How You Can Help Victims of Hurricane Katrina

TO HELP HURRICANE KATRINA VICTIMS

Support the American Red Cross just by searching the web...

You already use a web search engine, so why not switch to one that shares half of the profits with the American Red Cross? Now you can search the web while making a difference in your community. Allgive.com makes it simple and easy for you to search the web, save your favorite links, and comparison shop online.

For more information, please visit http://www.allgive.com


For information on how you can help out charitable and volunteer organizations assisting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina go to:

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18473

You can also send your monetary donations to:
American Red Cross
National Disaster Relief Fund
P.O. Box 37243
Washington, D.C. 20013

When mailing a check, please indicate your designation on the check's memo line. (National Disaster Relief Fund)

Other web sites where you can find out how you can assist those who are hurting:

American Red Cross
www.redcross.org

Mercy Corps
www.mercycorps.org


Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - Hurricane Response
www.fema.gov

Charity Navigator
www.charitynavigator.org

Habitat For Humanity International www.habitat.org

The Humane Society of the US: www.hsus.org


For those in Australia who wish to donate to the Red Cross:
https://www.redcross.org.au/Donations/onlineDonations.asp



The Salvation Army has a ham radio network set up to search for information on those who are missing. It's called SATERN, and their addy is www.satern.org
They have a form to fill out right on the main page with as much info as you have, and you e-mail it to them. Hopefully, they will be able to find information for you.

To donate online to the Salvation Army:
https://secure.salvationarmy.org/donations.nsf/donate?openform&projectid=USN-hurricane05

To donate by phone, call 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

To donate by mail, send checks, earmarked 'Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief,' to PO BOX 4857 JACKSON, MS 39296-4857.

Visit your local Wal-Mart or Sam's Club to donate to The Salvation Army's Hurricane Katrina relief effort.


God’s blessings to all our friends affected by this terrible storm. Stay safe. :)

It’s Not Always Easy to “Love Thy Neighbor”

It’s really sad to witness something “un-neighborly” happening close to home. Actually, it’s happening within a few miles of my house.

“Stop the Sunset Hills Land Grab” and “We're Ready to Go” are two neighborhood groups at odds with each other. What are they fighting about? They’re fighting over the right to sell their homes to a land developer who wants to build a shopping mall.

What’s so bad about yet another shopping mall? Well, nothing really except for the fact that an older, established shopping mall already exists within a few miles of the proposed new shopping mall the developer wants to build on the land currently occupied by an older neighborhood of moderately priced homes. This new shopping mall would cater to very upscale clients according to the developer. It would generate tax revenue for the city of Sunset Hills.

Sounds good, right?

It would be but for the fact that the Sunset Hills city council signed a deal with the land developer giving them tax incentives where they do not have to pay taxes for a set period of time in order to entice them to build in their city.

Uh-oh.

And if this new shopping mall is built so close to the older shopping mall, it will essentially put many of its stores out of business and cause area residents to lose their jobs.

Double uh-oh.

So many people in Sunset Hills aren’t happy about this situation. They want their voices to be heard. They want to vote on the issue of whether or not to allow a shopping mall to be built that won’t pay taxes into their city for many years. They don’t like the idea that the city will use its power of “eminent domain” to clear out the remaining residents.

Not nice at all.

Worse yet, the Sunset Hills city council pushed the land deal through without bringing it to a vote of the citizenry. In turn, those citizens who felt their voices were not being heard became angry. They brought about a lawsuit in county court to force the city to put the whole shopping mall/land acquisition deal question before the voters. The lawsuit is delaying anything from being built at the shopping mall site.

Even more un-neighborly-ness!

What’s even sadder is that many of the residents of the neighborhood that would be completely razed want to move. They want to take their money from the land developer and run… Some want to retire to places far away or simply move to another house.

These families have every right to sell their houses. But some of their neighbors do not want to leave their homes. They’ve lived in the quiet little neighborhood for a very long time. Over the years, the city of Sunset Hills has boomed and grown all around them. If these people are forced to move from their houses, they know will not find another house in Sunset Hills they can afford. They simply aren’t building homes in the Sunset Hills area these days for less than $500,000.

In a sense, the city council by threatening eminent domain proceedings has told these residents that they rather have an upscale shopping center that brings in rich consumers to their city than allow modest income, hard-working families to continue living in their modest, ranch houses in an established neighborhood.

How fair is that?

And it gets worse… The land developer at the last moment says his lender has backed out of the deal, and he doesn’t have the money to start purchasing the houses and clearing the land for the new shopping mall. He asked the city of Sunset Hills for an advance on the tax incentive money. The city gave it to him. Then the developer tells those who want to sell their houses that he can’t buy them at the price he quoted them earlier before since he doesn’t have a lender lined up.

Of course, these people have already made plans to purchase other homes and move out. Their moving plans depend on the money they were promised by the land developer, and they don’t want to take less. They’re not happy at all. They blame their neighbors (who haven’t sold their homes yet to the land developer) for their financial woes.

When Jesus told us to “Love your neighbor as yourself” he meant we are to treat each other in a kind and considerate manner—the way we would wish to be treated.

Has anyone in the Sunset Hills Shopping Mall fiasco acted neighborly? From the news reports filled with irate voices of the upset homeowners and the ringing “no comments” of the city officials, it doesn’t appear so.

What can be done about it? A guarantee that all parties involved will be able to speak on the issue without being forced into a corner by either the city government or the land developer would go a long way to ease tensions.

But, even then, only prayer and forgiveness will truly heal the wounds these neighbors have inflicted upon each other.

"Love thy neighbor," Jesus said. What would Jesus do if he found himself in this situation?

The Passion of the Christ vs. Jesus Christ Superstar: Retelling the Story—Then and Now

The best thing about having lived so long is that you experience a lot of things that you later get the chance to compare to one another.

My husband and I attended a fabulous production of Jesus Christ Superstar last night at the Muny (http://www.muny.com), the country’s largest and oldest outdoor musical theatre according to their advertisements. Even with 11,000 seats it was a sold-out performance night after night. And from the looks of the crowd, even though it is a thirty-five year old “rock opera” from a bygone era, Superstar still appeals to a lot of people from all walks of life.

I find this heartening, as recent years have seen many attacks on theatrical presentations that were “Christian” in nature. Take for instance the recent film, The Passion of the Christ. Mel Gibson’s cinematic masterpiece of the last twelve hours of Christ’s life before his crucifixion brought out a maelstrom of naysayers and cries of “Bigotry! Anti-Semitism!” before it hit the movie theatres.

But the storylines of both Passion and Superstar are similar—they both follow Jesus’ actions from the time he enters Jerusalem up to and including his crucifixion. They both show how the chief priests conspired to trump up charges against Jesus in order to force the hand of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate into condemning him to death on the cross.

Searching my memories, I don’t recall any hullabaloo about anti-Semitism in the storyline of Superstar when it first hit the stage and screen. But I do recall my mother (and others) saying that it wasn’t proper to sing about Jesus using electric guitars and other modern musical instruments. (I smile when I think back on these statements, since we attend a contemporary service on Sundays that utilizes just these sort of “non-religious” instruments.)

But has thirty-five years really made a difference in the Passion Week story of Christ? Or is it those who harbor anti-Christian beliefs have come up with a new way to thwart the public’s interest in learning about the Gospel by using the “politically correct” tactics of claiming prejudice and race hatred?

I do wonder sometimes why these same “PC” folks haven’t gone all out and attempted to censor the New Testament, since it is the source material for both Passion and Superstar—and numerous other films, plays, musicals, books and articles. Maybe we won’t have long to wait… It could be what’s next on their agenda.

One thing you can’t miss about Superstar is that in spite of its great musical score, catchy lyrics and strong roles for talented singer-actors, it doesn’t have a “happy ending” like most musicals. It simply ends with Christ hanging on the cross. Could it be that creators Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice left off the Resurrection scene with an ulterior motive in mind? Did they mean to leave the “ultimate ending” of Jesus’ story up to the individual audience member to decide for him or herself? I’m not sure.

Mel Gibson at least was persuaded to make a brief mention of the stone rolling away from the tomb on that first Easter morning in his film. I feel that it really helps to complete Passion by not ending on such a down note like Superstar does. Gibson’s retelling hints that there is more to the Gospels than just Christ’s crucifixion and death—there is also resurrection, rebirth and forgiveness of sin for all who believe.

I guess when it comes down to it, no matter how the Gospel is packaged by the mass entertainment industry Jesus’ purpose still comes through. And Christ's story of forgiveness and life eternal still mesmerizes and attracts large crowds who hunger to hear its life-giving message again and again.