Hop-E and Hope for Children's HopeHelps 2010

Social Networking, Technology and God

Lately, I spent a lot of time thinking and contemplating about what an impact new technology has done in my life and this generation in terms of  sharing the "good news" or the" Love of God" in the virtual space. I also thought about how my time, habits and everyday rituals has changed dramatically over the years  because spending hours in my iMac and Mac laptop (Mac talaga noh, hehe)  whether I’d effectively communicated my ideas to friends and family – guess I’ll find out soon enough. Anyway, Marshall McLuhan became famous with the publication of Understanding Media, in which he states right at the beginning that a medium is "any extension of ourselves”, or most importantly, he defines media as technological extensions of the body. He passed away in 1980, but maybe he had a vision or imagined this 21st century with our laptops and iPhones, Blackberry  etc, “technological extensions” texting, IM-ing, emailing, Facebook-ing, Twitter-ing. 

Through social networking programs such as Facebook, Friendster and Twitter, we can now connect, interact and know the details of each other’s lives like never before. This will give your teens an avenue to connect with their peers and also allow you to know your young people. Better still, by allowing them to know some of the daily activities of your life, your thoughts, hobbies and interests, it will let them know you better. 

“These are the things that make you the man that leads your church. They’re the windows into your personality that perhaps stay shuttered when you’re teaching the Bible. Sometimes your people need to look in—not all the way in, and not into every room—but your people need some access to you as a person.

… It will give you access to your people’s minds and hearts in a unique way by giving them a chance to know you as a well-rounded person. You will no longer be only a preacher and a teacher, but also a guy who had a hard time putting together a swing-set for his kids last weekend. People will open up for you as you open up like this for them. Letting people catch an honest glimpse of your life will add authenticity to your teaching and depth to your ministry.”  

Mr. Piper

The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.
Marshall McLuhan

Theologians Don’t Know Nothing

These days it is tough being a theologian. Polls show evidence of a widespread spiritual quest, but the search seldom leads to the theologian’s door. This is odd because by definition the theologian’s entire life is devoted to, studying “the science of God or of religion; the science which treats of the existence, character, and attributes of God, his laws and government, the doctrines we are to believe, and the duties we are to practice.”C.S. Lewis blamed the disinterest in theology on theologians saying fifty years ago, “When I began, Christianity came before the great mass of my unbelieving fellow countrymen either in the highly emotional form offered by revivalists or in the unintelligible language of the highly cultured clergymen. Most men were reached by neither. My task was therefore simply that of a translator—one turning Christian doctrine, or what he believed to be such, into the vernacular, into language that unscholarly people would attend to and could understand…One thing is sure. If the real theologians had tackled this laborious work of translation about a hundred years ago, when they began to lose touch with the people (for whom Christ died), there would have been no place for me.”The complaint about their irrelevance has entered popular culture through WILCO whose new album, A Ghost is Born,” features a song titled “Theologians,” the first line of which is, “theologians don’t know nothing, about my soul.”Students of culture know that in the 60’s everyday discussions about theology moved from religious and academic institutions into the popular culture. We may not like pop theology, but for many of today’s youth it is the only theology they know. SO I recommend we learn to “exegete” (Exposition; explanation; especially, a critical explanation of a text or portion of Scripture) -Dick Staub

Blessing the Poor, the Neeedy, the Helpless, the Widow and the Broken! ( Tackling the Real Issues)

We sometimes become busy being busy or we major the minor and minor the major issues to the point that we ignore our social responsibility of the very basic teachings of Christ where He in the Gospels speaks of the judgment, the question which is put to the people is never, "Did you praise me?" "Did you pray to me?" "Did you believe this or did you believe that?" It is only this: "What did you do to relieve distress; to abolish poverty?" To those who are condemned, the Judge is represented as saying: "I was a hungered and ye gave me no meat, I was athirst and ye gave me no drink, I was sick and in prison and ye visited me not." Then they say, "Lord, Lord, when did we fail to do these things to thee?" The answer is: "Inasmuch as ye failed to do it to the least of these, so also did ye fail to do it unto me; depart into the place prepared for the devil and his angels."

On the other hand, what is said to the blessed is: "I was a hungry and you gave me meat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and in prison and you visited me." And when they say: "Lord, Lord, when did we do these things to thee?" The answer is: "Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." That to me is the mark of a true child of God!

*****
What is the true essence and spirit of Christianity then? Well,  The goal here is not "Provide for your own body and save your own soul!" but "Do what you can to make this world a better world for all!" It was a protest against the doctrine or man's created dogma of "each for himself"  This was why the rich and powerful, the high priests and the rulers persecuted Christianity with fire and sword. It was not religion (what in so many of our churches today is called religion) that pagan Rome sought to tear out — it was the doctrine of the equality of human rights!

Efren the supahstah!

Dumagat kid

hope

hopehelps

pastor rj and efren

san andres

fav pic too!

orphans!

maryrose in malaysia

Quality Education for the community

Free education!

Water Pump

child sponsorship for only $100.oo a year per kid!

spread the love!

2 stars!

house of blankets

house of blankets

house of blankets

house of blankets

house of blankets

house of blankets

let us give cheerfully!

Hop-E and Hope for Children's HopeHelps 2010

"On behalf of the Hop-E Foundation, I extend my warmest and sincerest thanks to the staff and officials of FusionExcel, as well as the Project coordinator of FusioneExcel's Hope for Children, for graciously supporting our foundation’s feeding program. On May 29, Hop-E and its partners converged to benefit more than a thousand kids (Tribes and locals) in San Mateo. The children enjoyed nutritious food generously shared by our partners, "Vitalac" who provided milk products. These kids were not only physically satisfied, they were also emotionally nourished through the love and care demonstrated by our volunteers. Change is truly is in our hands, and nothing is impossible if people work together. With supportive partners such as FusionExcel and Hope for Children, I believe we could truly change the whole world one kid at a time.  Mabuhay and Thank You! "  -  Presidential Director and Social Entrepreneur, Jayjay Lizarondo.

FE Spokesmen Samboy Lim and Allan Caidic were there to grace the occasion too. So did Cory Quirino and her crew who did interviews and filming for her TV show. Our 10-year old child prodigy singer Clark Gamul gave very inspiring songs that should encourage all the youngsters there to rise above themselves and hopefully overcome their poverty. Likewise, song and dance numbers were rendered by various youth groups from the local church and the community. And of course, there was PD Pastor Art Medina who addressed the crowd to explain the aims and the projects of FE's Hope For Children through partnership programs with NGO's like HOP-E Foundation. PD Art Medina expounded on the holistic aims of "HOPE H.E.L.P.S.", where the acronym "H.E.L.P.S." stand for --

H - Health programs
E - Environment preservation
L - Livelihood programs
P - Portable water
S - Scholarship programs

"Overall, it was very touching to see young boys and girls enjoying themselves and even relishing their hot meals! Follow-through projects are already in the works." - Presidential Director and Social Entrepreneur, Arthur Tuason.

  
http://www.hop-e.org

http://fusionexcel.com/news_HFCmanila09052010.html

When Gandhi almost became a Christian.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35

 I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

- Mohandas Gandhi

I just finished watching the movie "Gandhi 1982, Ben Kingsley looked so much like Gandhi, many natives thought him to be Gandhi's ghost and 300,000 extras appeared in the funeral sequence. About 200,000 were volunteers and 94,560 were paid a small fee (under contract). The sequence was filmed on 31st Jan 1981, the 33rd anniversary of Gandhi's funeral. 11 crews shot over 20,000 feet of film, which was pared down to 125 seconds in the final release. 

Anyway, I was touched and was moved by Gandhi's story of  radical love and peace  when he said, "Nonviolence is the law of our species."  But what wasn't shown was when he went to a Christian church but was rejected by the "Christians" and this where I want to explore the question, What is true Christianity in connection to Gandhi and future Gandhi's we would meet in the future?

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Ghandi replied, “I’d like to attend worship here.”

The church elder snarled at him, “There’s no room for kaffirs in this church. Get out of here or I’ll have my assistants throw you down the steps.”

From that moment, Ghandi said, he decided to adopt what good he found in Christianity, but would never again consider becoming a Christian if it meant being part of the church.

How we treat those others tells people MORE about what we believe, and what following Jesus means to us, than all the fine sermons we deliver.

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Mohandas Gandhi adored Jesus' teachings on love and peace and He embodied that, but what Im pointing out is how we "christians" become very vindictive and judging when we should use love and peace in making Jesus and not our religions famous.

Christ attracted the sinners and the sinners are attracted to Christ, Jesus restored the relationship of man to the Father through intimate love and relationship with the sinner. The sinners, like me, Jayjay Lizarondo, was able to understand though not entirely comprehend, in obedience of faith through grace, the love of God. 
Unfortunately, Gandhi was looking for answers and his rejection of Christianity grew out of an incident that happened when he was a young man practising law in South Africa. He had become attracted to the Christian faith, had studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and was seriously exploring becoming a Christian. But the so called "Christians" rejected him because his skin's color was brown. Oh wow. What a scary thought.

Am not into judging a race, ones religion, denomination and or preferences of whatever, but radical grace means Lord if they don't believe, help me to just love and pray for them, maybe, who knows! I would rather just pray for God's spirit to touch their hearts and still love those that are in the dark instead of judging or reviling or damning them. I pray to God I do not judge so I may not be judged but to exemplify and emanate Christlikeness in love, through love, by love. Peace. :-)

Let me Decrease as You Increase in my Life!

My mind is on God's inexplicable love for me, not on my love for God that is very humanly unstable. That is why I love Him so, because He loved me first. What a relief!

I shouldnt be boasting on my love for God like Peter the Apostle did, I pray that I should focus on Jesus inexplicable love for me like John the Beloved did, as he would always claim, "a disciple whom Jesus loves." What Grace and Truth!

jayjay


www.hop-e.org
Spreadtheloveoutthere

The Movie in my Mind - "August Rush" and God.

God spoke again to me tonight, it was a wonderful experience. I heard God vivdly again. Interestingly, I always hear Him in the most unexpected way, oh yes, almost always like this. I hear Him in a radio while a song is being sung, I see Him in the newspaper through an everyday article, but moslty I see and hear Him while watching a movie or a DVD. I saw and heard Him while watching Batman, or any weird movies you can think of. I heard Him while listening to a Rap Music or a movie soundtrack, and I found peace and comfort while wathching movies that made me cry like a baby, yeah yeah, I cried not just because what I saw was good and heartwarming but because I saw God in the colorful or dark stories everyday people, yes, everyday ordinary people who experienced pain and confusion that resulted in a miracle through their music, poetry, paintings, movies and tonight God spoke to me in an art form and I love it. Embracing humanity and life is what's making me "spiritual again." The Spirit working in me and through me and talking to me in the form of an art.

God spoke to me again tonight, and this time while watching the movie "August Rush" as I said I cried not just because of the wonderful story but because I was enlightened, I heard Him speak through the musical score of the movie, the music that was being played through different instruments, I heard Him in different ways a normal person won't hear, in this world that's full of distraction and noise, we always forget how to be still and be quiet to hear what He has to say. Again, I just look but don't see, but this time, I saw. I felt the frustration, the pain and the hurt for some reason inexplicable reason because of my continuous searching and longing of my purpose here on this earth.  Ive been praying to God to let me see and hear again, and thank God I felt it again. It was wonderful, inexplicable, unbelievable. I saw FAITH, HOPE and LOVE forming in my head as a wonderful painting, an enchanting music, a soothing poetry and the world I see, is my canvass. I'm now ready to change the world, I am refreshed, rejuvenated, energized and again, I saw it, I heard it. He made me see it thru the movie "August Rush." cant wait to see more of Him through the arts. It is where I hear Him deeply the most, but this time, tonight,  through the movie "August Rush"

Barbaric Christianity with a new song and a new culture

Creating the New Culture


We have to escape "civilized" Christianity and become original, powerful, untamed Christians-just as Jesus intended.


In an episode of "King of the Hill," Hank's son Bobby joins a Christian rock band, his dad weighs in with this critique. "Can't you see, you're not making Christianity better, you're just making rock ‘n' roll worse?"

The comment reminds me of Frankie Schaeffer's scathing critique of evangelicals & art delivered a few years ago in his book descriptively titled, "Addicted to Mediocrity."

One could argue that the evangelical entertainment sub-culture has improved since then, but one could not argue that it is qualitatively superior to the art
produced by the broader culture, and most would agree that it is generally derivative and imitative of American pop culture.

This is a problem, because for centuries Christians were known for their intellectual, artistic and spiritual contributions to society.

T.S. Eliot once said, "No culture has appeared or developed except together with a religion: according to the point of view of the observer, the culture will appear to be the product of the religion, or the religion the product of the culture."

If we agree that we ought to create the culture not be a creation of it, how can we rekindle a renaissance of Christian contributions to culture?

1. Aspire to produce artists who are deeply talented & Christian, not Christian artists. C. S. Lewis famously quipped that we don't need Christian writers, we need great writers who are Christian.

2. Produce good art, not just religious art. Christian artists are not limited to creating “religious art, our exploration of everyday human occurrences can be gilded by our faith walk.

3. Strive for the spiritual, intelligent, and inventive. Art flowing from a gifted artist of deep faith should minimally reflect the spiritual, intelligent, creative image of God. Artist Mako Fujimura observes, “I believe that true, Christ-filled expression results in more diversity than what Christ-suppressing expression would allow. The more we center ourselves in Christ, the freer we are to explore new arenas of expression.”

4. Lead, don't follow. If today's art is spiritually, intellectually, and creatively bankrupt, why would we aspire to meet its standard? To lead artistically takes courage and requires contributing to new directions in your artistic medium, to expand the parameters, to innovate in form and style.

5. Play “real good,” for free, if need be.
Find the line between responsibility and selling out, and don't cross it.
It takes courage to be an artist of integrity in a dumbed-down, superficial, commercially driven pop faith, pop culture age--but we've got to do it.

6. Make art, don't just appropriate art. In its quest for relevance, Christians often use movie and song clips to build bridges of communication to the broader culture. This is OK, but it is vastly inferior to making brilliant original art.

7. Demand better art. Too many people who profess to know the living God are lemming-like consumers of the impoverished offerings of today's bankrupt culture. If we eat a steady diet of drivel, the culture will keep making and serving it and so will the Christian sub-culture.

Michelangelo, when asked to be critical of the art of his day quipped, "My art is my critique!"

The best remedy for the spiritually, intellectually and creatively insipid art produced by today's culture is to produce superior work--

It's time to create a richer culture! Let's change the world. from D.S

http://www.facebook.com/jayjaylizarondo?v=app_2347471856&ref=profile#!/note.php?note_id=351294269698

A Place of Hope Community in Pintong Bokawe, San mateo

"At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for   alms, God is looking for action." 

-Bono Quotes

Our community, Lugar ng Pag-asa sa Pintong Bukawe, has extended its role from spiritual molder to community builder. We believe in going beyond religious exercises to making the love of Jesus real and significant in the lives of our church and community members. For over a year now, we have been organizing several entrepreneurial projects to support not only the spiritual growth of members, but also their financial and social progress.

Coinciding with these efforts, we have also started the iCan Learning Center, a free education institution for the less fortunate. This school year, we have 65 students enrolled and ready to discover a new life through the opportunity of education. This sponsorship-based school is the first of its kind in the community. Each child is supported through an annual sponsorship of P5,000.00 from generous givers. This relatively small amount gives each child a brighter future than they have ever imagined. ... See More

Another blessing for Pintong Bukawe is an available property for acquisition along the community hi-way in San Mateo, Rizal. It is a 450 square meter building amounting to P350,000.00, which can house both the community center/church and the school. In line with this, we are inviting you to partake the blessings and support this exciting endeavor by becoming one of our partners. We are raising funds to acquire the said property, and your valuable help will certainly go a long way in supporting the progress of the Pintong Bukawe community.

We urge you not to miss this opportunity in giving, knowing that God will return the blessings to you a thousand fold. We thank you for your time and we look forward to building a community with you!

Jayjay Lizarondo
Social Entrepreneur

www.hop-e.org