Posts in ‘News’
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My Life Band
From February 08, 2010 @ 6:00 am
That’s my life band.
It’s actually hard to think about how long ago that was, considering all that’s happened in my life since then. Since I got the band, I’ve married, moved to Norristown, had 3 jobs, had one child and am now awaiting the birth of a second. It’s just crazy.
I was at the OneThing Conference in ‘04 when a man that I at the time hadn’t even heard of came on stage at the end of the conference. It was the first year that I’d been there when the conference wasn’t held in Bartle Hall and it had been, as usual, a complete whirlwind of a time. They pack so much information into those 4 days and your mind just ends up being blown by the end of it. When we had gotten there, we noticed this new organization that we hadn’t heard of before had a booth up. That organization was Bound4Life. It was headed, at the time, by a man name Lou Engle who my wife had heard of because of the famous 1999 Call D.C. (which apparently isn’t very famous on the web… here’s a clip from that day with Jesse Engle praying for the Nazirites) where 400,000 young people came to pray for the elections that year. Lou was like no one I’d ever seen. He spoke with such prophetic unction, shuckling in place and then stopping with his neck out like a huge overgrown turtle every time he’d made a point he really wanted you to get. His voice seemed to perpetually be lost, I assumed because of how passionately he spoke and cried out all the time.
What he spoke about that day was the massive outcry of blood that our nation has in its soil. 50 million babies have been aborted in our country since Roe vs. Wade. Despite the consistent claim that abortion rights are in place to protect the health of the mother, some estimate that over 95% of these children were murdered for reasons of inconvenience or unwantedness. I get these and other statistics from Bound4Life, a biased source no doubt but honestly, no one really disputes these claims. Lou Engle pronounced the urgent desperation of our position before God. We have legally sanctioned for over 30 years the unquestioned destruction of the most helpless and defenseless people group in the world: unborn children. And worse, we’ve done it in the name of choice.
God is not okay with that.
In response, he called for a massive prayer movement to begin in the United States and around the world to see abortion as an inalienable human right end, for adoption of children to be taken up in earnest by those rightfully responsible for it, the church, and for a great turning of the hearts of the Church towards mercy for those women who had received an abortion and who’s hearts were broken because of it. He wanted to encourage this by giving Life Bands to people and having those people commit to, whenever they saw that band, pray a simple 22 word prayer, “Jesus, I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to America.” His hope and prayer was that that simple prayer would be prayed 50 million times every day to God.
And so I wore it ever since. I can’t say I’ve prayed that prayer every time I’ve seen the band; I can’t say I’ve been as active as I could have been in opposing abortion, in pursuing unwanted children, or in participating in acts of mercy towards hurting women who didn’t know what they were doing. But I haven’t forgotten Lou’s call, and I still tremble when I think of the guilt America is building as we daily sacrifice our children on the altar of our convenience.
And then the other day, after over 5 years of wearing it, my beautiful little girl woke me up by pulling on it and it snapped. We had another one that fit me but it just doesn’t feel the same. It’s kind of like the end of some sort of era. I was unmarried, childless, and young(er) when that thing went on my wrist for the first time. It snapped off after having remained there for all of the past 5 years and I’m not any of that any more. What a ride God has brought me on. And still, abortion runs free in America.
God is still not okay with this, and we will answer for our crimes. May he have mercy on us when that day comes.
So, in memoriam of my Life Band:
“Jesus, I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to America.”
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True or False: Cosleeping risks your infant’s life
BBC recently published an article entitled: Bed Sharing ‘Risks Babies’ Lives.’ And I hope to debunk this article in the following post:
The article claims that bed sharing is the cause for about half of “cot deaths.”Here are the statistics they use:
Data from Dr Marta Cohen, pediatric pathologist at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, showed that of the 50 cases she investigated between 2004 and 2007, 31 were found to have been sharing a bed or sofa with a parent.
First, the reason I’m going to discard the first and third statistic is because it uses the word OR. You could say (and still be grammatically correct) that 31 infants died having been found sharing a bed or sofa with parent if 30 of those deaths happened on a sofa. It’s bad logic.Dr Chris Wright, consultant perinatal pathologist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, examined 15 cases of unexpected death in infants between 2008 and 2009 – seven were found in the parental bed and two had died on a sofa.
In the London area between 2005 and 2008, 173 babies died suddenly and unexpectedly. And 85 of these infants were found dead after falling asleep in bed with an adult or on a sofa.
Secondly, there needs to be more information about these statistics. We don’t know the education level of these individuals, if they live in a poorer neighborhood, etc. Would you trust a study done on the schools systems in Philadelphia if they only conducted research in the city’s ghettos? I think not.
Thirdly, how many parents in the UK cosleep? What if the number of cosleeping families was 50% in the UK? Then the fact that about half of these babies were found to be dead would say to me that WHERE they died doesn’t have anything to do with it; because doesn’t that make sense? Half of them were in beds (OR on a sofa), and half of them were in a separate cot.
This article also makes it extremely poignant that if you smoke, or have been drinking or are “very tired” the chances of an infant death are much greater. That should be obvious but it still happens. I really want a study done where they track the amount of infant deaths when the parents were not drunk, not on drugs, not smoking, and not on a sofa. It pains me to see that healthy co-sleeping families, who are trying to do the best for their child by co-sleeping are grouped in with possibly negligent parents.
Let me tell you why it is safter to sleep with your babe:
- A mother’s body knows how to regulate the rate at which her baby breaths even while she sleeps. If something happens to the child that causes the breathing to change, the mom will wake. This is proven.
- The infant is held throughout the night. It’s common knowledge that infants (as in days and weeks old) should be held. I’m not going to go into the studies. If they should be held throughout the day, then they should be held throughout the night. It doesn’t make sense to hold the babe half of a 24 hour day (or even less with naps) if you think that fresh babies should be held. Transitioning from the womb is very difficult and sleeping with your child eases the transition since they have some constant variables that were present in the womb: mom’s breathing and mom’s heart rate (and maybe even dad’s snoring). Thus the child’s body can focus on growing and developing and doesn’t have to be sent into a state of emergency.
- It further strengthens the bond between parents and child. This is done through touch. The more you are with your baby the stronger the bond is. This is how mothers know what their child’s cry means, or what they’re going to do before anyone else does. The sooner this happens the better the child thrives.
Let me say this though: some parents are very nervous about sleeping with their child and I’m not trying to condemn them. I would just highly recommend a sleeper that sits next to the bed.
And when co-sleeping please do the research to find out how to make it at safe as possible.
Conclusion: this article was very biased. I feel like it’s pretty obvious that if the parent is not in a right state of mind (like due to drugs or alcohol) or is sleeping on something like a sofa, then it puts the child at risk. I think they stretched the implications of such a fact (for whateve reason) and thus put together some rough statistics in order to scare individuals.
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Subprime Mortgage and Credit Crises Info
From October 11, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
I’ve gotten pretty fired up lately about what our government is doing, what they hadn’t done along the way, and the type of people the we’re rewarding for the behaviour they exhibited leading up to the whole crisis we’ve got going now. However, I think a lot of people so far are still having trouble trying to figure out where to get the info they need to form an intelligent opinion, so I thought I’d whip together a little list of links to resources that have helped me understand the mess we’re in. If you’ve got more good sources, please put ‘em in the comments
- This American Life – The Giant Pool of Money: This episode of TAL is not only the best piece of reporting I have heard on the current economic crisis, but it’s probably the best reporting I have ever heard. The clarity, personability, and depth at which the subject is covered combined with the music and overall production quality is stunning. This is to date the only NPR episode I have ever bought, and I’ve listened to it multiple times.
- This American Life – Another Frightening Show About the Economy: While, in my opinion, this show did not live up to the standard of the first show, it still is phenomenal and very informative. Once again, highly recommended.
- The Money Meltdown: This is an attempt to have a one stop website for all information regarding the meltdown. I’ve browsed through it a little bit and it’s impressive.
Anyway, enjoy! And, ‘Remember, there is nothing to be gained by trying to get away.’
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Break the Bottled Water Habit
From October 11, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
Well, here’s to attempting to help this little campaign get spread on the Internet. I think it sounds awesome! :)
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24 Hour Prayer Gathering 8/22/08 @ EFC in Huntingon Valley
It’s been quite awhile since I posted anything and unfortunately this is not going to be a significant update (for all of you waiting desperately for the continuation of the to focus series, you’ll just have to wait, but rest assured I’ve got ideas cooking currently), however I just want to make sure that I take my part in publicizing this event.
A buddy of ours, Nathan Eckel, published the first little bit that I’ve heard of this event. Some friends of ours who are members of Body Builders Ministry (don’t get freaked out, it’s the body as in Christ’s body, not as in Muscle Magazine) are I assume going to be hosting the event, as their church, EFC, is the one pictured in Nathan’s post about the event. Click through to find out more details.
I think this is really pretty darn cool. This region needs as much prayer as possible (as does every other region) and I think the consensus in the body around here is that God is interested in breaking through, provided we meet him in prayer. Hopefully this event goes very well.
Pray for me that I would be able to settle in adequately to my new life in Norristown that I can get back to my writing and everything else that has been a tremendous pleasure in my life.
Love you all.
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And we have internet!
YAY! We officially are Comcast cable internet users as of last week. It’s been nice being able to check the email. Pictures should be up now but they’re not because I haven’t gotten around to it. Hopefully next post.
Side note: my uterus is the size of a soccer ball! That’s INSANE!
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It’s been CRAZY!
I had no idea moving would be this insane! Almost all of stuff is moved in and so far the only thing that is really left undone is the living room (pictures will be coming soon!)
We sadly do not have the internet so right now I’m doing laundry at my parent’s and trying to do a few updates while I’m here.
In the past week we’ve slept at three different houses and have had a dog to watch. We took him home on Monday and although its more lonely without him and I did enjoy having him around, I can get more unpacking done.
I cannot tell you how wonderful God has been through all of this. Everything seems to be working out perfectly. Yesterday we were given an over-sized leather Lazyboy recliner (looked brand new) that fits perfectly into our living room and there’s a rumor that we might be given a really, really nice sound system with a DVD and VCR player. All of our furniture seems to be fitting “just right” with inches to spare and any fear that I had about living in Norristown in completely gone. I could not love living in our apartment any more.
So hopefully by the end of the week we’ll be all situated. Yesterday was our anniversary (two years!) and it was nice to spend in the new apartment. We’ve been taking pictures along the way but sadly our camera battery charger is still in the muck somewhere :-).
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Small Update: We’re *Moving This Weekend!
Just wanted to let everyone know why we’ve been relatively silent over the past week. We were in Kansas City (as Jessie let you all know about) until this Wednesday. Yesterday, Jess spent the entire day virtually packing up our entire room sans the big furniture and after I got home we packed almost all of it into our minivan. Then we trucked over to the Ambroses because we had committed to watching their dog, CJ, for the weekend. We’re taking it easy this morning which is why I’m writing this and for the rest of the weekend we’re going for a push into the new apartment.
So, please forgive us if we haven’t found time to do much posting. ;)
We’ll get back soon.
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Baby Visher!
So these are the pictures of our little one from Monday. According to the ultra sound shots it looks like a girl!! Unfortunately the ultra sound shots weren’t fantastic. The lady said that usually with thinner women the babies are in odd positions because the uterus is still kinda scrunched. The baby was wrapped around this huge bump in my uterus, haha. So, it’s not a 100% guarantee that its a girl. Tim still feels like God is telling him its a boy while I feel ok about thinking its a girl. So we probably won’t fully be settled until the baby pops out. But from now on, I’m going to refer to her as “she.” If it is a girl, her name will probably be Fiery.
When this shot (above) came onto the screen it kind of freaked me out a little :-). When its all skeleton people look very unlike people.
Most importantly the baby is 100% healthy and all the measurements that they did came out great. The baby weighed 13 oz. at the time and has a heart rate in the 150s. Yay!!
Here are some other shots:
Gender Shot:
Little Hand:
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Leaving For Kansas City!
Tomorrow afternoon Tim and I will be on planes to Kansas City, MO to visit Alex and Jaclyn, see some other peeps, and visit the prayer room. We have a prophecy appointment set up for Thursday night which I am über excited about.
We did have our ultra sound this morning but I will post about it Lord-willingly on Friday because we wanted to tell Alex & Jac in person. It should be a very nice vacation. Yay!
