|
shawn_h
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: shawn
Country: United States
State: Oregon
Metro: Portland
Birthday: 4/18/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: I like hanging out in skateparks, with skatepark people. Sometimes thats church to me. As well as hanging out in good coffee shops, I look forward to being a regular at one someday.
Expertise: I don't think I am good at much. There are a lot of things I am bad at. Probably more then good. I can fix bikes a bit, I used to be able to make coffee, but never drank it. I am also really good at procrastinating, that is why I keep xanga close to my heart.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
MSN: shawnhoffarth@hotmail.com
Member Since:
3/17/2004
|
|
| On Poverty.I would love to get some feedback on this from some of you who have been overseas, and outside of the Northwest, because I have only been as far as Winnipeg.
I was talking with my friend Jeff today, continuing on a conversation that we have had over the past few weeks about poverty. We had talked about this guy Shane Claiborne and his minimalist lifestyle from stuff and maximum lifestyle of giving.
Todays conversation started as we headed to Chevy's for lunch both looking at a $15 tab. He said that he spends about that much in a week on food, and then followed up by talking about this letter he got from Compassion International stating the shortage on rice due to the increase of coast doubling. He said how it costs about $13 to feed a kid for a month.
So at this point my negativity comes up thinking how some of those organizations rip people off and how we never got any updates at school on those kids and stuff like that.
But the conversation started to go deeper throughout the day talking about what we do to help feed the poor internationally. We started to talk about where people are at and how we are not the guy with the big house and all the useless stuff, but I said I wasn't at the point that he was at with living minimalist (such as only getting clothes from the lost and found... he is a janitor). However he is also at a point where he wants to be doing more, and the things that he is looking at are a huge stretch for me.
Without getting into a giant blog. The outcome we came up with is, perhaps we should always be looking at doing more, and never really looking at it as a place of arrival. We talked about how the guy with the house might actually be stretching himself by living in a more modest home than he could afford, and sends a good portion of money to feed kids. And where Jeff is at, he is a poor college student, but he still is taking steps to create a lifestyle where he can maybe teach overseas instead of at a high paying American job. I don't really know where I am at, we don't give to people overseas, but I kind of don't even know where to start.
I would love to hear where you all are at with this, especially after being overseas or having family over there. And maybe even some needs of where we can help. Thanks all
...edit...
One of the other things I had brought up in our conversation was the end of Shindlers List, the idea that Shindeler could have maybe bought freedom for a few more Jews if he would have sold his rings, or the car he owned. I guess one of my fears is that we can never do enough. We talked at the end about Mother Teresa and how we bet on her death bed she thought there was more she could have done. Perhaps the one of the main things that is hard for me is guilt. Even though I feel guilty now not really doing anything, it seems like such a distant cause that I don't really know. Where if I start, I can not help everyone. I will always be able to do more, and that might kill me with the guilt that there is always more.
We then started to talk about the life that someone like Shane, and my freind Jeff are trying to live, and I brought up things like I would rather teach people in the Suburban Church of the West what they can do, and perhaps through working with people on their finances, through things like what Jamie and Keith have going, or through Financial Peace University, then perhaps I could actually do more, than if I just stopped buying stuff for the rest of my life and gave what I can give. Breaking that down, perhaps I could give 10-15 thousand a year, which would be a huge stretch. But I could maybe work with people and have say maybe 10-15 people give 5 thousand a year, which would total much more. That is kind of where our conversation got lost, and perhaps became to complicated for me to work out in my head any more.
Thanks for the great comments.
| | |
| "I think that the work of the Church in this developed and rich Western Hemisphere is more difficult than in Calcutta, South Yemen, or other areas where the needs of the people are reduced to the clothes needed to ward off the cold, or a dish of rice to curb their hunger - anything that will show them that someone loves them. In the West the problems the people have go much deeper; the problems are in the depths of their hearts."
-Mother Teresa (In My Own Words, 1996) | | |
| It's been a while. I dont really go on here much anymore. Really the only thing I check now a days is if someone from Prairie updated, to see whats going on. I also came on here last night to see where eric was going, I figured military but just wanted to make sure. I am reading some good books, and finding a ton of good quotes. Maybe I will put some on here but I dont think anyone reads this anymore. Oh and we moved down the street about 50 blocks east. Right accross the street from our church. Good times..? | | |
| Wow | | |
|
