The Ladybug Foundation
At the Orange Conference, Sue Miller, told us an amazing story about a 5 year old little girl, Hannah. Hannah was in the car with her mom when she saw a homeless man eating out of a trash can, Hannah was bothered by this sight and knew in her young heart that this was not fair and it was not right. At 5 years old, Hannah, wanted to do something! She started raising money by collecting change at her school in baby food jars and eventually made “ladybug” containers to collect even more. At the age of 7, Hannah, started holding city wide business meetings where she would serve sandwhiches and juice to business executives, while reading her personally written script. Her plea was that it was not right that people had to eat from trash cans and live in the streets and that “we” could do better!
Hannah is now 10, and alone has raised over 6 Million dollars for the homeless in Canada. Awesome!
Visit their website at www.ladybugfoundation.ca to see what Hannah is doing now and how you can help!
Orange Conference Day 3
Orange Conference Day 3 (Final) The Orange Conference ended yesterday. I have to say that I am very impressed and moved in what was presented over the course of two and a half days. It was all very encouraging and refreshing:
Yesterday, Donald Miller and Reggie Joiner spoke to close out the conference:
Donald Miller, well, I won’t really even try to explain all that he spoke about…don’t get me wrong it was good, but I am still trying to process it all, however here is a sample:
Stories:
1. The Bible is made up of a lot of stories, however after each story, the Bible does not give us an application to that story…
2. We all have stories, yet we never feel as if we need to give an application as to why we are telling the story…
3. Why do pastors, think they have to give a 5 point application, that happens to be an acronym to every story?
1. The Bible is made up of a lot of stories, however after each story, the Bible does not give us an application to that story…
2. We all have stories, yet we never feel as if we need to give an application as to why we are telling the story…
3. Why do pastors, think they have to give a 5 point application, that happens to be an acronym to every story?
4. Cutting to the end, pretty much…Rather than allowing culture to determine the positives and negatives to our life story and to the life story of those we minister to, we should simply tell a better story, or provide a better story…I am sure you are lost, but I can’t help you right now, it was great! But too deep for a short blog!
Reggie Joiner challenged us on the way out, with a few desires from Orange:
1. We will never think that we are an expert or smarter than we are – We should continue to learn.
2. We won’t confuse the “Model of Ministry” with the “Mission of Christ”
3. We will continue (or start) fighting for the family…especially our family
4. We will not lose our faith (Our ministry can cause us to lose our faith)
5. We need people (at least one) in our lives that will remind us that what we are doing is important!
Orange was all about combining 2 influences to reach our children and our teens:
1. The influence of the church
2. The influence of the family
1. The influence of the church
2. The influence of the family
The Orange Conference was a great conference…check it out for 2008!
Orange Conference Day 2 Continued…
Orange Conference Day 2 Cont…Sue Miller
Sue Miller spoke at the Orange Conference on day 2 in the afternoon session. She had some really great points and a great story about a 5 year old girl that I will share in another post:
Here was some of Sue’s main points concerning students and questions we should be asking:
1. When their faith is tested…Who will they listen to?
2. When their faith is tested…Where do they run?
3. When their faith is tested…Who do they worship?
4. When their faith is tested…What kind of life do they want?
Random questions posted on a blog may seem un-answerable, however if you are “thinking” in the right context, you can come up with the answers…
Sue’s main thought was surrounding the fact that 85 or 87% of all graduating high school students are abandoning their faith in college and in life. Her illustration was with Daniel and how at the age of 14, despite being thrown into a pagan land, he held strong to his faith…why after 18 years are we seeing so many students stray?
I believe answering some of these questions may help tackle that issue…
Do you take the time to think????
Watch this video from Francis Chan’s Church! Think of Me
Pretty sobering, huh?
Do we ever stop and think about the difference we could be making if we only put forth the effort?