Encourage a Young Person

Most young people have great courage and enthusiasm--if you know how to tap into it.  Schools, churches and charitable organizations offer many opportunities to encourage children and adolescents, from mentoring one-on-one to working with groups.  Your knowledge and experience can be helpful, but your caring attention will make the greatest difference.

Teenagers and young adults respond to your attention.  When you share your skills and interests with one kid or a group of kids, your heartfelt interest can encourage them to make wiser and better life decisions.

Invest your time in serving as a mentor to a young person.

Teachers' Aid

I ran across a neat website called, www.iloveschools.com.  Reduced funding for many schools means classrooms have to do even more with less.  Teachers all over the country use this site to post wish lists of supplies, and donors help defray the cost.  You can also post items you have on hand (a used computer, musical instruments) on the donor-offer board.

My church, Selmore Baptist in Ozark, MO, is blessed with quite a few members who are teachers in the area public school systems.  I would like to invite them to provide me with their own school supply "wish list" and I'd be happy to publish the list on this blog and then let others know how they can help.

Teachers help shape everyone's world...including yours!

Life is Happening Now

Are you truly living this moment or instead racing against the clock?

Time is an irreplaceable commodity and today our lives are filled with hurrying, multi-tasking, emailing, and texting.  It's ironic...we are making connections so constantly we don't realize how disconnected we've become.

Slow down...pay attention to what you're experiencing while you're experiencing it.  Practice keeping your focus on the present moment...that's where your life is actually happening.

Don't let your virtual life distract you from the real thing.

Most importantly - Value Time As A Gift From God  

Life is good - don't miss it!

New Year's Revolution

New Year's Day is traditionally a time for looking forward, when we resolve to make a fresh start, do better, try harder, live up to expectations.  But all too often these resolutions evaporate by the time we have cleared up the remains of the previous night's celebration and almost certainly by the time we head back to work (speaking from experience).

If nothing in the world around you changes--same old problems (wars, famine, injustice, disease, poverty) reported day in, day out on the news here's a thought.  As the world events unfold on your TV screen, bring about a New Year's Revolution.  Change your life by resolving to change the world!

The first thing you need is a plan of action.  Set targets for what you want to achieve.  Be ambitious.  But make sure that your plan is achievable.  Don't be afraid of failure.  Do something and try your best to succeed.

Wishing you a Happy New Year...Together Let's Make A Difference in 2010.

Holiday Recycling

CHRISTMAS CARDS...give your holiday greeting cards a future life by donating them to St. Jude's Ranch for Children, an organization for abused, abondoned, and neglected children.  The children earn money by removing the fronts of donated cards to make new ones sold in packets of 10.  This year's cards will be accepted through February 28, 2010.  Visit http://www.stjudesranch.org/ for donation and purchasing details.

REAL TREES...Wickman Garden's Christmas Tree Recycle Event  (Springfield, MO).  Wickman's is accepting trees now through January 13.  They request a $5 donation that will benefit the Kitchen, Inc.  The trees will be ground into wood chips which are available for FREE; bring your own container (great for gardens).  Mon-Sat 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, Sun 10:00 am - 5:00 pm.  Located at 1345 South Fort Avenue.

Visit http://www.earth911.com/ for recycling locations near you for various items (household, electronics, etc.).

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Start a Family Tradition

Share the true spirit of Christmas... give a gift that can change a life!

Before you start your holiday shopping, hold a family meeting.  Ask everyone to take out their wish list and mark one item off the list and instead apply the value of that gift as a donation to a charity of their choice.  Adults and school-age children can research a variety of charities via the internet to help determine who to support.  Or as a group pool the money together for a single family donation.  If you have trouble deciding which charity to support, put the charity names in a hat and draw a name.  Then on Christmas day, pick a time during the day to share with each other the organziation(s) the family supported and say a prayer for the recipients of your generosity.

Where to begin your search?  Go to the Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half of its annual advertising revenues to charity.  Go to http://www.goodsearch.com/.  For every Web search you launch from its site, GoodSearch gives roughly a penny to the charity of your choice (pick from over 39,000 organizations).  Tempted to think this is chump change?  Heifer International would disagree.  This world-hunger nonfprofit earned almost $400 in four months.  In Heifer terms, that's three sheep, four goats, or 21 rabbits donated to communities in need.  In GoodSearch terms, that's about 65 supppoters conducting five search.

To help you get started, search the following:  United Way, Feed the Children, Heifer, World Vision, and Share Our Strength.

What a wonderful family tradition to start...Create a spirit of giving "to others" within your home.

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERECE!

Urgent Action Request

The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) dba Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit religious corportion, has sent out an urgent plea for support. 

Below are two of many critical cases they are currently fighting:

• ACLJ has joined pro-life House Republicans and Democrats to intensify the fight against the government-run health care plan that makes abortion a "health benefit."
•  Working with Rep. Walter Jones to protect the constitutional rights of military chaplains to pray according to their faith (HR 268).  Urging President Obama to issue an Executive Order to lock in the rights of chaplains, regardless of what happens to the bill in Congress

Your generosity will be doubled in impact up to $875,000 through the JUSTICE, LIFE & FREEDOM Matching Challenge.  Prayerfully consider the amount you can give. 

Visit http://www.aclj.org/ for more details.  Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel, has a live radio-talk show weekdays at 4:00 pm on 90.1 FM (Springfield, MO area) or listen online.  ACLJ has offices located in Washinton, DC, New York, NY and Jerusalem, Israel.

Most of all, please pray for this organization in it's efforts to preserve our constitutional freedoms.

Today, I'm signing a petiton to PROTECT MILITARY PRAYER that will go to both US Representative Roy Blunt and President Barack Obama.

Together Let's Make A Difference!