Inauguration Days

WASHINGTON DC!!!

Friends asked me why I was going to DC for the inauguration...I said, 'its WOODSTOCK, MARDI GRAS, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR on the Lincoln Memorial steps, and Pastor Rick leading in the Lord's Prayer !!!!' HOW CAN YOU MISS THAT??? 

I thought Promise Keepers was a huge crowd on the Mall, but this was over the top. Solid pack of people from the Vietnam Memorial to the Senate steps...some say 2 million ...

Can you see Rick Warren, up on the stage, waving to me?...
During the James Taylor, Bono, Garth Brooks fest...I made my way around the city...the Vietnam Memorial will always be the one that grabs me most...thought of Danny Daniels and Rocky McElveen fighting as kids and coming back as men.

The crowd was SO:

• Filled with a Spirit of Celebration
• Filled with Pride for our FIRST African American President
• COLD !!!!!
• Kind and patient and downright happy 

My close personal friend, Bono, took a brief moment to send me a personal  shout-out from the stage. He likes to embarrass me in crowds.

The highlight of my trip was PRAYING the LORD's PRAYER on the national mall with 2 million people...TV coverage didn't show the folks throwing their arms around the people next to them or holding hands and audibly saying together...

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name...thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtor. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil...for thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever...AMEN !!!!!!

If You've Given Up Hope...Read this

If you've grown cynical in 2008...

If you are still sick that your 401-K is now half what it was in 2007...

If you're upside down on your mortgage...

If the human resources person at your work keeps staring strangely at you...

THERE IS A REAL-LIFE GOOD NEWS STORY GOING ON IN KITALE, KENYA.

Meet Emmanuel...no last name...babies who get abandoned at Sister FREDA'S COTTAGE HOSPITAL don't really have luxuries like clothes or last names or birth certificates or moms or dads or a family...one day, you just notice there's an extra baby in the nursery and he's very sick...

As you can tell, Emmanuel was SO sick that his ribs showed through his tiny chest. His body had sores all over...he couldn't hold down the smallest amounts of fluids...death was as present as a circling buzzard.

But there is this sweet Ukrainian missionary named Tanya.

She came from Ternopil, Ukraine, to teach Kenyan children about Jesus Christ.

She and 4 other Ukrainians who come and volunteer at Sister Freda's couldn't get Emmanuel out of their minds...so they started doing what they COULD do...praying for him...and rubbing his little body which was smaller than their hand...and trying to feed him with a dropper and a mini spoon.

Well guess what...prayer and love conquered cynism and death...

Sick baby Emmanuel has become THRIVING, and GIGGLING baby Emmanuel.
Tanya's unending prayers and love and care for this one child are a perfect example of the power of one person refusing to focus on what she couldn't do, but concentrating on what she COULD. Tanya became a living ADVOCATE for a child that couldn't speak up for himself.

You don't have to sell your house in Orange County and move to Congo or Ukraine or Oaxaca or Kitale to be an ADVOCATE for the hurting of this world.
Just decide to do SOMETHING for someone...

2009...it just could be a good year to reach beyond ourselves...

If you want some ideas on where to start...look over some of the past year's blog and ask yourself (or the Lord) where you could begin in a tiny way.

Plant the seed...

water it...

watch it grow...