Vive Le Rouge 2012 Photos May 7, 2012

We celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary by, once again, participating in Vive Le Rouge, Fort Wayne AIDS walk.
Thanks SO MUCH to those who gave donations.
The event raised much needed funds for use by the AIDS Task Force in Fort Wayne.
Food, fun and great entertainment helped make it an evening to remember.

         

    

   

  

     

The mission of the AIDS Task Force is to help improve the quality of life for men, women, and children with HIV and AIDS, to educate the community in order to decrease the incidence of HIV and STD infection and to increase the public’s understanding of and compassionate response to HIV and AIDS.

For us, this is just one of the ways we’re living out Jesus’ call bring a little of heaven to earth.
The gospel isn’t about exclusion.  It’s about being blessed to bless others.

Here.
Now.
In This Life.

Kathy & Dave 

Do One Green Thing March 14, 2012

Do One Green Thing:
Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices
- Mindy Pennybacker

You want to make healthier eating choices.  You know buying organic clothing and fair-trade coffee, along with smarter choices for personal products is a good thing.  You know recycling is good for people and the planet we share.
BUT, it’s just all so overwhelming!  Too many claims.  Too many choices.  Too much research.  And it seems to cost more to “do the right thing.”
So, since you can’t “do it all,” you may feel you’re left with doing nothing.

NOT TRUE!

Too many people (including myself) sometimes get locked in an all-or-nothing mentality.  In “Do One Green Thing,” Mindy Pennybacker shows us how to make one simple choice in a variety of areas of everyday living.  One simple choice that can make a difference.
Plus, she sifts through the information, does the research, and give us the bottom line data we need to make the small changes that make a BIG impact.
She also names Brands and items!  Now, it is easy being green.

This would be a great reference book to keep in your car and take shopping with you.
“Do One Green Thing” is a great and very, very practical book that can help us all be better stewards of God’s gift of creation.

- df

Buy “Do One Green Thing”.  Click HERE.

“One green thing: It’s so simple.  This book takes the pressure off by giving you one easy but effective choice to make in each basic area of your life. And it’s written by a trusted voice in environmental health reporting: Mindy Pennybacker.
- Meryl Streep

“The eco-friendly world is a bitch to navigate.  Do One Green Thing makes it simple, but not simplistic.”
- Donna Bulesco, In Style magazine

“From foreword to index, the succinct book is fewer than 300 pages, but Pennybacker manages to cover a broad range of everyday questions.”
- The Daily Green

Buy “Do One Green Thing”.  Click HERE.

———-

Related Quotes:

“If you think ‘Going Green’ is something new, take a look at your Bible.  There is verse after verse about caring for the environment and all of God’s creation. So, being a good steward over God’s creation is not something new, but instead a responsibility we must all undertake.”
- Kelli Mahoney

“All of God’s creation—nature, animals, and humanity—are inextricably linked to one another. As creation cares for us, we too are called to care for creation and engage in the work of healing and sustaining it. ”
- from the preface of  The Green Bible

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to power a TV for three hours.

Buy “Do One Green Thing”.  Click HERE.

Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil,  4,100 kilowatts of energy, 3.2 cubic  yards of landfill space and 60 pounds of air pollution.

If the entire world lived like the average American, we’d need 5 planets to provide enough resources.

Buy “Do One Green Thing”.  Click HERE.

Books. I Like Books. February 16, 2012

[Every so often, I re-post this list for my new readers. So...]


These are just some of the books that have helped me SO much on my journey.
They have challenged me in ways I could have never imagined!
I believe they can truly help change the way we live.
(CLICK ON ANY BOOK image for a few quotes, or a brief review.)


Velvet Elvis   He Loves Me   The Shack 


If Grace Is True        Blue Like Jazz         

Thou Shalt Not Love


Lies (And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them)        Grace (Eventually)


A New Kind Of Christianity     A Heretic’s Guide To Eternity   


The Naked Gospel       The Myth Of A Christian Nation


Jesus Wants To Save Christians


Rejecting Religion. Embracing Grace
(Hey, I’m mentioned in this book!)


The Misunderstood God      Evolving In Monkey Town   


Love Wins      Fall To Grace      A Time To Embrace   


There are so many more; Like Bert Gary’s “Jesus Unplugged,” and Jim Palmer’s “Divine Nobodies.”
There’s “Insurrection,” and “The Orthodox Heretic,” both by Peter Rollins, and “Crazy For God,” by Frank Schaeffer


Most of these, and more, are available at the “Life Walk” Bookstore.” [Click here.]
And, I’m always finding new insights in new books.


For other recommended books, click on the “Books” link to the right, under “Categories,” and scroll through the entries.

Happy reading. Have a good life.

A Walk In The Park April 16, 2010

We recently went to Headwaters park for a walk. It was our first time this season. We go there a lot throughout the summer. We try to hit various parks, but that’s one of our regulars.

I was enjoying the walk. Enjoying the view. I started thinking about the beauty of nature; of God’s creation. It’s easy, of course, to switch gears and start thinking about how we’ve messed up nature. Man has, with no doubt, had a negative influence on nature. We’re still messing up nature. But…

I started thinking about the park again, and how beautiful it was. I started to realize that the beauty of the park was, in part, due to man’s influence on nature. This park was created by professional landscapers. There are people who keep it mowed, trimmed, green and pristine. So, although we destroy, abuse, and trash the earth, we can, in fact, have a positive influence. This led me to recall God’s original intent for the interaction and harmony between man and the earth. And between one another.

In chapter 2 of Genesis we read, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

In Evangelical Christianity, I learned that the earth doesn’t really matter. We can treat it as we please, and God doesn’t really care. After all, it’s all gonna burn anyway, right? Part of the problem with modern Evangelicalism is the whole focus is “later.” Our lives are just a “waiting room,” and all we really want to do is leave. What a perversion of the gospel. What a perversion of what Jesus came to teach us.
As Greg X Voltz wrote in his song “Livin’ For The Bell,”
      ”There’s a lot to get done before the end of the show,
       but it’s hard to get to it when you just want to go.”

I believe our lives do matter. They matter here. They matter now. I don’t think we have a clue as to how much what we do in our everyday lives will affect the rest of our eternity. I’m not talking about whether or not we “make it.” That issue is not in question for me. I’m talking about aspects of the rest of eternity that we can not yet understand. But, understand or not, I believe how we treat the planet God gave us, and put us in charge of caring for, matters.

The good thing is, it doesn’t have to be all negative. As my walk in the park helped me see, we can make it better. This applies, not just to our interaction with nature, but with each other as well. This is where the social justice of things like standing up for the oppressed and caring for the poor and needy comes in. I have a couple of friends who work with children in Haiti. They have done this long before the recent devastation happened. To me, this is a part of social justice. This is Christianity. I love that they do what they do.

I’ll probably never go to Haiti. It’s not something I’m very comfortable with. I can, though, support those who do go.
There are things I can do. We all have areas where God can use us to make things better. I don’t consider my wife and I fanatics. We don’t do everything “green,” but we do what we can. We can recycle, at least, some stuff. We can use organic and earth friendly products most of the time. We can’t give to all the needy, but we can go on the annual “Aids Walk,” and help raise funds for them. We can spend time with the lonely stranger that God has us cross paths with. And we can do this out of love, instead of seeing everyone as a “project;” as a “candidate for conversion.”

My life may not always be a walk in the park. But wherever the path leads, my walk matters. My life matters. What I do in relation to God, people, and the earth matters. This is my Life Walk.

The Good Samaritan March 21, 2010

Luke 10:25-37

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.

“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said:
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.   A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.   So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.   But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.   He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.   The next day he took out two silver coins  and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

—–
- The “religious professionals” wouldn’t help.  After all, the man probably deserved what he got.
Maybe, God was trying to teach him a lesson.  He must have been reaping what he sowed.
Our actions have consequences, ya know. -

“Which of  these three are you man, the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan”

– Paul Clark
———————————
My wife and I are, again this year, participating in the local “Aids Walk.”
Part of the goal of the Aids Task Force, locally, is to help improve the quality of life for men, women, and
children with HIV and AIDS.
Our goal is to demonstrate, in a practical manner, the love of God.

Don’t be one to “pass by way on the other side.”
You can give financially.
You can join our team and walk with us.
You can pray.

All three would be nice, but any one will help.
To give online, and for more information, click on the link below.
Thank you, and God bless you.

http://www.firstgiving.com/teamforeman

Eat Meat, Die Sooner September 18, 2009

Red Meat Boosts Risk of Early Death

A large-scale study examining the effects of meat consumption on mortality has confirmed what myriad smaller ones have suggested — frequently eating red and processed meats increases your risk of mortality by at least 33%.

MEAT-LOVERS BEWARE
To assess the link between eating meat and risk of premature death, researchers at the National Cancer Institute followed more than 500,000 people for 10 years, 70,000 of whom died over the course of the study. The size of this study is what makes it so important, since it provided an opportunity to investigate the relationship between meat consumption and age at death. At the start of the study, the participants, aged 50 to 71, completed a questionnaire that asked how often they ate specific foods and also about their portion sizes. “Red meats” included beef and pork, while “processed meats” included sausages, hot dogs and all cold cuts.

Participants who ate the most red and processed meats, most often and in the largest portions, were at higher risk for death from heart disease or cancer, and for death overall than those who ate the least red and processed meats.  Researchers measured and controlled for a variety of critical co-factors, including alcohol intake, smoking, physical activity, weight and total caloric intake and their impact on longevity.   This essentially means that when compared with people who eat just one ounce, people who eat five ounces of red meat daily are a third more likely to die, Barry Popkin, PhD, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of The World Is Fat, told me. He added that if you eat just a single ounce of processed meat — or  one hot dog each week — mortality risk is similarly raised, noting these  results were identical for women and men.

Participants who ate the most white meat (which included fish and tuna) had a slightly lower risk — about 10% to 15% — of death.   In an editorial accompanying the study, published earlier this year in Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. Popkin said: “The consensus is not that we should all become vegans or vegetarians. Rather, the need is for a major reduction in total meat intake.”

THE PROBLEM WITH MEAT
Where breast cancer and colorectal cancer have both been linked to cooking method as well as saturated fat content, this study is the first to implicate red and processed meats not just in those two  cancers but in total cancer deaths, as well as cardiovascular deaths and overall mortality. According to Dr. Popkin, there are several factors that make these meats a poor meal choice…

*Cancer-causing compounds form when meat is cooked at high temperatures, as when it is grilled.
*Meat is high in iron, which is thought to promote cancer when consumed in excess.
*Meat intake is likely to contribute to elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels, increasing the risk for heart disease.
*Processed meat, even if it’s low-fat, contains cancer-causing nitrites.

CHANGING YOUR DIET
According to Dr. Popkin, reducing red meat intake to just once a week, at most, and completely eliminating processed meats would save the lives of a million men and just under a million women in the 50 to 59 age group over the next decade. “People could cut their individual risk by 30% over 10 years,” he noted — adding “that’s a pretty big saving.” For long-term health benefits, Dr. Popkin suggests choosing poultry, fish and legumes, rather than red meat, as sources of protein.  Also, he advises, those who have risk factors that increase their likelihood of premature death, such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer or heart disease, or who are overweight or obese, should be “especially wary.”  “If you’re at greater risk for disease to start with, eating red meat will increase your risk even more.”

Source(s):
Barry Popkin, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is author of The
World Is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies and Products That
Are Fattening the Human Race (Avery).

http://link.dhn.bottomlinesecrets.com/r/FIUH48/D4VNZ/A7D2MG/HQVF3/IIL0L/28/t/