We are hiring!

Sadly, my coworker and teammate is headed in a different direction.  Therefore, the team needs a new set of hands.

We plan to hire another AmeriCorps member in the next few months to serve on the online services team.  Do any of you know of people who might be good for these positions?  A list of the descriptions are below.  If they are interested, then have them fill out an application at: http://www.techmissioncorps.org/cms/tmc/apply-now

Volunteer Coordinator (TMC)
Offered in: Boston at TechMission headquarters
This AmeriCorps position will assist with volunteer and work-study student recruitment and coordination for programs based in churches and faith-based organizations. Duties may include recruiting and placing volunteers and work-study students at sites, assisting with monitoring, data tracking, and providing overall support in volunteer management. Members may assist in other program areas as needed.
The volunteer coordinator acts as a liaison between the service site and volunteers. An important part of this position is to find volunteers and maintain positive relationships with them.
Additionally, the volunteer coordinator ensures users of TechMission’s volunteer-matching website are able to navigate and utilize it for their organizations. At the same time, our volunteer coordinator team works on marketing strategies and projects to help organizations post free volunteering opportunities on the website if they need volunteers. They also gather useful resources like books, videos, and online articles on topics like volunteer management, family volunteerism, long-term volunteering abroad, and much more.

Web Developer Intern/Volunteer Coordinator
Offered in: Boston at TechMission headquarters
The Web Developer internship is a full time position, which may be offered either through AmeriCorps*VISTA or AmeriCorps, which is responsible for supporting the technology needs of TechMission. Applicants should view this position as an internship to gain experience in technology in a nonprofit/ministry setting working in one of the largest organizations doing technology and ministry worldwide. Duties may include updating and creating new webpages using Dreamweaver and/or Frontpage 2003, programming scripting for TechMission’s websites in PHP and/or Java/Javascript, maintaining TechMission’s websites, online databases and other online tools, assisting with any other technology or administrative needs.
A typical day of work for the Web Developer involves installing new Drupal modules and implementing new features on UrbanMinistry.org, troubleshooting problems with the site code or database, periodically creating the structure of new web sites or new sections of existing sites, optimizing pages for performance and SEO, and occasionally assisting with server administration.TMC)

Online Publications Editor Intern/Volunteer Coordinator (TMC)
Offered in: Boston at TechMission headquarters
The Online Publications Editor internship is a full time position through AmeriCorps which is responsible for creating and editing the content of TechMission’s websites including UrbanMinistry.org, ChristianVolunteering.org, TechMission.org and Safe Families. This position will also help with online community development through our social networking site on UrbanMinistry.org.
A typical day of work for the Online Publications Editor involves moderating the content and comments that are posted on the site, looking for new videos and articles to post to the homepage (especially relating to special events and holidays), supporting and encouraging the volunteer bloggers as they write for the site, keeping the topic channel pages up to date, adding content to the wiki on urban ministry topics, and supporting users of the online community.

Why the Church is messed up

“The Church is a society of sinners – the only society in the
world in which membership is based upon the single qualification
that the candidate shall be unworthy of membership.”
– Charles C. Morrison

This explains a lot about why the church is screwed up.

I want to be careful about how I talk about it cause Christ loves the Church so much, but seriously–doesn’t this help  you understand?/

For those wise enough to not throw the baby out with the bathwater–it’s good to remember that the problem of sinners getting together and messing up has little to do with the fact that there is a God who loves you and wants you to find Him.  Don’t let yourself put him in a box and keep yourself from Him because of a problem with the Church.

Speaking of Church, most American friends go on Easter.  Any takers in Boston or Chili, NY?  We can sit together (Chili-ians).

“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”  Tim Keller

(also, we do good things too sometimes).

also also, i adore my church in Boston (www.fenwaychurch.org and http://www.parkstreet.org) and i love my church at home too: http://www.tfhny.org .  I am talking about Christians/the Church as a whole (myself included).

Same power that conquered the grave lives in me, lives in me…

Can we just all think about that for a bit?  The same power that conquered death and kicked death in the face (death couldnt hold him down) is in us.

this is big.

I’m seeing it (His power) at work in Boston.  What’s happening where you are?  Also, if you read two things this year, make them Hudson Taylor’s autobiography and the following article:

Who was William Carey?

(for the record, Rochester and Boston friends, and worldwide friends..this makes me wanted to be so multitalented.  i dont think he was though–i think it was the “Same power that conquered the grave’s” fault).

“William Carey was a Christian missionary,” answers a science student. “And he was also the botanist after whom Careya herbacea is named. It is one of the three varieties of eucalyptus, found only in India.”

“Carey brought the English daisy to India and introduced the Linnaean system to gardening.  He also published the first books on science and natural history in India, such as Willaim Roxburgh’s Flora Indica, because he believed the biblical view that, ‘All Thy works praise Thee, O Lord.’ Carey believed that nature is declared ‘good’ by its Creator; it is not maya (illusion), to be shunned, but a subject worthy of human study. He frequently lectured on science and tried to show that even lowly insects are not souls in bondage, but creatures worthy of our attention.”

Carey the Botanist

• Brought the English daisy to India
• Introduced the Linnaean gardening system
• Published the first Indian books on science and natural history
• Frequently lectured on science and tried to show that insects are not souls in bondage
• One Indian variety of eucalyptus (Careya herbacea) bears his name

‘William Carey was the first man,’ asserts a Medical student, ‘who led the campaign for a humane treatment for leprosy patients. Until his time they were sometimes buried or burned alive in India because of the belief that a violent end purified the body and ensured transmigration into a healthy new existence.

Natural death by disease was believed to result in four successive births, and a fifth as a leper. Carey believed that Jesus’ love touches leprosy patients so they should be cared for.’

Carey the Sociologist

• Led the campaign for a humane treatment of leprosy patients
• Conducted systematic sociological and scriptural research

• Published reports on
  • polygamy,
  • female infanticide,
  • child marriage,
  • widow burning (sati),
  • euthanasia and
  • forced female illiteracy

‘Carey was the first man to translate and publish great Indian religious classics such as the Ramayana, and philosophical treaties such as Samkhya into English,’ says the student of Literature.

‘Carey transformed Bengali, which was previously considered ‘fit only for demons and women’ into the foremost literary language of India. He wrote Gospel ballads in Bengali to bring the Hindu love of musical recitations to the service of his Lord. He also wrote the first Sanskrit dictionary for scholars.’

Carey the Linguist

• Translated and published Indian religious classics
• Promoted Bengali as a literary language
• Wrote Gospel ballads in Bengali
• Wrote the first Sanskrit dictionary for scholars

‘Carey was a British cobbler,’ joins in the student of Education, ‘who became a professor of Bengali, Sanskrit and Marathi at the Fort William College in Calcutta where civil servants were trained. Carey began dozens of schools for Indian children of all castes and launched the first college in Asia at Serampore, near Calcutta.

‘He wanted to develop the Indian mind and liberate it from the darkness of superstition. For nearly three thousand years, India’s religious culture had denied to most Indians free access to knowledge, and the Hindu, Mughal, and British rulers had gone along with this high caste strategy of keeping the masses in the bondage of ignorance. Carey displayed enormous spiritual strength in standing against the priests, who had a vested interest in depriving the masses of the freedom and power that comes from knowledge of truth.’

Carey the Educator

• Stood against Hindu priests, who had vested interest in depriving the masses of knowledge

• Professor of Indian languages: Bengali, Sanskrit and Marathi
• Began dozens of schools for Indian children of all castes
• Founded the first college in Asia at Serampore

‘William Carey introduced the study of Astronomy into the Sub-continent,’ declares a student of Mathematics. He cared deeply about the destructive cultural ramifications of astrology: fatalism, superstitious fear and an inability to organize and manage time.

‘Carey wanted to introduce India to the scientific culture of astronomy. He did not believe that the heavenly bodies were ‘deities that governed our lives’. He knew that human beings are created to govern nature, and that the sun, moon, and the planets are created to assist us in our task of governing.’

‘Carey thought that the heavenly bodies ought to be carefully studied since the Creator had made them to be signs or markers. They help divide the monotony of the universe of space into directions – East, West, North and South – and of time into days, years, and seasons. They make it possible for us to devise calendars; to study geography and history; to plan our lives, our work and our societies.’

‘The culture of astronomy sets us free to be rulers, whereas the culture of astrology makes us subjects, our lives determined by our stars.’

Carey the Astronomer

• Introduced the study of astronomy to India
• Pointed out the destructiveness of astrology, fatalism, superstitious fear and the resulting inability to organize and manage time
• Promoted the scientific culture of astronomy, which allows humans to govern nature, divide space into directions, and organize time into days, years and seasons

‘William Carey,’ argues a feminist Social Science scholar, ‘was the first man to stand against both the ruthless murders and the widespread oppression of women, virtually synonymous with Hinduism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The male in India was crushing the female through polygamy, female infanticide, child marriage, widow‑burning, euthanasia and forced female illiteracy, all sanctioned religion. The British Government timidly accepted these social evils as being an irreversible and intrinsic part of India’s religious mores.’

‘Carey began to conduct systematic sociological and scriptural research. He published his reports in order to raise public opinion and protest both in Bengal and in England. He influenced a whole generation of civil servants, his students at the Fort William College, to resist these evils. Carey opened schools for girls. When widows converted to Christianity, he arranged marriages for them. It was Carey’s persistent battle against sati for twenty-five years which finally led to Lord Bentinck’s famous Edict in 1829, banning one of the most abominable of all religious practices in the world: widow burning.’

Carey the Social Activist

• Protested against Indian cultural institutions that oppressed women
• Influenced a generation of civil servants, his students at Fort William College
• Opened schools for girls
• Arranged marriages for widows who converted to Christianity
• Persistently battled against sati for 25 years until it was banned 1829

Witty Blog Post

I desire to craft a witty blog post for all of you in the near future.  I have many topics with which to thrill and provide intrigue:

1.) the large rat that lives at work and the trap Chris created today.

2.) the German warship and exploring various rooms inside of it.  Kevin, the nice soldier man.

3.) what it’s like being a member of two gorgeous church communities, and how i think that’s a horrible idea but can’t seem to find any way around it for now.

4.) Social Justice Christians and Jim Wallis’ call to write to Glenn Beck.  Hmm.

5.) how i almost got a whole ice skating rink full o people dancing with me while the zamboni went around in circles.  so sad that the dance party movement died–but fun while it lasted with a bit of toe tapping.

Sadly, time’s short.  Pick a topic you’d like me to cover–anything from “how to _______ ” to “favorite childhood memory”.  I miss writing comprehensive thoughts.  Topic ideas?

what is going on.

Tomorrow = chicago.

Saturday = still.

Sunday = CHURCH.

next weekend = st. pattys day!  mike! anyone else wanna visit me?

weekend after that–maybe going home if possible.

weekend after that..going away with fenway church!

end of april = minneapolis!

mondays = meeting, tuesdays = small group, wednesdays = fab 5, thursdays = my own night.