"YES WE CAN!"

It's a day in history that our children and grandchildren will learn about in textbooks, and ask us "where were you on the day that Obama became president?"

Farzam and I were downtown on an 'election crawl' We went to 2 different Irish pubs playing CNN on a big screen, as well as the U of T Hart House, and a fraternity house which had a screen and lawn chairs outside. It was pretty incredible how suddenly Toronto; a city of strangers; formed a community of kinds for a night, watching together in awe and celebrating hope and the fulfillment of a dream....and he's not even our president! Even taxi drivers had parked by the fraternity house and were leaning on their cabs, watching with smiles on their faces.

What is it about this that has captured hearts across the world?

ELECTION DAY IN CANADA!

The day has finally arrived. After 6 weeks of following the Campaign trail here at CTV, Election day is upon us. It's just a shame I'm not a dual citizen yet and can't even vote! For once in my life I'm up on politics, and can make a VERY informed decision.

But for the rest of you who CAN vote, here is a little taste of our candidates...
Who are YOU voting for???


Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois?

Stephane Dion of the Liberal Party?

Jack Layton, NDP leader?

..or Calgary cowboy (and current Prime Minister) Stephen Harper?

GO VOTE!!

And Life Moves on...

I looked at my last blog and realized that perhaps some of you think I'm in Sierra Leone right now.

Well I'm not.

Actually I'm doing quite the opposite in some ways. Instead of living in the slums and spending my days with the poor, I'm working for CTV Toronto: Canada's biggest TV station. Don't worry though, I haven't lost my mind! God just closed and opened different doors than what I'd expected he would...but isn't that the adventure of life? I plan to blog regularly again, and in doing that I'll fill you in on the twists and turns of the past few months.

I want to say a huge congratulations to Amie and Andy on the birth of their beautiful little Isabelle Grace! Amie is a wonderful blogger...check it out. I can't believe this friend of mine is a mother, even though I know she'll be the best one ever!

MY LIFE IN A NUTSHELL SINCE I LAST BLOGGED
-I graduated University (BA HONS Psychology)
-I went back to Africa
-I went to England
-I fell in love.


PS: I am going to Israel in a month!

The Least of These...

I've applied for a 4 month internship in Sierra Leone with a wonderful community called Word Made Flesh. It runs from August to December, and I'll find out on April 5th whether I got accepted.
I'm also heading back to Zambia in July, for a very exciting project which I'll talk about on this blog soon!
This being said, I've been reading and meditating and learning so much over the past year about what it means to live in community with the poor, to be broken and share life together, and how Christ manifests himself to us in the opressed and vulnerable and marginalized, in order that they might lead us to the heart of God. I've written on this topic here before, but below are some thoughts. I didn't write them, but I absolutely agree with them, and will wrestle more along these lines soon..


WHAT THE POOR HAVE TO TEACH US:
* They know how deep our world needs redemption.
* They rest their security not on things but on people
* They have no exaggerated sense of their own importance and no exaggerated need of privacy.
* They expect little from competition and much from cooperation.
* They can distinguish between necessities and luxuries.
* They are patient, because they have known dependence.
* Their fears are more realistic and less exaggerated, because they already know that one can survive great suffering and want.
* They can respond to Jesus with an abandonment and uncomplicated totality-- because they have little left to lose.

Headlines and Hobbies

In other news..
New Hobbies I have taken up recently include:
Surfing! (a work in progress)

Salsa!

RockStar!

Libraries! (a forced hobby for the last year of my undergrad)

Learning to appreciate snow, even after 5 months of it..

If anyone still reads this, there's such a lot that has gone on since the last time I blogged. (However if I have you as a friend on Facebook, the pictures are all old news!)
There are many thoughts and stories that I want to begin sharing on here, so stay tuned.