Daily Rations with a Smile (for April 01)

More rations: www.sheepspeak.com/drwas.htm

Judges 11-12 and Psalm 50 and 2 Corinthians 1

Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child

TSA is a signatory -

Vienna NGO Committee on the Status of Women

Written Statement
to the Commission on the Status of Women
51st session, New York, February 26 - March 9, 2007

Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child

We, the undersigned international and national non-governmental organisations in consultative status with ECOSOC, members of the Vienna NGO Committee on the Status of Women, present to the 51st session of CSW the following statement for information and consideration:

We urge governments to fulfil their commitment to International Conventions, treaties and agreements, by the development and implementation of appropriate laws that guarantee the protection of the girl child from abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect.

• Ensure that law enforcement has adequate resources and training to respond to violence against the girl child, to respond quickly to incidents of violence with compassion, understanding and respect; and to patrol of public places and streets;
• Provide timely and effective resources and appropriate support to victims of violence including safe shelter and free access to medical and psychological treatment;
• Introduce and enforce legislation making religious and traditional practices which harm girls illegal, including female genital mutilation, underage marriages and forced abortion;
• Severely penalise those who benefit from the sexual exploitation of the girl child, including prostitution, sex tourism, pornography, mail order brides and exploitation via the Internet.

Read more: http://www1.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_sa.nsf/vw-sublinks/D2489FAD7AEFA6B68025724D00793A23?openDocument

Testimonies and Brigade

It was great to hear Jimmy and Debbie's Testimony today. It doesn't matter how many times I hear it, it still speaks to my soul. Thanks for Sharing guys.

We got our brigading assignments today. I am off to Weyburn, Saskatchewan with the Bungays, Kim, and Julie. This should be a lot of fun. I am sure that the Lord has great things planned.

Running and Mark and Mark and Nancy

So I've started running again training for the big event - the run on our big weekend. It is always tough to get going on things but Mark Crabb has been keeping me accountable by running with me. This Saturday after we got home from our early morning run (or skate! there was so much ice) Susan made us a great brunch.

Mark Braye and Nancy are expecting a little Braye. Ah yes, the most important job you can get without any experience, education, or qualifications. I trust that their learning curve won't be as steep as mine was though... (the pict is of me with Rebecca)

Project ploughshares on a Christian non-nuclear proliferation

While the United Nations Security Council struggles to achieve the verifiable disavowal of nuclear weapons by Iran and North Korea, Europe and North America are busy championing nuclear weapons as indispensable to their security and as the pre-eminent symbol of prestige and strategic gravitas in the international community. The result is a political climate that is increasingly hostile to non-proliferation.

Three recent Western initiatives in as many weeks tell the story.

read more: http://www.ploughshares.ca/libraries/Briefings/brf067.pdf

Any comments? (dis)agree? blog@sheepspeak.com

Project Ploughshares is an ecumenical agency of the Canadian Council of Churches that works with churches and related organizations, as well as governments and non-governmental organizations, in Canada and abroad, to identify, develop, and advance approaches that build peace and prevent war, and promote the peaceful resolution of political conflict.

"and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4)

Church repents for slave trade

Mar 1, 2007
London

The Church of England, in acknowledging its involvement in the slave trade, will take part in an act of repentance by thousands of Anglicans, including its spiritual head, planned for March 24.

Marchers from across Britain are expected to meet in London for a procession led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of York, the Ugandan-born John Sentamu, organizers said. The march marks 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.

read more: http://www.anglicanjournal.com/issues/2007/133/mar/03/article/church-repents-for-slave-trade/

Christian church rises in Arabia

By John Terrett, in Doha, Qatar

Work has begun on the construction of Qatar's first purpose-built church in the desert outside Doha, the country's capital.

Although the country's native inhabitants are entirely Muslim - and are prohibited by law from converting to another faith - the new Catholic church will... click HERE to read more.

Read more from Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/32CC5571-64DA-45AA-BDE5-A0CA68CD4616.htm

Congrats Ashley

Ashley Bungay has just been named Valedictorian

(Here she is with her husband Sheldon - she's the one on the right)


Visit her blog: http://www.ashley-bungay-spot.blogspot.com/

Japanese billionaire hands over multimillion-dollar homes to low-income families

Published: Thursday, March 22, 2007 8:57 PM ET
Canadian Press

HONOLULU (AP) - Japanese real estate mogul Genshiro Kawamoto handed over
three of his many multimillion-dollar homes in Oahu's priciest neighbourhood
to homeless and low-income Native Hawaiian families on Thursday.

Tears ran down Dorie-Ann Kahele's cheeks as she accepted the key to a white
columned house worth nearly US$5 million. Her family will live in the
mansion rent-free.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070322/K032215AU.html

Theology of Prayer

We had the oportunity to share a theology of prayer the other week at CFOT...

After reflecting on everyone’s insights, I represented my theology of prayer as such: One of the best parts of my day is reading stories to my daughters. They cuddle up with me and we can read, some days, for more than an hour straight. It is a time to be close to one another. For me, this is (a metaphor for) prayer. There will be a day when my kids are too old for stories. I will miss that – a lot. I just pray that there will never come a day when I am too big for story time with God. What about when (or if) God says ‘no’? It doesn’t matter. He’s in charge. I know He knows what is best. For me prayer is just spending time with God.

Daily Rations with a Smile (Dr Was)

Joshua 7,8 and Psalm 69 and 1 Corinthians 5

More Comics and Rations: http://www.sheepspeak.com/drwas.htm

A special thanks to Sheldon Bungay for this one! (click the name to see his blog)

The Rich and the rest of us

I just read an article in the Salvationist that spoke about our responsibility to address poverty, then I stumbled upon this report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives....

The study, The Rich and the Rest of Us: The Changing Face of Canada's Growing Gap, looks at the earnings and after-tax incomes of Canadian families raising children under 18, comparing families in the late 1970s and those in the early 2000s. The study finds:

Canada's income gap is growing: In 2004, the richest 10% of families earned 82 times more than the poorest 10% - almost triple the ratio of 1976, when they earned 31 times more. In after-tax terms the gap is at a 30-year high.

Bottom half shut out: Between 1976-79 the bottom half earned 27% of total earnings. Between 2001-04 that dropped to 20.5%, though they worked more. Up to 80% of families lost ground or stayed put compared to the previous generation, in both earnings and after-tax terms. The poorest saw real incomes drop.

Work is not enough: All but the richest 10% of families are working more weeks and hours in the paid workforce (200 hours more on average since 1996) yet only the richest 10% saw a significant increase in their earnings - 30%.

click the link to read the report:
The Rich and the Rest of Us: The Changing Face of Canada's Growing Gap - PDF File, 613 Kb

The Human Condition...

This then is the human condition according to Paul in Romans 1:18-32 and 2:1-16. Those who deny the abundant evidence of God’s eternal power and divine nature (1:19-20) are rightly exposed to the wrath of God (1:18, 2:8), which results in being given over to their unnatural desires to act upon a debased mind. As a consequence of this sin, this rebellion, that they commit, they are condemned and deserve to die. Neither moralizing nor the Torah can save anyone. Christ, however, has ushered in the new covenant (cf. Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6; Hebrews 8, 9, 12:24); therefore, repentance (2:4), blessing (Gen 12:3), justification (2:13), and righteousness (2:13) await those ‘doers of the law’ which is now written on their hearts. In Christ we are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17).

In the News...Turkeys +

Church to hold moment of silence for turkey as model member of congregation
Published: Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:10 AM ET
Canadian Press

WALES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Taking time to remember a wild turkey may seem strange, but a church will hold a moment of silence this Sunday for what the pastor called a model member of his congregation. The Rev. James Huff, pastor of Lambs United Methodist Church, said the turkey regularly attended Sunday services and greeted people as they arrived.
"He would kind of wait for me to come in," Huff told the Times Herald of Port Huron. "He knew when I got there. Service was about to begin,...

Read more:
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070315/K031508AU.html


Mayan activists 'purify' sacred site in Guatemala after Bush's visit
Published: Thursday, March 15, 2007 6:00 PM ET
Canadian Press

IXIMCHE, Guatemala (AP) - A whiff of incense, a sputter of candles, a hum of prayer. Mayan Indian activists on Thursday offered the gentlest protest yet to the Latin American tour of U.S. President George W. Bush as they held a purification ceremony to drive out the "bad spirits" they said he had left behind during a stop at their ancient pyramid.

Bush visited Iximche, capital of the prehispanic Kaqchiqueles kingdom, during his daylong trip to Guatemala as part of a five-nation tour of Latin America.

The activists said the bad spirits were roused by Bush's policies, including the U.S.-led war in Iraq and a ... raid last week in Massachusetts that netted several Guatemalan immigrants and left dozens of their children stranded at schools.

Read more:
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070315/K031513AU.html

Don't you hate it when...

Don't you hate it when you mistake three dead trolls in a baggie for arrogant worms? This actually happened to me the other day...I thought the latter were responsible for the war of 1812 but indeed it was the former - go figure.


Click Here for a sample Arrogant Worms song: Carrot Juice is Murder (for Susan)






Okay back to Amos...

Brengle Books

Major Rice has given us cadets here the heads up about a web site that has six of Brengle's books: http://www.raptureready.com/resource/brengle/brengle.html

`99 and counting...

see official countdown clock on the Sabourin`s blog.

http://www.thesabourinfamily.blogspot.com/

The Lamb breaks the 3rd Seal.

Deuteronomy 13-15 and Galatians 1














www.sheepspeak.com/drwas.htm

What is the 'New Perspective' on Paul?

By Dr. Bryan Chapell
President and Professor of Practical Theology
Covenant Theological Seminary
http://www.covenantseminary.edu/

In broadest terms the New Perspective emphasizes the corporate nature of our salvation in distinction from the typical way many North Americans think about their salvation primarily as “a personal relationship with Jesus.” The best forms of the New Perspective do not deny the personal aspects of our salvation but contend that a focus on individual blessings is more a product of Western culture than a reflection of the Apostle Paul’s design for the New Testament church. What we need to remember is that the Bible never divorces our corporate identity from our personal faith – we who believe are members of the body of Christ. Still, without personal faith and repentance we cannot truly unite with Christ no matter how much we participate in the Church’s corporate heritage or practices.

In scholarly circles the New Perspective was originally most associated with such names as Krister Stendahl, E. P. Sanders, and James Dunn. These are not traditional Evangelicals, though they may identify themselves with some Evangelical concerns. The New Perspective has made its most important inroads into Evangelical thought through the writings of N. T. Wright.

read more: http://www.covenantseminary.edu/resource/Chapell_NewPerspective.pdf

Daily Rations with a Smile (March 4)

Numbers 34-36 and Mark 11



More comics: www.drwas.blogspot.com/

200 years after abolition of slave trade, slavery persist

Two hundred years after the United States and the British Empire banned the slave trade, many millions of people are still subjected to slavery-like practices, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned.

“These include debt bondage and the use of children in armed conflict,” he told the inaugural ceremony yesterday evening of an exhibition at UN Headquarters in New York marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. “The victims are typically too scared to speak out. For all that has been accomplished in our campaign for human rights, we still have much to do.”

Read more from the UN News: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21735&Cr=slavery&Cr1=

Related :

"there are 27 million slaves in the world today..." http://www.freetheslaves.net/

"Leaked CIA report says 50,000 sold into slavery in US every year" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/slav-a03.shtml

UC Berkley News: "Modern slavery thriving in the U.S. " http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/09/23_16691.shtml

Should lottery tickets carry addiction warnings?

Imagine buying a lottery ticket stamped with the words: "Warning: Gambling can lead to a dangerous addiction that can harm your relationships, work and finances."

Far-fetched? Perhaps not. An addictions expert at Dalhousie University in Halifax has called on the federal government to put some sort of warning labels on lottery tickets, similar to the ones on tobacco products.

Christiane Poulin, who holds a Canada Research Chair in population health and addiction at the university, argues that gambling is just as addictive as smoking.

read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2006/11/21/gambling-research.html

related: Canadian Medical Association Journal Article by C. Poulin (click HERE)
"Don't say 'don't' in anti-gambling ads: teens" (click HERE)

Any thoughts? e-mail: blog@sheepspeak.com

Winnipeg Warfare! The Army goes to Church

An excerpt from The War Cry about the early Salvation Army in Winnipeg using a church building for one of its meetings because the Victoria Hall was already booked for that Friday evening.

“Some people thought that a dreadful thing, the crowd would ruin the Church, spoil the carpet with tobacco juice, etc. ‘Well,’ said the pastor, ‘what if they do? It will be assigned a second consecration.’

To say the Church was filled does not convey the faintest idea of what the writer is trying to describe. The seating capacity is 1800, but it is not exaggerating to say that fully 2000 people, by some means or other, found their way inside…Toward the close, Captain Hackett invited the Pastor to say a few words. He said it was impossible for any Christian to sit by and hear the converts one after another tell of what God had done for them without feeling that the Army was an institution of God, without feeling that they were doing God’s work, and as his brothers and sisters in Christ’s work, he wished them God’s blessing and closed with a very caring exhortation to all present to accept Jesus.”[1]

[1] “Winnipeg Warfare! The Army goes to Church,” Canadian War Cry, 12 March 1887, p.5.

Susan's on her way to Saskatchewan...

Susan's on her way to her first ever Youth Councils, armed with yellow t-shirts and accompanied by Tammy and the Lublinks. It almost looked as if it wasn't going to happen but neither snow nor air fare shall stop the dedicated cfot cadets from their mission.

Pray that their efforts will be rewarded by many future Salvation Army officers. We'll be praying for you guys while you are in Saskatchewan!

I have just been named Commissioner...

I have just been named the Clan Ramsay Commissioner for Canada. Really.

http://www.clanramsay.org/