Coram Deo

Sorry for not posting in awhile. So much has been going on!!!

However, I mainly want to reflect on the retreat a few weekends ago that Serah and I have attended, called Coram Deo. First off, we weren't even sure we could go because of the price, but there was a generous donation made that allowed Serah and I to go for free, praise God!!! It was a fun time, as well as a time for reflection and a personal time with God. After going through rough weeks of loaded homework, and the toughness of our move, it was much needed.

In the first session we talked about the question "How bad do you want it?". The pastor integrated other questions under the head question. One of the other questions were, 'How bad do you want God's purposes and will for you?'. He also mentioned that if our only goal is to get to heaven, then we are headed in the wrong direction, because it shouldn't be all about going to heaven.

He also mentioned how our surrounding can be our greatest enemy. How we all get caught up in being in a 'positive' surroundings. Meaning that we can get caught up in the comfort and aren't willing to get out of that comfort zone. This raised the question 'How great is your personal sense of spiritual desperation/hunger for the Lord?'. Then he went on and talked about how we know about that desperation/hunger for the Lord, saying that it starts with a determined choice to go after the Lord. He brought up the thought of we want the solution without working hard for it, or without it costing us anything.

What all this meant to me? The questions helped me reflect on it more, because I tried answering those questions. It was difficult, because I wanted to believe that I was desperate for God, however reflecting has made me realize, my actions and my thoughts don't show that desperation. It also had me thinking about what I have in my life that is taking away that desire, because ultimately, that should be my desire as a christian. A lot went through my mind as I reflected on that, which I reflected on throughout the weekend.

I could go forever talking about the retreat and it was amazing! It was loud, crazy, yet for me, I could still feel intimate with God. Also I was able to make some new friends over the retreat, which was great!

God Bless!!!

Inequality

Inequality is a large issue and there's different types of inequality, such as economics, social, and political inequalities. In history class, we were shown a video that showed the distribution of wealth in America. It got me thinking about inequality because I lived in a country where there was major inequality, the country was corrupt politically, which caused even more inequality as some would be very rich officials and others scraping for a single penny. This video shocked me because it mentions how the top 1% of the American population were billionaires and how the first 20-30% were just at the poverty line for America. However, the poverty in America is much different from the poverty line in Cambodia, where I came from, as in America, you can easily get a job, your kids can go to school for free and get a decent education, government helps those in that situation. In Cambodia on the other hand, they don't have the free quality education like in America, they don't have easy access to jobs, and they don't have government support. 

This video had triggered those thoughts, because it's not just Cambodia, there is Myanmar, Bangladesh and parts of India in the same situation, and probably many more countries.  

Here's a diagram which shows the figures and help grasp a better understanding. 

This diagram shows two types of distribution, one the wealth and the other the income. As we can see the majority have a relatively high income, however on the opposite spectrum there is the poorer civilians who don’t make much, just enough to have a living.

As you can see the inequality in Latin America has been traced back to 1491. In 1492 the Spanish started to colonize Latin America which started the increase in Gini coefficients in Latin America. It is said that the Gini coefficient was 12-13% higher than the native empires. The Iberians replaced the native empires and raised the extraction rate for their purposes. Also in the 16^th century there were demographic issues. When the Europeans started to colonize Latin America and brought over their animals, horses, who carried a unknown disease that was deadly and caused a lot of harm to the native empire. This increased the land to labor ratio which then increased the GDP per capita. This was the Iberians opportunity to exploit the natives and this is when the social inequality evolved in Latin America. Because of this, however, the GDP per capita increased as well as urbanization. It did cause an increase to the Gini coefficient and the land to labor ratio fell, which helped encouraged inequality. Then there was the independence hence the prediction of a fall between 57.6 and 47.0 in the Gini coefficient.

Social and economic inequalities are everywhere. In any business industry there are many different inequalities, such as the difference between employees and employers, and CEOs. There's an inequality there because the CEO comes up with the idea and starts the production, however after that they step out of the picture more, then the employers and employees are running the business. Though the employees and employers are running the business, the CEO is getting most of the money, though they aren't doing very much field work and the employees and employers are getting less though they are running the business. There's also an inequality between the employers and the employees, because the employers hire the employees to do the work, which puts less work on the employers, who are getting paid more.

Here's a diagram of a typical hierarchy in a business and the top level of the hierarchy tend to be the people who get paid the most.

Without any one of these components a business won't function well, however the work distribution tends to be uneven, as the managers and the operation level employees are doing most of the field work and the CEO just oversea the business, yet they get paid the most.

"According to the document, Cook's $9.22 million in earnings includes $1.75 million salary, $6.7 million in non-equity incentives and other company contributions. Apple notes Cook was paid out nearly $57,000 in vacation cash-out and accrued almost $700,000 in security expenses." - This is about the salary of Tim Cook who is the CEO at Apple. The director of engineering at apple earns $102,994 – $261,175, and they are the ones on the ‘field’ working and designing the Apple products.

"The top leadership team at Samsung, made up of its three co-CEOs and CFO, makes $30.6 million combined, the Sowan, Korea-based company revealed at its annual shareholder meeting."- This is about the salaries that the CEOs at Samsung.  The Samsung Director gets roughly $69,000, but it’s dependent on the location and the industry.

As we can see from these figures there’s a relatively large margin between the CEOs and the Directors. The CEOs salaries are higher mainly because they are the ones who are responsible for what goes on with the business, whether it fails or its successful.

The Director on the other hand is in charge of different or specific departments/industries of the business. They are hired by the CEO but are responsible for managing other employees, hiring employees and in charge of the on field work needed.

This leaves me to question, why is there a relatively large margin of salaries between jobs? There’s an even larger one between the managers and the CEOs, which I won’t touch upon.  

I feel strongly about inequality, coming from a country that suffers in poverty and then seeing America, its a strong difference. I've been hearing complaints from people who say they are poor, yet they have food, shelter, and free education, then on the opposite spectrum, there are those who have no food, no shelter, and no education (at least not a good education). Within Cambodia (where I lived for the past 7 years), there are defined economic inequalities. There are those officials who drive in Lexus's, have latest technology, and big large houses, and then there are those who have to dig in the trash for food and live on the streets. It's heartbreaking to see this, yet it's something that's hard to stop. Ideally we want to, however in reality, it's hard to break inequality, because it’s become a cycle, known as the poverty cycle (in this situation). However, we can help out by simply giving just a little of our savings to help those families who are stuck in the poverty cycle, or giving them the basic knowledge (teaching them English) to get a decent job in that country, to feed their families. Most girls and young ladies sell themselves into prostitution because it’s a ‘good’ paying job without needing any real skills and they are stuck in that mind set, because they don’t know anything else. If we teach them, they can break that cycle, it takes courage and boldness.

"We Believe in the Holy Spirit"

This was the title of the sermon last week. It for me was very moving and very encouraging. We are talking about the Nicene Creed and we were at the part that says "we believe in the Holy Spirit", hence the title, but the pastor unpacked that bit and applied it to our lives today.
The point that really hit me was that, the Holy Spirit speaks, and if we can't hear Him, then we need to get into the word. He said that if we want to hear Him then we need to consume and be 'saturated in the Spirit'.

This led me to thinking about reading the bible, then at the end the pastor said a good book to read is the Psalms, so I started reading the Psalms this past week. I've read the chapters before, however I never thought of the way I did this time. It was very moving and encouraging.


It's short this week, but thank you to everyone who reads this!
God Bless!!!!

At His table

This week has been hectic, if you want to read more about the week go to:

http://magszrhea.blogspot.com/2015/09/crazy-week.html 

It has also been a week for me to get away from distractions and I've been able to call on God more this week. On Wednesday we went to youth group, DSM, which was talking about how we are sons and daughters of God. It struck me, that I'm doing all this work and staying up late, so I can do the best in my work and please God. How God still sees me and loves me, no matter what I get into. They focused on having a place in a home, focused on having a place at the table. They referenced to 2 Samuel 9 about Mephibosheth who was lame in both legs, yet King David invited him to his table. The table was describe as an intimate place, as we get to eat with the King. That's why communion is so important. And the Pastor said, we don't deserve this great honor, yet Jesus has given it us as He LOVES so that much. 

The pastor had mentioned about how Mephibosheth was lame from a young age. He made that relation to us today, how we may be lame spiritually and that has affect our spiritual lives. 

I thought this was a great message and it made me realize how important we are, how important God is. Throughout the crazy week, I didn't think that whatever I was doing was important, because it was just homework, however it was important. To finish the youth group, we listened to the long 'No Longer a Slave' which just hit me. I was a slave, a slave to school. I never saw it that way till then, because I put all my focus in school, which isn't a bad thing, but I didn't invite God into my studying time. It's become more of a habit, but with God's help I will breakout of that slavery. I do have a place at His table. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8TkUMJtK5k

 

God Bless! Be free from Slavery! 

- Maggie Rhea

Missing Home

I miss Cambodia so much! It's been a harder week this week as I'm transitioning into the school. I've been able to make friends and stuff, but it's different. It makes me miss Hope a lot, the more I talk to my friends at Hope it makes me miss them. Its been hard, but manageable thanks to God. God has comforted me through this hard process, I've been able to not think about it sometimes. However the more I try to not think about it, when it comes to the weekends I think about it more.

I'm still struggling to see why God moved us back to America. I'm getting a feel though that God is telling me to trust Him more. I don't have my friends to lean on now, so I've been leaning more on God, which is what should've happened way before now. Luckily God is forgiving and loving so it doesn't matter to Him as much. There's been so much change is crazy, from the big things to even the small things. I don't do well with change, so I believe that God is opening my heart to change, and not focusing on my plans, but to focus on His plans.

I don't have too much to say this week. Thank you to all the readers who read this blog.
God Bless