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    "And if I give all
    my   possessions   to
    feed the poor,  and if
    I surrender my body to
    be burned, but do not have
    love, it profits me nothing...



          ((We don't yet see things clearly.))
     

     

    We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.
    But it won't be long before the weather clears and
    the sun shines bright!     We'll see it all then, see it all as
    clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly     just as he knows us!

    But for right now, until that completeness, we
    have three things to do to lead us toward that
    consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly,
    love extravagantly.  And the best of the three is love."
                                                 -1 Cor. 13: 3 (niv) , 12-13  (the message)

     

     

    s e e k i n g completeness in His love.

     

  • "I heard a blast.

    The ground shook violently and I saw only dust and mess everywhere. I was worried for my own life.  At Margala Towers, all I could see was rubble on the ground. I heard the cries of the people trapped inside there.

    I could only do one thing which was to pick people out of the rubble and with my bare hands I started to dig.

    First, I pulled out one dead body. A man whose head had been badly injured. I couldn't save him.

    But then I managed to rescue somebody else.

    I followed the cries and the voices from inside the rubble and I kept digging and following them till I found their source.

    It was a man of 35. I carried him on my shoulders to the ambulance that was waiting. He had been inside the towers in an apartment. His head and legs were badly injured but at least he was alive.

    I kept on hearing only shouts and voices.

    Everyone was watching but we continued working, using what we had - our bare hands..." [read more]   -Karam Umrani


    "At least 19,000 people are thought to have been killed in Pakistan, and it is feared the toll could rise much higher..."
    -BBC.com

    Learn. Pray. Move.

    Quake Crisis Overwhelms Pakistan
    Eyewitness: Islama Building Collapse
    In Pictures: India & Pakistan earthquake
    Muzzafaraband: "It has been more than 24 Hours.."


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    "Five minutes, however, is not enough time for me to convey to you what daily life is like for people in Darfur. How can I convey how a woman living in a camp feels when she goes out each day to fetch firewood knowing that she may be attacked, robbed, beaten, or even raped? How can I tell you what it is like for her to then rush back not to miss the general food distribution, if it is even happening, then cook the food while also not forgetting to bring her sick child to the feeding center? And on the side, she will be trying to earn some money by making bricks, or collecting wood or water, all of this while taking care of her entire family as she is the head of the household. How can I convey any of this to you in f  i v e
    m   i   n   u  t  e   s  ? "

    -Dr. Nathalie Civet, Head of Mission, Sudan
    Médecins sans Frontières (MSF)
     
     
     
     

     

     

     

    "Here we see an old lady sitting under a tree - an old Sudanese lady who
     fled     the Darfur region in Sudan but actually she is not alone. When we
    arrived     there in the Tine 3 refugee camp, she was sitting there with her
    entire family,     well what remains of her family..." 

     -Peter Casaer/Chad/January 2004

     

     

     


     


  • "Are we all human, or are some

    more human than others?"


    -
    Roméo Dallaire, UN General in Rwanda, 1994


    Lou Ann Merkle of
    Philadelphia, Pa.,
    demonstrates outside
    the White
    House
    to demand more US effort
    to end violence in Darfur
    in western
    Sudan on
    Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005,
    in Washington.
    (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)





    "As we act to aid the victims of Katrina,


    should we not act, as well, to aid the victims of
    D a r f u r ? "
    -Paul  Slovic

                                                                                                                                               
    (Photo: USAID)

  • "Kidnapped child, last seen in New Mexico,
    license plate # ( _ _ _ - _ _ _ ).  Please contact authorities if seen."

    The Amber Alert blinked rapidly on the black electronic boards lining the highway while I was on my way to work a few weeks ago.  I snapped a mental image of the licence plate number and stayed alert, keeping an eye out for the vehicle described on the board. 

    How can someone read that and not feel a tug on their heart strings? To know that a child is missing and could be in danger? Such responsbility I bear: now that I KNOW about this child's disappearance, I must report any findings if I happen to see identified kidnapper's vehicle.

    Then I thought about another kidnapping that I just learned of recently.  Actually, it's not just one kidnapping. It's THOUSANDS.

    Over the past 18 years, 20,000 children have been abducted in Uganda.

    ~ ~ ~

    "The Lord's Resistance Army [LRA] survives by raiding villages and camps, stealing food and provisions, and abducting people ­ mainly women and children.

    The older ones they will use as porters till they have no further use of them. The younger ones ­ the 10, 11 and 12-year-olds, they will keep.

    Not uncommonly they will steal perhaps three kids from the same family and then, in the bush, force the youngest two to kill the oldest one." - BBC News

    ~ ~ ~
    Invisible Children

    To escape the abductions, violence, and war, tens of thousands of children walk miles every night in search of safety.  Their own government cannot protect them from this 18 year war.  They commute to cities where they sleep on the basements of hospitals, underneath trucks, inside bus stations. 

    I wonder..if they were in America, would they have 20, 000 AMBER ALERTS alarming, with the whole nation searching for these kids?  Would the whole country panic when every night our children disappeared, en route to refuge because no one can help them or protect them?

    LEARN MORE...

    - InvisibleChildren.com : official website to the documentary that opened my eyes.  Visit this site to learn more.  Hold a screening for your friends,church, organization.  Show the world what you now know. (If live in Austin/Houston and would like to watch it, ask me and I will lend you the DVD)
    -"When the Sun Sets, We Start to Worry" [UNOCHA]- stories compiled by the United Nations.  This is a good site to read if you are new to the issue.
    -"PHOTOS: Night Commuters"[BBC] : photos of children and their commute at night.
    - "Uganda's Atrocious War" [BBC]: describes the atrocities and torture committed the LRA.  (WARNING: the opening image to this page is graphic.)
    -"Lord's Resistance Army, Profile" [BBC]: learn more about the LRA.

  • an old post: august 2004


    incredible     women

     

     

    Waverly: "Mom, what's wrong?"

    Lindo: "Nothing, nothing. Only thinking, thinking about my mother, how much
           I wanted to be like her."
     

  • A Genocide We Can Stop:: Darfur, Sudan

    I have written  and posted many entries about Darfur in my
    xanga. For those of you visiting my site for the first time, this can
    be quite confusing. Genocide? What? Where?

    For your conveniance, I have summarized a few links to make things a bit easier.

    [My xanga posts]
    "This time, we have no excuse." [Photos from "The New York Times"]- 2/24/05
    "Powell calls atrocities in Sudan Genocide " [The New York Times]- 9/10/04
    "Miracles and Misery Amid Sudan"-[Toronto Star, MSF]- 8/13/04

    [General Info, Background Info: Darfur conflict]
    Sudan: A Country Divided [BBC News]
    Q&A: Darfur Conflict [BBC News]
    Save Darfur Coalition
    Darfur: A Genocide We Can Stop
    PBS: Crisis In Sudan
    PBS Frontline: Sudan- The Quick and the Terrible
    Human Rights Watch: Sudan
    "Everyone We Met Lost Someone" {Medcins Sans Frontiers/Doctors without borders]

    [Save Darfur at UT]

    A group of students from the "Justice Team," a subgroup of our college fellowship Asian American Campus Ministry, launched a week long campaign: "Darfur Awareness Week".  Visit our xanga!


    What YOU can do to help Darfur...

    1)Contact your Congressmen/Senators!
    Call them! Write a letter! Tell them YOU care about this genocide in
    Darfur and ask them what they're doing about it? [Sample letters and
    outlines will be posted shortly.]

    2)Raise awareness by handing out
    flyers, planning presentations and simply telling people about the
    genocide in Darfur! Organize your own event in your
    city/school/organization to raise awareness!

    3) Donate to Medicines San Frontiers (Doctors without Borders). Provide humanitarian relief to the people of Darfur!

    4) Support 'Save Darfur' by buying a wristband at www.SaveDarfur.org !

    5) Pray , Pray, Pray!

     [More ideas on how to take action]
    Save Darfur: Take Action Now
    Genocide Intervention Fund
    STAND [Student Taking Action Now:Darufur]
    mtvU.com: Activism

  • Cast thy burden on the Lord

    "If we undertake work for God and get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility will be overwhelmingly crushing; but if we roll back on God that which He has put upon us, He takes away the sense of responsibility by bringing in the realization of Himself.

    Many workers have gone out with high courage and fine impulses, but with no intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, and before long they are crushed.  They do not know what to do with the burden, it produces weariness, and people say- 'What an embittered end to such a beginning!'

    'Roll thy burden upon the Lord'- you have been bearing it all; deliberately put one end on the shoulders of God... Commit to God 'that He hath given thee'; not fling it off, but put it over onto Him and yourself with it, and the burden is lightened by the sense of companionship. "

    -Oswald Chambers

    "Cast thy burden upon the Lord."
    -Psalm 55:22



  • reason

    the cross

    you beyond all measure
    revealing love complete
    giving up what only you could be
    a savior now forsaken, hung upon a tree
    bearing     what i know was meant for me

    you're amazing to behold, and you're illogical to me,
    that you alone, so pure and whole,     would come to die for hearts unclean
    you chose to leave your holy throne,     the beauty of your majesty
    to come and pay for souls atoned,     my Savior's love has set me free
    to You, oh Lord, will i sing     

    nothing i can fathom,
    to explain my reason being
    except to know the price you paid so dear
    holiness and splendor revealed in all i see
    the veil you tore away to bring me near

    and so with all that's in me,
    i bring what praise is due
    you deserving everything and more
    angels join in singing, glory onto you
    all creation gathers to adore

      

     

    "what i do for You, it's because of You
    'cause it's You i love, let my life become"

     

     

     

     

    reason
    by jaden's move

    ~ ~ ~

    "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as he said. Come and see..."-Matt.28:5

     




  • "No war on the face of the Earth is more destructive than the AIDS pandemic. I was a soldier. But I know of no enemy in war more insidious or vicious than AIDS. Will history record a fateful moment in our time, on our watch, when action came too late?"

    – US Secretary of State Colin Powell

    At the Wat Prah Bat Nam Phu hospice, an AIDS patient falls from his bed and can't get up. (more...)












     

     

     

     


    Today is World AIDS Day.
    Take action.