Airports

I'm in an airport again. This time it's the Gold Coast airport on a flight to Sydney. I'll be in Sydney for a night and then tomorrow onto Auckland, New Zealand. As of today, I only have 6 weeks left until I get home. In spite of the fact that 6 weeks is much longer than the average vacation, this vacation as a whole feels like it has flown by and at the same time has taken forever. I still remember my last Sunday in Sarasota before I left in August. I was hugging my pastor's kids and fighting back tears because I knew I wouldn't see them for 8 months. Those three kids have a special place in my heart, and I can't wait to see them again when I get back in April. 6 weeks, doesn't seem real somehow.

In an airport, there are usually a few things that are the same at pretty much every airport I've been to. There are food stands and a newspaper/magazine store, along with the occassional clothing store and duty free store that usually sells liquors of some sort. It always amazes me just how many people are in an airport at any given time. Where are all these people going? Where am I going? My friend told me a while back that they had cut back significantly the number of flights they were offering in the USA. I couldn't believe it as it always seems packed in most airports with a seemingly constant stream of planes arriving and departing. There's only one instance I can think of where I actually had a significant discussion with someone in an airport. She was waiting for her friend and I had a major layover so we ended up talking for 2 hours without having hardly any silence. It's a good way to pass the time. Unfortunately, most people are on their laptops or zoned out listening to their I-pods or chatting away on their cell phones or have their head buried in a book or magazine, myself included in this list obviously. It makes sense though, doesn't it? You'll never see these people again, so what's the point in getting to know someone? Then again, don't we all long for face to face communication instead of digital? It takes a pretty outgoing person to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger. I've only been able to pull it off a couple of times. In a hostel, the conversations usually consist of, "Where ya from? How long of a holiday are you on? Where are you going next?" Not much else. It makes me wonder how many people out there are incredibly lonely. How many people are silently hurting, because no one will take the time to look up from their newspaper or latest gadget? Sometimes you get lucky and have a kid that you can make faces to and try and make them smile and laugh. Once on a flight I helped a mom who was flying with a 4 year-old and a baby by playing with the 4 year-old to keep him occupied. A friend of mine informed me that she likes when there are kids on planes. In spite of the example listed above, I usually prefer when there aren't kids on planes. They just cry and throw fits usually. This will probably come back to bite me if I ever have kids and undoubtedly will still want to travel. Everyone will stare and I'll be like, "I know, I know, believe me, it's worse when you're the one that has to try and shut the baby up." Who knows?

Well, I've got to go. My flight is boarding.

The blessings of couchsurfing

Just to catch you up a bit, I've spent the last week and a half before Friday in a couple different hostels, one in Byron Bay and one in Surfer's Paradise. Friday I got to go to a couchsurfer's house for the weekend, which is where I am now. If you've talked to me on this trip, I've probably mentioned either how I hate hostels or how I love couchsurfing or both. The week and a half in hostels was just brutal. On my last post I mentioned how I had been getting really lonely and homesick as a result. Now I'm couchsurfing again and having a wonderful time, praise God.

My couchsurfing host is a woman from New Zealand who has 3 adorable children. Those of you who know me know that I love children and really get a lot of joy from being around them, particularly my friends' kids. School's different because you can't just play with the kids, your job there is to educate them and get them to somehow concentrate when they're used to being constantly entertained at the press of a button. It has been so wonderful to play with kids again, for some reason I almost connect bettter with them then other adults. Maybe it's the fact that there's no pretense with kids, what you see is what you get. They don't have masks painted on yet pretending to be a better version of themselves. They're genuine and authentic, and will let you know if they like your or not. Thankfully, these kids seem to like me, the youngest one even informed me that I was his favorite couchsurfer so far; this obviously put a smile on my face.

Words can't express my gratitude to all the people who have hooked me up with a bed or a couch over these last six months. It has been an incredible experience and a once in a lifetime trip. It may be a once in a lifetime trip, but I already know I'd like to do something similar someday in the future. Maybe next time with a 'partner' as they call a significant other here in Australia. It would certainly be a pretty memorable honeymoon.

My couchsurfer has another friend staying here this weekend too. What's cool about him is that he does photography as a habit on the side. He's made a couple of books of pictures for different events in his friends' lives. I didn't realize you could do this but after talking to him he said all you had to do was go to a website or get the right software. Then you pick the design and the pictures that you want on each page, send it to a company, and voila, you have a book with your selected pictures sent to you. What's cool about this is it got me thinking how cool would it be to make a book about my round the world trip with a 'best-of' pictures from my trip? I could also add text and make it a little non-fiction book about different places in the world for my students to enjoy. My students seem to eat up non-fiction so I'm sure they'd like it, and I'm sure they'd love seeing where their teacher had been over the past year. I don't know, maybe I'll just do a book with the pictures but I think it would be cool if I made a little non-fiction book for my students. "Mr. Hemming Travels Around the World" or something along those lines. I could even have a glossary for words in the book, like RTW stands for round the world or vocabulary that might be a little tougher for the students.

So after a tough week and a half, I'm back to where I'm loving being on the road again. More and more I'm seeing couchsurfing is not just about saving money, it's about connecting with locals around the world and having a healthy cultural exchange. What better way to have a cultural exchange than to invite someone into your home? I really love the idea behind couchsurfing; make the world a smaller place, one couch at a time. It makes me really want to get my own place not because I want to own my own home but just so I could open it up to couchsurfers. From a Christian perspective, what better way to practice hospitality and invite the stranger in? When you're the one doing the surfing, you get to see all these cool places off the beaten tourist path and get to know how a real local lives. What could be better?

Lonely and learning

After several months of being cracked, my I-pod touch decided not to respond to touch anymore. I’m grateful for the time that it did work and will most likely get it fixed when I get home, but I didn’t realize how much I depend on it. Not depend on it like food or drink or anything, but depend on it just to pass the time when I’m walking or flying on a plane or riding a bus. I have listened to countless sermons on the thing, as well as some financial podcasts (yes, I know I’m a dork.) I like listening to Dave Ramsey and Crown Money Matters both. The Crown podcast has a variety of topics that they discuss, anywhere from the state of the economy to peer to peer lending. Dave’s show is more geared towards people’s individual financial situations, whether they’re having a financial crisis or are calling to scream that they’re debt free. The people who call in and scream they’re debt free always give me a lot of hope. They sound so incredibly excited that they’re out from the prison of debt. I’d like to help people get out of debt by leading a financial class at my church in the fall. Debt is such a prison that many Americans find themselves in. I have a couple friends who are over $100,000 in debt, just from their tertiary education. Many of the callers who scream they’re debt free have huge student loans they had to pay off as their highest and last debt. Kind of makes me think there is something wrong systematically with our higher education system. My own brother spent his first year of grad school at an Ivy League institution and it cost him $50,000. He’s in his second year in Germany and it’s going to cost $1,300. When I was in Dublin in November I found myself in the middle of a protest by young people opposing a bill that was going to double the cost of their tuition from 1,500 euro to 3,000 euro a year. Even if they did end up passing it, which I think they did but can’t remember for sure, that still wouldn’t come close to the average cost of an American college education. We are known around the world for having outstanding universities with excellent professors, I’m just not sure it should cost so much. Europeans are willing to pay more taxes though, which helps offset the cost of their education. Americans hate taxes in the very core of our beings, it’s in our blood. It’s one of the main reasons we became an independent nation after all.

Anyways, back to the lack of I-pod touch thing, it makes me realize I spend a lot of my time alone and in silence. Many times I prefer this; often I go to the beach late at night back home after hanging out with friends just to listen to the waves. Too much silence, though, and one has too much time to think about anything and nothing all at the same time. Before, I was already reading a lot, but now I’m reading even more. Reading produces new thoughts to ponder, whether those be about global politics or making ideas stick. Sometimes though, you just want to be able to listen to some chill music like Jack Johnson or watch an episode of The Simpsons or Community (those two TV series are on my I-pod currently.) This has also provided an opportunity to learn more about myself and my tendencies, comfort zone, likes and dislikes. My roommate in Sydney suggested this hostel for me when I got to Byron Bay where I currently am. He said it was awesome and laid back and I wouldn’t even want to go into town. Quite the opposite has proven true. I signed up for a 3 day surf course 2 days ago. My first day was yesterday and I was supposed to go to my second lesson today but they cancelled on me. At the hostel, I’d probably enjoy it more if I was more outgoing. Something has changed over the past few years since college that I’m not nearly as gregarious as I once was. If anything, I tend to be more of a loner nowadays and almost don’t know how to act in a social setting. Well, maybe it’s not that extreme, but I certainly seem to have a hard time striking up a conversation with people around me. Lately, I’ve been forcing myself to talk to people on the bus ride into town from the hostel. It usually starts with something like, “Where ya from? I’m Justin.” Seems innocent enough, right? Somehow though, it takes all the strength I have to get out of my comfort zone like that. Part of the reason I have a hard time meeting people here I suspect is that everyone likes to party and get drunk. That has never really been my style, particularly the getting drunk part of it.

Another thing that has taken up much less of my time is the internet. I have a USB stick that connects to the internet anywhere you have cell phone range; unfortunately it doesn’t pick up enough of a signal at this hostel to connect. I do still have access but it’s much more expensive so I’m less inclined to use it nearly as much of course. It’s been nice to not be tethered to the computer for quite as long. I’ve read over half of The Economist this week so I’m learning a lot through that. Maybe I should take up the 90 day Bible again. I read through that on this trip once already. Reading through the Bible is a habit I want to take up with more regularity. There is so much to be gained from that experience I feel like. It is how God chooses to reveal himself after all. On my Kindle I also have a 1 year Bible that I’ve been trying to read 4 days per day to get through it in 90 days again but I’m having a much harder time with this one for some reason. It’s probably due to the fact that there are 4 sections for each day, one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, one from Psalms, and one from Proverbs. Normally this would be great, but if you try to do 4 days in one sitting it lacks continuity. The 90 day Bible just goes from Genesis through Revelation so it has good continuity that way. A few years ago I read the 1 year Bible in chronological order and really enjoyed that as well. Maybe I’ll download that one here soon and start on it.

A friend told me a little while ago that when you’re out of your comfort zone is when you grow the most. There’s a lot of truth to that I think. About a month ago I helped out at the Salvation Army for a week of service. This really got me out of my comfort zone. The past few years God has been cultivating a heart for the poor within me but it’s still not my preference. Their whole culture is just so very different than a middle class person’s. Thankfully, the Salvation Army program had an introduction to the week that talked quite a bit about culture and what to expect. That helped as much as anything else. Just knowing that it wasn’t going to be the same as what you’re used to helped tremendously. If you can anticipate change, it’s much easier to adapt to a new situation. That’s probably the reason I have a harder time with reverse culture shock than with culture shock. When I go to a new culture, I’m expecting it to be different that what I’m used to and am therefore open to the idea of adapting to change. When I return to America, without fail, I see things differently than I did before I left the country and this produces new insights and at the same time new headaches momentarily. It’s hard to remember that the people back home haven’t been where you have been for the past however long and they won’t see the same things you see. Not that one is better than the other, but that you will just see things much differently than you used to before you left. For some reason, my culture shock seems to get worse every year when I return after being overseas somewhere. One would think I would know what to expect but undoubtedly there are unexpected things that pop up and cause me to take a while to adjust to being home. After being gone for 8 months for this particular overseas experience, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like going home at first. Right now, I’m focusing on perhaps just treating it like I would a new culture, expect to see new and different things, and be willing and open to change.

After not getting to surf today, I was happy to accept an invitation for a free ride to the beach by one of the employee’s father. He was an interesting fellow who had been to many different places in his lifetime. He brought up how he used to get lonely on his travels and I said I could sure relate to that on this trip. For the most part it’s really exciting but you do certainly miss home at times. Phone calls and emails and facebook help, but it’s not the same as seeing people face to face. It will be good to be home in a couple of months, I’m looking forward to seeing family and friends quite a bit.

politics and faith

"Florida's governor unveiled a budget that proposes spending cuts of $4.6 billion to programmes such as Medicaid, but also lowers property and corporate taxes by $4 billion." <--The Economist February 12th-18th edition.

"House Republicans unveiled a plan yesterday to cut $43 billion in domestic spending and international aid, while increasing spending for military and defence by another $8 billion. This proposal comes just months after billions of dollars were added to the deficit with an extension of tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans."

"For example, Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a program that help provides food to hungry mothers and their children faces a $758 million cut. Also, the proposed budget cuts $544 million in international food aid grants for organizations such as World Vision."

"But our military and defense budget, which sends our young adults off to kill and be killed, would receive an $8 billion increase."

These three quotes were taken from http://blog.sojo.net/2011/02/10/budget-cuts-and-bad-faith/

"The sheer size of America's defence budget puts it in the crosshairs. At around $700 billion a year including war expenditures, it is as big as those of the world's next 20 highest military spenders combined." <-- The Economist February 12th-18th edition

One of my good friends used to date a girl who said she didn't think you could be a Christian and not a Republican. This past summer someone told me many people in his church couldn't see how you could be a Christian and not a Democrat. It's interesting how both sides of the political spectrum claim Christ as their own, isn't it? There are obviously some things in the Democrat party that go against my values, namely abortion. However, if we had a strong Republican president for 8 years and he wasn't able to do anything about the law regarding abortion, do we really think that the next Republican will be able to do anything about it? In my mind it's already been decided in the courts and if you really care about it than offer to adopt a scared pregnant teenager's baby and help her through the process financially so she has some incentive to go through with the pregnancy. That would probably do a lot more good than scolding her about how wrong it is.

The quotes above show some of the main reasons I became a Democrat. Republicans want to cut spending, which I agree with, just not in the same areas that they're proposing. They also want to increase spending on military and defense. How is cutting $758 million from WIC and giving another $2 billion to military and defense a Christian thing to do? What we're essentially going to do, is take more than $1 billion from programs that help feed people (WIC and international food aid grants) and give it to the military budget. How can we propose such a thing? In the same breath, I'm sure the Democrats increased military spending the last couple of years that they had control of the House too, maybe I'll become an independent.

Meanwhile, my governor wants to cut taxes for corporations and property taxes while at the same time cutting Medicaid? And this is shortly after we extended tax cuts to the top 2% of wealthiest Americans? Republicans came in on the ticket that they were going to cut spending and they are certainly going to do that. They're also bent on cutting taxes for the wealthy, the ones who got them into office. The top 2% wealthiest Americans aren't the small business owners that seemed to be a popular way to defend it. They're the corporate CEO's, the hedge fund managers, the Hollywood superstars and superstar athletes. They don't exactly need to hang onto that last 2%. The last time we made a balanced budget was before the Bush tax cuts. Cutting spending alone won't be enough. Especially if we're not going to cut the sacred cow of military and defense spending. Good luck raising taxes back up to pre-Bush levels though if we can't even raise taxes for the top 2%.

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts on this trip, and the other day I was listening to Money Life, a podcast that Crown Financial Ministries puts out. They were interviewing Jay Richards, the author of "Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem". What stuck out to me wasn't that they were defending capitalism itself, but that the president of Crown kept saying that it was a system "designed by God." I don't know about anyone else, but I really don't see how God designed capitalism anymore than He designed communism or socialism. Capitalism is largely based on private property (at least according to Crown's president and the author) and when I look at the New Testament Church being invaded by the Holy Spirit I see a lot of selling of private property. Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all he owned. The farmer who was going to build bigger barns (more private property) for all his crops had his life taken away that very night. Now it's fine if you want to defend Capitalism and defend its merits, just don't say it's designed by God. That's about the same as calling God a Republican or a Democrat.

I remember a long time ago when the health care bill was being passed that my friend posted on his facebook wall something along the lines of, "Who's supposed to take care of the widow and the orphan, the government or the Church?" obviously implying that the Church was supposed to. There are some exceptions, but overall I think the American church in particular has done pretty poorly with this admonition from James and other places in Scripture. In 2005, American Christians made a combined income of $2 trillion. ("Passing the Plate") How much money do we have invested in buildings and land as Christians? I read somewhere that it was close to $60 billion ("Pagan Christianity"). Do we just leave all the outreach and medical outreach to para church ministries while we spend our money on 'important' things like church buildings? I would love for Christian churches to help set up clinics both in 3rd world countries but also in the states and hospitals as well. I am encouraged along these lines, as I just heard of a church that set up a clinic in Haiti through a church to church partnership. There are also hospitals that are Christian based in the states too so that's encouraging. Personally, I would like to see a lot more of this. If you're going to buy a church building, do something with it during the week. Let people use it to teach immigrants English or use it during the week to start small businesses to employ the poor and marginalized. There is so much potential for our church buildings if we started thinking creatively about them. We could let non-profits use the offices or classrooms to help them get off the ground. If you're going to buy a huge building worth millions of dollars, make sure it impacts the community around you and not just your members. I have heard of several churches doing this and I applaud them. Let's look at those bright spots and use it as inspiration and a guiding light to do more of the same. For quite some time I've been quite cynical towards the Church but I think that's starting to change. Of course there are terrible atrocities in our history but there are also a lot of good examples of change that have started within the Church. We have so many resources at our fingertips if we learn to empower our people to see themselves as agents of God's plan for saving and reconciling this world to Himself.

Well, that's all I can think of for tonight. Thanks for reading.

Justin