The project I chose to carry out this semester was to help improve the issue of poverty.  I feel that there are many people throughout this world that need food, water, and shelter.  The implementation of my project is coming along great.  My group and I have already volunteered at Second Harvester’s Food Bank.   Our job at the food bank was to set up food bags for local elementary school children in need of food.  Most children in elementary schools around Louisiana are provided with lunch and breakfast that is either free of charge or reduced in priced.  Unfortunately, these children do not have any source of food on the weekends.  Second Harvester’s Food Bank provides bags of food for these children to be able to have food on the weekends.  While volunteering at the food bank, my fellow students and I started an assembly line in which we packaged the food bags for these children.  Throughout the time we spent at Second Harvesters, our group managed to package around 900 bags of food.  This job was very satisfying because by devoting my spare time I was helping to feed hungry children from local elementary schools.  Another aspect of my project that is still being carried out is the canned food drive.  We have set up boxes around Xavier’s campus, and we just recently did a pick up and brought the already obtained cans to Second Harvesters.  The turnout was a litter smaller than expected, but as time progresses and the boxes stay out, I hope to have more cans donated by the end of the semester.  We are planning to leave the boxes out for a longer period of time in hopes that our fellow students will donate more cans to our food drive.  We will probably be doing another pick sometime at the end of the week, and we will bring those cans to the local food bank as well.  Along with these two aspects of my project, I have also written four different letters to people that I feel make a huge difference in our society.  In the letters, I have explained my position on the project, and I have asked for suggestions that could help improve the project.  I feel that my project is providing more food sources to those in need.  Overall my project is coming along great, and I feel that it is truly benefitting society.

The fifth book of the Old Testament is titled Deuteronomy.  The book is broken down into three sermons that were delivered by Moses.  The book presents specific laws that should be followed as a code of conduct also known as the Deuteronomic Code.  The Deuteronomistic Historian classifies a good king as one that follows the rules set out by the book of Deuteronomy.  The main characteristic a king must possess according to the Deuteronomistic Historian is faith in god.  Based on this law, a good king is one that follows God, and obeys all of God’s commands.  The king must be powerful, but also faithful to God.  I do not feel that George W. Bush would be classified as a good leader according to the Deuteronomistic Historian.  The Deuteronomistic Historian clearly states that a good leader must follow and worship God.  While George W. Bush was in office, I do not think that some of his actions were based on good religious faith.  President Bush did not make any decisions, while in office, to help promote the church or to help improve his and the country’s faith in God.  While in office President Bush started a war which caused thousands of people to lose their lives.  Throughout his presidency he also caused economic problems for the United States.  A classification of a good leader would be one who follows God in promoting a better society, but in the case of George W. Bush he simply caused more problems for the country.  

David was the second King of Israel who commits adultery with Bathsheba.  Bathsheba was married to Uriah, who was off at war fighting for Israel.  When Bathsheba finds out she is pregnant David sends for Uriah to come back from war so he can discover the adultery that has occurred.  Since David was in love with Bathsheba, he orders his followers to leave Uriah in the battlefield to die.  David then marries Bathsheba and she gives birth to the third king of Israel, Solomon.  I feel that the worst thing that David did was not committing adultery, but rather going against a faithful soldier of his country.  Uriah was a faithful soldier fighting for Israel, and David dishonors and backstabs a soldier from his own country.  I think that a king should have the highest respect for his soldiers, and by David acting so wrongfully toward Uriah, I feel that he is portraying himself as a bad king.  He orders for Uriah to be left in battle alone, which is not a good and respectable thing for a king to do.  A king should worry more for his country than a woman, and David loses a faithful soldier to jealousy and dishonesty.  I feel that David is turning his back on a soldier for a woman, and in order for a king to be a worthy king, their country must come first.  By turning his back on Uriah, David is also turning his back on the war his country is fighting.

The Jerusalem Temple is also known as the Holy Temple and is an elevated area in Jerusalem.  According to Sacred Destinations, “The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.”  The temple was originally created to be a sanctuary for the arc of the covenant.  Two temples were built in this location.  The first temple was built by King Solomon with the original purpose of replacing the tabernacle as God’s permanent home.  It was destroyed around 586 B.C.E. by the Babylonians.  The second temple was built shortly after the destruction of the first temple.  The second temple was meant to replace the first temple after its recent destruction. The second temple was much smaller than the first temple, and was later destroyed by the Romans.

Website Used

“Temple Mount, Jerusalem.” Sacred Sites at Sacred Destinations  http://www.sacred-

desitnations.com/Jerusalem-temple-mount.html.

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