keeps being stolen from your beautiful creations.  dear girl, we are so sorry you were so senselessly used, that in the moment you needed it most you had no defender.   it was wrong.  it is wrong.   your story has not gone unnoticed.   we hold it tenderly and weep on your behalf and for all the other women who have been and continue to be used & abused & tossed aside.  God, we don’t understand why, but we want to understand what. what you are trying to show us, what you want us to consider, what you want us to do. we need your hope, your help, your guidance, to know how to stand for what you stand for.  to sacrifice our comfort, our safety, on behalf of others.  to use our voice for the voiceless.  to offer dignity and hope where there is none.   to refuse to just stand by.  amen.

* * * * *

other synchroblog posts (more coming as they are posted):

• Julie Clawson on The God Who Sees
• Steve Hayes on St. Theodura the Iconodule
• Sonja Andrews on Aunt Jemima
• Sensuous Wife on A Single Mom in the Bible
• Minnowspeaks on Celebrating Women
• Michelle Van Loon on The Persistent Widow
• Lyn Hallawell on International Women’s Day
  
• Heather on The Strength of Biblical Women
• Shawna Atteberry on The Daughter of Mary Magdalene
• Christine Sine on women who impacted her life
• Susan Barnes on International Women’s Day
• Ellen Haroutunian on Out from Under the Veil
• Liz Dyer on Mary and Martha: A Story about God’s Radical Hospitality
• Bethany Stedman on Shiprah and Puah
  
• Dan Brennan on Mary Magdalene
• Jessica Schafer - Bathsheba
• Eugene Cho - Lydia
• Laura on what she knows about women in the Bible
• Pam Hodgeweide on The Secret Weapon of a Teenaged Girl
• Miz Melly preached on the woman at the well
  
• AJ Schwanz on multitasking
• Teresa on the women that Paul didn’t hate
• Helen Mildenhall on Esther
• Happy on Abigail
• Mark Baker-Wright on Telling Stories 
  
• Robin M. on Eve
• Alan Knox is thankful for the women who serve
  
• Lainie Petersen on the unnamed concubine
  
• Mike Clawson on the truth about first century women
  
• Krista on Serving God 
  
• Bob Carlton on Barbie as Icon
  
• Jan Edmiston preached on the unnamed concubine
  
• Deb on her namesake, Deborah
  
• Makeesha Fisher on empowering women
• Amy Borjas on Hannah

I think I did well this past wk in the bento dept. I decided to try my hand at making onigiris – over 10 yrs after seeing my Japanese international students make some with a rice cooker out in the hall of our dorm. They came out all right. And mainly b/c I didnt really use my hands except for the ones pictured on the plate. I actually mixed the rice with the tuna + canola mayo I’d prepped and with furikake. Then, I shaped them and put the seaweed on them.

For these others, I used my bento molds, which I mentioned in my last post. I tried them all just to practice, and it was a bit confusing at first. The instructions being all in Japanese did not help. I realized the little flexible plastic was to make the indentation so you could put your filling inside. Aha! And then I sorta had to shake them out. I have pictured here a heart, a star, a triangle and a flower-ish-type thing.

I made two bigger ones with the triangle molds. They are actually two different sizes – the one on the left being the smaller one. I actually filled all of the ones I shaped in the molds with tuna and then just poured some furikake over them. Otherwise the rice would’ve been totally plain.

In the end, I thought: “I cant just have rice for lunch! Even if it does have tuna in it… >_>” So, I decided to use the empty blue compartment for some fruit (apricots and cranberries that I never finished eating), and I added a package of instant miso flavoring so I could have soup with it. It was mm-mm-good!

This is a few days overdue.

My new bento box

I’ve been obsessed with reading Bento blogs lately, like Bento Box Blueprints and Adventures in Bento-making.  I also watch a Bento community on LiveJournal. All of this on my Google Reader, of course.

And in an effort to really begin watching what I eat and making sure I dont get tempted to eat the crap that’s sold around my school, I’ve decided to invest in making my own bentos. I bought a bunch of cute bento accessories like onigiri molds and some containers to hold stuff in that I didnt want to get mixed with other food. I also bought mini cosmetic bottles to hold any liquids – sauces and dressings – that I may want to have with me.

Onigiri molds

I am really loving all of this and it motivates me to take more of an interest in what I’m eating. This is a good thing. I’m getting old. The doc says my blood tests show I’m borderline anemic and low in triglycerides. I’m also borderline high cholesterol. Sigh. I’m not in my 20s anymore! >_< So, definitely needing to be more mindful of what goes in my mouth. The doc has me on prescription iron pills. T__T I need to cook more of my own food, and that’s what I’m trying to do.

So, I finally made my first bento lunch in time for Parent/Teacher conferences last Thurs. I would be at work from 7am – 7pm and needed lunch plus a mid-afternoon snack to tie me over til I got home and had dinner. I actually should’ve added breakfast, but let’s not get too ambitious, eh? I need to re-think breakfast in general! I’ll get there…

I took pix, as I plan to do each time I make a bento. Maybe I’ll start adding my bentos into the community on LJ. So, here was my first bento:

First of all, you have to understand, my new bento box has two layers. The bottom (which is featured on top is actually white, but these two dividers: blue and red sit on top. The blue is actually a container and the red just goes over what’s underneath. It serves as a secondary tray. Both are removable, but you need to replace them in order to properly close the box again. The white part on the bottom actually fits on top and is split into two container areas.

I had made halibut with potatoes, green peppers, asparagus, onion and spinich baked in tomato/garlic/olive oil the night before for dinner. Yum yum! My first try and I think it came out pretty well. I made enough to take some with me the next day. That was the main part of my meal, so I put it on the bottom. I needed something to go in the small blue container, so

I added fruit – a cutie orange, which my fiance buys and peels the stickers off to let me know he thinks I’m a cutie! I surrounded it with dried apricots.

For the top part, I put in what I planned to eat as a snack – a regular sandwich. I hadn’t bought cold-cuts or bread in a while and decided to buy some for a quick throw-together lunch. Glad I did! I used 2 slices of rye bread, turkey, cheese, mustard and canola mayo. I would normally never desecrate my sandwich with mayo, but canola mayo is actually supposed to be good for you, so I thought I’d try it. Still getting used to the taste.

I cut the sandwich in half and put one half on top of the other so it would fit. In the compartment next to it, I added what no sandwich would be complete without: pickles and olives! At the last moment, I decided to use the olives to make a face. I cut a slice of pickle for the smile. The whole point of making bentos is to make them so cute you’ll enjoy eating your food. Enjoying food is a lost art in the West. We just gobble whatever the media tells us looks good and seems to taste good. But, we dont actually know what we’re eating and how much damage it does to our systems. I’m trying to recover 30 yrs of damage done to my body. I’m 31 now. Let the re-programming begin!

This is what it looked like in the end: I was quite pleased!

This is what I do on a snow day!

Copy and paste these questions on your own ‘note’, replacing my answers with yours, then tag people to do the same thing. Remember to tag me back so I can see your answers!

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

I was supposed to be named after my mom’s half-sister, Diane. But, then my mom’s friend had a daughter named Jasmine and my mom really liked that name, so she named me Jasmine not even realizing that my last name would be Flores, therefore making me truly a Jasmine flower by name.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
When my beaux and I had a fight on Friday the 13th. What a way to start Valentine’s wknd… >_<

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
It’s ok. I’d love to have it look better, but I dont practice as much as I used to b/c of using computers all the time.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEAT?
Anything is ok, I guess. Depends how it’s made.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
No biological ones, only spiritual ones.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I think so.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
I hate sarcasm and have a very low tolerance for it.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yessir.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
You must be talking to my sister. I would never do it.

10. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE CEREALS?
Lucky Charms!

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
No

12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM FLAVOUR?
Mint or cookie dough

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Facial expression and eyes

15. RED OR PINK?
red

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
I think I’m schizo sometimes. And I need to take care of my health.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My beaux right now who’s at home b/c of this snow day, and we’re separated b/c of it instead of being able to enjoy it together.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
Sure, if they have time.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Blue sweatpants – no shoes

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
The sound of the stove exhaust on b/c I made pancakes.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Periwinkle!

23. FAVORITE SMELL?
Bread – freshly baked with melted butter

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My beaux

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
I dont think she sent it to me. I rather think I stole it, . But, yes, I love the person I stole it from. She’s amazing!

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Olympics only

27. HAIR COLOUR?
Brown

28. EYE COLOUR?
Brown

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Will be soon

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Indian, Malaysian – just as long as it isnt too hot and spicy

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Shoot… um…. oh yea! Slumdog Millionnaire

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Yellow

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter, but not at a blistering cold or unbearable temperature

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Both, but prob hugs more

36. FAVOURITE DESSERT?
Anything chocolate

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Anyone bored, lol

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
People who are actually at work. Heh heh

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Reading WATCHMEN and Perfect Weight America.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Dragonmount.com

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
Uh… I think it was not on, as usual.

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S)?
Worship music by Hillsong or David Crowder; Jeremy Camp

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Coming up empty here

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Farthest in distance? Anything in Asia, right? Longest plane ride was from Malaysia back home: 22 hrs

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Language learning?

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Brooklyn, NY

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Anyone who responds – it’s interesting to get to know ppl in a way you havent before b/c certain questions havent ever been asked.

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
Random places, but then a dinner in Chinatown started us on the path to being together.

49. IS THE CUP HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?
Completely FULL!

50. IF YOU COULD SIT DOWN TO DINNER WITH FIVE PEOPLE WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
I’d choose 5  different ppl each nite til everyone I’m connected to on Facebook and I had a chance to see each other again. ^_^