Ragamuffin Rant

Personal Mission Statement

2010-09-24T11:52:00.000-05:00

So I've been reading through Dan Miller's 48 Days to the Work You Love and one of the points he makes is that people with clearly defined goals and more specifically and clearly defined personal mission statement really can focus in on what careers really line up with all facets of that person. I'm currently in the market for a new job that will really allow me to start in on a career that is inline with my dreams and values (and some place where I can actually put this framed piece of paper to good use). With that in mind I present to you my newly developed personal mission statement. This will most likely not be the last revision of this but it gives me some traction moving towards fulfilling my dreams and passions.

Joseph Miles Steele – Mission Statement
I will use my skills and abilities to help those less fortunate than me. Specifically I will use my ability to solve problems and my creativity to help meet a community’s basic needs of clean water, food & air, shelter, and transportation. I will do so with excellence and integrity always seeking the wisdom of Abba and his will for my life. I will also strive to be a loving husband and father, considerate of my time and affections for my family. I will be loyal to my friends and continuously work to maintain growth in our relationships. I pledge to maintain a healthy lifestyle so as to always be able to provide for those who depend on me. I will always be learning and reading to grow in a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow new ideas help support every other area of my life.

-Miles

Sleeping in on Sundays

2010-08-23T00:03:00.000-05:00

I love sleeping in on the weekends. When you get up at 5:45 each morning during the week I feel like you really enjoy getting up whenever you feel like for the next two days. Sunday mornings however have been a real struggle for me because I'm always fighting the "I just want to sleep" bug even for an 11 o'clock service. I know 11 is not that early, but it seems that when the alarm goes off on the weekend the rest of the morning is pretty much shot. That all changed this past weekend.

This past Saturday night I went to Church! I know many, many people have been doing this for a long time and I've been thinking about making the switch for awhile, but this past Saturday I actually went. It was a fantastic decision! I never realized how much I fought drowsiness during Sunday morning services until I was following along word for word with the service and not missing a beat on Saturday night. Hind sight being what it is I should've realized this with how much stuff I do of an evening and how much I typically drag in the mornings. It was revitalizing not to zone out during the service and not have the distraction of sleepiness.

In addition to the added attentiveness I experienced I also got a lot more done this past Sunday including making a fantastic breakfast (with a little help) of eggs, toast and pancakes. All that plus no alarm clock in my mind equals a win-win situation. Gotta love sleeping in on Sundays!

Get Busy Living or...

2010-08-21T00:33:00.008-05:00

I love the movie "The Shawshank Redemption." It is hands down my favorite movie because I love the "this is how it happened" moment at the end of the movie. More important than that I love that hope is the theme showcased throughout the movie. Arguably the most famous quote from the movie, "Get busy living, or get busy dying" is something that I feel I need to remind myself more often.

I'm guilty of the desire for comfort. I find what is easy and I make it work as long as I can stand the situation that is providing my easy. I currently work in a job where I make really good money (more money than I've ever made in my life) and that makes life pretty comfortable for me, but I'm not happy. I'm not happy because I know I was put on this earth for something greater than what this "easy" job will give me. I truly believe that Abba has a plan for me, something so much greater than I can imagine and the longer I stay where I am the longer I'm putting off what I'm supposed to be doing.

In the United States we spend so much of our lives in whatever 9-5 situation we find ourselves. Most people don't like their jobs, but it pays the bills and so they stay there for 20 years dreading Monday morning and longing for Friday afternoon. I don't want this to be my story. I believe whole heartedly that if I'm following in my vocation that the jobs I have and the careers I lead will never feel like work. I want to not be able to tell the difference between the way I feel on Monday morning and how I feel on Saturday afternoon.

In the words of Jon Foreman, "we were mean to live for so much more." I want to "get busy living" because I have a hope for our future and I know that I have a part to play in that. It won't be an easy road, but it will be exactly where I need to be. Starting now I refuse to accept anything less than absolutely extraordinary.

My Apologies...Again

2010-08-20T23:29:00.003-05:00

This is my return to (hopefully) more regular blogging. I'm going to try and post something every other day (something like 3 a week). Please feel free to contact me and tell me to get off my lazy hands and actually type something. And now...on with the show!

London Calling

2009-10-08T12:13:00.002-05:00

Hey Friends!

I just got off the phone with the people at Engineering Ministries International (EMi) and they have offered me a position in their UK office starting in January and going through May. Please be in prayer for me and that ministry as I will be raising about $10,000 in support over the next few months!

Miles

Parting is such sweet sorrow

2009-08-11T22:02:00.005-05:00

So it is 10 in the morning here in SaPa and we have all of our bags packed to check out in an hour. I have to say that this has been the greatest trip/experience of my life (no exaggeration necessary). All of us here have fallen in love with the H'mong people and the town of SaPa, not to mention the friendship we've made with Father Nghia. At this point there is too much in my brain to process and describe to y'all, but I hope to post here once I get back about some of the different experiences and lessons we've learned. I want to share an event from yesterday that shook all of us here to the core.

We made our way back up to the Hope Center in the village of Hoa Tao (ho tao) to shoot the remaining footage for the documentary. Patty and I were shooting some photos and playing with the kids outside when she and I noticed and little girl (on the back of her older sister) with a wound on here lower leg. This little girl (read 8 month old) had a burn, probably second degree, covering the outside third of her calf and part of her ankle. It was at this point that everything we had been doing stopped and for the next 2 hours we (Stormie, Patty, Nghia, and I) worked on getting the first aid supplies (thanks to all who donated you helped heal at least one person already) up to the center and cleaned and dressed her wound. She had been next to her brother 4 days prior while he was cooking some water and the pot spilled on her leg causing the large burn. The family, with no first aid knowledge or access to medicine, poured cold water over the burn for a time and then had to leave the rest to chance. God saw put Patty and I in that situation that morning to help this little girl and then provided a trained pharmacist/physician who was retreating at Father Nghia's apartment in SaPa to care for this little one.

These are the kinds of situations that the Hope Center was built for. It is to be a place of education, healing, and literally hope for the least of these here in SaPa and a model of what can be done in the villages throughout this region. Allan and Dustin got most of our first aid work on camera and I have to warn you that if it makes it to the video it will be tough to stomach, but it clearly shows the need for help and education that is needed in the SaPas of the world.

Please be in prayer for this little girl as she continues to recieve healing and treatment. Also, pray for us as we will be traveling for the next 2.5 days.

Miles

ps - new photos online at http://picasaweb.google.com/miles.steele/

The Night the Lights Went Out in SaPa

2009-08-09T01:25:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. Friday night Dustin and I were reading in our hotel room and the lights began to flicker and then go out along with all the music coming from the bar across the street. We checked the windows looking over both sides of the city and the power was out across the whole town! Luckily it came back on a couple of hours later but the wireless internet has been down at the hotel ever since. Hopefully I will get to post new pictures and an update later this evening for everyone. We are all doing quite well and have seen what I believe is the most beautiful place on earth here in SaPa. Much love,

Miles

Home Sweet SaPa

2009-08-06T04:15:00.010-05:00

We are in SaPa, Vietnam which is at an elevation of about 5000ft. The views here are absolutely spectacular. We are surrounded all around by mountains, trees, and rice fields carved in the sides of the mountains. The sun doesn't come out all to often up here and the clouds cover much of the tops of the mountains most of the time. Traveling here was an adventure and we are finally starting to overcome the jet lag of being on the other side of the world. The people here are very friendly and the amount of history here is very overwhelming (Hanoi is celebrating its 1000 year anniversary next October).

Today we got to travel up to the Hope Center in a remote village about 10km from SaPa. I literally felt that I was riding into a National Geographic documentary. People living in a kind of poverty that is not seen in the States (at least never by this 23 year old's eyes) were all around us, yet so many of them were unbelievably gracious, inviting us into their homes and showing us what they did for a living. The Hope Center is helping to make that last part more of a reality for many of the H'mong (read Mong) people in this region.

The H'mong are one of the 54 different ethnic groups (all of which have their own language) that make their home in Vietnam. When you here of Vietnamese people this is generally not referring to this group, but rather the majority group called the Kinh (this is the group that speaks "Vietnamese") which as Father Nghia explained to us would be like the Caucasians in America. The H'mong suffer under the prejudices of the Kinh and other groups and are consider by the majority to be almost less than human or animal which explains why the slang in Vietnamese for this group is Meow which literally means "cat" and is as crude as the slang words nigger and spick would be in the States (sorry for the use of those words I really can't stand 'em). So it is to this group of socially and culturally oppressed people that Father Nghia was sent. In October of 2007 construction of the Hope Center was completed and in its short 2 years has begun helping local villagers learn trade skills as well as provided housing and food for the students. It is this story of one man hearing the call of God on his heart, responding, and changing the world (in a place where the government and the society aren't supportive of bringing about the change) that we are here to capture and bring home.

Today also marked the beginning of my mission to try and help in the creation of a water transport, purification, and bottling system for the Hope Center. Father Nghia and I surveyed a lot of the already in place construction and I have "doodled" down some preliminary drafts of layouts for the facility. I hope to be able to get them started on preliminary work of filter design/construction before I leave. I have also had the opportunity to do some photography work as the One:Eight Productions team was hard at work today.
Check out http://picasaweb.google.com/miles.steele/VietnamPart1# for the pictures of our trip thus far that I have shot and don't forget to go over to http://www.oneeightproductions.com for updates from the rest of the team.

Please be in prayer for us as the team begins interviewing and getting the "meat" shots they need for the documentary tomorrow and I continue work on the water filtration system. We all love and appreciate the support and prayers.

Miles

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-08-03T12:08:00.002-05:00

So, as many of you know the team of One:Eight Productions and myself are heading off to Vietnam today. I can't tell you how excited I am to have this opportunity to go visit a part of the world that I will probably never get to see again. While I am over there I will be working with Father Nghia, the priest who has been working with the children of SaPa, to determine a solution (if possible) to the water problems they have been having at the Hope Center. I would ask for your prayers and thoughts for all of us going (Allan Thompson, Patty Thompson, Stormie Dorrell, Dustin Miller & Vicki Thompson) as well as for the children of SaPa and Father Nghia. Check out One:Eight Productions' Webiste http://www.oneeightproductions.com for some updates and pictures from their work on the documentary and keep checking this site for updates on what I've been doing while in Vietnam. Thank you all for your love and support.

Miles

The Second Coming

2009-06-24T13:24:00.003-05:00

So friends if you checked this site in the last 2 years you'll notice I haven't said much. Well here we go, again. No spectacular thoughts or comments yet, but rest assured that there has been a lot going on and a lot coming up that will require telling. Please use this space to comment on my thoughts and musings and help keep me on the straight and narrow. I love you all (and I think I can truly say that) and look forward to reading your comments and thoughts.

Miles

The Alpha

2007-10-23T17:07:00.000-05:00

So here I go again with an attempt at keeping a blog up and running. I'm not 100% sure what I want this space to be about other than maybe a way for me to look back at my thoughts 5 years from now and laugh uncontrollably. I say that knowing full well that right now the last thing that I want to do is laugh at life because it all seems so overwhelming. If I were 40+ years old I would consider myself as going through a mid-life crisis, but as I am not I'm looking for the words to describe my current state of emotions and circumstances. Needless to say life is a bit crazy and I don't see that changing any time in the near future.

Thought for the moment:
If you've had a so-called "Life Changing" experience and yet you find yourself gravitating more and more back towards the things that you were before said experience what does that say about you? This feeling is more closely related to the realization that you have in fact come down from that "mountain top" experience where you came face to face (figuratively) with the Glory of God. That experience where you knew in that moment what your life was supposed to be about and now you find yourself lost in a sea of guilt, lies, temptations, and distractions. Where did you go wrong? Where did you lose sight of what really mattered most? How do you find your way back to that point where you subconsciously, or consciously (which is perhaps the more sinister), veered off the path laid before your feet? The answer is simply stated and yet so easily put off: ask Him. This is followed closely by: follow Him. All that said I hope that I don't easily get swayed from my petitions.

God Bless