God is faithful, despite our brokenness

I randomly went out to Applebees tonight with Abby, and it was such an amazing time. I am so blessed to have her as a friend....and I honestly think I burn twice as many calories when I hang out with her because we laugh so hard...continuously!

I am going to miss her so much after this semester. Of course I'll miss her over the summer and while I'm in Spain, but I think the hard part will be coming back from Spain next spring semester and not having her here. Therein lies the problem of befriending people who are a year or two older. :-(

We also talked about an interesting issue tonight in my social studies methods class. We read an article about how first-world nations ship all their broken and outdated technology crap like old monitors, computers, cell phones, etc. to third-world nations where they form vast expanses of "e-waste" landfills. As if this weren't bad enough, the real problems lies in the fact that many of these products are shipped to places like Ghana, India, and China under the pretense that they are working gadgets that can be used, only for people to find out that they are mostly trash upon their arrival. Children in Ghana living and scavenging in these e-waste dumps can make $5-$10 a day, versus the average daily wage of $2 per day, and so many parents send their children to live in the dumps to make money. The problem is that many computers contain toxic chemicals like lead and dioxins, not to mention glass shards, and so when children go to scavenge the copper wiring to sell, or burn parts to get rid of the plastic and collect the metal remnants, they are exposing themselves to countless dangers. It is such a sad situation, that we consume so much here in America, and in Europe, that now even our technology is not beyond the reaches of our impact on third-world nations. It makes me think twice about how much I use stuff just to throw it away.

Another cool story that I forgot to share:
So last weekend at church the offering plate went by and I decided not to put any money in because I didn't have any. That was a lie. I did have money, $18 to be precise, but I was keeping it in my wallet because that was basically all the money I had. I had counted my money the night before: a ten, a five, and three ones. Well, after I let the offering plate pass, I really felt God tugging on my heart. I realized that even though I have little money right now, I still need to be faithful with what I do have, so I decided to put money in the offering basket on the way out. I thought to myself, "I'll give all the singles I've got in my wallet." (In my head, thinking of the three singles.) So after the service ended I opened up my wallet and I pulled out my three singles and then I saw the corner of another one peeking out, so I pulled it out thinking, "Wow, I guess I missed that last night when I was counting." And then I saw another one and another one and another one!!! I just kept pulling dollars out of my wallet...$10 in singles in all!!! I was absolutely flabbergasted! God multiplied my money! So I quickly put the money in the offering basket lestI was tempted to keep it and lightning would come down from the sky and strike me dead in the sanctuary. :-) So there's another God story for you! He's a pretty cool dude and I am so delighted to be His child.