Social Justice & God's Goodness

That was our topic this past week, mostly having to do with modern day slavery. Our speaker, Karisse Schilling, who I met last year when she spoke in my DTS, works with human trafficking efforts, and as most of you know, this is my passion so I was extremely excited about this whole week. Not only did she talk about sex slavery in particular (what I want to be working with in the future... well with prevention and with girls who have come out of it kind of thing), but slavery on a large scale, and a lot of other injustices happening in the world today.

So she started with her story of surviving I can't even count how many cancers and surgeries (she is a walking miracle every day, let me tell you), and then continued the week talking about pretty hard topics, like I said, modern day slavery -human trafficking is the technical term-, poverty, world hunger, etc. Through that she tied in scriptures and life experiences to show how God is still good through all the evil in the world. I would expand right now but I have to leave in like two minutes so I'm making this a lot shorter than expected. So it's been kind of a heavy week, hearing lots of hard things and statistics but also realizing through it that the evil in the world is not what God intended for us at all and good WILL conquer evil in the end.

Here's a couple videos she showed this week that I really liked. Hopefully soon I can post some more on this because as I already said, working towards justice especially on this specific topic is my life passion so really I could talk about this for days and not be done.

Music video:
World on Fire - Sarah McLachlan
http://youtu.be/FDmPcSWE0WU


Miniature Earth video:
This really puts things into perspective... Appreciate what you have! Like internet!
http://youtu.be/rvTFKpIaQhM

How Well Do You Really Know The Twin Cities?

John Mayer -no, not that John Mayer-, our speaker on World Religions a while back gave us these facts which blew me away. Some of them make sense and some of them I never would have known if it weren't pointed out. But I wanted to share them with you because I found it extremely interesting, especially since I've lived in the Twin Cities my whole life. Plus these are great conversation starters :)

Do you know your city? (Twin Cities)

By Rev. Dr. John A. Mayer, City Vision

1. Largest Somali, Hmong, Oromo Ethiopian, Liberian, Karen Burmese, and Anuak populations in the US, as well as the second largest Tibetan concentration.

2. The Phillips Neighborhood (in South Mpls) has the largest urban concentration of Native Americans.

3. It is the city with the largest number of Korean adoptees.

4. This year (2011) it has the largest homosexual population of the US.

5. One of the largest concentrations of witches in the US (Paganistan), numbering over 20,000.

6. One of the largest concentrations of megachurches of any US city (most megachurches per capita). Also including one gigachurch located in the Twin Cities with attendance of 10,000+.

7. Eight of the top 10 largest Lutheran churches in the US including the largest Lutheran church in the world.

8. MN is the first state in history to have a Muslim Congressman.

­9. Four largest Baptist General Conference churches (BGC) in the US. 

10. One of the Twin Cities Presbyterian churches is ranked as one of the top 10 largest in its denomination in the US.

11. Most Chinese students of any US university at the U of MN.

12. Largest Cambodian Buddhist temple in the US.

13. Largest Hindu temple in North America.

14. Two largest Hmong churches in North America.

15. Largest Oromo church in North America.

16. World headquarters for Eckankar (a cult) which is in Chanhassen.

17. The Phillips Neighborhood is the most diverse neighborhood in the US with over 100 languages spoken.

18. In 2002, the Twin Cities was named by the Brookings Institute as one of the Top 10 Gateway Cities in America for new refugees/immigrants.

19. The Light Rail System sells tickets in 4 languages.

20. Anoka is known as the Halloween Capital of the World.

21. Largest Witch/New Age publishing company in the world is located in the Twin Cities.

22. MN is the only state with a Hindu State Representative.

23. Mormon Temple located in Oakdale.

24. More Hmong gangs than Hmong churches.

25. Quiet Revival with over 1,100 new churches started since 2000 with one new church starting every 3 days and with nearly 60% of the new churches being non-White.

26. Over 3,300 churches total.

27. Over 200 house churches.

28. Over 45,000 deaf people (only 2% of those are Christian).

29. More than 325 African American churches. 

30. Over 225 Hispanic churches.

31. Eat Street (Nicollet Ave) in South Mpls has over 75 ehtnic restaurants in a 6-block area.

32. Over 50% of immigrants live in the suburbs of the Twin Cities.

33. City ranked number one where people volunteer the most.

34. City with the most Somali believers and home to the only Somali church in America.

35. One of only two cities in America with a Norwegian speaking church.

36. City containing over 115 Muslim mosques.

37. City with the highest percentage of working mothers in America.

38. Over 225 Multi-cultural/ethnic churches.

39. City containing over 75 multi-site churches with 2-5 branch campuses.

40. Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis was built to contain two mosques and one church all in the same building.

41. Most literate city in America (most books, newspapers, libraries, etc. per capita).

42. City with over 100 Gen-X/Post Modern type churches.

43. Minnesota has the highest voting record of any state.

44. 8 Muslim mosques, 6 Hindu temples, 2 Buddhist temples, 1 Sikh, and 1 Jain temple are now all located in former church buildings throughout the Twin Cities.

45. One witch coven meets in a church building in the Twin Cities.

46. Minneapolis is the future site for the new $48 million dollar, 300,000 sq. ft. Muslim Youth Center mosque. The first of its kind in the nation and the largest Muslim mosque in America.

47. People in Minnesota live the longest on average than any state in the US.

48. Number one city in America where people ride bicycles.