Homeless, hopeless, but not helpless...

 

 

"Most did not want it, nor did they expect it. However, they are now homeless..."

There were four of them. They were all asleep, huddled up in a 1998 Mazda. It was sitting in a parking lot, the windows all frosted up. The car was a wreck. On a good day, it would start. Many days, it needed to be jump started as the battery was on it's last legs. Three of the people were young men in their early twenties, and the one was a girl, barely sixteen years old. All were homeless.

The reasons they are homeless is not really important. The uncomfortable fact is this - they are only four young people out of thousands who are currently without permanent shelter. The reasons are as varied as one could imagine. Very few if anyone wants to be homeless. Very few if anyone expects to be homeless. But they are.

The four young people I addressed are living out of a broken down car, staying as close as possible to the local teen drop in shelter. The problem of why they are sleeping in their car is simple - the drop in center is not licensed by the city to have anyone spend the night inside. If young people can not "couch hop", nor find a place at a local shelter, they are stuck with sleeping in car - or worse, outside.

In the middle a harsh and endless winter, sleeping in a car, or outside, is risky and treacherous. Hypothermia, robbery, sexual assault, you name it come with the territory. Sleeping out in the open is a witch's brew of danger. And this is not just about young people spending the night outside of a drop-in center. It is also about adults. It is also about families. It is about people of all ages with mental health issues. These are people that are no better and no worse than us. They have been relegated to this lifestyle by a set of circumstances they did not want nor expect.

I would like to tell you this is getting better, but it is not. Currently, one out of thirty youth in this country do not have a home. The number of homeless teens in our local school district  goes up every semester. Can we help? Absolutely. Can we fix this problem? I don't know. However, I would like to think so.

If you would like to help, please  check with the county you live in. Most have some kind of support services, usually in desperate need of things. The need is always great, but the resources, be they kind and generous, have trouble keeping up. If you would like to help, it is a great cause, if you have some extra to give. These people are us. They deserve better than what they have. A helping hand is all they ask for.

Ethnic Cleansing

 

 

 

"In many parts of the world, to be caught with the Holy Bible can seal your fate..."

This past week we saw yet another massacre of innocent Christians in Africa. It was not done in Syria by ISIL, this time it was done in Kenya by al-Shabab. A bus was stopped and sixty people were taken off by armed zealots. Those from the bus who could not prove they were Muslim enough, were executed. Simple as that. Being a Christian in many parts of the world today is still a death sentence.

Yesterday at the Church Leadership Training I attended, the question was asked by the trainer how many of us owned one Bible. All the hands went up. Then how many owned two Bibles. Again, all the hands went up. The man conducting the training then told a story. He was at a leadership conference in another city and a pastor from Indonesia was there. Indonesia is way over 90% Muslim. This pastor could not believe how easy and safe it was in America to own a Bible. There is no risk in doing so. In many countries, not so much.

The trainer then went on to say that in some areas of Africa, it is very risky to own a Bible. So much so, that once a Bible is smuggled into a village, the pages are torn out and distributed to different people in the village. Each person is to memorize at least one page of the Bible and then destroy the page. Then during a worship service, if something from (for example) Ephesians 6 needed to be read, the person who has memorized that chapter would recite it.

I was reminded of when I was employed by a large church towards the end of my working career. One of the youth directors was going to resign and take his family to a country in the Baltics to do mission work. About six months before he left, he came into my office with a strange request. He asked me to go into the church's website and intentionally misspell his name. When I asked why, he told me it was for the safely of his family and the people he would be staying with. If his trail could be (electronically) tied back to a Christian church, he, his family, and his friends, could be in grave danger.

Max Lucado, a noted Christian author, has written about "dangerous Christianity". In America, many of us take our faith for granted. However in many areas of the world, being a Christian is not for the faint of heart. Max tells us our spiritual journey should be looked at more like a battleship and less like a cruise ship. The forces of darkness would like nothing better than to have Christians become totally insular and then to eschew the teachings of Matthew 28 (The Great Commission).

This morning my wife and I will go to the nine o'clock service at our church. As we worship, I will reflect back on what I learned yesterday. How blessed we are, that we can worship our God in safety. I will also reflect back on something else I learned yesterday - the teachings from Matthew 9:37: 

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few".

Time for me to get moving - there is work to do.

Does it matter if we matter?

 

 

And the Savior said, "That which you do for the least of you, you do for me..."

As we approach the holiday season, many people are gearing up for fun, family and festivities. It truly is a great time of the year. It is a time to eat our fill, watch a ton of football, and then abuse our credit cards on Black Friday. However, it is also a time for some to dread. People who have very little, people who have no home, people who have no family ties, or people who live on the margins of society.

In the past few years, my wife and I have seen our family traditions change as loved ones have passed on. We have also seen new traditions develop. One of the traditions we have let go of is giving material things to each other when the need is very little. That has been replaced by the gift of time. As we have aged, we understand just how important, how fleeting, time really is.

Another tradition we have adopted (and continue to develop) is trying to follow the teachings of Mathew 26 from the Holy Bible. Each year, we are trying more and more to give more of what we have blessed with to the least of us. Giving to where the need is the greatest. We are vetting charities to ensure monies or gifts given will be used for those who need it the most.

This year we will continue to give to a charity named World Vision. For the past ten years, we have sponsored a child in Haiti through World Vision. Through World Vision, last year we were also able to give a year end gift to buy a few shares to dig a deep well in Africa. As excited as we are to help charities such as Feed My Starving Children, the powdered food sent to hungry people does little good unless there is a source of clean drinking water available.

This year, using gifts received at my wife's father's memorial service, we are going to try to buy an entire deep well. It is not cheap, but the impact will be enormous. It will supply hundreds, maybe thousands of people with abundant, clean drinking water for decades.

Like most years, I look forward to this holiday season with great expectation. New life is about to join our family with as my oldest daughter is set to give birth in January. It is also a time of reflection as this will be our first holiday season without my wife's father. After a full life, he is now gone. Only memories, very good memories remain. Somewhere in Africa, a deep well will soon be dug. It will not be named after him, but as far as we are concerned, it will be part of his legacy. And that, along with the memories, is what really matters.    

And then there is crazy...

 

 

 

"It really is a mad, mad, mad world..."

I really debated with myself this morning. I could not decide whether to call this article what I did, or call it "It's a mad, mad, mad world (after the movie). So I settled on the former. However you slice and dice it, after yesterday, and what is forecast to come up shortly, makes for "crazy" - just plain crazy.

Years ago there was a commercial on TV asking for money for the Humane Society. They would talking about how important it is for pets to have stability in their lives. Many of the run-away pets have experienced everything but stability in their young lives. I think the same is true for us two legged types. We also crave stability. Without stability, we have been on a merry-go-round  since 2008. To a certain degree, we have been on a merry-go-round since September 11, 2001. In short, we have been living crazy.

When we have no guiding principles in our lives, we have no rudder. We drift aimlessly. We fall for the sophism, listen to lies, we follow charlatans. Regardless of what many think, we really have cast out our ironclad documents which can lead us out of this maze we live in. What am I talking about? The Constitution and the Holy Bible. Once we eschew one and/or the other, all we end up with is crazy.

Yesterday our President, the man who is supposed to lead us by using our 200+ year old Constitution, decided it was time to change the game. After telling us for years he really needed to follow the rules as written, he changed his mind. He went from President to Emperor. Crazy.

Today, many are expecting the grand jury verdict to be read in Ferguson, MO. It appears the jury will find it unlikely the policeman did anything legally wrong. It also appears the "gentle giant" might not have been so gentle after all. Finally, it appears this might have been a justified shooting. If that is the case, there will have been no miscarriage of justice. That being said, many cities are bracing for all hell to break loose. Should there be if the shooting was in fact justified? Absolutely not. Crazy man, just crazy.

Coming home from my Father-in-Law's apartment the other day, driving over an overpass my wife and I noticed a train of oil cars at a stand still. In both directions, the oil cars seemed to stretch to the horizon. A more and more common sight these days.  And yet, we are told we must live with this increasing rail congestion as building more pipelines is "dangerous" to the climate. Our super long oil trains are a perturbation to the delivery of crops to market, coal to energy plants, and so on. Plus it is a dangerous way to transport a volatile product. Our President, who is a constant prisoner to special interest groups, will continue to veto the Keystone Pipeline until there are enough votes in Congress to override him. Real crazy man, real crazy.

Our war on terror. What a mess. Here we sit, the most powerful nation on Planet Earth (least wise we used to be), and we are powerless to fight this group of zealots straight out of the first millennium. We watch helplessly as innocent American and British civilians, many doing humanitarian work for the destitute people in the Middle East, are captured and beheaded. Many of these zealots have promised us nothing but death - we put bumper stickers on our cars which say "coexist". Well, the War on Terror will once again visit our shores, and these zealots want nothing to do with coexisting. They just want us dead. Crazy to the max, man!

We need to once again regain our stability. No more crazy. Tried it, don't like it. No more detouring around our Constitution. We need to get right with God by reading and following His Word. We have seen what the world looks like without rudders like the Constitution and the Bible. It looks and acts crazy. Crazy we have seen, we have lived it. We don't like it. Time to get back to our roots. No more crazy.

Recalcitrant, to the end...

 

 

 

"Recalcitrant - resisting authority or control; not obedient or compliant; hard to deal with, manage or operate"

 

 

 

Well, today is the day. The day we have been waiting for with baited breath. The day the worst kept secret in Washington will be revealed. The day the final ounce of our Constitution will be shredded by the man who took the office in order to protect and defend it.

 

The Emperor's minions (what few are left) were out in force yesterday (as well as this morning) trying to "plow the road" for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. In fact, our own Miss Amy was on one of the news shows this morning trying to defend the non-defendable. In her words, "Well we have tried to get the House to go along with us for quite a while now, so we can let some more doctors and scientists into this country." Nice try Miss Amy - but letting more doctors and scientists has NOTHING to do with what the Emperor is about to do.

 

Here is the unvarnished truth. He is going to allow 5 million poor and uneducated people into this country. Very few have English skills. Whereas doctors and scientists would add value immediately, it will take years and billions of dollars to get these people assimilated (only if they want to). Here is the kicker. If history had shown poor immigrants voted 80% for the Republican Party, the Emperor would not touch this issue with a ten foot pole. However, with the reverse being true, he can see these people as "low fruit on the tree" for expanding Democratic rolls for years to come.

 

The Emperor's minions have told us, "Oh, he has tried working with the House, but they have refused to cooperate." Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. We have an immigration system, and it is NOT broken. Our borders are broken, particularly in the south. The House has told the Emperor in very clear language - fix the borders first, and then we can come up with SOMETHING for the millions of illegals in this country. Nope. He does not want to do that. Instant voters is what he wants, and today that is what he will try to get.

 

I almost feel bad for the Emperor as I don't think he realizes what he is doing to himself as well as the country. Even Professor Turley, an avowed Democrat said, "Our Constitution is at the tipping point with this move." Republican leaders have said the Emperor will poison the well with both sides of Congress. Total and absolute gridlock will define the rest of his term. History (if not taught in the Common Core system), will judge him harshly. As for most of us "subjects" living under the rule of the Emperor, we only know him as recalcitrant.

 

 

 

The Keystone Shuffle

 

 

 

"Why did it not pass? It seems like we have Senate Democrats who are still mired in the 60's..."

This is almost funny. By an overwhelming majority, people in this country want not only the Keystone Pipeline to be built, they also want our entire pipeline infrastructure to be updated, modernized and expanded. Why? First off, many (like myself) are sick and tired of sitting at rail intersections, waiting and waiting for an extraordinary length of time. Secondly, truth tellers will reveal a simple fact. These oil rail cars are "bombs" on wheels. It is only a matter of time before we have a huge disaster involving an oil train. If it happens by a populated area, there will be causalities.

However, lets us not let facts get in the way of a good discussion. President "Hyperbole" is still worried about the myth of Global Warming. Forget the fact the State Department has studied the Keystone Pipeline six ways from Sunday during the past six years. Their conclusion? The rail cars add to the "carbon footprint", but the pipeline will not. So why did the Senate vote fall one short of passing this thing yesterday? The Democratic Left it seems, the "Progressives" are still stuck in the 1960's.

Here are the facts, the unvarnished truth. Despite his BEST efforts to derail our energy production, our President has been unable to stop progress. We are now an energy exporter. More to come. By 2020, energy experts say we will be the #1 energy exporter in the world, beating out even the Saudis. In early (very early) 2015, the Keystone Pipeline will once again come up for a vote in the new Congress. It will then pass. The President will go against the will of the American people (again) and veto it. Go ahead Sir - it only reflects on your party. People have long memories on the Keystone shuffle. Long enough to go into 2016.

Someone the other day asked a Republican lawmaker if his party was against new forms of energy. "Absolutely not!" he responded. "It is our future and we need to allow our innovators the freedom to discover and invent." In other words, if I may help interpret, we need our abundant fossil fuel NOW, and yet we can still work on the future forms of energy at the same time.

I read an article the other day about solar energy collectors. Much progress has been made recently in their technology. In five years, we could have passive collectors on houses which could truly supply part of the families energy needs. Fuel cell technology continues to improve. Natural gas for cars and trucks keep expanding. No, the energy future is very bright for this nation with both fossil fuels as well as what is to follow.

The Keystone Shuffle? Stayed tuned - next year it will get very, very interesting.

Peace, they do not want...

 

 

"What is wrong with these people? Have they no soul?"

As I have aged, I have worked very hard to become a more mellow fellow - a person of patience and grace. In other words, these days it takes quite a bit to rile me up. Well guess what? I am not only riled up, I am pissed! I am seeing red. With the last innocent American to get beheaded, to the massacre in Israel yesterday, I have had it up to my eyeballs. The people who commit these crimes are without remorse. They have no souls.

I am going to be curious to see the reaction that Bebe Netanyahu is going to take. I do know one thing - it will be more than what our President has done after a few of our citizens have been beheaded. And if I could go back in time just a bit, to the Benghazi massacre (yes, I will use that word again), there is a back story which was not told by the lap dog media. Ambassador Stevens was not only killed, but first he was tortured, and then sodomized with a broom handle.

Probably the most disgusting sideshow to this horrific event which took place yesterday in Israel, was the celebration that followed in the West Bank. People were dancing in the street, passing out candy, and having a gay old time. Why? Because four innocent people were hacked to death by two terrorists. The crime of the innocents? Worshiping. One Israeli policeman also died in the gunfight which ensued to take down the perpetrators.

Someone on the West Bank was asked why he was celebrating. His response - this is a religious war. Therefore, the killings were justified. I am glad that someone on that side finally admitted it. I have thought the same for quite a while now. This "War on Terror" has less to do with territory, and more to do with religion.

Even though I have come quite a way in mellowing, if I was the Prime Minister of Israel and saw the celebration in the West Bank, I would have unleased the F-16s. I know that Bebe will respond, and it will be more than a pin prick. I admire him that he did not unleash the dogs of war yesterday. I might have.

When we get a new President, I really hope that person lives in the world of reality. Lesson one - the people who hack others to death with meat cleavers, who behead innocent people, who sodomize ambassadors with broom handles, DO NOT WANT PEACE! Plain and simple. They are barbarians at the gate. I am tired of seeing innocent people being killed. Trust me - it is only a matter of time before it happens here - over and over again.

I want the message that will be sent to be crystal clear and filled with angry resolve. Let others live in peace, or die. It is as simple as that. No ifs, ands or buts. Live in peace, or die.