Seeing Sergeant Grampa

My dad has been a Civil War Reenactor for just about as long as I can remember (I think for over 20 years).  Today we had the day free and he was doing a Living History event at James Garfield Park in Mentor, so we went to see his camp and watch them march.  We had to leave before they did any shooting drills because we figured it would be too loud for Evelyn's baby ears, but still got to spend a good chunk of time there.  

You may know that the Civil War is in the 150th anniversary cycle, so all the events that have been happening since 2011 and until 2015 are 150th anniversaries.  The 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, for example, happens next July and the battle of Antietam is this September.  

I'm not much of a supporter of war, but I am a huge supporter of liberation.  So when it comes to the Civil War, what matters is that I support the memory of what this country and my own ancestors went through for the liberation of enslaved Africans.  I'm so glad that people like my dad work hard to make sure that no one forgets what happened and why it is significant to us today.  

Part of me wants to continue rambling about what these men fought for, but really I know that nothing more needs to be said than what Abraham Lincoln spoke almost 150 years ago.  It's worth reading today as much as it was worth hearing then, and I think the reminder helps us today as we continue to strive for the equality of all people in this country.  

So, friends, a word from the 16th President of the United States:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

P.S.  I've got quite a few Blog Entries mulling around, including the second part of the Arizona trip and an update on the Search and Call process.  I'll try to get around to it this week, but no promises.  If you find yourself having trouble waiting, you can see my previous entry on patience.  :-D  

Who is Joseph Kony? : Using Social Networking for Good

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Never thought I'd watch the whole video, but I did and I'm glad.  C'mon guys, we are powerful, and we should care.

Edited to Add: 

Thought I'd keep this post brief, but I just can't stop thinking about the fact that he does this in the name of the Lord, yet I don't have time to elaborate or come up with something even semi-profound to say about the whole thing.  I'm just disgusted, and I wish there was some way I could tell people that religion is not always like that and that is NOT our God.  Because of my lack of time, I'll just include some links,

like to the United Church of Christ, the denomination I'm a part of, who knowing us will be on the Kony 2012 train really soon.  www.ucc.org

And to the website to which the maker of the video refers, where you can go to send letters and learn more about Kony 2012.  www.kony2012.com

Mission: 1

Maic and I had our first night out without the baby the night before she turned six weeks old.  I bought a new dress (I didn't fit in my old ones!) and we went to the Celebrate Eden dinner, an annual fundraising event for the seminary.  We had a good friend taking care of Evelyn for the night.

I didn't cry, but I sure was stressed.  I wanted to be there on time.  I wanted to look nice (hadn't tried that for a while).  I wanted to have a good face on for my school and for the congregation I was representing.

When we pulled out of Stacy's driveway, we were alone.  What should we talk about?  Nothing I guess.  We didn't talk.  We just drove.  I watched the clock and noticed how late we were.

And then something happened that made the silence painful.  We drove past a young man standing on the street holding a baby (he couldn't have been much older than Evelyn-- he wasn't even holding his head up) and a sign that said, "Need food and baby formula.  God bless you."

I'm guilty of carrying a certain amount of cynicism about people begging on the street.  Have they tried to get work?  Will they feed addictions with this money?  What other resources have they gone to?  Etc.  But I think that we can all agree without judgment that hunger and imbalanced distribution of food in this country is a problem.  Whatever the circumstances of that particular family, that baby did not choose to be born into that family, just as Evelyn didn't choose to be born into ours.  As brothers and sisters in Christ and in humanity, we have an obligation to get that baby off the street and fattened up.

For 11 days this month, the United Church of Christ has launched a huge campaign to feed the hungry and fight food-related injustices.  The theme is the number one-- an homage to the UCC slogan from John 17:21, "That they may all be one"-- 11 days with a goal of 1,000,000 items of healthy food donated, 11,111 letters written to congress, $111,111 donated to Neighbors in Need, our fund for US missions, and $111,111 donated to East African famine relief.  It has been powerful.  Congregations across the US are coming up with creative and new ways of reaching these goals.  

SO....today, my lovely family participated in the creative food drive that is being put on by First Congregational UCC in Webster Groves, MO, the church that I am serving as student pastor.  They have set up a "Go Right to End Hunger" toll booth which allows people to take a short cut through the church parking lot so that they can more easily turn right at an intersection that is impossible-- you know, long lights and nobody understanding the rules about who has the right of way.  Every town has one.  

Here's what we brought: 

Two cans of formula (shoot!  That stuff is expensive!),
some rice and oatmeal cereal, and some packs of baby food

Paid at the toll booth (shh...don't tell anyone we ended up turning left) with hopes that maybe a little baby in St. Louis just like Evelyn can have a full tummy.  

Here is Gramma filling up E's tummy with cousin Zoey
at Great-Grampa's memorial lunch.