Thursday, September 27, 2007
Check out this site that my friend at seminary, Karl Kroger just told me about. Apparently, you can be involved in micro-lending by donating money to an individual who will use it for a small business venture or to buy a cow, goat, etc. that will yield some profit for them. The best part is, you get your money back as the individual's project brings money in. You can help people collectively or as an individual. What a great idea!
WWW.KIVA.ORG
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In other exciting tidbits, I learned some interesting stuff while reading for my Exile and Restoration class the other day. Ezekiel is a fascinating (while nevertheless quite disturbing) book. Most of you have probably heard of the Ezekiel 4:9 bread that is in all the organic stores and is actually quite tasty. Its ingredients come from Ezekiel 4:9 (surprise!) where God tells Ezekiel to "take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread for yourself." Sounds pretty good right? That's what I thought until I read the rest of the chapter. "You shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung" (4:12). Mmmm, good. Ezekiel quite naturally objects to God on this point on the basis that eating bread on poop would defile himself (I would have gone for the "No way! That's disgusting! But Ezekiel, being much holier than me is concerned for ritual uncleanliness alone). So God has second thoughts about that and says "alright, fine"..."I will let you have cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread" (4:15). Phew! For a minute there that mental picture was really grossing me out. Thanks goodness God came around! I think I should make a recommendation to the Ezekiel 4:9 company that they alter their serving recommendations--the current package says nothing about that!
In other exciting tidbits, I learned some interesting stuff while reading for my Exile and Restoration class the other day. Ezekiel is a fascinating (while nevertheless quite disturbing) book. Most of you have probably heard of the Ezekiel 4:9 bread that is in all the organic stores and is actually quite tasty. Its ingredients come from Ezekiel 4:9 (surprise!) where God tells Ezekiel to "take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread for yourself." Sounds pretty good right? That's what I thought until I read the rest of the chapter. "You shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung" (4:12). Mmmm, good. Ezekiel quite naturally objects to God on this point on the basis that eating bread on poop would defile himself (I would have gone for the "No way! That's disgusting! But Ezekiel, being much holier than me is concerned for ritual uncleanliness alone). So God has second thoughts about that and says "alright, fine"..."I will let you have cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread" (4:15). Phew! For a minute there that mental picture was really grossing me out. Thanks goodness God came around! I think I should make a recommendation to the Ezekiel 4:9 company that they alter their serving recommendations--the current package says nothing about that!
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