At the Fair...

We had a little booth called Lifestyle...Matters in our local Courtenay Fall Fair this past weekend. It was a lot of fun, meeting people in the community and listening to the folkie music.

The new "Billy" Movie

There are actually quite a few movies about Billy Graham out there-- here is the latest one coming out this Fall:

Mission: To Be A Happy Guy

My Dad is very dear to me. But he is not a Christian believer, and he said to me tonight, "It's unlikely I'll ever change from what I am right now"... I said, "Dad, you never know, you just never know", and because he is the respectful, open-minded guy he is, he said, "Yeah, you could be right."

He tells me that he really doesn't like the Christian shows where the televangelists yell and point their finger at him... that that does not do anything for him. I asked him if he had ever watched "It Is Written"-- I know that my husband's brother finds this program to his liking-- the presenter does NOT yell and carry on.

I suggested that Dad's Mission at this time in his life was just to be happy and to extend that happiness to others. He thought that was a fine idea... one person at a time.

Some people have hugely negative impressions of the Social Network called Facebook. I have actually met many wonderful and dynamic people on Facebook (and of course am thrilled to have contact with friends and family there, some of whom I had lost touch with before Facebook). One of my Facebook friends, Lorie, told me about her Dad who is convalescing from a stroke. She told me that her Dad is also not 'born again'. We decided that we would pray for our dads' salvations. This is very reassuring for me.

How to Come Out To Your Parents as a Gay Christian...

Here I am -- back again with this very attractive video production of Gay Answers.

Today's video deals with 'coming out to your parents-- how do you do it?'

Using this clear process to deal with a very stressful and important issue would also work well with other issues that you want to communicate to others...

Some of the suggestions include: Check out resources on-line (such as pflag, pray, plan carefully, really listen to what they have to say, share your heart, and give them time. Also covered is some things NOT to do (such as begin to argue about your understanding of Scripture or to come out to your parents when you are upset or angry with them.) For any Christian Gays (or parents, family, friends) out there who are feeling really intensely troubled, you can call 1-888-GAY-4-God

What Causes People to be Gay? from "Gay Christian Answers"

This is an extremely well-done video that examines some common mis-conceptions around the "causes" of being gay. Is being gay because of 'choices'? of childhood relationships with parents? Because of the 'gay gene'? Or what?

A dear friend of mine previously shared with me what she learned when someone very close to her disclosed her gay-ness-- this video coincides with the information she passed on to me. Take a look and see what you think...

Trust God...

When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go, only 1 of 2 things will happen, either He'll catch you when you fall, or He'll teach you how to fly!

God closes doors no man can open & God opens doors no man can close.....remember to be a blessing...

Camp Meeting

Camp Meeting was great this year... we had our grand- daughter for two days (one sleep) and enjoyed that a lot, but since she is only two (well, three in October), she got homesick for her mom and dad the second afternoon so we drove her to Abbotsford and had supper with Phil and Marylen and both of the little girls there. We had hoped that they would be able to come, but Marylen has just started a new job as a sort of Girl Friday for an agency of the Metro Bank (a Philippine bank) in Surrey-- a new agency-- and Phil has a busy life too. Anyhow, we saw them at the outset of the Camp, two days later for supper, and at the end for supper in New Westminster.

I really enjoyed hearing Miroslav Pujic (however you spell his name) talk about how to reach the Postmoderns... makes so much sense to me since I'm from that stock myself, and certainly identify most of the young people I know as being Postmodern. I also attended a lot of the sessions by Hal Gates and Betty Campbell on the Regeneration Ministries-- Christian 12-Steps to bring people back into relationship with Jesus. We were also blessed to have the full-size model of the Sanctuary-- Messiah's Mansion-- and that really brought that concept to life for us. Someone suggested they should blow the rams' horns (shofars) and they agreed that that might be a great thing to include for authenticity. And, for me a big thrill-- Dick Duerksen was there to end the Camp Meeting with his usual enthralling tales.

We were well fed, on many levels... now it is important for us to get out there and minister as we are called to do!

Kathy's Personal MS Story...

I am so honoured to have permission to offer another post from Kathy's Blog on MyChurch.

It felt like a bee sting. I was walking to my car after work in May 1993 (at the age of 31), and I felt a bee sting on the bottom of my right foot. I grabbed my shoe and shook it to release the bee, but there was no bee. During the following days and weeks, a numblike feeling moved from my foot to all the right side of my body. My doctor and the neurologist he sent me to, said it was stress. After about a month I recovered completely except for the numbness in my right fingers that I have since just learned to live with.

September 6, 1997 I was sitting on the front row of a youth ministry session at Ridgecrest Conference Center, and I was overtaken by a frightening sensation in my brain, like nothing I had ever felt before. A lightheadedness, a nausea, but something much bigger and indescribable. I asked for help to leave and passed out when I stood, waking later to the same neurological feeling. After a series of tests over the next several weeks, I was told everything checked out fine. I knew that not to be true, as I was unable to sit upright or stand in one position for more than a few seconds, without passing out. Fortunately I soon learned that I could control it by leaning my head on something. This has greatly improved over the past ten years, but it has not disappeared.

November 2004 I had another attack of numbness, beginning in my feet and moving up my body. I fully recovered after about a month. This time, however, my tests showed problems. My MRI was “significantly abnormal”, with 3-4 periventricular lesions. My lumbar puncture (spinal tap) showed a mild elevation of white blood cells to 6 with a differential of predominantly lymphocytes, positive oligoclonal bands and an elevated IgG index of 1.6. (lol – I have no idea what I just said!)


February 25, 2005 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. A second opinion agreed with 95% certainty but believed my case was a “benign” one, meaning it seems to be progressing at a very slow rate, which may not ever reach the stage of disability.

Since that time, I had one more numbness attack, in December 2005, again starting in my right foot and moving up, I have had an MRI each year, and I have refused my neurologist’s pleas to begin treatment. Instead I have put myself on serious vitamin therapy and have made exercise a high priority in my life.

So far I am one of the fortunate ones. About one in ten MS sufferers seems to have a very slow-moving case of the disease, while many others quickly progress from ability to disability, often having to leave work and move around by wheelchair. Of course there is no guarantee that any case will remain benign. Every hour of every day, someone is diagnosed with MS. MS is a progressive disease of the nervous system, causing symptoms that may include numbness, fatigue, dizziness, incontinence, slurred speech, or problems with balance, vision, or cognition.

Yesterday I got the results from my latest MRI, opening it quickly in hopes of finding the same “stable, no new problems” message I had last year. But yesterday’s news was not so good. “A new lesion is present,” my neurologist wrote, “I am worried and would like to start treatment.” No, no treatment yet. I can be so stubborn, hopefully not stupidly so.

Why do I continue to refuse treatment? There is no known cause or cure for MS, and the treatments, although believed to slow the progression in most people, do not heal any damage that has already been done. No one (doctors, researchers, etc.) understands why the treatments help, and there are serious, even dangerous, side effects. Even the treatments themselves are life-changing. Daily to weekly self-injections, that seem to lead almost immediately to walking with a cane. Should that time come for me, may I accept it with grace (like I see exhibited and admire in many of our MyChurch friends), but I am not there yet. My work has been unaffected, and, not only am I walking without help, I am running 5K races occasionally!

I have become an advocate for those less fortunate, those whose news is more serious and whose lives are completely disrupted by the disease. Those who daily await a cure, which fortunately is being aggressively sought. Should God lay it upon your heart, please join me in praying for them, and in praying that I will know when my stubbornness is crossing the stupidity line!

46:1-2 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.
Psalms 46:1-2 RSV

56:3-4 When I am afraid, I put my trust in thee. In God whose word I praise, in God I trust without a fear. What can flesh do to me?
Psalms 56:3-4 RSV

You can learn more about MS at nationalmssociety.org.

If you wish to read Kathy's blog in the original and/or comment, please click here.

Go Wintley Phipps!

I know that God is 'no respecter of persons'-- that we are not to base our self esteem as a Church body on our worldly-esteemed membership-- but recently I was more than a little annoyed when I watched one of those 'trashing' videos on Youtube (my Adventist sisters and brothers know what I mean) where one of the two smug fellas asked the other guy, "So, who do you know who is famous who is an Adventist?" and they both proceeded to snicker when they couldn't think of anyone. See? This is an obviously unattractive and worthless denomination-- a cult-- because nobody famous is a member...

That kind of bugged me... their smugness.

I don't need someone 'famous' to justify my beliefs--

but, nonetheless, I guess I started thinking of "famous Adventists" (i.e., famous among more than just other Adventists).

Here is one of my favorites, Pastor Wintley Phipps, as he accepts an award from Oprah and does a spontaneous rendition of "Amazing Grace" with his lovely chocolate voice. You can find the following on Oprah's website.

Watch Unplanned. Unrehearsed. Wintley Phipps sings Amazing Grace. Watch a moving After the Show.
Hearing Wintley Phipps sing gospel music has brought tears to the eyes of presidents, celebrities, and even Mother Teresa. Now through the U.S. Dream Academy, Wintley is using the power of his voice to reach out to the children of prisoners and give them a chance to achieve their dreams.

"Our motto is a child with a dream is a child with a chance," says Wintley. "And the opposite is also true. A child without a dream does not stand a chance in this world."

Singing to Save the Next Generation
Twenty years ago, a friend brought Wintley to a prison to sing to the inmates. Wintley was alarmed and haunted by the number of African Americans in prison. When he encountered his wife's pregnant niece in a prison, Wintley says he started to think about the children of people in prison and became very concerned about their future.

"All of my wife's seven brothers and sisters have either been in jail or incarcerated at some point in their lives," says Wintley. "Between 60 and 70% of children of prisoners will become prisoners themselves. I had to do something about it."

Academic Enrichment
In 1998, he created a program to help break the cycle he had seen play out so many times in his own family life. Wintley formed the U.S. Dream Academy to give children who have had a family member behind bars mentoring, academic tutoring, and exposure to computers and the Internet. "Just the computers themselves are not going to transform the lives of these kids," Wintley says. "The most important part of our program is really the caring, loving adults who surround them."

Teaching Children to Dream
Due to the fact that 80% of people in prison are high school dropouts, the program also focuses on at-risk children in grades two through five, to try to reach them when they are academically most vulnerable.

The Dream Academy's first priority is to raise these children's self esteem. The mentoring component gives many children the positive role models they are lacking. Mentors shower the children with love and positive reinforcement.

Wintley says, "I believe that I'm helping children to live out their own dreams, to find their own voice and their own path in life."

A Special Gift from Gateway
Gateway Computers donated 50 top of the line computers for the children at U.S. Dream Academy Learning Centers for academic enrichment. For more information visit www.gateway.com


Building on the Dream
Since receiving the Use Your Life Award, a second site has opened in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Dream Academy has redesigned their center to accommodate more students, streamlined their curriculum, and developed an in-house Web site that hosts academic instruction and educational games for students in grades 3 to 5. The U.S. Dream Academy has also recruited mentors from local colleges.

A new site in Philadelphia will open soon, and plans are being made for additional centers in Houston, Atlanta, New York, New Jersey and Baltimore.