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Learn & Serve (L&S) begins in less than two months! Our eight counselors will begin training the last week in May, and students begin arriving the first week of June. You can see our counselors by heading over to the counselor page on the L&S site. We still have room available for individuals or youth groups during weeks 1, 4, 6 and 9. For information about registering, contact Jamie Waldhour, waldhourj@sifat.org, or click here. Don’t forget about Elementary L&S during Week 5. Click here for more information. Forty (40) spaces are still available for rising 4th-6th graders. Last week, Jeremy Steele contacted SIFAT wanting to help us set up a Cause on Facebook. Working with SIFAT staff, Jeremy has made this idea a reality. If you are a Facebook user and would like to join our Cause, click here – http://apps.facebook.com/causes/76368. If you’re not a user and would like to join, you’ll find all the information you need at that link. Do you have an idea like Jeremy and want to get involved? Contact Marie, lanierm@sifat.org, to share your idea. Last night Jarred and I walked into our room after supper and Jarred noticed that there was a bat flying around. This was not our first encounter with bats. There was one in the other room one night and we could not get it out. Being volunteers of SIFAT and being very up to date with appropriate technology Jarred grabbed a broom and I grabbed a guitar. After a minute or two Jarred put the broom down and picked up a video camera and decided that he could be more help getting the bat out of the room by taping me swinging a guitar at it. After about six swings I finally hit it and knocked it into the door. Only slighty stunned the bat got back up and continued to do laps around the room. I finally hit it again and knocked it onto my top bunk. It finally fell behind out beds so moving the bunk bed and using a swift sweeping motion we were able to encourage the bat out of the room and then immediatly break into our we just killed a bat medly. At two oclock I heard what sounded like a grizzly bear on my dresser. I awoke Jarred who told me it was nothing and to go back to sleep. Two seconds later hearing a noise on his side of the room Jarred springs out of bed and asks me what it is. Well that is what I was trying to tell you about Mr. Tucan ,I told him. He shined his light and we see what was a rat about the size of Wisconsin eating my bread. We followed it with the light for about five minutes until it jumped on the window, climbs the screen and shuffles out of the large hole that we both could fit through. We had never seen the hole before and so in my infinite wisdom at two in the morning I decide that if I shove a towel in the hole the rat will not be able to get in. We did not hear from Lordis the Rat anymore last night but the towel is not gonna cut it. Lordis is more persistant than that so we will rig something up tonight, or maybe the Juggernaut will save us. As I was sitting with Elva one of our older students trying to convert the metric system and help her with her physics I remember a time in my life that I said, “why am I taking physics and chemistry I will never use this”. Well I was wrong, little did I know in eleventh grade that three years later in Ixiamas Bolivia I would be doing physics again. God uses us in crazy ways. -Addison- This is the fourth installment in our SIFAT Remembers column, written by cofounder Ken Corson. This article was published in our February Journal, which you can download here. At the time I was discovering a more practical theology, one that served human needs—physical as well as spiritual. Schmaucher’s ideas, based on small scale and self-help rather than welfare, fit with my thinking. Thus before we left to work under the Bolivian Methodist Church, we went to Vermont for training in appropriate technology. After two years of ministry in Bolivia, we returned to Alabama. Sharing stories of how we had used technology in the context of the church stimulated interest among Christians who heard us over several states. We called a meeting in our home church, Wedowee United Methodist, where we shared the great concern we felt for the hungry and suffering in our world. Those present responded by helping us create SIFAT as a Christian non-profit corporation. The founding name was Southern Institute for Appropriate Technology. However, at the first board of directors’ meeting, the founders agreed that we wanted the world to know that this was a work of faith, part of our living out our Christian commitment. So we adopted a second name also—Servants in Faith and Technology. The acronym for both names was SIFAT (See-fat). Not only did this name include faith, but also the aspect of servanthood which is a fundamental aspect of Christ’s teaching. Last thursday night on the bus from La Paz to Rurre my camera was stolen on the bus. I did not realize it until later the next night and I thought I had left it on the bus or something. Me and Jarred went back to the terminal asked the man working if they had found a camera and if I could look on the bus. They told me I could tommorrow and they had not found one. I was mad and wanted to look then so we found the bus parked about fourty yards away on the street a block away from the police academy. While Jarred was on lookout I climbed up to the window and was able to get in. I searched that back of the bus and did not find anything. I did not want to spend to much time on the bus because I did not want any trouble with the owners who did not know I was on it or with the police a block away. I got off and we decided that we would ask the bus driver the next day. We got to the terminal early the next morning and asked and they said they had not seen a camera and that I could look on the bus. I looked again and nothing. I have had a good bit of time to think about it and yeah I am bummed that my carmera is gone. I also dont think that Jesus ever used a camera in his ministry. I think that he would have used the money for his camera and bought a windmill for a poor family so their cows would not die in the dry season. I am not trying to be profound or extremely deep or anything I am just saying. The rest of that night my world revolved completely around an expensive piece of whatever camera s are made of. I was completely consumed with finding this thing that I completely lost sight of why I was here in Bolivia. I am not saying that cameras or stuff is bad I mean it would be sweet to have a camera right now. I think that that is a ministry in itself being able to show people back home the peoples lives that ,hopefully by allowing Jesus to consume us ,we have touched in some way. It just hit me how silly it was to be so worried about a camera. I work and have worked with kids who dont have parents and have to pan the rivers in the summer to pay the small fee to stay in the Internada. Kids who at the age of twelve have dropped out of school and have nothing to do but make their living as the local neighborhood thief. Kids that know if their families lose their rice harvest they will not have enough food for the year. Yet these kids have the biggest smiles I have ever seen. They are the freaking coolest little creations of God. Huge brown eyes that are filled with their makers love. I was worried about a camera…. Its seems like the more clutter and stuff I fill my life with the more I worry I bring on. I guess it all boils down to where our priorities are. I dont know much about anything but I think that God def used this situation to teach me some things. Just think about it… -Addison- |
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