We're on our way to Africa!

About six months ago, Gina and I had the opportunity to hear a couple of different speakers discussing the situation in Africa, South Africa in particular. After those talks, we both felt moved to get involved in the daunting task of helping the people of South Africa overcome the cycle of poverty and violence that has plagued most of the country (and most of Africa).

“Dream for Africa,” a Christian-based, humanitarian organization, felt like the right fit for how we wanted to get involved. While there is no quick fix to Africa’s problems, we felt Dream for Africa was on to something. They deliver more than humanitarian aid; they help plant gardens and teach people how to maintain them with regular follow-ups from short-term teams. The model has been hugely successful. So much so that we’ve heard (this is rumor) that several members of the US Congress are looking into the program to see if it may be a model for how US funds can best be used in Africa in the future.

In addition to meeting the tangible needs of the people, Dream for Africa also attempts to connect Christian ministers with villagers in an effort to meet their spiritual needs as well. They want the people of Africa to know that there is a heavenly father who loves and cares for them. By volunteering to serve in Africa, Gina and I hope that God’s love may be exhibited through us. We feel that the western Christian community has neglected Africa for far too long and that much more needs to be done. We hope that the people we interact with will know they are loved. We also hope our efforts will give more visibility to the needs of the vast majority of the world’s population, and that other people will feel empowered to get involved.

Gina and I are so thankful for all those how have decided to support our efforts and the efforts of Dream for Africa. Our family and friends have raised several thousand dollars for us (some shocked us with the level of their generosity). We feel this is especially noteworthy given the many domestic needs our country is facing.

We hope we can honor the generosity and compassion of all those who have given and all who have told us they would be thinking of us and praying for our time and efforts in Africa. It’s neat to see people reaching out to the rest of the world and showing that America cares for them. In a time when America’s international image isn’t so positive, we hope to be good ambassadors of its compassion.

We are flying out in the morning. If I’m not able to during the trip, I’ll have plenty to post when we return in a few days.

Take care,
Jason

Thanksgiving with the boys

Gina and I spent part of our Thanksgiving holiday with our four nephews (my two sisters' children). It was a blast and so neat to see their developing personalities, how they relate to each other, their parents, the grandparents, and Gina and I (the aunt and uncle they don't see very often). I'm so thankful for them and for their parents, my sisters and brother-in-laws, and for our parents. God has been good to our families and I know that these boys will grow up with the support and love they need to do great things for other people. Here are some pictures of some boys being boys :). (Everyone is wearing red in the picture because the grandparents were trying to get a "Christmas" photo to send to family and friends). By the way, getting four boys, all under the age four, to sit still for a photograph is next to impossible. Don't try it.

Matisyahu Miller - This guy rocks big time

OK, I'm jumping on the bandwagon in a major way here, but I don't care. This is cool music and it actually has a positive message. I hope this guy is a success.

I heard Matisyahu interviewed one afternoon a couple of weeks ago on 99x, an "alternative" (it's mainstream) radio station in Atlanta. I was impressed by his maturity and the way he approached the interview and answered the questions. I hate to do it, but I'm actually going to have to give props to the local pop culture for introducing this guy's musical style to me (I don't get MTV, but I hear it's there too)...who would have thought...Hasidic Reggae.

Here are sample lyrics and a link to the live performance at Stubb's that is creating such a buzz. The link is to the Windows Media Player format.

From "King Without A Crown"
Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You're a slave to yourself and you don't even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you're trying to stay high then you're bound to stay low
You want G-d but you can't deflate your ego
If you're already there then there's nowhere to go
If you're cup's already full then its bound to overflow
If you're drowning in the water's and you can't stay afloat
Ask Hashem for mercy and he'll throw you a rope
You're looking for help from G-d you say he couldn't be found
Looking up to the sky and searchin' beneath the ground
Like a King without his Crown
Yes, you keep fallin' down
You really want to live but can't get rid of your frown
Tried to reach unto the heights and wound bound down on the ground
Given up your pride and the you heard a sound
Out of night comes day and out of day comes light
Nullified to the One like sunlight in a ray,
Makin' room for his love and a fire gone blaze


Image and video from Matisyahu's official website: http://www.hasidicreggae.com/

LSU best in the west

(Photo by Robert Sutton at http://www.tidesports.com)
Alabama and Auburn have something in common right now...they both wish they had a chance to redo what turned out to be the game winning play against LSU (and LSU is probably thankful it doesn’t have to play either team again). Both Alabama and Auburn are good, Auburn may even be really good (Alabama has its work cut out for it next week), but when it counted, LSU made the play. LSU is the best team in the SEC West (and in my opinion, in the SEC (unless Auburn is hitting field goals :)). Congrats to LSU. Good luck in the SEC Championship game.

Also, congrats to the Alabama players. Despite having a roster depleted by NCAA sanctions, you are 9-1 and took an LSU team that has been amassing COMPLETE top five recruiting class for the past five years to overtime (and don’t forget, LSU is just three years removed from a national championship and has had only two head coaches in that time (you've had four). As is almost always the case, you've made us fans proud!

My thoughts on Alabama football at 9-0 in 2005, in the midst of some of the harshest penalties ever levied against a football program

(Photo from http://cbs.sportsline.com/)
Less than five years ago, aided by rival coaches and boosters, secret witnesses, jaded sports writers and an errant Alabama booster, the NCAA did its best to upend one of the most decorated college football programs in the history of the sport. Why? Alabama's southern rivals had always felt Alabama won by "bending" recruiting rules. What else could explain nearly a century of domination in the talent-rich south? No matter how well they did, Alabama remained the flagship of southern football. Alabama's northern rivals hated it that the "Heart of Dixie" had a football team that could stand toe to toe with its biggest media darlings: Notre Dame, Southern Cal, Ohio State, Michigan, etc.

Sometime around 2000, a perfect storm formed somewhere over Tennessee (probably Knoxville), with the NCAA and Tennessee coaches and boosters conspiring to take down Alabama football. Finally, the playing field would be leveled for the rest of the SEC (Tennessee) and the NCAA could punish the "arrogance" of a program that had ignored the rumors of rogue boosters for years.

After a couple of years of kangaroo court-like investigations and proceedings, Alabama received the second harshest set of penalties ever levied against a football program. With a case built almost entirely on the NCAA's violation of its own provisions against secret witnesses and the withholding of information about possible rules violations AS THEY HAPPEN, Alabama's program was presented with huge scholarship reductions. The NCAA would make an example out of Alabama (ironically, of how NOT to assist the NCAA...Alabama's administration was praised for it's cooperation in the investigation, but then penalized as if it hadn’t).

Tennessee's coach, and no doubt other rival coaches, began telling recruits that football in Alabama was all but dead. With scholarship reductions, a two-year bowl ban, five years of probation, and its fourth head coach in just three years, the claim wasn't too farfetched. From the viewpoint of Alabama’s southern rivals, Alabama was finally getting what it deserved. From the viewpoint of Alabama’s northern rivals, Alabama's storied tradition and history was tarnished, an outcome befitting a program from the Deep South (i.e. the backwards, ignorant, racist south).

So now, five years later, is Alabama football dead? As of Nov 11, 2005, ten weeks into the season that was to be most impacted by the penalties, Alabama happens to be one of only three unbeaten teams in the country. It has won games against two teams ranked in the top five and looks poised to be a conference championship contender for the foreseeable future. How can that be?

What Alabama’s rivals failed to consider when pronouncing Alabama football dead, was the heart its players always seem to have. Alabama players seem to understand the importance of their program's place in the psyche of the southern sports fan, and they play to honor and live up to that memory and the expectations it creates.

During the middle of the 20th century, when the south produced precious little to be proud of (i.e. a horrible civil rights record), Alabama's football team was amassing victories across the nation and on stages historically reserved for northern teams. Alabama football became something the south could take pride in. While the penalties hurt Alabama, they weren’t the deathblow they could have been because today’s players play with a heart that can only come from being a part of something they are so proud of, something so many Alabama natives have been proud of for decades.

I’m not going to argue Alabama’s football program has been blameless. With respect to boosters (especially the one associated with the penalties), the administration should have been more proactive. But the NCAA’s having to resort to withholding information and using secret witnesses to build a case against Alabama shows the program wasn’t completely corrupt.

I do believe there's something special about Alabama’s football program that has allowed it to be 9-0 at this point in history. It holds a special place in the history of a region and the pride its tradition promotes has allowed its players to trump the schemes of jealous rivals and self-righteous bureaucrats. Here's to Alabama football players! Roll Tide!

Click the picture below to see how Alabama's tradition compares to it's biggest rivals, Tennessee and Auburn:

(Photo from http://www.tidesports.com)