Another Student Goes Global

I just heard from Matt Massie, a December graduate of Malone, who is spending a good chunk of this spring semester Amman, Jordan. You can follow him on his blog Living in Love in Jordan.

He's trying to practice a healthy form of globalization--the kind that many Christians have been practicing for over 2,000 years and that I highlight in chapter 10 of my book--in which both the global stranger and the local native benefit from mutual exchange. In his case, that means teaching English as a second language to Jordanians. He's curious to learn more about the Middle East and to share what he knows, and the students (one hopes) are curious to pick up some valuable English skills. This kind of exchange is how the Church has gone global since the Day of Pentecost.

I'm proud of Matt, just as I'm proud of many other students who go out to serve the church, their communities, and the world. Best wishes to Matt on his new journey!

A Review for Amazon?

So far I've talked to one person who's actually managed to finish the book. Would anybody who's read it care to post a review on the Amazon website?  I'll be happy to offer some kind of recognition here on this blog, or somewhere else. (Maybe a free gift copy?)

Thanks in advance!

Information Technology Speeding Donations to Haiti

This is a followup to my last post (touching on chapter 3 of the book), on the potentially positive sides of speeding up money flows. This applies to the Haiti situation in particular. The Red Cross is making it very easy to make donations (hopefully for the relief effort in Haiti and not for administrative costs). According to an email I just received from one of the listservs I'm on:

To help, text "HAITI" to "90999" and $10 will be sent to the Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill. Please visit the U.S. Department of State's website to read up-to-date information and to learn about more ways to offer assistance at state.gov. Please share this message as widely as possible.

That's pretty slick and fast, so there's no surprise that people had donated millions of dollars to the Red Cross already (according to NPR this morning). The only problem is that relief supplies are facing bottlenecks. The airport is not only tiny (with one runway) but it also has structural damage. The main port facility at Port au-Prince has also been destroyed, so cargo ships can't dock there, and there's only one other port facility available, and it's small. One NPR reporter tried to get in with relief experts, but their flight was deleted to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

So all the money in the world won't help if they can't figure out a way to supplies in quickly. The whole situation is deeply disturbing. The infrastructure of an entire country has crumbled. It's a total collapse of everything: both physical and social institutions. Pray for Haiti.