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Hello All,

I wanted to point you in the direction of the Lenten Devotional, this season brought to us by the students at LaGrange College, a United Methodist college in Georgia.

http://www.higheredmin.org/meditation.html.

Enjoy, and I hope you have a contemplative and grace-filled Lent.

-Meredith Jackson
STEP Team
UC Davis

My Hero

All questions pondered
Right or wrong
Float past me now in hollow jest
For I have seen more in this short time
Known more
Cried more
Than most the rest

Call it prayer
Or humbleness
For only shadows light my past

Now I see the need, hear the call
The road that winds us all along
To do the things we've never done
To sing the songs we've only hummed
To embrace a love I've always shunned

All you've done to guide me has at times been less than fair
So the scars that I now carry are solely mine to bear

-Malory Wheatley

I've noticed something different about the Virginia Tech aftermath. There seems to be more criticism of how the situation was dealt with. My initial thought is that this is a reaction to fear. Do we feel safe on our campuses? What could be done to make our schools safer? Is there any way to plan for such a tragic event? I don't think that people's original thought when such a disaster strikes is the emergency plan that they heard something about back in the first week of school. I think most people would likely loose sight of any emergency plan and panic. The scariest thought to me is that this can happen anywhere and at any time. My school has the highest suicide rate of any University of California campus over time. We've tried to counter it with more psychological services and education about time management and de-stressing. One has to wonder if these services could help a student who might want to harm others, as well as themselves. As we all take time to think about the tragedy at Virginia Tech, I hope we'll take a moment to pray for the victims, their family and friends, and the community affected by the tragedy. I hope we'll also consider the people who have the difficult task of assembling the best plan to keep our universities safe.

-Meredith Jackson
UC Davis, STEP Leadership Team

To Those
nameless ones who came before
   and are no more,
to those who leapt
   to dark, salty depths,
to those who battles
   against all odds,
to those who would give birth
   to gods,
to those who would not yield-
To those who came before,
to those who are to come,
   I dedicate this shield.

-Mumia Abu-Jamal

The following is a condensed version of a press release about a new Ecumenical Study Guide on Global Poverty that is available free online.
WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- A study guide on global poverty and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), produced by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church, is available for download and for purchase through Augsburg Fortress. "God's Mission in the World" is intended as a resource for congregations and other groups looking to "broaden their understanding of global poverty and become part of the worldwide movement achieving the MDGs," according to the guide's introduction. The guide features six sessions examining Christian understandings of social justice, global poverty and the MDGs. The MDGs are eight interrelated development goals that flow from the Millennium Declaration of 2000 adopted by all members of the United Nations, including the United States. The goals for 2015 are to cut extreme poverty and hunger in half; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and create a global partnership for development, with emphasis on debt cancellation, foreign aid and fair trade. "This study guide is an easy-to-use, comprehensive journey through the causes and solutions to global poverty," said Dennis Frado, director, Lutheran Office for World Community. "Congregation leaders can use this tool to motivate their members to pressure their elected officials to fulfill their promises toward achieving the MDGs."
The guide is at http://www.ELCA.org/one/ on the ELCA Web site and is available for purchase at http://www.augsburgfortress.org/ELCAhunger/ on the Web site of Augsburg Fortress, the publishing ministry of the ELCA.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog

Hi folks. Check out this interesting paper from Kayla Bonewell, seminarian at Pacific School of Religion, in Berkeley, CA. For her UCC History & Polity class, with Rev. Frank Baldwin, she examined the Equality Rides—a series of mobile actions designed to heighten awareness on the need for human/civil rights for LGBT persons. http://www.ucc.org/youngadults/justice.htm#lgbt

Here's an opportunity to make yourself heard: Christian Piatt is an author and researcher based in Pueblo, Colorado. He and his wife, Amy, a Disciples pastor, are planning a book on young adults and spirituality/religion. The working title is "MySpace to Sacred Space: Young Adults in an Aging Church." It's due out in July or August of next year. They have created an online survey that takes about 15 minutes to complete, and the only qualifications for taking part are:

You must be no younger than 18 and no older than 40
You must identify yourself as Christian (Catholic or Protestant), Agnostic, Atheist, or "spiritual but not religious," however you define that.

Here’s the address:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=923292831812

(Associated Press) -- Some call them lazy, more interested in partying hard than helping out. But a new study shows college students volunteer at a rate that's grown sharply over the last few years. The number of college students volunteering grew more than 20 percent, from 2.7 million to 3.3 million, between 2002 and 2005, according to a study being released Monday by the Corporation for National & Community Service, a federal agency. The growth rate for college students is more than double that for all volunteers. "We have observed a historically significant surge in service interest by college students, probably the most remarkable increase since the 'Greatest Generation' of World War II," said Steve Goldsmith, the former mayor of Indianapolis and chairman of the corporation. Altogether, about 30 percent of college students are volunteering, with tutoring and mentoring the most common activities. Utah, Idaho and Oklahoma had the highest percentage of college students volunteering, while Georgia, New York and Nevada had the lowest. The study uses data from the Current Population Survey, a regular household survey conducted by the government that in 2002 began asking questions about volunteerism. That means the study doesn't show the trend before 2002, but much of the spike in volunteerism seems to date to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "What's remarkable is students who were in high school at the time of 9/11, and are now in college, have kept their interest in service at exceptionally high levels," Goldsmith said. About one-third of K-12 schools now have service learning in the curriculum. A few colleges, and many individual college courses, have made service work mandatory. But Goldsmith said he does not believe such mandatory service explains the increase, noting other indicators such as strong demand for slots in the corporation's AmeriCorps program. A recent national survey of college freshmen found the highest level of interest in helping others in 25 years. Still, the report finds a growing trend of "episodic" volunteering, in which students participate in different projects but devote less than two weeks at a time to each, rather than regularly contributing to one project or organization. Episodic volunteering may also have been boosted by the more-than 200,000 college students, many of them giving up fall and spring breaks, who volunteered to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. "I do think college kids are given a bad rap," said Katie Franck, a senior at Elon University in North Carolina who traveled to the Gulf Coast on her fall break, and coordinates an after-school mentoring program at Elon that is rapidly expanding. "When they're given the opportunities and it's facilitated the right way, they're willing to donate a lot of time and energy to others." On Tuesday, Elon will be one of three institutions to receive the first-ever President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll awards for general community service. The other winners are California State University, Monterey Bay and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Louisiana State, Tulane and Jackson State will receive awards for their hurricane relief efforts.
    Among the report's other findings:
         - Thirty-three percent of female college students volunteer, compared to 26.8 percent of males.
         - Among volunteers, tutoring (26.6 percent) and mentoring (23.8 percent) are the most common activities.
        - White students are more likely to volunteer than blacks (32 percent to 24.1 percent), but black students who volunteer are more likely to be tutors or mentors.
          - Students who work part-time (1-15 hours per week) volunteer at higher rates than students who don't have jobs.
          - About 23 percent of college student volunteers serve with religious organizations, compared to about 35 percent of volunteers overall.

foley scandal to scapegoat gays, lesbians
http://news.ucc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=689&Itemid=54

CBS Religious Broadcast Deals With Immigration Issues
New York April 7, 2006—“A Fair Harvest: Religions Response to Immigration Issues,” an interfaith religion special, will be released to CBS affiliates nationwide on Sunday, April 23 (at 8-8:30 AM, ET; 5-5:30 PT) by the CBS Television Network. Local times will vary. Appearing on the program will be the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, and the Rev. George Anderson, an editor at the Jesuit magazine, America, to add their perspective to the religious response to immigration issues. "A Fair Harvest" is a special religious program about fresh attempts to achieve dignity for migrant farm-workers. In the years since the CBS Reports special, “Harvest of Shame” (1960) pointed out the slave wages and deplorable working conditions of migrant workers, there has been steady but very slow progress to right the wrongs. Still even today, most farm-workers, mostly foreign-born, are paid about as much as they earned 30 years ago. On the national level, attitudes and laws regarding migrants change from one administration to the next. The broadcast deals with two stories in which the National Council of Churches was deeply involved. One, in southwest Florida (Immokalee), is about a group of tomato pickers from Central America and Haiti who organized their own workers' coalition. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers staged hunger strikes, marches across Florida and many other unsuccessful attempts at bringing attention to abuse of workers, very low pay per pound of tomatoes picked and other issues. When the growers and owners would not ever speak with them, they hit on the idea of boycotting Taco Bell, which buys 10 million pounds of winter tomatoes from Florida growers. Local churches came on board and national church organizations followed, helping the Coalition to organize "truth marches". This gave exposure to the workers in settings across the country to state their case, present a human face, and encourage church members to avoid buying from Taco Bell. The boycott, stimulated and publicized by the NCC, caused Taco Bell (owned by the Yum Brands) little financial damage but a good deal of bad press. They responded with a modest $100,000 a year to be sent to the farmers for distribution to the pickers who pick Taco Bell tomatoes. This actually doubled their wages from 1.3 cents a pound to 2.3 cents and brought their two-ton a day yield to perhaps $90 from the $50 they had earned before. Their next move was toward McDonalds, which buys perhaps several times as many pounds of tomatoes from south Florida as Taco Bell; if it agrees to another penny a pound migrant wages could "skyrocket"- relatively speaking. Another story touched upon is the Mt. Olive Pickle Company in North Carolina. With help from the National Council of Churches, local councils and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, cucumber pickers in the Mt. Olive area succeeded in getting a boost in wages for the cucumbers they pick for Mt. Olive, which is a national brand and supplier of pickles. The migrant farm-workers’ dignity and fairness issues are vividly presented by: Robert Mendez and Eucebio Rodriguez, two Guatemalans in their early 20's, both full-time pickers and part-time union activists for the Coalition. In addition we hear from Lucas Benitez, a picker of oranges and tomatoes for 13 years before helping to found the Coalition. Adding their experience are Father Joe Clifford, pastor of St. Columbkille Catholic Church (Ft. Myers), Rev Jim Boler, pastor, United Church of Christ (Sanibel Is.), Rev. Noelle Damico, liaison between the national Presbyterian Church and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; and Bert Perry, of the National Farm-workers Ministry. John P. Blessington is the executive producer of the special; Ted Holmes is the producer. It is produced with the cooperation of the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission whose members include the National Council of Churches, The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and a consortium of Jewish and Muslim organizations.
CBS Press Contact: Jeremy Murphy 212-975-4577 jeremy.murphy@cbs.com NCC News: Dan Webster 212.870.2252 dwebster@ncccusa.org, www.ncccusa.org

Great Quotes

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish
small tasks as if they were great and noble.
~~Helen Keller

The glory of God is the human being fully alive.
~~Irenaeus, third-century bishop of Lyons

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of God no matter what the conflict.
~~Anonymous

That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief dangers of our time.
~~John Stuart Mill

True holiness consists in doing God's will with a smile.
~~Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Humor is not the opposite of seriousness. Humor is the opposite of despair.
~~Conrad Hyers

Life's Little Instructions

1.)    Compliment three people every day.
2.)    Buy vegetables from truck farmers who advertise with hand-lettered signs.
3.)    Smile a lot. It costs nothing and is beyond price.
4.)    Be original.
5.)    Every day show your family how much you love them with your words, with your touch, and with your
        thoughtfulness.
6.)    Become an expert in time management.
7.)    Carry jumper cables in your car.
8.)    Every once in a while, take the scenic route. (to Linn, Mo! :)
9.)    Give thanks for every meal.
10.)   Call your mother.

Stress Busters

From a STEP contributor…
What I have found to be effective is that when I am the most worried about deadlines, I write every single deadline that I have coming up (small or big) and then prioritize those deadlines. Sometimes something due 2 weeks from now may be a greater burden (and therefore bigger priority) than something relatively easy that is due in 4 days. Also, give yourself a deadline that is before when the actual item is due. If you get it done by then, reward yourself with what you wish you had been doing instead -- time w/ friends, TV, video games, going out with friends, etc. -- but have clear understanding as to when that reward ends.