Sometimes...

...I get homesick for a place I've never been......but long to go.

Sudanese troops fire on U.N. convoy in Darfur

U.N. officials say soldiers apparently mistook group for rebels

A Sudanese driver was critically injured in the shooting on the supply convoy, which destroyed a fuel tanker truck and damaged an armored personnel carrier, protected by South African peacekeepers, which occurred late Monday near Sudan’s volatile border with Chad, the U.N. mission, known as UNAMID, said in a statement.
A U.N. peacekeeper stationed near the site of the attack said a Sudanese army unit apparently mistook the South African peacekeepers for Darfur rebels who also operate in the area.

That saddens me too. It just goes to show you that we are all the same and who is to say there is any difference between me and my brother, whether black, white, poor or rich, Wouth African, Sudanese, or American. The tribal differences are so minute in that country that people are often mistaken for being in a different group than they are. This time it was some innocent people who were only there to offer aid, to help, to show love to the people in Darfur who are so deserving of it and need love more than you or me. I would continue to help; and that is just what they are going to do.

Idol Gives Back

I go this email from Idol Gives Back this morning...thought I'd share. I've been an Idol fan for a couple of years now, but after they did this this year, I am hooked!! So here's what the said...
Dear LINDSAY

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you well for the festive season and update you about some outstanding news from Africa. And we'd like to offer you a chance to share in the festive spirit by helping more young people in desperate need at home and overseas.

Back in April, Violet and Grauman were two vulnerable orphans aged 12 and 10 living in Kibera, a huge slum area in Kenya. They were being forced to scavenge because they had no adult support to provide food or clothing; they had no protection and no one was caring for them. You can watch their story again.. Now the project Kicoshep, supported by Idol Gives Back, has provided uniforms and helped make sure they are in school and they're reunited and living with their Grandmother in a much safer part of Kenya, Kisumu. Both Violet and Grauman are looking forward to a brighter future. All because of your support for Idol Gives Back.

It costs just $50 to make a real change by getting a young person into school for a whole year. And that's the best way to secure their future. Please give whatever you can spare to help more young people like Violet and Grauman. Yes, I would like to help change a life right now.

With best wishes for a fantastic New Year and heartfelt thanks for your support.

The CPEFund Team

P.S. Watch this video to remember how you helped to save and change thousands of lives. Thank you.

this church stepped up

I just read this article.

This is what it is all about.

This church of 1,900 people found something that was close to their hearts (the victims of Hurricane Katrina), found people in need and helped them out. They sacrificed to help their fellow man. That's what it is all about.

They said that each person gave an average of $833. That's not easy to do, but they did it. There were also a couple of people who gave greater amounts of money, but would rather remain anonymous. That's awesome.

They raised a million dollars to give away, to help people. They set a goal of collecting the money at 2 years, but it only took them a year and a half.



...may the LORD make your love overflow to each other and to everyone else...
(1 Thessalonians 3:12)

Updated AIDS Statistics

I read this post from the (RED) blog this morning on my Google Reader. It is refreshing.

UNAIDS updated its statistics on Worldwide AIDS for 2007, and the numbers are quite encouraging. There has been a 16% decrease in the number of AIDS victims worldwide from last year to this year.

. 68 % of the global total of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa
. 4,383 is the average number of deaths daily due to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
. There are an estimated 11.4 million orphans due to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
. Adult HIV prevalence rate in Swaziland is 26% vs 33% in 2006.

These numbers are encouraging. Keep it up, make that number larger in next years statistics. It can be done, AIDS victims, every single one of them, can receive the treatment and care they need. The children orphaned by this terrible tragedy can be saved, can be helped. I want to help.

World AIDS Day is December 1st...it's also payday, go spoil yourself and buy soemthing (red) that day. Help out someone who can't really help themselves. Start a conversation with a co-worker, bring up AIDS awareness. Be aware for yourself. Know what people around the world are facing, are living through, are dying of.

My Dreams.

I want to make a difference.

This is a good place to dream toward.

I can make a difference.

I will make a difference.

...what if it was Jesus?

Dale took me to the TobyMac Concert on Friday night…it was awesome by the way…and I heard the coolest thing…Craig West from KXOJ’s morning show is going to spend 2 days (yesterday and today) as a homeless man in downtown Tulsa. He grew a scruffy beard for a few weeks, didn’t eat or bathe all day Sunday, and Monday morning at 9am, Bob dropped him off in downtown with only the clothes on his back, a blanket, and a cell phone (to call in reports to the station to let the listeners know what he was going through). This morning he was awakened by a security guard who kicked him off of the stoop he took as a bed the night before. He went over to a nearby park bench and sat. A few business people were eating their fast-food brecky on a nearby bench. He looked upon their breakfast burritos like they were steak dinners complete with baked potatoes. They threw half of the thing away, in the trash. And he was hungry, sitting nearby.
Makes ya think.
Just like something similar happening at the church I attend, and have attended since I was about 4 years old. This Sunday, we had our annual Congregational Thanksgiving Dinner; it always kicks-off the Holiday season for me in a way -- the Holiday Season that we all associate with a time to give, as if we shouldn’t give throughout the rest of the year or something. Anyways, after the meal was over, my husband stayed to help the kitchen ladies clean up and get everything back to normal for next Sunday’s services. He came and got me and I followed him as he pushed a rolly-trash bin through the crowd of people, through the kitchen and out the back door. He looked like he was going to be sick to his stomach. He explained to me why he was feeling so terrible; he said that he just watched a woman take tin pan after tin pan, each full, or mostly full of food, and throw it into the trash bin and proceed to ask him to throw it into the dumpster. That makes me sad.
What about all of the mouths that could feed, the stomachs that could fill?
What about the poor, those who are in need?
Jesus told us to give to these people, He told us to look after the poor, the widowed, the orphaned. He wants us to put ourselves second and them to be first on our hearts. We all had full bellies that night, and it was like I could hear the tummies growl of the too many children in Oklahoma, alone, who go to bed with empty tummies every night. The Central Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma reported that one in 5 children in Northeastern Oklahoma lives in poverty. And that is in our own backyard. Sometimes I forget that there is poverty and hunger and hurting all around me.
I love my church, don’t get me wrong, and they are great, good, loving, and giving people, I just think that this in a place where there was an opportunity to give, to help the poor, to take care of our brothers and sisters, and they neglected to think of it. They simply forgot. And I think that is the tragedy. I think that if someone would have thought of it, if they would have brought it up, they would have been more than happy to give what we have remaining, or in that case, to make a little extra to plan to give to others. That’s what I want to be; I want to be that voice that they hear to remind them of the empty bellies that can be fed. I want to open their eyes to the opportunity God has given us to give and to help the ones He loves. I was talking this through with a girl at work this morning, and she brought up a good verse…

…For I was hungry and you fed me.
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.
I was a stranger and you invited me into your home.
I was naked and you gave me clothing.
I was sick and you cared for me.
I was in prison and you visited me...
…I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,
you were doing it to me!...
{see Mathew 25:31-46}

…what if it was Jesus we could have fed?

a little reminder for me...

Check this out. I love the BBC News Africa Page. I check it out daily. There is usually stories on there that Cnn, Msnbc and other American news stations neglect to share.

This report is about the migrants from Africa, all around Africa, to the West Coast, so the Canary Islands, and on to Spain, and Europe and eve nthe US. It is so interesting and devestaing to hear these people's stories as they seek a better life, a life that I have been blessed to have from birth, a life that sometimes holds us back from truely knowing Jesus Christ, from giving away all our possessions and giving to others, America is a blessed and wonderful nation and I am thankful to have been born here, I just wish that others, more, could be blessed in the same way, blessed with food on the table, a pillow to lay their heads on and an education to be had, medicines at their fingertips. I often take all of that for granted, the little things that I don't think about really do mean life or death to other people. My husband gave me a "Thankful Journel" I call it; it's a book that I can write what I am thankful for everyday of the year, just to remind myself how good I really do have it, I am thankful that he gave me that. Yesterday I was thankful for my good teeth...never had a cavity. Today, I'm thankful for the simple things, a roof over my head, my parents being in my life, food on the table...I could go on and on...it's those things that I have, I don't deserve, but God has blessed me to have them in my life...the simple things in life amaze me sometimes. Just puttng it into perspective a little bit. Sometimes I just need that little reminder...it's not all that bad, really.

i have great respect for the man...

Bono thanks you

surely WE can CHANGE

and the problem is this

we were bought with a kiss

but the cheek still turned

even when it wasn't hit

and i don't know

what to do with a love like that

and I don't know

how to be a love like that

when all the love in the world

is right here among us

and hatred too

and so we must choose

what our hands will do

ahere there is pain

let there be grace

where there is suffering

bring serinity

for those afraid

help them be brave

where there is misery

bring expectancy

and surely we can change

something

and the problem it seems

is with you and me

not the LOVE who came

to repair everything

where there is pain

let us bring grace

where there is suffering

bring serinity

for those afreaid

help them be brave

where there is misery

bring expectancy

and surely we can change

surely we can change

oh surely we can change

something

oh, the world's about to chance

the whole world's about to change

I listened to this song on the way home from work last night. And on the way to work this morning, I listened to it 3 times on manual repeat (manual, because I had to push the back button...). And it opened my eyes. We have all this love in this world, it's all around us; in addition to all the hatred we find. And surely we can change. The world is about to change. If we just get up and be hope, be grace, be serinity, be brave, be that relief that the world needs.

We CAN change.

Pray for Peace

Our parents' generation was defined by their "peace-man" mentality, hippies we call them. They were against the wars America had engaged in, for most of their lives.

We need to do the same thing. Africa is falling apart. We need to step in and make a difference. All I know to do is pray. God did not give me the abilities to speak peace between people, I would just tell them to get over it...and that doesn't solve anything! But God did give that ability to other people. And I pray that their hearts will be softened to the happenings in Africa and step in. One of those people is Jimmy Carter. He is a great man, a humanitarian, a peacekeeper, and a good person. He has been there and made his mark...maybe he cvan do more, I don't know. All I know to do is pray.

Pray for God to be there.

Pray for those innocent people not to suffer anymore.

Pray for compassion to grip the people of Africa in so many ways they are overwhelmed and seek to love their fellow man more than ever before.

Pray for the people who God has geven the oppertunity to go there and help, for their saftey, their endurance and perserverence, and for their lives to be so richly blessed for doing what they do there.

Pray for the leadership of the countries, people-groups, and tribes in Africa, that they will seek peace.

Pray .

Pray for Africa.

Pray.

good from (RED)

I just read the latest (RED) blog entry. And I'm glad. This is what I like to hear about the programes and charities I invest my heart into...

The (RED) team broke bread with Global Fund Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine in Los Angeles yesterday. It was yet another special event to mark the anniversary of our US launch. Michel gave a wonderful toast in retelling a story he’d just heard from woman who works at a (RED) partner company. The story involved the great excitement that the woman and her colleague felt over hearing that an HIV positive worker at a factory in Southern Africa -- where some of the company’s (RED) products are sourced -- had just given birth to a healthy baby after receiving medicine to prevent mother to child transmission of the disease. Michel called this joy a kind of “globalized emotion,” and noted that (RED) consumers, like the (RED) company employees, make these personal connections when they purchase (RED) products and hear about individuals benefiting from the Global Fund (RED) grants in Africa.

It's just good to hear the good stories and testimonies that come out of things like (RED) and the Global Fund.

There is good in the world.