Holdin' Out

I'm sleeping on the floor tonight.

I know a guy, John, who got to go to the OKC Hold Out and was inspired by the people willing to sacrifice comfort to ensure that the bill progressed through Senate. After 11 days on the streets, Coburn lifted his hold. The bill passed through Senate the next day.

But why stop there?

John created a facebook group to encourage people to sacrifice something big until this bill passes the House. Most people are giving up the comfort of their beds, so I am joining them.

At first I thought this was crazy. I said to myself, "Ok, I'll give up soda" but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if I truly care about this bill's passage as much as I say I do, then why not give up my bed? One of the biggest things I kick myself over is my complete ignorance of the Rescue event which took place one year ago next month. I always tell myself that I'll be ready for the next big thing, and that I will sleep outside in the cold and in the rain for 7 days if that's what it takes. But I won't sleep on the floor in my room, with my blankets and pillows and bathroom nearby and roof over my head and running water and electricity? I tell my club the importance of this bill, but I'm not willing to get dirty for it? Yeah, I think it's a bit hypocritical too.

50% of my roommates think I'm crazy, 25% thinks it's something I should do, but probably won't join, and the last 25% (whose reading this now) will probably end up on the floor with me.

One of my roommates didn't see the point. (But the irony is she's coming to the Sleep Out to End Malaria with Kayla and I in Nashville.) What's the difference really? Sure, one has hundreds, if not thousands, of other people, music, speakers and a jumbotron, but they both require sacrifice, but one quite possibly requires more.

Sometimes it's easy to forget to act. If I'm not in a meeting with senators or reps or hosting a national call-in day or getting people to write letters (all of which are pretty rare occurrences), then I'm really not doing much else regarding this bill. Abandoning the comfort of my bed will force me to remember each morning why this bill is important and what I can do that day to help see it's passage.

People will ask questions and call me crazy. I'm okay with questions and I'm okay with crazy, but I am not okay with slacktivism.

So here goes night 1.

"Become the Story"

This video is beautiful.

Forecast for the Week Ahead: Perpetual t-storms with a chance of tornadoes, hurricains and, well, death

Here are my big plans for the weekend:

Submit Invisible Children application tomorrow, which means reviewing once more and making final edits.
West Side Story tomorrow evening.
Church on Sunday morning.
Uganda team meeting Sunday afternoon.
Carter Council's second installment of "Dinner With" series Sunday during dinner.
Carter Prayer and Praise Sunday evening.

I'll also need to find the people, time and a place to practice for Mountain Aire.
And of course, any necessary preparation for the storm that is next week-whether it be finalizing event details, reading, writing papers or studying.

And here are my big commitments for next week:
Monday: CHOW course paper due. Seminar with the IJM's Director of African Missions. Meeting to help plan Move for Uganda.
Tuesday: Com Dev paper due. It's only 1 page, but there's heaps of reading I need to do in order to write it.
Wednesday: Missions midterm. Screening of When the Night Comes. Carter Council meeting.
Thursday: Com Dev exam. Human Wrong Initiative-man table at lunch and dinner. IC club meeting. Alicia's birthday.

I'm already severely sleep deprived. I have no idea how I'm going to make it through the next 6 days.

Please pray for strength.

Kayla and I are famous

Well, not really. But I was excited to see our article on the World Vision ACT:S website.

Read the full thing here.

Just a bill..for now.

I'm not on my way to Oklahoma right now. But the good news? I don't need to be.

Turns out Senator Coburn lifted his hold on the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act yesterday morning! And today it was unanimously passed through Senate! This means it moves on to the House for a vote, then to Obama for a signature, at which point it becomes a law. He then has 180 days to come up with the strategy to apprehend Joseph Kony. There's no guarantee that the strategy will be legit, but with enough pressure from people like us, I think it will be. As long as our government knows that this bill is important to us and that we will not step down from seeing its passage, then I don't foresee any more major challenges.

Praise Jesus for softening Coburn's heart and letting it pass through Senate. Pray that it makes through the House with little trouble. Pray for the strength of those working tirelessly to see an end to this war. Pray for the millions affected in east and central Africa. Pray for the children forced to kill and torture. Pray for the families whose children have been abducted or murdered. Pray that somehow, someway, Joseph Kony and his commanders would cease their terrors in Africa.

Here's some links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ
http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/?p=5815
http://www.resolveuganda.org/node/978
http://www.resolveuganda.org/legislation/currentstatus

Remember that time we went to DC for the day?

Last week Kayla and I drove 22 hours in 4 days. And that's not including all the time we spent on the metro. We were exhausted. We skipped classes. We moved tests. We didn't fully prepare for those tests. And it was well worth it.

We decided to go to Atlanta last Saturday to meet up with some people from World Vision who we were connected with at Urbana. It. was a pretty informal lunch-- just talking, hanging out, getting to know one another. (Ya know, all the things you'd expect to do when meeting 2 people from the largest Christian non-profit organization in the world.)

Before we got there, we had a crazy idea brewing about going to DC to watch Bobby Bailey's new documentary When the Night Comes. Kayla was bummed that they had moved it from Spring Break to the week before and wanted to find a way to still see it. Being me, I was all for a random adventure (and it was a tad more logical than going to OKC in the middle of week and skipping 2 tests). So I called Travis, one of our Roadies from last semester, and pitched him the idea. He said we should come.

What solidified it was our lunch in Atlanta. Somehow our idea of going came up around James, of World Vision, and he said that if we ended up coming we could check out the HQ, meet with some people, and write an article on the film for their website....no big.

So off we went. After we got a few "okays" from all the people that mattered, of course.
We left after a test on Monday and drove til 2 am. Then we got up the next morning, drove to the metro station, and all our adventures were just beginning.

We couldn't find parking ANYWHERE. So we drove around for an hour, talked to a sketchy metro worker, and ended up parking about a mile away in some grocery store lot. We hopped on the metro, rode into DC, got off, walked a half mile maybe and found ourselves at the headquarters.

We signed in, met Jesse Eaves (who spoke at a seminar I attended at Urbana; he's also worked for IC and Resolve Uganda; this guy is legit) and Bobby Bailey (I about peed myself).
Since we were about an hour late our meeting with Jesse was cut short, but it was still incredible to talk to him.

Then we hung out with Bobby and James. They discussed..stuff.. and Kayla and I felt a little awkward (and BA) to be hearing/seeing the workings of plans that aren't even made public yet. It was pretty surreal to be sitting inside the headquarters of a huge non-profit, with the founder of my favorite non-profit and discussing ordinary, everyday things. It sill blows my mind.

We went took 5 stops too many on the metro, got on a wrong bus (but quickly realized it) and finally found the room for the screening. The film was incredible (I'll probably post the article we wrote later). We even a got a copy of it to take back to Covenant. We got to hang out with Travis and his girlfriend (even if it was only walking miles in the snow and riding the metro back). We, thankfully, didn't have to walk all the way back to sketchy mcsketch parking lot. We went to bed. And then we drove back.

It was super bonkers of us, but entirely worth every penny we spent on gas, every crazy look we got, every N'Synch song we sang to in the car, and every mile we drove.

And I won at yellow car.

even if it kills me

I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled in the morning. What a way to spend spring break. This is how excited I am about it: .1% excited. (just because I know it's an excuse to eat disgusting amounts of ice cream)
There's a host of reasons I'm not excited though, but one surpasses them all-- hence the 98.9%
My odds of actually going to Oklahoma City are slim to none. Trust me, I will be pushing for it til the day I go back to Covenant (and even once I'm back I'll probably still be thinking of ways to go). I'm super stubborn and pretty adamant about this, that I will try everything in my power to get there.
I've thought through every option I could possibly think of--planes, trains, automobiles...horseback, roller-skates, uni-cycling, apparating.
I thought of not taking the Dallas-El Paso half of my trip home and having Taylor pick me up and us both going. He even agreed. My parents on the other hand, the ones that paid for my ticket home, not so thrilled.
I've tried talking anyone into skipping classes to drive up Wednesday after my eye appt. They're all to studious. What ever happened to living a little? Reckless abandon? Jump first, fear later?
It's funny when I try to explain it to people who know nothing about the situation in Central Africa, the LRA, Kony, Invisible Children or Resolve Uganda. Mostly I just get strange looks and a few comments about being "crazy" "extreme" "hardcore activist" etc.
I think if they understood the situation, really understood, they would want to go too.
Most of my friends like the idea, in theory, but would never actually want to camp out in the freezing weather after driving for 11 hours.
I think part of the reason why I'm so drawn to this is because I missed the GNC, Displace Me and The Resuce. I stuck to complacency when I should've acted and nothing makes me more sick than watching video footage or hearing stories of those events and knowing I could've been a part of it if only I had opened up my eyes and heart.
I do believe in this bill, I do believe an end to Africa's longest running war is possible, I do believe in the work that both IC and Resolve are doing, and I will advocate for them. And because of that, I so much want to be a part of something big.
I will not recognize defeat. I will be stubborn. I will fight. I will push. And I will get to Oklahoma, even if it kills me.