Content Under Pressure

Got plans for Saturday?

How about going here?  I would encourage you to either get tickets to go if you’re near Nashville or watch online (how cool is that).  And, if you’re able to, donate towards relief efforts in Haiti.  I realize that it’s been long enough now that it may just be a fading memory.  But, please remember the people of Haiti.  There is a lot of work left to do, and they need you and I.

So, take the time to enjoy some good music that’s about something so important, would you?

We’ll hear from CS Lewis next Friday, but this is too good important to pass up.

Have a good weekend.

This is Kate.

Kate is six.  And, I don’t know about you, but those eyes are telling me a story.

She has an aggressive brain tumor that is ravaging both her body, as well as the hearts of many around the world who have followed her story.

I ask that you would please pray on Kate’s behalf.  Pray for amazing things.  (1) Pray that God would completely baffle the doctors with the disappearance of the tumor.  (2) Pray for Kate’s parents, Aaron and Holly, that they would have peace, comfort, clarity & wisdom through this difficult time.

Starting today, little Kate will have a year’s worth of chemotherapy administered in six days.  Since her body will be stripped of so many cells, she will need to undergo a stem-cell procedure that use healthy stems harvested before the treatment to rescue her.

As you can probably imagine, this will be a grueling period of time for little Kate physically and emotionally.  She will be isolated for several weeks to avoid infection, which has got to be horrible for such a little girl, let alone that she has a severe brain tumor.  Please pray that her heart be protected through this time, and that she know that she’s not alone in this.

God, in His infinite power, has the ability to immediately heal little Kate, so let’s ask Him to do just that.  However, if His timing is different, let us pray that He use the sufferings of this family to bring glory to His name.  And, let the McRae’s story model to us what it means to suffer well for Christ.

Please visit Kate’s caring bridge site for updates, as well as her site for more information.  Blog about her, twitter about her [with #katemcrae as the hashtag], post something on Facebook to your friends with a link to her site-use your sphere of influence to get as many people as possible to pray on behalf of this little girl.

God hears the cries of His people.  Let’s not grow weary in praying for Kate.

When something seems hopeless it’s easy to shut down.

Here we are just over a week removed from the unfathomable disaster that struck Haiti, and I have to saythat I’m still unbelievably heartsick over this.  Perhaps numb would be the appropriate term to describe me this week in regards to Haiti.  If you have the time, please take a look at the devastating pictures from the Boston Globe: Haiti six days later. 

I will warn you that these images are nothing short of both gripping and challenging.  I mean, can you imagine someone you love being among the piles of bodies in a mass grave?  I know I can’t.  You can do one of two things when seeing these images…

Shut down or react. 

The first option is so easy to do.  Questions like, “what in the world can I do?” and “would anything I could give make any kind of difference?” are common among us all.  It’s hard for me to think that my small amount of money could do anything in a country who’s citizens either died or became homeless. 

The second is obviously more difficult.  Giving to the point of being uncomfortable is just that…uncomfortable.  But, to put it bluntly, it’s Biblical.  Jesus never said it would be comfortable.  I need to remember that. 

I blogged about Haiti needing us last week, and with each day the need increases tremendously.  Would you consider doing something to help?  Anything will.  I can promise you that.

January has been declared “National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month.”  There was a call to highlight local organziations/ministries that are fighting this problem.
Today I will highlight Streetlight Phoenix, an organization here in Phoenix.

Streetlight is an organization here in Phoenix who is rescuing child prostitutes and rehabilitating them physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  They are set to open up a campus around a safehouse in the city in 2010, which will immediately double the number of safehouse beds in all of the U.S.  If you read this blog and are in Arizona, would you consider checking Streetlight out, and perhaps donating to it?  They also have some volunteer opportunities as well if you want to look into that.

The president of Streetlight is a pastor here in the Valley.  The goal is to partner with churches around the city to join in with the fight.  I like the idea of different churches putting aside their differences, denominations, worship style, etc. to help the least of these.  Can you imagine what that would look like?

Let me know what’s going in with regards to this issue in your town or city.  I’d love to know about it.  Perhaps you would consider writing a blog post this month to highlight an organization even.  That’d be great, too!

Feel free to link to your post (only one link or spam filter will catch it) and share it.

Perhaps if we saw signs like these we’d have less of chance to ignore a rampant problem…

Today has been declared National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.  Were you aware?

President Obama proclaimed last week that January 2010 to be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, calling for greater public awareness of the problem.

An estimated 27 million people worldwide are trapped as victims of human trafficking.  The black market slave trade is lucrative, worth an estimated $9 billion a year, according to the FBI.  One million children are new victims of forced prostitution, and 200,000 American women and children are at high risk for being forced into the sex industry. Human trafficking has become the fastest growing criminal activity in the world.

We must do something… (more…)