John Vandervelde - Program Director

About 5 years ago, before we came to serve here at HoneyRock, Kari and I (and our oldest child Brayden) lived in Zambia for almost a year.  That time still remains one of the best times we've had as a family.  We learned a lot, laughed a lot, served a lot, grew a lot and were challenged a lot.  Still, not a day goes by, when we don't think about our time there, or pray for our Zambian friends. 

We returned from Zambia, one of the poorest nations in the world, to the United States in mid-December of 2004.  You can imagine the extreme feelings of culture shock we had, going from a place where the majority of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, to a place where people spend an average of a $100 a week on entertainment activities.  Coming back in mid-December was the worst - we were slammed with the strong messages of consumerism and entitlement that permeate our culture, especially around Christmas.  We have a distinct memory of traveling through aisles of Wal-Mart looking for shampoo and feeling totally lost and overwhelmed; just sick to our stomachs about the buying frenzy going on all around us. 

I personally remember being totally disgusted  at the amount of money our culture spends on junk we don't really need while my friends in Zambia were starving while working to rescue orphans from death.  Over time we become desensitized to the sin of consumerism in our culture, and we get sucked in to it our selves. 

Something that has helped me remember what Christmas is all about and has aided in helping me resist the pressure to spend frivolously has been a movement called "The Advent Conspiracy" - www.adventconspiracy.org.  Please, take a moment to check out this video and be inspired to live differently this Christmas.

Note:  You'll want to make sure to read the blog next week.  We have guest bloggers from the HoneyRock Executive Council set to share with you some great stuff!