Before A. and I moved, the staff at the non-profit where I worked read and discussed a book called When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett. From what I hear, it's kind of making waves in the non-profit and ministry worlds right now, so much so that it's almost becoming a trend. (In fact, a local church that had never supported our agency called us up after having read the book because they felt we upheld a lot of its principles and wanted to learn more. We were pleased and flattered but also concerned that the fervor for what we believe to be timeless principles would fade.) But if you have a heart for impacting the world for the better, I think it's an essential read.

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The entire book is rooted in faith, and it builds on ways in which we should be inspired and encouraged by our faith to do good works. The authors state that there is both a "now" and a "not yet" to the Kingdom of God. There are things that we will never be able to reconcile or make right on this earth because they are for another time, but that shouldn't be taken as an excuse to remain inactive. In fact, Israel was sent into captivity for its worship of idols, yes, but also for ignoring the needs of the poor. Jesus came along and declared the kingdom in words and deeds, and so should we.

There are several different kinds of poverty, and what we believe to be the root cause will influence how we seek to alleviate it. If we believe poverty is a lack of knowledge, we will seek to provide education. If we believe poverty stems from oppression, we will seek to bring about social justice. If we believe that poverty is a result of personal sins, we will seek to evangelize or disciple the poor. If we believe that poverty is simply a lack of material resources, we will seek to provide physical things. But human beings are multifaceted, and each of us experiences poverty in some of these areas, often in combination. So a successful attempt at poverty alleviation must address all of these areas.

Poverty alleviation, as defined by Fikkert and Corbett in the book, is the ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation (the four foundational relationships we all have, one or more of which may be broken in poverty). The goal is to restore people to a full expression of humanness. To alleviate poverty, you must first admit that you yourself are poor in some of these areas in order to truly walk alongside the poor you are trying to help. Our focus should be on people and the process and less on projects and products.

The three phases of poverty alleviation are:

• Relief, which is urgent and temporary and takes the form of giving to,
• Rehabilitation, which is a restoration to pre-crisis conditions and takes the form of providing with, and
• Development, which is a process of ongoing change for all involved.

Too many charity agencies in the United States give out help in the form of relief, which should be reserved for only the most dire circumstances, like after a tsunami or tornado. By continually giving out material relief, agencies actually impede their clients from improving their overall life situation. Their modus operandi should be, instead, not to do things for people that they are capable of doing for themselves.

There is no quick-fix for poverty, but Fikkert and Corbett espouse the belief that if we relinquish our God complexes and truly embrace people and the process by immersing ourselves in it along with those we seek to help, we can make great strides toward improving the world.

I'm not necessarily saying I buy everything they say hook, line, and sinker, but the book provided some great food for thought, especially for one (like me!) whose life goal is to participate in non-profit charitable work. The authors take some stances that are bound to be unpopular, such as their eschewing of short-term mission trips, and the book at times lapses into jargon and charts that lost me as a layperson. But I respect their views on the importance of involving people in their own improvement and have been evaluating non-profit agencies with new eyes as I look for a job here in Atlanta. I have become even less likely than I was in the past to give change to a  beggar on the street and more likely to donate to agencies that are working toward long-term solutions, especially on a local level. And I believe firmly with Fikkert and Corbett that it is the church's role to rise up and face these issues with grace and with tough love. If we truly believe that Jesus is the reconciler of all things and that we are His hands and feet, than it is our sacred duty to live out his principles in our daily lives. Not because we are better than secular organizations, who can do fine work as well, and not because we are more blessed than the poor, but simply because it is what we have been designed and called to do. As Christians and as people of conscience, we should be aware of how our actions, and often our inaction, affect the rest of the world. And for that, I applaud Fikkert and Corbett for their adding their book to the worldwide conversation on poverty alleviation.

How do you view charity? If you are a volunteer or a donor, what do you look for in an agency that you choose to support? What inspires you to do what you do for others?

(Another book that delves into this issue that you might want to check out if this interests you is The Power of Half by father and daughter duo Kevin and Hannah Salwen. It's a pretty inspirational story.)

Last week I took a sewing class at a great local shop called Whipstitch. I actually signed up for the class well before we moved. I have wanted to know how to sew for a long time, and in fact spent one summer halfheartedly trying to learn from my mom. I created a few products but didn't really absorb the techniques I used to get there. I also thought a sewing class could be a great way to meet other people once we were in a new city. Whipstitch calls itself a modern sewing store. Sewing as a craft has had a resurgence among young, cool people, and Whipstitch's inventory, location, and philosophy reflect that. It is meant to appeal to people just like me!

I have possession of my mom's sewing machine, the one I once attempted to learn on, because she inherited her mother's machine. I have no idea how old it is, but it seems to work fine and has most of the features a beginning sewer needs.

I bought a lot of "notions," as they're called, throughout the week, and there are still many more optional pieces I could eventually acquire. I think I bought something every day of the class. However, I was really impressed that my teacher, even though she works for a small, local sewing supply store, didn't pressure us at all to buy anything, and the things she did indicate we needed to buy, she made clear that we could also find elsewhere, and possibly for cheaper. I appreciated that, and in return bought most of my stuff there!

Here are the basics we needed for our class:

• Pins - I chose silk pins, which are very sharp and very tiny, so you can use them on fine fabrics without leaving a hole. They also have a glass head so you can iron over them without it melting.
• Hem Gauge
• A pin cushion - This is the classic tomato. The strawberry, rather than just being for decoration, has emery powder in it, so it can sharpen your pins, as well as remove oils or fabric residue. Who knew! There are a million other kinds of pincushions: magnetic ones, wrist ones, and all kinds of decorative shapes.
• Thread
• Marking chalk - This is like a refillable mechanical pencil of marking chalk. It came with lots of different colors of chalk inserts.
• Seam Ripper
• Measuring Tape
• Zipper Foot (although mine is not actually a true zipper foot, but it got the job done)
• Bobbins
• Scissors - These are my crummy old regular office scissors. Really for sewing you want HEAVY knife blade scissors that come apart for sharpening. These can run around $40. I chose not to invest in them yet but will if I continue to sew.

The most notable piece of equipment I did not buy is a good iron. I learned in this class that sewing is about much more than just making the stitches happen. In fact, cutting and pressing usually comprise most of your time on a project! So the quality of your scissors and your iron is really more important than the quality of your machine.

Though the class was project-based, in that we came home every day with a completed item, it put a lot of emphasis on the skills and techniques we used to make each project. The teacher made sure we knew how to transfer those skills and what other types of things we might use them on.

The first day we made a napkin. You can tell I really hadn't figured out how to sew a good straight line yet. You're supposed to use the guide lines on the "throat plate" of your sewing machine, but that's not quite as easy as it sounds!

To bind the raw edges of our cut fabric, we set the machine on a zig zag stitch and went along the edge, allowing one side of the zig zag to land on the fabric and the other to land off. I wasn't exactly on target with this, as you can see. This project taught us how to do mitered corners, which is makes the corner nice and straight.

I'm not sure I'll be breaking this napkin out for any dinner parties, but it was a great first step into the sewing world.

Believe it or not, our second project was a reversible tote bag, which I would have thought was way too complicated for the second day of class. But in fact, this style was pretty straightforward! I LOVE the fabric I picked for this, which made it extra fun to work on. In the course of working on our projects, we learned a lot about fabric and other general sewing information. For our bag, we had to think about the print directional. In other words, we had to make sure that the pattern was going the way the pattern was supposed to go when we turned things right-side out! (Another generality we learned is that sewing happens inside out and upside down.)

I can't honestly remember the exact process of making the bag. I do know I was pretty confused at the very end and had a horrible sinking feeling that I had done it backwards, but as you can see, it all worked out. I'm going to try to make a smaller version of this bag with some quilt batting in between the layers as a case for my Kindle, and I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

On the third day we made this picnic placemat. It's meant to allow you to put napkins and cutlery (or anything else like knitting needles, makeup brushes...it doesn't have to be for a picnic!) in the pocket and then fold it around for transporting. I don't love the product at all. Part of my problem was that I couldn't imagine what I might want to use it for, so I had trouble specifying the height of the pocket. One person in my class took hers home and sewed straps to the outside edges to make it an apron! I love that idea...I might either amend this one or give it another shot to make something similar.

What was important about this project, though, is that we learned how to make bias tape. You can buy this, or you can make it out of a coordinating fabric, which definitely seems like the more fun option to me. The bias is the stretchiest direction of a fabric, so if you cut along it and make a long strip of it, it will be very stretchy and great for using in places that need some give, like the top edge of a pocket. Or, you can just use it to be pretty!

Here's the bias tape I made as homework for the next day's project. You basically fold your piece of fabric on a diagonal to find the "true bias," cut along it, and then sew the pieces back together as a parallelogram. Then you mark diagonals at equal intervals; the intervals will be the width of your bias tape. (You can see the faint remnants of my obnoxious green marking chalk in this picture.) Then you match the offset opposite edges together and sew the fabric into a big tube. As you cut along the marked lines around the tube, you end up with a long strip! There's a fancy little contraption you can pull the strip through that brings the edges in as you iron to make a more finished looking product, but we didn't need that for ours.

This bias tape was to serve as the covering for cording on a pillow. I made a 16 inch pillow because I had a 16 inch zipper, and here it is on what I think is a 14 inch pillow that we just happened to have at home. A's comment about this was, "That is so pink," so I'm not sure how long it will be allowed to live on our couch, but that's where it is for now.

The pillow taught us a ton of transferable techniques, one being making the piping around the edges. In short, we sewed the bias tape around a length of plain cording and then sewed that in between two layers of fabric.

We also learned how to install a zipper. It looks so nice and clean from the outside because we made it with flaps of fabric over it. Some of this had to be sewn blind, and most of my lines aren't straight in the slightest, but you can't tell from this view! I broke my first needle doing this part because I inadvertently sewed over the metal zipper stop. Metal needle on metal is not good. Luckily the pieces flew away from me instead of toward my eyes. And I'm almost just as glad I went ahead and broke a zipper while I had supervision, because we had been warned that it tends to happen and I was terrified. But it really wasn't that big of a deal--I had extra needles in my machine, and you just replace it and keep going.

I bought the book that sort of goes along with the class, and I think I'll be glad to have it as I try to re-visit some of these projects. It's called Stitch by Stitch, and it's written by Deborah Moes, who owns Whipstitch. I've started reading through the introductory text of the book, and it's very well-written and accessible. Plus, I'll be able to make these cute projects and several more from following her included instructions! I'd recommend it if you're interested in sewing at all.

I had a great time in the class and do think I met some people I might keep in touch with. It helps me to have someone teaching me, rather than trying to muddle through on my own, so the small group class setting was great for me. While I can't remember all of the steps we used in these projects, I feel very comfortable with my sewing machine at this point, which I think is as big a step as any! I can wind a bobbin with the best of 'em by now. I'm looking forward to seeing where I take this and glad that I now have an excuse to buy the beautiful fabric I have always eyed lustfully in stores.

If you're in the Atlanta area, you might want to check out the Atlanta Modern Sewing Guild. They meet twice a month: once to create a project all together and once as an open sew to work on whatever you're working on at the time. I'm going to try to attend as a way to meet more people and get free help with some of my first solo projects! And I'm also going to look into taking more classes at Whipstitch. Who knows, before you know it, I just might be an Etsy celeb!

Tomorrow, the new president of my college is coming to Atlanta to speak. I will go eat lunch at a ritzy country club and get an update on my good ole alma mater. My school went through some crazy financial mess last summer as it was revealed that an inconsistency in the distribution of financial aid had severely impacted the endowment. It was one of those things that had seemingly been going on for awhile but hadn’t come to the light of day yet. And in the meantime, the then-president had been doing all kinds of major reno projects on campus which, while nice, weren’t the most necessary. Long story short, he resigned, a huge overhaul of the budget was done, and a grand push was made for alumin giving. A new president was hired to whip the college back into shape, and he’s been doing a great job at communicating with alums (a task which fell by the wayside during much of the hoopla-I got most of my updates last summer from Facebook and The Birmingham News). The college was placed under a warning from the SACS accreditation committee last week based on its 2010 financials, but that was to be expected, and a warning is the least of the sanctions. The warning doesn’t reflect the strides they’ve made since then, and the president is confident the school will come out from under it by next year.

All this has made me think a lot about my college experience. I applied to a grand total of 9 schools and was accepted into 8 of those. Many of them were similar, especially as far as academics went, but I had a clear winner in the realm of the overall feel I got on campus. I was excited to jump in.

My freshman year, I’ll admit, was rough. I had gone to a two-year residential high school, which had many similarities to a college experience, and built incredibly strong friendships. I was prone to comparing everything about my freshman year to my time in high school, and college always seemed to fall short. In fact, midway through the year I considered transferring to the large state school that many of my high school friends attended. My parents, in their wisdom that I had no desire to hear at the time, convinced me to wait it out another semester, and by the end of that semester, I was settled and much happier.

I fell into a fabulous group of girl friends by the end of that year. We lived on the Honors hall of a freshman girls’ dorm, and our domain was the basement. We had a short hall with no common room like the other floors, so we often pow-wowed on the floor in the hall, sharing pints of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey, doing handstands against the walls, and meriting odd glances as other girls came down to do their laundry. (I can’t imagine why.)

We moved into upperclassmen housing together, dividing ourselves into suites. My suite ended up with an empty room, so we had two years’ worth of miscellaneous fourth roommates who didn’t quite enter the fold. By my senior year, I had decided to graduate a semester early, and my two closest roommate friends moved into an on-campus apartment together. I spent my last semester in a suite with people I didn’t know that well. It was fine, but it felt weird starting from scratch in the roommate game after 3 years at school.

I had friend angst throughout college. I had that close-knit group of friends from high school, and A. and I were dating long distance for most of this time, so I felt pulled away from campus in several directions. I got very involved in church and had a group of friends there as well who were unrelated to my school. My freshman-year group of friends were a constant, but they each also had their own satellite circles of friends. I never seemed to learn how to take a friendship from a “we chit-chat in class” friendship to a “let’s hang out on the weekend” friendship. I left campus more weekends than I stayed, and during the week I seemed to spend most of my time doing homework. I dove headfirst into several clubs and organizations and committed a lot of time to them, but I never felt exactly like I had found my niche.

Greek life and partying were also much bigger on campus than I had been led to believe. I skipped out on the initial recruitment bid process and a subsequent opportunity to join a sorority through an open bid. I’m glad I did, but throughout college I often questioned that decision. I gave campus tours for a few years and I knew the official line to toe when it came to answering questions about partying and Greek life, but it got harder and harder to spit out the “right answer” the more disillusioned with it I became. By my last semester, I was so over it all. I was over the parties that I had never even gone to, I was over the unspoken power that the Greek bloc had, and I was over not feeling like I had a place on campus. In fact, that last semester I was so mentally gone that I feel like I missed out on some things that I actually could have really enjoyed. But I was distracted by writing a senior paper, planning a wedding, and trying to keep a long-distance relationship thriving.

I sound like I had a miserable 3 1/2 years in college, but that’s definitely far from the case. There were a lot of things I loved about my school, and I had some great classes and teachers. I did some things in college I never thought I would do and had some experiences I will likely never have again. And I came out of it all with a great group of friends, many of whom stood by me on my wedding day. We’re all scattered right now, and I think we’re still trying to figure out how this whole adult friendship thing will work, but I’m confident we will. I just, in retrospect, wish I had immersed myself more fully in the college experience. I had a nagging feeling the whole time that I was missing something, that I wasn’t having the college experience other people had, but I think if I had just let go of that and lived my own experience, I would have been more satisfied.

Given all of this, when the financial mess became clear last summer, a part of me was ready just to be angry at my school and to practically disown it. I was disappointed in the institution and the leadership. But as the scene played out, I grew angry over other things. I was angry at the drastic cuts and changes they had to make to the academic program, which was truly the heart of college life for many at my school. I was angry for all the students who were left there during the mess, and I was angry over the people who questioned the value of a degree from my school. But I felt a burgeoning sense of pride as the solutions were found and as the press releases were drafted and as the students coalesced. And I decided that I want to be a better alum than I was a student. I want to be excited for my school, to go back and visit and to follow it in the news and support it for the future. I want to be able to recommend it to potential students. As I get farther from my time there, maybe the disillusionment will fade. I don’t want to be dishonest with myself, but I want to put a rose-colored tint on my time in college and be content with how it happened and let the strains of the Alma Mater bring tears to my eyes. Proudly stands my alma mater, indeed.

Sorry the posting has been sparse this week! I’ve been taking a sewing class in the mornings and still volunteering at the thrift store in the afternoons like usual, so my time has been getting away from me. Plus, my sewing class has had homework. Haven’t had that in awhile. But when you’re learning a new skill, it’s important to practice it as much as possible.  I also FINALLY finished The House of Mirth. I got more into it once everything started falling apart for the main character (as mean as that sounds) and was pretty invested by the end. The ending, however….hit me up if you’ve read it and want to talk about it! I was a bit surprised by the turn it took. And tomorrow is the closing session for a year-long non-profit leadership course I’ve been taking. It’s been a great experience, and I’m looking forward to the culmination of it all.

I’m going to call those my adventures rather than my excuses, but I didn’t want you to think I had forgotten about you!

Here’s a preview of things to come next week:

• Monday Musings on my alma mater and my relationship to it. I'm going to hear the new president speak on Tuesday, and I'm interested to hear what he has to say.
• A reflection on and pictures of projects from my sewing class. I've been saying for ages that I wanted to learn how to sew, and I'm glad I finally took the plunge and did it in an "official" way.
• Thoughts on the book When Helping Hurts. I read it awhile ago, but its principles are still percolating in my head, especially as I explore job opportunities in my chosen field.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I’ll be back full-force next week. In the meantime, here are some utterly unrelated (to each other and to this post) posts by other bloggers that have intrigued me lately:

• The Happiness Project
• Iced Coffee from The Pioneer Woman
• Thoughts on Grace by Rachel Held Evans

What have you been doing or reading lately?

I recently took the plunge and ordered one of these beauties:

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That's right. I, the vocally staunch, long-time advocate of the paper book has entered the world of the e-reader. And I am actually pretty dang excited about.

My reasoning, though, betrays my true identity as a Lover of Books. The list of books I want to own because they may never make it to the library is long. The amount of space on my bookshelf and in my apartment in general is not. So, I decided that a Kindle could be just the thing: I can own all the books I want without taking up any more of my living space! Sure, they will not have beautiful physical covers, and sure, no one will be able to perceive my impeccable literary taste simply by entering my apartment and viewing my bookshelf, but they will be readable texts, and I will be able to enjoy them over and over again just as with a physical book. An added plus is that many of the classic books suggested to me on my recent post "Why Don't I Like Classic Books?" are FREE on the Kindle, so I can download them guilt-free--it won't matter whether I like it or not. The Kindle hasn't even arrived in the mail yet and I have already downloaded The Scarlet Pimpernel, per many recommendations.

I also like that the Kindle is lower profile than a paper book. When I travel, especially on long trips, I typically find my suitcase or backpack carry-on loaded down with books, because I have a fear of finishing one and not having anything else to start. This way, I can have a whole library's worth of books in my purse at all times! How can you beat that?

Once I get it and have perused it more, I'm sure you'll be hearing more, but this is my big announcement/confession for the day. Don't worry, I won't be abandoning my love of libraries (and in fact am now looking forward to the day when lending e-books becomes a mainstream practice) or beautifully published books; I'll just be devouring my words in a different format.

What's your opinion about e-readers and the effect of technology on books as we know them?