Awesome Night
Tuesday night we had the opportunity to go to General George Patton School and assist in their first Reading Night program. The night was filled with children’s laughter as we had an opportunity to read and play games with the children of the Riverdale community. Thank God that He continues to give us such fun and creative ways to reach people with His loving arms!
- Laurie is in the zone!
- Laura has found her calling!
- Andrea has a captive audience!
- Rick was having a hard time staying with us!
- Lori is in her natural element!
- My wife seems to have her hands full!
- I’m holding my own with this class!
- Phil has her class under control!
In Some Nations, People Look to Obama as President of the World
From Foxnews.com
In Some Nations, People Look to Obama as President of the World
President-elect Barack Obama is being embraced worldwide as a symbol of a new beginning for international relations.
Barack Obama’s election on Tuesday set off international celebrations and ignited a fervor for the United States that has been unseen since the days immediately following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
To some observers, the international reaction has elevated America’s president-elect to an unparalleled post: president of the world.
In Kenya, where Obama’s father was born, a national holiday was declared on Thursday. In Indonesia, children danced at the school Obama attended when he was a young boy, embracing him as much for what he represents abroad as for the policies he advocates at home.
“People from all over Africa, especially in Kenya, where this is a holiday, are feeling that the most powerful person in the world does not have to be a white guy. That’s a huge breakthrough for the United States and for humanity,” said Walter Russell Mead, the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten,” Rama Yade, France’s junior minister for human rights, told French radio. “On this morning, we all want to be American, so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes.”
America’s popularity abroad waned dramatically during the Bush administration, and some voters expressed hopes that in electing Obama, they could restore the country’s image. The wave of good feelings since Tuesday night suggests that even before taking office, Obama has made substantial inroads.
“This may be the beginning of a new world. It marks the end of old elites and opens the door for new approaches worldwide,” an Israeli man in his mid-50s said in Tel Aviv.
Foreign observers, who paid rapt attention during the long election season, are taking a personal stake in the outcome of a vote a world away. Expectations are high for the 47-year-old Obama, who will take over on January 20 amid a financial collapse and who will preside over two wars on his first day in office.
“The standing of everybody in the world is going to be affected by what President Obama does or doesn’t do,” said Mead, noting that all eyes will be looking to the new president for a way out of the global financial crisis.
In the Muslim world, the response has been mixed. A journalist with a pan-Arab news channel told FOX News that on election night, workers were going around the newsroom congratulating each other, as if Obama were their president-elect.
Iraqis have expressed skepticism that any rapid changes will come as a result of the election, but many see their fates ineluctably tied to Obama’s foreign policy. “By God, the new American President Obama has promised to pull the troops out. This is in the best interest of the Iraqi people,” said one Baghdadi.
Arab heads of state have been more circumspect, waiting to see whether Obama’s Mideast policy will depart significantly from that of the Bush administration, and some newspapers in the Arab world have openly announced their distrust of the president-elect.
“There is no significant difference between Obama and McCain. They disagree only on the means to achieve America’s chief goal, which is to rule for another hundred years,” said an editorial in the Saudi daily Al-Watan, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors the Arab press.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated Obama Thursday for his win — the first time an Iranian leader has welcomed an incoming president since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. And some Iranians, speaking to FOX News, said they were excited by the prospect of the coming administration.
“I want to congratulate you on Barack Obama’s victory that really turned a new chapter in the world’s history — that an African-American man, decent and intelligent, became president of the world,” one Iranian said.
“This was done in America. Your nation has the credit for it.”
Not all observers expect this world embrace to be long-lasting. “I think overseas, as at home, opinion over the longer term will depend on what he actually does,” said John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Obama was issued an early challenge Wednesday, as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the deployment of short-range missiles near his country’s border with Poland.
“Those who have issues with us are certainly not giving him a honeymoon,” Bolton said of Russia’s action, which may have been intended to send a cold word of welcome to Obama and to test his resolve.
Russian citizens, too, have been wary in their evaluation of the next president.
“I don’t think he can really become the world political leader,” said Tatyana Solomonova, a real estate agent in Moscow. “The fact that he’s black can be an obstacle — there’s still a lot of racism in the world, in Europe and Russia too. I think he can take a leading role in the Western hemisphere, but not in this part of the world.”
In Moscow Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has a history of controversial remarks, was asked by a reporter about the prospect for U.S.-Russian relations after Berlusconi met with Medvedev.
Berlusconi responded by saying that the relative youth of Medvedev, 43, and Obama should make it easier for Moscow and Washington to work together.
Then he said, smiling: “I told the president that [Obama] has everything needed in order to reach deals with him: he’s young, handsome and even tanned.”
Italian news agencies said Berlusconi later defended his remark, calling the statement “a great compliment.”
“Why are they taking it as something negative? … If they have the vice of not having a sense of humor, worse for them,” the ANSA news agency quoted him as saying.
But Italy’s only black lawmaker, Jean-Leonard Touadi, called the comment embarrassing.
“In the United States, a joke like that wouldn’t just be politically incorrect, but a great offense to this amazing example of integration, which it seems the Italian premier should take as an example,” Touadi said.
For good or ill, all eyes are now on Obama.
“Not everybody is going to get what they want, but this is a moment of hope,” said Mead, who added that Obama was sure to fall short of some expectations.
“If you look at Jesus Christ, he walked on water and fed the 5,000 and he ended up getting crucified, so I think it’s not unlikely that President-elect Obama is gonna disappoint some people also.”
FOX News’ Dasha Bond, Courtney Kealy, Reena Ninan and Amy Kellogg contributed to this report.
Historic Time!
Just minutes ago the election has been called for President Elect Barak Obama. Our nation has finally looked past race and selected an African-American candidate to lead us into the future. I truly believe that God is the one that anoints our leaders for the task ahead, so my prayers are for President Elect Obama. Praise God that our nation has come to this point. Hopefully now we can put race behind us and push ahead as a united nation ready to lead the world in a way that God will be pleased!
Voting
This has been an incredible election day to finalize the longest election cycle ever. This morning when I arrived at the church at 5am to open the doors for the election workers I knew we were beginning a monumental day. Prior to 6am I saw a line going around our building letting me know that we would see some truly impressive numbers of voting turnout. Thank God that we live in nation where we can participate in the voting process and choose who our new leader will be.
I am proud to be an American and now I only wish we could get people as anxious to come and worship the Lord as they were to vote!
ECHO School
Once again this year we were able to help ECHO School create their own pumpkin patch for the special needs children they serve. A local farmer was gracious enough to give us the 150 pumpkins needed so that we could help make this day fun and festive for some severely challenged children in our community. Seeing these kids in their costumes is simply precious and I thank God that we were able to play a small role again this year!
Runny Nose Conversion
I went to the hospital today to meet a man that I had never known before. This man simply shared a room in hospice care with an uncle of one of our members. I went to the hospital last week and prayed for the uncle then after I left this gentleman asked our church member to call me. He wanted to meet so we could talk so this morning I headed into the city to meet him. While talking with him I found out that the doctors have told him that he will probably die before the New Year. I also learned that he has spent 20 years in prison and had been a gang-banger in Chicago. He began crying saying that he needed help! I felt God telling me to stop talking and just pray. As I prayed I felt the hopelessness begin to lift. This former gang-banger sat there crying with his nose running he confessed the Lord as his savior! After the prayer he cleaned his face up and I literally could see a brighter look on his face!
Who Can I Tell
Just got through reading the script of what is sure to be an incredible play. One of our new ladies in the church is staring in this stage production of Who Can I Tell produced by SoulSavin productions. This play is all about domestic violence when it comes from the opposite gender. Whenever we think of domestic violence we assume that the female is the victim yet in this powerful stage production we will see what happens when the victim turns out to be the man.
After reading this play I highly recommend this as a night of fellowship and fun as one of our very own performs. For tickets please call Shareeta Porter at 708-275-1929 .
Atheists Plan Anti-God Ad Campaign on Buses
Came across this article and thought I would share to let everyone how crazy our world really is!
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LONDON — London buses have God on their side — but not for long, if atheists have their way.
The sides of some of London’s red buses will soon carry ads asserting there is “probably no God,” as nonbelievers fight what they say is the preferential treatment given to religion in British society.
Organizers of a campaign to raise funds for the ads said Wednesday they received more than $113,000 in donations, almost seven times their target, in the hours since they launched the project on a charity Web site. Supporters include Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins, who donated $9,000.
The money will be used to place posters on 30 buses carrying the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The plan was to run the ads for four weeks starting in January, but so much money has been raised that the project may be expanded.
“A lot of people say trying to organize atheists is like herding cats. The last couple of days shows that is not true,” said comedy writer Ariane Sherine, who started the campaign.
While most London buses carry posters for shops or Hollywood movies, Christian churches and Muslim groups have bought bus-side ad space in the past.
Sherine came up with the idea after seeing a series of Christian posters on London buses. She said she visited the Web site promoted on one ad and found it told nonbelievers they would spend eternity in torment in hell.
“I thought it would be a really positive thing to counter that by putting forward a much happier and more upbeat advert, saying ‘Don’t worry, you’re not going to hell,’” said Sherine, 28. “Atheists believe this is the only life we have, and we should enjoy it.”
The British Humanist Association, which is administering the fundraising drive, said it had been so successful the campaign might spread to other cities including Manchester and Edinburgh.
Most Britons identify themselves as Christians, but few attend church regularly, and public figures rarely talk about their beliefs. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was rare among politicians in speaking openly about his Christian faith.
Dawkins, author of the best-selling atheist manifesto “The God Delusion,” said that religion nonetheless held a privileged position in society.
“Religious organizations have an automatic tax-free charitable status,” he said. “Bishops sit in the House of Lords automatically. Religious leaders get preferential treatment on all sorts of commissions.
“This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion.”
Dawkins said that as an atheist he “wasn’t wild” about the ad’s assertion that there was “probably” no God.
Sherine said the word was included to ensure the posters didn’t breach transit advertising regulations, which stipulate ads should not offend religious people.
Few believers appeared offended by the campaign, although most doubted it would work.
“I think people will ask themselves, ‘On what basis can they make that statement?” said Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain. “So it will get people thinking, so in that sense it can only be good.”
Ad agency CBS Outdoor, which manages advertising on many London buses, said it had approved the atheist campaign.
Sales and marketing director Tim Bleakley said “our decision to take an ad that promotes God, or one that promotes no God, is based on commercial terms, as long as the advertising copy itself does not breach U.K. advertising standards.”
The Rev. Jenny Ellis, spirituality and discipleship officer for the Methodist Church, welcomed the ads.
“This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life,” she said.
The religious think tank Theos said it had donated $82 to the campaign, on the grounds that the ads were so bad they would probably attract people to religion.
“It tells people to ’stop worrying,’ which is hardly going to be a great comfort for those who are concerned about losing jobs or homes in the recession,” said Theos director Paul Woolley.
“Stunts like this demonstrate how militant atheists are often great adverts for Christianity.”
The Spirit of the Lord
Service yesterday was simply incredible! Our altar was filled before we could even begin to present a word from the Lord! Since I am always in the front I often don’t know what is happening with everyone behind me and while I was feeling really broken yesterday I thought it was just me. That feeling was soon gone when Dexter got up to pray and he could not open his mouth as tears were streaming down his face. I then realized that God was moving on the entire church. Before I knew what was happening one woman approached the altar and then I heard the voice of God saying “Now is the time”. I knew that God was ready to do His thing! There was not any pulling or pumping as God was simply moving on the hearts. Our altar are was filled as men and women, young and old alike began making their way so that they could join with someone in prayer. God is getting ready to bust out in a major way and I think Sunday we felt a little tremble in the Spirit letting us know that He is getting ready!
This was the most amazing service we have had!
Overwhelmed
I have to tell you we are just finishing the first session at the youth convention and it is already off the hook! Overwhelmed is about all we can say!
