Isaiah 58:6-9

From the NIV:

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

From the Message:

This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.

Preparing to Pray with Compassion

Compassion International is not a global feeding program. It is focused on holistic development of children through local church communities. In their words: Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.

Children are often fed at the Compassion centers but that is not their only focus. So when a famine or food crisis occurs in various countries, the Compassion children are not immune from that problem. Here is some more information about the current crisis:

How has the global food crisis affected Compassion families?
The global food crisis is forcing poor families to spend more of their household budgets on food, leaving little for anything else. In Bangladesh more than 90 percent of the 12,179 children we serve in 82 Compassion-assisted centers are affected. Many children are eating only at the church-based center. Compassion Haiti estimates it will need at least $2 million and up to $6 million to feed the 60,000 registered children and their families over the next few months.

What can I do to help fight the global food crisis?
Join Compassion's Day of Prayer and Fasting on June 25, 2008. This is the day we will honor the victims of the global food crisis and pray for them.

Along with praying and fasting consider giving to Compassion's Global Food Crisis Fund. Your gift will help provide:
1. food vouchers to children and families needing immediate relief.
2. seeds and agricultural tools so that families can grow their own food as well as earn extra income.
3. supplemental nutrition services offered at Compassion-assisted centers around the world.

More from Cinde:
Yesterday, I threw away some leftovers that had lived in the refrigerator past their safety of consumption date: macaroni salad, wilted lettuce, bbq brisket, watery sour cream. I used to think nothing of it - I simply wanted a clean refrigerator - but lately the Lord has been bringing to my heart the reality that I just threw away more than some might have eaten in an entire day or days. I know I can't package up the near rotten food and send it to Haiti - but I can be a more careful steward with my grocery money and a little more forceful at getting my kids to eat leftovers instead of wasting them. And in doing that, there will be more resources available in my checkbook to help a child someplace else whose stomach is growling at this very moment.

The Global Food Crisis

For those of you who received my email and have committed to pray and fast, or those who are still thinking about it, I am going to provide some more information over the next couple of days to prepare our hearts for what exactly we are praying about. This information comes from the Compassion website:

What is the global food crisis?
The World Food Programme calls the global food crisis a phenomenon, a "silent tsunami," that is affecting families in every nation on every continent. Food prices for popular menu items like rice, wheat and beans have doubled in the last year. Though increases in food prices have hit all budgets, it's the poor who bear the brunt of price inflation. The higher prices are forcing people who survive on just $1 a day to spend upwards of 80 percent of their budgets just on food. As a result, many people, including millions of children, are going hungry. The longer food prices rise, the more people will be plunged into hunger and poverty.

Why is the global food crisis happening?
Food shortages have affected developing countries for generations. It's a cyclical problem. But this global food crisis is more rapid, urgent and devastating. Since 2005, food prices have risen a whopping 80 percent.
Why?
1. rising fuel costs
2. rising food demand from populous nations like India and China
3. natural disasters destroying crop yields all over the world, including the United States
4. growth of biofuels

Tomorrow I will post more about how the food crisis impacts Compassion children. Until then here is a verse to meditate on:

Joel 2:12 "Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."

Dear Friends,

Please click here to view a message from Wess Stafford of Compassion International regarding a day of prayer and fasting for the global food crisis. (Wednesday, June 25)

Americans are upset because gas is nearing $5.00 a gallon but we still don't have to eat dirt cookies just to have something to fill our stomachs:


If you've never heard of Compassion International please click here and take a look at their website. If you've heard of them but have not sponsored a child, please prayerfully consider it.

In the coming weeks I will post more about Compassion and our Compassion Child, Saintana, who lives in Haiti - one of the areas hardest hit by the rising food prices.

If you will be joining me next Wednesday to pray and fast, please let me know in the comments.

Blessings,
Cinde

The View from Behind the Fence

Min at bat.

Min crossing home plate.

Redneck Town

I would like to add to Jeff Foxworthy's repertoire:

You might be a redneck town if you have...

a hotel named the "Cow Palace"

a used car lot called the "Car Palace"

and a liquor store called the "Booze Palace"


Lamar, Colorado you are officially a redneck town!

Whassup?

Well, obviously the blogging time is going to be a bit on the short side this summer. I've been lucky to get in one post per week! So here's a little recap of what has been going on with us:

SUMMER - The season that brings a mix of yard work, gardening, dog shedding, wedding gowns, kids bored, kids hungry, and rodeos.

MIN - is playing coach-pitched baseball and is pretty proud of his "arm". He can throw pretty far and accurately for a skinny child who is made up of knees and elbows!

BLUE - had her end of the year dance recital last weekend. She did great, awesome, amazing... She will be starting a dance intensive in a couple of weeks (9 hours per week) - she is very excited! I taught her how to iron Buford's shirts yesterday - told her I'd pay her $.50/shirt. So far she has earned $1.00. Perhaps a trip to Famous Footwear would motivate her to iron like the wind!

MAX - has a job painting fence and hoeing weeds. YES! The stuff every teen summer should be made of. We are heading out tomorrow for Colorado High School Rodeo Finals in the lovely city of Lamar. Should be fun and probably hot!

BUFORD - is trying to get his new job all figured out and many days has to put on the firefighter hat to settle all sorts of emergencies and drama.

GRANDMA's - My grandmas have given me much to think about lately. Grandma J broke her hip a couple weeks ago and we came close to losing her from some internal bleeding. She has Alzheimer's and was very confused about where she was and what had happened to her. But she recognized all the family members who came to visit her.
Grandma R just had a big shindig to celebrate her 90th birthday. I told my cousin, "There are a lot of old people here, but grandma isn't one of them!"
The aging process is so fickle - why do some age poorly and others, like my Grandma R, age gracefully? I've been racking my brain to find the secret ingredient to aging well. Nutrition, genetics, environment, prayer??? Both grandmas lived clean, healthy, hardworking lives so what is the deal?? In the great genetic pool of probability I am faced with both extremes and it is bothersome to me.

ME - when I'm not dealing with everything in the categories above, I've been trying to do a little reading: Do Hard Things, The Shack, and No Other Gods. Hopefully when I finish them I can do a little book review post. While I sew I've been listening to John Piper...amazing guy. Really challenges me to think about complacency in the church. I think one of his books will be next on my list.

There's a little taste of our summer so far...no guarantee when I will post next and it is definitely time for some photos...I'll work on that!

Soothing Trauma

This afternoon, Blue was eating some Bing Cherries when she accidentally bit into a pit and one of her molars fell out. We looked at a dental chart on the internet and called the dentist, unable to decide whether or not this was a tooth that should have fallen out. The dentist suggested that we come in so he could check it out. Many tears, many questions about numbing and shots, and an hour and a half later, an x-ray showed that the lost tooth was a baby one and a new one was on it's way up.

Oh the trauma! When they were babies it was easy to fix their boo-boos with a kiss and they were unaware of what a doctor might do, so there was little worrying and fretting about potential needles and pain. You could console them with some warm milk and a blankie. Today, I chose to console with Cold Stone. (ie: the Ultimate Ice Cream Experience.)

It was pure ice creamy goodness - like none other on the planet. Complete with a mohawk wearing, ice cream tossing, spoon juggling, tip singing server. YUM!

If it's been awhile since you've checked your style...

don't ask a seven year old, "How Do I Look?"

When I came downstairs this morning, Min said, "Haven't I seen you wear that for 3 days now?"

In my defense I said, "You must be thinking about my other gray yoga pants!"

Clearly it is time to shake things up a bit in the wardrobe department, so I put on my black yoga capris with the blue stitching.

Oh, yeah...I am daring with the fashion!