29Jan, 2010

The Million Miles Short Film Contest! Win a Thousand Bucks

Posted by Don
2

Tell Your Story in 90 Seconds and win a Thousand Bucks. If you’ve read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and you (and/or your friends) have decided to tell an interesting story with your lives, make a film about it and you might win a thousand bucks. And more than that, you might just inspire others to live a better story, too. The Million Miles Short-Film Contest is based on the New-York Times bestselling book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller The Million Miles Short-Film Contest is your chance to tell a great story, or rather, your chance to tell the world about a story you or a friend told with their lives. To create a short-film, just tell us about a character that wanted something and overcame conflict to get it. Feel free to tell us about a group of characters, too. For example: I wanted to run a marathon, I trained, and I ran it. (That’s a story) A more sophisticated example: My neighbor wanted to adopt a child and went to Africa and met a child in an orphanage. They worked for two years to bring her home, and now she lives [...]

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29Jan, 2010

TMP Mentor and Mentee Visit the White House

Posted by Don
5

Imagine being nine-years old and asked to visit the White House. It happened last week with one of our mentees, Lehzan. The White House called and asked us to send a representative from The Mentoring Project to the East Room of the White House to help the President kick off National Mentoring Month. We knew exactly who to send as soon as we got the invitation. Willie Welch has been mentoring through TMP from the very beginning, and has been faithful as a mentor for three years now. And Lehzan, his mentee, has flourished because of the relationship. We booked a flight and sent these guys off knowing they would represent us well. Here’s the account from The Mentoring Project blog: Mentoring Project mentor Willie Welch and mentee Lehzan Blake  visited the White House last week to kickoff of President Obama’s new mentoring program. The President and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed mentors and mentees to the Grand East Room to kick off National Mentoring Month. Willie and Lehzan had a terrific time at the White House, touring the grounds and meeting other Mentor and Mentee pairs. “It was exciting for us and such a privilege to be selected. I’d [...]

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27Jan, 2010

The Night I Bought Howard Zinn a Beer

Posted by Don
0

I was saddened to hear about the passing of Howard Zinn. He was a remarkable man, a remarkable historian and a remarkable advocate for neglected people everywhere. Perhaps best known for his book A People’s History of the United States, Howard saw this country not through the eyes of its leaders but through the eyes of slaves, peasant farmers, textile workers, teachers, bus drivers and average people like you and me. Shortly after 9/11, Mr. Zinn spoke at Reed College. The event hall was filled, of course, and the then seventy-something man came to the podium in his kaki pants and sweater and spoke, without notes for some two hours. And then he took questions. And the time passed like a few minutes. He didn’t just write history books, he was a history book. After the event, at perhaps 11PM Pacific, Zinn was mobbed by students in the lobby. I made my way into the crowd to see him sitting on a bench in the foyer, students already sitting at his feet. I wanted to talk to him too, but there were too many people. My friends and I left Reed and decided to get something to eat. We talked [...]

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27Jan, 2010

Will Jesus Fulfill us Here on Earth?

Posted by Don
0

One of the reasons people struggle so much with life is they expect it to be something it isn’t. They expect to be fulfilled by products, relationships and even religion as though this is going to be the “Act 3 Climax” of life. But Biblically, the complete climax of life doesn’t happen at conversion, it happens when we are reunited with God. Adjusting expectations, therefore, frees people to be happy and grateful for the good things they experience on earth. A study done of the happiest countries named Denmark as the world’s happiest country. I believe America was 32nd on that list. And when researchers took a closer look, they realized the key characteristic that made people in Denmark so happy was, and you won’t believe this, they had generally low expectations in life. They were always pleasantly surprised at how things turn out. So in Christian culture, when we increase our manmade expectations (and trick ourselves into thinking this is faith in God) we are setting ourselves up for emotional instability. But the Bible does not set false expectations for us. The lives of the Apostles testify to this. So ours is a life filled with hope of what [...]

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25Jan, 2010

Knowledge Makes a Secure Man Humble

Posted by Don
1

Years ago, when I worked at a small publishing company outside Portland, I’d get together every couple days with a former seminary professor named Ross Tunnell. Ross had left seminary work and was doing graphic design, but was widely considered to be one of the smarter Old Testament teachers in Portland. I made a deal with Ross, saying that if I bought lunch, he’d teach me the old testament. And Ross took me up on that offer. We probably met more than fifty times over two years. It was a terrific arrangement. Ross passed away only a few months ago and I’ve been thinking about those lunches, of all that I learned. But last night I remembered the greatest lesson Ross ever taught me. I was thinking about this lesson because while surfing around on the internet, I saw a minister somewhere speaking very arrogantly about how he had some bit of theology figured out and somebody else didn’t. I think maybe it was a moment of weakness for said minister, but nevertheless it helped me remember something Ross once said. We were driving back from a conference in Salem and I was going off about some bit of scripture, [...]

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