F A I T
H & S P
I R I T
Did you see the Sugar Bowl game on New Year's night? Many football players wear
non-reflective patches under their eyes to reduce glare. Tebow
played the final game of his college career in the Sugar Bowl. On
Tim Tebow's patches, he had written in white letters Eph.
2:8-10.Thank God for a class act athlete who has the guts to take
his stand for Christ. By the way, the Florida Gators won the game
big time. Eph. 2:8-10 – 8-God saved you by his special favor when
you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from
God. 9-Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done,
so none of us can boast about it. 10-For we are God's masterpiece.
He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good
things he planned for us long ago.
This is far from the first
time Tebow has included bible references in his eye black. In a
notable example, he drew John 3:16 lettering beneath his eyes
during the 2009 BCS championship game. During the SEC Championship
game, he guided viewers to John 16:33. The week before, in his last
home game as a Florida Gator, his eye blacks referenced Hebrews
12:1-2.
Tebow was, after all, a
Christian hero who constantly reminded the world his talents were
not his own. In fact, the first thing Tebow said when handed the
most outstanding player award was, "I’d like to thank my Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ." A fan comments: You don't have to look up
the Bible verses if you don't want to. If you consider that his
family works as missionaries, then you would be amazed that they
were preaching the gospel and feeding poor people every minute in
the Philippines, but Tim Tebow, their son, was keeping *silent*
about his faith here in the United States. The Bible verses have
nothing to do with winning football games. Why would you assume
that Tebow is so stupid and shallow not to know that, whereas
everyone here considers that an obvious fact? Whatever your opinion
of what Tebow does with his eye black, you have to give the guy
credit for standing for what he believes in, the Christ.
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The Trash Where People Live
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
When I was a little kid my dad used to take me with
him to the garbage dump. From building houses he would always have
lots of stuff in his truck that he would have to get rid of. I
remember lots of dust flying around in the air and feeling dirty
every time I got home. I remember it smelled, even from the front
seat with the windows closed, it smelled. And then dad would buy me
a Slurpy from a 7-11 and we’d go home never realizing that
all over the world people spend their lives living in garbage
dumps.
I’m currently back in Ethiopia and a few days ago I went to a place
in Addis that they call the trash city…the sky went from being blue
to dark grey as I walked further into the dump. Immediately I was
overwhelmed with one of the worst smells I’ve ever experienced, it
was nothing like I remembered from the dump in California.
The thick smoke was everywhere from some of the trash being burned
and the combinations of smells made me want to gag. Every step was
carefully maneuvered in order not to step into leftover food, used
toilet paper, wads of hair, goat feet, animal bones, IV bags and
lots of other things I never want to step in. Vultures and other
types of birds swarm around hunting for things salvageable to eat
in the trash.
There are stray dogs and pigs running around everywhere. In the
midst of it all you find two stone walls holding up some kind of
steel roof. And here, among all the trash, is a community of people
living. They weed through the garbage looking for items they can
recycle and food for their empty stomachs. Their ages range from
eight to twenty three and most have been abandoned or orphaned,
leaving the dump as the only place for them to go. There are around
fifteen guys and twenty girls. Some of the girls have families and
don’t actually live in the trash but spend all day there, looking
for recyclables in order to bring home some kind of food and
possibly pocket change.
The oldest guy is a natural leader and really tries to take care of
the others. The youngest is an eight year-old who has only known
the trash as his home, moving around his cardboard home as the
trash piles move. They all wear smiles on their faces despite their
circumstances. They don’t struggle with finding joy but the lack of
hope is heart-breaking...aren’t children supposed to have the most
hope? It shook me to the core; there is so much poverty in this
world and I’ve seen a lot of it. But there is something about total
poverty, living in trash with no family and no hope, that hit me
harder then normal.
Of
course there’s a part where you come in. So the plan right now is
to find a house that we can rent and after about six months, they
can take the rent over. To find them jobs or to begin a chicken
farm which they would all be able to have a hand in and bring in
enough money for rent and school. Other ideas are still in the
process but this is what we’ve come up with so far. We’re hoping to
get them to a point where they are fully sufficient on their own
but for now we need finances to give them that start. We want to
create an environment that helps them grow, with clean clothes,
school uniforms and food that someone else didn’t eat first. And we
want to see them dreaming again of what they could do with their
future. As with every project, we need prayer. Pray that these guys
develop hope for their lives, that we find the perfect house, that
churches
in the area will help support them and people who care about them.
And anything else you can think of to pray for children without a
home. Just like Drawn From Water, Pick a Pocket is supporting this
project.
The Music DTS, who is on outreach right now in Addis, is the reason
I went to the dump while visiting Ethiopia this time. Ulla and I
came down to talk with the people directly involved with Drawn From
Water (children’s home). We’ve been staying with the Music DTS in
the meantime and have gained a heart for the people they are
working with. The Music DTS is in the process of moving these guys
out of the trash. They are finding them a home, and are seeking
avenues in which they can begin the process of sustainability and
financial independence.
The Music DTS spent a night with them in the trash eating what they
ate and sleeping where they slept and because of that they trust
us. Before that they were pretty sure we were just another group
who wanted to take photos of them and
then walk
away but they have seen otherwise and are ready to have a different
life. We want to see these kids bathed, clothed, safe, warm, fed,
and educated. Please help us do that in any way you can. Tell
others about it, join us on Facebook, pray, donate, or share
knowledge with us you may have about garbage dumps.
"Funny the way it is, if you think about it, somebody’s going
hungry and someone else is eating out...Funny the way it is, if you
think about it, one kid walks ten miles to school while another’s
dropping out…" -Dave Matthew You can learn how to donate or
what to pray for by emailing myself or Josiah.
Pick a Pocket’s Website:
http://pickapocket.showitsite.com Leader of the music dts’s
email: Josiah
Teft-jjteft@yahoo.com or Kristen at:
kris.schwan@gmail.com
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Women Farmers Feed the World
Nowhere is it more apparent that women feed the
world than in the largest slum in Kenya. Packed full of people,
Kibera slum in Nairobi is populated by anywhere from 700,000 to a
million people. In an area of of about 225 hectares, the equivalent
of just over half the size of Central Park in Manhattan, the women
we met are growing food not just to feed their families, but to
also to generate income.
Some of the women we met earlier this month are raising vegetables
on what they call "vertical farms." Instead of skyscrapers,
however, these farms are contained in tall sacks, filled with dirt.
The women received training from the French NGO Soladarites to
start their sack gardens and now grow a
variety of
vegetables, including greens like spinach and kale. And more than
1,000 of their neighbors are doing the same thing. A skill that
came in handy over the last few years as election violence spread
through the slum in 2007 and 2008 when there was conflict in the
slums of Nairobi. No food could come into these areas, but most
residents didn’t go hungry because so many of them were growing
crops—in sacks, vacant land, or elsewhere.
Just across from Kibera another group of farmers, most of them
women, have been growing food for nearly two decades on a plot of
vacant land. They don’t own the land where they grow spinach, kale,
spider plant, squash, amaranth, and other vegetables. Instead the
land is owned by the Kenyan Social Security Administration, which
has allowed the farmers to farm the land through an informal
arrangement.
They’ve been forced to stop farming more than once over the years,
and although they’re getting harassed less frequently, they still
face a number of challenges. The biggest challenge is a lack of
water and fertilizer for their crops. For many years,
they’ve
used wastewater (sewage from an underground pipe they tapped into)
for both irrigation and a source of nutrients. Although this
wastewater can carry a number of risks, including pathogens and
contamination from heavy metals, it also provides a rich—and
free—source of fertilizer to farmers who don’t have the money to
buy expensive store-bought fertilizer and other inputs. And because
of longer periods of drought (likely a result of climate change) in
sub-Saharan Africa, the farmers didn’t have to depend on rainfall
to water their crops.
But even with the loss of their main water supply and nutrient
sources, these farmers are continuing to come up with innovative
ways of raising food—and generate income. With the help of the
organization, Urban Harvest, the farmers are not only growing food
to eat and sell, but, perhaps surprisingly, becoming a source of
seed for rural farmers. Kibera’s farmers have always grown fodder
for livestock feed for both urban and rural farmers, but by
establishing a continual source of seed for traditional African
vegetables, they’re helping dispel the myth that urban agriculture
only benefits poor people living in cities.
Using very small plots of land, just a quarter of an acre, and
double dug beds, the farmers can raise seeds very quickly.
Fast-growing varieties like amaranth and spider plant take only
about 3 months to produce seeds, with about 3000 Kenyan shillings
in profit. And these seed plots—because they are small—take very
little additional time to weed and manage. The future for these
farmers continues to be un-certain. Their land could be taken away,
the drought could further jeopardize their crops, the loss of
wastewater for fertilizer could reduce production, but they
continue to persevere despite these challenges. Bernard Pollack and
Danielle Nierenberg are blogging about their travels at Border
Jumpers.
http://borderjumpers1.blogspot.com/
Worldwatch
Institute's Sustainable Agriculture Program highlights the benefits
to farmers, consumers, and ecosystems that can flow from food
systems that are flexible enough to deal with shifting weather
patterns, productive enough to meet the needs of expanding
populations, and accessible enough to support rural communities.
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/vertical-farms-finding-creative-ways-to-grow-food-in-kibera/
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Singer Copes with
Daughter's Death Through Music
He stood there at the hospital, not as a Christian
music singer comforting a little child, but as a father praying for
a miracle. Steven Curtis Chapman held onto his wife that night 18
months ago and prayed for their 5-year-old Maria, their youngest
adopted daughter, who had been accidentally struck
in the
family's driveway by one of her brothers returning home in his
truck. Chapman had tried CPR at his house. The paramedics had tried
to revive her but she had been pronounced dead on arrival at the
hospital. Now he asked God's help to bring her back. Chapman's
wife, Mary Beth, told him they had to accept her destiny.
"It was after a few minutes that my wife, with her hand on my
shoulder, said, 'I really think we are supposed to let her go for
now,' " the soft-spoken Chapman said recently by phone before a
concert in North Carolina. Chapman, who has been singing Christian
music for more than 20 years, was now faced with a God he had not
known before. Everything he thought about God was different, he
said, and he began to wrestle with his beliefs. His new album, his
19th, entitled "Beauty Will Rise," is his personal testament to
Maria's life and the overwhelming belief that they will be together
again one day.
Maria had been playing behind the family's home in Franklin,
Tennessee, on May 21, 2008, when her brother Will came around the
driveway in an SUV. While no one is sure exactly what happened,
Maria, who wanted someone to lift her on the monkey bars, ran
towards her brother's truck and was struck. An investigation called
the tragedy an accident and no charges were filed. In the days
after Maria's death, the whole family -- Chapman, his wife, their
two sons, their daughter and two other adopted daughters -- grieved
together, went every-where together, did everything together, even
sleeping all in one room.
Chapman said he felt like he was in a black hole. "I just felt
myself
being pulled down into this place of despair," he said. Chapman and
Maria had a special connection. He met her in her native China
while she was an infant. He and his wife had already adopted two
children from there, and weren't looking for another. But Maria
"touched a special place in my heart," and he called his wife just
to tell her about the baby girl. "I can't put it into words, but
I've picked up a lot of little orphan boys and girls over the
years," he said. "I've never had anything happen to my heart like
what happened when I held this little girl in my arms for a few
minutes."
It
was almost impossible to imagine her not bouncing through the
house, not dancing along as he sung to her, he recalled. And it was
equally as difficult to think about singing again after she died.
Her passing was an emotional earthquake and in the immediate
aftermath Chapman doubted he would want to write and sing again. He
cringed at the suggestion that he write songs about Maria. Her
death was such a deeper level of sadness than he had felt before
that he thought he would never be able to share that pain through
music, he said. But as the dust settled and life went back to its
new normal, Chapman began to think about putting his fears and
hopes into music. He still didn't plan on doing an album, but
songwriting was helping him heal. "Songs are really cathartic for
me," he said, "because they force me to put my feelings and
thoughts into a capsule and say, 'There it is.' " (Hear more clips
of Steven Curtis Chapman's music at his website)
The first song he wrote, "Just Have to Wait," was an example
of the raw emotion Chapman hoped to
share. Chapman said he wrote it sitting alone in the darkness, just
aiming to share with his family the faith he has that each one of
them will join her in heaven. He soon knew that these personal
psalms needed to be recorded, but he didn't want a slick, produced
sound.
Instead of working with a slew of recording
people, Chap-man and co-producer Brent Milligan decided to work on
the album while the singer was out on a tour. Just the two of them,
a
sounding board for the other. They recorded in hotel rooms,
dressing rooms, the side of a stage, wherever they could set up a
laptop and a couple of microphones. They would also squeeze in
recording time in the hours between sound checks and the show,
trying to find quiet moments to get things on the computer, he
said.
It
was genuine that way, Chapman said. "It just felt like that's
honest. This is life going on," Chapman said of the unorthodox
recording method. "It's the day-to-day pain, just walking the
journey." Reviews have been positive and respectful. The New York
Times called it "stirring." Billboard said, "Never has a writer's
pain sounded more achingly raw. The new set examines unfathomable
grief, but also celebrates an extraordinary young life." Milligan
said that he believes the music's meaning transcends the tragedy
that inspired it. "In recording these songs, he knew they were
going to bring hope to a lot of people," Milligan said. "And that
is so much what he is about. These songs are timeless, people will
always be hurting and these songs will always speak to them." When
asked what song he thought would be Maria's favorite, Chapman said,
'Beauty Will Rise'. She likes loud, she liked it fast", the smile
returning to his voice. "She likes the one with all the energy and
the one she could bounce in the car to." Music, his blogs, and his
community at
www.stevencurtischapman.com
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Family’s
Generosity Benefits Retirees
Cameron Park, CA – At retirement community,
Ponté Palmero, a legacy left in honor of former resident, Lori G.
Pilegaard, can help others enjoy what she had. Just a few days
before Thanksgiving, one of Ponté Palmero’s most active and vital
residents passed suddenly. She was one of the community’s first
residents and its most vibrant "Resident Ambassador." In her
memory, her family has dedicated $1.5 million to a fund to help new
Ponté Palmero’s residents offset up to 50% of their rent.
"Mom had a dream of what
Ponté Palmero could become — a healthy, thriving community for
active older adults," reports Lori’s son, Erik Pilegaard, owner of
Ponté Palmero. In Lori’s memory, her family has established a fund
to help other local families share in her vision. "Lori understood
that today many older adults are waiting to move into the next
phase of their retirement," said Tracy Freudendahl, Administrator
of Ponté Palmero, who added, "The burdens and uncertainties of
these economic times are delaying the decision for many families."
The Lori G. Pilegaard Legacy
Fund was created to allow a limited number of families to enjoy the
benefits of Ponté Palmero sooner, rather than later. "Mom wanted
her neighborhood to be chock full of happy neighbors," Pilegaard
said, "This is our way of honoring her wish."
Applications will be
accepted on a first-come, first-served basis until the Fund is
exhausted. A ceremony to acknowledge the first recipient will be
held in conjunction with Ponté Palmero’s Aging Adult Health and
Wellness Fair on January 19, from 11am to 3pm in the Clubhouse. For more info about the
Lori G. Pilegaard Legacy Fund, contact Janet Saitman or Ilisa
Gallant at Ponté Palmero, 3081 Ponté Morino Drive, Cameron Park, or
call (530) 677-9100. Janet Saitman, Sales and Mar-keting Director,
Ponté Palmero, 3081 Ponté Morino Drive, Cameron Park, CA 95682. 530.748.5763;
Janet.Saitman@eskaton.org;
www.eskaton.org
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There’s No Such Thing as Too
Many Hugs
Women especially understand the need for hugs
at critical times in their lives. Seemingly equipped with an alarm
that goes off the moment they are in need, they intuitively know
they must reach out for support. One talented writer is doing her
best to wrap her arms around every woman – one at a time – with her
uplifting book, Hugs Bible Reflections for Women (Simon &
Schuster). Mindy Ferguson understands this need and the benefit of
uplifting help, and although she can’t personally hug each reader,
she manages to do the next best thing with prose in her enchanting
book.
What better time to
introduce this book with the Holidays fast approaching, bringing
their accompanying emotional mix of joy, sadness, love, pain, and
loneliness. Since this compassionate author has made it her
mission in life to help women, she has collected meaningful
real-life stories during her nationwide speaking engagements that
became the basis for Hugs - a collection that will tug at
heartstrings with tales ranging from losing loved ones to destroyed
financial dreams. The message they offer is wisdom and
understanding – that through the journey of these women came
discovery about God’s desire for each of our lives. During these
tough economic times, it has become increasingly difficult to hang
on to proper values and to search for God’s guidance; however, as
evidenced by Ferguson’s insightful and inspiring book, ‘don’t ever under estimate the power of
a hug’ and responding by helping others.
When Jesus told parables
or stories, His followers could grasp his message. Likewise, in the
fifty-two inspiring lessons in Hugs, Ferguson uses real-life
stories to enable women to find the work of God’s words. Founder of
Fruitful Word Ministries, a non-profit corporation dedicated to
encouraging women of all denominations to better their lives
through the study of God’s word, she is recognized as an expert
speaker who understands the special challenges that women face in
this world of selfish ambition, and through her positive outlook
she sees today’s woes as simply an opportunity to promote
wide-spread healing.
Visit
Mindy Ferguson’s inspiring website at:
http://www.fruitfulword.org.
Her writings have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Mother of
Preschooler's Soul, the P31 Woman magazine, Just Between Us
magazine, and the One Year Life Verse Devotional.
Ferguson is the author of Walking with God: From Slavery to Freedom;
Living the Promised Life, an in-depth Bible study for women.
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