Can I Say How Proud I am of My Grandmother

My grandmother is an absolutely amazing woman. I don’t just say that because she is my grandmother but because she actually is. At 77 years old, she did something that I never expected her to do, going into business for herself and creating a doll that would sell on the market. A little over a year ago she told me about the idea and honestly, back then I thought that it was great but I had no idea where she was taking it. Now, this doll “The Sharecropper Doll” is manufactured, made and ready to own for all. The doll tells a story, a story about my family and particularly my grandmother, and what it meant to be a sharecroppers daughter. Please show some love and check out her sight today, perhaps buy a doll for your children, grandchildren or for yourself.

A Catchy Title?

So I am participating in a writing contest this month, where I have to write a novel of 50,000 by the end of the month. I am more than halfway there but…I have yet to land on a title that is catchy enough. I thought about calling it the gift but I am not sure, read the synopsis and the excerpt attached and tell me what you think…

Synopsis: The Gift
It is Christmas and Victor Gonzalez must figure out how to provide for his family in the midst of a recession. Having lost his job as a lawyer, he places his trust in God to come through until his wife leaves him. Now he must provide for his four children alone, and with no other job prospects in sight he turns to illegal means. After a unique turn of events, however, Victor comes to himself and realizes that he must act quickly to save his wife and his children, without risking his own life.

Excerpt: The Gift
The events of the last few hours left Victor physically and emotionally drained. Instead of climbing the stairs to share a bed with Flor, he decided to camp out downstairs. After fixing himself a cup of hot chocolate and retrieving a blanket from the shelf of the coat closet, he sank into the arms of his beloved black leather chair and turned on the television. Bing Crosby’s White Christmas was on, which Victor had not seen in years. Although he was not particularly fond of the movie, he found himself delighting in its plot this evening as it took his mind off of matters that tonight he would not be able to resolve. Not much time passed before he was completely knocked out.
Victor awoke hours later, gripping his chest and feeling as if his life was over. Partially because of all that transpired the night before, partially because he could not shake the literal pain that he felt in his body. He arose from what had been his resting place the night before and walked into the kitchen to search for some much needed Zantac. After searching for about ten minutes, he yielded no results and so settled for Tums and an ice cold glass of skim milk. He hated skim milk, well milk in general. He could never get over the thick, milky taste that it carried no matter how watered down it was. But duty called and he would just have to endure the odious taste. It satisfied the heartburn but proved to be something of a drug as well. It reminded him of the time a few years back when he had to have his wisdom teeth pulled out. Days before the surgical removal he downed Orajel like it was kool-aid, which numbed the pain for a little while. It was not a permanent solution, however, and did not address the root of his problem; only the surgery did. His present state brought him back to that time, only he did not know what would address the root of the problem that had reared its ugly hair between himself and Flor.
He walked back into the living room and noticed that the television was still on. He did not like to waste resources such as electricity, especially in these financially constrained times but the voices provided comfort to a lonely soul. He took his place back on the couch and glanced at the clock on the wall above the television. It was only 5AM, and Victor knew that the kids would probably come bounding down the stairs in an hour or two, as they had done before in years past. Still this year was different, much more different than years past. Not just because of money, as well acquainted him with poverty, but because of his wife’s infidelity. How could she be so cruel? What about the vows they took and swore before God and man almost 20 years ago? What about the promises, the years, the children, the memories. They all seemed like a joke, as a matter of fact, they seemed like a very bad dream that he was finally stirring from. It was amazing how one act of indiscretion could turn his whole world upside down forever; he did not just know to what extent that turn would be!

But They Know…

Mesmerized by your presence, in awe of your majesty, I come. I come struck by who you are, humbled by my inadequacies, empowered to draw people closer to where you are, nearer to your right hand of glory…

But no one comes.

If only they knew that in your presence there is power, power to heal, power to save, power to cleanse of all unrighteousness, then they would come Lord. They would come knocking down the doors of heaven to have an audience with you. They would come begging to be with you, begging to sit with you.

If they knew you raised the dead, provided mercy for the brokenhearted and set the prisoners free, they’d come Lord.

If they knew you provided food for the hungry, rain for the good and bad alike, justice for the oppressed, Lord surely they would come.

If they knew you loved them, Lord, really truly loved them, they’d come. They would drop everything Lord just to be with you, if only they knew.

But they know, even still they don’t come.

It’s Been A While…I’ve Missed You!

Hello All,

It has been a while since I have sent a message and been in contact with many of you. But that is because the summer has flown by with many new and exciting opportunities, some of which you are already well aware like my recent marriage to the most wonderful man in the world…its been four months today. I can’t believe it.

I also can’t believe that I start my final year of graduate school next week Monday…its been a long three years and by time I am done it will be four. I am excited that this chapter of my life is finally nearing its end, its been a good chapter but I must move on to the next one. What it will be, though, I am still trying to wrap my head around.

My increasing passion is for missions and reconciliation, and thereby exalting the name of Jesus. My desire is for his name to be glorified, and for me, whatever stands in the way of that being accomplished has to be dealt with. What I see as deterrents of that mission is the perpetual injustices that pervade upon those who are less fortunate and the extreme hatred that people seem to have toward someone who is not like them, which even exists in the church. I do not know how, but this must change, so that people will know that Christ is Lord of all.

What that means for me is doing missions and ministry, for that matter, in a way that is holistic and encompasses all areas of a persons life. I cannot preach Jesus and yet be okay with the person that I am preaching to starving or being without. I cannot preach Jesus and yet be so against someone who does not look like me or have my values. My faith must be accompanied by God works, contrary to the sentiment of Martin Luther. Yes I am saved by grace through faith, but that also means that the same grace that I have been given must be given to others.

It also means pursuing, yes, another degree. But that wont be until the fall of 2011, so that I can take a little breather from school and prepare to be in school for another 4 years as I earn a Ph.D.

In the meantime, I am STILL promoting my book. Do you know about it? Dancing on Hot Coals, my brainchild, which I finally gave birth to earlier this year, is available. Its about my life and the struggles/ trials that God has enabled me to endure in order to be a testimony to other people. If you have not do so yet, purchase your own copy…please! You can purchase your own from Amazon.com- http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Hot-Coals-Ebony-Hatch/dp/1440497834/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253716377&sr=8-1. This is a sincere request, as I am really trying to build a sustainable network. If you would like to find out more about the book, check out my blog http://ebonyjohanna.wordpress.com/a-peak-inside/.

If you already own a copy, please spread the word to someone else. If you can just forward this message to 5 people, that would help so much.

Ebony A.

Open Up the Sky

This evening before bed, my husband and I sat in the kitchen talking, drinking tea, and sharing banana bread that I made earlier this day. As we talked, our conversation turned toward the matters of his job and how so unhappy many people are that work there. Why do they stay then? I suggested that perhaps it was because of the money (they do make a pretty penny) and because they have no other option in the middle of a recession. Yet some of them have worked there for 10, 15, 20 and 30 years, and our country has not been in a recession for that long! The reality is, is that many of them lack vision, they lack purpose, and they lack the drive that will move them from where they are to a bigger and better reality. Many of them fear that if they let go of the piece of the security they have that they will not be able to do any better. As I listened, I felt bothered and saddened by this fact as it gives fruit to nothing more than a boring, mundane existence.

Yet I feel that this apathetic attitude characterizes much of the American society. Though people long for something more, they are often afraid to go after it, fearing that if they do they will lose everything. They fear losing money, respect, family, friends, and peace of mind, especially if they fail in pursuit of what they do not have even though they can see it on the horizon. It reminds me of people who study things that they have no passion for simply because it has a better promise of making money, or people who refuse to change systems not because the existing one is effective but because they do not want to rock the boat, claiming that tradition is far better than uncertainity.

Yet it is my hope, my desire, that people reach for more. It is my hope that as far it is possible, and even if it seems next to impossible that people reach to fulfill their God-given purpose and potential. This is what makes the world go round and what changes the course of history. This is what creates jobs and orders destinies, not the boring, the mundane, or the normal.

There is a song that inspires me in this direction. I learned it maybe six months or so ago, and it is by Deluge, a Christian contemporary band. I love the song because it challenges me, it reminds me to rise above that which is ordinary and go after the things that make a difference. I do not want to be an ordinary Christian, I do not want an ordinary life, I do not want an ordinary marriage, an ordinary ministry, or an ordinary anything. No matter how much it costs me, I want a life of purpose and destiny. I want a life that matters, one that makes a difference. My hope is that if you did not already, that after reading my perhaps scrambled thoughts, you will desire that as well.

Thought For the Day…

I came across this extremely powerful quote today that shook me to my core in regards to its blunt and accurate picture of poverty in the United States. Here it is:

“People construct their own picture of reality based on what they experience and want to believe. Widespread hunger and poverty are not part of that reality. Even when confronted with hungry people and conditions of poverty, Americans on the whole simply cannot believe or imagine the suffering because they seldom see it; when they do, it is a threat to their comfort, so they choose not to think about it. Blocking poor people from our minds, however, may be a passive way of wishing they did not exist, and it is a cause of many deaths” (Simon, 73: The Rising of Bread for the World).

Upon reading it, I know that some are ready to throw up their defenses and make all types of excuses, but before doing so, ask yourself a few things. Have you ever seen anyone begging and starving for food, other than in a movie on T.V? If you did, what did you think? Did you think that they were losers and lazy and that was why they were in the state they were in? Or did you pity them, do nothing, and turn away? Have you ever seen someone standing on a corner while you were in your car, asking for food or money? What did you do? Have you ever rowed up your window and turned your face away, so that you did not have to hear their screams and cries for mercy? Did you think that whatever you gave them would go to booze or drugs anyway, and so there was no sense in giving it? Did you just watch and stare until the light turned green, so that you could pull away and be forever freed of their reality that they have to face everyday? Have you ever thought that whatever you did to help the poor would be useless because there was just so much poverty? Have you ever thought that if you actually got involved that you would have to give of your time and money, and so you should not to make sure that you had all of your needs met?

I have. Maybe not to the same degree of the questions that I made above, but in one way or another, I have. And I know that there are people that take advantage of the system and are out there begging for things just to get rich, but I also know that we tell ourselves this so that we do not have to do our own part for the least of these. Largely, all over the globe and all over our country, people are in poverty, suffering and struggling to make ends meet. They do without necessary things, such as adequate food, shelter, health care, and transportation, not because they are being lazy, but because somewhere down the line, they have been cut a raw deal. Somewhere down the line, I came to the conclusion that I could no longer ignore it, as this thing kept looking me dead in my face. Even though I am a student and don’t make much money at all, I have no excuse. Neither do you!

For the love of Christ compels us
2 Corinthians 5.14a

Young Artists…

Come and join us as we shine the ‘spotlight’ on Minnesota’s own:
-Spoken Word Artists
-Musicians
-Authors
-Poets

In the spotlight so far…
-Lutunji Abram, Spoken Word Artist
-Adetoyebi Adepide, Musician
-Ebony Adedayo, author of Dancing on Hot Coals
…and more!

Didn’t see your name and want to be part of the line up? Email ebanna22@gmail.com
Can’t Wait to See you There!

Date: August 29th 2009
Time:6.30-8.00PM
Venue: Midtown Global Market
920 E. Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN

Something About Peas

I was driving in my wonderful toyota yaris, on my way to work this morning when something on the radio caught my attention. I was listening to 95.3, a pretty good Christian radio station in the Twin Cities (if only they played gospel music) and there was some sort of commerical break where the radio host was making a case for the goodness of the Lord by comparing him to peas. He told this story where this boy (or girl, I forget which) was forced to eat their peas at dinner time one evening or they would not be able to leave the dinner table. At the end of the dinner, to the parents surprise, the peas were all eaten. As they cleared the table, however, they picked up a soda can which seemed to be quite heavy. Looking inside they saw the peas!

The radio host went on to say that as the child refused to even try the peas, we sometimes do that to the Lord. “Taste and see that the Lord is good”, he said. Personally, I thought it was a horrible comparison. I hate peas and! When I was a child I did not like them, as a teenager I did not like them, and as an adult I hate them the more. All of this said, I will never make my children eat them. If the Lord is likened to peas, then I guess I am out of luck and very many, I assume would be out of luck as well! Now, if he likened him to all my favorite vegetables (squash, zucchini, brocolli, carrots, green beans, soy beans, and corn) plus all of my favorite fruit (apples, bananas, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, mango, kiwi, pineapple, etc) plus fish (tilapia, salmon, catfish), chicken, meat (goat, beef) and bread, and some good ol’ carrot cake and sweet potato pie, then we would have something to talk about!

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed are those who take refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing” (Psalm 34.8-9, TNIV). For sure the Lord is good, I am a witness of his goodness! He is faithful, loving, kind and true. I would hate someone to miss that over the radio hosts inaccurate comparison.

God=Politics

I am a Christian, ok! For me, as well as many other Christians whom I know, this title has meant a host of several things. For starters, it has meant the strict adherence to a certain list of commands of thou shalts and thou shalt nots. Such are the following: thou shalt have no other God before me, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt…I hope you get the picture. After interpreting the funky King James language that these commands were written in, for the most part, I did not have a problem with them although I have to be truthful in that I did not always live up to their standards being that I fall short of the glory and honor of God. Basically my satisfaction with these is due to the fact that they are God-given, and not human-driven, unlike other commands that we somehow place upon ourselves and others around us.

The specific human-driven command that I want to address here concerns politics. Although it is not written on tablets of stone or for that matter tablets of paper, somehow we have come to understand that to be a Christian means that one does not engage in politics. On the slight chance that one did engage in politics, that person has to be conservative and Republican, as we have been told that conservative values most closely identify with those of Scriptures, and even still, this was mostly so in regards to who to elect for President. After the Republican President is in office, many retire their political concerns for the next four years until there is an opportunity to elect another self-acclaimed ‘Christian’ president. The cycle continues.

Perhaps I am only illuminating my interpretation as far as this un-scribed command is concerned and others have not seen the political- Christian process in the same token. Yet I interpret in light of my experience and my experience has taught me such. Growing up in a home and community where politics was not discussed taught me that such matters were not for us. I also came to believe that politics should be left to the renegades of society who had an agenda up their sleeves and that Christians should reserve themselves to preaching the gospel! I was also a self-proclaimed Republican, not because I knew what that meant or for what they stood for, but because I knew what they stood against- homosexuality and abortion. For me this meant not voting for Senator John Kerry in the November 2004 election, and even going so far as to make calls on behalf of former President Bush (I know, I know. Please don’t stone me!)

I quickly wised up after our former President’s second term in office as I witnessed him make poor decision after poor decision that did not reflect Christian values and instead reflected what seemed to be a personal vendetta against his enemies. As a result, I began to realize that Christianity, or for that matter God Himself, cannot be defined by political party lines but instead we must ensure that Christianity holds such lines to a higher standard of righteousness, honesty, and integrity. As Christians, we have a unique, prophetic voice enabling us to speak to certain things in our society that violate the God-given commands of the Bible.

One of the ways I use my voice is by working for Bread for the World, a Christian organization that seeks to eradicate global poverty and hunger. Members and partners of Bread for the World call on the nation’s leaders to make decisions that will affect positive change in this direction in what is called an Offering of Letter Campaign, an annual campaign that brings together churches, denominations and groups of all types across the country for a purpose larger than any party line by itself can solve: justice.

I have only been working with Bread for the World for a little over six months now and I must admit that my knowledge of all things political is growing rather slow. Yet and still it is growing as I am challenged to not just be a bystander and simply allow things to happen in our nation and in our world without speaking up for the things that are right. Many may disagree with my stance, and may perhaps consider me liberal. As I see it, however, Scripture is filled with references that demand that Christians do something on behalf of those who are the poor and oppressed of society while only a few have a reference to homosexuality and abortion. I hope that in the coming months and years of not only being at Bread, but also being more politically astute that God will use me as a voice and as a tool to do what I otherwise would not have had I stuck to the human-driven commands and stayed out of politics.

Upgrade Me!

Hello World! Welcome to my new blog Faith.Hope.Love.

I’ve been on here all about two seconds and I love it. I decided that my previous blog needed a whole new look, a new layout if you will and it should as I had been with the other one for quite a while. I am learning, however, that as one grows and hopes for new opportunities, possibilities, that they must also do things to enable those possibilities to come. So for me that means, bye bye to blogger and hello to wordpress.

I hope you like it just as much as I do. Come back and visit me often, I like comments and I like friends.

I will leave you with this:

For I only know in part and I prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a woman, I put the ways of my childhood behind me. For now I see only a reflection as in a mirror; then I will see face to face. Now I know in part; then I will know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13.9-13, TNIV personalized