A Political Perspective of Thailand's struggle

The weeks of popular protests by thousands of red-shirted demonstrators in the centre of Bangkok reached a critical stage on the late Saturday evening of 10 April 2010. At that point, Thailand's state-security forces began a crackdown against those who had gathered under the banner of the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). A longstanding political crisis that has divided Thais into bitterly opposed camps has now become a national tragedy.

The immediate crisis had been escalating since mid-March 2010, when tens of thousands of members of the increasingly heterogeneous UDD began their takeover of the streets of Bangkok. Read More at http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2877093.htm

10 Ways You Can Help Street Children Without Giving Money

10 Ways You Can Help Street Children Without Giving Money

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7 Tips For Learning A Foreign Language On The Road

7 Tips For Learning A Foreign Language On The Road

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Meet the Zambia '10 leaders

Jaimie Rickards is our Official Logistics Coordinator (OLM, for short). She's responsible for booking flights, calling people, holding on to our passports (or throwing them in the air) and lovingly hounding us about getting paper work in. :) Jamie enjoys running marathons with or without dogs and becoming a nurse.

Chad is one of our three group leaders on this trip. He went to Zambia last year and absolutely fell in love with it's people, culture and the joy that he found there. After the rest of us come back home, Chad will go to South Africa and spend the rest of the summer there with Mark McCoy (link).

Other than having a sweet palindrome for a name, Nilwona is the third leader of this trip, the trip advisor. Were something to happen that results in someone having to stay behind (lost passport, injury, etc.) Nilwona stays behind and takes care of business. Raised on the south side of Chicago, she now serves as the Resident Director of one of the dorms on campus here at North Park University. This will be her second trip to Zambia.

A few words about Zambia...

Mulishani!



My name is Nilwona Nowlin, & I'm the advisor for the Summer 2010 Zambia team. I had the privilege of serving as a trip participant last year and never would have imagined that I'd get to do it again so soon! I'm a full-time staff member at North Park (Resident Director), but many people don't realize that I'm also a writer. So blogging is right up my alley. Today, I wanted to share something that I posted on Facebook a few weeks ago. I hope it encourages you!:

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While shopping with a friend today, I made a joke that he responded to with, "They don't need faith because they've got money."



I jokingly responded that this was the problem with the world today - that we don't feel like we have to trust God because we have money.



Even though it started out as a joke, it stuck in the back of my mind all day. Then, this evening, while reading the New Testament reading for the One Year Bible, I was reminded of the conversation. The passage from Matthew (Matt. 21:22) talks about how if we pray in faith, we will receive. And I couldn't help thinking that many Christians - especially in the Western world - don't really rely on faith like we should because we can always find someone with money...then I thought about my friends from Hope Ministries in Zambia. And I remembered how they told us during a church service last year about how they believed God to meet their needs - even when they had no reason to believe that it could happen because they didn't even know where the resources would come from.



That's true faith. Taking a step when you don't even see the staircase. How many of us can honestly say that we have that kind of faith? I know I want it!

The Potential For Short-Term Missions

I had a great conversation with Eric Iverson at Urbana09. He is a youth leader and Youthworks! employee who has some great things to say about the potential of short-term mission trips. Please read the article: http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2010/02/short-term-missions-and-missional-youth-ministry/. The article focuses on the importance of post-trip follow-through, which is often the most difficult. The question he asks is: What will you do to address the issues and systems of injustice that cause poverty and brokenness in your own community?

I am interested to hear what students who have participated in Global Partnerships want to do in Chicago or their home community after being inspired by our Global Partners. Feel free to comment.

Art Institute-Free in February, go and learn abour Sub-Saharan art

African Art and the Modernist Eye at the Art Institute in Chicago

2/18, 6-7 p.m. Price Auditorium Free 500 Ways of Looking at Modern Did you know that the art institute is free in February? Take the opportunity to learn more about Sub-Sahara Africa (Zambia is located there) and interaction with modern artists. Inspired by a modernist fascination with the "primitive," the first half of the 20th century saw a developing aesthetic appreciation for objects from sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, which formerly were dismissed as mere curiosities or classified as ethnographica. In this lecture Christa Clarke of Newark Museum considers the influence of modernism in shaping Western perceptions of African art, as reflected in exhibition display as well as the formation of institutional and private collections in the United States. Fang; Gabon. Reliquary Figure (Nlo Bieri), Late 19th/early 20th century. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wielgus. http://www.artic.edu/aic/calendar/event?EventID=6725&Month=02_2010&Day=18