Seek Up

A couple of weeks ago I made a few new friends at Global Maritime who loved to play pool. After playing a couple of games with them, they decided to teach me a new game, which they called 61. It was totally new to me, and I’m still not sure that they weren’t making up some of the rules as they went, but it was a great time. It took me a while to catch on, but eventually I even won a game!

Later in the evening before we were about to head back to their ship, I asked one of my new friends about his family, and he began to tell me about his two little girls and about how his wife was struggling to keep up with them while he was away. He had bought the older one a lap top for doing her homework at Best Buy earlier that day.

I asked him if it would be alright if I prayed for them, and he said of course. So together we prayed for his family, for their strength and unity as he was away. I was reminded to pray for all of our seafarers and their families. Often times their work is the best way to provide for their families monetarily, but nothing can make up for the lack of a father’s presence. So, I would ask that those who read this pray for the families of our seafaring friends, and specifically that in the absence of their earthly fathers, that our heavenly Father would be particularly present and tangible to the families in the times of their absence, providing the peace and comfort only God can provide.

I was then handily thumped in one last game of pool.

-grace and peace

This past monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. day, and it is one of my favorite traditions that the saturday before would be a day of service to honor the clergyman, activist, and non-violent leader of the civil rights movement. The YAVs took an opportunity to serve at a food bank which is operated by Jefferson Presbyterian Church.

It was a really great morning. Personally, I enjoyed the company much more that the work as my job was to hang out at the NyQuil table and see that each family only took one. So, as you can guess, I quickly found other ways to amuse myself such as finding creative ways to arrange the bottles and having a dance off with a little girl. Though our jobs were not strenuous, we gladly helped oversee the distribution of food and met so many kind and caring people. It was really encouraging to be a part of actively meeting the needs of the vulnerable in our community, something I believe Dr.  King would be proud of.

Sadly, on Martin Luther King, Jr. day itself, 5 people were shot on MLK Boulevard in New Orleans, and as I headed home from the port that night I thought of the many ways that Dr. King’s dream is still a dream, a point in the future, drawing those of us who believe his message forward.

As New Orleans YAVs, We live in a city where a  young man has a worse chance of surviving than in Afghanistan according to the mayor. We live in a state that is in the top ten in executions per capita. We live in a state that imprisons more people per capita than any in our country. We live in a nation where the people who are faced with taking the brunt of these and many other disproportionatetly distributed atrocities are African American.  Approximately half of the US citizens imprisoned today are African American, more than were enslaved before the Civil War.

So this weekend I was encouraged to see the good that can come from a caring community, but I pray, as I hope you will, for the day when Dr. King’s dream would come true. In fact, that beyond Dr. King’s dream, that God’s kingdom would come, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

-grace and peace

Two weeks ago I had a beautiful and humbling experience, and I thought I would share.

I was at Global Maritime and I had just done a routine pick up from a ship to run some of the crew to Wal-Mart. As I was dropping off the first contingent and heading back to the center, a few of the crew mentioned wanting some good food, something they couldn’t get on the boat. I felt their pain and wanted to help.

Flashback with me to the summer of 2005.

(flash)

I am sitting in the hot sun in the parking lot of a high school somewhere I’ve never been before and will probably never return to. I have just eaten a slimy, over dressed salad and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the bajillionth time.

I’m a member of the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle corps and we have been touring the country competing against other corps. We sleep in busses and on gym floors and our food comes from an 18 wheeler that has been converted into a kitchen and follows us around.

As you could expect, we eat very similar, overly processed food every day.

(flash)

So, having some respect and understanding of the frustrations of repetitive processed foods, I know I have to hook these gentlemen up with some decent local fare.

I droped off the rest of the crew with Jonathan at the center, and told these hungry fellows to come with me. We went to Magazine to get some gas, and I told them that some of the best restaurants in the city were on this very street.

As we walked down Magazine, we chatted about the similarities and differences between their home country of the Philipines and our home here in New Orleans. We talked about parks, schools, family and sports. Eventually, the topic got back around to their life on the ship. They told me how bad their cook was and how he only served dried fish and rice, and I told them that in New Orleans they could have Pizza or Tacos or Vietnamese or Indian, but nothing really sounded perfect.

Then, one of the crew spotted Saucy’s. He asked me what it was and I told him it was a barbecue place. They looked around at each other and came to a silent consensus that this was place. I was elated.

We sat down and the waitress was very patient and kind as they ordered their enormous plates, each with two meats and two sides. I ordered an alligator po’ boy, and the crew were very amused that I was going to be eating alligator.

The food came, and I asked if I could bless the meal.

In that prayer, God opened my eyes and heart to the smallness of the world and the heavenly communion that was before us.

I would ask that those who read this might pray for my heart to be continually open to the moving of God’s love in these relationships, strengthened by the beauty of these shared moments.

-grace and peace

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
― Maya Angelou