"I'm what the world considers to be a phenomenally successful man. And I've failed much more than I've succeeded.
And each time I fail, I get my people together, and I say, "Where are we going?" And it starts to get better." - Calvin Trager

With Ya, my Ga tutor in Mallam
The Rev. Mike Kinman
Executive Director
Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation
Age: 38



Check out Forsyth School ...
where Robin teaches and
the boys attend.

Since you're already blowing time surfing,
why not do some cool stuff

  • Watch the Make Poverty History videos
  • Watch Sara McLachlan's "World on Fire" video
  • Take a seat at Oxfam America's Hunger Banquet
  • Look at the "Eight Ways to Change The World" photo exhibition
  • See how rich you are on the Global Rich List
  • Make a promise to do something cool -- and get people to do it with you
  • Use your computer to fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases

    While you're at it, do these things
  • Join the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History
  • Join the Episcopal Public Policy Network
  • Join Amnesty International
  • Subscribe to Sojourners Online newsletter about faith, politics and culture
  • Sign the Micah Call and join other Christians in the fight against poverty
  • Subscribe to a great new magazine about women and children transforming our world

    People who show us What One Person Can Do
  • Liza Koerner (Teaching soccer and doing mission work in Costa Rica)
  • Erica Trapps (Raising money so Tanzanian children can go to school -- check out her photo gallery)

    What's happening in Sudan might
    surprise (and shock) you

  • Episcopal Diocese of Lui
  • South Sudanese Friends International
  • The Sudan Tribune
  • SudanReeves -- research, analysis and advocacy
  • Save Darfur
  • Darfur: a genocide we can stop

    For your daily fix on the irreverent...
  • Jesus of the Week
  • The Onion

    Interesting People Who Are Great To Read
  • Beth Maynard's excellent U2 sermons blog
  • Global Voices Online
  • Neha Viswanathan - poetry, commentary, humor, reflections

    Some interesting organizations and programs
  • Borgen Project - poverty reduction through political accountability
  • CARE
  • Center of Concern
  • DATA: Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa (Bono's site)
  • El Circulo de Mujeres/Circle of Women
  • Engineering Ministries International
  • Episcopal Peace Fellowship
  • Episcopal Relief and Development
  • FreshMinistries
  • Global Campaign Against Poverty
  • Global Ministries
  • Global Work Ethic Fund -- Promoting philanthropy and fundraising in developing and transition countries.
  • Karen Emergency Relief Fund
  • Magdalene House
  • The M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
  • Natural Capitalism
  • NetMarkAid - Humanitarian Entrepreneurs
  • North American Association for the Diaconate
  • Peace Child International
  • People Building Peace
  • Project Honduras
  • Results - Creating political will to end hunger
  • St. Paul's Institute
  • Stop Global AIDS
  • TakingITGlobal -- connecting youth for action in local and global communities
  • Tanzania Educational AIDS Mission
  • TEAR (Transformation, Empowerment, Advocacy, Relief) - An Australian Christian anti-poverty movement
  • Working For Change
  • Xigi.net -- an open-source tool to aid discovery in the capital markets that fund good.

    Some Episcopal churches and dioceses doing cool things
  • Companions of Swaziland - Diocese of Iowa's Companion Relationship
  • International Development Missions -- St. Paul's Church, Sparks, NV
  • The Malaria Villages Project - St. Paul's Church, West Whiteland, PA

    Must-read books and websites about them
  • What Can One Person Do: faith to heal a broken world -- Sabina Alkire & Edmund Newell
  • The End of Poverty -- Jeffrey Sachs

    Learn more about things you really should know more about
  • UN Millenium Development Goals
  • The Millennium Campaign
  • AIDS Matters - a resource for global AIDS professionals
  • Christian Aid's in-depth report: "Millennium Lottery: Who lives and who dies in an age of third world debt?"
  • Foreign Policy In Focus
  • Poverty Mapping
  • Solutions for a water-short world
  • Transparency International: The global coalition against corruption
  • UNICEF's State of The World's Children report 2005

    General cool and/or goofy stuff
  • Alicebot chat robot
  • Bono Quotes -- but what's really wild is that it's from a page on Boycottliberalism.com!
  • Buffy Slanguage
  • Big Bunny

    Useful web tools
  • Gcast - make your own podcast
  • Podzinger - podcast search engine
  • Orb - streaming digital media


    Archives
    July 2003August 2003November 2003January 2004February 2004March 2004April 2004May 2004June 2004July 2004August 2004September 2004October 2004November 2004December 2004January 2005February 2005March 2005April 2005May 2005June 2005July 2005August 2005September 2005October 2005November 2005January 2006February 2006March 2006April 2006June 2006July 2006August 2006September 2006October 2006November 2006December 2006January 2007February 2007March 2007April 2007May 2007September 2007October 2007December 2007February 2008July 2008December 2008April 2009




    Listed on Blogwise
  • Monday, August 04, 2003
    Jesus is my savior, but Becca Stevens is my hero.

    Many of you have heard me talk about Becca before. She's the priest at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who started Magdalene House , a residential housing and recovery program for Nashville women with a criminal history of prostitution and drug abuse. Her chapel (St. Augstine's) is the yardstick by which I measure our own ministry and others.

    Today, as you've probably heard, we in the House of Deputies consented to Gene Robinson's consecration as bishop of New Hampshire. He will, if consented to by the House of Bishops tomorrow, become the first openly gay bishop in the church.

    In the midst of the long debate, which alternated between pro and con for 45 minutes and pretty much rehashed the arguments I've long heard, Becca stepped to the microphone. In her soft, Southern voice she started to speak.

    She talked about how she grew up with a priest father who was a Southern conservative and dead opposed to the ordination of women. He was killed by a drunk driver when he was 40, leaving Becca's mom with her and her 4 siblings.

    Years later, and 8 1/2 months pregnant, she said she "waddled up the aisle" and was ordained with hands laid on her head by men who,with her father, had opposed the ordination of women.

    Years later from that, when she and her husband were playing with their oldest son -- that son who was about to be born after that ordination, and asking him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he was talking about being a fireman and other things. And Becca asked him, "what about a priest?" And he scrunched up his face, looked at her and said, "A priest??? That's a GIRL'S job!"

    She talked about how the Holy Spirit works to change hearts for the sake of love. How it happens in places we can never believe it can happen. How so much of what she had been hearing in opposition was about fear and how we need to have the courage not to fear and to step out in faith, trusting that God will be with us. For fear has no power when next to the love of God.

    And finally, she said, we need to step out in faith and just get this work of the Spirit over with so we can get on to the real business of Christ which is feeding the hungry and healing the sick and bringing God's love to a broken world.

    My plain, typed words do not do Becca's words justice. You really had to be there, but no memory of today will stay with me longer and whatever you hear on CNN, there was nothing else I could write about tonight.

    Becca's words prompted a short burst of applause -- the only time in the whole proceding from beginning to end that anyone in the house broke the rule of decorum about not public demonstrations. I reached for a tissue and wiped the tears that were spilling out of my eyes and down my cheeks, glanced next to me and noticed that Steph was doing the same thing.

    I don't think our church is going to split over this vote ... but it might. I believe that what binds us together is stronger than the power of a vote to separate us ... but I could be wrong.

    But I KNOW that love is greater than fear. I KNOW that the Holy Spirit can do amazing things in the hearts of people ...things that seem impossible. I KNOW we have a lot of work to do, and whatever state the church is in, those of us who are left are going to do it ... we're going to feed the hungry, heal the sick and bring God's love to a broken world.

    I know these things because Jesus has promised us they're true. In the past days, I've forgotten them at times and succumbed to the fear that is thick in the air. But I was reminded today of them in a way I will never forget. That love is greater than fear.

    Jesus is my savior. But Becca Stevens is my hero.

    |
    Mike at 8/04/2003 01:50:00 AM

    Comments: Post a Comment
    Subscribe in a reader
    Episcopalians for
    Global Reconciliation

    EGR is an organization resourcing a grassroots movement of spiritual transformation in the Episcopal Church to end extreme poverty on this planet.

    The structure for this movement is the Millennium Development Goals -- 8 goals committed to by all member nations of the UN and a unique partnership of governments and civil society to:

    *End extreme poverty
    *Achieve universal
    primary education

    *Promote gender equalty
    *Improve maternal health
    *Reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
    *Promote environmental sustainability
    *Build a global partnership for development

    EGR resources and connects the church to embrace what one person, one congregation, one diocese and one church can do to make this mission of global reconciliation happen.

    Want to find out more ... check our our website at www.e4gr.org.

    "Christ's example is being demeaned by the church if they ignore the new leprosy, which is AIDS. The church is the sleeping giant here. If it wakes up to what's really going on in the rest of the world, it has a real role to play. If it doesn't, it will be irrelevant."
    - Bono








    Erd_donatenew_wht



    What I'm Reading
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
    by Doris Kearns Goodwin