Disturbed

There was an article in the paper today titled New Death Penalty Law Concerns County Attorney. I clicked to see what was going on and voted in a poll that was included.

The poll asked, "A new law makes prosecution of death penalty cases in North Carolina more difficult. Do you support the death penalty?"

I am deeply disturbed that 57.82% of respondents voted that "we don't use it enough."

Seriously?!


6.80% Never

20.41% In rare cases

14.97% In most cases

57.82% We don't use it enough

Without getting into politics, I realize that there is overcrowding, etc... in US prisons and I realize that the system is flawed - but I find it disturbing that so many people feel that killing someone is a good thing to do. Who do we think we are? Isn't it enough that they will be judged by the most high Judge upon their death as it is? Perhaps not... but did we stop and think that we, too, will be judged??? We who sentence them to that death.

Another article this week from CNN had, what I thought was, a great solution to some of the prison problems. If only...

600 children DIE

In the time it takes me to write this, 600 children will die in Africa.

600.

According to the World Health Organization, roughly 250 million people suffer from malaria each year; of those, one million die. In Africa alone, a child dies from malaria every 30 seconds.

30 SECONDS.

While malaria is common in other parts of the world, 90% of malaria related deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa.


FACT If not treated, malaria can often be fatal.

FACT 3.3 billion people (half of the world's population) are at risk of malaria.

FACT Young children and pregnant women are at highest risk of malaria.

FACT Long lasting insecticidal nets can be used to reduce malaria, treated nets last 3-5 years.

FACT Malaria is preventable and treatable.

What can you do???

A few months ago, a maternity clinic in Mugusu sub-county, Fort Portal (western Uganda), was provided with mattresses, linens, and various other supplies to better provide for patients. (Kids with Knowledge, a program of Hope Aid volunteer Parteek, spearheaded this project.)

After learning about the recent clinic upgrades, my friend Abbie decided to start a campaign to provide for the new mothers who would be receiving care at the clinic. Upon hearing the news, Hope Aid country directors, David and Linda, were thrilled!

A week later I received an email with news that a pregnant woman in the village had died of malaria. David and Linda wrote to ask if we might be able to provide some mosquito nets. We want to try and raise enough money to buy 100 nets. Each net is $8. Therefore, $800 is our goal.

PLEASE HELP US!

We are selling t-shirts to help raise money for nets... each shirt is $16, enough for two mosquito nets.

BUY A SHIRT, SAVE A LIFE... literally.

We currently have sizes SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE, and XL.

Shipping is FREE! If we sell 20 shirts, we will meet our goal. If we sell 40 shirts, we will DOUBLE our goal! We have 10 shirts in each size, S, M, L, XL. Help us SELL OUT!

In case you are not able to tell what the shirts say:

Front

(image of mosquito) OR (YOU)

IT ONLY TAKES ONE.

Back

ONE BITE KILLS.

ONE NET SAVES.

CHOOSE (YOU)

...buy a net, make a difference

http://www.hopeaid.org/

ONLINE DONATIONS CAN BE MADE AT http://hopeaid.org/donate.aspx

In the paypal field, please let me know what size shirt(s) you would like and your address.

Sponsor Challenge!

Friends -- while surfing around Facebook tonight, I had a chance to chat with Kees, a fellow Compassion sponsor. He told me that he's looking for a sponsor for the above little girl, Celina. She's from Bolivia - which is awesome because Kees sponsors several children there and visits frequently. Here is a message from Kees:

---------
It was nice to chat with you today on Facebook. This little girl lives on the side of a mountain about 14,000 feet high between El Alto and La Paz. She lives with just her mother and there are 3 children in the family. I have a child in that same student center. Her name is Mishel. She is on my facebook too.

Sponsoring Celina involves:
1. Praying for her.
2. Writing her a letter of encouragement from time to time.
3. $38/month.

The order that I wrote this in is the right order. The prayers and the letters are far more important than the $38. The reason being is that the children really love their sponsors and they really look for the letters from the sponsors.

I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone may have. This is an interview, that I did with the President of Compassion. It also provides a lot of information. Thank you so much for looking into helping this little girl!

Prov. 31:8,9
Blessings, Kees

--------
I've been a Compassion sponsor since 1993 and if I wasn't maxed out I would love to sponsor Celina. If you've always wondered about financial integrity of some of these organizations, I challenge you to try Compassion. They have both external AND internal audits. My friend Ceri has visited a number of her children and I love her stories about how the project staff maintains folders on each child with copies of letters, school reports, etc... It may sound like a lot of money each month to some but I like to look at it as an investment. Growing up, my grandmother paid for most everything for me... I am forever grateful for that investment as it made me who I am today. I see it the same way for these children.

What better investment is there than investing in the life of someone else?

If you're interested in sponsoring Celina, leave me a message and I'll hook you up with Kees!

Please help.

Without going into detail, I'm asking for your suggestions, expertise...

Girls, what do your husbands/boyfriends/partners do to make you feel:

...special
...important
...loved


????

Where I've been...

I just realized it's been over a week (ok, two weeks...) since I posted. Ah! See, I was behind this truck and well, somewhere in between the fresh corn and bright red apples, I decided to follow him and got lost.

...actually, Chandler had an interview in VA on Friday so he got into town at 1:45am Friday and we got up at 4am to drive to VA for the interview. It went well! We're hoping to hear something in the next few weeks. Prayers please!


We had a good time for the whirlwind trip. Did a lot of nothing... but we did pick out his wedding band so that is some good progress! Pictures to follow... we ordered two rings as we couldn't decide on one so we'll pick when we see them "in person." I'm just excited to start taking pictures of the bands together! Slightly bummed that he picked titanium, but only for aesthetic purposes of photos so I'll get over it. It's what he decided he liked best so I went with it. We went in looking for white gold or palladium and ended up ordering two titaniums. Not completely sure we'll end up with either but most likely we will. Hmm... actually. Maybe tomorrow I'll call and see if they might order us a regular palladium so we can see it. Not a bad idea.

I want to see this...

...and I think you might want to see it too.

Read this post

First a background... I have an undisclosed number of blogs that I love and many of them are adoption blogs since I've always known I would adopt. Last week, one of my blog friends (so actually, I used to just be more of a stalker until we had email exhange!) posted this.

Read the latest post.

How amazing is that? Truly.

Let it inspire you!

Need some help...

I've been reading the Bible. Cover to cover. It's surprisingly quite interesting and I find that depending on what's going on, it can be difficult to put down. (How many more words ending in "ing" could I have possibly used in that sentence?!)

Somewhere in Leviticus (?) there was a story about an orgy. Someone was upset about it and so he put a spear through the offending parties' genitals and they were killed. Gross. Ok, that happens... a few pages after that there was a story of Balaam and his donkey. He was told not to go somewhere but he went anyway. He was riding his donkey and the donkey stopped suddenly in the middle of the road. Balaam was mad so he got off the donkey, kicked it, yelled at it, then got back on and they continued down the road. Next time, the donkey veered off the road and Balaam was thrown (or something like that, either way he was mad). He yelled, beat the donkey. This happened another time. The donkey had been seeing an angel with a sword in the road and was trying to protect the man.

At some point in the scripture, it says "God gave speech to the donkey and the donkey said..."

Ummm.... is it just me or is there something wrong with this?! I'm not doubting God, or perhaps I may be, but this isn't something we talk about in church. Why? Why skip over things that don't make sense?

Anyway................ so I talked to someone I know, J, who is in seminary school. Her response was "must something that is true be factual?"

Ugh.

Help me. I would LOVE to know your thoughs on this. Does something HAVE to be factual to be TRUE? I cannot think of much... but it makes sense. I also talked with K about this and she brought up a great point about how some scripture was written... i.e. wine was plentiful and people drank a lot and they are the same people who wrote the Word. So... ok point taken. Still, the more important question is above. However, the alcohol is also a great point. And it makes sense. Reference Esther 1:7-8 (I think, I know it's in 1-12 somewhere!).

Please share!

JAGged Edge

A looooooong, long time ago I mentioned a few things that I couldn't talk about yet. NOW is the time! Some of you may have already seen the news from Jess or Abbie's blog but for others, this is "BRAND NEW INFORMATION!" (Phoebe)

A couple of my superbly (it's a word today) awesome webesties and I have been chatting for months about our craft endeavors... we thought that it would be way cool to have a place where we could write about our crafts, sell things, get some input, etc... and after a few weeks of slaving away on ideas JAGged Edge was born!

We are PUMPED about the "opening" of our blog/shoppe and hope you'll stop by to visit us there! I feel SO privilaged to even be associated with these two girls! They have the best ideas and are truly BRILLIANT!!! I have had SO much fun hanging out with them online and I just know that JAGged Edge will be a hit. (What are you waiting for?! Go check it out already!)

We've already posted a few things and we're open to ideas, suggestions, requests, you name it!

See you at JAG!