I was contacted a couple of months ago by Samantha, an editor, writer, and representative for Bluefish TV, about contributing to their new website, The Small Group Exchange. I was really blown away & honored that they would be asking me (a nobody) to write something for such a well known ministry resource company.
My article, Sharing Life Through Difficult Times, went live today. The article focuses on how huge of an impact our small groups had during the devistation caused by Hurrican Katrina. The other day, after Hurricane Ike, I posted a little bit about my former churches involvement surrounding Hurricane Katrina and posted two videos to show a little bit of what we did and what we saw. You can check those videos and that post out HERE.
Go read my new article on the Small Group Exchange and come back here and let me know what you think.
Our back screened in porch has been overtaken by Raccoons. We moved into a rental house from my aunt and inherited her cat, a pet door to the porch, and the big container of food that my aunt or her husband comes and fills up for that cat, however we attract other neighborhood cats, plus the raccoons. We have had around 4 raccoons overtake the porch, they range from larger adults, to smaller ‘pups,’ that whimper like little puppy dogs and would almost let you pet them if you tried.
Join the Conversation: Should I shoot the raccoons to prevent them from overtaking our porch? We have two little boys who play in the yard, and my fear is if the raccoon has rabies and bites the cat, the cat could bite the children and then we have a serious problem. We called the animal control department, but they have yet to bring a trap. What do you think? I am leaning towards protecting my children and sending the raccoons to their sandy graves, but of course I would put flowers on their graves.
With Hurrican Ike leering on the coast of Texas I am reminded of Hurricane Katrina. I wrote in another post how Katrina not only changed the people’s lives who were effected by the hurricane, but it changed my life as well. Here is video footage from 2 of our 4 Relief Trips that our church took in the days and weeks after Katrina. Please note, this first video is 18 minutes long, but was used as a sermon filler to show the church members what people in that area was facing and how we needed resources and assistance as our church was going to adopt a neighborhood called Eagle Pointe. There is a lot of footage of the damage to homes and property as well as some personal interviews by some of the residents of the community we adopted. It has some rough spots that are very shaky, but I had to use the video available to me. This was the first video I had ever edited and made into a movie, so bear with it, it is worth the watch.
Our church was one of the first relief assistance teams on the scene. A couple of days after Katrina hit Biloxi, MS we loaded an RV up with water and as much food as possible, and 6 of us went to offer whatever help we could offer, this is what we saw and what we heard from some of the people…
Update: You may have to hit play and then pause to let it load some, the file is big.
Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE
This video footage is from trip #2 of our adoption of the Eagle Point Community. We were larger than the Red Cross; we had over 40 volunteers, two half-ton trucks, a semi-truck, two RV’s and a 15 passenger van full of volunteers and supplies for the people of Biloxi. We provided them with basic necessities and a hot meal. The first video literally took me all night to create. The next morning several local news agencies used it for their local news stories, one used it to partner with us with a program called, “A Time to Care” along with the US Army. A service rep with Purpose Driven, who happened to be in Rick Warren’s small group got the first video in his hands, he showed it to his executive leadership team, and they donated our remaining Purpose Driven Life Books to the relief effort, and credited our account for the entire balance (very cool!). We handed the books out to everyone as well as Bibles. With no power it is a perfect opportunity for people to read, and as the church lived out the Gospel, many people were interested in what God had to say to them through His Word. I never knew that video would make it so far around the nation. Video 2 was made possible because of video 1.
LOS ANGELES — Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Award host Russell Brand took several digs at young stars wearing “purity rings” to pledge their virginity until marriage — and “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks wasn’t having any of it.
Brand’s running theme for the evening centered on the Jonas Brothers and their rings — until Sparks stepped on stage to have her say about his constant remarks.
“Not everyone wants to be a slut,” Sparks spat back, the auditorium filling with applause. Sparks, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez are also among the young stars who have vowed to remain chaste.
Sparks told Pop Tarts later at the In Touch magazine after-party that she was more than happy to put Brand — known as Britain’s ultimate playboy — in his place.
“Somebody had to do it,” she said.
Word is, Russell Brand, not only was highly sexual in his jokes and conversations at the VMA’s, but he decided to give his opinion on our political situation here in America as well. It is obvious that as he decided to attack the Jonas Brothers and Sarah Palin’s soon to be son-in-law, the crows quickly lost interest. Russell had huge applause when he gave his endorsement of Obama courtesy of the UK, but became very unpopular, almost to dead silence with his vial attacks. Check the video out below for yourself.
UPDATE: I could not embed the video, so CLICK HERE to see it!
UPDATE #2: Here is the video response for Jordin Sparks (CLICK HERE)…they cut it short & cut the applause out. Thanks Chuck for requesting the video…I apologize for my lazy blogging 🙂
While your at it,Join the Conversation, Did you watch the VMA’s? If not, watch the video, and then tell me what you think. I think its exciting to see some mainstream, popular artist stand up for purity!
