Home sweet home: Chaplain uses cookies to reach out
By John Hall — ABP
BAGHDAD — For American military personnel serving in Iraq, there’s nothing like a taste of home—literally.
Soldiers are finding comfort in a coffeehouse that provides homemade cookies run by a Baptist General Convention of Texas-endorsed chaplain, Kari Maschhoff.
“Our service members need a place they can know and feel that they are cared about,” said Maschhoff, a San Antonio resident. “The chaplain coffeehouse is for them. It is about taking care of our service members. The mission of our unit demands a lot of them. They need a place where they can receive some care back.
“What we offer is quite simple really: fresh coffee, hot water for tea or cocoa, a table of miscellaneous snacks and plate of homemade cookies. The comments we get from the service members are that it feels a little bit like home.”
Maschhoff makes some of the cookies for the 24-hour coffee shop with an Easy-Bake toy oven, which wafts a pleasant aroma throughout the area. Some baked goods are mailed to the chaplain from people who want to support the troops.
The coffee and cookies serve as more than reminders of home for service men and women—they are an avenue of connection, where troops can share with the chaplain about issues in their lives.
“The outreach connects our service members with people back home who want to show their support of our men and women in uniform by baking something special just for them,” she said. “The outreach also draws in service members who might not otherwise come to see the chaplain. It is much easier to say to your leadership or buddies, ‘I need a cup of coffee,’ than ‘I am having problems at home and need to talk to the chaplain.’
“The outreach is an informal way to bring in service members so we can offer a little chaplain loving care. We all need to know and feel that we are loved, and that is especially true when you live and work in a combat zone. Through the outreach, our hope is that the service members know that people back home care about them and are praying for them, that the chaplain team cares for them, and most importantly, that God cares for them and will never forget them.”
For more information on how to send cookies, call 1-888-244-9400.
World Vision is airlifting emergency supplies to survivors of the devastating cyclone that struck Myanmar over the weekend. The death toll from cyclone that battered Myanmar is estimated to be 100,000. Thousands are reported missing.
Thousands more have been left homeless and desperately need food, shelter, and fresh, clean water.
World Vision is delivering emergency supplies to the children and families who’ve lost their homes in the cyclone. Your gift today will enable us to speed critical aid to the survivors. Some of the most important items include:
• Emergency food
• Survival kits
• Water purifiers
• Tarps and shelters
• Mosquito nets for survivors
Looking for a lift? How about reading a devotional? Please visit Alexander…my site about devotionals, books, and the Word…
Ready to give a gift? Give the gift of God’s word to someone by taking a look at Alexander. You’ll find books and devotionals that just might be exactly what someone needs.
Celebrate God’s love this Easter and honor a loved one with a gift to bring hope and new life to children and families in need.
Select from our top Easter items, such as goats to nourish families, Bibles to feed spirits, food for hungry children, water to bring life, or two chickens to provide lasting income.
Sometimes it sounds so cliche to hear someone say, “Out of tragedy, good can come.” This story out of Alabama about how Rick Burgess took his son’s sudden death, asked God why, and almost instantly knew exactly what to do shatters any doubt.
Bronner Burgess’ death, happening only days ago, has already impacted thousands of lives…and remakably, his father shows us how.
Read the story, watch the video, or do both…words are not enough.
This from Baptist Press:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. –The impact of 2-year-old Bronner Burgess’ death is already being felt throughout the nation as his family and friends use the opportunity to tell others about the uncertainty of life and the assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ, his father, Rick Burgess, said at a memorial service Jan. 22.
“If you sit here today, the biggest injustice you can do our family, the biggest injustice you can do our Savior, the biggest injustice you can do for our baby, is to leave here unchanged, to continue to be apathetic, weak, ineffective believers of Christ,” Burgess, of the talk radio duo “Rick and Bubba,” said at Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
Bronner died Jan. 19 when he fell into a swimming pool at his family’s home. Burgess was speaking at a Christian conference in Tennessee when he got “the most horrible news a father could ever receive.”
“The minute this happened, I knew what God wanted me to do,” Burgess recounted to about 4,000 people at the service. “I don’t say that because of any pride in my flesh. I’m saying that because I walk with Him, I pray with Him, I talk to Him, and when I tell Him I would be ready and then He says, ‘Are you ready?’ I didn’t want to say, ‘Well, no. I’m caught off guard by this.’ He wasn’t wringing His hands about it, and I wasn’t either.” …more
Mesquite: Students spend holidays collecting bikes for Ghana schoolThis from The Dallas Morning News:
Dallas Christian School students collect bicycles for W. African children
By ANNETTE NEVINS
Eighteen-year-old Logan Brock and her parents and three sisters got nothing in their stockings, but they’ll still tell you this was their best Christmas ever.
Rather than exchange presents, the Rowlett family joined a drive by Dallas Christian School students to provide bicycles to the children of a West African village who walk up to 12 miles to school.
“It was weird getting up on Christmas morning with nothing under our tree, but it’s amazing how much I feel like I have received just by giving,” Logan said of the student-led initiative.
As she and other students return to the Mesquite campus today after the holiday break, they will still be looking forward to providing Christmas gifts for more than 300 children at the Ateiku Church of Christ International School in Ghana. About 350 new and used bicycles, plus other supplies, wait at a North Dallas warehouse for shipment within the next week.
And if Dallas Christian can raise a few thousand dollars more for shipping, it will send a used bus as well…
What would this Christmas season look like if massive numbers of people gave up just ONE Christmas present and decided instead to give a gift to someone more in need? This is the idea of GiveUpOne. Will you accept the challenge? Just GiveUpOne.
Here’s some stats to wake us up!
The National Retail Federation is forecasting that Americans will spend approximately $474.5 billion at Christmas in 2007.
Americans spend:
$18 billion on makeup
$15 billion on perfume
$17 Billion on pet food
It would cost:
$5 Billion to eliminate illiteracy worldwide
$10 Billion to solve the water crisis for everyone in the world
$19 Billion to eliminate hunger worldwide
Saddleback Church, home of ”Purpose Driven“ Pastor Rick Warren, is set to open its third annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church on Wednesday.
More than 2,000 people are expected to attend the Nov 28-30 summit featuring more than 50 global keynote speakers and informative sessions led by experts in business, government, medicine, non-profits and ministry working locally and globally in the battle against AIDS.
“The HIV/AIDS pandemic is so large that it can’t be stopped without the combined efforts of leadership in the public, private/profit and faith sectors,” stated Kay Warren, wife of Rick Warren and the person who launched the HIV/AIDS Initiative at Saddleback Church in 2003.
The popular husband and wife team has emphasized their belief that the Christian Church is the only truly global organization “existing in every country and in thousands of indigenous people groups that are not represented by the Untied Nations or any multi-national corporation.”
Some 2.3 billion people who profess to be followers of Christ make Christianity the largest organization, widest network and biggest volunteer force on the planet, the Warrens pointed out.
In response, the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church – the only global HIV/AIDS conference built entirely around a grassroots church-based strategy – was designed to mobilize millions of congregations around the world to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.
For three days, workshops will address topics such as orphans and vulnerable children, justice issues, HIV in Russia, HIV in China, HIV in the United States, HIV in resource-limited settings, and accessing government resources.
Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is scheduled to speak at the Global Summit on Thursday. Meanwhile, a video message will be shown from at least three of the other candidates from both parties during the same session.
A new feature at this year gathering is the first-annual Youth Summit on AIDS to be held on Saturday, Dec. 1 (World AIDS Day). The youth summit aims to prompt students to care for those with HIV and strengthen their knowledge, engage their abilities, and maximize their potential to assist to end the global pandemic.
Jenna Bush, First Daughter of President George W. Bush and author of “Ana’s Story,” will be among the featured speakers at the Youth Summit. Others include Shaun Blakeney, high school pastor at Saddleback; John Thomas, senior pastor of Fish Hoek Baptist Church in South Africa; and Francis Chan, teaching pastor at Cornerstone Community Church.
There are 33.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS, including 18 million women and children living with HIV/AIDS, according to UNAIDS/WHO.
The Saddleback HIV/AIDS initiative is a key part of the P.E.A.C.E. plan, an overarching humanitarian strategy launched three years ago. This worldwide effort is to mobilize 1 billion church members to Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation.
CONTACT:
HIV/AIDS Initiative
Saddleback Church
1 Saddleback Pkwy.
Lake Forest, CA 92630
(949) 609-8555
Elizabeth Styffe, director, HIV/AIDS Initiative: elizabeths@saddleback.net
Website Provides Directory of Thousands of Christian Volunteer Opportunities for Holidays
TechMission News Release
ChristianVolunteering.org website provides a comprehensive directory of thousands of volunteer opportunities in ministries for people who would like to volunteer during the holidays. The site has over 2,000 volunteer and short-term missions opportunities from over 1,000 organizations.
ChristianVolunteering.org’s partners include the Salvation Army, the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, World Vision, Christian Community Development Association, Here’s Life Inner City (Campus Crusade), Urban Youth Worker’s Institute and YouthPartnersNet (formerly Compassion USA).
Some sample holiday volunteer opportunities from the site include:
• Helping serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless
• Helping wrap Christmas gifts for homeless children
• Spending Thanksgiving or Christmas with low-income elders without families
• Sorting and bagging food to give to low-income families
• Volunteering at a Christmas party for homeless children
People interested in volunteering can simply visit www.christianvolunteering.org and search for volunteer opportunities in their region. After finding, an opportunity, users simply click a button to be matched to the organization to volunteer.
Online volunteer matching websites like ChristianVolunteering.org are changing the way people find volunteer opportunities, to enable them to find thousands of opportunities in a few seconds on the Web.
In addition to providing opportunities for people to volunteer in person, ChristianVolunteering.org also provides virtual volunteer opportunities where people can volunteer from home by providing services at a distance. Individuals in the USA can find opportunities to volunteer to help develop a website for a missionary organization in China or provide grant writing for a Christian school in Korea.
An individual anywhere in the world can find opportunities to serve homeless shelters and ministries in the United States by providing graphics design, legal aid, project planning, grant writing, marketing support, prayer and administrative support.
ChristianVolunteering.org represents the first major website to match volunteers with Christian volunteer service opportunities. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the value of the donated time of faith-based volunteers in 2005 was $51.8 billion dollars–which is the target market for this website.
The heart of Children of The Americas ministry is as big as any I’ve seen. These people put the petal to the metal when it comes to feeding and educating children. Children of The Americas does things such as provide a place for the kids from parts of Tijuana to have a hearty breakfast before going to school…making sure they get to school with supplies, and even blessing them with gifts at Christmastime.
I’ve seen Children of The Americas at work, including joining them on their annual Christmas Caravan to Tijuana. God is doing awesome things through Children of the Americas.
Here’s a recent email from the group’s leader, Dave Brisbin:
Toys Needed for Upcoming 2007 Christmas Caravan Scheduled for December 29, 2007
Hi Everyone,
Hard to believe that Christmas is only weeks away, but that’s the truth. The 2007 Christmas Caravan is scheduled for the traditional first Saturday after Christmas, which falls on December 29th this year.
For those of you who haven’t been to a Caravan, it’s an incredible day of barely controlled chaos as up to 100 volunteers help distribute thousands of toys to hundreds of children at our nutrition centers in the colonias and ejido southwest of Tijuana. It’s a great day, so please put that date in your calendar. For pics and more info on the Caravan, you can click here.
In preparation for the Caravan, we’ve just received word that two of our major providers of toys for the children will not be able to participate with us in this year’s Christmas toy drive. This may leave us short on toys, so we really need your help this year.
Please consider gathering new, unwrapped toys from your own family, from friends and associates at work or church or any other group to which you belong. Durable toys that don’t require batteries or English language skills are best. Toys with lots of little parts are generally not good under remote conditions, but toy cars, action figures, dolls, make-up kits, balls, etc. are great.
If you live in Southern CA, you can call us to arrange a pickup or bring them to our warehouse. If you live farther away, call or email us to arrange shipping. We have a shipper working with us to get toys to the kids at no cost to you. Where ever you live, we can get your toys to the children.
For pickups, shipping instructions, help setting up a toy drive in your local area, or for answers to any of your questions, please call Dave Brisbin at 949-293-4259, or email him at dave@americaschildren.org.
Thanks so much for your help this Christmas–let’s put some smiles on little faces, and remember to put December 29th on your calendar to join us in Mexico!
Thanks for being there, as always!
Dave
A little bit from Children of The Americas’ About page:
Children of The Americas works to help poor children find health through nutrition and education by providing all the tools they need to compete, take their place in life, and help their children get the same opportunity.
Our work began in Santa Teresita Orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1974 when Paul Weiss founded an organization to help the girls of Santa Teresita. The work grew, and by 1984, the dream was expanded into Children of The Americas to reach children throughout our hemisphere, including children in the United States.
