For this semester, I decided to do two projects. One was considered a back up plan, just in case my other project did not pan out, and the other project was attempting a “miracle”. The “miracle” project was to have various organizations on campus go to a local hospital during a weekend and do various activities to help out the hospital. These activities included the following: donating toys to children in the pediatrics ward, read to the children, transporting patients to various sections of the hospital, and any other ideas or services that the volunteers could render to the hospital. The plan to have organizations volunteer their services to the hospital did not happen because of the time constraints of volunteer’s services, requirements for training the volunteers in the hospital, volunteer time obligations posed by the hospital, and the time constraint of implementing this project in a semester.
Although I was not able to have organizations on campus go to a local hospital, I was still able to go to a hospital and volunteer my time. During the Thanksgiving vacation, I went to Houston, Texas to meet some of my relatives. My cousin Michael, whom I call Uncle Mike, was very interested in what I was studying and how my classes were going. I told him that my classes were going well, but I was having a problem in theology regarding implementing a project that was required for the course. He asked me what was the problem because maybe he could offer his services. I told him that I wanted the organizations at my school to go to a hospital and volunteer their services and that the number of organizations on campus would allow for one organization every other week to go to the hospital. He said, “I may not be able to help you get all the organizations on campus to help out, but I can have you and some our your cousins go the local hospital in Houston and help out.” I expressed my deepest gratitude to him, saying, “ If you can make that happen , then you are the coolest person in the world to me right now!!!!!” He said, “Well, thank you Cuz.”
Uncle Mike worked with a friend, Vernon, from the hospital and made it so that me and my cousins - Michael jr., Rodrick, Anthony, Marcus, Coyia, Moni, and Gina- were able to go to the hospital the day after Thanksgiving and help out. We were divided into four groups of two in various sections of the hospital. My cousin Anthony and I were given the task of transporting patients, who were released from the hospital, from their room to their ride. I wanted to help out at the pediatrics ward, but by transporting patients, I was able to visit most of the sections of the hospital, including the children’s ward. I conversed with all of the patients, asking them questions about their anticipation to be released after being in the hospital for a period of time and the responses varied from enthusiasm to disappointment. The one person that said that they were disappointed to go home was an elderly man, Charles, of sixty-three. The man did not want to go home because his wife nags him too much about everything, according to him. Charles was very funny. He kept making jokes about how he would rather be in the hospital because the food was better than his wife’s cooking and how her lasagna should be examined for toxic waste. When we reached the car, I said salutations to his wife and he quickly told me not to tell her about the jokes that he made about her. I said, “What jokes?” and he understood. My other cousins did not have as much fun as I did at the hospital. Marcus said that he was in a room with a really grumpy old lady who had a stick permanently stuck up her … She was ordering him around and yelling at him while he was trying to be nice to her. He told the lady that slavery had ended and that all he wanted to do was volunteer his time as a favor to his little cousin. The experience that my cousins had at the hospital definitely assured me that they would never volunteer at a hospital again.
I was able to complete my initial project and back up project. Although I was not able to complete my project to the extent of my original plan and my initial intentions, I was still able to accomplish both tasks. I completed four volunteer opportunities on campus and a volunteer service project at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, that maintains eleven patient care institutions. These institutions are various hospitals that have specialized practices such as trauma units or pediatric care and numerous other specialties.
Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate because he was seen as a threat. He angered the priests of the temple because his message of going straight to God and acknowledging God as “Father” threatened the role priests played in the faith. Jesus also caused political unrest by his messages because he incited the poor. The people believed Jesus to be the Messiah, but seeing Jesus as the prophesied Messiah challenged the established authority of the Roman Empire, notably the positions of the lords, the chief priests, and the scribes. This “challenge” of authority as seen by the priests posed to completely revolutionize the social status of his time period according to the priests. His title as “King of the Jews” alone threatened the current government. The Roman government, namely Pontius Pilate, saw no alternative because Jesus created political unrest in the empire and the government was more concerned with maintaining order. Jesus’ messages of the “Kingdom of God” were viewed as an attempt to revolutionize the current administration system, even though that was not his intentions. His messages and actions were a disturbance to the social and political order of the empire and thus had to be dealt with to ensure that the government was the central authoritative feature of the Empire. By crucifying Jesus, Rome maintained political and social order. Rome also removed a “zealot” and possible threat to the government. The emperor maintained his authoritative position, as did the priests who accused Jesus of blasphemy.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 2:35 am and is filed under Class Comments, Week 13: Accomplishments/pics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.