How about this for God’s blessings: one simple phone call on Friday to Greeley’s Union Colony Civic Center netted 15 front row tickets at $19 each for the renowned Chrisitan band, Jars of Clay. Those tickets were snapped up by students within the next day, and Wednesday night we all walked downtown to see the show. Jars of Clay is most famous for being one of the first Christian bands to cross over to mainstream radio back in 1995 with their song “Flood”.
The highlight of the evening occurred when lead singer, Dan Haseltine, talked in between songs about our love of comfort in this country. The band had been to sub-Saharan Africa to see first-hand the ravages of HIV and AIDS in Africa. During that time they decided they had to live their lives never forgetting that 90% of the world lives below the worst poverty in this country. Most of the audience consisted of college students, and Dan asked them the question, “are you getting an education so that you can wall yourself off from the problems outside your neighborhood, or are you going to use it to enter into the suffering of the world and make a difference someday?” What a challenge for the students! He then introduced an organization called blood:water mission. The group was traveling with the band, raising funds to help build 1,000 wells for 1,000 African villages. While AIDS might be the problem, just having fresh water is the solution to even starting to treat it.
Personalistic Norms 