“The idea is simple. Give people who live on the streets a camera. Publish the results.”
This is a neat idea, and some of the pictures are really cool. There’s a certain quiet sadness I feel when looking at them.
Go check out, Homeless Camera and let me know what you think.
“This prison, complete with barred prison cells measuring only 8′ wide, now holds women and their children, picked up in immigrant sweeps by the US Border Patrol……..Hutto currently “houses” about 400 inmates, 200 of whom are children.
Here’s what we are doing to these little children:
Children are forced to wear prison uniforms.
Children over 5-years of age are kept in prison cells separated from their mothers.
Children are allowed recreation only 1-hour per day, and often are not allowed outside at all.
Children are being treated like prisoners in violation of federal law.
Children are being denied access to education, healthcare, and their families in violation of federal and international human rights laws and treaties.”
Read more about this here
~Jeanine talks today about her experiences serving with the organization called, YWAM.
“……The reality of all this did not hit me until I was sharing dishwashing duty with one of the recently returned Khmer refugees, a woman in her late 20’s. She had spent the past 12 years in a refugee camp. Her parents and her siblings all died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. And here she was, back in her home country, the country she fled when she was a teenager. Doing dishes. No idea where she could go, how to pick up the pieces of her life – and were there even pieces left to pick up?
I have seldom felt so humbled, coming from a life of such comfort – only because of the place I was born. ” ~Jeanine
~”Here is a thought question. How many people are basing their opinion of God on how they see you act in time of stress or trouble?”
This question has been lingering in my head ever since I read it. Scientifically, they talk about the fight or flight response. Where you make the choice when faced with stress, to fight, and deal with it, or run from it. I am learning, that there is more to it, when you are a child of God.
In the bible, Jonah and Paul were both called by God. “Paul was compelled by his calling to Rome. Jonah was repelled by his calling to Nineveh.”
Jonah fled, and Paul obeyed. Both were put on ships, and both endured storms. Both were affecting the others around them.
Jonah’s presence on the ship, caused all the others on the ship to endure a storm, and while Jonah slept, the others were desperately trying to survive.
Paul’s presence on the ship admist the storm, was calm. He offered the people courage and bread, and because of his mere presence, all 276 people that were on board with him were under the protection of God.
Ultimately, both Jonah and Paul survived those storms, but what went on during the storm was dramatically different. “An attitude of obedience makes a difference to the servant and to those close by. Servants of God can dramatically affect the lives of others positively or negatively.”
(all quotes taken from “To Live is Christ” bible study by Beth Moore.) The scriptures that I am talking about in this are.
Thoughts?
~ I was feeling pretty awful the other day, and praying to God that I needed to be comforted. I got out of my car, and two neighborhood children ran up to me and hugged me tightly. I felt like I was being hugged by God himself.
~It’s so awesome to see how children respond to the nudging of God with no hesitation.~
Many people have said that we can learn a lot from children, and I whole heartedly agree. In this situation, they had no reason to hug me, they just had a sudden urge to randomly run up and hug me. I didn’t need to tell them that I was sad, and they didn’t even need to see me crying, they just responded to a sudden desire to run and hug.
As I grow older, I don’t often run and hug people for no reason, but if I think about it, I’ve wanted to at times. Maybe that desire to be affectionate within me, is coming from God, to comfort a person who is hurting inside, that I may never know what is going on.
To go along with Kat’s daily challenges, I am going to add one of my own today for my blog readers: pray that God would use you to comfort someone’s unknown need today, and when He urges you, randomly hug them. They may feel as though they were hugged by God.
~Todays blogger, Stephen, is speaking on the blood water mission.
“In an interview Derek did recently with The Washington Times, while talking about what he is rebelling against and his involvement with Blood:Water Mision, he said “A mother and her children who have to walk 15 miles a day every day to get dirty water to put into their bodies with a broken immune system that will eventually kill them is the right thing to rebel against.”
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” ~Matthew 6:14-15
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” ~ Luke 6:37
“”If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” ~Luke 17:3-4
“bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”~ Colossians 3:13
The Greek word for Forgiveness is aphiemi, and some of it’s definitions are, “to let go, let alone, let be. to disregaurd. to give up, to keep no longer. to leave one by not taking him as companion.”
That last definition stood out to me, because it seems that if you choose not to forgive, then that sin that was committed against you, hangs onto you like a “companion” in your every day life. I think that often times people feel that forgiving means that they are still able to bring up the past sins and use them as weapons. I don’t see that as the definition of forgiveness. “to keep no longer,” does not say to me, “until I am mad, and then I can bring up your past sins.”
If we see people through the eyes of their past, then we are not looking at them the way that God does. We are not looking at them in grace. Allow each day to be new for you, and for them. Forgive each other. Move on, and live your life.
“If you, God, kept record on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.” Psalm 130:3-4 (message)
~Todays blogger is Stephanie who is shedding light on a very important topic in the US.
~ I woke up in the middle of the night to the baby crying, and as I got out of bed with my eyes still closed and half asleep, I fell over.
Both my legs were asleep.
In my delusional state of mind I thought to myself, “I must lay here, otherwise I’ll drop the baby.” So there I laid on the floor for who knows how long, until I realized that if I could get up and walk into the baby’s room, I most likely wouldn’t suddenly fall over and drop him.
Weird, I don’t know how I was sleeping to cause both my legs to fall asleep, has that ever happened to you?
Today’s blogger for the 40 day fast is Chaotic Hammer who is speaking honestly about how his heart has been changed for those living with AIDS.
