I have not received any responses to any of the letters I had sent out to Major Ray Nagin, President George Bush, or Dr. Norman C. Francis. Hopefully they listened to what I was saying and feel that this is a serious problem that needs to be solved. Many of my classmates in my own section have yet to write their blog number nine, so I was forced to answer people’s suggestions from other sections. I want to start off saying how grateful I am that each of you took time out to give me suggestions on how to improve my project. Each of your comments were useful and gave me better insight on what needs to be done the last few weeks with my project. Most of the individuals who responded on my page were also dealing with poverty as there projects. They made sure that I did not leave out any details. I had forgotten to inform people to where I had distributed the clothes from my clothing drive. Because I wanted to ensure that they were given to people who were actually in need, I gave them to the church I attend in New Orleans. The church is named Household of Faith. I attend the one in uptown. Thanks again for your comments, they helped a lot.
Tobit was a righteous Jew. He was known for giving proper burials. He became blind one day after a bird pooped in his eye. He began to have marital problems not long there after and he began to long for death. Not too far away, a beautiful woman named Sarah was also sick from sadness. Long before a curse had been placed on Sarah. She had been married seven different times, and each time the man died before they were able to consummate their marriage. They both just happened to prayed for death at the same time. God decides to send an angel to the both of tem to rid them of their sorrows. Tobit sends his son, Tobias, to f faraway land to collect money that was owed to him. When he arrives to collect the money, he meets the angel sent by God. They talk and the angel informs him about Sarah. (It was like an old school hook up!) Eventually, Tobit decides to marry Sarah. The angel tells him to marry her he must perform some tasks. First he must burn a fish’s heart and liver to scare away the demons on the night of the wedding. After being wed, they return home. The angel then instructs Tobias to use the fish’s gall bladder to cure his father’s blindness. This story deals with my project in that many people that I am trying to help are in the same situation as Tobit and Sarah. They find that life feels as though it is not worth living. Looking past his unfortunate situation, Tobit trusted that Sarah was a choice that would change his life and by praying some good would come from it. The people of New Orleans have to have faith that something better is out there for them. Hopefully I gave someone a “pick me up” with the shoes and clothes I gathered. It is not a fish’s gall bladder, but hey?! 1 Maccabees did not really pertain to my project.
The Kingdom of God is what God came to earth to establish. It is all about God’s reign over all things. As a Christian, I believe the Kingdom of God is a way of life. We must always keep this in the back of our minds as we go through everyday life. There are always things to improve in ourselfes and in the community that will make the world better as a whole. We must continue to strive for this Kingdom of Heaven here on earth in order to please God. The Kingdom of God is based out of the Old Testament. According to the Wikipedia definition of the Kingdom of God, written by the Evangelical Christian scholars, they believe that the spiritual kingdom is entered through acceptance, understanding, spiritual rebirth, and doing the will of God. To me, I feel the Kingdom of God is somewhat visible on campus. I feel at times Xavier University of Louisiana is a school all for show. They want the outside world to feel that they are this put together, renown, catholic school. To tell the truth, there are many things I feel are nothing like the Kingdom of God. God teaches to love your neighbor. Though Xavier promotes a family environment, at times it is far from it. The individuals on this campus at times are only out for themselves and what they can get materially from their education. The Kingdom of God promotes unity and the well being of human kind as a whole. I am not saying that there are not any aspects of Xavier that are not similar to the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven, but in my opinion so many contradictions should not take place. When there are contradictions, I feel that your accomplishments will be misconstrued. The Kingdom of God relates to my project in that we all try to help each other. That was my goal when implementing my project, to make a difference in one life. If we could all just take some time out of our busy lives and think of others in the process, this world would slowly start to improve. Hopefully, I have done this with my project.
In the article, “Jesus: How Little We Know,” I was not surprised. In my experience, there is always something else to learn, whether or not the information is of value. All my life I have been introduced to all types of people and cultures. I am thanbkful for this because I want to embrace everything. And because I have experienced such an open environment, I have been able to discuss and learn about several different aspects fo other religions and well as my own, Christianity. I was not surprised by the article, though I was not entirely knowledgable of all of the different interpretations of who and what Jesus is and did. Almost in every case Jesus meant something different to each different group of people or religion. I tried to remain unbiased, because I had due to my previous teachings growing up. As a whole, I found the readings to be interesting. For instance, the Gnostic believe that for salvation, Jesus brought a secret notion of the spiritual world. Some Gnostics believe that Jesus was just as we are, and because of this he received the spirit of God through baptism.
Jesus was counter-cultural. He was living in a world where healthy, rich people were not like God. He did his best to defy the odds and go against the norm of his time. This daring act eventually cost him his life. I am at times very counter cultural. It is very hard to remain yourself here on Xavier’s campus. They place students in a box and hope that they will not think outside of it. I feel at times they are only concerned with what will come to them once their rich robots graduate. I try not to put myself in this box, but at times it is difficult. Maybe I am way off, but I can not help but to feel this way. My project is not and somewhat is counter cultural. Though many people feel poverty is an important issue to address, they do not bother to fix it, because it does not affect them.

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