JUNO

Just got around to seeing the movie JUNO with Katey and Clay. Pro-life and pro-adoption. I loved it.

What do you do when your 14 yr old begs to spend the day with you?

You drop everything and spend the day with her. OK, don't really be impressed, it took me weeks to drop everything and give her a day. But today was the day. We went to Target, went to the mall with her and a friend. Spent HOURS at the mall, eating, shopping, laughing etc.... came home, rented 27 dresses, watched the movie.
May there never be a time that I am not willing to spend the day with my teenager if she is willing to spend the day with me.

Pray, Pray, Pray

One of contemporary Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman’s six children was killed this afternoon when she was struck by a car said to be driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

The child, Maria, age 5, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
She was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.

The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home at about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see the 5-year-old in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.
“It appears to be a terrible accident,’’ McPherson said.

No charges are expected, she said. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time, McPherson said.

Veteran singer/songwriter Chapman and his wife Mary Beth have long been supporters of international adoption, having brought three girls from China into their family. Maria is one of their adopted daughters.

The couple is so active they formed an organization, Shaohannah’s Hope, to aid families wanting to adopt.
The tragedy was announced during services at Harpeth Hills Church of Christ, which the family attends. The young girl had just graduated from the church preschool.

Most of the family was at Vanderbilt children’s hospital after the accident and could not be contacted.
The long gravel driveway leading to the home west of Franklin was blocked off by Williamson County sheriff’s deputies.
“The critical response team of the THP is reconstructing the accident,” McPherson said. “The district attorney’s office was consulted.”

Chapman was in the news in April when he was inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame.

Water’s Edge (youth group) Talk- how your serving can change the world-----May 18

This is the talk I am giving tonight to the Jr. High and Sr. High youth groups at church. It makes me feel old because I am 44 and have not yet changed the world. My prayer is that the Lord will continue to narrow my visions to things He is passionate about. And broaden my impact for Him.


Tonight we are talking about how serving changes the world
When I think about changing the world – it’s a huge idea, to big for me to grasp, and you are probably thinking as one person, I can’t do anything big enough to change the world.

But how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time
And how do you change the world by serving one person at a time

I have three things you need to keep in mind to change the world:
The first is 1. It can be done
1 timothy 4:12 says
“Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”
Can you imagine if world change started in our church and it started with Water’s Edge.
Cnn has heroes awards – you can go on line and nominate people and see the varies winners and one of the categories is young wonders
Here are just a few:
Kayla Cornale, 18, of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, who developed a musical system to improve communications with autistic people

Pat Pedraja is only 12.
When he was diagnosed with leukemia he learned that minorities like himself make up less than a third of the U.S. bone marrow registry--so he started Driving for Donors. He travels the country to encourage minorities to register. This year, he signed up more than 5,000 donors in three months.

According to UNICEF, one of every six people on Earth lacks access to safe drinking water. So Sixteen-year-old Ryan Hreljac, who lives near Ottawa, Ontario, is working to change that. To date, the Ryan's Well Foundation has built 266 wells in 12 developing countries, bringing clean water to more than 435,000 people.
These are great examples of young people who served and are impacting the world

The second thing you need to keep in mind to change the world is
2.Your impact can be eternal
Right now in Hollywood it is very hip to help countries internationally, angelie jjolie and bread pitt are paving the way, and it is wonderful but if the people they impact don’t know jesus, they have only impacted 50 -80 years of their eternity.

Last summer, The Voice of the Martyrs which is a non-profit, interdenominational organization with a vision for aiding Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ.
invited eight ordinary teenagers from around the United States and Australia to meet the underground church of Vietnam. Their mission was simple-to bring Bibles and other help to Christians in a restricted nation. 


Can you imagine at your age right now, smuggling Bibles into Viet Nam? Kids your age are doing it.

The third way your serving can change the world
is by giving what you have to God

I want to take you to John 6:5-13 This is when Jesus feeds the five thousand
He’s been teaching all day and they have no food for these people
In Vs 8 one of the disciples says “here is a boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish how far will they go among so many?” but Jesus takes it and starts to feed the people and then in verse13 they gathered the leftovers and it filled 12 baskets.
One small boy willing to share his lunch in a situation that seemed pointless got to see God multiply it!!

A few years ago there was a boy at my school, cfs, who needed to do community service hours for school – so he decided to collect money for an organization (International Justice Mission) who helps free modern slaves in other countries –where kids are enslaved in sex trades, working in factories and fields and so much more. His service project has grown into an arm of IJM. He has spoken all over the world and won awards and has helped so many people because he took something small and gave it to God. Lets watch this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3_V84gbUZs (if unable to see this video cut and paste it into your internet browswer)

Let me end with this quote by Margaret mead..
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

Let’s pray

Three Words Only

Last Sunday: Breast Cancer Walk
Monday: Rest at home
Tuesday: Teacher Appreciation Day
Wednesday: Karate and Lacrosse
Thursday: Eat dinner out
Friday: Grading till late
Saturday: Sports rained out
This Sunday:

Chick-Fil-A

Katey has started looking up info on how to run for Leesburg town council. When she couldn't find the information she was looking for, she emailed somebody for more information. She said she wants to run to on the platform of getting Leesburg a Chick-Fil-A. I am guessing that she does not meet the age requirement and wouldn't win on just one issue if she ran, but the fact that she would even be discussing this is a credit to her civics teacher this year, Mrs. Robeson. So, if you like Chick- Fil - A, consider voting for her if she makes the ballot!

Student 'Twitters' his way out of Egyptian jail

By Mallory Simon
CNN

(CNN) -- James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone.
James Karl Buck sent a message using Twitter which helped get him out of an Egyptian jail

Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested April 10.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. "Arrested."

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt -- the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier -- were alerted that he was being held.

Twitter is a social-networking blog site that allows users to send status updates, or "tweets," from cell phones, instant messaging services and Facebook in less than 140 characters.
Hossam el-Hamalawy, a Cairo-based blogger at UC-Berkeley, was one of the people who got word of Buck's arrest.
"At first I was worried about his safety," el-Hamalawy said.

Then, el-Hamalawy took to the Web and wrote regular updates in his own blog to spread the information Buck was sending by Twitter. Nobody was sure how long Buck would be able to communicate. See Buck describe what he saw and captured on film during the protests
But Buck was able to send updates every couple of hours saying he was still detained, he had spoken to the prosecutor, he still had not been charged, and he was worried about Maree.

"Usually the first thing the police go for is the detainees' cameras and cellular phones," el-Hamalawy said. "I'm surprised they left James with his phone."

Twitter is normally used to keep groups of people connected in less urgent situations. Watch how Twitter works »
But Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, said he and others knew that the service could have wide-reaching effects early on, when the San-Francisco, California-based company used it to communicate during earthquakes.

Stone said that as the service got more popular, they began to hear stories of people using Twitter during natural disasters with a focus on activism and journalism.

Buck's urgent message is proof of the value of Twitter, Stone said. Buck's entry set off a chain of events that led to his college hiring a lawyer on his behalf.

"James' case is particularly compelling to us because of the simplicity of his message -- one word, 'arrested' -- and the speed with which the whole scene played out," Stone said. "It highlights the simplicity and value of a real-time communication network that follows you wherever you go."
Initially, the Twitter message was a precaution -- something people could trace in case anything went wrong, Buck said.
"The most important thing on my mind was to let someone know where we were so that there would be some record of it ... so we couldn't [disappear]," Buck said. "As long as someone knew where we were, I felt like they couldn't do their worst [to us] because someone, at some point, would be checking in on them."

Buck began using Twitter as a way to keep up in touch with the bloggers at the heart of his project and the events going on in Egypt that he intended to cover. Buck was working on a multimedia project on Egypt's "new leftists and the blogosphere" as part of his master's degree thesis.
Buck found out from a Twitter message that a planned protest against rising food prices and decreasing wages in Mahalla had been shut down by Egyptian authorities April 6.

The next day, tensions rose as family and friends of protesters who had been detained took to the streets, eventually throwing Molotov cocktails and setting tires on fire, he said.
On April 10, Buck returned to Mahalla, where protests continued.

"I was worried about getting arrested, so I made sure to stay at a distance from the protest so there was no way I could be accused of being part of it," Buck said. "Mohammed and I had a bad sense; it was really tense."
When the men tried to escape, they were detained. That's when Buck thought of Twitter and sent out his message.
Buck and Maree were interrogated, released and then detained again by the same police officers.
"We are really worried that we are off the radar now," Buck said.

Eventually Buck was released, but Maree was transferred to another police station.
As he left the station, Buck reached into his pocket, as he did less than 24 hours earlier.
Another one-word blog entry said it all: "Free."
As happy as he was to be free, Buck said, his biggest frustration was leaving behind the translator who helped protect him during the riots.

Although the Twitter message helped him find contacts to get out of prison, he says it was more the power of the network he had as an American that enabled him to be released so quickly.
"Mohammed was sitting next to me," he said. "But he didn't have the network to call. I tried to use my network to shield him until they tore us apart."

Twitter may not have been able to secure Maree's release, but Buck hopes his initial reason for using Twitter will help find his missing friend.

"It was my big hope that people would get [the message] right away and at least put a thumbtack on the map as far as our location," Buck said.
There has been no official confirmation regarding Maree's whereabouts.
Attiya Shakran, press counsel for the Egyptian Consulate in San Francisco, said Maree was released April 13.
Maree's brother Ahmed Maree said that he had not heard from his brother and that he believes he is still in jail.
Government officials in Egypt could neither confirm nor deny Maree's release, despite repeated requests for comment.

Buck is now using his story and Twitter page as a way to rally people looking for answers about Maree's status. He's gone as far as publishing the phone number of the press counsel of the Egyptian Consulate in San Francisco and posting a petition for Maree's release.
For Buck, the main story is no longer about his quest for freedom from jail; it's a quest to find answers and, eventually, find his friend.