The Hunger Site: [link]

ABOUT THE HUNGER SITE

Your click on the "Give Free Food" button funds food for the hungry, paid for by site sponsors whose ads appear after you click and provided to people in need around the world through the efforts of Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest.

HUNGER: DO YOU KNOW THE FACTS?

It is estimated that one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. That's roughly 100 times as many as those who actually die from these causes each year.

About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. This is down from 35,000 ten years ago, and 41,000 twenty years ago. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five.

Famine and wars cause about 10% of hunger deaths, although these tend to be the ones you hear about most often. The majority of hunger deaths are caused by chronic malnutrition. Families facing extreme poverty are simply unable to get enough food to eat.

In 1999, a year marked by good economic news, 31 million Americans were food insecure, meaning they were either hungry or unsure of where their next meal would come from. Of these Americans, 12 million were children. The Hunger Site began on June 1, 1999.

Please remember to click every day to give help and hope to those with nowhere to turn. Every click counts in the life of a hungry person



[link]

Saint Theresa is known as the Saint of the Little Ways. Meaning she believed in doing the little things in life well and with great love. She is also the patron Saint of flower growers and florists. She is represented by roses. May everyone who receives this message be blessed.

St. Theresa's Prayer:

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are
meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are
born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have
received, and pass on the love that has been given to
you....

May you be content knowing you are a child of God....
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow
your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and
love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Hey all,

I was just lounging around the house when this little conversation between Bono and rock jounalist Michka Assayas popped into my head. Seems like a rather appropriate thing to contemplate this Good Friday and as we approach Easter, so thought I'd pass it along...


Happy Easter, everyone


Michka: Christ has His rank amoung the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?


Bono: No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha or Confucius. But actually, Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please just be a prophet. A prophet we can take. You're a bit eccentric.... At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was- the Messiah- or a complete nutcase. I mean we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson... I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched.


Michka: But sometimes I'm not far from thinking the world has been shaped by a bunch of nutcases... What I mean here is that Christ was not the only one to make those kind of claims. There have been other propehts.


Bono:That's right. But they didn't change anything...


... but seriously, if we could only be a bit more like Him, the world would be transformed. All I do is get up on the cross of the ego: the bad hangover, the bad review. [But] when I look at the Cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my [crap] and everybody else's. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He a religious nut? And there it is, and that's the question...


from: Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas, pgs. 204 - 206 Chapter: Add Eternity to That



More on the Trilemma:

Most people would never argue the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth and typically, most people would consider Jesus to be a great moral teacher.


However, if these people read the canonical Gospels they would discover that Jesus never intended to be perceived as simply a moral teacher because He repeatedly equated Himself with God.


This leads us into the trilemma argument. The trilemma looks at Jesus' claim to be equal with God and how we are left to interpret that claim.


Jesus claimed to be God. His claims were either true or false; someone cannot claim to be God and be right or wrong at the same time.


If Jesus' claims were false, then He either knew they were false (which would make Him a liar) or He did not know they were false (which would make Him sincerely deluded and a lunatic). If Jesus' claims were true, then He indeed is Lord. There is much reasonable and practical evidence to suggest that Jesus is not a liar or lunatic, but Lord.


Liar: He knew full well His claims were false:

-would He then allow Himself to be crucified for claims He knew to be false (and contuine to make such claims, even while nailed to a cross, and/or show humilty in prayer for the very people who hung Him there)?

-people can usually and eventually spot a liar, we eventually see through the lies, and yet, 2006 years later, an estimated 2.1 billion (source: [link]) still profess a belief in Christ as the Messiah, making Christianity the world's largest religion (source [link]).

-would a liar be considered a good moral teacher or "great thinker"?


Lunatic: He did not know His claims were false:

"There are lunatics in asylums who sincerely believe they are God. The 'divinity complex' is a recognized form of psychopathology. Its character traits are well known: egotism, narcissism, infelxibility, dullness, predictability, inability to understand and love others as they really are and creatively relate to others." -Peter Kreeft and Ronal Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, p.159



Other resources:

The Official Peter Kreeft website: [link]
The Case for Christ: by Lee Strobel
The Case for Easter: by Lee Strobel
Mere Christianity: C.S. Lewis

Hey all, check out these campaigns!!

[link]

A Message from Lt. Gen. (ret.) Romeo Dallaire

Dear Friend,

No one should live in fear of armed violence. Yet guns and small weapons are readily available in country after country.
Simply put, the arms trade is out of control, fueling conflict, poverty and human rights abuses – worldwide.

We can do something to help change that. That’s why I’m supporting Oxfam, Amnesty and Ploughshare’s efforts to reach out to you through the Control Arms Campaign.

One hundred days from now, in June, a UN conference will decide how to control the supply and misuse of small arms, guns and other light weapons.

Canada should take the lead in seeking effective and binding regulations on arms transfers.

Help me send a strong message to Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay. Sign the petition asking Minister Mackay to:
Lead efforts at the UN conference in June to reduce gun violence.

Commit Canada to support an international Arms Trade Treaty.

Consider;

There are over 640 million small arms in the world, one for every ten people.

Hundreds of thousands of people are killed every year from armed violence – nearly one person every minute.

Millions of women and girls suffer rape, torture, and death as a result of gun violence.

Small arms can:
spark, fuel, and prolong conflict;
divert money from basic services such as health and education;
obstruct peacebuilding;
be used to violate human rights; and,
foster a culture of violence.

Your support can help to save lives.

Sincerely,

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Roméo Dallaire, senator

(former commander of UN forces in Rwanda and author of " Shake Hands with the Devil -- the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.")


from: [link]

Join the 'No Sweat' Campaign

To find out more about "No Sweat," sign the online petition, or join in the "Cut it Out" action to collect clothing labels to present to Government officials, visit:
[link]

Working with the Maquila Solidarity Network,
Students Against Sweatshops-Canada, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, and the Canadian Labour Congress, Oxfam Canada seeks to defend the rights of garment workers overseas and in Canada.

According to Oxfam campaign coordinator Bill Hynd, "Canadian companies are profiting from abusing the rights of people in many developing countries. It is time that we consumers hold retailers and manufacturers accountable for the conditions under which their clothes are produced."
Under the slogan, "Exploitation is never in fashion," Oxfam's national campaign will seek to convince universities, school boards and municipal and provincial governments to adopt ethical purchasing and procurement policies.

Click here for some of recent No Sweat victories!

Many of the world's 23.6 million garment workers in 160 countries are denied their basic human rights. They suffer inhumane working conditions and arbitrary discipline, earn sub-standard wages, and are often harassed for legitimate union activity. Most of them are women.

Oxfam Canada supports local community development in twenty countries of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, where the abuse of workers' rights constitutes a major obstacle to development.

For information, please contact:

In St. John's: Bill Hynd
709-753-2202, billh@oxfam.ca


END

There is also a documentary on childhood labour called Stolen Childhoods, [link]

If you have it in your heart to supprt the 40,000 children who walk as far as 12 km to a safe place called Gulu for a safe place to sleep - away from the preying eyes of the Lord's Resistance Army, then please support this cause : [link]

Get informed, and when you are, spread the word. Over a million people have died and many of the children forced to become soldiers who have to kill to survive becauseof this civil war that has been happening for the last 19 years.
It's a secret that needs to be let out. The LRA has to be stopped.

[link]
[link]