by Jeff | Jul 13, 2012
There’s nothing more inspiring than driving somewhere and noticing a bunch of teens doing some kind of community service project. Today, it was a crew from the Alive In You Service Camps working at the Volunteer Center in Green Bay. According to their crew leader, Teri, about 450 teens from across the country came to spend a week in Northeast Wisconsin doing community service projects in Green Bay. At night, they attend their conference at Xavier High School in Appleton. Teri’s crew of about 10, from Brainerd, MN, was painting and doing some grounds-keeping today. Next time you drive past the Volunteer Center, just remember that it was someone like you who made a difference.
If you’ve been struggling to find purpose in life, look no further than offering a helping hand to someone who needs it. Go on a missions trip. Or just look outside your front door. Somebody needs you today.
Here are some links of ways to start making a difference today:
7 Simple Ways to Meet Big Needs (Relevant Magazine)
simpleactsofservice.com
by Jeff | Apr 4, 2012
Researchers at UCLA have identified mutations within three genes that they say may make some people more likely to develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.
Read the whole story at ABC News
by Jeff | Aug 29, 2011
If you’re a cutter, you know what it’s like to feel the pain welling up inside you. It feels like any second you’re going to explode. In the past you may have cried, gotten angry, accused, complied, or blamed yourself, but now you cut. You’ve prayed, asking God to change things, to make you want to stop cutting, but you feel as if your prayers stopped at the ceiling. You don’t pray anymore.
Unlike the emotional pain, you control the physical pain created by cutting. You know it’s not normal to get relief by cutting, but it does bring release and nothing else seems to work. You reason, “Why would I give it up when nothing else works?” In your heart however, you know that this doesn’t work either. You are having to cut deeper and deeper, more and more frequently.
by Jeff | Apr 15, 2011
This is a guest entry from David Wager.
For the objectified ladies of the world…
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. – Psalm 139:14-15
You were made to be loved.
I know there are times you feel like you were made to be used, but that is not the case. In fact, as you look at our wonderful creation and hear the voice of our Creator, you find that you were indeed made to be loved by Him and to love Him. As God crafted the world in which you live, He saw that it was good, for it was being crafted for you. God personally created you and personally create3d the world in which you live for you, as one of His many gifts to you.
Since we live in a world that is Godless, we often do not see how special life really is, and we feel used, cheap, abused, and hopeless. God, who started it all, had a plan. This plan involved loving, an you are the target of His love.
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