This Is Kristin

is …Amy’ talking about the topic of children and women forced into the sex trade.

“This is the form modern slavery takes. Torture. Abuse. The breaking of a human life. The shattering of a spirit.

The US Department of State is fighting human trafficking. But it’s going to take much more than that. It’s going to take each of us working together to rescue and restore the victims. It’s going to take each of us working together to prevent more women and children from being harmed in this way. The governments of this world can make the laws, but we must be the ones to live with compassion and integrity and bring healing.”

…. that is the question rolling around in a lot of people’s minds…. Is it a fad? Is it that much better for you? etc etc….?

Here are some things I found:

Going organic means~
~ Avoiding artificial additives that find their way into foods.
~ Avoiding agrochemical residues on foods.
~ Organic grown crops are higher in nutrient content. (higher content of vitamin A and C) due to the way the organic farmer nourishes the soil, before and after crops are planted and harvested.
~ Non organic produce has a much higher water content, and therefore contains less of the essential vitamins and minerals.
~ Organic foods have rich tastes and textures
~ You can decide to choose organic food for taste, safety, or for the environment, and choose even just a couple of things to buy organically, and it will be better for your health, and especially the health of your growing children.

Best things to start buying organic are:
~root vegetables, like carrots,
~salad greens, lettuce
~beef
~organic formula milk.

~What do you think about organic food, what have you found about it? What do you buy organic?

… is my husband Brody who is talking about Compassion International.

“There are few better moments in a parent’s life than when they see their son smile, or hear their daughter laugh. It’s infectious. Try it. The next time you are around a baby, and it gives you that squinted-eye, no-tooth grin try not to smile back. The next time you hear a little girl on the playground laughing and screaming as she goes down the slide, try not to smile with her. That moment is the moment when everything around us shrinks. When the world slows for only a second. When war, hunger, death, sadness, and pain, are all reduced to something we barely notice.

Reduced to something that’s about half an inch…”

If you are looking for Vegan baking mixes through mail order, or a cool little bakery with a bike through window in Portland Oregon, go check out Black Sheep Bakery and pick up some

“Everything but your momma cookies”

Describing this cookie is best done with a list:

Soft and sweet cookie dough
Hearty rolled oats
Luscious shredded coconut
Crunchy slivered almonds
Plump and chewy raisins
Warm cinnamon
Smooth chocolate chips

What do you give the cookie that has it all? Well, a little light oil, pure maple syrup, applesauce and a 350 degree oven.

~This looks yummy… I’m not vegan, but it still looks good, and I’d go there if I lived in the area, just to bike through!

for July 18th was Lorijo speaking about Bridge of Hope ministry.

and Today’s blogger is euphrony speaking about Blood Water Mission and Northwest Assistance ministries.

is… Shawn wIth a W. With some great ideas for serving locally.

I am reading this book about green cleaning. I highly recommend it. It gives many reasons as to why you should use green cleaners, and what chemicals are in many cleaners, and the risks they pose. It offers many tips, and choices for cleaning, recipes for cleaners, along with storage and disposal tips.

Because I am reading this book, I will be posting tid-bits from it on my “Monday’s= Green topics” day. Pick it up, and read along with me, and we can discuss here!

~Today’s tid-bit is on the topic of chemicals….”More than 85.000 synthetic chemicals are in use today, and another 500 are added to the mix each year….The human body can handle small amounts of poisons, but it begins to malfunction when burdened with toxic overload. Many chemicals are stored in body fat, while others migrate to vital organs, to the sheaths surrounding the nerves, or to muscles, the brain or spinal cord. Surely it’s not coincidental that the increased use of manufactured chemicals coincides with a number of alarming health trends. For instance, breast cancer rates are 30 times higher in the U.S. than in less industrialized parts of Africa, while the incidence of asthma among preschool- age children has risen at least 160 percent since 1980.”

~What do you like/ dislike about the idea of green cleaning?

…. is Andrew Osenga speaking about the Dalit, in India.

“We were just surrounded by incredible oppression. It’s not just poverty. Poverty is when no one has anything. Oppression is when one of the richest countries in the world has over half of its people living in poverty.

And that’s where Dalit Freedom Network steps in.”

~At the church I am attending, we are doing a new series called, “Authentic Christianity,” and today’s sermon was especially good, I felt.
The pastor was talking about how, to the Pharisees, every big and little thing was something to argue about, dividing fellowship and that they felt they knew the answers to all those things. He used this quote by Augustine, “In essentials, unity; in non essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” He explained how the “essentials, ” of our Christian faith, that we can all have unity on is the love of Christ and salvation, that everything under that to argue about divides us. He explained how important it is to continue to be teachable, and continually examine the state of your heart, using biblical knowledge to set yourself free, which will help others, instead of using biblical knowledge to condemn others.
He said, “If you want to see what a Pharisee looks like, look in the mirror, because there’s a little Pharisee in all of us.”

“I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” ~John 17:23

~is Tim Harms….