Sister Support Needed!

I've recently learned of two non-profits that could benefit from our support. The first, The Colour Sisterhood: The sisterhood seeks to champion the cause of the orphan child and widow, to come alongside women (near and far) who are facing challenge, and it ultimately seeks to influence nations with goodness and answers that are to be found in God (from their website)

The second, Kiva, allows you to loan money to an entrepreneur, many of whom are from third world countires. You choose the person/enterprise you want to support and loan them the money through an online service. They have 9 months to pay you back. You can do this for as little as $25. You can help men and women begin their own business and become self-supporting. How cool is that!

Heaven on Earth

I'm reading an absolutely wonderful book called The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns, the CEO of World Vision. I am on fire to read more, and I implore all my friends to read this book so that we can talk about it together, and better yet, be the people God created us to be. Richard Stearns lived in a 10 bedroom fieldstone farmhouse on 5 acres of land, he drove a company provided Jaguar to work, he was the CEO of Lenox China making boocoo bucks. He left it all to serve God as the CEO of World Vision. Part of the reason I like it so much is that he really didn't want to, but, although extremely reluctant, and although he ignored the really strong hints God put in his way, he still answered God's call. I think I can be a lot like that! I don't even know where to start with everything that is speaking to me . . . consider the following quotes:

• ... as Christians, are we really given the options of turning away from the world's problems? Does God permit that?
• . . . Jesus asked a great deal of those who followeed Hiim. He expected much more from them than just believing He was God's Son. He challenged them to embrace radically different standards, to love their neighbors and their enemies, to forgive thos who wronged them, to lift up the poor and downtrodden, to share what they had with those who had little, and to live lives of sacrifice. Then he likened their effect on the world around them to that which light has on darkness.
• . . .the good news was meant to change the world. Belief is not enough. Worship is not enough. Personal morality is not enough. And Christian community is not enough. God has always demanded more. When we committed ourselves to following Christ, we also committed to living our lives in such a way that a watchingworld would catch a glimpse of God's charager--His love, justice, and mercy--through our words, actions, and behavior. . . Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option.
• What if two billion people embraced this vision of God transforming ou world--through them. Imagine it. Indeed, what if even two thousand people took their faith to the next level--what might God do? Two thousand years ago the world was changed forever by just twelve. It can happen again.

And this is just the introduction to the book! Here is the last paragraph of the forward:

The word gospel literally means "good news." Jesus declared that He had come to "preach good news to the poor". (Luke 4:18) . . . What "good news" have God's people brought to the world's three billion poor? What "gospel" have millions of Africa's AIDS orphans seen? What gospel have most of us embraced in the twenty-first centruy? The answer is found in the title of this book: a gospel with a hole in it.

A Great Summer Read!

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton is a must read book. It didn't keep me quite as spell bound as The Thirteenth Tale, but all during the day I would be wondering what would come next, and look forward to coming home and beginning to read again.

It's a little bit The Secret Garden, a little bit The Thirteenth Tale, a little bit Charles Dickens and a little bit The Fairy Tales Grimm! I had some trouble in the beginning as the skips between eras didn't seem smooth to me, but it wasn't long before I was drawn into the story (I even resisted mightily the impulse to skip to the end and find out what was going on). I wanted to savor the wondering I had as I read and tried to figure out what would happen next.

A little girl on a ship is abandoned and adopted by a sailor and his wife. A family living in poverty is being followed by a sinister man. A young girl finds out she's adopted on her coming of age birthday. A granddaughter discovers she has inherited a cottage in England. An impish girl makes up stories to entice the neighborhood children. What weaves these circumstances together? You'll have to read it to find out!