More reasons to get on the good foot
While thousands of us converged on downtown Oklahoma City for last weekend’s Komen Race for the Cure, another group of people also gathered for a good cause.
The Walk for Honduras fund-raiser was held Sunday on the campus of Oklahoma Christian University. The event benefited the Good Samaritan Clinic, Mission Predisan in Catacamas, Honduras.
I’m told the clinic serves more than 42,000 patients through medical or education visits each year.
So while many of us were inclined to “think pink” in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, some got on the good foot to raise money so that more people can receive medical care and hope in the mountain village of Catacamos.
The former executive director of Predisan (which means “to preach and to heal”), Dr. Amanda Madrid, lives in Edmond.
For more information about Predisan, visit www.Predisan.org.
Big Mac or Big Ten?
Leaving the drive-through of McDonald’s the other day, I surprised my kids by reciting the ingredients in the Big Mac:
Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun.
To really get their attention, I sang it: “Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun.”
That’s how I learned it growing up in the 1970s, listening to the catchy Big Mac jingle that practically everyone knew. My mother said I was too young to get the Mac, but I sure knew that jingle.
The hamburger was on my mind because of a recent survey conducted in conjunction with the Oct. 19th theatrical premiere of “The Ten Commandments” animated film.
According to the survey, commissioned by The Ten Commandments Commission, 35 percent of 1,000 respondents could recall all six Brady kids (from the Brady Bunch TV show … also from the 1970s) and 25 percent could name all seven ingredients of the Big Mac, but only 14 percent could accurately list all Ten Commandments.
The commission leaders and “Ten Commandments” film’s producers said the survey results concerned them.
“It is very disconcerting that more people know the contents of a Big Mac than know the contents of our moral standards,” Cindy Bond, the film’s producer, said in a news release.
OK, so I know what goes into a Big Mac … but I also know the Ten Commandants. Yes, I grew up in the 1970s and watched a lot of TV commercials (remember Life Cereal’s Mikey?) but that should not be held against me.
For more survey results and an opportunity to test your knowledge of the Big Ten, go to www.epicstoriesofthebible.com/challenge.php . If you’re pretty sure you know them all, have your kids or friends take the quiz. Might be the start of a good conversation.
Prayers for Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Most of us have been impacted by breast cancer.
Maybe a close relative has had it. Maybe someone you know battled it and lost.
Maybe you have had it or you are facing it right now.
I received the following prayer, “Prayer for Women With Breast Cancer,” from Beliefnet.com as part of of the online site’s Prayer for the Day e-letter.
I thought it appropriate to share:
Father, for the strength you have given me I thank you. For the health you have blessed me with, I thank you. For the women who are going through breast cancer and their families I ask you to strengthen and to heal as you see fit. Lord we know you want us to be in good health and to prosper. Lord use us to do the work you have for us to do. For we know time is getting short on this earth. Lord be with every woman who is sick and encourage them as only you can. I know how faithful you are. You have shown yourself to be everything you say you are in your Holy Word. I praise you for you made this body and you can heal this body. In Jesus Name I pray.
—-
The prayer seemed fitting today as I thought about this weekend’s Susan G. Komen “Race for the Cure” here in Oklahoma City. My daughter and I have registered to run/walk the 5k.
Right before I registered, I learned that a family friend in New York had found a lump in her breast and was headed to surgery.
The prayers of our family merged with those of others who love her and who are pulling for her.
Check out Beliefnet.com for more breast cancer related prayers, articles and information. Go to the site at www.beliefnet.com and click on the pink ribbon link.
Describing the heavenly details
Last night as we watched the evening news together, my children were fascinated to find out that I once went out to house fires and crime scenes like some of the broadcast journalists they saw on TV. I laughed at their surprise because I realized that they are more familiar with my religion stories of recent years.
These stories don’t always deal with facts as most of us have come to define the term: Information presented as objectively real; a real occurrence; an event.
Many times my faith stories focus on what people believe to be real — and what is real changes depending on who you are talking to and the belief system they ascribe to.
A good example is the recent stories about Edmond’s Henderson Hills Baptist Church and its possible sale of a portion of land to Integris for a new hospital along the Interstate 35 corridor. There were several reporters working on this so The Oklahoman’s coverage was multifaceted.
I wrote a story based on my interview with Kim Swyden, the church’s executive pastor. While other reporters focused on the money, economic impact and other aspects of the possible land deal, my story ended up being more about what Swyden said was the similar mission of helping others that the church shared with Integris.
During the interview, Swyden said church leaders believed the land sale (contingent upon the congregation’s approval this weekend) is a blessing, along the lines of other happenings that have occurred in the life of the church and its commitment to serving the community. He said the hospital goes hand in hand with the church’s Ministries of Jesus free clinic that will be moved to the church property in a new free-standing building.
I wondered how the “blessing” concept would come across in a story. After all this particular story was to run in the main section of the paper, not the Religion Section, where most of my stories are featured.
The story ran as I wrote it — with Swyden describing the heavenly details. In other words he shared his belief that the possible land sale was heaven sent — more than just another land deal to the Henderson Hills congregation.
For some his words might have been too esoteric, but I’ve become very familiar with such concepts as blessings, divine appointments, divine intervention, etc.
They are not the facts of reports on crime, business and civic affairs, but in the realm of faith and religion, they are very real.
More on Women of Faith
I had a great time interviewing Sandi Patty and Anita Renfroe for today’s Religion Section stories on Women of Faith.
Almost every year I get to share stories about some of the speakers and musical guests for the popular Christian women’s conference ministry that typically makes its way to Oklahoma City in the fall.
Both Patty and Renfroe and were quite candid about their lives and the message of hope they will bring to thousands of women planning to attend the inspirational event Nov. 2-3 at the Ford Center.
I had already begun reading Patty’s book, “Falling Forward” so I understood the premise behind her message about failure and redemption.
A few paragraphs about the book were included on the cover of the Religion Section earlier this year when the book was released. We could not tell everything about the book in that short amount of space but my hope is that readers will understand more about it after reading today’s story on Patty.
What I can tell you here in the format (bless this format!) is that Patty shares some of her personal story in the book but she also goes beyond that to give the reader some advice on how to keep from falling, then what to do if one does fall. You might say this is my book review of sorts.
In “Falling Forward,”Patty gives warning signs to look for when one might be headed for a fall from grace and ways to find restoration if failure has already taken place.
Three points are key, she says:
1. We all fall — fail in some way – none of us are perfect. “We are all equally in need of mercy and grace and the Father’s embrace,” she writes.
2. Being truthful with oneself and others is very important. “Oh, the freedom that comes from following the choices to reveal, to heal, and to allow yourself to become real,” she writes.
3. There is life after failure. “Breath in, breathe out, put one food in front of the other. Some of these early days are simply about endurance, holding on, and letting time do its work. You will feel better. You will survive,” she says.
I’m almost finished with the book and then I plan to share it with someone else. More people need to hear Patty’s comments about life after failure. She is the perfect person to say it, perhaps, since she has lived it. In her book Patty refers to a statement that (pastor and author) Bishop T.D. Jakes has said: Our ministry often comes from some misery we have survived. Patty is proving the truth of that statement.
Here’s more Women of Faith information of note:
*By late September more than 14,000 women had registered for the Oklahoma City conference.
*Singer-songwriter Nicole Nordeman will be special musical guest.
*Women of Faith is in its 12th year and has reached close to 400,000 women each year through an average of 30 events each conference season.
*”Infinite Grace” Women of Faith 2008 is planned for Nov. 14-15 at Oklahoma City’s Ford Center.
An interesting follow up on Mother Teresa
An interesting brief about Mother Teresa recently cropped up on the wire. It is, in my opinion, a good follow up to my previous blog post about the reported “crisis of the soul” experienced by the beloved nun in the years before her death.
Here’s the story, written by Maryann Gogniat Eidemiller with the Religion News Service:
——-
Friends say Mother Teresa’s darkness was a test of faith
LATROBE, Pa. (RNS) To the people who knew and loved Mother Teresa of
Calcutta, the darkness she wrote about in her memoirs was not a crisis of faith, but a trial of her faith.
“When people see the story of her great faith and love, they see that kind of experience that’s necessary for someone on this mystic way to Jesus Christ,” the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, editor of “Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light,” said at a recent conference held atSaint Vincent
College.
“Remembrances of Mother Teresa of
Calcutta by Her Family and Friends” drew nearly 1,000 people from around the world. They included her successor as head of the Missionaries of Charity, Sister Nirmala Joshi, and the Rev. Robert Conroy, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers and a founder of the I Thirst Movement, started in 2006 in response to one of the driving forces of Mother Teresa’s passion for the poor.
“She hears Christ call out, ‘I thirst,’ and she asks how she can satiate the thirst of God,” he said. “The Lord was asking her to become a victim of love.”
Mother Teresa was united with Christ in sharing his feeling of abandonment in theGarden of
Gethsemane and in “sharing in his suffering,” Kolodiejchuk said. “She shared the suffering of our poor by being one with them to redeem them.”
Kolodiejchuk has been asked if Mother Teresa’s spiritual darkness was actually depression. “I asked a psychiatrist to go through her memoirs, and he said they were not characteristic of the symptoms of depression,” he said. “She showed cheerfulness aside from (when she was) in prayer, and there was not a withdrawal.”
Sister Nirmala was one of many who spoke about Mother Teresa’s sense of humor, laughter and joy, and the light in her eyes. “I felt like she did not belong on earth,” she said.
Mother Teresa’s famous smile, Kolodiejchuk said, was not false. “She had come to love the darkness,” he said. “It was part of the spirit of her work. She lived all those years in pure love.”
The reunion was organized by St. Vincent College President H. James Towey, a friend and former legal counsel to Mother Teresa.
What I woudn’t do for a million dollars …
The following story was e-mailed to me today from Christian Newswire:
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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 10/Christian Newswire/ — Tuesday, the man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who tried to cash a $1 million dollar gospel tract made international news. As comical as it may seem that anyone would actually believe there is such a thing as a $1 million dollar bill in U.S. currency, the flip side of this situation demonstrates the gravity and desperation in the world today that perhaps this man and many others may feel. He helped to prove why Living Waters Publications, the ministry that produces and distributes the bills with gospel tracts on them, felt the need to develop something that would directly address the imminent greed and materialism that has gripped members of society in the U.S. and in many countries around the world. It is a tool that starts very lively and interesting conversations and gives people a chance to examine the actual words on the bill, which are the basis of the ministry of Living Water Publications and Way of the Master Radio and Television, hosted by Todd Friel, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron.
Approximately one year ago, the Secret Service seized a number of Million Dollar Bill Gospel tracts from a Dallas ministry who also distributes the bills, saying that they were counterfeit (although the highest U.S. currency since 1969 is just a $100 bill). There is an ongoing court case on this matter.
Todd Friel, spokesperson on this issue at Way of the Master Radio, stated, “The last time there was a threat to seize the million dollar bills, people went crazy and purchased half a million bills in one day. If the government takes these million dollar bills the ministry has a Billion Dollar bill tract that is in full color, and very popular. ”
Friel also said, “On a more serious note, there are at least a half dozen similar phony million dollar bills, including a bill sold at the nation’s largest pharmacy chain. My questions are these: Why has our ministry had millions of our million dollar bill Gospel tracts confiscated? Why is the story of the Pittsburgh man who tried to cash one of our bills such big news? Could it be that the real controversy is not a million dollar counterfeit but the message that is on the back of the pretend money?”
—–
I think Friel is asking the right questions. I mean, what is the harm of the million dollar tracts. They certainly seem to be doing exactly what his ministry hoped they would: call attention to the words of the Gospel. And really, my thought is not who would attempt to cash the so-called bill, but who would actually cash the bill for them.
What bank or any other financial institution would not know that the government has never made million dollar bills!
I needed something to brighten my day. This story did it. Imagining someone trying to cash that tract is funny. What I wouldn’t do for a million dollars …
This altar is fur-friendly
Ever have funny conversations you could never have imagined in your wildest dreams?
I had one the other day as an assistant editor was reading today’s story about upcoming Blessing of the Animals services. He asked me how Church of the Good Shepherd would handle the pets attending service with their owners.
Oh, they make sure that the pets are on a leash or in a cage, I said, not really thinking about the answer.
Another minute went by before I swung around to look the editor in the eye.
He laughed. He’d asked a good question and he knew it.
How would the service at the Edmond church, 1000 N Broadway, shape up on Sunday? Pastor Michael Robertson had told me that an afternoon service for individual pet blessings would be outdoors.
But the pets — dogs, cats and other creatures — were also invited to the church’s regular Sunday morning service where Robertson planned to discuss ways his congregants can take the lessons of St. Francis of Assisi into the future.
Robertson said he planned to invite the pets and their owners up to the church altar for a kind of group blessing.
My editor and I imagined that will be one potentially loud — and humorous — altar call.
Listen, I have known Father Michael for several years now and I can truthfully say he has a great sense of humor. Plus he’s an animal lover, himself. I predict he’ll call on both those characteristics as he faces the pups and kitties that make their way to the front of the church.
Something tells me that altar will be fur-friendly come Sunday. Barkers welcome.
Relay for Kim
May 2006 I met a remarkable young woman learning to live and laugh again after the death of her beloved mother.
I wrote a Mother’s Day story about Brianna Gaither of Edmond and her discovery that the piano lessons she had fought against had resulted in a musical transformation that became her pathway to healing after her mom’s death. Kim Gaither, who had inflammatory breast cancer, died in November 2005 at age 46. The musically inclined mother was determined that her daughter continue piano lessons and though the daughter balked, she was grateful for her mother’s insistence as the words and music came pouring out as she mourned.
Brianna Gaither wrote song after song on the family’s piano in the days, weeks and months after Kim Gaither’s untimely death.
I listened to some of the songs on compact disc and was startled at how good and fresh they were, particularly coming from someone recently bereaved.
Brianna Gaither’s alma mater (she graduated this past May), Oklahoma Christian Academy, is holding its second annual Relay for Life in Kim Gaither’s memory from 7 p.m. Oct. 5 to 7 a.m. Oct. 6.
Cody Painter, an OCA student collecting money for cancer research through the relay, said this is the students’ way to say thanks to Kim Gaither, who was well-known at the school and Oklahoma Christian University, where she was a faculty member.
“Even though cancer claimed her life, it didn’t claim the loving, caring legacy she left with her family and all those who knew her including many of the students and faculty of OCA in Edmond,” Cody wrote.
To make a Relay for Life donation in Kim Gaither’s memory, call Cody at 416-3176 or the school at 844-6478.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
chinton@oklahoman. com
Forgiveness and faith: hand in hand?
Forgiveness and faith go hand and hand … or do they? That was the question I posed recently, having just returned from a Religion Newswriters Association Conference where the topic of forgiveness was widely discussed.
A few readers said faith can hinder the forgiveness process.
Cheryl from Warr Acres said: “Faith generally promotes the right vs. wrong, good vs. bad and us vs. them mentality that blocks true forgiveness. Only when we understand that other people are doing the best they can with the awareness and resources that they have can we even begin to grant true forgiveness. Not the concept of ‘I’m a spiritual (good) person so I forgive you, you worthless (bad) heathen’!!!”
More folks disagreed. They said they believe faith is a necessary component of forgiveness. In other words, they said, you can’t have true forgiveness without a foundation of faith as a starting point.
Barbara wrote: “Forgiveness is not a natural (fallen) response. The response of the fallen nature to an injustice is revenge. Civil laws usually restrain this reaction. Only those who experienced God’s forgiveness through grace (undeserved favor) would seriously consider true forgiveness — really wiping the slate clean. And this is prompted by Jesus’ command to forgive others. But I believe the act of true forgiveness is a supernatural gift, provided by the Holy Spirit when we ask Him to do that which we are unable to pull off. We want to be obedient and forgive, but the old nature often prevents our doing so. We ask His help and when it’s given, true forgiveness results.”
And Vince wrote: “As one who has had to deal with forgiveness on many levels I would have to say, yes, faith is necessary for forgiveness. No matter one’s religion, to have faith is to have a personal relationship with the Creator and to acknowledge one’s bent toward trespass. For myself to forgive and forget means to acknowledge the wrong committed and to accept the apology and then forget to beat myself and the other person up emotionally over the offense. I personally think it is not quite possible to forget the offense, but by saying “I forgive you,” I am telling myself, the offender and my God I am not going to allow that offense to consume me and that it is now time to move on. If the offender is not truly sorry, that is a matter over which I have no control. I can only accept the request for forgiveness as being sincere at that moment and I can only pray that the person I have offended will treat me in the same way.”
Thanks to all who responded.
And for those who were intrigued by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United States last week, the Rev. Mark Hitchcock, Edmond author of the book, “The Apocalypse of Ahmadinejad,” is offering two sessions to discuss the controversial Middle Eastern leader’s faith beliefs and how they compare to Bible prophecy.
Hitchcock will discuss the topic from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 3) and Oct. 10 at his church, Faith Bible Church, 600 N. Coltrane in Edmond.
For more information about the sessions or Hitchcock’s book, call the church at 340-1000.
