The Day I Joined A Corrupt Government and Persecuted Christians

     Now I know what you're thinking...actually okay I don't. I can guess that it's somewhere along the lines of, "What the heck is she talking about? What kind of psycho is writing this blog?" Just do me a favor and hear me out...listen to what I have to say. Don't stop reading and walk away or you'll have a very misconstrued view of who I am and what I stand for. Also, please don't report me to anybody and get me arrested, it wasn't real. I didn't actually for real persecute Christians. It was a simulated role playing event. Please, just give me a chance. Have you every done role playing? Cosplay? Hey, there Whovians...I know you have. So, it was kind of like that but we were pretending to be real people in real situations. So, while it wasn't "real" for us, it's real for several people out there in the world.
     Last year I participated in World Awareness as part of the persecuted church an it was intense. I went to "prison" and the "refugee camp" and whatnot. We had breaks during the days where we would watch movies such as Defiance and A War To End All Wars and listen to speakers from various organizations such as Voice of The Martyrs. I learned so much last year participating. I learned about sacrifice and taking a stand for what I believe. God used that year to speak to me about how he calls us to handle persecution, I learned a lot. But this post isn't about last year. It's about this year.
     This year I was part of the corrupt government. Our story is that we were a new government that believed in equality for all religions and that there wasn't only one way to Heaven. So, if you were part of a radical religion that taught your way was the only true way (Christianity, Islam, etc.) then we were there to help you and reeducate you. Very passive aggressive. We also had back stories that we were given so when we were around undergrad interns (aka the persecuted church) we would have a character to speak with them to and a story to tell them. My back story was that I had two older brother, Mark and Bentley (yep, they got names!). My older brother Bentley joined the army and went over seas to fight for the "Peace and Safety" (our "government" motto) of our Country. While he was over seas he was killed and when they sent my brother's body back home to have his funeral "Christians" came and told me that my brother had deserved to die, that God wanted my brother dead, that God was happy that my brother had been killed. As a result of this protesting and hatred towards my family my other older brother, Mark, killed himself. As a result of this I blamed Christians for his death. (Let me take a break and a moment to clarify that this was my roleplaying persona and I am a Christian and I firmly believe that the people that do these things *coughwestborosough* are not an actual representation of Christ and his love nor of the rest of Christianity...and I have no brothers that were killed. Although I did pull from real life experiences I've had with Westboro due to living in Kansas and the death of someone I went to High School with. ) So, that was my back story and my "character" was bitter.
     The purpose of this LTE (Life Transforming Event) is to make interns more aware of the persecuted church and to get them to really think about their faith and how they would handle persecution. So, as part of the government is to make the experience real. We chase after the refugee camp and we arrest people and take them to the "reeducation" facility. There we just challenge them and ask them questions about their faith. Here interns have a chance to show us the love of Christ or rebel. It's interesting...a lot of things happened that weekend and I did a lot of things but I really just want to talk about one of those things.
     On the last night we had some refugees do a raid in an attempt to rescue prisoners. They came in with air soft guns and started shooting agents and yelling at people to go. The kid leading the raid just went crazy. At the time of the raid I was on the guys side of the "prison" (AKA shower house) and I was talking to one of the guys about his faith and this kid was nailing it. I was contemplating either letting this kid go or converting. He was amazing in showing me the love of Christ and standing firm in his faith. I told this kid my back story and he apologized and told me about his faith and how Jesus really wants him to act, etc. Then one of his buddies comes in and starts shooting people so in my roleplaying mind everything he has said as just become void because his Christian buddies are not living up to what he's been claiming. Then one guy puts a gun to one of my guys' chest. I remember the "agent" looking at him and saying, "according to your belief system if you shoot me I go to Hell. Are you willing to send me to Hell?" The kid shoots him point blank. (air soft gun reminder!) and so my buddy "died". Then this kid comes over and twists my wrist until I drop my gun. He then tries to hand the gun to the guy that I had been talking to. This was the test. To my amazement the kid in the cell refused to take the gun and told him not to touch me anymore. Then he came out of his cell to protect me from all of the other raiders. He never took a gun and he never tried to run. He amazed me. Later I asked him why if they believe in this loving God why they would come in here and send to of my friends to Hell. His answer, "I don't know and I'm sorry. What they did was wrong. I don't agree with them and I wish I could have stopped them. Just know that, that wasn't God's will. God loves you...please don't hold this against God and the rest of us."
     This year I learned that people are right and wrong. But one kid in a cell humbled me and showed me the greatest act of role playing human kindness I've ever seen. But, he was sincere and I believe that had the guns been real and I been truly against him he would have acted the exact same. That kid challenged me to love everyone I come in contact with, even my enemies. That kid called me to a higher level of love.

I Have Amnesia and Only Remember Tumblr....

    

     If you don't know I have a Tumblr account...and a horrid addiction to tumblr as well. If you want to know what tumblr is or see mine head over to my about me page (Carrots by the way) and scroll down to the bottom and somewhere in that jumbled mess is a link to my tumblr account (Crowhead has one as well at the bottom of her about page). Anyway...so there's this post going around tumblr that says "Imagine that you wake up and all you can remember is your tumblr username and password and you have to try and figure out who you based on your tumblr posts" and the comments, jokes, pictures, and gifs are added to make it funny. Some joke about not knowing anything about themselves or becoming different; just random stuff like that. Then I started looking at my tumblr as if my tumblr was teaching me who I was... I pretended that all I know about myself is what's on my tumblr and it's actually pretty scary.

 

 

     My tumblr is full of Anne Of Green Gables, Jake Abel, Boy Meets World, Supernatural, LOST, Percy Jackson, Jimmy Stewart, and puns...and if you scroll long enough you'll find the occasional Bible verse, photograph, or testimony but that's buried among pages of fandom after fandom.  If I had no memory I would be sitting there going who is that? Who is that? Why is he so important? Do I know him? Where are they? Charlie? Gilbert Blythe? Who is Adam and why is he in hell? How do I fit into this? How do they fit into my life? Then randomly I come across a Bible verse and thing how does this relate to the rest of it? Is this who I am? I start thinking....is this who I am. From looking at Tumblr I can't even tell the basics about myself. I don't know my favorite color, my name, my age, anything about my family, friends, my  favorite foods, what I like to do on rainy days....nothing. The description tells me that I love Jesus, I'm Pro-Life, I fight Sex Trafficking, I love Relient K, Jake Abel, Percy Jackson, and PBR.

 



     I love tumblr...don't get me wrong. I love my fandoms and I am one of the biggest fangirls you'll ever meet. Just ask Crowhead, she has seen two Jake Abel movies with me in theatres, and she spent all summer watching Anne Of Green Gables with me. So, yes, I like all of that stuff. It's fun. I like it. It makes me happy. I'm part of a family....trust me fandoms are like big huge crazy families that stick up for each other. Trust me....we do. But, is this how I really want to be known to the world? Do I want to be known as just someone in a fandom? I could be using my tumblr to reach people for Christ. I could us it to raise awareness about Sex Trafficking. I could use it to help people. If all someone knows about me is what's on my tumblr then they're missing who I am. Because, I am who I am because of Christ. My identity is in Christ. Is Christ being shown through my tumblr? Or facebook, twitter, or even this blog? Am I using these things to make a difference? That post on tumblr really challenged me and convicted me to start using my resources to reach people that need Jesus. To touch lives and not just blend in to a fandom. So think about it. What do you have that you could be using to change the world.

 



     P.S. I'm not going to stop fangirling or using tumblr for fun fandom things. I like it. It's fun. It's just something to think about and a personal challenge to start portraying Christ in EVERY aspect of my life. Also the pictures throughout the blog are screen shots of the first page of my tumblr  so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about. I didn't hide or add anything  before taking these it is what it is. Although some of them are reblogs and not every comment is something I've written so I apologize for any cussing or anything...I try to never reblog things like that but sometimes I reblog a picture before reading the comments or people's tumblr handles.

 



~Carrots

"We ought always to try to influence others for good." - Anne Of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery