Butterfly in the Sky....

So over the summer and during the past few months I’ve stumbled upon a few things that really had an affect on me. I just wanted to share these with everyone so hopefully you someone can get something out of it too! Or at least maybe you’ll be entertained for an hour or so if/when you read/listen to these.


Princess by Jean Sasson

So this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Seriously. And I’ve read a lot of books. One of the girls on my team in Kenya was reading it so we passed it around a good bit. I think half the girls on our team read it, actually…and maybe some of the guys. When it was my turn I read it within 24 hours. I literally stayed up til 3 am just to finish it.

And it’s not some lame romance novel about princesses and dragons and knights so don’t worry (and if you think I would ever actually read that ridiculousness I am horrendously offended...although dragons are kind of cool). It’s a true story about a Saudi Arabian princess and her life in the prison-like environment of the Saudi royal family. The whole book is just about how women are looked at and treated in strict Muslim cultures and it’s seriously disturbing. She talks about women she knew that were raped and then executed because of it and women who tried to escape their “homes,” (which are more like jails) and as punishment were confined in a dark room, alone, for the rest of their entire lives. It’s just so crazy, I knew women were looked at differently in Muslim cultures but I never realized how terrible it was, even for the royal family! I mean this woman is a princess and she can’t leave her home without a man or a note from her father or husband.

I know it sounds depressing and awful and not something you want to spend your free time reading about, but I honestly believe it’s something everyone in America needs to know. Especially women. When I was reading this in Africa I just kept thinking that even the women who live in filth in the slums have it better than these incredibly wealthy women in Saudi Arabia. It will make you so thankful that you live in the States.
I feel like LeVar Burton. Now that our Reading Rainbow moment is done…

Tony Campolo—The Last Great Idea

This is a sermon we listened to at debrief after Africa and it really summed up everything I felt about American culture and what I had learned in Kenya but couldn’t quite verbalize. I’ll just let you listen to it and enjoy! It’s really, really good...and that's all I'll say.

http://podcast.christianaudio.com/?p=32