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Showing posts from May, 2011

A Debt of Gratitude

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We pause on Memorial Day to remember U.S. soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, dying in military service. In December 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance Resolution was passed asking all Americans to pause at 3pm on Memorial Day in a moment of silence or by listening to Taps to reflect and honor those who have given their all to protect and defend the freedom of the citizens of the United States. One Nation Under God

MeanStreet Riders

As you may have read or heard, there is a new band called MeanStreet Riders on the music scene. They are motorcycle riders who enjoy making music. The band’s “Social Media Publicist”, MeanStreet Mary, asked if I would care to review their pre-release of their debut CD due out in June, and I agreed. So who are the MeanStreet Riders? Well, according to their biography information, “The MeanStreet Riders rock music group was formed from a group of songwriters that both ride motorcycles and write music about their love of the open road its culture and the freedom it brings.” Their music is a blend of Southern Rock n’ Roll and modern country. The lyrics are all in the spirit of motorcycle riders true to form. With tunes like “High on the Hawg”, “Kiss it All Goodbye”, “129” (you know – US 129 aka “The Dragons Tale” at Deals Gap, TN), “I’ve had a Good Ride”, “Eye of the Hurricane”, and “Souls of Chrome”, the listener quickly comes away with the impression this is a band that truly live

If I Could Change the World

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"I could change the world, I would be the sunlight in your universe You would think my love was really something good Baby, if I could change the world" - Eric Clapton (photo source: alabamarockcompany.com ) The evening news parades a host of video footage of the devastation in Alabama after tornadoes ravaged through the area a few weeks ago and the devastation of the Tsunami that struck Japan. We regularly see images of the homeless on the streets of the cities of our nation and the abandoned children around the world who are hungry and without a family to care for them. After a while it all becomes overwhelming and depressing. We cannot change the world and eliminate all the suffering that we continue to see. We all grew up with teachers telling us things like, "did you bring enough for everyone?", and leaders telling us things like, "If I did that for you, then I would have to do it for everyone." And, we are left with the idea that we have

A Hand UP, not a Hand Out

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(image source: http://www.habitat-ncg.org ) An organization that I feel strongly about is Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) . There are a lot of nonprofit organizations in the world doing a lot of great things, but this is one I am strongly behind. Because 95 million people in the United States and according to the United Nations, 1.6 billion people worldwide live in substandard housing, Habitat has dedicated itself to construct decent and affordable housing. In clean, stable, decent housing: Families can provide stability for their children. A family’s sense of dignity and pride grow. Health, physical safety, and security improve Educational and job prospects increase. (source: http://www.habitat.org/how/why.aspx ) Habitat's mission statement is: "Habitat for Humanity works in partnership with God and people everywhere, from all walks of life, to develop communities with people in need by building and renovating houses so that there are decent hous

Project Jonas

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As I previously announced, my wife and I are heading to Venezuela this summer as a part of a mission team assisting Project Jonas , a home for troubled boys in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Most of the boys chose to enter the home after living on the street and running into all sorts of street life trouble. They range from age 7 to age 16. The workers in the home give the boys a disciplined life style, provide positive role models, and are actively helping them reshape their lives. While there, we will be working on renovations on the home that they all live in and working with the leaders in the home as well as the boys. We covet your prayers for the team going down, the leadership of the home, and for the boys themselves. We have almost reached the halfway mark of the funding we need for this trip. I invite you to partner with us in this journey by contributing. Any contribution however great or small is greatly appreciated and of course is tax deductible. you may contribute b

A Blogger Centerline Day - ABCD

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OK, it is May 1st, and Gary France put down the challenge for us to participate in the ABCD challenge. The rules were had to be taken May 1st, you had to be in the picture and it had to include the center line of a road. Well, as it turned out, today was my turn to work on the traffic team at our church, Browns Bridge Community Church . We have two Sunday morning services which draw around 1,200-1,500 per service. Needless to say that is a lot of cars landing on one piece of real estate at one time. So our traffic teams consist of 15-20 volunteers trying to keep things moving. Today just happened to be the rotation on the calendar for our crew, so I persuaded a teammate to snap a picture with my cell phone. It is not the highest quality, but it gets the point across. Let the games begin. -Peace