ABC PARISH: OUR WEEK — JULY 26TH

REMINDERS —
THIS WEEK COME MEET BUDDY IN CASEY
U.M.C. VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL.
6 TO 9 P.M. THRU THURSDAY.

VBS Program will be Thursday evening,
the 23RD at 8:00 P.M.

WE STILL NEED BROWN PAPER BAGS,
NEWSPAPERS, AND OLD SHOES.
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RAGBRAI IS HAPPENING THIS WEEK .
Greenfield is working hard to be ready for 20,000
cyclists Monday night. It is a completely unique
experience — marginally controlled madness.

Many of us have friends and family who take part
in this every year. They say it is very hard work,
and they would not miss it.

11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and
distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same
with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples,
“Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.”
13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets
with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the
five barley loaves.
14 When the people saw him do this miraculous sign,
they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been
expecting!”
15 When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him
to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.

JESUS WALKS ON WATER

Here were Christ's disciples, and Christ was praying
for them; yet they were in distress. There may be
perils and afflictions, where there is interest in Christ.
Clouds and darkness often surround the children of
the light and of the day. They see Jesus walking on
the sea. Even the approaches of comfort and
deliverance often are so mistaken, as to become the
occasions of fear. Nothing is more powerful to
convince sinners than the words, "I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest;" to nothing more powerful to
comfort saints than this,
" I am Jesus whom thou lovest."

16 That evening Jesus’ disciples went down to the
shore to wait for him.
17 But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn’t come
back, they got into the boat and headed across the
lake toward Capernaum.
18 Soon a gale swept down upon them, and the
sea grew very rough.
19 They had rowed three or four miles when suddenly
they saw Jesus walking on the water toward the boat.
They were terrified,
20 but he called out to them, “Don’t be afraid. I am here!”

21 Then they were eager to let him in the boat, and
immediately they arrived at their destination!
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COMMUNITY PICNIC TODAY – RUTT PARK
PICNIC CASEY'S "BIG" PARK
SUNDAY, THE 26TH, BEGINNING AT 6 P.M.
Everyone is invited for food and fun!

Grilled hot dogs, buns, baked beans,

Pushghar, Afghanistan
By Three-time Pulitzer Prize Winner,
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN / The New York Times

I came to Afghanistan and asked: Why are we here?
Who cares about the Taliban? Al Qaeda is gone.
And if its leaders come back, well, that’s why we
created cruise missiles.

I cannot write that column . . . something stills
my hand. This week I watched Greg Mortenson,
founder of the Central Asia Institute and famed
author of “Three Cups of Tea,” open one of his
SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS in this remote AFGHAN
VILLAGE in the HINDU KUSH mountains.
After witnessing the delight in the faces of those
little Afghan girls crowded three to a desk
waiting to learn, I found it impossible to write,
“Let’s get out of here.”

Mortenson’s efforts remind us what the “war on
terrorism” is about. It’s about the war of ideas
within Islam — a war between religious zealots
who glorify martyrdom and want to keep Islam
untouched by change and isolated from education,
and it's women disempowered, and those who
want to embrace education, open Islam to new
ideas and empower Muslim women as much as
men. America’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan
were partly an effort to allow Muslim progressives
to win so that the real engine of change — a new
generation — can be educated and raised in
enlightenment.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the U.S. chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, spent half a day reaching Mortenson’s
newest school to cut the ribbon. Our Chinook helicopter
threaded its way between mountain peaks, from
Kabul up through the Panjshir Valley, before landing
in a cloud of dust at the village of Pushghar. Imagine
a new, one-story school on the moon, then you’ll
appreciate the rocky desolateness of this landscape.

There, was Mortenson, dressed in traditional Afghan
garb. He was surrounded by bearded village elders
and scores of young Afghan boys and girls, who were
fascinated with the helicopter, and not quite believing
that America’s “warrior chief” — as Admiral Mullen’s
title was loosely translated into Urdu — had come to
open the new school.The admiral passed out
notebooks to the children and Mortenson told me why
he has devoted his life to building 131 secular schools
for girls in Pakistan and another 48 in Afghanistan:
“This is money extremely well invested. These are
schools that will bring a new generation of kids that will
have a broader, unrestricted view of the world. We focus
on areas where there is no education.
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM FLOURISHES
IN AREAS OF ISOLATION AND RESTRICTION.

“When a girl gets educated here and then becomes a
mother, she is much less likely to let her son become
a militant or insurgent,” he added. “And she will have
fewer children. When a girl learns how to read and write,
one of the first things she does is teach her own mother.
The girls bring home meat and vegetables, wrapped in
newspapers, and the mother will ask the girl to read the
newspaper to her and they learn about the world and
about women who are exploited.”

It is no accident, Mortenson noted, that since 2007, the
Taliban and its allies have bombed, burned or shut down
more than 640 schools in Afghanistan and 350 schools
in Pakistan, of which about 80 percent are schools for
girls. This valley, controlled by Tajik fighters, is secure,
but down south in Helmand Province, where the worst
fighting is today, the Deputy Minister of Education said
that Taliban extremists have shut 75 of the 228 schools
in the last year. This is the real war. The Taliban want
mosques, not schools.
"MUSLIM MILITANTS RECRUIT CHILDREN AMONG
THE ILLITERATE AND IMPOVERISHED IN SOCIETY,
SO EDUCATION IS A FORMIDABLE ENEMY. IF
EDUCATION THRIVES, THE TALIBAN IS OUT OF
BUSINESS," SAID MORTENSEN.

This new school teaches grades one through six. I asked
some girls through an interpreter what they wanted to be
when they grow up: “Teacher,” shouted one. “Doctor,”
shouted another. Living here, those are the only two
educated role models these girls encounter. Where were
they going to school before Mortenson’s Central Asia
Institute and the U.S. State Department joined with the
village elders to get this secular public school built?
“The mosque,” the girls said.

Mortenson said he was originally critical of the U.S. military
in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he’s changed his mind: “The
U.S. military has gone through a dramatic learning curve.
They really get it now. It’s all about building relationships
from the ground up, listening more and serving the
people of Afghanistan.”

When you see little Afghan girls crouched on the front
steps of their new school, clutching tightly with both
arms the notebooks handed to them by a U.S. admiral
— as if they were their first dolls — one cannot say:
“Let’s just walk away.” Not yet . . . . not yet.

I am of a generation that is accustomed to watching
problems solved in one hour, prime time. We see this
middle east solution is often times three steps forward
and two steps back. I know Mr. Mortenson's life has
been threatened many times, and yet he pushes on.
That takes a very special person.
(Remind you of anyone?)

God Bless and Keep You,
Pastor Lynn

Sunday, July 19, 2009

OUR WEEK — JULY 26TH - AUGUST 1ST

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