Life a Weblog for Young Adults

Swaziland is a small kingdom in southern Africa of just over 900,000 people. Within a month the population dropped from 1.2 million. Yes, you read right. It has the unfortunate distinction of being the most HIV-infected country on the planet. Over 46 percent of the adult population is HIV positive, although clinic workers will tell you that four out of five people in Swaziland test positive for HIV.

I have been going through the Threads Study, Chase the Lion, by Mark Batterson. The premise of the study is based on 2 Samuel 23:20-23 about a guy named Benaiah who went down into a pit on a snowy day and ended up killing a lion. Bizarre? I know. I thought so too. It is not every day you hear a story like Benaiah’s. What I am learning through a guy like Benaiah is that at some point in our lives we are going to be up against a huge lion. It appears that the odds are stacked against us. Don’t you think Benaiah thought so too? However, he did not let fear prohibit action. He was courageous, stepped forward, and put the lion to rest. He was indeed a lion-chaser. Defying all the odds stacked against him he was proactive.

Travelers are no fools, but they and their money are often easily parted. Still, you can get up and go without spending more moola than you have to.

An hour into a Louisiana morning the rooftop heats up under-knee, and Meredith Jolly props a roofing nail on point atop a shingle. It’s day three on a World Changers project and the college junior is hammering out the early hours on the roof of a worn-down house in Baton Rouge. She’s joined by other volunteers from First Baptist Church, as they bring a house back to life.

On any given workday, at least one person comes into my office asking questions or enlisting me to help with a new project or team. So it came as no surprise last month when my coworker Tim Huffine dropped in holding a piece of paper. “Hey, want to join a few of us in serving breakfast at the Nashville Rescue Mission one day next month?” he asked.