This just came across the EO News Ticker…
I will be returning to El Salvador in July with the Upper Room community. I am thrilled as I was asked to be a team leader, I am very honored.
I will need to start gathering some prayer support and financial support and other logistics of the trip.
But i am very excited to go back. My life began to be transformed drastically last time I was there. I am excited to get back there and see Manuel again, experience the happiness of the people of El Salvador and grow with a community through the experience the trip brings…
Ethan
Daily, Struggles
UPDATE:
Friday I went to Mission Impossible: 3…Â I got an Icee no problem…
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Friday i had another Icee incident…
I was at the movies with my sisters and my friend Katie. I went to get my Icee as usual and ordered my twist… Cherry and blue-rasberry… Katie wanted a blue-rasberry. The kid behind the counter said the blue-rasberry machine was broken. I looked behind him, it was. I looked to the right as I know most movie theaters have 2 machines. It was up and running… So I said, "That one's working." He seriously looked at me and said, "Are you really gonna make me go down there?!?" I contemplated and thought, 15 feet isn't too far to make this kid walk… I was surprised to see how hard it was for this guy to do his job.
2 weeks ago, i went to see Inside Man. I waited in line for about 10 minutes to get my Icee, only to find out that the Icee machine was broken behind her. I asked about the other machine… The response was, "That machine is not in my area." Very surprising to me that at a 60 foot counter, everything isn't in everybody's area.
I can't help but think that there is a relation from those 2 conversations about the way the lazyness of me can overtake and overpower the desire to do what is right or what I am called to do as a follower of Jesus.
I see myself in the shoes of those who encounter the Jewish man who had been robbed and beaten on his way to Jerico from Jerusalem. Sometimes I feel like the Samaritan, and sometimes I feel like the Priest or Levite who used their energy to walk to not only pass the man, but to cross the road and then pass. Unfortunately when I feel like the Samaritan, chances are there are some incentives for me that makes it easier for me to help them out.
Ethan
Feeling
2 reasons we just can't be friends…
I am finding it more and more easy to figure out who actually cares about me though email and phone. There are 2 sides: those who contact me, and those that don't.
I can get down to the core of what your intentions with me are based on a few things.
If I call you, email you, or try to contact you. And I hear nothing back for a few days after you know I made an effort to contact you, maybe a week. That is the loudest signal to me that I am not even on the fringes of your radar. Here is why I have an extreme viewpoint on this but am going to stand firm by it, NOBODY is too busy to write a one sentence response, a call on your way to work, or walking into your office pointing out you got my message but am busy and thats it. I am 100% cool with that, if you're busy… You're busy…
I just cannot stand to listen to somebody explain how busy they have been and haven't had time to breathe…
Yes you have taken a breath, and yes you have 20 seconds to respond.
The output of my extreme view is that everything you do, everything, is more important than me. I'm not saying I should be at the top of their list of importance. But I would hope I am not last… I have enough interest to seek you out and contact you.
This upsets me obviously enough to write about it, but I think my leash has been too long and I have given people too much room to dangle me around. But I need to continue to give those who seek me out their fair share of Ethan…
Ethan
Community, Feeling
About a month ago I was with friends in Palm Springs. On the way back we tried to catch an earlier flight on standby. 3 of us got called up. Steve & Kyle & I, 4 others didn't make it. In the commotion to figure out who got to get home at a decent hour, we lost one spot. Down to 2. I have nobody to get home to so I was planning on conceeding my seat anyway. So Steve & Kyle were gonna take the seats, Kyle hadn't been away from his son Brennan so he was a for sure. Steve is Steve, and based on coolness factor he was going too.
A woman came from the jetway all worked up that her ticket didn't work. That she had called a few hours earlier and gotten her ticket changed to the earlier flight. Evidently she had bad information and was booked on the late flight with the rest of us. She mentioned she had 4 kids at home and she would lose her job if she didn't get on this flight.
I looked at Steve without any knowledge if her claims were true or not, whether she would lose her job if she got home at 8:00 PM or 1:00 AM?, and said, "Opportunity??"
Response: "Love Wins!!"
Steve gave up his spot on the flight to her, she was gracious and got on the flight. We never got a chance to talk to her more about whether it was a scam or the truth. We'll take it as the truth. But I'd like to think love won that night as there were then complications with our tickets as we were locked in the middle of being transferred to the flight that was already landing in Minneapolis. Mine was sorted quickly with a re-print. Steve's took some time.
Seating assignments:
- I got front row bulkhead window seat. 3 feet of legroom and nobody in the middle seat. Plenty of room to sleep!
- Steve got upgraded to 1st class. Nothing more to say there…
I don't look for rewards for love. But I can't help but think the premium seating assignments were the tangible smile of Jesus from a small sacrifice to love sombody. All I said was "opportunity"
Ethan
Daily, Feeling
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