Do you even know what poverty means? Who has experienced poverty (?), would someone in poverty be writing a blog post on a given "action" day (?), is there even any meaning to the term "poverty"?

I let my mind do the work for me. I think the word POVERTY loudly into my head. ...Now I wait. And wait. And...

Poverty! People in Africa or other third-world countries living in the desert in small huts and children with their bellies swollen - Some campaigns in Greece from Unicef to buy notebooks that fund those poor people - Drunk, homeless people on the streets of a city - My crazy neighbor that screams all day - A blog action day's subject - People trying to write a cool post in "copyblogger" manners that will generate traffic - "10 ways to help the poor" - Rich people that give money to the poor through an organization with their name - College students that can't afford a big apartment like mine - My poor 1mbit internet connection - A dog that has nothing to eat - The story of Jesus - Everyone talking about poverty but do nothing - Desert - Hut - Trash - Third World - Africa - Black people - Multi-millionaires that have worked for their money - People that were born rich - A newborn dying in its mother's hands - A person crying - A person not like me - Something that I don't know - TV footage...

Many things come to my mind when I try to think about poverty. And what the f*ck can I say about that ridiculous subject? Especially when every wanna-be-writer-and-established-blogger-with-revenue will recycle every comment on the subject on this Blog Action Day until we vomit of disgust. What do you know about poverty, you and me, people that sit with their laptop and try to think about something smart to write about. Except a few, have you ever *experienced* poverty?

Me, not! In my country, Greece, everyone leads a great life. Even the poor people here manage to go out at least every day for a coffee and they are usually poor because of their own choices.

I don't know anything about poverty and I don't care about it. I am not poor, why should I care? Is this egoistic? Yes it is! The poor one should help himself. He can't? It's called *survival*.

Who can help? Are you willing to give the money you have worked for to someone strange that is poor? What will this change? Do you have any obligation to the universe to eliminate poverty (If you are a religious person, I surrender!) ? Can you even define poverty in the first place? There are people that don't even have resources to food but that is caused by other people that restrain them: Do you want to go and fight against them? With guns I mean? Go on.

Do you think donating some $ will change something? No, it won't. The fact is that THIS IS MORE EGOISTIC that thinking about what you should really care about. You only do it to feel like a GOD, like being able to SAVE someone. You pay for happiness, to feel that you are more powerful than those poor others, to go to heaven and say loudly:"Hey there! I am a good person!". Poor guy, you are the poverty, the poverty of the soul.

Yes! We should fight poverty! Not a single human should there be without access to food and water and entertainment.

But, do me a favor. Help yourself first! Be what you want to be, take yourself out of your misery, do what you are afraid to do, DONATE some "life" to yourself, FUND your happiness, ESTABLISH your love for yourself, have sex with the woman that you like, make your POOR self a RICH existence.

I wouldn't accept any help from someone that can't help himself. I wouldn't help anyone until I have finished helping myself.

I don't know anything about the poverty you are talking about, but I can clearly see another poverty, a really important one. Poor souls in rich environments, that doesn't make things better.

Wake up!

(p.s. Have a nice day and be happy for any reason. :) )

Sometimes it seems that my next day will become a tough one. In the begin of my walk with Jesus I feared these days. Now many years have passed and God's Spirit has overcome mine. But He is still working on me and so tough days are part of my life. There are these days that seem to become tough and from a worldly point they are. My mind considers how to make them easy or how I might avoid what seems to come up. But my heart says: "God wants me to go through what He has prepared for me".

My Jesus filled heart has the last word and all "fear" turns into a great expectation of how God will bring me through a day of hill climbing that seemed to be impossible in the first. He is with me in it.

My heart believes and my mind knows there is nothing that He cannot do. Therefore I ask myself often: "Can I really have a tough day?". I mean God has made me and saved me through His Son. So He brought my life to a perfect end in His will. "It is done" Jesus said on the cross! Therefore He requires me to believe and trust Him every day of my life anew that His good and perfect will, will prevail.

So now can I have a tough day? Yes, if I do not trust Him with my life. But in His grace He has build me up to this point and tough days show that He is not yet finished with me. Thank you Lord for the tough days to come!

wish you tough days WITH Him

Volker

Step 1: Go to http://freerice.com

Step 2: Theres a test and answer one question.

Step 3: Make sure you are on level 20 and the questions are english vocabulary.

Step 4: Answer as many questions as you can correctly.

Step 5: Once youre done take a picture with your computer of the screen with proof you were on level 20 along with the  amount of rice you got.

Step 6: Send me the link to the picture and ill look at yours

 Whoever earned the most rice wins a rare member penguin. Also the rice youve earned will go to the united nations food program

 ~source~ Ends next monday!!!!!!!!!

The source00: If You copy my idea without my premission ill suspend your site. sorry

i wonder at the scope and grandeur of it all – how do i fit in?

the constructs we’ve created are small in comparison.

moving and flowing through our time, our lives become larger than we imagined.

watching and waiting should not be part of the plan.

making and doing are what’s needed at this time.

how to motivate my fellowman, that is what i want to do.

There is always of course working with all the old friends I had made in the short period of time that I worked there. I guess if almost 2 years is a short period of time.

I had so many interesting patients and saw so many interesting patients yesterday. There were the football players that had minor injuries. There was your average old person, always gotta have one. There was a death of a patient. Always rough to see the reaction of the family members over a period of several hours at the hospital. I always see the intitial response to death. It is not pretty. There is an uncomfortable feeling that is created by the hospital when someone dies, for the family and the staff. At least there is at this hospital. There was the patient family member that I babysat for a friend of mine while they did a procedure. This family member was handicapped, and gave me a couple of hugs. At which point he would call me "mom". In which I would tell him in no way I was/am his mother. Plenty of interesting experiences. Working at an outpatient hospital is such a different enviroment. I never really feel like I am actually helping someone so much as just providing a service.

Today, was my second Sunday to work with the kiddies in "Adventureland". This week I worked with 2nd-4th graders. It was very different. On my way to work with them I saw one of my 3 year olds from last week and he recognized me and waved at me. That is a pretty cool thing. Who knows? I still have a few groups of kids to work with before I gotta decide. If the other groups are as fun, I don't know how I will make the decision. I just want to be where I am supposed to be serving. It was rather incredible to see the kids randomly without being told to clean up, pick up everything and put it away on their own. A song started playing today and all of them began to clean up all the toys etc. they were playing with. It was creepy! We shall see where I end up...

PeACe

daneK

.

May Those

Who Help

The Most Win

Project 10 to the100th is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

Find out how you can participate.

good luck ! .)

HELP!!

HELP FEED HUNGRY CHILDREN ALL OVER THE WORLD ~ it will cost you nothing.
Every click helps to feed a hungry child. Join me in clicking and feeding children EVERY DAY! You would be surprised at how much of a difference your effort can make...in only a moment you can feed 8 children or more by simply clicking a few ad banners (even if you can not read the language, your click counts)

This is not a site that is connected with some kind of investment program, but it is connected with advertisers money and what it can do to feed hungry children. It is very famous site in Poland and has been functioning online since 2002 . It was established by PAH - Polish Humanitarian Organisation

You can read more about this program here:*
http://www.pah.org.pl/7184.html

and You can start feeding hungry children - by visiting this site:*
http://www.pajacyk.pl/

and clicking the Wooden Puppet's belly

in the section " Ile juz zebralismy " you can look at the daily/weekly and overall performance.

Be sure to click ALL the advertisers banners on the page, sometimes there are up to 8 other times only a few. Remember, Every click helps to feed a hungry child. Join me in clicking and feeding children EVERY DAY! You would be surprised at how much of a difference your effort can make.

*IF the site is not showing in English, just click the British/English flag at the top in the toolbar.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP IN FEEDING HUNGRY CHILDREN ALL OVER THE WORLD!

You can read the whole story here

Donate to Tita here

You can contact us for detail information about Tita.

Mohon bantuan untuk Ibu Tita
Anda dapat membaca kisah selengkapnya di sini
Memberi sumbangan untuk Tita di sini
Anda dapat menghubungi kami untuk informasi selengkapnya mengenai data Tita.

I recently came across a  description of a research study that found a correlation between engaging in meaningful activities and happiness.  The lead researcher was Michael Steger, a psychologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.  He and colleagues had a group of 65 undergraduates complete an online survey that assessed how times they participated in pleasure-seeking behaviors and how often they participated in meaningful activities, such as helping others, listening to friends’ problems or pursuing life goals.   The survey asked participants how much purpose they felt their lives had each day and whether they felt happy or sad.  Online entries were made every day for a three week period.  

As we might expect, the more the students participated in meaningful activities, the happier they were and the more purpose they felt their lives had.  The meaningful activities listed in the article included both doing good deeds for others and activities that fostered the person's own goals.  It would be interesting to know whether each was equally associated with happiness ratings.  Perhaps the more interesting finding of the study is that pleasure-seeking behaviors were not correlated with happiness.  I guess that's bad news for hedonism.  I'm sure the Puritans would be glad.

They are Brodie Animal Hospital, and can be reached at 512-892-3486. I spoke with Sandra there just now, and they will take credit/debit card donations over the phone for Roo's care. They are still giving her 50/50 odds, but her mom Sascha says it seems like she may just pull through. They are going to try to bring her home tonight and keep her heavily medicated and on IVs.

If you would like to contribute but don't want to or cannot use Paypal, please call the vet hospital directly.

You can see the vet hospital online at http://www.brodieanimalhospital.com

How to do this:
Call Brodie Animal Hospital at 512-892-3486
Tell them you want to help pay for "Ruca (Roo-ka) Hilpert"
They will take your card number and dollar amount and run it with you on the phone.
They will need your full name as it is on the card, the card number, expiration, and your phone number.

Alternately you can contribute via paypal at supercrush@gmail.com

Rise to your feet

Stretch upwards

Reach for the sky

Look up. See that? Can you see a limit? I didn't think so.

If all of us make just one tiny change to our lives and do something good, we can change the world. So what are you doing? Reading this does not help. Get up, and do whatever you can. Donate money, change things, help, see, dream.

gahhhhhhhh just do something!!!!! now!!!!!

The following article was written for Kidstuff magazine a year ago.  Not sure if I have 6-year-old and 7-year-old readers out there for this blog, but I'm certain you could use this somehow.  By the way, Math-Tinik came from "matinik", a Filipino slang meaning unusually well-versed.

Be Math-tinik

[How to Do Well in Math for 1^st and 2^nd Graders]

By: Wacks Cagampan

You’re in your early grade school.  And everyone is having trouble with the subject called “Math”.  Well, you don’t have to worry.  Here are some tips on how to make your Math life easy to begin with:

1.    Solve puzzles.  Math is just a bunch of puzzles.  Solve those puzzles at the back of juice drink packs and you’ll be ready for Math in no time.  Have fun!

2.    Sleep early for 8-10hours.  You need to be alert and awake in your Math class.  And remember, no sleeping in class!

3.    Do skip counting.  Do it by 2’s, and then by 3’s, then up to 9’s.  This will help you a lot with the other lessons.

4.    Follow each lesson carefully.  You can’t learn Lesson 2 without knowing Lesson 1 first.  And so on.

5.    Ask questions.  Teachers give the secret formula only to those who ask.  Don’t be afraid of your teachers.  Math teachers even love students who ask questions.

6.    Do all seatworks and homeworks.  If you get used to them, you can ace all math tests with no sweat.

7.    Do homeworks right away.  Do the Math homeworks first before the other homeworks.

8.    Ask Mom and Dad.  Let them help on your math homeworks.

9.    Teach.  If you know the lesson well, teach your classmates during free time.  Learn more while meeting new friends.  And it’s always good to help others.

10. Last but not the least, love Math.  It’s the easiest way to learn it.

[Note to parents: Want to know more on how to guide your kids in Math?  Email pogingwacks@yahoo.com.]

Round 3 and she lost again,
she screams,

I'm trying to help
through stage 1
stage 2

I suggest she rest
but she wants to keep keeping,
(her words)

But she finally wins
and saves it.

Saving is important
so is keeping.

Patterns are tough for her
as the batteries begin to die.

4 Oct 08
db
collections.

On  Wednesday, as she was driving us to church, I was thinking about the conversations we won't be having in the future. The more she drives alone, the less we drive together, the less we get the dad-daughter time that has been wonderful.

I was getting pretty teary.

And then I started looking through her eyes. She was two days away from beginning the independence that comes from having your license. Assuming she has access to the car, she will get to choose when to go shopping, when to go to *bucks. She will deliver herself to events.

No wonder she was getting excited.

On Friday morning, she got her license. On Friday afternoon she took her first solo drive, to the local university where she is singing with the University Singers (as a high school senior). We asked her to text when she got to class. (We also followed a couple minutes behind without telling her.)

"I'm here. Felt great."

This isn't a melancholy dad post. (Not anymore). This is a reminder that it is very easy to forget what it is like to be starting something new.

Those of us who already are experienced forget...

• the scaredness
• the wonder
• the confidence
• the energy
• the indecision
• the passion

...of a person who is learning, who had just received permission, who has just realized something new.

In our addiction to viewing the world from inside our own head and though our own experiences, we don't figure out the ways to help other people learn, grow, dream. We don't help, we don't train, we don't lay out possible next steps, we don't laugh and cry and delight in the energy of novices.

I forget that I know more about what I've been through than others. I judge them by what I know rather than helping them learn. I get frustrated, when I've done nothing to make things clear.

It's the weekend.

• For those of us with kids, it's a great time to remember what it is that they don't know yet, that they are looking forward to. It's a great time to look through their eyes and equip and encourage (rather than constantly warning them.)
• For those of us in churches, it's a great time to remember how much we don't understand ourselves rather than being critical of what other people aren't doing.
• For those of us who understand social media, it's a great time to think about how to email stuff to the people we are talking with who don't have any other way to learn (rather than sending them to our blog all the time).
• For those of us with spouses, it's a great time to stop and think about whether we've ever told them how grateful we are that they took us on as a major, and how much they have learned about us without us giving them nearly enough information about what's happening inside our heads.
• For those of us with skills, it's a great time to think about our apprentices, our admirers, our followers and say, "I never told you how I figured that out. Let me explain it." (Rather than "man, when I started, I was perfect. I got this right away.")

Someone is always just starting. That shouldn't be annoying. It should be relief.

It means there's a future.

Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

1. Send us your idea by October 20th.
Simply fill out the submission form giving us the gist of your idea. You can supplement your proposal with a 30-second video.

2. Voting on ideas begins on January 27th.
We'll post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas. Send me a reminder to vote.

3. We'll help bring these ideas to life.
We're committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible. So remember, money may provide a jumpstart, but the idea is the thing

http://www.project10tothe100.com/why.html

Glenn Penner with Voice of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC) says, "Both Mahmood Matin-Azad and Arash Basirat have been released from an Iranian prison, after they had met with a tribunal who had ruled that the charges against them were invalid."

While the charges were essentially apostasy, says Penner, "It had very much to do with what they called an' offense' to Islam and a diffusion of falsities; in other words, they were spreading lies."

We asked Penner if he thought the arrest of these men was a precursor to the new apostasy law. "It's hard to say. It is the first time that Christians have been released after a trial. On other occasions, typically Iranian converts are released after a few weeks or a few months in jail. You might say that's a positive sign."

Pressure by the European Union may have contributed to the release, but Penner says it's hard to say whether this is a good sign, or just a sign of appeasement.

Penner says this is a time of spiritual openness in Iran. "The young people, in particular, are open to hearing the Gospel, and there is a real deep disillusionment with Islam at this point."

VOMC is providing you an opportunity to help believers in Iran. Penner says, "We have been helping Christians in Iran over the years, particularly with Christian literature. So if people want to support our brothers and sisters in that way, certainly they could make a donation to what we call our Equipping the Saints fund."

Report from the Christian Telegraph

Last week when the first Presidential Candidates debate took place, a live showing of the debate was offered at the local theater.  Free of charge.  A good turn out from the community was present.  Some of those who attended did so because they do not subscribe to cable TV and therefore did not have reliable TV reception.  Others attended the theater's showing of the debate because they wanted to watch a national community event with others who are a part of the national community.  Before the debate began the manager of the theater admonished the crowd to just watch and listen.  No cheering, clapping or other demonstrative behavior.  Other than some whispering between friends who were there, the viewers followed the manager's rules.

Homer is a very diverse place with a spirit of individualism that is sometimes expressed as contentiousness about various issues.  A commonly heard reputation is that people from around here are opinionated and willing to express their opinions.  Sometimes in the local newspaper (there are two local papers and they both come out once a week) letters to the editor get pretty involved with issues and arguments one way or the other.  Another just as common reputation of this area is that when something goes wrong or someone needs help, that the same people who are contending with each other show up shoulder to shoulder to lend a hand.  And people often share with me how they experience a very warm welcome in Homer and in Alaska in general.  That certainly has been our experience.  The welcoming spirit of the area seems to me to contend with the tendency toward expressing strong opinions and living out some contentiousness.  I find that to be a rich irony.

In any case, I like a lot of what I see in this interesting place.  And hopefully I am more a part of the welcoming, tolerant spirit and the lending a hand to those in need- than I am caught up in any contentiousness.  Not that I don't have lots of opinions.

Unfortunately, I am a skeptical, pessimistic person. I may not always let anyone in on this little secret, but it is one of my many flaws. Tonite Russell said he was gonna do something for a guy and he did not know it yet at that point. So, he took up a "love offering" for our buddy Galen (love offering in the church is basically extra money to give to a person or cause, in my experiences it has primarily been for someone who speaks or does special music in a church service). Then again I have been in few churches in which the church family literally meets any financial needs of a fellow member.  It has been my experience that churches are unlikely to help you if you really need, and if they are gonna help you, you would have to be a member, regular attender, (know very personally staff members of the church, etc). However, fortunately most churches have actual "Christians" in them. When I was in high school my parents had some financial difficulties. It climaxed  to a point in which we spent a southeast Texas July without an air conditioner and part of August. That was the most miserable experience I remember in my entire life. Fortunately, God had someone we didn't even know, who used their resources the way I have always wanted to pattern my own habits after. Needless to say, we again had air conditioning. This led to the most amazing time in my life spiritually, seeing Christianity lived out was one of the most amazing things to see. Now, I have seen plenty of the opposite in recent years but that is for other blogs...

Back to Galen.

-Russell passed 2 hats around the room of maybe 50ish COLLEGE students. He explained Galen's situation how his house is in San Leon and it suffered major damage. The money was collected and being counted when Russell told him the church had a check for him of a rather significant amount. Russell guessed the final amount of what was in the hats @ $150. He retracted and low-balled that guess. Once, the money was counted it was far more than either guess. With the check from the church being almost 10times the amount the college group had given "at the drop of a hat".  Remember my pessimistic, skeptical self, even after having seen the provision of God and the existence of few Christians who live out their beliefs, only figured their would be $50 or less. Yet again I am humbled and again reminded that their are some who will sacrifice and take care of a brother who is in need as they should if they trust God to provide for them. I honestly struggle with this idea still. Regardless, of the experiences I have had, and the times I have seen God prove Himself, I still don't fully trust He will always provide for me. I haven't yet thought all angles with this through as to what to work on etc. but I do always find a situation in which I am given the opportunity to help someone with a need and either hold back or don't help at all. I am always convicted of this. Obviously, something I need to work on.

Anyway, seeing these types of things always break my heart but in a good way. It reminds me of the summer in which I had a physical need and "suffered" for a short period of time, when I was blessed through a Christian man who had nothing to gain nor any relationship with me or my family. He saw a need and he met it, I still hope in the future if meant to be that I can be this person. Maybe I will not have unlimited amounts of money or resources,  but being able to help someone in need in any other way hopefully can have the same effects.

PeACe

daneK

However, today as I stopped at a local gas station there where two new sales women and of course I asked them how they are doing. First they looked at me with big eyes and then answered: "We are doing fine now. Having such nice customer like you". This time it was on me to be astonished and I thanked them for being nice too. Then they explained to me that they had made a bad experience with some earlier customers but that I now had made their day.

Yes it is true that God's love holds the victory in the end. We have to stick to it no matter how often we get a turn down.

 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures for ever. Ps 107:1

wish you His love in your life

Volker

P.S. HOW ARE YOU DOING?