Birmingham Summers

So I'll admit it. I'm not that great at meeting new people. I really enjoy meeting new people I just feel really weird doing it and sometimes I think that the other person is picking up on that so then I get even weirder. Yeah I have a bit of a rock star in me but that still doesnt make me the shyest outgoing person that I know. So I figured while I'm sitting watching the British version of blind date in a room full of people that I don't know too well that I would tackle this problem. On my blog that is. Well tonight we went to a Christian Union meeting on campus. It was amazing. Very simple and full of people who had a genuine love for Christ. The only person in their group that wasn't at University was the guest speaker. A quick side note. In America we have everything we could ever want, and then some, so why don't we ever talk about social issues as a church. AIDS/HIV, Fair Trade, Debt Relief, Feeding the poor. These aren't terms you hear in most churches. Why is that? Didn't Jesus feed people before He ever tried to teach them? Is it right to say we love Christ and all that He has made and not try and stop bad things from happening in His world. Some Third World countries are caught in a cycle of debt payment that will virtually never allow them to raise up above the poverty line. Is that right or even ethical? Here in Birmingham we meet in the mornings at a Methodist church right down the street. This morning I took a couple minutes to look around at some of their literature and flyers hanging around. They had an entire board dedicated to Fair Trade and information on the Jubilee campaign, which works to get governments to forgive debts to Third World countries. I don't know many churches in America that would ever think about putting things up like this. I'm not trying to condemn people for not bettering their world, all I'm doing is saying that as Christians I really believe it's our responsibility to help those who literally can't help themselves. Think of how much the love of Christ would be shown by just helping out a little. Sure we may never see who we are helping, but that's not the point. God is the point. He see's everything and by helping others it is simply another act of obedient worship to Him. Well thats enough on that for now at least. I absolutely loved the people at CU and I'm very much looking forward to getting to know them all more personally throughout PETE week and just around on campus. This was an amazing day.