Radical Love and Resurrection Catapulted Christianity
Audrey Barrick, Christian Post, Mar. 29, 2010
Why is it that Jesus' message lasted beyond his short life? Why did the message and person of Jesus not evaporate like all the other wannabe messiahs?
Because at the core of his message was a brand new kind of love and at the core of his experience and history was a resurrection, Andy Stanley told his congregation at the start of Holy Week.
A few years ago, Stanley was in Rome with his wife when he noticed something that took him aback. Hanging over the entrance of the Roman Colosseum where the emperor once entered was a cross. Another hung over the entrance where gladiators had entered through.
Stanley posed to North Point Community Church members: "If you could imagine going back 2,000 years ago and ... what if we were able to gather ... some of the Christians that lived in Rome [and] say to them 'someday there will hang in the entrance of this arena of death a cross, a cross that does not reflect or represent the power of Rome, a cross that does not reflect or represent the anger and the death associated with crucifixion, ... [but] one single crucifixion of a Jewish carpenter ... who never traveled more than 25 miles from his home, was basically a public figure for three years, was betrayed by his own people and executed by the Roman authorities but whose message impacted the entire world ... and long after there was a Roman Empire people would worship and celebrate this one Jewish carpenter."
Jesus did not have any political influence, nor did he write any books. He was condemned to crucifixion which was the most shameful and painful way to die, the lead pastor noted. And decades after his death, Jerusalem and its Temple were razed during the Jewish-Roman Wars in 70 A.D. and all the Jews were expelled. With that, the entire context for Jesus' ministry and for what he taught vanished.
So how did Jesus' message last so that today a cross hangs at the emperor's gate of the Roman Colosseum?
Radical love and the resurrection, Stanley answered. Citing Jesus' famous words, Stanley read: "As I have loved you, love one another."
Though the commandment may sound commonplace today, at that time, it was radical.
"In that statement and in the statements that would follow, Jesus did something that was so unusual that I'm sure it took them ... maybe the rest of their life to get their arms around," Stanley noted. "He said ... every single person that has been born has value."
"The primary thing that would mark Christians in the first century was that they had this unusual, fanatical ... selfless, sacrificial, weird ... love for one another," he stressed.
And that love was directed to all including slaves, women, the rich and poor and enemies.
While many Christians today may push for legislation or petition and protest in efforts to change a secular culture, Stanley pointed to a method that really works when trying to change culture--love.
"What we know works ... is this radical, unusual, unconditional love for one another," he said.
"The reason I know it works is because there is a cross hanging in the emperor's entrance to the colosseum in Rome."
Couple that message of radical love with the resurrection of Jesus and that's the answer to why Christianity has spread and why Jesus' name has become so powerful.
"Today we're here because of that radical love and because of an undeniable resurrection that catapulted this message out of a context where it should have been buried once and for all," Stanley said.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Kidnappes missionaries in Nigeria free
Update on Nigeria Hostage Situation
Dear Ones,
Thank you for so faithfully warring in prayer for Simon and Ikumi in
Nigeria. Our prayers are availing much. I have been in regular touch with
Josh and the team throughout the course of the day, here is basically what
has happened .
1. Last night the situation seemed pretty dire, with the kidnappers
making threats and outrageous demands in regards to releasing Simon and
Ikumi.
2. Today the Lord really turned the tide in answer to prayer. The
kidnappers have understood and accepted that Simon and Ikumi are
missionaries and not oil company or government employees, which was their
target. Simon and Ikumi have really been winning their captors over,
witnessing, singing songs in Igbo, etc. They started referring to them as
their friends in their calls with Josh, saying they had gotten the wrong
people and they were sorry they had gotten people of God. Josh has spoken
with Simon and Ikumi a few times during the course of the day and they are
in high spirits and doing well.
3. This afternoon things were very close to a handover agreement.
4. In working out the handover details things started getting late.
They were still going to attempt the handover tonight, however the
kidnappers then got a little difficult and demanding so they had to back out
of the handover tonight to work out these details.
So, the Lord is really doing it and has largely turned the tide in the
spirit, but we need desperate prayer for the final leg to victory and Simon
and Ikumi's release. Please pray that all the details can be worked out asap
tomorrow, that the kidnappers won't hold out on their increased demand, but
that they'll honour their word and proceed with the handover.
"He that hath begun a good work, will complete it until the end!" so let's
really claim the full victory and release with the same fervency that has so
far availed so much on behal of our dear brethren.
Thank you so much! Much love .
Now they are free and back with their loved ones
and the medical help project continues...
God is wonderful!
Thank you for your prayers!!!!
Dear Ones,
Thank you for so faithfully warring in prayer for Simon and Ikumi in
Nigeria. Our prayers are availing much. I have been in regular touch with
Josh and the team throughout the course of the day, here is basically what
has happened .
1. Last night the situation seemed pretty dire, with the kidnappers
making threats and outrageous demands in regards to releasing Simon and
Ikumi.
2. Today the Lord really turned the tide in answer to prayer. The
kidnappers have understood and accepted that Simon and Ikumi are
missionaries and not oil company or government employees, which was their
target. Simon and Ikumi have really been winning their captors over,
witnessing, singing songs in Igbo, etc. They started referring to them as
their friends in their calls with Josh, saying they had gotten the wrong
people and they were sorry they had gotten people of God. Josh has spoken
with Simon and Ikumi a few times during the course of the day and they are
in high spirits and doing well.
3. This afternoon things were very close to a handover agreement.
4. In working out the handover details things started getting late.
They were still going to attempt the handover tonight, however the
kidnappers then got a little difficult and demanding so they had to back out
of the handover tonight to work out these details.
So, the Lord is really doing it and has largely turned the tide in the
spirit, but we need desperate prayer for the final leg to victory and Simon
and Ikumi's release. Please pray that all the details can be worked out asap
tomorrow, that the kidnappers won't hold out on their increased demand, but
that they'll honour their word and proceed with the handover.
"He that hath begun a good work, will complete it until the end!" so let's
really claim the full victory and release with the same fervency that has so
far availed so much on behal of our dear brethren.
Thank you so much! Much love .
Now they are free and back with their loved ones
and the medical help project continues...
God is wonderful!
Thank you for your prayers!!!!
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Another miracle....
S. and her family have been here since August, looking for good housing, and so far staying with friends and relatives here and there. Many here are looking for housing and it is difficult to say the least. But difficulty is the first stage of a miracle isn´t it?
Now it came to a deadline as the owners of the house that they are staying in are coming at the beginning of April, in about 2 weeks. We had been looking but not found the right thing.
So we asked for prayer and prayed ourselves a lot and desperately. And the other day I had to get ahold of some tourists who are staying here, and here they came up to me near my house and asked if S. had found housing yet."Not yet, but we are praying,“, I answered.
They said that someone was moving out next door to where they stay. So I went and found out by a neighbor who the owners were and realized that I know them!
When I left a message asking if they will rent out the house she called back very soon and said yes, and explained about the house, which sounded good, except that there was only one toilet on the ground floor, which would mean that they and the daughter have to at night go all the way down to the toilet when needed.
When I called again to arrange to see it, the owner said that they will build another toilet upstairs and paint all the walls!
So today we went to see it and it is wonderful! It has plenty of space, 2 bedrooms, a salon with mezzanine, a terrace, a fire place in the kitchen/ dining room, a good atmosphere even a bathtub, sweet neighbors and a good price and it will be ready to move in at the beginning of April! The owner is super sweet and also understanding that S.'s paperwork is not all worked out yet and said it will all be okay, and that she trusts us, because she knows me.
We were soooooooo happy and are still on clouds as it is really such a miracle to find something like this so quick and so good and not expensive here, where so many are looking for housing! S's partner couldn´t believe it, he was so happy and overwhelmed, and kept asking "How? Why? Why us?" and S. explained that it is because of your and our prayers and because of God´s love for them, and he agreed, which is good, as he doesn´t have much faith yet. But this is sure making it grow. We are so very thankful and praise God for His wonderful care and for your prayers. Now we are praying that the paperwork will all come through and that D. will find good work. His wrist is almost healed. The other day the doctor who operated this complicated fracture asked, if he could document this case, since it is so special and such a success. "Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" John.16:24
Now it came to a deadline as the owners of the house that they are staying in are coming at the beginning of April, in about 2 weeks. We had been looking but not found the right thing.
So we asked for prayer and prayed ourselves a lot and desperately. And the other day I had to get ahold of some tourists who are staying here, and here they came up to me near my house and asked if S. had found housing yet."Not yet, but we are praying,“, I answered.
They said that someone was moving out next door to where they stay. So I went and found out by a neighbor who the owners were and realized that I know them!
When I left a message asking if they will rent out the house she called back very soon and said yes, and explained about the house, which sounded good, except that there was only one toilet on the ground floor, which would mean that they and the daughter have to at night go all the way down to the toilet when needed.
When I called again to arrange to see it, the owner said that they will build another toilet upstairs and paint all the walls!
So today we went to see it and it is wonderful! It has plenty of space, 2 bedrooms, a salon with mezzanine, a terrace, a fire place in the kitchen/ dining room, a good atmosphere even a bathtub, sweet neighbors and a good price and it will be ready to move in at the beginning of April! The owner is super sweet and also understanding that S.'s paperwork is not all worked out yet and said it will all be okay, and that she trusts us, because she knows me.
We were soooooooo happy and are still on clouds as it is really such a miracle to find something like this so quick and so good and not expensive here, where so many are looking for housing! S's partner couldn´t believe it, he was so happy and overwhelmed, and kept asking "How? Why? Why us?" and S. explained that it is because of your and our prayers and because of God´s love for them, and he agreed, which is good, as he doesn´t have much faith yet. But this is sure making it grow. We are so very thankful and praise God for His wonderful care and for your prayers. Now we are praying that the paperwork will all come through and that D. will find good work. His wrist is almost healed. The other day the doctor who operated this complicated fracture asked, if he could document this case, since it is so special and such a success. "Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" John.16:24
Friday, 19 March 2010
Simplify....
"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."--Jack London
Simplify your life to reduce stress
By Mayo Clinic staff, March 16, 2010
You've probably noticed the word "simplify" popping up in magazine articles and talk show discussions about how to deal with the chaos and complexity of modern life. There's even a monthly magazine about how to simplify your life.
The resurgence of an old idea--living a simpler life--isn't surprising at a time when many people feel overwhelmed by their busy, complicated lives. The voluntary simplicity movement, as it's sometimes called, preaches the value of living a more balanced, less stressful, deliberate and thoughtful life. You don't have to be a zealot, though, to want to simplify your life.
The effect of clutter. Can't find your car keys amid the piles on your counter? Tired of having to excavate the kitchen table before you can serve dinner? There's no question, being surrounded by clutter is an ongoing cause of stress. It's more than just an irritation, though. When you're surrounded by more things than you can manage, it sends a visual message that your life is out of control. And it can become a vicious circle, where disorder brings about procrastination, which only perpetuates the chaos. To make matters worse, when you're under stress, cortisol, the stress hormone, short-circuits your brain leading to forgetfulness, irritation and plain old meltdowns.
It's not just your home that can get cluttered. Your life and even your mind can also become overcrowded with too much junk. Maybe it's time to try a new approach. The following are ideas to help you simplify your life and reduce stress. Choose one and give it a try.
Clear the clutter. Pick one area to tackle, such as the junk drawer in the kitchen or the piles of clothes in the bedroom. Take a hard look at what you've accumulated. Clear out any items you're not using. If they're in good condition, consider donating them to a local charity. If you absolutely can't part with some items, box them up and put an expiration date of a year in the future on the box. Store the box. If the box remains unopened until the expiration date, you clearly can do without its contents. Trash or donate the box unopened.
Switch off the media. TVs, radios, smart phones, laptops, video games--they all contribute to audiovisual clutter. Being flooded with stimuli, even entertaining stimuli, is a tremendous source of stress. Unplug and unhook yourself. At the very least, turn off the TV while you're on the phone, or turn off the phone when you're watching TV. If that's not enough, try a vacation from the TV news, the daily paper and news magazines. It can take a couple of weeks to adjust and get beyond the withdrawal effects.
Clear your calendar. How often have you complained that there aren't enough hours in the day? It's not the clock that's the problem. It's the number of activities you're trying to pack in. Being too busy can become a habit so entrenched that it leads you to postpone or cut short what really matters to you, making you a slave to a lifestyle you don't even like. You may have so much going on that you don't have time to assess what matters most to you, let alone make time to do it.
What can you do? Only say yes to activities you really care about. In other words, learn to say no. Remember, it's easier to decline an invitation than to figure out how to get out of it later. If you need a reason for saying no, explain that you've promised your family you wouldn't take on any new activities. Think about how pleasant it would be to look at your calendar and find that all the don't-want-to-but-have-to commitments have been erased.
Stop multitasking. Your mind can also be cluttered, your attention spread too thin among too many tasks. Long touted as the mark of the highly efficient, multitasking has recently been revealed to be less of a boon than once thought. In fact, recent research shows that people who multitask tend to be less able to concentrate and more easily distracted than people who rarely multitask.
Perhaps more importantly, multitasking doesn't let you get into the flow--a state of being so absorbed in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. When you're in the flow, also called in the zone, things seem to happen effortlessly. You're totally absorbed by what you're doing. There's no room in your awareness for conflicts or contradictions. Flow creates a sense of fulfillment and engagement, and even contentment.
So, try for more flow and less multitasking. Start by turning off the electronic distractions and focusing on one task. Only when you've completed that task can you go on to the next. Focusing on one task is also a good way to learn to be present--or totally engaged--in the moment. This is mindfulness. It doesn't get any simpler than that.
Simplify your life to reduce stress
By Mayo Clinic staff, March 16, 2010
You've probably noticed the word "simplify" popping up in magazine articles and talk show discussions about how to deal with the chaos and complexity of modern life. There's even a monthly magazine about how to simplify your life.
The resurgence of an old idea--living a simpler life--isn't surprising at a time when many people feel overwhelmed by their busy, complicated lives. The voluntary simplicity movement, as it's sometimes called, preaches the value of living a more balanced, less stressful, deliberate and thoughtful life. You don't have to be a zealot, though, to want to simplify your life.
The effect of clutter. Can't find your car keys amid the piles on your counter? Tired of having to excavate the kitchen table before you can serve dinner? There's no question, being surrounded by clutter is an ongoing cause of stress. It's more than just an irritation, though. When you're surrounded by more things than you can manage, it sends a visual message that your life is out of control. And it can become a vicious circle, where disorder brings about procrastination, which only perpetuates the chaos. To make matters worse, when you're under stress, cortisol, the stress hormone, short-circuits your brain leading to forgetfulness, irritation and plain old meltdowns.
It's not just your home that can get cluttered. Your life and even your mind can also become overcrowded with too much junk. Maybe it's time to try a new approach. The following are ideas to help you simplify your life and reduce stress. Choose one and give it a try.
Clear the clutter. Pick one area to tackle, such as the junk drawer in the kitchen or the piles of clothes in the bedroom. Take a hard look at what you've accumulated. Clear out any items you're not using. If they're in good condition, consider donating them to a local charity. If you absolutely can't part with some items, box them up and put an expiration date of a year in the future on the box. Store the box. If the box remains unopened until the expiration date, you clearly can do without its contents. Trash or donate the box unopened.
Switch off the media. TVs, radios, smart phones, laptops, video games--they all contribute to audiovisual clutter. Being flooded with stimuli, even entertaining stimuli, is a tremendous source of stress. Unplug and unhook yourself. At the very least, turn off the TV while you're on the phone, or turn off the phone when you're watching TV. If that's not enough, try a vacation from the TV news, the daily paper and news magazines. It can take a couple of weeks to adjust and get beyond the withdrawal effects.
Clear your calendar. How often have you complained that there aren't enough hours in the day? It's not the clock that's the problem. It's the number of activities you're trying to pack in. Being too busy can become a habit so entrenched that it leads you to postpone or cut short what really matters to you, making you a slave to a lifestyle you don't even like. You may have so much going on that you don't have time to assess what matters most to you, let alone make time to do it.
What can you do? Only say yes to activities you really care about. In other words, learn to say no. Remember, it's easier to decline an invitation than to figure out how to get out of it later. If you need a reason for saying no, explain that you've promised your family you wouldn't take on any new activities. Think about how pleasant it would be to look at your calendar and find that all the don't-want-to-but-have-to commitments have been erased.
Stop multitasking. Your mind can also be cluttered, your attention spread too thin among too many tasks. Long touted as the mark of the highly efficient, multitasking has recently been revealed to be less of a boon than once thought. In fact, recent research shows that people who multitask tend to be less able to concentrate and more easily distracted than people who rarely multitask.
Perhaps more importantly, multitasking doesn't let you get into the flow--a state of being so absorbed in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. When you're in the flow, also called in the zone, things seem to happen effortlessly. You're totally absorbed by what you're doing. There's no room in your awareness for conflicts or contradictions. Flow creates a sense of fulfillment and engagement, and even contentment.
So, try for more flow and less multitasking. Start by turning off the electronic distractions and focusing on one task. Only when you've completed that task can you go on to the next. Focusing on one task is also a good way to learn to be present--or totally engaged--in the moment. This is mindfulness. It doesn't get any simpler than that.
Monday, 15 March 2010
How would we react?
“I Really Believe God Was in There With Me”
By William Wan, Washington Post
Washington, DC—At 6 feet tall and 240 pounds of muscle, Daryl Smith Jr. cuts an imposing figure. It was that brawny build many passengers recalled after last week’s deadly Metro train crash.
Survivors from the first car of the colliding train—the one that ended up half-demolished—recalled a big man who smashed his way through the backdoor and helped fellow passengers escape.
As investigators have looked for clues to the crash’s cause, Smith, who is 19, has been searching his memory and pondering his faith, trying to find meaning in the wreckage.
Smith, who comes from a deeply religious family, said he felt God’s presence amid the crash. He doesn’t understand why the crash happened, but he said that he believes God intended for him to be there and that prayer helped him survive.
“As a kid, I was taught that if you needed something, you ask God for it,” he said in an interview a few days after the crash. “That’s what got me through this thing—prayer. I really believe that.”
Of the crash, Smith said what he remembered was the sound. One moment, he was sitting with his girlfriend, cracking jokes to make her laugh. The next, there was a boom. When it was over, he was lying on a pile of seats, his right foot cut and pinned by debris.
It was not the first near-death experience for Smith. He has been in two major auto accidents since childhood. When he was 8, a car he was in flipped over. And last year, he was hit head-on in a collision. Both incidents left him feeling powerless. Ever since the car crashes, he has thought about how he would react if something happened again. He has run through scenarios and feared he would turn out to be the type of person who folds under pressure, gets panicked and confused.
In the train last week, Smith freed himself from the wreckage. He heard the Lord’s Prayer being recited in the car and joined in. As he did, he scanned the scene.
His girlfriend’s left foot was severely injured, the skin peeled back so that there was blood and flesh where once a tattoo had been.
Smith used his cellphone to try to call his grandmother, a “prayer warrior” at their church, Brookland Union Baptist, who is known to mobilize dozens of congregants to pray during emergencies. When he couldn’t reach her, he tried his mother to ask her to start the prayers.
Smoke and dust filled the car. The doors were jammed. Smith looked at his girlfriend and her bleeding leg and thought, “She needs to get out of here now.”
He took off his polo shirt, wrapped it around his arm and tried smashing the door’s window. Other passengers watched. With his shirt off, huge tattoos on his arms were visible. He got them last year after surviving the head-on collision. A drunk driver in the wrong lane slammed into Smith’s car at 85 mph. After walking away from the accident largely uninjured, Smith got the word “BLESSED” tattooed on his forearm. A few weeks later, he had someone add on his shoulder words from the book of Isaiah: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” And he had the word “faith” written across his left wrist.
He got the tattoos because he said he believed God had saved him from the car crash and was trying to teach him through it. His mom told him: “God kept you alive for a reason. He’s preparing you for something.”
Ten months later, at the train crash, those tattooed arms began to hurt as he pounded the glass. With each punch, his knuckles became sore and bruised.
Frustrated, he tossed his shirt aside. And just as he did, a fellow passenger, a middle-aged woman, pointed to a bright red fire extinguisher near his foot.
He picked it up and hit the glass, but nothing happened. The second slam made a two-inch crack in the glass. People started yelling, “Hit it again, man!” and “Yeah, yeah!”
He kept swinging until he knocked the impact-resistant window out of its frame.
Smith helped his girlfriend and another teenage girl through the window, then walked with them to the end of the train. It wasn’t until they reached the last car, when passengers started staring, that he realized he was bleeding. He felt the spot where the right side of his head was split open. It would take six staples to close the eight-inch gash.
Recounting all of this three days after the crash, Smith said he was amazed that he and others in his car survived and that he reacted with action instead of panic. He talked about his great-grandmother—a minister who held Sunday services in her basement and spent her life helping more than 50 foster children. She and other relatives taught him to pray.
“I really believe God was in there with me . . . that He was in control,” Smith said. “He’s the reason I’m alive.”
By William Wan, Washington Post
Washington, DC—At 6 feet tall and 240 pounds of muscle, Daryl Smith Jr. cuts an imposing figure. It was that brawny build many passengers recalled after last week’s deadly Metro train crash.
Survivors from the first car of the colliding train—the one that ended up half-demolished—recalled a big man who smashed his way through the backdoor and helped fellow passengers escape.
As investigators have looked for clues to the crash’s cause, Smith, who is 19, has been searching his memory and pondering his faith, trying to find meaning in the wreckage.
Smith, who comes from a deeply religious family, said he felt God’s presence amid the crash. He doesn’t understand why the crash happened, but he said that he believes God intended for him to be there and that prayer helped him survive.
“As a kid, I was taught that if you needed something, you ask God for it,” he said in an interview a few days after the crash. “That’s what got me through this thing—prayer. I really believe that.”
Of the crash, Smith said what he remembered was the sound. One moment, he was sitting with his girlfriend, cracking jokes to make her laugh. The next, there was a boom. When it was over, he was lying on a pile of seats, his right foot cut and pinned by debris.
It was not the first near-death experience for Smith. He has been in two major auto accidents since childhood. When he was 8, a car he was in flipped over. And last year, he was hit head-on in a collision. Both incidents left him feeling powerless. Ever since the car crashes, he has thought about how he would react if something happened again. He has run through scenarios and feared he would turn out to be the type of person who folds under pressure, gets panicked and confused.
In the train last week, Smith freed himself from the wreckage. He heard the Lord’s Prayer being recited in the car and joined in. As he did, he scanned the scene.
His girlfriend’s left foot was severely injured, the skin peeled back so that there was blood and flesh where once a tattoo had been.
Smith used his cellphone to try to call his grandmother, a “prayer warrior” at their church, Brookland Union Baptist, who is known to mobilize dozens of congregants to pray during emergencies. When he couldn’t reach her, he tried his mother to ask her to start the prayers.
Smoke and dust filled the car. The doors were jammed. Smith looked at his girlfriend and her bleeding leg and thought, “She needs to get out of here now.”
He took off his polo shirt, wrapped it around his arm and tried smashing the door’s window. Other passengers watched. With his shirt off, huge tattoos on his arms were visible. He got them last year after surviving the head-on collision. A drunk driver in the wrong lane slammed into Smith’s car at 85 mph. After walking away from the accident largely uninjured, Smith got the word “BLESSED” tattooed on his forearm. A few weeks later, he had someone add on his shoulder words from the book of Isaiah: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” And he had the word “faith” written across his left wrist.
He got the tattoos because he said he believed God had saved him from the car crash and was trying to teach him through it. His mom told him: “God kept you alive for a reason. He’s preparing you for something.”
Ten months later, at the train crash, those tattooed arms began to hurt as he pounded the glass. With each punch, his knuckles became sore and bruised.
Frustrated, he tossed his shirt aside. And just as he did, a fellow passenger, a middle-aged woman, pointed to a bright red fire extinguisher near his foot.
He picked it up and hit the glass, but nothing happened. The second slam made a two-inch crack in the glass. People started yelling, “Hit it again, man!” and “Yeah, yeah!”
He kept swinging until he knocked the impact-resistant window out of its frame.
Smith helped his girlfriend and another teenage girl through the window, then walked with them to the end of the train. It wasn’t until they reached the last car, when passengers started staring, that he realized he was bleeding. He felt the spot where the right side of his head was split open. It would take six staples to close the eight-inch gash.
Recounting all of this three days after the crash, Smith said he was amazed that he and others in his car survived and that he reacted with action instead of panic. He talked about his great-grandmother—a minister who held Sunday services in her basement and spent her life helping more than 50 foster children. She and other relatives taught him to pray.
“I really believe God was in there with me . . . that He was in control,” Smith said. “He’s the reason I’m alive.”
Sunday, 14 March 2010
The 11 best foods you are not eating
The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating
By Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times
Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.
Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters. How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.
Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes. How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.
Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes. How to eat it: Chop and sauté in olive oil.
Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol. How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.
Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants. How to eat: Just drink it.
Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but they are packed with antioxidants. How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.
Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death. How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.
Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.” They are high in omega-3s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins. How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.
Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,” it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.
Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies. How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.
Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories. How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.
By Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times
Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.
Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters. How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.
Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes. How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.
Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes. How to eat it: Chop and sauté in olive oil.
Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol. How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.
Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants. How to eat: Just drink it.
Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but they are packed with antioxidants. How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.
Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death. How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.
Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.” They are high in omega-3s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins. How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.
Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,” it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.
Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies. How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.
Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories. How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.
The Two Wolves
The Two Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil.
It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good.
It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied,
"The one you feed."
The good news is, it is up to us. We are not helpless victims, but free moral agents...
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil.
It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good.
It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied,
"The one you feed."
The good news is, it is up to us. We are not helpless victims, but free moral agents...
Friday, 12 March 2010
wiser decision....
Business tycoon to sell house, start charity in Africa
MSNBC, March. 10, 2010
LONDON--A 41-year-old millionaire businessman who nearly died in a car crash eight years ago is leaving behind his exquisite 16th-century farmhouse and lavish lifestyle to move to a mud hut in Uganda and start a children's charity.
Jon Pedley plans to sell his telecommunications businesses, a $1.5 million Essex farmhouse with a 1-acre garden and his furniture to raise cash for African orphans, the U.K. Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
His charity, Uganda Vision, will send troubled British children to Uganda where they will help locals orphaned by AIDS and poverty.
The self-made tycoon has a troubled past that includes a criminal record, alcoholism and affairs. He says a serious car crash in 2002 in which he almost died led him to find God.
"I've lived an incredibly selfish existence," Pedley, of Finchingfield, Essex, was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail. "I've been convicted of crime, slept rough, been an alcoholic, had affairs, and damaged people's lives, including my own. I've always put the pursuit of money in front of everything else."
In college, Pedley said, he began smoking and drinking and stealing from shops and his parents. After leaving school, he received a suspended jail sentence for fraud and theft after scams including selling the furniture at a rented flat, the Daily Mail reported.
Pedley married, continued to drink heavily, cheated on and later divorced his wife.
In 2002, he had been drinking when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a van. He was in a coma for six weeks.
After making a full recovery he said he found religion and gave up alcohol. 'I'm now teetotaler and I try to live my life in a way that pleases God,' he told the Daily Mail.
Inspired by a friend's work in Uganda, he is selling his 16th-century Essex farmhouse and businesses, Empowered Communications and Eme Tech, to fund his charity.
'I've never been more sure about anything in my life,' he said.
MSNBC, March. 10, 2010
LONDON--A 41-year-old millionaire businessman who nearly died in a car crash eight years ago is leaving behind his exquisite 16th-century farmhouse and lavish lifestyle to move to a mud hut in Uganda and start a children's charity.
Jon Pedley plans to sell his telecommunications businesses, a $1.5 million Essex farmhouse with a 1-acre garden and his furniture to raise cash for African orphans, the U.K. Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
His charity, Uganda Vision, will send troubled British children to Uganda where they will help locals orphaned by AIDS and poverty.
The self-made tycoon has a troubled past that includes a criminal record, alcoholism and affairs. He says a serious car crash in 2002 in which he almost died led him to find God.
"I've lived an incredibly selfish existence," Pedley, of Finchingfield, Essex, was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail. "I've been convicted of crime, slept rough, been an alcoholic, had affairs, and damaged people's lives, including my own. I've always put the pursuit of money in front of everything else."
In college, Pedley said, he began smoking and drinking and stealing from shops and his parents. After leaving school, he received a suspended jail sentence for fraud and theft after scams including selling the furniture at a rented flat, the Daily Mail reported.
Pedley married, continued to drink heavily, cheated on and later divorced his wife.
In 2002, he had been drinking when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a van. He was in a coma for six weeks.
After making a full recovery he said he found religion and gave up alcohol. 'I'm now teetotaler and I try to live my life in a way that pleases God,' he told the Daily Mail.
Inspired by a friend's work in Uganda, he is selling his 16th-century Essex farmhouse and businesses, Empowered Communications and Eme Tech, to fund his charity.
'I've never been more sure about anything in my life,' he said.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
If you want useful info...
here you can find a lot of info that helps see things a bit more clearly,
since there are always other sides to the stories...
http://powerpointparadise.com/blog/
ANd here is someone who did something about the problems in an informed way that bears good fruit, helping a poor nation pull out from poverty! Very good!
Shower of Aid Brings Flood of Progress
By Jeffrey Gettleman, NY Times, March 8, 2010
SAURI, Kenya--In the past five years, life in this bushy little patch of western Kenya has improved dramatically.
Agricultural yields have doubled; child mortality has dropped by 30 percent; school attendance has shot up and so have test scores, putting one local school second in the area, when it used to be ranked 17th; and cellphone ownership (a telltale sign of prosperity in rural Africa) has increased fourfold.
There is a palpable can-do spirit that infuses the muddy lanes and family compounds walled off by the fruity-smelling lantana bushes. People who have grown bananas for generations are learning to breed catfish, and women who used to be terrified of bees are now lulling them to sleep with smoke and harvesting the honey.
"I used to think, African killer bees, no way," said Judith Onyango, one of the new honey makers. But now, she added, with visible pride, "I'm an apiarist."
Sauri was the first of what are now more than 80 Millennium Villages across Africa, a showcase project that was the dream child of Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Harvard-trained, Columbia University economist who runs with an A-list crowd: Bono, both Bills (Clinton and Gates), George Soros, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon and others.
His intent was to show that tightly focused, technology-based and relatively straightforward programs on a number of fronts simultaneously--health care, education, job training--could rapidly lift people out of poverty.
In Sauri, at least, it seems to be working. Some of the goals were literally low-hanging fruit, like teaching banana farmers to rotate their crops. Other programs were more sophisticated, like the battle against malaria, which employs cutting-edge mobile technology against a disease that kills more than one million children each year.
The other day, a community health team in Sauri stooped through the doorway of a home of several sick children, said hello to Grandma and got to work. Within minutes, a health worker had pricked a child, sent a text message with the blood results by cellphone to a computer server overseen by a man named Dixon in a town about an hour away and gotten back these instructions: "Child 81665 OKOTH Patrick m/16m has MALARIA. Please provide 1 tab of Coartem (Act) twice a day for three days."
These small miracles are happening every day now in Sauri, population 65,000. But the question for Mr. Sachs and his team remains: Is this progress, in development-speak, scalable? In other words, is there a way to take a place like this one and magnify the results by 1,000 times or 10,000 times and wipe out poverty across the developing world?
Hundreds of millions of dollars may hinge on the answer, because African nations and Western donors are closely following the data emerging from the Millennium Villages. Mr. Sachs and his team will publish their midterm review later this year, though influential donors like Mr. Soros are already betting on Mr. Sachs to the tune of several million dollars each year.
Colleagues say Mr. Sachs, 55, has single-handedly done more for foreign aid than just about anybody in recent years. "We need Jeff," said Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, based in Washington. "His combination of passion and analytic acuity has been really important for development."
But there are Sachs detractors. One of the most dogged is William Easterly, a former World Bank economist and author of "The White Man's Burden," a book that critiques aid projects.
Mr. Easterly argues that the Millennium approach would not work on a bigger scale because if expanded, "it immediately runs into the problems we've all been talking about: corruption, bad leadership, ethnic politics."
He said, "Sachs is essentially trying to create an island of success in a sea of failure, and maybe he's done that, but it doesn't address the sea of failure."
Mr. Easterly and others have criticized Mr. Sachs as not paying enough attention to bigger-picture issues like governance and corruption, which have stymied some of the best-intentioned and best-financed aid projects.
For example, one can easily picture what would happen in Kenya, where corruption is essentially a national pastime, if there were a free, donor-supported fertilizer program for the entire nation. The fertilizer would very likely never reach its intended target and would disappear like the national grain reserves that were plundered during a famine in 2008, or the billions of dollars of foreign aid that have ended up in the pockets of Kenyan politicians, according to numerous reports by human rights groups and financial auditors.
Mr. Sachs says he is the first to admit that he cannot do it all.
In Kenya, he says, to eradicate poverty nationwide, the country's leaders would need to improve infrastructure and urban industries substantially.
"What we're focusing on," he said, "is about one-third of the problem."
Another criticism is that Mr. Sachs is not evaluating his programs in a rigorous, scientific way. Many aid experts have suggested that the only way to really know if the Millennium Villages are worth the expense (around $110 per capita, per year) is to collect data from similar "control" villages that are receiving no help.
"No one would dream of 'scaling up' the use of a new pharmaceutical in the U.S. without rigorous evidence comparing people who got the medicine to people who did not," said Michael Clemens, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development.
But Mr. Sachs says that "Millennium Villages don't advance the way that one tests a new pill."
Beyond that, he does not like the idea of going into a village, subjecting poor people to a battery of questions and then leaving them empty-handed, though other aid specialists have said that studying poor people without giving them anything in return is done all the time.
"It pains me to be in a village that doesn't have bed nets" to protect against malaria-carrying mosquitoes, he said, adding that some comparison studies were under way.
It also pains him how out of touch the American public seems.
"The mood in the country right now is very anti-aid, and they don't connect the dots very well," he said, before launching into a discussion about the links between poverty and terrorism.
A few years ago, Mr. Sachs said, he came back from Yemen, which has recently become a haven for Al Qaeda, and spoke to American officials about how the country was "broken by hunger, water-stress, disease and poverty" and "sliding closer to the cliff."
"I told our government all about this," he said. "But all I got back was a blank stare."
since there are always other sides to the stories...
http://powerpointparadise.com/blog/
ANd here is someone who did something about the problems in an informed way that bears good fruit, helping a poor nation pull out from poverty! Very good!
Shower of Aid Brings Flood of Progress
By Jeffrey Gettleman, NY Times, March 8, 2010
SAURI, Kenya--In the past five years, life in this bushy little patch of western Kenya has improved dramatically.
Agricultural yields have doubled; child mortality has dropped by 30 percent; school attendance has shot up and so have test scores, putting one local school second in the area, when it used to be ranked 17th; and cellphone ownership (a telltale sign of prosperity in rural Africa) has increased fourfold.
There is a palpable can-do spirit that infuses the muddy lanes and family compounds walled off by the fruity-smelling lantana bushes. People who have grown bananas for generations are learning to breed catfish, and women who used to be terrified of bees are now lulling them to sleep with smoke and harvesting the honey.
"I used to think, African killer bees, no way," said Judith Onyango, one of the new honey makers. But now, she added, with visible pride, "I'm an apiarist."
Sauri was the first of what are now more than 80 Millennium Villages across Africa, a showcase project that was the dream child of Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Harvard-trained, Columbia University economist who runs with an A-list crowd: Bono, both Bills (Clinton and Gates), George Soros, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon and others.
His intent was to show that tightly focused, technology-based and relatively straightforward programs on a number of fronts simultaneously--health care, education, job training--could rapidly lift people out of poverty.
In Sauri, at least, it seems to be working. Some of the goals were literally low-hanging fruit, like teaching banana farmers to rotate their crops. Other programs were more sophisticated, like the battle against malaria, which employs cutting-edge mobile technology against a disease that kills more than one million children each year.
The other day, a community health team in Sauri stooped through the doorway of a home of several sick children, said hello to Grandma and got to work. Within minutes, a health worker had pricked a child, sent a text message with the blood results by cellphone to a computer server overseen by a man named Dixon in a town about an hour away and gotten back these instructions: "Child 81665 OKOTH Patrick m/16m has MALARIA. Please provide 1 tab of Coartem (Act) twice a day for three days."
These small miracles are happening every day now in Sauri, population 65,000. But the question for Mr. Sachs and his team remains: Is this progress, in development-speak, scalable? In other words, is there a way to take a place like this one and magnify the results by 1,000 times or 10,000 times and wipe out poverty across the developing world?
Hundreds of millions of dollars may hinge on the answer, because African nations and Western donors are closely following the data emerging from the Millennium Villages. Mr. Sachs and his team will publish their midterm review later this year, though influential donors like Mr. Soros are already betting on Mr. Sachs to the tune of several million dollars each year.
Colleagues say Mr. Sachs, 55, has single-handedly done more for foreign aid than just about anybody in recent years. "We need Jeff," said Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, based in Washington. "His combination of passion and analytic acuity has been really important for development."
But there are Sachs detractors. One of the most dogged is William Easterly, a former World Bank economist and author of "The White Man's Burden," a book that critiques aid projects.
Mr. Easterly argues that the Millennium approach would not work on a bigger scale because if expanded, "it immediately runs into the problems we've all been talking about: corruption, bad leadership, ethnic politics."
He said, "Sachs is essentially trying to create an island of success in a sea of failure, and maybe he's done that, but it doesn't address the sea of failure."
Mr. Easterly and others have criticized Mr. Sachs as not paying enough attention to bigger-picture issues like governance and corruption, which have stymied some of the best-intentioned and best-financed aid projects.
For example, one can easily picture what would happen in Kenya, where corruption is essentially a national pastime, if there were a free, donor-supported fertilizer program for the entire nation. The fertilizer would very likely never reach its intended target and would disappear like the national grain reserves that were plundered during a famine in 2008, or the billions of dollars of foreign aid that have ended up in the pockets of Kenyan politicians, according to numerous reports by human rights groups and financial auditors.
Mr. Sachs says he is the first to admit that he cannot do it all.
In Kenya, he says, to eradicate poverty nationwide, the country's leaders would need to improve infrastructure and urban industries substantially.
"What we're focusing on," he said, "is about one-third of the problem."
Another criticism is that Mr. Sachs is not evaluating his programs in a rigorous, scientific way. Many aid experts have suggested that the only way to really know if the Millennium Villages are worth the expense (around $110 per capita, per year) is to collect data from similar "control" villages that are receiving no help.
"No one would dream of 'scaling up' the use of a new pharmaceutical in the U.S. without rigorous evidence comparing people who got the medicine to people who did not," said Michael Clemens, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development.
But Mr. Sachs says that "Millennium Villages don't advance the way that one tests a new pill."
Beyond that, he does not like the idea of going into a village, subjecting poor people to a battery of questions and then leaving them empty-handed, though other aid specialists have said that studying poor people without giving them anything in return is done all the time.
"It pains me to be in a village that doesn't have bed nets" to protect against malaria-carrying mosquitoes, he said, adding that some comparison studies were under way.
It also pains him how out of touch the American public seems.
"The mood in the country right now is very anti-aid, and they don't connect the dots very well," he said, before launching into a discussion about the links between poverty and terrorism.
A few years ago, Mr. Sachs said, he came back from Yemen, which has recently become a haven for Al Qaeda, and spoke to American officials about how the country was "broken by hunger, water-stress, disease and poverty" and "sliding closer to the cliff."
"I told our government all about this," he said. "But all I got back was a blank stare."
Another "It can be done" hero...
Packing 400 lunches--and love--to serve the homeless
By David Conrads, Christian Science Monitor, March 8, 2010
Kansas City, Mo.--For years, Marcia Merrick began her day making lunches for her two children. Her kids are grown up now, but Ms. Merrick still makes lunches every morning--400 of them. Each decorated paper bag contains a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich or a bean burrito, chips, fruit, and two homemade cookies. She also includes a note of encouragement--and then distributes them to the homeless of Kansas City, Mo.
Dubbed the "mother of the streets," Merrick starts every day (Christmas and other holidays included) at 4:30 a.m. so she can finish her preparations and make the 15-minute drive to downtown Kansas City by 6 a.m., the time when most homeless shelters close and their overnight guests are turned out. She also makes stops at homeless encampments tucked away in secluded spots around the fringes of the city, under bridges and highway overpasses, and along the banks of the Missouri River.
Each day is a little different. She gives out half of the 400 lunches in the morning and the rest during a similar afternoon run, before the shelters open again at 4 p.m. The time in between is taken up with other tasks, such as driving someone to a social services office or to court or a health clinic. She also gives away items like clothing and bedding based on individual needs. In addition, Merrick and the volunteers who work with her help some 370 homeless families a year.
Merrick doesn't just feed and clothe the homeless. She talks with them, learns their names, listens to their stories, and gives them hugs and encouraging words. As a result, she's well known on the streets of Kansas City and has the trust of many of the city's homeless.
"Really, the food and clothing I give them is just a way to get into their hearts," she says. "A lot of them want to change, but they don't have ... the knowledge and the emotional support to do that. Some have been on the streets so long they don't even know where to start."
What keeps her going, she says, is the success she has had in helping destitute individuals and families turn their lives around.
Kim and Wayne Hill are one such case. The self-employed house painters found their work all but evaporated when the economy began to sour a few years ago. In time they lost their house and found themselves living with their young son in a family shelter.
That's where they met Merrick. She was able to do many things to help them reclaim a normal life, including helping Mr. Hill receive much needed dental work. She even found painting jobs for the couple.
"I can't begin to tell you everything Marcia did for us," says Mrs. Hill, whose family now lives in an apartment in a large complex, where her husband is the staff painter. "She's so compassionate. She's good at finding that place in your heart that's lacking--any heartache or sadness--and then filling that void. She's the ultimate mother."
Merrick works not only to meet the basic needs of the homeless, but to uphold their dignity and self-respect.
Gloria Brown is the kitchen manager for the City Union Mission Family Center, which provides long-term shelter for homeless families. One Saturday a month, Merrick and a group of volunteers bring food and prepare and serve a breakfast to the residents, who number as many as 120. Ms. Brown says that instead of having the residents line up and receive their food at the serving window, as is customary, Merrick puts out place mats, silverware, and a small vase of flowers on each table. She and her helpers then take the residents' orders.
"They wait on them like they are in a restaurant," Brown says. "She just likes to treat them with respect and let them know that somebody cares about them."
"Marcia serves," says Gary Blakeman, a retiree and volunteer who has worked with Merrick for seven years. "She doesn't just dole out food. She actually serves the homeless. And she does what she does with love. She's truly concerned with their welfare."
Merrick says her work of providing care and hope for society's disadvantaged began when she was in high school in Wichita, Kan. She made several church mission trips, one for an entire summer, where she first encountered large numbers of needy people.
"I realized what a difference it makes in how I felt, caring for other people," she says. "I didn't know it then, but I think I was developing a heart for people who had been shunted aside by society."
Her charitable work took a back seat to her own family for a time. But 10 years ago, when her daughter was 15, Merrick felt the need to resume her caring activities. At first, she matched up friends and acquaintances who had items they were willing to give away with people in need. The recipients were not just the homeless, but also victims of domestic violence, the unemployed, the recently divorced--pretty much anyone she knew of who had a need.
"It kind of snowballed from there," she says. In 2001, as her activity increased and donors asked for tax write-offs, she started a nonprofit, Reaching Out Inc. Today, about 80 percent of her work is for the homeless.
Her organization works with an area church, which provides her with storage space for food, furniture, and supplies. An ever-changing roster of volunteers--school groups, church groups, friends, and acquaintances--help with decorating the bags, putting together hygiene bags (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, clean pair of socks, and the like), baking cookies, and organizing food and clothing drives. Occasionally, volunteers go out with her on her rounds.
Merrick herself gets by modestly on alimony and a small pension. Circumstances may compel her to return to the paid workforce sometime this summer, which would necessitate an adjustment to her current grueling volunteer schedule. Regardless of what the future holds, she says, she will continue to work on behalf of the homeless in one way or another.
"I truly believe we can make a difference in their lives, and I don't want anybody to ever think that somebody doesn't care," she says. "They're homeless, but they're still human."
By David Conrads, Christian Science Monitor, March 8, 2010
Kansas City, Mo.--For years, Marcia Merrick began her day making lunches for her two children. Her kids are grown up now, but Ms. Merrick still makes lunches every morning--400 of them. Each decorated paper bag contains a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich or a bean burrito, chips, fruit, and two homemade cookies. She also includes a note of encouragement--and then distributes them to the homeless of Kansas City, Mo.
Dubbed the "mother of the streets," Merrick starts every day (Christmas and other holidays included) at 4:30 a.m. so she can finish her preparations and make the 15-minute drive to downtown Kansas City by 6 a.m., the time when most homeless shelters close and their overnight guests are turned out. She also makes stops at homeless encampments tucked away in secluded spots around the fringes of the city, under bridges and highway overpasses, and along the banks of the Missouri River.
Each day is a little different. She gives out half of the 400 lunches in the morning and the rest during a similar afternoon run, before the shelters open again at 4 p.m. The time in between is taken up with other tasks, such as driving someone to a social services office or to court or a health clinic. She also gives away items like clothing and bedding based on individual needs. In addition, Merrick and the volunteers who work with her help some 370 homeless families a year.
Merrick doesn't just feed and clothe the homeless. She talks with them, learns their names, listens to their stories, and gives them hugs and encouraging words. As a result, she's well known on the streets of Kansas City and has the trust of many of the city's homeless.
"Really, the food and clothing I give them is just a way to get into their hearts," she says. "A lot of them want to change, but they don't have ... the knowledge and the emotional support to do that. Some have been on the streets so long they don't even know where to start."
What keeps her going, she says, is the success she has had in helping destitute individuals and families turn their lives around.
Kim and Wayne Hill are one such case. The self-employed house painters found their work all but evaporated when the economy began to sour a few years ago. In time they lost their house and found themselves living with their young son in a family shelter.
That's where they met Merrick. She was able to do many things to help them reclaim a normal life, including helping Mr. Hill receive much needed dental work. She even found painting jobs for the couple.
"I can't begin to tell you everything Marcia did for us," says Mrs. Hill, whose family now lives in an apartment in a large complex, where her husband is the staff painter. "She's so compassionate. She's good at finding that place in your heart that's lacking--any heartache or sadness--and then filling that void. She's the ultimate mother."
Merrick works not only to meet the basic needs of the homeless, but to uphold their dignity and self-respect.
Gloria Brown is the kitchen manager for the City Union Mission Family Center, which provides long-term shelter for homeless families. One Saturday a month, Merrick and a group of volunteers bring food and prepare and serve a breakfast to the residents, who number as many as 120. Ms. Brown says that instead of having the residents line up and receive their food at the serving window, as is customary, Merrick puts out place mats, silverware, and a small vase of flowers on each table. She and her helpers then take the residents' orders.
"They wait on them like they are in a restaurant," Brown says. "She just likes to treat them with respect and let them know that somebody cares about them."
"Marcia serves," says Gary Blakeman, a retiree and volunteer who has worked with Merrick for seven years. "She doesn't just dole out food. She actually serves the homeless. And she does what she does with love. She's truly concerned with their welfare."
Merrick says her work of providing care and hope for society's disadvantaged began when she was in high school in Wichita, Kan. She made several church mission trips, one for an entire summer, where she first encountered large numbers of needy people.
"I realized what a difference it makes in how I felt, caring for other people," she says. "I didn't know it then, but I think I was developing a heart for people who had been shunted aside by society."
Her charitable work took a back seat to her own family for a time. But 10 years ago, when her daughter was 15, Merrick felt the need to resume her caring activities. At first, she matched up friends and acquaintances who had items they were willing to give away with people in need. The recipients were not just the homeless, but also victims of domestic violence, the unemployed, the recently divorced--pretty much anyone she knew of who had a need.
"It kind of snowballed from there," she says. In 2001, as her activity increased and donors asked for tax write-offs, she started a nonprofit, Reaching Out Inc. Today, about 80 percent of her work is for the homeless.
Her organization works with an area church, which provides her with storage space for food, furniture, and supplies. An ever-changing roster of volunteers--school groups, church groups, friends, and acquaintances--help with decorating the bags, putting together hygiene bags (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, clean pair of socks, and the like), baking cookies, and organizing food and clothing drives. Occasionally, volunteers go out with her on her rounds.
Merrick herself gets by modestly on alimony and a small pension. Circumstances may compel her to return to the paid workforce sometime this summer, which would necessitate an adjustment to her current grueling volunteer schedule. Regardless of what the future holds, she says, she will continue to work on behalf of the homeless in one way or another.
"I truly believe we can make a difference in their lives, and I don't want anybody to ever think that somebody doesn't care," she says. "They're homeless, but they're still human."
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Look further....
Seeing the Unseen
By Matt Guerino, March 01, 2010
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."--2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Early in the musical Les Miserables, ex-convict Jean Valjean is taken in by a kind priest to be fed and housed for the night. Desperate and poor, Valjean gets up in the middle of the night to steal some of the priest's silverware. The next day he is apprehended by the police, who suspect him of theft. They bring Valjean before the priest and ask him if Valjean in fact stole from him.
At this point the priest faces a clear choice. He can identify Valjean as a thief and receive justice. Or he can choose the path of grace and refuse to press charges. He chooses the latter, lying to cover the theft by telling the police that the stolen property is actually a gift he gave to Valjean. This single act of grace becomes a defining moment for Valjean, and completely alters the trajectory of his life.
This poignant episode is a defining moment for the audience as well. We sympathize with the old man whose kindness is rewarded only with theft. When the police drag the apprehended criminal before him, we feel the pull toward justice. And so we are nearly as surprised as Valjean is when the priest chooses grace instead. What motivates someone to choose loss over gain? To choose compassion over vengeance? To choose grace over justice?
In a word, vision. The priest views the same circumstances that we do, but he views them through a different set of glasses, so to speak. He doesn't focus on the immediate situation, but instead he sees the bigger picture. The priest knows that he himself is the recipient of God's grace, and that heaven is his real home. Thus he is willing to part with the wealth he can see, because he is firmly convinced of his eternal home even though he cannot see it.
This is the perspective the Bible describes in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. There the Scriptures tell us we can live life in one of two ways. We can either choose to focus on the "seen," that is the here-and-now. Or we can focus on the "unseen," the reality of our eternal home in heaven. When we focus on the latter, the things of this world begin to lose their grip on our hearts--even good things like fairness, security, and getting what's rightfully ours. We gradually come to care less about things like comfort and security, and we find ourselves free to love people generously and even sacrificially, the way God does.
How clear is the unseen reality of heaven to you? It may be that by focusing on the reality of heaven, you'll end up altering the trajectory of someone else's life on earth.
The choice is yours.
By Matt Guerino, March 01, 2010
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."--2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Early in the musical Les Miserables, ex-convict Jean Valjean is taken in by a kind priest to be fed and housed for the night. Desperate and poor, Valjean gets up in the middle of the night to steal some of the priest's silverware. The next day he is apprehended by the police, who suspect him of theft. They bring Valjean before the priest and ask him if Valjean in fact stole from him.
At this point the priest faces a clear choice. He can identify Valjean as a thief and receive justice. Or he can choose the path of grace and refuse to press charges. He chooses the latter, lying to cover the theft by telling the police that the stolen property is actually a gift he gave to Valjean. This single act of grace becomes a defining moment for Valjean, and completely alters the trajectory of his life.
This poignant episode is a defining moment for the audience as well. We sympathize with the old man whose kindness is rewarded only with theft. When the police drag the apprehended criminal before him, we feel the pull toward justice. And so we are nearly as surprised as Valjean is when the priest chooses grace instead. What motivates someone to choose loss over gain? To choose compassion over vengeance? To choose grace over justice?
In a word, vision. The priest views the same circumstances that we do, but he views them through a different set of glasses, so to speak. He doesn't focus on the immediate situation, but instead he sees the bigger picture. The priest knows that he himself is the recipient of God's grace, and that heaven is his real home. Thus he is willing to part with the wealth he can see, because he is firmly convinced of his eternal home even though he cannot see it.
This is the perspective the Bible describes in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. There the Scriptures tell us we can live life in one of two ways. We can either choose to focus on the "seen," that is the here-and-now. Or we can focus on the "unseen," the reality of our eternal home in heaven. When we focus on the latter, the things of this world begin to lose their grip on our hearts--even good things like fairness, security, and getting what's rightfully ours. We gradually come to care less about things like comfort and security, and we find ourselves free to love people generously and even sacrificially, the way God does.
How clear is the unseen reality of heaven to you? It may be that by focusing on the reality of heaven, you'll end up altering the trajectory of someone else's life on earth.
The choice is yours.
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Initiative
Initiative is doing the right thing at the right time without being told.
How 12-year-old girl saved her Chilean island from catastrophe
By Paul Peachey, The Independent, 4 March 2010
At 6am last Saturday on an isolated Pacific island, there were few people around to notice as lobster fishing boats moored in the tiny harbour started to bob crazily and crash together. It was the first sign that the tsunami that followed the Chilean earthquake was soon to wreak terrible carnage on Robinson Crusoe Island and its tightly knit seaside fishing community.
After a tsunami early warning system failed, the island's only village was at the mercy of the waves. It took the intervention of one 12-year-old girl to save the majority of the 650 islanders.
Martina Maturana, the daughter of the community's policeman, was at home when she felt a tremor, according to Chile's La Tercera newspaper. Her father was on the telephone to the mainland when Martina peered out of the window at the pitching boats and acted decisively. She ran 400 metres from her home to the town square to ring the emergency bell and rouse the fishing community from their sleep.
Martina did not know the emergency codes for ringing the bell--two rings for fire, three for landslides--but her prompt actions nevertheless prompted other islanders to flee to the safety of high ground, according to the newspaper.
The warning gave them the opportunity to follow the evacuation signs set up for such an emergency and escape the massive incoming wave triggered by the earthquake off Chile. A few minutes later, waves crashed on to the land and swept 300 metres into the village, destroying homes, schools and killing up to eight people.
Eight others were seriously injured and evacuated from the island--but many more were grateful for the intervention of the young girl. "We took off and three minutes later the sea rose 20 metres high, and a large wave came and destroyed my house," one man told Chilean television as he stood among the splintered wood and debris of his home. "I heard all the wood creaking and then this part collapsed and the sea carried away the whole house."
The story filtered out from the island yesterday, a rare piece of warming news four days after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that killed about 800 people predominantly on the mainland of south-central Chile. Robinson Crusoe Island, the largest of three in the Juan Fernandez archipelago, was named in honour of a Scottish mariner called Alexander Selkirk who is said to have inspired Daniel Defoe's classic tale.
"The little village there is on the east side of the island and would have been completely exposed to the whole of the tsunami," said Dr Peter Hodum, a US-based conservation biologist who has spent 10 years travelling and working on the island. "I don't think they would have had any forewarning."
Television pictures showed devastation on the foreshore of Robinson Crusoe Island with broken homes and planks of wood floating on the inshore. One vehicle was on its side in a gash in the ground. "It's just a barren coastal strip," said Dr Hodum. "It's been destroyed. There was a school, a pre-school, the municipal offices, churches, a cultural centre, a number of homes and most of the shops. They've all gone."
How 12-year-old girl saved her Chilean island from catastrophe
By Paul Peachey, The Independent, 4 March 2010
At 6am last Saturday on an isolated Pacific island, there were few people around to notice as lobster fishing boats moored in the tiny harbour started to bob crazily and crash together. It was the first sign that the tsunami that followed the Chilean earthquake was soon to wreak terrible carnage on Robinson Crusoe Island and its tightly knit seaside fishing community.
After a tsunami early warning system failed, the island's only village was at the mercy of the waves. It took the intervention of one 12-year-old girl to save the majority of the 650 islanders.
Martina Maturana, the daughter of the community's policeman, was at home when she felt a tremor, according to Chile's La Tercera newspaper. Her father was on the telephone to the mainland when Martina peered out of the window at the pitching boats and acted decisively. She ran 400 metres from her home to the town square to ring the emergency bell and rouse the fishing community from their sleep.
Martina did not know the emergency codes for ringing the bell--two rings for fire, three for landslides--but her prompt actions nevertheless prompted other islanders to flee to the safety of high ground, according to the newspaper.
The warning gave them the opportunity to follow the evacuation signs set up for such an emergency and escape the massive incoming wave triggered by the earthquake off Chile. A few minutes later, waves crashed on to the land and swept 300 metres into the village, destroying homes, schools and killing up to eight people.
Eight others were seriously injured and evacuated from the island--but many more were grateful for the intervention of the young girl. "We took off and three minutes later the sea rose 20 metres high, and a large wave came and destroyed my house," one man told Chilean television as he stood among the splintered wood and debris of his home. "I heard all the wood creaking and then this part collapsed and the sea carried away the whole house."
The story filtered out from the island yesterday, a rare piece of warming news four days after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that killed about 800 people predominantly on the mainland of south-central Chile. Robinson Crusoe Island, the largest of three in the Juan Fernandez archipelago, was named in honour of a Scottish mariner called Alexander Selkirk who is said to have inspired Daniel Defoe's classic tale.
"The little village there is on the east side of the island and would have been completely exposed to the whole of the tsunami," said Dr Peter Hodum, a US-based conservation biologist who has spent 10 years travelling and working on the island. "I don't think they would have had any forewarning."
Television pictures showed devastation on the foreshore of Robinson Crusoe Island with broken homes and planks of wood floating on the inshore. One vehicle was on its side in a gash in the ground. "It's just a barren coastal strip," said Dr Hodum. "It's been destroyed. There was a school, a pre-school, the municipal offices, churches, a cultural centre, a number of homes and most of the shops. They've all gone."
Friday, 5 March 2010
A story that says a lot....
From Katy to Haiti and back: What God taught me through earthquake relief
Houston Chronicle, March 02, 2010
My name is Scott Svendsen and I am from the Katy area. I went to Haiti with a medical team through Kingsland Baptist Church who teamed up with an organization called Builders Without Borders. I just want to share my story about going to Haiti about a week after the earthquake shook this area that has left over 260,000 people dead at the last count taken.
The nation of Haiti has needed help long before the earthquake shook this nation. It is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere that has struggled through many hardships such as government corruption, riots, and other natural disasters such as hurricanes. They lack the fundamental things that we enjoy every day.
Why did I go? The Lord tugged at my heart when I learned of a group that was gathering people to go to Haiti. I felt that I was called to go and serve those in great need. I was available to go to Haiti, since I was not currently working, and I was going through a hard time in my life.
I never thought that I would be in another country helping the people of Haiti recover after an earthquake. There are many unexpected things that happen in our lives, and we don't know how to respond to the unexpected. In this case, I, like Isaiah, said, "Here am I! Send me!"
I was excited to go through this open door that the Lord had opened. I could tell many stories about this journey how the Lord had used us to be His hands and feet. I will share the following story that touched most of us that went on the trip.
On our last night there, Carlton, Kim, Dr. Anthis, and I did the night shift in the pre-op area of the hospital. We continued to make rounds and check patients through the night. At about 5:30 in the morning when things were quiet and peaceful, we were sitting and having a conversation with one another, when we heard one of the patients start singing "Amazing Grace" in the Creole language.
We sat there and listened to her sing, and I must say that it was the most beautiful song that I had ever heard. It was like an angel was singing. The lady was a 31 year old choir director from a local church whose name was Darlene. We had heard her sing in the hallways while we were there. She had suffered a pelvic fracture and a broken femur while trying to protect her sister's children when the rubble started to fall on them. She did this by covering the children up with her body to keep them safe.
The children were o.k., but she was not. Her injuries were very painful, and every time Darlene started singing, it meant she was in severe pain. Since there was really no pain medicine for the patients much stronger than Motrin, singing was her way of coping and our indicator of her pain level. Darlene would sometimes sing for hours, and sometimes, those that were around her in the hallways, would join in and sing with her. She would be singing with a hand raised and a hymnal in the other hand.
We called her our "songbird" because her music would bring some peace to the unrest that permeated the hospital. Darlene was anchored in something bigger than what life could throw at her. She was anchored in Christ, who gave her endurance and peace during this tough circumstance that she was facing. She truly praised God in her difficulty, and this reminds me of Paul praising the Lord during his difficulties that he faced in his life.
What are some things that I have taken with me from this trip? I had many thoughts as we flew back to the United States. Some of the thoughts were about how strong the people of Haiti were in the midst of this chaos. They showed great patience and a lot of appreciation during a disaster that brought such devastation to a people who already had many problems before the earthquake.
My current storm that I was currently facing in life wasn't that big of a deal compared to the pain and suffering that I encountered in Haiti. We are so blessed beyond measure! We take so much for granted, and we don't realize the blessings that we truly have been given. God reveals himself in many different places, and I did see Him in Haiti, working many miracles through many people who were willing to serve Him. Matthew 25:35-40.
"'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, when life flows along like a song; but the person worthwhile is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong."--Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Houston Chronicle, March 02, 2010
My name is Scott Svendsen and I am from the Katy area. I went to Haiti with a medical team through Kingsland Baptist Church who teamed up with an organization called Builders Without Borders. I just want to share my story about going to Haiti about a week after the earthquake shook this area that has left over 260,000 people dead at the last count taken.
The nation of Haiti has needed help long before the earthquake shook this nation. It is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere that has struggled through many hardships such as government corruption, riots, and other natural disasters such as hurricanes. They lack the fundamental things that we enjoy every day.
Why did I go? The Lord tugged at my heart when I learned of a group that was gathering people to go to Haiti. I felt that I was called to go and serve those in great need. I was available to go to Haiti, since I was not currently working, and I was going through a hard time in my life.
I never thought that I would be in another country helping the people of Haiti recover after an earthquake. There are many unexpected things that happen in our lives, and we don't know how to respond to the unexpected. In this case, I, like Isaiah, said, "Here am I! Send me!"
I was excited to go through this open door that the Lord had opened. I could tell many stories about this journey how the Lord had used us to be His hands and feet. I will share the following story that touched most of us that went on the trip.
On our last night there, Carlton, Kim, Dr. Anthis, and I did the night shift in the pre-op area of the hospital. We continued to make rounds and check patients through the night. At about 5:30 in the morning when things were quiet and peaceful, we were sitting and having a conversation with one another, when we heard one of the patients start singing "Amazing Grace" in the Creole language.
We sat there and listened to her sing, and I must say that it was the most beautiful song that I had ever heard. It was like an angel was singing. The lady was a 31 year old choir director from a local church whose name was Darlene. We had heard her sing in the hallways while we were there. She had suffered a pelvic fracture and a broken femur while trying to protect her sister's children when the rubble started to fall on them. She did this by covering the children up with her body to keep them safe.
The children were o.k., but she was not. Her injuries were very painful, and every time Darlene started singing, it meant she was in severe pain. Since there was really no pain medicine for the patients much stronger than Motrin, singing was her way of coping and our indicator of her pain level. Darlene would sometimes sing for hours, and sometimes, those that were around her in the hallways, would join in and sing with her. She would be singing with a hand raised and a hymnal in the other hand.
We called her our "songbird" because her music would bring some peace to the unrest that permeated the hospital. Darlene was anchored in something bigger than what life could throw at her. She was anchored in Christ, who gave her endurance and peace during this tough circumstance that she was facing. She truly praised God in her difficulty, and this reminds me of Paul praising the Lord during his difficulties that he faced in his life.
What are some things that I have taken with me from this trip? I had many thoughts as we flew back to the United States. Some of the thoughts were about how strong the people of Haiti were in the midst of this chaos. They showed great patience and a lot of appreciation during a disaster that brought such devastation to a people who already had many problems before the earthquake.
My current storm that I was currently facing in life wasn't that big of a deal compared to the pain and suffering that I encountered in Haiti. We are so blessed beyond measure! We take so much for granted, and we don't realize the blessings that we truly have been given. God reveals himself in many different places, and I did see Him in Haiti, working many miracles through many people who were willing to serve Him. Matthew 25:35-40.
"'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, when life flows along like a song; but the person worthwhile is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong."--Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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