This Holiday Season...

So, a movie review may not be what you would be expecting on UCM's blog. But I'm going to try and combine them to convey something related,

Passion

In the season of like, lust and love, the word passion is thrown around from passion fruit to the feelings we are suppose to be feeling for other people. What about a passion for God's calling for you? Not in any broad save the world sense, but for you specifically. A "Mission's Sunday" years ago, I took to heart this simple truth, you've been given a passion, and that's where God intends to use you because it's the point of your greatest impact.

Simply your passion is your purpose. Don't know your's? That's okay considering some of us don't even know what courses to take next semester. However, I know you'll have a moment, a realization, one of those "light bulbs" in which you find yourself saying "Wait a minute, that's it! Whoa, did I just say that?" I know that sounds so cheesy, and all that, but it's not. I promise there will come a time when you find yourself feeling different - it comes across in how you feel, how you talk and so on. And since I am the one blogging away, my passion? My passion is a little boy - who's picture I've had prominently displayed for the last 7 years, and the thousands of children like him, and the country they call home. It's been a passion that has seen it's light grow dim, but it's one I feel fanned as of late, and here's where "The Italian" fits in.

On Friday as I was leafing through the paper I found something that caught my attention, the movie review for the Italian - the review in 24hrs actually seems like one of the only ones where the person watching understood the gravity of the film.

If you haven't figured it all out yet, and know nothing about the movie, it isn't about an Italian at all, it's about a young Russian orphan's journey. I am asking you to please see it, I would if I could even pay for anyone who wanted to see it to, maybe when it comes out on DVD I'll do that... The being said, please go see it, it's currently at Tinseltown. Yes, the movie has an interesting story, but it overlays something so much more important, the reality of what Russia is. It's an ego, that is attempting to gesture a dead carcass of a country into an Industrialized format and it can't, it's rotten, too far gone, but because of our "need" for Russia to be an ally, we've ignored that they are much like our enemies - with human rights atrocities and system of care far worse that any thing we, in North America can fathom. My dad asked me if it was realistic as we were standing waiting for the elevator, and my response, not near enough, it's good, but sterile. While I would love to go on and talk about the situation in Russia, I want you to see the movie, maybe get an understanding - see why organizations like New Manna are a source of hope and love in a country that doesn't know what to do outside of the militaristic control of dictatorship aka as "communism."

Want to know more about Russian orphans? http://www.newmanna.org/site/index.html