Hurricane Dean

It's funny...I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out that Hurricane Dean wasn't going to make landfall in Galveston. I know that I even said a prayer thanking God, but I didn't really think about the people he would hit.

Hurricane Dean's second hit in Mexico was the area where I did research in May 2006. The families depend on farming to live, and most of the banana farms have been severely damaged. They live in houses with bamboo walls, tin roofs, and dirt/cement floors. The farm animals come inside for the night...especially when it's cold. They do have electricity, but bathing and washing clothes occurs in the river. Money is sparse...but the view...the view was amazing. God's beauty was everywhere. The forests seemed almost untouched. And the people loved...their love for one another is really only something that I can equate to the love I felt when I was in Romania. To be able to love others like them...that's Christ.

Fortunately, Dean's death toll was minimal, but please pray for the people in the state of Vera Cruz. I can't imagine what they're going through.

Depraved

and sometimes the depravity of my own soul hits me square between the eyes...

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;
I talk of love - a scholar's parrot may talk Greek -
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

~ C.S. Lewis

I need ideas.

I'm still raising money with Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, but I'm running out of ideas for fundraisers. Does anyone have any ideas?

Beauty

People are like stained glass windows --
the true beauty can be seen only when there is light from within.
The darker the night, the brighter the windows.
--Elizabeth Kubler-Ross