“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate…. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, to be gorgeous, talented, and fabulous. Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God within us. And as we let our light shine, we consciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
- Marianne Williamson (1952-)

My Friend Vaden Earle over at absolute.org has a weekly blog where they talking about all that is going on… This post really caught me so I thought I would pass it on

I am not sure what I would do in her situation. What lesser of the inevitable evils would I choose to fall prey to? Would I have the strength of resolve to be able to choose anything better than she did? Is it possible that had I been her that day and she had been me, would she see me the way I was looking at her? Would she ask the same questions of me that were running through my mind about her situation? The answers to these questions may not even exist, because the truth is, I wasn’t her, and I have no idea what it is like to struggle as she does.

We were standing on the bridge that for countless hundreds of thousands of women and children was a symbol of pain, exploitation and slavery. This bridge was the only physical link between where they had come from and where they were being forced to go. We were standing on one of the major border crossings between Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand, and it has the horrible infamy of being known to have one of the world’s highest numbers of humans trafficked across it. Below us was sludgy water, with embankments of ramshackle tenements, cardboard houses, and endless garbage littered on its banks. In the water were children, cows, women doing laundry, and always around us was the endless hum of crowds of people desperately trying to keep going until tomorrow; being forced to do whatever it takes to make sure there is a tomorrow. It was because of this bridge that I had a context to try to understand her story, and it was because of this bridge we became inspired to try something new.

My friend was talking to her in Thai, and asking her some questions, as they knew each other from when she was a community worker in the region. She was surrounded by fiv e children, ranging in age from about 14 to the infant at her breast. They were all dirty, hungry, and sitting on the bridge hoping for some kindness from the tourists that passed by. Her husband had left a long time ago, and a couple of the children did not share the same father. It wasn’t by choice. She had made many decisions she was not proud of, but in an effort to feed hungry mouths, she felt there were no alternatives. Some foreign men had seen her older daughter and offered her money to have her for the weekend. You could see the pain in her eyes and the shame of a mother’s desperate choice. She had sold her. Probably for less than $20. But when you don’t know what it is like to have money in your hand, $20 can seem like a godsend. But at what cost? I wonder if it became easier the next time they came back to ask for her again? Did it cut as deep to betray your child like that, or was it easier to accept it as a necessary evil? As we left that family that day, we already knew that we were now responsible with what we had learned.

My Mom loves me, and my Mom is a good woman. She has sacrificed countless times for us as a family, and I am proud of who she is. However, that day, I was thankful that she was never faced with the choice of this woman. Choice is a luxury that is not always afforded to the world’s poor, and when you are a stateless, caring refugee mother on a border between Thailand and Burma (one of many thousands along the border), choice is not even a word you can dare hope to utter. In selling her children to avoid the starvation of her family, that woman was forced to make a decision we know nothing of. With one look at her face you would know that it was never a choice – it was an unavoidable nightmare.

She may not have felt she had a choice for her actions, but I have a choice, and we have a choice: it is the choice to care. On that bridge that day we began to see how you cannot just look at the numbers and make the judgment calls; you have to see the face behind them.

That was how we came to decide to start doing Hero Holiday in Thailand. To look objectively at what is happening in trafficking and exploitation, it would seem the bad guy is winning. And maybe he is. But hope still lives, and that hope needs us to continue to recognize that compassion requires action, and action requires people, and people are what the human experience is about. This is why we wanted to bring Hero Holiday to Thailand. Our numbers may seem small right now, but we are adding our voice, our hands, and our passion to a bigger picture that is determined to eradicate slavery and exploitation.

The following year we came back to this city with our first Hero Holiday team. Two blocks from the bridge where we originally met, the young daughter walked in to the drop-in centre we were working at. However, she now had her own baby in her arms.The child may have come in to the world as the result of one man’s evil actions against her innocence, but it was beautiful nonetheless. When I asked to hold her baby, she said to me,”You came back, and you brought friends!” It mattered to her, and there are many more just like her that need to know that they matter.

We are currently in Thailand, working in the same area with some of our heroes. Each year, as we spend time with them, work alongside of them, and help to believe in what can be, we realize that this is how change starts: it requires us to change first.

To find out more about our projects in Thailand, check out www.heroholiday.com.

Taken from http://52.absolute.org

I found this post on alexandrianews.org web site and thought it really expresses many of the reasons why I  got in to Camping… It really is true, Summer Camp offers something that I have never experienced anyplace but at Camp.

In the summer of 2008, Matthew Carroll decided to work as a counselor at a traditional American summer camp in upstate New York. This trip to New York quickly turned into a journey of discovery. Having just finished University in his native country of Ireland only one week before, he thought a couple of months working in a camp would assist in his pursuit of avoiding the real world. It was exactly this mission that made him realize what the world could learn from summer camp.
1 Everyone is equal – at camp Carroll noticed that the kids dressed the same as the counselors; counselors were dressed the same as kitchen staff; and office staff were dressed the same as the head counselors. You couldn’t distinguish the kids whose parents had saved up for months to send their kids to camp from those who had spent the spare change of a week’s pay.
2 Everyone is respected – While the campers and American counselors recited the Pledge of Allegiance, the international staff looked on in silence. Different faiths and different cultures were respected and tolerated. Coming from Northern Ireland this was not only a novelty, but something that impressed Carroll. People of all faiths were observing Jewish culture with respect, while back home in Northern Ireland, Christians struggle to tolerate the cultures of other Christians.
3 Camp went back to basics – Mobile phones were banned and internet access was limited. A strong emphasis was put on keeping camp tidy, with everyone sharing in the task of keeping trash off the ground. Carroll was surprised to learn that the kids didn’t seem to miss “the outside world.” Bringing down the veil of technology led to more open conversation between friends, better networking, and the development of new relationships.
4 Everyone was active and playing – Older kids played with younger kids; brothers played together; twenty-one-year-olds challenged eight-year-olds to games of chess . . . and lost. Kids were able to play outside in a safe environment the way they used to.
So what can the world learn from camp? In short, to let kids be kids. According to Rodger Popkin, owner/director of Blue Star Camps and past national president for the American Camp Association® (ACA), camp is a human relations laboratory — where people are encouraged to invent and re-invent themselves. The process of self-invention will involve all the building blocks necessary for a life based on self-knowledge, focused purpose, and a well-defined understanding of our personal place in the world.

In that age of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, iPods, BlackBerrys and iPhones, the simple things seem to be forgotten.

Today I was reminded that each day can never be had again! The memory you miss out on because you were busy, will never be had again! The word that should have been spoke now cant be spoken.

Even though we have more opportunity in our day to communicate with all the tools of the present day-we often forget those closest to us. I wonder now, how much different my world would be if I had take then time to say all that should have been said-even today.

What did you miss out on today?

Its been a while since I posted a video, so I thought I would show what the view from my fount porch is like.

Time laps is so fun!

For Christmas I was given a DSLR, Gabe was given a winnie-the-pooh camera for Christmas (Its just for fun,  it makes a flashing sound). So today we set out into the woods looking for that one-shot to be proud of…I ended up shooting him 90% of the time. The whole thing was an adventure to him.

Before long I noticed that he was my little shadow, when I would walk away from a shot he would mimic everything I did. Honestly I wish his little cam would have taken photos, I am sure his angles were better than mine.

I ended up not getting anything I went out for, but I came home with a million high-fives, good job daddies and more laughs and smiles than I can count. Call me shallow or simple but… How happy must our Father be when we just take two seconds to say thank you, or just to tell him Hi. I think he longs to take us for walks with our trinkets in hand.

Once again, my son has taught me more about who God is than just about anything else.

“There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind…” — C.S. Lewis

I have taken the time in the last few days to reread some books that over the past year have forever changed my life. In rereading one of them I came across the following passage.

When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they became proud;
then they forgot me.

- Hosea 13:6

It really was a slap in the face. It was such a great reminder of how complacent I can be and how I try to use an almighty God as more as a idol. Its like I reason with him. This passage is so true. How often has he provided for me then I forgot him. Or given me what I asked for, only for me to throw it in his face and say: ” I don’t want it anymore”.

http://www.youversion.com/kjv/Hos.13.6

I know that  this is a little old. But when I watched it I was reminded of how great our God is.

Please let me know what your thoughts are…

There is a new post coming this weekend…