Discipleship Archives - Page 162 of 167

I got the following from the Secret Diary of Rick Warren, which is a blog by a fake Rick Warren.

The following is funny because it’s true.

Imagine what your office would be like if everyone had a job like a Pastor:

1. When your work day was over there would be a cassette tape or CD available of everything you just finished for sale in the lobby.

2. If your co-workers got sick they would expect you to stop by and pray with them, then act surprised you did come by and proceed to tell you that they look terrible and their hair hasn’t been washed.

3. Your wife would feel pressure from others that she should be doing things related to your job and be happy about it.

4. Your weekend would consist of something like a Tuesday and then a Thursday. Forget ’bout Holidays.

5. Instead of an expense account – every time you need to buy something more than $200 – you would be required to ask a group of people for permission, then justify why you need it.

6. You must remember what stories you told people – so you don’t use the same story over again.

7. Outside of the office your co-workers get flustered when you see them drinking alcohol or doing something they think you might not approve of.

8. Most of your meetings would happen at night in the basement.

9. You would have to stand up and gently remind your co-workers that it was part of their calling to give money to the organization – so it can continue to grow and fulfill its mission.

10. Most of your co-workers think you really only work an hour a week.

How Church can Solve the World Water Crisis

By Jeremy Myers

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In a previous post, I presented a theoretical plan for solving the world’s water crisis. I proposed a way for churches to come up with that money by “taxing” themselves 1/3 of what their property taxes would be if they were paying property taxes. We could get the needed $10 Billion in one year to fully fund the work that needs to be done to solve the world water crisis.

Now, Todd Rhoades, over at Monday Morning Insight has got me thinking about another way churches can do this. He writes that according to a recent study, churches in America spent $8.1 Billion on sound and video equipment last year.

So we can either give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name to every thirsty person on planet earth, thus solving the world’s water crisis, OR we can have state-of-the-art sound and video projection equipment in our churches.

Hmmm. World water crisis…. state of the art sound systems. Which to choose?

It seems like an easy choice, right? I mean, after all, to really be in touch with Jesus, we’ve got to feel the music and have our eyes massaged by the swirling lights on the screen.

If we don’t get those music-induced goosebumps on Sunday morning, how will we ever make it through the week? And besides, most people will stop coming to church if we cannot compete with the high-def surround-sound movie screens down at the Omniplex theater.

So I guess all those people around the world who just want a cup of clean water will just have to go thirsty a little bit longer.

Here’s the honest truth: When we sing worship songs on Sunday morning, we are listening to the sound of water being poured onto the idolatrous altar of music.

Of course, I’m in the same sinking ship, but on a smaller scale. I bought an MP3 player (a cheapo $30 job) last month, and purchased a few songs off iTunes. Jesus might be asking what I did with the $40 He gave me, but if He is, I can’t hear Him, because somehow, I got water in my ears.

Update: And there are so many innovative ways of helping these areas get water. Check out these:

It’s tough being a girl

By Jeremy Myers

8 Comments

John Eldredge and his wife have recently written some books which state that while men want to be warriors and need to know they are strong and wild, women need to know that they are beautiful: Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul and Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul.

I think this is true, but sometimes, especially in our culture, we have problems defining “strength” for boys and “beauty” for girls.

Which is partly why I was excited to learn about a campaign by Dove to help girls in our culture understand true beauty.

These following videos should be watched by every man, brother, husband, and father.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U

Those women on the billboards? Not real. The women in the magazines? Fake and photoshopped. Your wife, your daughter, and your sister? The most genuinely beautiful women in the world. Have you told her?

This following video shows us what the females in our life are up against.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOg1nWJ4T8

And one more…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bVAl73JvLM

So here is the question: How can we tell our wives and daughters they are “pretty” without encouraging them to follow the worldly definition of beauty?

In discussing this with my wife, here are some of her suggestions:

1. Love is more than words. It’s a cliche because it’s true. Don’t just tell your wife and daughters they are beautiful. Show them with hugs, kisses, holding hands, taking them on dates. If all you do is tell the women in your life they are beautiful, but never show them, they won’t believe you.

2. Affirm them in ways not related to beauty. Women, even though they strive to be beautiful, want to be more than just pretty. They want to be valued and know that they are contributing. Being pretty helps them feel valued. This seems to work in reverse. Since they feel valued when they know they are pretty, if you help them to feel valued, they will also feel pretty. So find what your wife and daughters like to do, and constantly affirm them in it.

3. Sometimes, a hobby or interest outside of self-beatification can help. Girls who love horses rarely spend lots of time brushing their own hair, but with brushing their horse. Girls who love art spend less time painting themselves than their canvas. Mothers are the prime examples. Good mothers are consumed with caring for their children and rarely have much time to spend on themselves. This is not to say that horse lovers, artists, and mothers are not beautiful! To the contrary, they are often the most beautiful. Why? Because self-focused attention creates fake beauty, while an outward focus allows true inner beauty to blossom and flourish.

If you have other suggestions on what true beauty is and how to help the women in our lives feel lovely, please post them in the comments section for others to read.

Help Keep Guatemalan Adoptions Open

By Jeremy Myers

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Note: this post is from October 2007 when my wife and I were trying to adopt a girl from Guatemala. The bill mentioned below did not pass, and all adoptions out of Guatemala ceased.

We were not able to complete our adoption process. As of this month, January 2012, adoptions have not reopened.

This is the week for taking action on allowing Guatemala adoptions to continue.
Please read the previous post for more information, but you can start by signing the online petition.

Keep updated on this through AdoptionBlogs. Also, here are two people who have blogs about their Guatemala Adoption process. Bringing Gabriel Home and Our Little Pea.

CNN has also published an online article about the disaster waiting to happen in Guatemala if these current laws are passed. The article is here for you to read online, but I have posted it below for you to read here as well.

ANTIGUA, Guatemala (CNN) –For many years, Guatemala has been a place of relatively uncomplicated adoptions for American parents. The small country’s government estimates as many as 17 babies leave each day for adoptive parents in the United States.

Carolina, a 3-month-old Guatemalan girl, was bound for the U.S. until Guatemalan authorities intervened.

But that number could soon drop to zero because of concerns over alleged improprieties in the Guatemalan adoption process. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger announced recently that adoptions to the United States will be suspended on January 1, 2008, a decision that could leave nearly 3,000 babies currently in the adoption pipeline in legal limbo.

“This is our heritage, our future,” said Carmen Wennier, head of Guatemala’s Social Welfare bureau, who has criticized the adoption system.

Guatemala has the highest per capita rate of adoption in the world and the United States represents the largest number of adoptions, with an estimated one of every 100 Guatemalan babies sent to the United States, according to the U.S. consulate in Guatemala. U.S. officials estimate more than 5,000 adoptions from Guatemala will be processed this year, an annual high which would make Guatemala the second biggest origin of adoptive babies to the United States, behind China.

Adoption has been a hotly contested issue in Guatemala for years. While adoptive parents in the United States undergo rigorous screening, adoptions in Guatemala are processed under a notary system that allows lawyers and judges to place children for adoption. Both Guatemalan and U.S. officials fear the system leads to practices such as paying birth mothers for children, or, some instances, using coercion.

“We have thousands of cases of Guatemalan children who have been adopted to the United States and have had terrific experiences as adoptive children there, and frankly, have probably experienced a life more full of opportunity and support than they would have if they had been abandoned in Guatemala,” U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala James Derham said. “What we want to do is make sure that all adoptions are consistent with these kinds of ideas.”

Both U.S. and Guatemalan officials say gaps in the regulation and the high sums of money at play – adoptions can cost up to $30,000 to complete — may have created unintended incentives in a country where the U.S. State Department estimates 80 percent of the population lives in poverty.

For prospective adoptive parents awaiting children in the United States, the recent developments are wrenching. But despite the State Department warnings, dozens of Americans still fill major hotels in Guatemala City meeting babies they expect will soon be theirs.

Several hotels in the city offer adoption packages and baby-friendly amenities to prospective adoptive parents. The couples stay there when they come to first see the babies while waiting for paperwork to be processed or to pick them up at the end of the adoption process.

Many of those couples say the charges of coercion of birth mothers are overblown and that thousands of abandoned children will be condemned to a life of poverty if greater restrictions on adoptions are imposed.

“Nobody reports on what will happen to these children if the adoptions are stopped,” said one American parent who asked not to be identified. “The city will be filled with street kids.”

The increasing scrutiny of adoptions from Guatemala already has thrown some adoptions into flux. Carolina, a 3-month-old Guatemalan girl, was just months away from joining her adoptive parents, Ellen and Sean Darcy, in their Boston, Massachusetts, home, when she and 45 other babies were seized from Casa Quivira, an adoption agency, by the Guatemalan government.

“Casa Quivira was the last stop on an assembly line,” Wennier told CNN. “They had the final product and they had to sell it at the best price.”

Guatemala police arrested Casa Quivira’s lawyers and charged them with child abduction. No plea has yet been entered, but the agency’s owners, American Cliff Phillips and his Guatemalan wife, Sandra Gonzalez, deny doing anything illegal.

“We can respond for the work of Casa Quivira and we will make all the efforts to clear our name, to get these kids home,” Gonzalez said through tears. She adamantly denies Casa Quivira wanted to do anything more than help save children from poverty and make American families whole.

Carolina’s adoptive mom in the United States, Ellen Darcy, is worried about Carolina’s future, but she wants the investigation to go forward so she’ll know if the adoption was legitimate.

“We want to know. We don’t want to complete an adoption that is anything but completely legal and where this little girl has been relinquished willingly,” she said. The Darcy’s already have one child they adopted from Guatemala, a boy named Dylan, and they were excited for Carolina’s arrival.

In Guatemala, birth mothers are required to sign a document in court in which they state they are relinquishing their child, but they are not interviewed by a judge as to their reasons. To stem corruption, the U.S. Embassy has added its own requirement that birth mothers appear with the baby when proceedings to request a Visa for the baby begin. In August, they also began requiring two DNA tests to confirm the identities of mother and child.

But proponents of stricter adoption guidelines in Guatemala said that even those tests are not sufficient. The Guatemalan Office of the Attorney General said it has 80 confirmed cases so far this year of adoption irregularities, including baby stealing and false DNA tests.

The Guatemalan Chief Prosecutor’s Office recently launched a criminal investigation into the two laboratories contracted to take DNA samples from birth mothers and the children.

The U.S. Consulate and adoptive parents said those allegations do not taint the more than 4,000 adoptions that were processed legitimately last year. But due to the uncertainty expected from then anticipated changes in process, the State Department has recently issued a warning advising American citizens not to initiate any new adoptions from Guatemala.

Like other parents and prospective parents, Ellen Darcy, as she waits in her Boston home for baby Carolina, is concerned about the children.

“I’m not worried about the American couples. That’s a non-issue. I’m worried about the kids,” she said. “If they aren’t given an option to be raised abroad, that they will perish and spend their entire childhood in an orphanage in state custody with nobody to encourage them or be a parent or take a vested interest in them. The American parents will be fine. It’s the kids.”

The Lives of 1000’s are in your Fingertips

By Jeremy Myers

4 Comments

Note: this post is from October 2007 when my wife and I were trying to adopt a girl from Guatemala. The bill mentioned below did not pass, and all adoptions out of Guatemala ceased.

We were not able to complete our adoption process. As of this month, January 2012, adoptions have not reopened.

—————-

My wife and I have been in the process of adopting a little girl from Guatemala. Most of the orphans in Guatemala live in the streets, and get their food and clothing from city dumps. There are currently about 5000 such children who were slated to be adopted between now and December 31, 2007.

But this week, the US Department of State has encouraged the Guatemalan congress to pass the Ortega Law which would effectively put an end to all adoptions from Guatemala. This bill, as it now stands, has no funding plan, no child care plan for the children currently in the process of getting adopted, and no plan for future children to even enter the process. Private orphanages will no longer be allowed to accept donations for taking care of children, and so many of them will have to shut their doors. This means that within six months, thousands of children waiting to be adopted could instead be turned out onto the streets. This is truly a human rights and child welfare nightmare waiting to happen.

Why is the US and Guatemala doing this? Guatemala seeks to become “Hague Compliant” which is well intended inter-country treaty to stop illegal adoptions. Babies were getting stolen and then put up for adoption. The kidnappers received money from the many adoption fees charged to adoptive parents. So the Hague Treaty is intended to stop this, which is good. But what has happened in Hague Compliant countries is that adoptions have ceased almost completely.

Countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Bolivia have become Hague compliant. These countries used to allow inter-country adoptions just as much as Guatemala. But in the past decade, all these countries enacted similar laws as the one we now see Guatemala taking steps to pass. The result in Guatemala will be similar to what we now have in these other countries: the streets are overflowing with orphans, the orphanages are underfunded and overcrowded. Over the last 14 years, hundreds of thousands of children who might have benefited from the opportunity of adoption have instead become statistics, adding to the numbers of children who die on the streets, or are forced into slavery or prostitution.

You can read about all of this at the following links:

The Ortega Law

Congress Bio Letter

Please don’t let this happen! Use your finger tips to make a few calls and send a few e-mails. Below is what our adoption agency, All God’s Children International, is asking people to do.

Dear Friends,

Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to suspend all intercountry adoption with American families on January 1 2008. The Joint Council on International Children’s Services strongly opposes such a suspension and asks for your support in their efforts to ensure that all children retain the right to permanency through Intercountry Adoption.

President Berger’s plans also call for the suspension of adoptions currently in-process. Such a suspension would be extremely detrimental to the children referred to adoptive parents. If President Berger’s plan is actually implemented, up to 5,000 will unnecessarily remain in foster care or orphanages indefinitely.

This situation represents a pending crisis for the adoptive families who have lovingly chosen to provide permanency, safety and love to a child in need and most importantly a crisis for 5,000 children of Guatemala.

What can you do? Make six simple phone calls and one email.

1. Call your U.S. Senator.

· You can find your Senators’ phone numbers at www.senate.gov

· Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

2. Call your second U.S. Senator.

3. Call your representative to the U.S. House of Representative.

· You can find your representative at www.house.gov

· Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

4. Call or fax UNICEF Headquarter

· Ask to speak with Ann Veneman, Executive Director

· Their number is 212-326-7000

· Their fax number is 212-326-7758

5. Call or fax UNICEF Guatemala

· Ask to speak with Manuel Manrique

· Their number is 011-502-2327-6373

· Their fax number is 011-502-2327.6366

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

6. Send and email supporting Intercountry Adoption to gu***********@***cs.org

· Write briefly or at length

· Joint Council will use the cumulative email petition in our advocacy for Intercountry Adoption

When should you call? Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (October 9th, 10th 11th)

· For maximum affect, we are asking you to make these calls within a 72 hour window!

What should you say or write to member of the U.S. Congress? Speak from your heart and give them the following information.

· Inform them that you are calling regarding Guatemala 5000

· Ask them to sign the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) sponsored letter to President Oscar Berger

· Ask them to sign the Joint Council on International Children’s Services sponsored letter to UNICEF

· Inform them that the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008.

· Inform them that President Berger’s announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process.

· Inform them that if children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care.

· Ask that their office get involved and sign the sponsored letters to the President of Guatemala and UNICEF. These letters ask that all adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sample Statement:

Hello,

We are calling/writing on behalf of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative. We, as your constituents, are asking that the Senator/Congressperson add their signature to two letters. First, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute sponsored letter to Guatemalan President Oscar Berger. Second, the Joint Council on International Children’s Services sponsored letter to UNICEF.

As you may be aware, the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008. Their announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process. If children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care. Your office must get involved and sign the sponsored letters to the President of Guatemala and UNICEF. These letters ask that all adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sincerely,

What should you say or write to UNICEF? Speak from your heart and give them the following information.

· Inform them that you are calling regarding the Guatemala 5000

· Ask them to support the right’s of children and lend their considerable influence to ensuring that intercountry adoptions currently in-process be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

· Inform them that the Guatemalan government has announced that all adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008.

· Inform them that President Berger’s announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process.

· Inform them that if children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care.

· Ask them again for their support of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative.

Sample Statement

Hello,

We are calling/writing on behalf of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative. As financial supporters of UNICEF (through our tax dollars), we are asking that UNICEF lends its support and considerable influence to the Guatemala 5000 initiative.

As you may be know, the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008. Their announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process. If children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care. UNICEF must get involved and help ensure that all intercountry adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sincerely,

Can you explain the problem behind the pending crisis? Here is some additional information…

· Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to effectively stop all adoptions into the United States including those children who have already been referred to adoptive parents

· Over 5,000 children have been referred

· The birthparents for these children have already relinquished their parental rights. As a result, they currently have no family and the Berger suspension will result in these children having no prospect for a permanent, safe and loving family

· The government of Guatemala currently does not have the finances or facilities to even provide housing for these 5,000 children

· The Berger plan is a crisis waiting to happen

What else can you do? In addition to your primary calls to U.S. Congress and UNICEF, you can call the following.

SOSEP (Guatemala)

· Director Teresa Echeverría de Bastarrechea

Office Phone- 011-502-2383-8400

· Assistant Director- Edin Palma- Same office phone

Office Phone- 011-502-2383-8400

· Jaime Tecu

Office Phone – 011-502-2239-0000 ext 2766

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Guatemala Ministry of Foreign Affairs

· Minister Gerth Rosenthal

Office Phone 011-502-2410-0000, 2410-0010

· Vice Minister- Marta Altoaguirre

Office Phone 011-502-2410-0020

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

PGN (Guatemala)

· Carlos Victor Hugo Barrios Barahona

Office Phone 011-502-2248-3200 Ext. 207/208

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Procuraduria of Human Rights

· Dr. Sergio Morales

Office Phone 011-502-2424-1717

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Embassy of Guatemala in the U.S.
2220 R Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
Office Phone 1-202-745-4952
Office Fax 1-202-745-1908
Website: www.guatemala-embassy.org/

Walking in a Pastor’s Sandals

How Church can Solve the World Water Crisis

It’s tough being a girl

Help Keep Guatemalan Adoptions Open

The Lives of 1000’s are in your Fingertips

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