#worldchangers

        Today was one of those (good) emotionally crazy sort of days. From something that happened this morning to the Veteran's Day program (I am a sucker for all things America anyway, but knowing that Claire's husband, Ryan, will deploy in a matter of weeks made this day all the more meaningful to me) to seeing "Argo" tonight, it's been a day of deep emotion.

      This morning I had a beautiful opportunity. See, I am one of the lucky ones. I get to go to a job every day that doesn't even feel like a JOB. It feels like JOY. And some days, that joy turns into all out awe and wonder. One of those days was today. My Holocaust Lit class picks a Memorial Project every year. This year, after brainstorming, we honed in on three different groups-- an artistic project focusing on the fact that it could have been you, or me, or anyone; a children's play that they are going to perform at local elementary schools; and a benefit/memorial 5K. To be truthful, I had hoped they would drop the idea of the 5K. I do enough 5K's in a year. ;) However, they did not, and the more they talked, the more excited they became. The more excited they became, the more excited I became. They started to brainstorm groups to send their money to and really had wanted to focus on genocide. As the conversation and dreaming and brainstorming continued, they hit on the idea of picking a city, which reminded me of the Build a City project that PCL are doing. I pulled up the video and they got even more excited. The guy came today from the organization to talk to them about everything. As he talked, my heart was even more stirred.

     God's been doing some crazy stuff inside me lately... crazy stuff like drawing me to live like He has called His people to live. (Novel, huh? Even radical. What? Follow the pattern set forth in His word??? Surely not.) But yes. I feel like I have always had a heart for missions and for people, but have found pretty simple ways to do that work. Turns out God might just want a little more from me than that-- some sort of sold-out lifestyle. Anyway, I sat this morning and listened to him talk about life in Andong, Cambodia. And more than that, I watched my students' faces as he talked. I could see their passion shining...their empathy, excitement, that limitless faith and optimism they still have that they can really do ANYTHING. (Wonder what age we lose that?) I looked at one who wants to be a children's pastor.... one who wants to go into mission work... another who has already done several mission trips and wants to do more... one who I know is struggling like I am to know what exactly the lifestyle IS that He wants for us...

And that was the moment when I knew that I was looking way too hard at the "colors of life" because I was about ten seconds away from the ugly cry.

     I hear people talk all the time about the future of our society. That things are going downhill fast. That this generation doesn't care about things the way previous generations did.

I beg to differ.

Because I know of at least one group of kids who are going to change the world. And they are starting with a city in Cambodia.